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Matt Gaetz

Legitimate Political Discourse Anniversary

January 9, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Legitimate Political Discourse in Brazil (Reuters)

Two years ago, a group of patriots engaged in legitimate political discourse in the House chambers of the United States Capitol. They did so as part of an effort on behalf of President Donald Trump to steal the election. Ultimately their quest failed and many of them have been indicted and found guilty for that effort…. excluding the leaders who have not been held accountable.

Both realities recently were on display sometimes in split screen. On one side, the supporters of the legitimate political discourse were conducting their own anniversary commemoration by engaging in an historic Circus series of votes; on the other side, the people who put their lives on the line to defend the Capitol at the first legitimate political discourse were being honored with Presidential medals for their efforts. It is easy to imagine that split screen image as teaching tool in American history, politics, or civics classes.

Most of the public attention until now has been directed towards the criminal activity of the people engaged in legitimate political discourse on January 6, 2021. Less attention has been paid to the Representatives who subsequently returned to the House chambers and continued with the certification of the vote for Joe Biden for President. Now Republican Representatives decided to remind American people that January 6 is not only about the insurrectionists who stormed the Capital and were engaged in legitimate political discourse. It is also about the members of the House who planned, organized, and abetted those insurrectionists. They chose to do so through the mechanism of the election of the Speaker of the House. It turned out to be an historic 15-round match with Captain Chaos before order was achieved.

The actions of the Republicans in the thrilla in the Capitol Circus has now concluded. It is a part of American history, a part that is likely to make the history books for all the wrong reasons. All that was missing was actual fisticuffs although that came close to happening … and within the Republican Party itself!

What are the lessons to be learned from the legitimate political discourse by the Republican Representatives on the second anniversary of legitimate political discourse by the insurrections two years ago?

POLITICS MAKES FOR STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

 The people involved in this unusual gift to We the People on legitimate political discourse are an unusual group themselves. Below is a survey of some of them.

Matt Gaetz House frat boy – First the frat boy had been a Florida Bushite. Then he became a Trumpican. Then he went on tour with a more flamboyant and well-known Trumpican. Finally with the election of the Speaker of the House, he became the center of attention, exactly where he wants to be. He was able to get everything he wanted by dragging the process out for 15 rounds, everything except for a pardon.

His actions infuriated other Republicans, one of whom had to be restrained live on TV from physically punching him. That escapade, too, is likely to become another teaching tool for the generation raised in video games. These other Republicans who endured the 15-round event including being forced to return to the Capitol when personal and medical reasons drew them away are not likely to forget the antics of the House frat boy. It is too early to say what the ramifications of those antics will be.

Dueling Morons – Two of the dumbest Republicans in the House were on opposite sides of the Speaker vote. Apparently one thought if there was no Speaker then therefore was no House in session therefore the Federal Government had been shut down therefore she was reducing spending. This is the mindset that will be on full display when negotiations over the budget spending limits commence.

By contrast, the previously outcast moron was front and center in the effort to elect Kevin McCarthy speaker. She knows it is better to have a speaker she can dominate than to have no speaker at all. As proof of her bonafides she waived around her cell phone with the initials “DT” on it. She is no longer in the doghouse. Instead she will have a seat at the table and help call the shots.

Insurrection Organizers – At least two of the organizers of the January 6 insurrection in 2021 and who have declined to respond to House subpoenas also figured in the vote in 2023. Don’t you love hearing about accountability and transparency from them? Imagine what happens when the DOJ finally gets around to investigating the ring-leaders of the insurrection instead of just the low-hanging foot-soldiers.

In fact, dozens of people who voted on January 6, 2021, in support of the effort by Donald Trump to steal the election, participated in the very same room on January 6, 2023, to elect a Speaker. The very moment they were fleeing the legitimate political discourse two years ago, now was the time they were voting for a new Speaker so they could be sworn into office. What did they intend to do once in office? Launch an investigation into the very people who had investigated that event on the House Select Committee.

All America has watched the Clown Caucus in action. Even Foxhub has had difficulty containing itself. If first impressions are the ones that are imprinted on the voting public, then what are the ones that the American voting public will remember from this Republican Circus? And to top it off, the Republicans went through all this to immediately launch a witch hunt against Hunter Biden, obviously the number one issue for Americans today.

