Republican Party | notthebestoftimes...

I will admit that “asshole” is undoubtedly one of my “go to” words as it seems to pretty much encapsulate my thoughts on much of what I see around me in this increasingly fucked up world. It has been suggested to me numerous times that I might want to spend a bit less time looking at the news but not viewing something doesn’t make it change or go away. Given how bad everything appears, I have come to a conclusion that there is little I can do at this point in my life. As I approach 70 years on this earth I realize I owe an apology to all those “old” people I thought had no clue as I moved thru my earlier years – particularly in my 20’s and 30’s. I now realize that just time and participation in whatever we are here to do provides insight and what can be seen as a bit more wisdom as more and more context is part of your experience in the world. Not sure if it is just more years of experience or observation or something else but I can’t remember a time with more assholes than I see at the moment.

If you’ve read my blog at any point you will recognize the many things I admire but probably more so, the things I find abhorrent. I’ve called out many over the years of this blog as assholes and in most cases I’ve focused on politicians – no doubt an easy target in many cases. The US is ripe with finding these idiots who have ceased paying any attention to the will of the American people instead playing to a base of “trumpists” who have made it clear that not only is there a fool born every minute but that you can’t cure stupid. This group of lowlifes make it clear that there is no bottom when it comes to intelligence and that they, like the proverbial lemmings, can be led down paths even to their own destruction. Their memories are short, their ability to connect the dots is non-existent and they are perfectly comfortable demonstrating their stupidity to those who might actually have a foot in reality and can see the path ahead.

First, let’s look at their “leaders” as we see that everything rots from the head down.

Kevin McCarthy

Here is a man who has been as close to the poster boy of incompetence – Donny Trump – as possible. After McCarthy’s remarks yesterday about the withdrawal from Afghanistan the height of hypocrisy is taken to new levels. And I quote –

“Look, I’m extremely frustrated with the president. As I said, if you want to be president of the free world, you have to have the trust, faith and confidence of the American public. President Biden lost that yesterday,” McCarthy told reporters in a news conference in the Capitol.

“There will be a day of reckoning,” he added.”

I must have missed that period of time where Trump had the trust, faith and confidence of the American public. Must have been one of those times I was in the bathroom.

What a fucking asshole.

Donny Trump

Not to be outdone, former president douchebag still seems to think he is still President. When hit with Congressional requests for information related to the January 6th insurrection, where does he go?

“Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of my Administration and the Patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the Office of the President of the United States and the future of our Nation,” Trump said in a statement, without detailing how such an effort would be conducted. (said on Wed August 25, 2021)

Maybe it is time someone inform him that his “executive privilege” days are over.

Ron DeSantis

As hard as it is to believe, there is one person who might be a bigger asshole than Trump. Yup, you guessed it – Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida.

Not too many in the US doing more than DeSantis to kill off the stupid (and unfortunately many of those not quite so stupid). His only competition are the Governors of most of other southern states – it is just that DeSantis is has been so far up Trump’s ass that he gets the nod for bigger asshole among his peers. Not there quite yet but by the time he is done, the death tool from Covid in Florida will be pretty impressive. Something we should feel bad about – not too bad – they elected him.

I could go on and on as the list of individuals is huge…and obvious. But in order to keep this relatively brief and readable, let’s just look at the American public in general – at least those that seem to have moved to the dark side, the side that is taking America down a deep, dark hole – one that questions how recoverable we are as a country. While it is reasonable to think that we will always have divisions in our people – whether political, economic or social – it is clear the we have a mass of individuals (assholes en masse) who don’t get the severity of much of what is going on. The list is long.

Anti-vaxxers – always assholes but too stupid to understand science. But they take on a much larger presence in the Covid pandemic as they are singularly responsible where we are as a country at the moment as we watch the 4th wave of the pandemic play itself out. The good news is that despite the loss of some that have taken the vaccine, the vast majority of the coming deaths will be among those defining their rights and freedoms as the opportunity to get Covid and have a good chance of dying from it.

To be honest, aside from the impact on children, I’m all for this self-imposed suicide. Less of them is a good thing and might be part of our path back. These are not the critical thinkers among us and many add little back to society. Good riddance. On a another note, many of these assholes are the anti-abortion dickheads that feel they can determine what a woman does with her body.

