Tag Archives: republican

It’s what happens when the giants are all dead…

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The Republican controlled House of Representatives has about five days to prove that they can find their ass with both hands and a flashlight before the government runs out of money. They’re just coming off a three-day weekend so who at least they should be well rested while they do whatever passes for “work” in the halls of the United States Congress.

I’ve been at this a while. I’ve been through shut downs, furloughs, and an endless amount of legislative fuckery. We’ve been down this road so often that a previous Congress put in place a little section of public law that guarantees government employees back pay for any time spent sitting on the beach during a shutdown. Knowing the back pay is coming doesn’t quite offset not getting a regularly scheduled check, but it does help take the edge off… Not to mention a three or four week shutdown would get me out of a couple projects that are lining up to be a real pain in the ass.

Make no mistake, a government shutdown is bad. It’s bad for people who work for the government. It’s bad for the army of contractors who won’t be receiving back pay. It’s bad for travelers, people who eat food, or take medication, or want to visit a National Park. Perhaps more importantly, it makes the Congress look like incredibly huge douche nozzles who are incapable of doing one of the very few things the Constitution identifies as part of their job description.

I don’t have much faith in Kevin McCarthy’s leadership based on his past performance. I have even less faith in the hard right extremist wackjob wing of his party not standing around cheering while the whole thing burns. We are in a problematic era of republican government and I’m increasingly convinced that we’ve gotten precisely the kind of government we collectively deserve. 

I grew up in an older world of political deal making where compromise was part of what kept the great machine running. Getting half a loaf simply meant the other half was left to go after the next time. The great pols of the 20th century understood that… and the system, with all its faults, worked well enough to do big things – like build an interstate highway system, land men on the moon, and win a long Cold War. 

It seems the giants of American politics who could manage that kind of heavy lift are all dead and we’ve been left with third stringers who can’t even be bothered to keep the lights on. 

What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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1. Decaf. I’ve forsworn a lot of things I enjoy over the last couple of months. I’ve given up my evening gin and tonic. I’ve banished additive salt from every recipe. There’s a dozen or more other small changes I’ve made, even if not exactly happily. Throughout the turbulence, I kept up one simple personal tradition – morning coffee and afternoon tea. I even gave up the milk and sugar there in the name of caloric reduction. Now I’m adding caffeinated coffee and tea to the list of embargoed items. That was a personal decision rather than doctor ordered as I was feeling just a touch too twitchy a few times this week. I’m a man with a tremendous ability to endure ridiculous situations… but I have my limits and it feels like they are quickly approaching if not already appearing somewhere astern.

2. Kevin McCarthy. If ever there was a man not up to the challenge of being Speaker of the House, it’s the current holder of the chair. I could make this a laundry list of his failings, but what’s the point? The old boy is too busy trying to figure out how to hang on to his speakership than he is to focus on any real legislative efforts. I doubt his conference will even be able to muster the votes to keep Uncle Sam’s lights on after September 30th. The right wing of the party might not care, but it truly makes them look like the rankest of amateurs. The Republican “lead” House would be farcical if they weren’t so damned injurious to the republic.

3. Mitt Romney. I was proud to vote for Mitt Romney many years ago when he ran as the Republican candidate for president. I was proud of Mitt Romney when he stood up against a grasping former reality TV host who was hell bent on defying the Constitution to stay in office. He’s a throwback to a politician of a different age – what passes in Washington, DC for being a gentleman in an occupation and certainly in a party that doesn’t put any value on that sort of behavior. I hate to see his voice being lost among a party that is increasingly unhinged… but I can absolutely understand why he isn’t looking to spend another six years consorting with the absolute clowns running the show.

What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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1. Chili. I’ve made hundreds of pots of chili over the years. It easily makes a menu appearance once a month. I generally use whatever variety of kidney beans I have on hand. Sometimes canned, sometimes dried. It doesn’t make much difference in the final product. This week I happened to have dry beans, which I dutifully put in water to soak overnight before going to bed on Saturday. The next morning, while throwing together the rest of the ingredients, I encountered some kind of mental block and ended up throwing the raw beans directly in the pot with the rest. That wouldn’t have been an insurmountable problem if I had realized my error immediately, but I didn’t discover the error of my ways until hours later, when the whole batch was steeped in raw kidney beans. That’s problematic for two reasons: 1) Raw beans taste awful and 2) Raw kidney beans are just a little bit poisonous and tend to lead to an unpleasant level of “digestive distress.” Anyway, for the first time in my life I threw away an entire gallon and a half of chili. The brain fog I’ve been contending with has improved marginally, but obviously isn’t resolved.

