Liars and Cheaters and Frauds, Oh My! and a Ghastly Contrast
POST 1076
CAUTION – Contains snark, which is known to trigger bouts of doing the right thing, as well as generating an occasional smirk.
In what should be an alien, other planet move, 10 Republicans wrote in a public letter that they would no longer pass legislation, fund the government, or vote to confirm the administration’s appointees because, they said,
“[t]he White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways. As a Senate Republican conference, [actually, there were only 10 of them, hardly a conference] we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart.”
Apparently, these kings and queen of mentally deranged projection are going on strike. They are betraying their constituents, their oath of office (which they clearly didn’t take freely and without mental reservation) and the entire nation in this performance of cowardice and servility to the orange convict.
Here are the on-strike, Senate Republican frauds:
Name and State Re-election year
Mike Lee, UT 2028 Vows to oppose raising the debt ceiling until there’s a balanced budget amendment. He doesn’t care who we cheat. Quite Trumpian of him.
J.D. Vance, OH 2028 Author of The Trump Suck-Up Elegies
Tommy Tuberville, AL 2026 Carpetbagger Alabama senator who doesn’t even live in Alabama.
Eric Schmitt, MO 2028
Marsha Blackburn, TN 2024 Bless her heart.
Rick Scott, FL 2024 Net worth: $250 million. He says you should pay an extra $4,500 in taxes so you’ll “have skin in the game.”
Roger Marshall, KS. 2026
Marco Rubio, FL 2028 Doubts global warming, as FL is going underwater and as property insurance costs 4X the national average, if it’s even available to Floridians.
Josh Hawley, MO 2024 The model for double-crossing, traitorous insurrectionist fist pumps
Ron Johnson, WI 2028 Talks on a dead phone to avoid reporters’ questions.
Click the pic for a more readable view
As you can see, for most of these grand-standers there is plenty of time between now and their next election for the public to forget their infantile, performative temper tantrum. Regrets go to the folks in Florida and Missouri who now have no representation in the Senate. And don’t forget that several of these posers were key traitors in the attempt to steal the votes from 80 million Americans in 2020.
From Harlan Coben’s I Will Find You, in the context of making moral choices:
“She could have done the ‘right’ thing that night, but we only do the right thing when it doesn’t cost us.”
“We pay lip service to a vague greater good, but only when it serves our interest.”
That’s harsh, of course, but before you take umbrage, think of those statements in the context of Republican senators and representatives who know better but cave in to Trump and then say and do abhorrent fascist things. Here’s some of what that gets you.
– You get idiots in dark blue suits, white shirts and red ties showing up at the trial of the orange menace in Manhattan and saying patently stupid and flamingly false things attacking America. That’s very fascist of them.
– You get valueless, anti-American, fraudulent congressional hearings about “the Biden crime family,” a non-existent cabal fantasized by Rep, Jim Jordan (R – Alpha Centauri). “Mmm . . . There is much dishonesty in this one.” – Yoda. This, too, is very fascist.
– You get the list of buffoon senators above and more, fully embracing the Republican “mass psychosis,” as Adam Kinzinger calls it. BTW: After reading this post, link through and listen to Kinzinger’s comments.
All of these Republican blabbers, these fascism promoters, these democracy killer authoritarians know what the “right” thing to do is. They all know about the greater good. But doing those “right” things would cost them just a bit of their immediate self-interest. They aren’t willing to pay the price for their integrity, much less do anything for the greater good, so they cave and they burnish their cowardice and hypocrisy skills. Very fascist – even brown shirt – of them.
Liars and cheaters and frauds, oh my!
What a ghastly contrast that is to those whom we honored last week.
D-Day
Lt. Richard L. Altschuler, 62nd & 61st Fighter Squadrons, 56th Fighter Group, 8th Army, USAAF. 69 combat missions. Photo: Boxted England, 1943
My father was in a lot of dogfights as he flew his fighter plane “escorting” our bombers over Europe to push back the Nazi terror in WW II and he flew sorties to provide cover for our ground troops, too. A lot of bad guys shot bullets, canon and anti-aircraft flak at him, but he, like 16 million fellow Americans, soldiered on, doing his duty.
156,000 soldiers and Marines stormed the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago doing their duty. 4,400 died just on D-Day. President Biden was at Normandy last week to honor all of those brave men and he did that in our name.
Click the pic for the original. Many thanks to Sheila Markin for sharing this tweet.
In ghastly contrast, during a November 2018 trip to France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, President Trump refused to go the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris to honor the thousands of our troops from both World Wars who are buried there. Dad would have been horrified by Trump’s insult.
Trump said our military dead were “losers” and “suckers.” Those words would have made Dad and all who fought alongside him furious. We all should be furious at Trump’s disrespect for those men and his dishonoring of America.
So, it was gratifying – a reset of honor – when President Biden made the trip to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery last week to salute our fallen.
About 420,000 Americans paid for World War II with their lives. They were driven by their oath, by their love of their country and by their sense of duty.
- “We must make the solemn vow to never let them down.”
- – President Joe Biden, Point du Hoc, Normandy France, June 7, 2024
We honor all our veterans on Veterans Day. When you do that later this year, say thanks to Dad and the over 16 million Americans of the Greatest Generation who did what it took to defeat fascism so that you could live in a democracy and sleep safely in the arms of freedom.
Don’t make us have to fight that fight again.
.
You know what to do. Take Dad’s picture with you as a reminder when you vote on November 5th or bring a picture of one of our military in your direct line. They would rest easy knowing that we are preserving their American values. They’d thank you if they could, knowing that we continue to honor them, what they fought for and what so many died for.
This message isn’t about the past, however brave, honorable and praiseworthy those heroes were. It is about our present and our future. It is about honor and duty to freedom and our absolute rejection of tyranny and authoritarianism. It is a dedication to democracy in our time and for our children and grandchildren and those who will come after them.
That is why we will never, never, never betray our heroes or their sacrifice or the democracy that they fought for.
Quote of the Week
“In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is: In our hour of trial, will we do ours?” [emphasis mine-JA]
– President Joe Biden at Normandy American Cemetery, June 6, 2024
Click the pic for the video.
Today is a good day to be the light
- _____________________________
- Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
- Fire the bastards!
- The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.
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JA
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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Then Bobby Kennedy was running for President. He didn’t have the charisma of his older brother. He didn’t have the glamour or anywhere near the experience in elective office. But he had something far more valuable: He cared and we knew it and he gave hope to millions.