Anti-maskers – need I say more. Assholes galore. I say “go for it” – If I managed to be a breakthrough Covid case, I would be more than willing to sit down with them – be it at their bar, schoolboard meeting or at their chosen place of worship. Again, less of them is only goodness.

Climate Change Deniers‘ – Cut me a fucking break – rain in some areas of Greenland for the first time EVER. Weather out of control and cutting paths of destruction in places it is historically rare. Massive fires around the globe – Greece recently had 86 large fires in the country – didn’t think Greece was large enough for that many. Average annual temperatures hitting records. High temps not seen previously. Decade long droughts – with no end in sight. Close to 98% of all scientists agreeing that climate change is man-made and getting to a point of unlikely reversal. Don’t know why the younger people aren’t marching in the streets on this one – it is their (and their children’s) future. Stupid and lazy. And assholes.

That’s probably enough at the moment before my head explodes with all this shit flying around our country at the moment. At one level this all makes the disarray of the 1960’s look pretty tame in comparison – at least all the disruption at the time was taking us forward.

Just don’t expect an answer with any detail…

The following two paragraphs from NBCNews.com –

Mitt Romney said Wednesday that more restrictive gun laws would likely not have prevented last week’s deadly mass shooting at a Colorado Cineplex, and argued that it would take Americans changing their hearts, not their legislation, to prevent similar future attacks.

“Political implications, legal implications are something which will be sorted out down the road,” Romney told NBC’s Brian Williams during an exclusive interview in London. “But I don’t happen to believe that America needs new gun laws. A lot of what this young man did was clearly against the law. But the fact that it was against the law did not prevent it from happening.”

Once again, Mitt shows his acute grasp of the details (not), his uncanny ability to hone in on what the real issue is (not) all the while basically sticking to his high level talking points. Yes Mitt, it is illegal to murder so you are right there were actions this cretin did that were against the law. No brainer. However, the crux of the issue here is the means by which he accomplished the illegal acts were all done legally, He bought his guns legally, he purchased the ammunition legally, I expect he acquired most of the items in his apartment legally. Would stricter gun laws have stopped him from killing? Probably not, as you are right at some level that laws don’t stop people from taking actions that are clearly illegal. If it were only so easy. However, there are changes to current gun laws that could have reduced the magnitude of the massacre or at least alerted someone to something being out of sorts and possibly resulted in a bit more attention before the fact. Not sure why anyone needs an assault weapon – the cases of a herd of deer attacking a hunter are few if any. Purchasing four weapons in a relative short period of time might call into question motive. Acquiring 6000 round of ammunition might point to something beyond casual use of a gun. No matter what we do to laws in this country, we will not free ourselves from individuals who are bent on mayhem and murder but we shouldn’t make it so easy.

Let’s take two aspects of Mitt’s statements and look at them with a sharper eye –

First, taking a stance that we can work on the legal implications somewhere down the road is, to an extent, why we are where we are today with gun laws. If we are to interpret this part of his statement to include the possibility of tightening gun laws at some later time, we are now decades into the debate which really hasn’t changed to any great extent. Very effective strategy – kick it down the road so there are no political ramifications today. Mitt needs all the help he can get and alienating the gun lobby won’t help.

“It would take Americans changing their hearts” – sounds like a plan but in reality the hearts of Americans have actually been looking for stricter gun laws for years. Back in 1990, almost 4 out of 5 Americans wanted stricter gun laws. Sounds to me like the hearts were there a while ago. Unfortunately, this is one more case where the hearts and money of lobbyists trump what the American people really want. And that is unlikely to change in any time soon as money still buys influence – not the desires of the people in this country. The vast majority will continue to work under the illusion that people like Mitt actually are working in their best interest all the while the Republican Party is shitting all over their tables and telling then it is a feast.

So essentially, Mitt has said “fuck you” in so many words and continues his journey of talking without really saying anything that will stick.

Sounds like a leader to me.

Speaking of Lobbyists – interesting article posted by the Huffington Post today – seems Mitt understands that role much better than most of us realize –

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/mitt-romney-olympics_n_1704261.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012