Empires collapse from within. You need only to look at history to see that it’s usually the people who the leaders once trusted and/or felt were beneath them who rise up. A year ago if you told me that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp would tell the Republicans in his state he wasn’t going to sidestep the laws and cave to the extremists, I would’ve checked the date because it’s obviously April Fools.
Kemp has been elected on an agenda of hatred and animosity. Call it Trumpism but it’s existed years if not decades before. Kemp, who I always thought was out of Central Casting for the racist police chief/county sheriff in every Civil Rights/White Savior movie, famously aimed a gun at a young man in a campaign video. He talked about driving a big truck to “round up illegals.” Twice, this racist piece of shit son of a bitch bastard has been elected to a state with a huge identity crisis, solely on the fact that he hates the people the pig fuckers from the one-horse towns hate.
Yet, recently, he said that there wasn’t going to be a special session to more or less remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Republicans in Georgia have tried to enact policies in which the General Assembly that basically removes Willis or any prosecutor who doesn’t do their bidding. The problem is this sets a precedent that could really take a bite out of the Peach State.
“We have a law in the state of Georgia that clearly outlines the legal steps that can be taken if constituents believe their local prosecutors are violating their oath by engaging in unethical or illegal behavior,” Kemp said during a press conference. “Up to this point, I have not seen any evidence that DA Willis’ actions or lack thereof warrant action by the Prosecuting Attorney Oversight Commission. But, that will ultimately be a decision the commission will make.
“The bottom line is that in the state of Georgia, while I am governor, we’re going to follow the law and the constitution, regardless of who it helps or harms politically,” he added. “These are the distractions that get you to lose elections. The last time we were talking about special sessions in the state of Georgia, just a few weeks later, the Republican majority lost two U.S. Senate races.”
Georgia lost more than that. Major League Baseball was set to have its annual All-Star Game in Atlanta in 2021. This would’ve been a worldwind of revenues for the state following the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the economy in 2020. But the Georgia General Assembly plassed the Election Integrity Act of 2021, which some attributed to Jim Crow voters laws of the past. The game was moved to Coors Field in Denver.
Georgia, also has a thriving film and TV industry that has grown in the 2010s and was the preferred shooting location of many blockbusters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, in the spring of 2021, it was announced production on MCU movies would be moving to Australia. Yet the combined strikes of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Arts has shut down a lot of movied and TV productions for the first time since 1960.
The only thing keeping Georgia from turning into Alabama or Mississippi is the thriving economies of the metro-Atlanta area and cities like Macon and Savannah. It’s like the scene in Jaws where the mayor is saying if they can’t do business in Georgia, they can do business in other states. Louisiana, despite some problems, still has a good film and TV industry. There are still some regions of Georgia, and I’m talking many hundreds if not thousands of square miles that are run-down and very rural. I know, because I used to work and live in those areas. One of my biggest worries was car trouble driving on Interstate 16 between Macon and Statesboro where Georgia Southern University was located because there weren’t hardly many places you wanted to pull off.
In other words, Kemp just plainly said, “Money talks and bullshit walks.”
This also comes around the time it appeared Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) froze up again in front of the cameras speaking to the press. It’s a wonder how many times this has happened when news cameras weren’t focused on him. At 81, McConnell’s health has become a topic of discussion. He’s the Senate Minority Leader and quite possibly the only thing keeping the Republican Party from the point of no return. Yes, I know how strange that sounds, but he right now is the only one keeping the party from hitting a brick wall.
Following the embarrassment over the election of Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, as Speaker of the House which took 15 tries, several prominent Republicans are starting to sound like adults. Chris Christie, former governor New Jersey, has publicly spoken out against Donald J. Trump. (However, I don’t doubt he wouldn’t pardon Trump probably on his last day in office if he was elected President.) It’s obvious too many still support Trump but are wanting to keep their distance.
Then, you have the fight between Georgia Congressmember Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican, and Colorado Republican Congressmember Lauren Boebert. They both seemed like the best of buddies beginning in 2021. But the fight over McCarthy and other issues rivals the biggest feuds between high school girls. Judy Blume couldn’t have written a better fallout. It’s like Mean Girls set in Congress.
