Republicans hold majorities in both houses of Congress. They also control the White House, and for all intents and purposes control the Supreme Court. If you missed out on civics class or Schoolhouse Rock, those are the three branches of government. Republicans control them all.
Along with Vichy Democrats like bonehead John Fetterman, cowardly Congressional Republicans could’ve ended the Trump regime’s Iranian shitshow this week by enacting the War Powers Act. Passed in the wake of the Vietnam War in 1973, the War Powers Act was almost genetically designed to prevent a Mad King like Trump from going to war without a strategy, and without making any attempt to even sell the pretext for war to the American people. Or, you know, ensure we have enough ammunition.
If Trump had half a brain, he would’ve realized congressional authorization of the War Powers Act would’ve given him the perfect “out,” i.e. pretense to step away, get out of his Iran mess when the regime didn’t capitulate on Day One, and call Democrats names for “letting down” Pete Kegsbreath’s ridiculous, performative “Department of War” posturing from shooting off more rockets and missiles in the service of Saudi Arabia, and keeping Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu out of jail since there’s nothing left for him to blow up in Gaza. Trump could’ve even declared victory and left. Fox News would’ve done the heavy lifting.
But Trump is too stupid, too stubborn, and too corrupt to see the off-ramp in front of him. That, or he’s compromised by some level of blackmail. So Congressional Republicans voted down the War Powers Resolution with Fetterman’s help, even though they know the Iranian adventure is a disaster also being undertaken at the urging of Qatar, the Arabian Peninsula nation/bank which gave Trump the used Boeing 747 we American taxpayers are now lavishly paying to refurbish. The 747 was essentially Qatar’s thank you gift to the Trump crime family for utilizing their kingdom to stash Trump’s ill-gotten international tariff and cartel shakedowns, pardon payoffs, Jared Kushner’s “Board of Peace” Gaza down payments, stolen Venezuelan oil revenue, and the Trump crime family’s other international payoffs.
These are the same Congressional Republicans that could’ve actively used the power invested in them as the United States Congress to put a stop to the Trump corruption network operating out the White House and Mar-a-Lago. But with their prolonged inaction and acquiescence under the pusillanimous “leadership” of the insufferably disingenuous Mike Johnson and pretty vacant John Thune, Congress’ unique position as the investigative authority of the American people has calcified.
Meanwhile, Trump’s ongoing corruption and crimes are in a league far beyond anything the United States has ever seen. As I predicted in 2017, Trump’s only interest as president is to be loved, and to loot the nation blind like the Banana Republic dictator he is so the wealth of the United States becomes the wealth of the Trump family. Just because Trump is a Roy Cohn-trained crook, it doesn’t make him any less of a crook. And looking at how Trump is literally throwing the American treasury away by the hour in Iran for no discernible reason, and soon Cuba, it’s easy to see how this performative fool bankrupted casinos, of all things. The dumb rich boy always had daddy’s friends, and then his friends, to bail his ass out.
Congressional Republicans could have reigned in Trump’s idiocies and illegalities while leaving him as the get-out-of-jail-free figurehead of MAGA. But they were too cowardly to even do that because they hope if they’re nice to Trump they’ll get a piece of the action, or a campaign kiss from a Trump-run PAC come election time. Congressional Republicans are also terrified of Daddy Trump, and that he might “Truth Social” them in the middle of the night during one of his sundowning spasms as his dementia-driven agitation spikes.
So instead, Congressional Republicans will lose their jobs come November. Most will likely be relieved to go home, see their families, and be done with what Trump has done to D.C. and the nation, only to find themselves unemployable for anything other than selling cars or working as a crypto lobbyist. I honestly thought Trump would’ve just closed Congress last summer and put the Capitol up for sale after the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed and he didn’t need them any longer. I suppose he thought he could still get something out of them, perhaps cover for the Epstein files, but Congress in its own weird way closed itself. If Trump had successfully used some pretext to shutter Congress, it seems the last people who would’ve complained would’ve been Congressional Republicans. Most would’ve asked what their lifetime retainer would be. Susan Collins might’ve sent a strongly-worded letter. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, no doubt, would’ve declared they smelled a compromise.
