(Image by cartoonist Randy Molton and found here).

Clear, blue skies and extreme-bright sunshine this late-afternoon Friday here in California’s Central Valley — one warmish-comfortable, gorgeous day, supposedly to be repeated the next week to 10 days.
An environment that hints at a quickly approaching fevered heat of summer when ‘comfortable‘ can only be found in an AC-powered room.

I started this post early evening yesterday but ran out of time and energy. There’s a lot of shit on the Republican plunge into institutional asshole insanity over the last 40/50 years or so. The GOP has always been a near hard-hearted organization, more interested in being rich and right on everything instead of what actually goes into governing a nation of many different colored people with many different styles of living.
Eisenhower wouldn’t recognize today’s Republican party. The maybe origins of our current status of the GOP de-evolution most-likely began with Dick Nixon’s move to reclaim the southern US from Democratic control — the so-called ‘Long Southern Strategy‘ in the early 1970s (and political “rat fucking”); which in turn at the decade’s end led to the Reagan twist in the 1980s; the Newt Gingrich chaos/bullshit in the 1990s; the arrival of idiotic ignorance and cruelty of obvious dumb-ass Sarah Palin, which in turn led to the shit-for-brains ‘Tea Party’ at the end of the first decade of a new century. Lying and spewing forth hatred and cruelty became through a long-range political osmosis the standard operating guidelines for today’s GOP/Republican/now-MAGA apparatus.

Of course, a situation made viable for the scenario of along-comes-the T-Rump, one of the most-worse human beings who’s ever lived, an asshole without a shred of decency, lacking any semblance of care and empathy (and sense). And since the T-Rump’s people have taken over the RNC this week, the party is now in real-time- actuality a far-flung mental institution.
How can this shit be?

In the company of history — Steve Benen at MSNBC last week:

In July 2015, then-Rep. Keith Ellison appeared on ABC News’ “This Week” and was asked about his expectations for the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential race. The Minnesota Democrat said the political world needed to prepare itself for the possibility that Donald Trump might very well be the GOP nominee.

Ellison was at a table with other guests, who literally laughed out loud in response, as if the then-congressman had said something outlandish and hilarious. “I know you don’t believe that,” host George Stephanopoulos said, grinning, as if he assumed the Minnesotan was kidding.

The reaction, with the benefit of hindsight, was cringeworthy, but at the time, it seemed easier to forgive those who couldn’t contain their chortles. Trump, who’d announced his candidacy a month earlier, was a buffoonish television personality who didn’t know or care about governing. The idea of a major political party — in the planet’s preeminent global superpower — nominating a racist clown to be the nation’s chief executive was simply unthinkable.

Molly Jong-Fast at Vanity Fair last year:

Republicans have painted themselves into a corner. The ideas their base and donors love are not only extremely dangerous policies but they’re also bad politics. The further right Republicans go, the scarier and authoritarian they seem (and likely are). In the 2022 election, democracy and the fear of losing it was a huge voting motivation for voters: “44 percent of voters said the future of democracy was their primary consideration, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of more than 94,000 voters nationwide. That included about 56 percent of Democrats and 34 percent of Republicans.” Trump and Trumpism aren’t necessarily the Republican Party’s fundamental problems, they are but a symptom of the Republican Party’s addiction to bad ideas.

And it’s down now to zero care for governance, of legislating, of policy, of holding office for Americans. Several assholes are not seeking re-election this cycle for a variety of reasons, most pressing is the toxic dumb-ass order of political life. Rep. Ken Buck, Republican of Colorado, has had enough and is quickly jumping ship next week and resigning from Congress, nailed the blame: ‘“A lot of this is personal. That’s the problem … Instead of having decorum — instead of acting in a professional manner — this place has really devolved into this bickering and nonsense.”‘

The key word there, ‘nonsense.’ Apparently, this latest GOP-T-Rump-infected blend makes for sad:

After House Repubs grumbled that Mike Johnson turned their leadership summit in Miami into a Bible study session, less than 50% will attend the annual retreat this week. Some grumbled about him moving it from FL to WV because it was more “family friendly.”https://t.co/LtF7tplBsw

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 14, 2024

Most-likely you’ve heard of the disaster of the GOP’s annual House retreat at Greenbrier resort in West Virginia yesterday — a shitload of Republican assholes made other plans and just a handful showed up (less than half the conference). The gathering was supposed to be a couple of days, but it was eventually cracked down to just one. Even the featured speaker for the event, Fox News Business host Larry Kudlow, canceled at the last minute.

Life has become a bitch for the asshole speaker — via The Daily Beast this afternoon:

As Republicans seek to retain—and, in their minds, hopefully grow—their majority, pressure has mounted for Johnson to provide a clear roadmap. Several members left a February Republican leadership conference disappointed by Johnson’s lack of vision, complaining that during a presentation on election strategy, Johnson delivered a religious sermon.

On Thursday morning, Johnson cut off a press conference because he had to deliver “the big team speech.” His planned message? “For us to stand together,” he said.

Just minutes later, Punchbowl News reported that Johnson complained to the conference that since taking the gavel, he has been getting three hours of sleep, visited 20 states, and is constantly battling “internecine warfare” within the party.

“A welcome to the NFL moment,” one member told Punchbowl.

For such a divided and disjointed majority, many lawmakers are skeptical that unity is even possible.

“I don’t know if it’s divided,” one of the previously mentioned members said of the GOP conference, “but it’s certainly not together.”

Predictably, this member laid some of the blame at the feet of Johnson and the rest of the GOP leadership team.

“Unity starts at the top,” this Republican said. “If you’re not unified as a leadership team, you’re not going to be unified as a body. It’s just not going to happen. So I think they need to build cohesiveness.”

The lawmaker noted that Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, used to excel at situational awareness and soliciting input from a variety of members. He had “a team of people that kept him fed with information all the time,” this Republican said.

“I’m not sure that Speaker Mike Johnson has that or has even tried to bring that together,” this member said.

Many of Republican leadership’s loudest detractors skipped out on the retreat. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who has bemoaned the dearth of conservative policy wins this Congress and dangled ousting Johnson, didn’t deign to make an appearance.

Neither did several of the eight Republicans responsible for ousting McCarthy. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was busy prepping for her appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told CNN he has “a farm to run.” And fittingly, as Johnson emphasized to members that they needed to support their colleagues, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was in Texas campaigning for Republican influencer Brandon Herrera, who is challenging fellow Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales.

Despite all the discord, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) pushed back on any notion that the conference was divided, defending the poor attendance at the retreat by saying that, since it was held later in the year than usual, members have elections to focus on.

“We’re a very enthusiastic conference,” Stefanik told a small group of reporters at the retreat. “We have very high attendance to our conference meetings.”

But, according to one GOP aide, the attendance at the retreat compared to the attendance at the weekly conference meetings was, in fact, “abysmal.”

In the face of that shit, it would seem impossible for the T-Rump to beat Joe Biden in November. Yet apparently this is the scenario into which we’ve evolved — ain’t that some shit?

In the minimum, it’s Friday:

Emoting about the day from Bruce:

And the reality of David Bowie:

Insane de-evolved for the weekend, or not, yet here we are once again…

(Illustration out front by Daryl Cagle and found here)