Look, as ever, I know this doesn’t make me Nostradamus, or even particularly clever, but still, I warned you! I did! This is what I said, in anticipation of the Republicans regaining the House, a couple of weeks before the mid-terms back in October of ’22:
Now, we’ve all known from the get-go that if the GOP takes back the legislative branch this November it will be an apocalyptically unholy shit show… There’ll be endless investigations, and subpoenas flying all over the place, which Democratic officials, unlike their GOP counterparts, will feel bound to obey…Biden will probably be impeached…Even worse, they’ll start in again with the games of budget chicken and fiscal blackmail. Of course they will. No raising of the debt ceiling unless Social Security and Medicare are gutted, government shutdowns, that sort of thing. Maybe this time they’ll finally blow up the entire world economy.
Well, what do I learn this morning from reading the daily bulletin from Charlie Sykes of the Bulwark? The House GOP is planning to begin an impeachment inquiry in the Fall, and seems determined to shut down the government come the next round of budget negotiations, which will begin with the Biden Administration’s submission of a draft budget to Congress next February.
Here’s the headline from CNN yesterday:
You can read the whole article here:
…but here’s the highlight:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and top Republicans have begun to strategize about how to move forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden this fall – the latest sign that the House GOP is seriously laying the groundwork to initiate rare proceedings against the current president. In recent weeks, McCarthy has privately told Republicans he plans to pursue an impeachment inquiry into Biden and hopes to start the process by the end of September, according to multiple GOP sources familiar with the conversations. While McCarthy has already publicly threatened to launch an inquiry if allegations from IRS whistleblowers hold up or if the Biden administration does not cooperate with requests related to House Republicans’ Hunter Biden probe, sources say that McCarthy has sent even stronger signals about his intentions behind closed doors.
Impeach Biden: Check.
On the fiscal front, Charlie cites this article:
For some reason I can’t get the URL to embed. It’s on the Fox News website, if you want to go find it, but anyway, the key passage is this:
A large, influential bloc of House Republicans is urging Speaker Kevin McCarthy to muscle in key conservative priorities in any short-term spending deal made to avoid a government shutdown. The 175-member-strong Republican Study Committee (RSC), led by Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., sent an internal memo to lawmakers on Monday calling on them to oppose a “clean” spending patch, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that would extend the last year’s fiscal priorities. “A ‘clean’ CR would simply serve as a continuation of the [fiscal year] 2023 omnibus ‘monstrosity’ by extending Pelosi’s bloated spending levels and Biden’s failed policies,” the memo, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, said.
So, no extending the current spending until they can hammer out a compromise. Nossir. The GOP either gets what it wants, or it’s another government shutdown (not to be confused with a failure to raise the debt ceiling, see previous posts). What they want, of course, is exactly what Biden can never, ever deliver, huge cuts to social programs, with no commensurate cuts to defence spending, and no new taxes on the obscenely wealthy. Don’t be surprised if they demand the gutting of the IRS while they’re at it, and they’re likely to have a run at Justice too. This makes a shutdown more likely than not.
Fiscal gridlock and blackmail: Check.
I ask again, for the umpteenth time: what sort of system is this, which allows the federal government to close up shop? For the love of Christ.
Moreover, why is the GOP so keen to make it happen? Because they really, really care about spending? [RUDE NOISE] yeah, right! Then to what end?
Let’s take a step back. Let’s look at where we are, and follow the bouncing ball.
Consider: the leading contender for the GOP nomination for President remains Donald, and he’s the prohibitive favourite, despite having been found civilly liable for sexual assault, despite being indicted four times for serious crimes, with 91 total felony counts, despite being an even more incoherent loon than he used to be, pledging to turn the Presidency into a monarchy and personal revenge machine, despite everything from the impeachments to the insurrection and everything in between. Donald’s their guy, he’s always been their guy, and he remains their guy even now that the D.C. judge, providing what one might have thought would serve as a wake-up call, has set a trial date of March 4 for the charges related to the attempt to overthrow the government. Try to process that, as if it’s real, and not some show you’re watching on HBO: the former President is soon to be on trial for trying to execute a coup d’etat. Yet it seems all but certain, at the moment, that he’s going to be given another kick at the can. We’ll see if the March date holds, but kids, and swear to God I’m not making this up, it’s now entirely possible that come the Republican convention, their nominee will already be appealing a conviction for trying to overthrow the Republic and install himself as dictator. He’ll almost certainly have the thing sewn up by then, maybe even by Super Tuesday, which occurs one day after the trial begins, and they’ll all be delighted if he does. The howling mob in whatever venue the Republicans are despoiling with their fetid presence will be floating amid the rafters in a state of mass ecstasy. What a scene that’s going to be.
Now, consider that meanwhile, in the legislative branch, Kevin McCarthy and his merry men will have been doing everything they possibly can to disrupt the ordinary functioning of government, while using the power they posses, or, more accurately, have arrogated to themselves, to interfere in the justice system and get Trump off the criminal hook for all he’s done. That’s all they’re going to do. Obstruct. Lie. Cheat. Exceed their authority. Dare anybody to do anything about it. The Courts may intervene, but which Courts? The ones in the jurisdictions they’ve stacked with MAGA nitwits? SCOTUS, likewise stacked?
