A Short Honeymoon

It was a historic fling; albeit short. I showed up as the appetizers were being trotted out. John King’s CNN big board tracking Alabama’s senatorial election was all knotted up; 0 - 0.  That wasn’t stopping the exit poll analyses by a multitude of pundits. It looked great at the beginning with Doug Jones jumping out in front of Roy Moore. There was the small detail that only a couple thousand votes had been counted but I was screaming at the T.V., “Call the fucking thing now.”

And then Moore took a lead that grew into the mid-twenty thousands; “Ugh.”  And then the urban votes started coming in and Moore’s lead shrank - and shrank - and shrank. Dead even. And by God there was Jones; he’d rounded the final turn and heading into the homestretch he was in the lead - and pulling away. Finally Wolf Blitzer called it for Jones. “Yes, yes, yes!!!,” I screamed at the TV. The only reason I wasn’t jumping was the cast on my leg. It’s three days later and I have a post-election hangover. Back to reality.

Pontius McConnell (or pin it on the people)

“I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it.”

                                                                                                                        ~ Pontius Pilate

The Republicans want to have their cake and eat it too. It was about a month ago that accusations started surfacing that Judge Roy Moore, the GOP candidate for an open Senate seat in Alabama, had a hankerin’ sometime back for teenage girls. I suppose that’s alright if you’re a teenage boy. Problem was he was allegedly trolling for youngsters when he was in his thirties. Dirty business.

Pilate - The original McConnell

When the allegations surfaced some prominent Republicans howled in outrage that Moore "should remove himself from the race and the RNC pulled it’s support. As for Trump, he kept mum on the whole thing. After all you can’t condemn sexual predation when you’ve been caught bragging about your own predatory behavior.  As for Moore, he not only stood his ground but has been downright defiant about the whole affair.

Now we’re four days from the election and the tone has been changing.  Some prominent Republicans and the RNC are falling in line behind Moore because it’s apparently better to keep your majority than to take the moral high ground.  Gotta keep that agenda alive no matter what it says about your integrity. When it’s all done the Republicans will keep trumpeting themselves as the Christian, family values party because they figure that a few months down the road the electorate will have forgotten all of this and they’ll have moved on to other issues of the day - “but, but her emails.”

What I find particularly onerous (and there’s plenty of indecency all around) is Mitch McConnell’s tactic of setting up a scenario whereby the GOP absolves itself of any dishonor.  Last Sunday on ABC News’ This Week McConnell said, “I’m going to let the people of Alabama make the call.”

What else can you say about this other than it’s a perfect example of the Republican Party’s self-proclaimed association with the teachings of The Bible.  McConnell essentially went to the Pontius Pilate playbook and washed his hands of the issue.

Latter day Pilate?

So now if Moore loses McConnell has an opening to lament that the GOP lost a Senate seat while blathering some hollow bullshit about the prestige of the Senate being kept intact. And if Moore wins then it’s all on the people of Alabama.  

Party On!!

I’d like to say that I’m stunned; but I’m not.  There is no shame anymore and once again I find myself drowning in the disappointment that’s become America. I expected it but hoped against hope that it wouldn’t come to pass. Ethics in this country have been sacrificed to the tribal gods. Morality is now a matter of convenience. Take a moral stance unless morality becomes a liability.

There was actually some measure of initial surprise when the Republican National Committee endorsed and decided to fund Judge Roy Moore’s candidacy. This would be the Roy Moore who has been accused by several women of sexual harassment when they were teens and he was a grown man. The accusations were corroborated by accounts of Moore cruising malls and bothering young women. But I don’t need to go on. If you’re into politics you know what’s what and if you’re not then you’ve already left this blog for a food blog. And about those who’ve left; well if they don’t start paying attention they’re going to wonder what happened to America while they were watching Game of Thrones and worrying about Steph Curry’s ankle.

My surprise over the endorsement comes from the fact that now every Republican candidate has been emblazoned with Roy Moore’s brand. Every candidate from Hawaii to Alaska to Florida is now in some way touched by Moore. I imagine that the hierarchy gathered in their smoke filled room and over a couple of Scotches decided it was a calculated risk.  I suspect that the gamble can be found in the words of Will Rogers, “The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” Nine months from now Roy Moore will be as forgotten as last week’s leftover meatloaf.