 

Officially, the Circus in now in town for two years. One can’t help but be impressed by the sustained and calm unity maintained by the Democrats during this fiasco while the Republicans made fools of themselves. As the minority Party it is easy to imagine it maintaining such unity throughout this Congressional session. The Democrats will be able to present themselves as Team Normal while the Republicans continue to engage in legitimate political discourse as the laughing-stock party.

Make Room at Gitmo: The Trumpicans Are Coming

January 19, 2022
by Peter Feinman
The Newest Trump Resort

Trumpicans are right – there was a conspiracy to steal the 2020 Presidential election. Trumpicans are right – it is time to name names, kick ass, and lock up the people responsible for the attempt to steal the election. And finally, Trumpicans are right that the conspiracy to steal the election, override the votes of the American people, and overthrew the Constitution involves people at the highest level of American society.

There needs to be a lot of room at Gitmo to hold all the terrorists responsible for the Big Lie.

A MULTI-PRONGED ASSAULT

The story is a still unfolding one with new surprises constantly coming to light. And this is even before the National Archives now releases the relevant documents and people in the inner circle begin to sing.

There should be an investigation underway right now of all the alternate electors from the seven states and of Stephen Miller who publicly expressed awareness of this initiative. That investigation should quickly grow to include the people in the seven states who initiated the effort as well as Jeffrey Clark and others in the White House who masterminded it. Of course the Hitman himself was aware of it.

So in this one maneuver, there is enough to populate an entire wing at Gitmo of people who sought to overthrow the government.

On the other hand, give credit where credit is due. The actual event on January 6 of invading the Capitol was a slapdash, unorganized, confusing effort. In other words, it was exactly the type of inept incompetence one would expect from the immature child President. True, we have yet to learn the details of what transpired in the Willard war room the night before. But given the small turnout and the even smaller armed turnout, what were the expectations on January 5 of what would happen? Hopefully, more information will become available and there are glimmerings that the Department of Justice is pursuing obtaining information about an “organized conspiracy” involving the former president.

In the meantime we should stand back and appreciate the thought that went into the planning for certification process on January 6.

First we learned about the six-point plan culminating with the Vice President doing the right thing to certify the Loser as the winner. Even though there was no Constitutional basis for the plan, we should appreciate the thought that went into the planning to overthrow the Constitution in a seemingly legal way.

Second we have now learned that the Vice President was supposed to have an alternate slate of electors to choose from. The conspirators must have known that the Trumpicans in Congress had insufficient votes to disqualify the real electors. They were really counting on Mike Pence to have the strength and courage to do the right thing and arrange to designate the alternate electors as the real ones…with an audience in the gallery to cheer him on.

Third we now understand the tortured and elongated mantra the Vice President pronounced before the accepting of the electors from a state as legitimate. His words signify that he was aware of the alternate elector ploy and rejected it. Even as the Hitman was outside stoking the crowd by imploring Mike Pence to have the necessary courage, Pence undermined it and sabotaged any effort to advance the alternate electors with his little recitation before each certification. If he ever decides to become a profile in courage and testify to the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God before the House Select Committee, he will have quite a story to tell.

THE POLITICAL IMPACT   

Will the House Select Committee’s interim and final reports have any political effect? Legally it should spur the Attorney General to act more aggressively even before the Trumpican-rigged 2022 election. For Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, the exposure of the widespread and nearly-successful conspiracy to steal the election, override the will of the people, and overthrow the Constitution may, I say “may,” cause them not to support any of Trump’s Traitors for any elective position at any level anywhere.

However, for Trumpicans, the House Select Committee report will have no impact. It will be fake news. It will be a Deep State witch hunt. It will avoid dealing with the real effort to steal the election on November 3.

Oftentimes, non-Trumpicans speak derisively of Trumpicans as living in an alternate reality. They recite all the failed court challenges by Ridiculous Rudy, Séance Sydney, and Pillow Head AS IF SUCH LOGIC WILL BE CONVINCING TO TRUMPICANS SO AS TO CAUSE THEM TO CHANGE THEIR MINDS ABOUT THE BIG LIE! Now, who is living in an alternate reality? One would think by now these advocates would have caught on to the folly of trying to reach Trumpicans with the facts. Trumpicans know the election was stolen. They know that hundreds of thousands of votes were switched or lost. They have mountains of the evidence that the courts refused to examine. And as we heard and saw in the Arizona rally, they are ready to name the names of the election workers and lock them up.

Trumpicans have signaled Democrats their Achilles’ heel. It is up to the Democrats to listen and respond intelligently.

