THE RULE OF FEAR
Yesterday, the Republicans in the Senate killed the bipartisan border security and air for Israel and Ukraine bill, by denying the bill the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture on the filibuster they mounted against the bill they spent four months saying had to be passed to provide security at te southern border if there were to be any aid packages for Israel or Ukraine. This action was done on the command of Donald Trump, who has publicly stated he does not want to see the border crisis dealt with this year, since he intends to run a demagogic campaign on the issue as his main chance to win the November election.
Immediately after the failure of the border security aid bill, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Shumer proceeded to present a stand-alone bill to provide the aid for Israel and Ukraine requested by the Aministration back in October 2023.
The procedural vote on the motion to proceed sat open for more than four hours before Schumer finally sent members home for the night. Schumer said he would adjourn the Senate until noon "to give our Republican colleagues time to figure themselves out,” but that he's committed to holding a vote on the foreign aid package tomorrow.
And in response...
Minutes after rejecting the bipartisan border security bill, Senate Republicans were demanding amendment votes dealing with the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border before they would provide the votes to advance the foreign aid package.
Senator Lindsey Graham, who voted against the border bill, said he would not vote to move forward with the foreign aid package until there was an agreement to hold amendment votes related to border security.
Graaham’s fellow South Carolina Senator, Tim Scott - who also voted against the border bill - told Faux Snoozet "we should first secure our southern border" before proceeding on Israel and Ukraine aid.
What the actual FUCK????!!!!!
These two southern-fried weathervanes masquerading as United States Senators actually want you to believe that - in all seriousness - they want to add “amendments” that will “secure our southern border” to this bill, after filibustering the most Republican-friendly immigration reform bill EVER???
How stupid do they think we are? Don’t answer that; the fact that these two fuckwits are Senators from South Carolina is proof that white people in South Carolina really are as fucking stupid as they sound when they open their mouths and cut loose with that mushmouth moron accent.
Republicans no longer care if they look stupid, no longer care if they tank a border bill with provisions they will never get in a bill introduced in a Republican-majority Senate, where the Democrats will wield the filibuster and kill any such bill, instead of working with the two-faced liars over the past four months as they did.
It’s been clear for at least the past 20 years - that I am personally aware of - that the “word” of a conservative isn’t worth the paper it isn’t written on. I’m old enough to remember when I could go to dinner at Frank Fat’s in Sacramento with a staffer from the “other side of the aisle,” and we could spend the night figuring out what each of our bosses could live with on the issue du jour, then write down the terms on two Scotch-soaked napkins - one for each of us - and make our way home, secure in the knowledge that when we presented the “document” to our respective boss in the morning, that they could take the action recommended, secure in the knowledge the other side would carry out their side of the agreement.
No more. I remember making an agreement with a conservative at a scale modeling internet site back in 2008, that we would both keep politics out of the discussions there and stick with scale modeling issues. That lasted a whole month, till he brought up something he had read about me on another site - which had nothing to do with scale modeling. When I privately contacted him and reminded him of the agreement we had made, which I had been keeping, he actually responded that “that was then, this is now.” I’m not kidding!
That was the last time I ever believed a single syllable out a a Republican’s mouth. About anything.
Republicans are now under the control of a crazy person who has no personal morality, and no personal goal other than to do whatever it is that he decides is in his interests, regardless if doing that is a complete 180 from what he had decided on a whim the week before to do on the same issue. They are in a worse position than the Old Bolsheviks were when it came to keeping up with the swings in “party line” that Joe Stalin announced after a night of insomnia. While the penalty for not swinging with the party line as defined by Stalin was a trip to the basement of the Lubianka Prison and a bullet in the back of the head from a Tokarev, the Republicans act like getting crosswise with Trump is equally dangerous to personal lifespan. For them, it is, since they cannot conceive of life without their position, and whatever perceived power and influence that position carries. Thus, these shallow morons have no personal beliefs for which they would actually stand up for. The Old Bolsheviks at least got in trouble over actual beliefs they had acted on.
The Republican Party, like the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Stalin or the Communist Party of the People’s Republic under Mao (and now Xi), is nothing but a cult of personality.
Trump has enforced loyalty by Republicans on the border issue that will be the centerpiece of his demagoguery, and previously-powerful and independent Republicans have fallen in line with remarkable speed; it took them less than 24 hours to ditch months of negotiations in which they got much of what they asked for, once he announced his opposition. Senate Republicans backed away from the package so fast, they set a World Land Speed Record
Trump has humbled not just the backbenchers or the vulnerable incumbents; he forced Mitch McConnell himself to finally surrender.
Nothing any Republican officeholder says on any subject can be trusted and acted on. There is only one voice in that party that matters now. That is Donald Trump.
According to Jake Sherman at Punchbowl News, probably the best-sourced congressional reporter in D.C., “The end result of this debacle may very well be that Democrats get everything they originally wanted - a foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan without border restrictions. In order for that to happen, GOP leaders will likely be forced to go through multiple days of cloture votes, contentious amendments and complaints from hardliners.”
And, whatever the Senate eventually passes, the Republican House lunatics have stated they are ready to reject without even bringing it to a vote. MAGA Mike Johnson declined to say whether he’d put an Israel-Ukraine-Taiwan bill on the House floor.
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Right on target, TC. Keep it up. One of your best articles!!!!!! You've said it: the people who used to be called Republicans are now the adherents to a cult of personality---the quick shift on the border bill shows that. And we need to believe Trump: he will exact vengeance. One has to ask: what does he have on most Republican leaders: is info that is embarrassing or a liability? is it the fact that they will lose their financial lifeline via think tanks and paid speeches when congressional career ends? OR is it really the fear of physical attack? It's clear everyone on the R side is scared shitless.....(I recall reading that Mitt Romney spends something like $1 million per month on security for his family; is that correct?) It seems clear to me that if things turn against Trump in the courts, the militias will begin to rumble......maybe subtly at first..... I hope the good generals have a plan A and B and C and can shut down the renegades in the ranks. It is a nice day outside with sunshine in N. Ohio (this time of year that is a rarity; think I'll go for a walk......)
They are never going to forgive us for electing and re-electing Obama and denying the Fat Ferengi a second term. That's their reasoning, as flawed as it is, for all of this.