Quislings
Ask not what you can do for your country, consider how much you can take from your country.
I’m going to do some spitballing.
Now, bear in mind, my only qualifications are that I read a lot, but not in depth, I can safely steer an inflatable raft through gnarly rapids (most of the time) and I can manage to string words together that quite often make sense. In other words, I have no qualifications to pontificate on the matter I intend to pontificate on.
What has perplexed me for the past four years is how top-ranking members of the GOP - at least those who are currently in government (who knows about the ones who lurk in the shadows) - would capitulate so readily to a man they actively despised the year before he became their nominee for president. It has been the classic riddle wrapped in a dilemma surrounded by a quandary.
Let’s call that the ‘turducken’ conundrum.
I mean, there came a time when GOP leaders had seen enough of Tricky Dick’s antics and they marched up to the White House and told him in no uncertain terms he needed to leave for the good of the country. Dick Nixon and his vice president, Spiro Agnew, were crooks - Agnew literally collected bags of money mob-style - and neither were allowed to finish their time in office.
With the country saved, we went on to elect one of the most pious presidents ever, Jimmy Carter, who actually believed it was a sin to lust even if it were only in your mind and wanted the same people who refuse to wear masks to wear an energy-saving sweater instead of turning up the thermostat during the winter. You can only imagine how that went over.
Anyway, back to the turducken conundrum.
I’ve wondered since the whole nasty start to the 46th best president’s term why the GOP didn’t just ditch him for the creationist from Indiana. They would have received the same results - gazillions of tax cuts for the filthiest of the rich, a Supreme Court packed with quislings, lower courts packed with the finest boot-lickers money can buy (though, to be fair, a few of those appointees have ruled recently in favor of the country in this Keystone Cops version of vote recount demands), incompetent public servants appointed to lead agencies a majority of them had been suing in courts over regulations.
Why didn’t they ‘25th Amendment’ him? Why didn’t they take the opportunity when it came to remove him from office via the impeachment process? They had him on the ropes. Why haven’t they put a stop to the asinine behavior that now threatens every democratic norm? Why are they relying on discredited, washed up, two-bit lawyers to soldier on with these needless recounts?
In an earlier column I speculated that they’re fund-raising. And I still believe that.
But that doesn’t explain the numerous about-faces that happened not long after the man took office.
These are my conjectures, my off-the-cuff dot-connecting. I’m going to abbreviate. No need to lend florid language to my tepid thesis.
After the fall of the Soviet Union there were a number of pissed off Russians. After all, America played a role in its demise. Vladimir Putin, long story short, was KGB. Russia’s version of the CIA. Revenge was in his heart. America was the target. He - eventually - gets “elected” president. Now, he’s essentially president-for-life.
Russia went from communism to hyper capitalism in a very short period of time. Unscrupulous, unsavory characters took over industries and became enormously wealthy fast. In particular, the oil and gas industry. Oligarchs ran amok in Russia. Putin only lets them continue to operate under his terms. Putin may very well be the richest man in the world. We have no idea.
I don’t. But I’ll guarantee you it’s enough to buy some influence in American politics.
I’ve never had any doubt that the Steele dossier is more fact than fiction and a majority of it ‘accurate enough’ - including the pee tapes. I’ve never had any doubts Vladimir Putin had the 46th best president by his short-hairs - both in terms of debt and kompromat. I’ve never had any doubts how much the Russians monkeyed with the 2016 outcome - especially on social media - and 17 of America’s intelligence services along with a bipartisan Senate Intelligence committee agree.
I think the GOP leadership views Russia and Russians as their allies. Russians love making money. Russians don’t favor regulations of any kind. The Russian culture is about as close to nirvana as the authoritarian-inclined, keep women barefoot and in the kitchen GOP will ever see. I think Putin assured Benedict Donald - and some in the GOP leadership - that he had no designs on “taking over” America, or invading America, or telling America what to do. He just wanted to nudge them along on a course that 70 million of us would choose voluntarily.
And one other thing. Russia may be the whitest, least diverse country in the world. Just throwing that out there.
(Did you know that the reddest states in America along with Russia and its former Soviet satellite nations have the highest rates of COVID infections? Odd.)
So, what I am implying is that money talks. The man in the White House has been laundering money for decades. He and his dodgy sons and insipidly vapid daughter could launder money in their sleep. And, if you’re the leader of the most powerful nation ever to exist on the planet, you have many different ways to funnel money. Some of them, I guess, are “legal”.
So - yes - I am implying a large number of politicians are on the take. And it will persist even after Benedict Donald has left the office. If he is not taken to task for his hundreds of grossly negligent choices, decisions, and aberrant behaviors, he and his devil offspring might even continue being the conduits.
In hindsight, we should be grateful they did not throw him out on his ear partway through his term. The pale-faced, climate-denier Hoosier might have been a more “agreeable” opponent and we would not have had the services of the Lincoln Project
and those who would never vote for the man-child who has now lost the election multiple times.
Every day feels like Groundhog Day to me.
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If you need a laugh today, you MUST watch this short video all of the way to the end.
Also, heard this on The Crown (which is very, very good this season) and just had to share. It’s another laugh on a dreary, grey day here in Der Town.
A hunter goes into the woods to hunt a bear. He carries his trusty 22-gauge rifle with him. After a while, he spots a very large bear, takes aim, and fires. When the smoke clears, the bear is gone.
A moment later, the bear taps the hunter on the shoulder and says, “No one shoots at me and gets away with it. You have two choices: I can rip your throat out and eat you, or you can drop your trousers, bend over, and I’ll have my way with you.”
The hunter decides that anything is better than death, so he drops his trousers and bends over; and the bear does what he said he would do.
After the bear has left, the hunter pulls up his trousers and staggers back into town. He’s pretty mad. He buys a much larger gun and returns to the forest.
He sees the same bear, aims, and fires. When the smoke clears, the bear is gone. A moment later the bear taps the hunter on the shoulder and says, “You know what to do.”
Afterward, the hunter pulls up his trousers, crawls back into town, and buys a bazooka. Now he’s really mad. He returns to the forest, sees the bear, aims, and fires. The force of the bazooka blast knocks him flat on his back.
When the smoke clears, the bear is standing over him and says, “You’re not doing this for the hunting, are you?”
Thanks for reading! I hope everyone has a safe and as enjoyable holiday as is possible! — JLM