One person train wrecks and a huge traffic pileup

One person train wrecks and a huge traffic pileup

By Hal Brown

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Why I was banned from Daily Kos

 

Is it any coincidence that all of the people who have become one person train wrecks and the large group that has become a huge highway traffic pileup are Republicans? I can't think of a Democrat but would be happy if readers can find one to add to my list.

In a quick glance at RawStory this morning I saw these articles:

The first one is about the coming battle in the House for who will be Speaker. I consider this just the beginning of what will be a huge traffic pileup for the House GOP as they begin their investigations into Hunter Biden, who everyone has heard of but few care about, to Alejandro Mayorkas who nobody has heard of but will once the hearings start.  Their eventual goal may be to try to impeach President Biden, an effort that might be successful in the Republican controlled House but will go nowhere in the Senate. 

What it all adds up to is a gridlocked (to use another traffic term) legislative agenda in the House which you better believe Democrats will publicize to their advantage when popular bills go down to defeat.

The individuals who have the most ginormous train wrecks Donald Trump and Elon Musk who are the most publicized. The lack of judgment and self-defeating grandiose narcissism of these two is 

If Herschel Walker loses he will be added to the list. Hell, if he wins, covering his putting his foot in his mouth as a Senator will prove irresistible to media.

Other train wrecks who make the news who come to mind are Kari Lake (read story) and Ye (who is apparently going to run for president with 

Nick Fuentes and Milo Yiannopoulos helping in his campaign ). 

I predict that there will be many opportunities for the likes of Jim Jordan (read yesterday's blog story about the soon to be chair of the GOP Judiciary Committee) and other House Republicans, especially those in the Freedom Caucus who crave attention like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Goetz, to vie for the dubious distinction of becoming headline grabbing train wreck of the day or week.

The reason some of the individuals who will crash and burn will be due to calculated attempts to gain notoriety and to stand out in a crowded field. Keep my highway metaphor, compare it to someone driving 100 MPH in attempt to beat everyone else to a destination.

Most of them also just happen to meet the many of the clinical criteria for having a narcissistic personality disorder.  This is from The Mayo Clinic:

Symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and how severe they are can vary. People with the disorder can:

• Have an unreasonably high sense of self-importance and require constant, excessive admiration.
• Feel that they deserve privileges and special treatment.
• Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements.
• Make achievements and talents seem bigger than they are.
• Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate.
• Believe they are superior to others and can only spend time with or be understood by equally special people.
• Be critical of and look down on people they feel are not important.
• Expect special favors and expect other people to do what they want without questioning them.
• Take advantage of others to get what they want.
• Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others.
• Be envious of others and believe others envy them.
• Behave in an arrogant way, brag a lot and come across as conceited.
• Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office.

At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they view as criticism. They can:

• Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special recognition or treatment.
• Have major problems interacting with others and easily feel slighted.
• React with rage or contempt and try to belittle other people to make themselves appear superior.
• Have difficulty managing their emotions and behavior.
• Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change.
• Withdraw from or avoid situations in which they might fail.
• Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection.
• Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, humiliation and fear of being exposed as a failure.

The rising star of the GOP will be Jim Jordan

 The rising star of the GOP will be Jim Jordan

by Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

Click above toe enlarge image.

Above are the three other House committee chairs who are likely to lead investigations into Democrats. The chairs for other committees haven't been selected yet. Is there a rising star among those three? I didn't recognize a single face and unless you're from their district I bet you didn't either.

Read the entire HUFFPOST article below: \/

This is the excerpt related to what to expect from Jim Jordan's committee:

The Judiciary Committee handles oversight of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security and issues such as crime, immigration and protection of civil liberties. It’s typically one of the most partisan committees on Capitol Hill, yet Jordan’s combative style stands out even there. The committee would be the place where any effort would begin to impeach a member of the Biden administration, as some Republicans have been proposing for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Jordan’s inquiries to the administration in recent months make clear the committee will investigate the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. He has also advocated for a wide-ranging look at the Biden administration’s immigration policies and the origins of COVID-19.

“All those things need to be investigated just so you have the truth,” Jordan told conservative activists last summer at a conference. “Plus that will frame up the 2024 race when I hope and I think President Trump is going to run again and we need to make sure that he wins.”