There was no surprise when Trump endorsed Moore. He does whatever the fuck he wants to and lets the chips fall where they may. Trump’s tactics (and I use that word loosely) are scorched Earth and he will bulldoze anyone who gets in his way. Just ask his very own daughter, Ivanka who, as Moore’s pot came to a boil, said "There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I've yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims' accounts." And then daddy stepped in and endorsed the predator. I wonder if the Spray and Wash managed to get those bus tracks off her dress.

In the end his backers, the GOP Congress the business interests, the science deniers, the religious right will all fall in line - and he knows it - and they know it.  Oh there will be a few like Jeff Flake and Mitt Romney who won’t toe the party line because they can’t stand to wear the Trump stench. But their political careers are dead. The rest are fighting for their political lives and the favor of their donors.  

The questions to ask of Trump’s congressional and political groupies; his donors and his base are now, “Just how heinous an act does Donald J. Trump have to commit for the GOP Congress to say ‘enough’?” What will constitute rock bottom? Collusion? Treason? Murder? Or nothing at all? Is anything fair now as long as the party in power stays in power?  Do the ends justify the means no matter what those means are?  But haven’t those been the questions for a couple of years now?

Roy Moore might very well win Alabama’s Senate seat. My prediction is that when he does there will be howls of outrage and Mitch McConnell will prattle something about the Ethics Committee and they’ll talk about parliamentary procedure and equivocate for weeks or months or how ever long it takes for something else in the news cycle to make everyone forget about Moore. And then he’ll just be another Republican crackpot in the Senate politicking for the Ten Commandments to be emblazoned on the Supreme Court or for prayer in school or for Merry Christmas to be the official government greeting every December.

Every day brings more of a hopelessness and with it a greater recognition that the tribe has superseded country and basic morality. The whole notion of Republican party over country was made crystal clear the moment the GOP lined up behind Trump, back when the joke of his candidacy started to become the imminence of his election. But let’s not fool ourselves that Republican party over country is a recent phenomenon that was made manifest with the ascendance of a scam artist to the White House.

That the GOP puts party over country is nothing new. It has a sinister and perfidious lineage that goes back to the 1960’s with the John Birch Society, Barry Goldwater and a particularly malignant creep by the name of Paul Weyrich, a conservative activist who helped found the Heritage Society and the Moral Majority. It’s a filthy plague that has been passed forward from crackpot to knave to scoundrel leading to the present day disease that’s infecting America.

Moore will win and the Democrats, who’ve jettisoned Conyers and Franken in order to claim the high ground will say that the Republican Party will have forever forfeited any claim to being the moral party, the family values party and the party of God. It’s something of a political gamble for the Dems.

because it’s highly likely that the Republicans won’t give a good goddamn. Then what?  Well they’ll continue to call themselves the moral party, the family values party and the party of God while they do the bidding of Wall Street, big business, and the wealthy. And America will just party on.

Until the party comes to an end. And with it...America.

~ Posted by Paulie

Taxation Without Representation

In the wee morning hours of Saturday December 2nd, 2017 the nation reenacted Colonial America. We did it without setting aside any of our 21st Century comforts. We did it without putting on tri-cornered hats or waistcoats or powdered wigs. The ladies didn’t need to don stays or petticoats. We didn’t talk in faux British accents and mimic the king’s subjects. We the people weren’t invited to participate. We were dragged there forcibly in the dead of night by a body of 51 individuals who took America back to the days of King George when it was the government’s prerogative to impose taxation without representation.

Mike, Don and Dick

Yesterday was a work at home day and I put CNN on in the background. I had to look up occasionally to make certain I hadn’t accidentally turned on an episode of House of Cards. The big news was that retired general Michael Flynn had pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI. This was the kickoff of the “who is he going to drop a dime on” game. I saw a lot of glee on social media; “Maybe it’s going to be an early Christmas.”