2. Republican primary candidates. I spent the vast majority of my adult life as a registered Republican. More often than not, I’ve ended up voting for the eventual Republican nominee for most offices. What Wednesday night’s debate between Republican primary contenders revealed was that I continue to have less and less in common with this modern incarnation of the GOP. The party use to be a bulwark for things like a strong national defense, opposing Russian aggression, restricting the role of government in public life, and lowering the tax burden or at least reducing the deficit. Last night showed barely a mention of those issues. It’s probably time I accept that the Republican Party I was a member of for so many years is dead, buried, and unlikely to return. It’s a shame, because in my estimation our form of government is at its best when there are two parties that can passionately articulate what they stand for and why it’s the right vision for the country. From what I saw last night, all the Republicans are offering is some variation of fear and loathing in America and promises to support a convicted felon if he’s nominated. That’ll be a hard pass from me.

3. Content. With the arrival of my new and improved telework schedule, I’ve been forced to admit that the number of things that annoyed me this week was precipitously low. It’s almost as if quality of life is perhaps inversely proportional to the amount of time spent traveling to and sitting in a place I think of unfondly as Cubicle Hell. I’m sure as the new, new, new normal really takes hold, other more subtle issues will crop up, but for this week it’s really put a crimp in my regular Thursday evening bitching and complaining. As it is, I suppose I’ll just have to be annoyed that this week I’m struggling for content. 

The ceiling and why you shouldn’t hit it running full speed…

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So, Uncle is set to crash into the debt ceiling as soon as June 1st.

Major media outlets report that as effectively the first time in our nation’s long and storied history that we default on our lawfully begotten debt. That’s the 100,000 foot view, but what does it really mean aside from the United States sinking even further into laughing stock status among the nations of the world.

Well, here’s a quick breakdown on some of the ill-starred consequences:

The federal government must immediately begin living entirely within the bounds of its “cash” revenue stream (i.e., Uncle Sam can only spend what he raises in taxes and other fees). It means spending will be prioritized… somehow. Whether that means meeting its payments to creditors, making payroll for the Armed Forces, or sending out Social Security payments remains to be seen. However it’s divided up, the operating budget will be cut to the bone and some essential services simply will stop. I’m as big a fan as anyone of getting the government down to a responsible level of spending, but this is a catastrophically bad way to try making those cuts. Doing things with no time for thought or the application of academic rigor is an inherently stupid way to run a country.

The cost of borrowing will increase across the board – that’s bad for Americans looking to finance a new home or a car and it’s even worse when the government gets through a default and starts borrowing again. On the other side of crashing through the debt ceiling is a world where loaning money to the U.S. Government is inherently riskier since it’s shown its willingness to default. The increased rates creditors will demand will be correspondingly high and will ripple out to impact all borrowers. .

Market unpredictability. The U.S. Government has never defaulted on its bills. Whether that causes a blip or a catastrophic meltdown of the international financial system that’s been in place since the end of World War II is completely unknown. I’m not in any way sure why we’d even consider collectively rolling the dice on that.

Abject political fuckery. So far, both Republicans and Democrats agree that defaulting would be bad for the country… and both parties are digging in and showing themselves willing to let it happen if their political calculus shows it’ll hurt the “other side” more than it hurts them. Rarely has putting party before country been more blatant… but this is the 2020s and it seems to be the cool thing to do now.

The real bottom line is this: The “debt ceiling” is an entirely self-inflicted constraint. It’s not a force of nature. With a current debt of $31 Trillion, it’s probably time we do away with the fiction that either party is the one concerned with responsible spending. If we can’t manage to get past that tribal, binary method of framing issues, well, we probably deserve whatever painful, but entirely avoidable consequences are preparing to jump up and bite us collectively in the ass.

Banana republicanism…

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Yesterday in Brazil, thousands of election denying insurrectionists stormed their congress, presidential palace, and supreme court. While the damage was extensive, Brazil’s legally constituted authorities were able to roll back this assault on democracy. 