Meanwhile, true to form, Trump utterly disgraced one of the most sacred moments of presidential service. During this weekend’s dignified transfer ceremony at Andrews AFB of the six Americans killed overseas last week, none of Trump’s people stopped him from wearing a big, stupid, oversized gold-embroidered U.S.A. ballcap, straight out of the Trump merchandise store for $55, as though he was out playing a round of golf before stopping by Andrews on the way back to the memory care facility. To the great disgrace of himself, and the office he occupies, Trump couldn’t even be bothered to remove his hat as the flag-draped coffins were walked out of the aircraft in one of the most solemn of all military ceremonies. He is a fiend without conscience, incapable of anything approaching dignity.
Trump’s disrespect for American war dead (“suckers,” Trump called them in front of his former chief of staff John Kelly), the sacrifices made by the military members he’s put in harm’s way, the families of killed and injured service members, and the thousands of U.S. diplomats and civil servants now marooned in Arabian states under attack by Iranian drones and missiles targeted by Russian intelligence and being told ‘tough shit, find a commercial flight home,’ is appalling. Beyond any dereliction of duty. I know MAGA is a cult, but tell me how Americans would’ve tolerated the same behavior from Clinton, Bush, Obama, or Biden — or for that matter, anyone: your neighbor, your child, your colleague, your local congressperson.
Speaking of the Russians, the Trump regime long ago hung Ukraine and its brave people out to dry, leaving it to twist in the wind even as the Ukrainians carry on their existential four-year struggle against Putin’s murderous invasion. Unlike our wasteful wars of choice, Ukraine doesn’t have a choice. It wins, or it dies. And Ukraine, despite its abandonment by Russia-admiring weirdos like Vance, Rubio, Peter Thiel, and Trump himself, is winning. With European help Ukraine is tying down the might of the Russian military so it doesn’t advance into Central Europe or the Baltics, and holding Russia by the belt on the battlefield as it cuts its army to pieces (via the very same asymmetrical warfare Iran will soon employ upon U.S. bases and potential ground troops). But Ukrainians are doing the fighting and the dying. So I don’t want to hear another word from America First assholes telling me to “support the troops” while they and their cult leader aid, abet, and give comfort to Vladimir Putin, especially as Putin gives Iran targeting and intelligence data that has facilitated Iranian missile and drone strikes on U.S. assets and personnel.
We are ruled by idiots unable to consider consequences, without any moral compass beyond performative Christian nationalism, who seek out the manipulative praise of despotic monsters. Congressional Republicans could’ve taken steps to curb this behavior, but the reality is many of them also align and agree with the regime.
Now we’re preparing for another regime change invasion in Cuba as the U.S. undertakes combat operations against cartels in Ecuador, because if you’re not sharing drug money revenue with Trump and letting him dip his beak, you’re an enemy. The U.S. military is running out of ammunition worldwide because no one did any planning ahead of the Iran attack, revealing us to be a paper tiger, and there was no strategy if the Iranians didn’t just immediately give up. Yes, Trump is indeed ‘considering’ deployment of U.S. ground forces in Iran — a proud nation of 90 million people who have zero interest in being occupied or shaken down for oil revenue, but which Trump and Stephen Miller believe they can use as a casus belli to build a domestic pretext for impeding midterm elections in November. Congressional Republicans had a vote and a role in all of this. They stayed silent — out of fear, greed, and cowardice. They are complicit. They will never change.
And atop of Trump’s ballcap-wearing disgrace this weekend, his white supremacist-driven regime can’t even be bothered to order flags lowered to half-staff to honor the six Americans killed, even though they ordered flags lowered around the nation in September as part of their sickening Christian Nationalist lionization of Charlie Kirk.
Republicans, you could’ve done your job with whatever shred of dignity you may still have operating deep in your lizard brain. You could’ve stopped this shitshow with Congress’ investigatory power and the power of the purse. You could’ve served as a check on power just as the nation’s founders intended in the Constitution. But your utter and disgraceful cowardice has handcuffed you, and the rest of us, to an anchor named Trump — and none of you are Houdini. Unfortunately, neither are the rest of us.