THE ONLY WAY TO EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE WITH SOMEONE IS IN A LANGUAGE THE OTHER PERSON UNDERSTANDS.

Trumpicans have said they understand the language of the Big Steal on November 3. Call their bluff. Create a Put Up or Shut up Stop the Steal Committee chaired by Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Matt Gaetz. Its mission should be to identify the people who should be prosecuted for stealing the election. To name names.

Who are the people who voted more than once? Name the names.

Who are the people who voted for dead people? Name the names.

Who are the illegal aliens who voted? Name the names.

Who are the people who voted in districts other than their own? Name the names.

Who are the election workers who counted Joe Biden votes more than once? Name the names.

Who are the election workers who did not count Donald Trump votes? Name the names.

Who are the people who programed the voting machines improperly? Name the names.

Everyone who thinks the election was stolen should send their evidence and names to Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz. Put up or shut up.

To all the candidates who said they would not have certified the election – send your proof to Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz. Put up or shut up.

To all the officials who said the election was stolen – send your proof to Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz. Put up or shut up.

To all the Trumpicans who know the election was stolen – send your proof to Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz. Put up or shut up.

As long as the Democrats continue to bring to a plastic spoon to gunfight, they should expect to lose. Instead create a Put Up or Shut Stop the Steal Committee to name the names of the people who should be prosecuted. It worked when the Hitman named the two people in Georgia and they sued him. It worked when Pillow Head name the voting machine companies and they sued them. It will work for Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz when they name the names as well.

“Stupid Is What Stupid Does”: The Donald Awards

February 9, 2018
by Peter Feinman

In this time of awards and medals, it is only appropriate to name the nominees for the first Donald.

In 2013, Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal warned the GOP to “stop being the stupid party.” Jindal said Republican candidates should “stop insulting the intelligence of voters… with offensive and bizarre statements.” However, Jindal didn’t listen to his own advice; on May 10th, 2016, Jindal endorsed Donald Trump. Stupid is as stupid does.

Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough said that he’s tired of the GOP being the “stupid party.”  He made the comments while discussing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who won the state’s Republican primary in a runoff that week.

With this background in mind, let’s look at the nominees for the Donald.

LATE BREAKING NEWS LATE BREAKING NEWS

“A good chief of staff advises the president against doing things that will make the administration look stupid or crazy (Gail Collins, NYT 2/8/18)

Ron Johnson, Republican Senator, Wisconsin

Johnson eagerly leapt into the fray on the Bull Trump network breathlessly asserting that he had proof of not just bias but of corruption at the highest levels of the F.B.I.  He knew there was a secret society. He knew there were secret meetings offsite. He knew the missing emails was deliberate. There was something rotten in the Beltway and he had uncovered it.

What he didn’t know ended up making him look an unrepentant fool. He didn’t know about the gag-gift Putin-theme calendar that was the basis for the email joke. He didn’t know that there had been a multidepartment installation of a new system and that the emails were recovered the next day. And he didn’t know that Peter Strzok, who replaced murdered Democratic staffer Seth Rich as the Bull Trump network’s favorite whipping boy, was the one who had initiated reopening the email investigation just before the election, the very event some Democrats, like the loser, blame for the loss. Johnson revealed that he lacks the intelligence for critical thinking that one would think is a prerequisite for serving as chair of the Senate Homeland Security committee. Apparently not.

It seems clear that Johnson learned nothing from his escapade into stupidity. He eagerly rushed into a second one only a few days later. Once again he had to step back once the silliness of his claim had been exposed but the damage has been done. The people who get their news from the Bull Trump network and websites will never know or understand that Johnson didn’t know what he was talking about. Stupid is as stupid does.

Matt Gaetz, Republican Representative, Florida

Rarely is someone, yet alone an elected official, captured live on camera revealing him/herself to be a blithering ignorant idiot when it comes to the matter of one’s own personal faith. It is perfectly understandable why a non-Moslem, might not know that there were Sunni and Shiite Moslems and what the difference is. There is no excuse for a patriotic American not to know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address four-score and seven years apart. Similarly there is no excuse for a self-professed and proud Christian not to know the difference between the birth of a mother and the birth of her child a mere one-score and a few years apart.

Nonetheless the smugly arrogant Representative exposed not only his ignorance but how irrelevant to his own thinking his ignorance was and undoubtedly still is. The unanticipated event occurred lived on national cable TV on the CNN show hosted by Chris Cuomo.

Cuomo: What do you mean by the Immaculate Conception?