Consider as well that none of this chaos seems to have the broader public up in arms. Quite the opposite. The MAGA hard core remains stalwart, and the rest, well, the bulk of them seem mired in concerns over the economy, which they think is a dumpster fire even though it’s just the opposite, and the current envy of the rest of the developed world, including China. They don’t know that. They also don’t know anything about the tremendous benefits that Biden’s various public policy initiatives, the boldest in a generation, are going to bring, and are, indeed, already bringing. A lot of that can be laid on the doorstep not just of Rupert Murdoch, but the mainstream media, who’ve done precious little to inform the public about what’s actually going on out there. Have you heard anybody stressing that inflation is now under control, at a modest 3%? Are you hearing much about the record number of jobs being created, or that unemployment is hovering at a 50-year low, again around 3%? Has anybody been talking up the amazing resurgence of American manufacturing, in which sector over 800,000 jobs have recently been added, with economists predicting 250,000 more over the next two years? Did you know that investment in domestic plant and machinery is booming like nobody’s seen for decades, and has doubled since 2021? Were you aware that the value of American manufacturing output is greater than the values generated by Japan, Germany, and South Korea combined?
They just don’t get it – why would they? – and they don’t like Joe Biden, either, and not just because he’s old. They plain don’t like him. They don’t very much like Donald either, not when you poll the entire population, but put them head-to-head and all the indications are that it’s a dead heat. Enter Kevin McCarthy and his House collaborators. They seem to be getting away with their bullshit. People are buying their lies. The public agrees that America is in a dark place, and heading in the wrong direction, just like they’re being told. It remains, now, merely to pin the blame on Biden. The scales should tip Donald’s way if the Republicans can, prior to November, 2024, sow enough disruption, dysfunction, and misinformed confusion that Biden seems to have presided over a failed Presidency.
That’s the end game. That’s what the chaos is about (you knew it all along, didn’t you?). Trump’s got the nomination in his pocket. Now, they have to do whatever it takes to get Trump elected in the general, and I do mean whatever it takes, and then everything follows. Every dirty little thing the oligarchy wants flows naturally from that, from entrenched minority rule, to wealth inequality free of interference from the IRS, to regulatory room to do whatever they please to the world around them, the lot, and you know what, it’s all so transparently obvious that you wonder whether they even mean to hide it. I’d therefore like to believe that the American people are starting to see through all the ham-fisted machinations, but nobody can yet find evidence that all that many of them are, certainly not enough to guarantee our deliverance.
It’s pointless, I suppose, but I can’t help wondering why we’re stuck in this dismal rut. How is it looking like 2015 all over again, for God’s sake? I’m not even asking how we got here anymore; I just want to know why there isn’t enough countervailing pressure, from the media, from the Democrats, from the democratic institutions of government, from objective reality itself, to escape this mess. I feel like I’m dreaming sometimes, I really do. I can’t even believe we’re still talking about this orange asshole, let alone facing the prospect of another Trump Presidency, this one, maybe, a lifetime appointment.
Does anyone still believe that’s impossible? As far as they’ve already gone down this road, does anybody really believe they can’t make it all the way to the end? Sure they can, and if they do it’ll be, sadly, with the full consent of the voting public. Democracy in America is failing because the people, for various reasons, not all of them their own fault, are failing. The majority seems apathetic and uncertain, while MAGAworld keeps voting along tribal lines without caring about the consequences, which most don’t understand, and all seem to fear less than they value what Trump and his crew are giving them: cultural revenge. Revenge, and permission to be their worst selves. That’s what the midterm voters who put the GOP back into the House driver’s seat want more than anything (those that actually thought about their votes, anyway, and weren’t just doing it by rote). They surely value the fruits of Donald’s race-baiting, gay-hating, libtard-crucifying culture war agenda far more than any of those effete, coastal-elite abstractions about responsible government, pluralism, the rule of law, or any of that other high-minded nonsense. Who does any of that help? Them? Or the people they hate?
What to do? I suppose there’s no quick cure for the strange apathy. There’s none either for the bloody-minded MAGA electorate, or the mass ignorance that facilitates the scam they don’t even know they’re falling for. It will take the energy, and the outrage, of a new generation. Yes, that generation is coming, and its arrival may indeed be our salvation, praise Jesus, but only if the kids start voting en masse at the first opportunity, before the jig is up. I’ve been saying all along that in the long term, the GOP is fucked, and they are, I’m convinced of it – unless there is no long term. With what the Republicans are able to get away with now, today, it’s clear that their victory may be at hand. It’ll be a near-run thing, but Trump can get elected in 2024, and then it won’t matter how many millions of Gen-Z youngsters reach voting age. The system will be all but permanently rigged. The GOP will see to that. Hell, they might even find a way to change the Constitution so Trump can run for another term, if he’s still alive and kicking, or suspend the Constitution altogether and do away with elections, I don’t know, at this point nothing seems impossible, or even implausible. Who’ll get in the way, now, before it’s too late? I don’t think the justice system can stop him. I don’t even entertain the notion that he’s going to be barred from running by some application of the 14th Amendment – that’s a fantasy. Only the people can stop him. And only those that vote.
I don’t know, maybe abortion will be the galvanizing issue. Maybe women will come to the rescue, especially all the young Gen Z women who have more to lose in this fight than anybody. Maybe the youth turnout will be more than 25% next time. God, I hope so. I hope they perceive the opportunity, as well as the peril. If they do, this wretched culture war will be over, and liberalism will be the winner. I have no doubt about that. But they have to act now. The GOP is pulling up the drawbridge, and we’ve got to cross the moat soon, or it’s game over, if not forever, then for a long, long time.
the needlefish 