Tag Archives: Senate

Political Rants

Fifth Column.

Last week their minions were storming the capitol building, attempting to stop the counting of the electoral votes by any means necessary. This week, all they want is for everyone to get along. Fuck that shit. Republican members of Congress, particularly those who actively supported stealing the election and handing it to Donald Trump (the loser) appear to have played an integral role in the insurrectionist attack on the center of American legislative power. As I write this post, the attackers are plotting an even broader campaign against both federal and state targets. There’s reason to believe that this campaign will not only coincide with the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but that it will continue well beyond the change of power unless they are put down in a serious way. The only way to do that effectively is by holding their allies in Congress fully accountable and expelling those who coordinated with the racist minoritarian insurrectionists.

The House voted to impeach the president a second time this week. That’s a step in the right direction, but not nearly enough. Naturally the president should be removed and barred from holding public office ever again, and that should be done yesterday … or the day before, perhaps. But aside from that, we need a deep and timely investigation of this attack, with particular focus on who in the House and Senate may have aided and abetted these criminals. There’s some indication that cooperation may have involved both members and staff on the GOP side. Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, who spent part of last Wednesday hiding from the mob with Congressman Dan Kildee, has spoken about capitol tours given the day before by Republican congress members and staffers – tours have been suspended during the COVID pandemic – that were reminiscent of intelligence reconnaissance (Sherrill is a veteran).

Then, of course, there are members like Rep. Lauren Boebert from Colorado, a first-year congresswoman who promoted herself brandishing a handgun in some vain attempt to paint herself as Palin 2.0. Mission accomplished, as she appears to be a moron, like Palin, but also someone willing to egg on the angry horde that descended upon the capitol. “It’s 1776” she tweeted in advance of the attack. 1776? What happened then … a revolution, right? So … you’re in favor of the attack? Interesting. I understand that the relevant law enforcement agencies are looking closely at contacts between congress members and the mob – sounds like a good idea, but they’d best move with a bit more alacrity, because as I mentioned earlier, this battle is not over. If there’s a fifth column in the House and Senate, we need to know about it sooner rather than later. And we need to expel collaborators pursuant to the 14th Amendment. Now.

We didn’t get here overnight. We got here on a decade’s worth of lies about everything from Obama’s birth certificate to the legitimacy of 2020 election. We need to start holding people accountable, and the best place to start is with these freaks in the Republican caucus.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.
Political Rants

White Rage.

There’s no reason to be surprised that the Trump administration would end in this way. His presidency was destined from the beginning to culminate in mayhem, insurrection, and smoke rising from the capitol. They wanted to deconstruct the administrative state, and they have largely been successful in that endeavor, but along the way they’ve also managed to detonate the legislative and judicial state as well. We haven’t previously seen a president refuse to accept the fact of his own electoral loss, so we have no experience with what impact that may have on a large segment of the populace. I think sometimes we actually underestimate the power of the presidency – it is an office of enormous influence, and even unpopular presidents are able to mobilize large numbers of ordinary people if they put their minds to it. That’s the slow-motion train wreck we saw impact our constitutional order this week.

The mob that descended on the U.S. capitol was met with mild resistance. I don’t think we’ve ever had a better illustration of the true nature of race and policing in America than this spectacle. I can hardly believe I’m typing these words, but a large number of right-wing rioters entered the houses of Congress, pushing their way past the guards, breaking in through windows, and occupied the chambers, lounged in the Speaker’s chair, hung from the walls, and planted explosive devices. Some paraded around with confederate ass-rags … I mean, “flags”, others with guns and zip-ties, as if they were planning to take hostages. What did the police do? At first, they took selfies with them. They certainly didn’t keep them out of THE CENTER OF LEGISLATIVE POWER IN THE UNITED STATES. “What the fuck” seems an inadequate response to this, but …. what the fuck.

Fortunate for the MAGA mob, they were white people. So their uprising was not countered with a solid wall of riot police in robocop gear with special weapons and armor and very short tempers. They were not forcibly driven back by large military units firing pepper balls and incendiaries, backed by tanks and MRAPs. They weren’t apprehended and abducted by government officers without badges, shoved into unmarked rented vans, and taken to the crowbar hotel. They weren’t shot in the head for protesting historic injustice against people of color. They didn’t have to worry about convoys of armored vehicles rolling through their neighborhoods, the officers inside barking threats at peaceful residents through loudspeakers, ordering them to stay inside their houses and keep away from the windows. They knew that, by default, the officers would see them as friendlies, not enemies, and that they would have to go way out of their way to change the officers’ minds about them.

In short, the people’s house was invaded this week by white people entitled to feel rage about something they can’t quantify and to act upon that rage in violent ways without consequence. That’s what America is all about … until we make it about something else.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.
Political Rants

Richer and poorer.

This was a week when the Senate saw fit to go home for a long weekend while enhanced jobless benefits expired along with a ban on evictions for federally supported renters. It was also a week when the richest dude on the planet, along with the heads of other monopolistic tech firms, testified in front of a House subcommittee. I realize the focus of this hearing was antitrust, and that is a more-than-worthy enterprise, but I had hoped for at least one exchange that would go something like this:

Congressmember: Mr. Bezos, how much money do you have?
Bezos: What time is it? 11:25 a.m.? Uhhhh … $153 billion.
Congressmember: Don’t you think that’s too much?
Bezos: Excuse me?
Congressmember: Nobody needs anywhere near that much money, Mr. Bezos. Why don’t you leave more of it on the table? Why does so much of it end up with you? That seems like a really strong sign that something’s drastically wrong with the way you run your business. What you need is stronger workplace regulation and confiscatory taxation. I yield back my time.

Yeah, that didn’t happen. Not surprised.

For the Senate’s part, they appear to have rediscovered their concern about deficits, perhaps because they’re anticipating a loss in the upcoming election. Best restart the national debt scare talk now so it doesn’t seem as contrived in January. Still, it kind of amazes me that at a time when we have more people out of a job than we did at the height of the Great Depression – and we got there in a matter of weeks – Mitch and the boys are getting cold feet about spending federal dollars to pump the tires up a bit. Expect this to return to an obsession level policy if there’s a Biden administration next January, and expect plenty of the never Trumpers to be right on board.

It’s not surprising that the Senate Republicans (and most of the Democrats) act in the best interests of their constituents – rich people. There was a time, though, when they tried a little harder to conceal it. Maybe they think it doesn’t have an electoral impact. Maybe with the extremist gerrymandering they accomplished in 2010 and all the voter suppression laws they’ve put in place since article five of the Voting Rights Act was struck down – maybe with all that, they feel they can still pull it out. Well, maybe they’re right, but we’ll see. I kind of think their tactics are optimized for an economic circumstance that’s significantly less toxic than the current state of affairs. Many of the top-tier Democrats still act like it’s the 1990s; I think this is true of the Republicans as well. It’s just possible that their callous disregard for the voting public may well bite them on the ass … hard.

There haven’t been this many people down and out since the 1930s. And the people who aren’t feeling it now will feel it soon enough. That simple fact makes the politics of this moment very unpredictable.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.