Gaetz: Look, I was making a point that this is an absurd coincidence. [Echoing Johnson’s preferred metaphor of where there’ smoke….]

Cuomo: By what? What do you think happened with the Immaculate Conception?

Gaetz: The Immaculate Conception, it’s obviously a religious doctrine that deals with the Christian faith.

Cuomo: I know. Where is the analogy? That’s what I don’t understand. What do you think happened with the Immaculate Conception?

Gaetz: Look, did you really bring me on to discuss my religious views, Chris? I’m a Christian and I believe the Immaculate Conception was how Jesus was born.

Cuomo: I’m saying you made the analogy, and I don’t understand. The Immaculate Conception is not how Jesus was born.

Gaetz: It was the conception. That’s the nature of the Immaculate Conception.

Cuomo: No, it wasn’t. It was Mary’s conception. It was the mother’s conception without original sin. It was not the conception of Jesus. Facts matter, congressman. If you’re going to make an analogy, at least know what you’re talking about because you’ve got to have a basis for these things. You only know what you show. You’ve got to release that memo. It’s got to have the facts and you better figure out what this ‘secret society’ is before you say there’s a shadow organization within the FBI.

Gaetz: We intend to. We intend to, absolutely. We intend to find out what it is. That’s why the American people have been learning more and more about the intractable bias in this investigation.

Cuomo: They need facts to back it up and when they get them, you know where you’re welcome to come on and make the case. Right here. Appreciate you taking the opportunity.

Gaetz: Thank you.

I can understand someone confusing the Immaculate Conception with the Immaculate Reception. I can understand someone confusing the Hail Mary with the birth of Mary. But there are limits as to how much compassion one should have for the boastfully ignorant. One must presume that Gaetz’s ignorance of the difference between the Virgin Birth and the Immaculate Conception extends to his ignorance of the Constitution and to his lack of critical thinking skills. It is unlikely that he learned anything except to only appear on the Bull Trump channel where he never will be exposed for his ignorance. Stupid is as stupid does.

Devin Nunes, Republican Representative, California

In the entire history of the United States probably no document enjoyed as much hype as the Nunes Nothingburger. From all the pregame hype, one might have thought that he possessed a document that would show that Jesus had been married (an recent hyped forgery also amounting to nothing). The Bull Trump network went into full overdrive touting the pending release of the document that would expose the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the United States. Trump’s Brain was in his glory connecting the dots (Hannity versus Mueller: Who Is the Better Dot Connector?) of the momentous scandal now to be revealed to the American public.

And then Toto tore back the curtain and it turned out to be all smoke and mirrors with no there there. Never has a document landed with such a thud. One moment the President of the United States was singing in his child-like voice about having snagged the guilty ones. After all Trump’s Brain had told him that the Nunes Nothingburger exposed the greatest corruption scandal ever. Not just any old corruption case but the greatest one in American history. According to Trump’s Brain, the Nunes Nothingburger made it inevitable that Rod Rosenstein was on the way out and the days of the Mueller investigation were numbered.

And then on Monday, it was as if the events on Friday had never occurred. Even Republicans mocked the pretension of the alleged smoking gun. No stained blue dress had been found and everything was continuing just as it had been. In fact, the new topic was whether there would be an interview or a cross-examination as part of the Mueller investigation. The big joke was that even the lawyers recognized their client couldn’t tell the truth and shouldn’t be questioned. But nothing stops Nunes or the Bull Trump network. More Nothingburgers are promised and one wonders if the Congressional Republican leadership will ever stop Nunes from exposing himself as a brown-nosed bumpkin … or are they hoping the voters in his district will grow weary of Trump’s stooge and want to replace him? Stupid is as stupid does.

 

The candidates listed above might cause you to think that the Republican Party, the Bull Trump Network and websites, and, of course, the Donald himself, have a monopoly on being stupid. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The lamestream media including CNN, MSNBC, and their talking head guests continue to analyze our immature child President as if he were adult. They continue discuss adult concepts like separation of powers, oaths to the Constitutions, and truth as if these words have any meaning to him. There is no need to make a federal case out of an immature male child wanting to play with his toys and have a tea party…, I mean a parade. After all, Little Rocket Man gets to play with his toys and ours are bigger. If you are serious about wanting to understand what he is going to do, then ask the people in best position to know: seventh-grade teachers, middle-school guidance counselors, and child psychologists. Stupid is as stupid does.

Regardless of who the winners of the Donald are we know who the loser is: WE THE PEOPLE.