Optimism

For the first time in over a year, I have some optimism regarding the future of the world. Because the cult is cracking.

Last week's near-unanimous vote to release the Epstein files and the flailing attempts by the regime to deflect and stonewall in spite of it, Felon47's crackpot social media ranting about executing Democratic legislators who quote from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, MTG's surprise resignation from Congress, the Mondani charm offensive at the White House, the courts blocking Texas from more gerrymandering (though Sam Alito wants to overrule that)... all of that, in combination with reality finally seeping through the cracks as the MAGA dupes realize inflation is worse now and their local hospitals are going away, has me feeling like the dam is going to burst sooner rather then later.

Maybe. I mean, I distinctly remember thinking at this time in 2016 that within a year or two we'd be living in a country governed by the President Pence administration. So I have overestimated the American people and Republican elected officials before.

It was a bad move for the eight senators who capitulated in the government shutdown a couple weeks ago to remove serious leverage from the opposition's toolbox. It still pisses me off that those eight couldn't see the forest for the trees. But ending the shutdown did hasten the vote on the Epstein files. It did beget the summoning of Republican Congresswomen Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace to browbeating/pleading/shakedown/threatening demands from Felon47 regarding their names on the House discharge petition to call the vote. It escalated the White House's feud with MTG.

Speaker Mike Johnson is more rattled than ever. MTG's resignation removes a GOP member from the House at least temporarily once the next Congress convenes. Republicans are, perhaps, finally realizing that Felon47 is weak and there are alternatives to licking his boots that don't necessarily end their careers.

The MAGA base is confused and horrified by Felon47's praise of Mayor-elect Mondani today. They're having more trouble than ever reconciling their dear leader's claims that inflation is down with the fact that everything costs more. Some of them—precious few, I fear—may even be belatedly realizing that having an openly misogynist president is bad for them and that all their outrage about pedophiles was directed at the wrong public figures.

I wouldn't hazard a guess as to what happens next. There is no bottom to the depths this regime will stoop to, but there might still be a limit to what some Republicans in Congress will tolerate. Today MTG, tomorrow...who knows?

It would be too much to hope for a sizeable number of people to recognize that the tyrant-in-chief's tantrum about the video made by six Democratic lawmakers, veterans of either military or intelligence services all, is tantamount to a confession of his own treason, but maybe it will get through to a GOP veteran or two. The video released by Sen. Mark Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Rep. Chris DeLuzio, Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Rep. Jason Crowe, and Rep. Chrissy Houlihan simply reminds service members of a key provision in their oaths: the duty to refuse unlawful orders. Citing the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the six lawmakers each state that as a service member, "you can refuse illegal orders." One of them—I think it was Crowe, but it might be DeLuzio—actually said "you must" rather than "you can," which at least implies consequences; the Supreme Court may have told the president that he's immune from prosecution, but that doesn't apply to soldiers and officers. Despite some military folk hemming and hawing about the clarity or vagueness of the video's message, it shouldn't be overlooked that Felon47's batshit-crazy response to it—calling the six Democrats "seditious" and calling for them to be hanged—means that he wants to issue illegal orders with impunity and have them obeyed. Well, guess what, Felon47 isn't going to be president forever, one way or another his regime will end, and when it does all of the henchmen, all of the aiders and abettors, and all of the soldiers and officers that followed his treasonous orders will be subject to prosecution. Republican officeholders should remember that.

In fact, I want everyone campaigning for congress and any presidential hopefuls throwing their hats in the ring to make accountability and damage control the primary focus of their candidacy. I don't want a reverse-parroting of 2016's "lock her up" crap, I want well-considered plans and goals for holding perpetrators accountable for criminal behavior. A mini-Nuremberg trials, if you will, for the two administrations of Felon47 and Fraudster45. Legislative proposals for strengthening voting rights, for restoring public health infrastructure, for anti-corruption laws with teeth.

And for now, in this moment, I feel like we might actually see that happen.