According to legend, after their surrender at Yorktown, the British played a ballad from their homeland called The World Turned Upside Down.
It was originally published as a protest song in the 1640s when Parliament was threatening the populace with the outlawing of traditional English Christmas celebrations, claiming Christmas was a solemn affair and should be treated as such. But as protest songs go, it was a pretty good lyrical choice as the upstart colonies defeated the British soldiers.
The Sons of Liberty, the colonists who had settled here, the rabble rousers, the original #Resistance, if you will, had overcome. They had drawn their line in the sand and sent the British packing. The world had turned upside down.
Today we are staring down the barrel of a metaphorical musket engraved with those very words.
In power is an ill equipped, ignorant, antagonistic, hatefilled, money hungry blowhard who would be King if he had his way. Supporting him are millions of dim, meanspirited, racist, shortsighted reprobates who belong to Cult 45. Nothing he does opens their eyes. The more vile, the better as they care only about clinging to their "win" and making the "libtards" upset. He is also supported by a political party of degenerates who care not about their oaths to office, the Constitution of these United States, or about repercussions for this nation down the road.
James Madison, one of this nation's founding fathers, stressed the importance of the creation and implementation of checks and balances in the Constitution as imperative to protect this nation's citizens from the abuse of a central government. He saw what could happen, the idea of a Trump being no different than the King they fled and fought. He and the others designed a system to thwart a consolidation of power that could operate unchecked.
James Madison saw this danger. Yet here we are, a party completely ignoring the duties with which it is charged. A party interested in one thing: ABUSE.
GOP leadership cares only about clinging to, and consolidating power, lining their individual pockets, and making their billionaire donors richer. They are complicit in the horrors happening at the border. They have cheered and laughed as jokes are now being told about the children who are lost (yes, Sessions stood at a podium making jokes and his crowd of sycophants laughed). They abused their power to hold off on Merrick Garland's right to hearings after being nominated to the SCOTUS by President Obama, getting Gorsuch installed instead. They bragged about a tax bill they did not understand, which now is pushing us to the largest national debt since WWII.
They still stand idly by, ignoring the water situation that continues to exist in Flint. They made no effort to help Puerto Rico, turning their backs on the thousands of US citizens who perished there after the hurricane. They now lecture us on civility because their head liar was asked to leave a restaurant. Paul Ryan, who laughed and applauded a bakery owner who once refused to serve Joe Biden, now calls for Maxine Waters to apologize for encouraging the people to use their first amendment rights and protest these horrid Trumpers where they are found.
Yes, that happened. Chris McMurray, the owner of Crumb & Get It, was invited to introduce Paul Ryan at a rally during the campaign in which Ryan was running for VP. Hypocrite much? Not to mention the deafening silence as their stubby fingered, orange sack of pus constantly tweets insults.
The examples can go on and on - but the upshot is the same. We are living upside down now. And today it just got worse.
Today Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he will be retiring from SCOTUS at the end of July. With his exit, Trump is now poised to alter the face of this nation for generations moving forward. For those of you who eschew the news or turn away from the import of such things, let me make it plain for you - Trump is now in the position to stack the court with religious zealots, small minds, and jurisprudence that is heavily biased by individual opinion, not law.
Now, Justice Kennedy was not nominated by a Democrat. Not at all. Ronald Reagan put him forth. Kennedy is a conservative, but has proven over the course of decades that he values his position and his privilege to protect the Constitution and the citizenry. That means he has leaned both left and right in interpreting and applying law and voting. As for the GOP that put him there? I think we can all at least agree that the GOP of almost 40 years ago is not the GOP of today. The GOP of our grandparents had political perspective differences with those across the aisle, but they also had spine, integrity, appreciation for the Constitution. Think not? See Watergate. The Republicans who held Nixon up to the law were actual patriots.
No more.
GOPers are supplicants. Opportunists. Racists. Misogynists. Power hungry religious fanatics. And if a nominee is allowed to be seated before November, say goodbye to much of the freedoms, liberties, and power of the Constitution.
Mitch McConnell, who sealed his reputation as a wholly bought out GOPer whore when he refused to hold hearings for Obama's Scalia replacement, had the balls to say this today, "It's imperative that the president's nominee be treated fairly."
Fuck civility. Eat a bag of dicks, Mitch.
If the Dems in office have any sense, any spine, any true concern for the precipice upon which we now stand, they will fight this at every turn. They will force McConnell to stick to his own "rule" that a justice should not be seated in an election year.
If Trump succeeds in getting another on the bench, we are literally RBG and her last breath away from annihilating the country as we know it. Gay marriage, LGBTQIA equal rights and protections, the Affordable Care Act, more travel bans, abortion outlawed as Roe v Wade will be in danger of being overturned, more immigrants crisis and child kidnapping at our borders. A stacked court will run roughshod over it all.
A SCOTUS seat is a lifetime appointment. Do you MAGAts, protest voters, Jill Stein lackeys understand that? Every single one of you who stayed home from the polls, who wrote in a candidate, voted for Bernie or Jill - THIS is what you did.
And none of this is new information. The very real dangers were all out there the whole time. We warned you to look down the road. We begged you to see past your own skin color, sexual orientation, religion and THINK about what your vote meant. But no. Despite the utter bullshit that was the "Hillary is just as bad" narrative, you ate it up. Anyone who was dropped from my life for how you voted? Let me make it clear to you now:
FUCK YOU. You know my family, you claimed to love my son for YEARS. Yet you sacrificed his safety so that you could vote for neither Trump nor Hillary. Stop sending me Facebook friend requests - dropping your ass wasn't an accident. Deleting you from my life is meant to protect my child.
But his life aside - you also put the lives of immigrants, Muslims, black people, Hispanic people, ill people, LGBT people, children in danger.
You own this. Not just the MAGAts. And they are beyond any rational dialogue - so fuck them to the wind. I don't care. Their cries for civility? Look in a goddamned mirror.
Civility is the last thing you are going to get. You cry about your favorite mean girl being denied something deep fried, yet say nothing when one of your shitstained brethren was indicted today for threatening to murder Maxine Waters.
You are too stupid to even know how stupid is what you've done. Your jobs are leaving this country. BECAUSE OF TRUMP. Your crops are withering in the fields. BECAUSE OF TRUMP. Your healthcare is disintegrating, and god forbid you have anything preexisting. BECAUSE OF TRUMP. And on and on.
This country, while imperfect, was once a leader, a place where opportunity existed, freedoms were envied. A place where people could come and chase that American dream. A place that gave a damn about others in this world. No more.
We are a laughingstock. A punchline. A blob of land led by a blob of chicken grease which simply needs marginalized, left to fuck itself over, no help needed.
Today is bad. Make no mistake. But the thought that it is about to get exponentially worse? Anyone with any sense should be sickened and very scared.
What have we become? With all apologies to James Madison, maybe we should have lost at Yorktown. Because now, the world has absolutely turned upside down.
It is interesting that he had hired his clerks for the next session, meaning he hadn't planned to retire. The position of his son at Deutsche bank and his potential connection to Trump and Russian oligarchs had ALOT to do with this.
Posted by: Nikki in nyc | Wednesday, July 04, 2018 at 06:04 PM
Given that his retirement is the end of July, Congress traditionally takes August off (and who wouldn't want to get out of D.C. in August!), and September is the beginning of election season, I ought not to be too difficult to postpone a vote until AFTER the November election. Then, depending on how that comes out, McConnell should be given a taste of his own medicine until the new Senate is seated.
Posted by: Robin Holbrook | Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 09:57 AM