Next you have Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) who is taking a playbook by McConnell and refusing to allow the promotions of hundreds of military officers. The Pentagon reports if this continues by the end of the year, it could be up to 650 military personnel who’s promotions are more mandated by the miltary are on hold. This also means that Gen. Mark Milley, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs, will retired by the end of this month. That’s four weeks from today. It can’t be extended. This means, come Oct. 1, we may not have a chair of the Joint Chiefs of the military, meaning our military leadership is at a great risk.
Tuberville’s rationalization for refusing is that the Pentagon has been in violation for allowing monies and reimbursements to military service members to travel to other states with lenient laws on abortion. He’s also trying to say that the President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are refusing to listen to negotiations. However, it could be Tuberville and his fellow GOP members are hoping to blame this on the Democrats. But it may backfire on the Republicans.
It’s one thing to hold up a Supreme Court appointment, which will be McConnell’s epitaph. It’s another to hold up hundreds of military appointments all over the country if not the world. Those who still believe in the myth that the military 100 percent supports the Republican Party might find themselves in trouble. Tuberville, who’s been in office since January of 2021, doesn’t have any other qualifications for Senator other than being a football coach. And while that might work in states like Alabama, it shows what happens when unqualified candidates with huge biased agendas get in office.
How much longer will the other Republican senators allow Tuberville to have this stranglehold? Maybe they need to look at how far down in flames Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is going. Earlier this year, he was poised as the latest GOP Golden Boy. But here lately, he’s been laying on the Trumpism so hard, it’s cost Florida some of its tourism revenue. That might be why Kemp is so keen on playing by the rules for now at least.
The latest comment DeSantis made of “You loot, we shoot” following Hurricane Idalia less than a week after the racially-charged shooting in Jacksonville shows that he’s trying to appeal to the same base that elected Trump. But the problem is that he can’t measure up to Trump’s base especially after the way he looked during the debates. I anticipate he’ll crash and burn either before the Iowa Caucuses and New York Primary or immediately after when he doesn’t get the results he wants. Being governor of a state like Florida is one thing. Being President of the United States is another.
And that’s what the Republican Party is going to have to consider. Do they want to continue with Trumpism which has lost them the last three general elections or should they rebrand themselves? Hunter S. Thompson once wrote the corrupt Nixon Administration following Watergate is the reason the Republican Party didn’t fully get on board with Gerald Ford in 1976. They knew they’d have to regroup at a later date. Take the L in ’76, let America celebrate its Bicentennial and spend the next four years planning a comeback.
The problem is the Republicans don’t want to take the lost, not now and not forever. The Heritage Foundation had come up with Project 2025, which will pretty much turn the President, if it’s a Republican, into a pseudo-dictator who doesn’t have near the checks and balancs the position has now. Someone like Trump, DeSantis, and even Vivek Ramaswamy (if he had a snowball chance in Hell) would jump on this in a heartbeat. The problem is Americans have already seen the effects in Florida.
Following the hurricane, DeSantis is trying to make it look like Biden doesn’t want to come to help, but it’s been called out that DeSantis is the one who didn’t want Biden to come. And then Judge J. Lee Marsh’s ruling that the Congressional districts of North Florida are unconstitutional and needed to be redrawn. This is a major strike at the Republicans’ attempt to stay in office through gerrymandering.
The Republicans are defending McConnell, who may or may not have had a TIA (transient ischemic attack), a mini-stroke or percursor to a major stroke, were quick to criticize John Fetterman, a Democrat senator from Pennyslvania, who is 54 and suffered a stroke. So, why should one man, who’s more than a quarter of a century younger, retire? Maybe they know they’re not too popular with the young crop of voters. That’s why Ramaswamy wants to change the voting age. And it’s also why they want to bank TikTok which is more popular with Gen Z and Millennnials than Facebook or X, formerly known as Twitter.
The majority of people in a recent poll feel Trump should be prosecuted for the crimes he’s charged with. Tucker Carlson trying to act like it will lead to an assassination attempt is just more fearmongering. People are tired of fearmongering and the Republicans know that. And as many of them continue to fight for the Republican nomination, the Republican National Convention is going to have one helluva question if Trump is convicted before then. Do they want a convict as their nominee?
Some will say cut him lose and others will say he should stay on. Oh, yes, there will be blood. And it will get ugly.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 