Shut Down the Clown Show, Not the Government

(For Barbara, because she'd want me to.)

     Although it's getting hard to tell which is which.

     If last night's GOP primary debate proved one thing, it's that the Republican Party doesn't depend on Donald Trump for its chaos. As promised and expected, Trump was hundreds of miles away in Clinton Township, Michigan blathering on about how pro-labor he is while addressing a tiny crowd of 500 in a non union shop. (Factoid: Several people who attended Trump's attempt to elevate global warming who were carrying "union members for Trump" signs were actually (gasp) non-union members.

     Of course, they went after Donald Trump in his absence with (typically) Chris Christie leading the elephant charge. Dead-catting is practically a long-hallowed tradition in the political arena and in America, it goes back to the days of the Founding Fathers when Adams and Jefferson went after each other's throats.

     But last night's debate was a clown version of Capture the Flag and they gave off the appearance of a bunch of clowns writhing and trying to climb over each other as the calliope madly played away so they could climb the elephant that was Trump. They kept interrupting each other and going over their allotted time in the Reagan Library in Simi Valley as Gov. Gavin Newsome said, you guessed it, it was a "clown show".

     The debate was nothing more or less than a microcosm of what's going on in Congress right now as the government is about to shut down, potentially, for weeks if not months. This would personally affect me and tens of millions of other Americans who are on food assistance and Social Security. It also would have a detrimental effect on military members, not that the likes of Tommy Tuberville gives a flying fuck about the military (Because of his one man road block, the day after the government shuts down on midnight Sunday, we won't have a Joint Chiefs Chairman for the first time in, well, forever).

     But the yelling and talking on top of each other, disobeying debate rules was indeed a microcosm of what we've been seeing in the House since literally the first minutes of the 118th Congress when it took McCarthy 15 rounds to finally get the gavel in his hand. It's the Chaos Caucus and they seem blithely unaware or uncaring that the bridge is out up ahead.

     But, hey, we have impeachment inquiries based on no evidence of wrongdoing, so it's all good.

     When the government shuts down, Republicans are always behind it. In 2013, they shut it down when Obama was in the White House because, well, Obama was in the White House. The GOP plays the same hostage game every time: They offer the Democrat in the White House a shit sandwich then jeer him when he refuses to eat it. The 2018 shutdown was all Trump and this time around, it's the most chaotic GOP caucus on record you have to thank for your Social Security or food stamps not arriving.

     And you know they're not going to forego their paychecks during the shutdown, either. The military, considered an essential service, is still expected to do its job defending our nation but they won't get paid. Between Tuberville's abortion antics and then cutting off paychecks for servicemembers, no Republican currently in Congress should be able to give mealy-mouthed platitudes about the military and how much they love it.

     This Trump-era MAGA wing of the GOP, which has almost completely absorbed the GOP, has no respect for the military or what it does for this nation any more than the orange buffoon who, despite not being in public office and possessing no actual power, is still pulling the levers and calling the shots.