The House of Representatives has its share of unhinged grenade throwers and media hogs. Some are better known than others, but all of them are members of the Freedom Caucus, also known as the 'MAGA Squad', which incudes Paul Gosar, Marjoie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn, Louie Gohmert, Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs, Scott Perry, and  Lauren Boebert. Per the HUFFPOST article none of them seem positioned to chair any of the high profile committees, or any other committees for that matter. Obviously they will all have a chance to make their bones to the base by bloviating and bullying whenever they get a chance in whichever committees they are on.

All of them will have committee assignments, even Marjorie Taylor Greene who lost all of them under Democratic leadership. Look for the Republicans to seek revenge by doing the same thing to some or all of the members of The Squad.

Back to Jim Jordan.

I have no doubt he will make sure that he spends the next two years making the news as often as possible. The 58 year old two time NCAA wrestling champion and winner of the Medal of Freedom Award would never challenge his pal Trump for the presidency. I think his ambition is to build his brand for a future run for the presidency by spending the next two years, and should the Republican's keep control of the House, as long as he can remaining the chair of the Judiciary Committee.

Jordan's main GOP competition for the media spotlight over the next two years will be Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and anyone else who stands a chance of winning the Republican primary. 

He is in the enviable position of never having to do anything to piss off Trump or DeSantis unless you count getting more screen time and lead headlines. 

Trump is the master of angry screaming and facial expressions.

Jordan rivals him because he has the angry yelling and finger pointing down pat too. He will beat Trump who only does it to a camera and rally audience because Jordan will be able use it against witnesses in order to try to intimidate them. 

All Jordan has to do is prove himself to the MAGAs is to be the biggest baddest thorn in President Biden's and the Democrats ass.  It won't matter that objective observers will look at his investigations and conclude that there's no there there because it will be all about the show.

This might be the first day in a long time I have nothing remotely original to write about politics

 

This might be the first day in a long time I have nothing remotely original to write about politics

Suppose you gave a party for all your mental muses and none of them came...

By Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

It's not like this is a slow news day. It's just that having read numerous articles about what's happening, both straight news and opinion, I couldn't find a topic about which I had a remotely original thought.

For example, here are the stories on RAWSTORY (click each image to enlarge).

Opinion writers like one of my favorites, Heather "Digby" Parton offered this take on an issue making the news big time:

Trump, Kanye and Nick Fuentes: Can we stop pretending that Republicans even care?

Look who came to dinner: Of course Trump has no problem with hardcore white supremacy, and neither does his base

Another writer, also on Salon, who I like is Chauncy DeVega:

Former Obama lawyer Ian Bassin: The coming indictment of Donald Trump will break his power

Former associate White House counsel says Garland, DOJ are going "by the book" and have a "rock solid" case

Ronald Reagan's daughter Patti Davis has a guest editorial in The New York Times:

If We Ignore Donald Trump, We Might See Who He Really Is

Excerpt:

What if there was a collective pledge among responsible news organizations to take Donald Trump off the front pages, to not talk about him every single day? He would huff and puff and try to blow the house down, but no one would be paying attention. Think of how much calmer the waters would be. Think of how many other stories would get the bandwidth they deserve.

It’s not easy ignoring someone who keeps barreling onto the world stage, determined to create chaos and eviscerate the democracy we depend on, but it is often the only remedy that will work. The person being ignored will find himself alone on a battlefield he created, with only his own voice bellowing around him. Linger on that image for a moment — Donald Trump all alone in the wilderness, with only his own voice to keep him company.

What's to say about this Elon Musk tweet, referenced in MTG and Jim Jordan see huge influx of Twitter followers after Musk takeover as Dem numbers plummet - Early data shows big shifts in followers among Republicans and Democrats weeks after Twitter deal that the two replies below don't already say:

Added: NYT subscription needed to read. Suffice to say that Alejandro Mayorkas should make sure the  situation is remedied. 

Thousands of Russians are crossing the U.S. southern border to claim asylum. Many are ending up in immigration prison. “I left Russia for a place just like Russia,” said one.

I just come up dry when I try think of a remotely original perspective on any of these subjects.

Oh well, to quote in a very different context as, Scarlet O'Hara's said in the very last line in Gone with the Wind, after all,  tomorrow is another day.