Having happened so close to the anniversary of January 6th, it’s hard not to look at the similarities. In both Brazil and the United States, right wing crackpots, led by defeated and disgraced ex-presidents were whipped into a furor and aimed at their respective institutions of government. In both cases, the attacks were carried out by those claiming to represent “conservative” principles. 

As a life-long holder of conservative beliefs, let me say for the record that these fucknuckles wouldn’t understand conservatism if it shot them in the ass. No matter how you try to dress it up, radical reactionism simply isn’t, by definition, conservative. To be conservative is to be, at heart, an institutionalist. By all means, disagree with the direction government and civic institutions are taking and work to change them, but undermining those institutions at the direction of wild-eyed charlatans is the polar opposite of “being conservative.” It’s banana republicanism at best.

Whether they follow Bolsonaro, Trump, or the next wave of MAGA Republicanism that seems to now be emerging, the threat against democratic norms and institutions continues to increase. We ignore this rising tide, or pretend we have put down the insurrectionists once and for all, at our own peril. This insidious threat to liberty may have been rolled back or held off, but it hasn’t been defeated.

My violently split ticket…

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For me, this past Saturday was Election Day. I double checked my printed ballot, did some last-minute research on a couple of candidates for local office, and filled in all the appropriate ovals. Then I trundled off to the county building and dropped off my ballot. In a few days I expect to get an email notification from the county board of elections that it has been received. I’ll get another when it gets counted. As much as I always enjoyed physically going to the polls in person, this new way of doing things is undeniably more convenient.

I’ve never shied away from splitting a ticket. Since I turned 18, my rule has always been to vote for the candidate rather than the party. This year, I had an even simpler rule – I refuse to cast a vote for any candidate that supported, excused, convoluted, or in any way attempted to justify the Republican-led insurrection of January 2020. I don’t have a single vote to give to election deniers, anti-vaxers, or conspiracy theorists. It led to a ticket split in a variety of ways.

For Maryland governor, I’d vote for a warm bucket of spit before I cast my ballot for Dan Cox. Chalk that one up for the Libertarian candidate.

For Maryland’s 1st Congressional District, I cheerfully voted for the Democratic candidate and against Andy Harris, our very own local election denying, insurrection supporting, Trump-ist incumbent representative. As a medical doctor, his stated position on vaccines is more than enough to ensure I can’t trust his judgement on other issues. His support for a violent overthrow of the legislative branch in which he serves was really just icing on the cake.  

For Comptroller, I actually voted for the Republican, not because he’s a Republican or because he has a chance of winning a statewide race in Maryland this year, but because at the height of Republican office holders dipping their toes in the water of treason, Barry Glassman called out Congressman Harris by name as an example of what was wrong with the Republican Party. If he’s willing to publicly stand against that running tide and agitate the MAGA base, he earned my vote.

The rest is a long list of state and local offices for which Republican candidates are running unopposed. A quick social media search on most of them led me quite quickly to using the write in option. So, there are a few Cecil County residents known to me personally to be of sound judgement who will be receiving at least one vote attempting to elevate them to high public office in lieu of the nominated Republican for those offices.

I’m absolutely confident that my ticket has never been more split.

What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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1. Protests. I’ll be honest, I can’t remember a sign waving, getting in the way of things protest that I’ve ever knowingly supported. The tactics most protesters employ seem almost perfectly designed to guarantee that I’ll either quietly oppose them or openly mock and deride them. The small “r” republican protestors who have been popping up in London this week aiming to disrupt the most solemn state occasion of the late Queen’s funeral are probably exactly the kind of friendless cranks you might expect to engage in that kind of ill-timed, boorish behavior. I’m not saying the Crown should necessarily haul them off to the tower, but if the rest of the populace got together and heaved them directly into the Thames, I’d likely look the other way and then have a good laugh about it.

2. Lindsey Graham. For the last six months every Republican who could find a TV camera earnestly declared that abortion was an issue that should rightly be resolved by the states. That the federal government has gotten too large and overreaching is a reasonable argument. The remedy, of course, isn’t to hand that misbegotten power to the states, but rather return it directly to the people, who are the font of power under the American system, and allow them each to decide based on their own particular light. But then here comes Lindsey Graham, boldly introducing a bill that not only flies in the face of small government orthodoxy, but which will be wildly unpopular with 60% or more of the electorate. It might buy him some votes from the Republican base in South Carolina, but otherwise it makes him look like a fucking moron.

