Pierce: You're Not NeverTrump Unless You're NeverRyan and NeverMcConnell

[babylonsister]

You're Not NeverTrump Unless You're NeverRyan and NeverMcConnell
The Republican Party's brain disease has seized full control.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jan 5, 2018


I had the week’s entire concluding screed almost finished. It was about how this was the week in which all the smoke cleared, and all the wires were revealed, and all the illusions dispelled, and all we were left with was the simple, terrifying fact that the President* of the United States is a half-senile old fool whose own people don’t think is up to the job of selling apples from a steam-grate, let alone running the Executive branch of an established democracy. It also was about the shameful cowardice and dereliction of duty on the part of the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, the members of which would rather destroy the lives of the poor and unfortunate than undertake their constitutional duty of reining in a White House gone completely mad.

I had a nice line in there about how Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, hate Democrats far more than they love their country. I put Michael Schmidt’s Friday morning scoop together with the revelations from Michael Wolff’s sensational book and determined, rather loudly, that we are governed by people who, if they do not fit the constitutional definition of being traitors, are behaving like traitors in all but name. I hung some bright lights on the fact that, just in the last week, Republicans have called for investigations into Hillary Rodham Clinton, James Comey, Huma Abedin, and Jerry Brown, none of whom have done anything except inconvenience the grifter-in-chief and his worthless spalpeens. It was all set to go.

And then this happened. From The New York Times:

Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior committee member, told the Justice Department they had reason to believe that a former British spy, Christopher Steele, lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in the dossier, and they urged the department to investigate. The committee is running one of three congressional investigations into Russian election meddling, and its inquiry has come to focus, in part, on Mr. Steele’s explosive dossier that purported to detail Russia’s interference and the Trump campaign’s complicity.

Come on.

I mean, really, come the fck on.

snip//

Now, it appears, the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are so dedicated to protecting a dangerously incompetent president that they’re willing to do almost anything. Grassley is just an old crank having fun in his legislative dotage, but the conversion of Lindsey Graham into a Southern-fried Lewandowski has been a dark wonder to behold. I’m not an adherent to conspiracies about kompromat but, Jesus H. Christ on a covert wiretap, this transformation cannot be explained by conventional political science.

snip//

They aren’t going to pull back. They aren’t going to stop. They aren’t going to do their jobs. Their patriotism extends only as far as a donor’s wallet and their devotion to the Constitution can be measured with an eyedropper. Nobody truly can be said to be NeverTrump anymore who is not also NeverMcConnell, NeverRyan, and, frankly, NeverGOP, at least in its current manifestation. The prion disease has triumphed completely. The patient is brain-dead, but still deadly in its contagion.

more...

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a14764646/never-trump-means-never-republican/

[MyOwnPeace]

1. Great line...........

"...their devotion to the Constitution can be measured with an eyedropper."

Yep, that's our GOP!

[eShirl]

2. like zombies

" The prion disease has triumphed completely. The patient is brain-dead, but still deadly in its contagion."

[Wounded Bear]

3. I had to look that up...

spal·peen
spalˈpēn/Submit
nounIRISH
plural noun: spalpeens

a rascal.

[RandomAccess]

6. Me too

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. Pierces vocabulary is awe-inspiring!

Makes thrill-shivers sweep over my scalp. 😍

Dammit, html won’t let me put the possessive apostrophe in the title!!!

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Diagnosis: not enough pirate movies. nt

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[dlk]

5. Exactly! (& Don't Forget NeverPence)

In many ways, Pence is worse than Trump. You can see the glint in his eyes in every photo. He can't wait to get started!

[RandomAccess]

7. He's GOT to be the smarmiest human alive.

My guess is he's not had an authentic moment since he was in diapers.

[Wounded Bear]

8. Pence is a True Believer...

Trump doesn't believe in anything beyond his own self interest.

So, yeah, in many ways that makes Pence much more dangerous. He's the Dominionists wet dream as Pres.

[LuckyLib]

10. Well said. Im so furious with Congress I could

chew nails. What does it take?

[Demsrule86]

13. Not Congress...the Republicans...stop saying Congress...lets call out the evil GOP.

[LuckyLib]

15. With the exception of a few brave Democrats, the rest of them are sitting on their hands.

The Republicans as a group nationally are a disgrace.

[Demsrule86]

16. I sincerely hope you are not accusing Democrats of sitting on their hands...I think they have been

really great considering they are completely in the minority...you want a win...and stop the GOP, you have to support Democrats. It is the only way.

[elleng]

12. Thanks, b'sis;

posted this on my FB.

[Orrex]

14. Noam Chomsky made a similar point during campaign 2016

At the time even Chomsky didn't expect Trump to win, but he saw the ascendancy of Trump-ish thinking to be more or less inevitable.

To paraphrase Chomsky's statement at the time (as heard on AlternativeRadio.org), if Trump had failed then the GOP would simply try again with someone more press-friendly. Chomsky identified Ryan as the likely successor because Ryan espouses essentially the same message but does a better job of masking his fanaticism.

Of course, now that Trump has stolen his way into the White House, it's far from clear what the GOP plans as a follow up, because they're already getting absolutely everything that they've dreamed of for half a century or more.