3. Eyes. My eyes suck and have since I was a kid. Take away my glasses and I could probably squint my way through things at very close range, but forget about telling the difference between a car and a cow more than a couple of dozen yards away. I’m headed off to my annual eye exam tomorrow, where I plan to spend my hour griping and complaining that by 8PM, my eyes are shot. It’s a situation that’s beginning to interfere with my evening reading and that obviously can’t be allowed to stand. With the return of wasting hours of the week commuting to the office for reasons that defy logic, but make perfect sense to management on the near horizon, I can’t afford to lose another hour or two in the evening with my eyes running everything together into lines of black smudge. 

Don’t simp for sleazy, scumbag politicians… 

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I spent a good amount of time raging about Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified email back in 2016. I believed then and I believe now that if I stored classified email on my home computer, I’d be at best fired and at worst prosecuted and imprisoned. She shouldn’t receive special consideration due to her august and lofty position. 

In 2017 I called out Jared Kushner for use of private email to conduct official business on behalf of the U.S. Government. I recommended that his files and records be subpoenaed and if there was evidence of guilt he should be charged and tried.

In 2018 I called out Ivanka Trump for using her personal email address to conduct official business on behalf of the U.S. Government. 

Here, now, in 2022, I’ll state publicly and for the record that if Donald Trump is suspected of having unlawfully retained, stored, folded, spindled, mutilated, sold, or otherwise misused classified materials, his residence and/or place of business absolutely should be subject to a lawful search. If evidence is found based on that search, he should be tried. That would be my position regardless of whether we happened to be discussing a sitting president, a former president, or a private citizen.

Maybe it’s easier for me to say because I’m beholden to neither of our major political parties, though I like to think it’s simply because I have the intellectual integrity not to have different rules of behavior depending on what party I happen to support. I have many bad qualities, but being a hypocritical asshat isn’t one of them.

I know it’s far too much to expect people to dispense with their partisan blinders at this point. They’re too entrenched – too invested in the position that they’ve staked out. No one wants to admit they bought a pig in a poke. There’s too much face to lose. Nothing I say is going to change minds, so I’ll just be over here eternally grateful that I never wrapped so much of my own identity up in a sleazy, scumbag politician to have hurt feelings when they go out and do sleazy, scumbag politician stuff.

What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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1. Alex Jones. Since he broke into popular consciousness, Alex Jones has been a bloviating douche canoe. I can only assume he was one long before anyone ever heard of him. He’s a living example of being able to fool some of the people all of the time. Now, not all of that is exactly his fault. You’d have to be particularly weak minded to buy into the absolute bullshit he peddles on a regular basis. Watching this cowardly twatwaffle get absolutely bitchslapped around the courtroom, trapped like a rat, has been an absolute treat. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. 

2. Republican spin. Whether they admit it or not, Republicans were shocked by Kansans voting by a large margin to retain abortion rights as part of their state constitution. Kansas is supposed to be a rock-ribbed, ruby red bastion of conservatism. Their two key takeaways should be: 1) Not all conservatives are cheerfully going along with the religio-fascist wing of the party and 2) The majority of voters in general oppose them to the point that brings them out in unexpectedly large numbers. I’m under no illusions that Republicans won’t win some of these votes in other places, but Kansas was absolutely a warning shot put across their bow… no matter how hard they try to spin it as something else.

3. Brittney Griner. The media is tangentially focused on the ongoing arrest, trial, and sentencing of Brittney Griner. While I share their general feeling that I’d want to be just about anywhere other than a Russian jail, it’s one of those issues I can’t quite bring myself to rend my garments over. As a traveler, I’ve always considered it my responsibility to obey the laws of the country I happened to be in at the time. At sixteen, I found myself somehow in the middle of a protest march working its way through the streets of Mexico City. Somewhere there’s a picture of me looking entirely perplexed about what was going on around me. I have no idea if it’s illegal in Mexico or not, but even as a child, I had a decent understanding that I, as an American citizen, had no business in the middle of a Mexican protest. We beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel. If I can sort that much out at 16, expecting a 30-year-old woman to not carry substances known to be illegal in the country where she’ll be traveling doesn’t feel like it should be a big ask. If it does happen to be too much to trouble yourself with, well, I suppose you have to accept that you’ve rolled the dice and may have to accept the consequences.