Like Tears In Rain... (Invasion Of The Booty Smoochers I.)

The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches. It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain. And when neither their property nor honor is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways. It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavor to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him. That prince is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself, and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty. ~Machiavelli, The Prince.

Just going to point out, for the record, that Machiavelli was wrong. 

Or at least, he never considered the possibility of these spineless chucklefucks.

Mike Pence, March 2023: "Trump's indictment is an outrage!"

Republicans, 2021: "HANG MIKE PENCE! HANG MIKE PENCE!"

<--------Lindsey Graham, 2016.

Also, Lindsey Graham:

I get, especially in the place and time which he lived, that Machiavelli very likely understood the concept of Mobocracy. Renaissance-era Italy was not so far removed from the mentality of pre-Christian Rome as some might want to believe.

And I cannot help but think that a dude like Machiavelli would have nothing but disdain for the utter cravenness of these epic-level ass kissers, who aren't even defending Trump in good faith. No, they're doing it to try and impress the mob so that they can say "Look At Me! Look At Me! Look At How Much I Defended Trump!" When they shank him in the back the second some damn murderous autocrat who's not deluged with legal troubles comes along.

These are the same fucking people who tried like a motherfucker to make Meatball Ron DeSantis a thing, who are sad as hell that Vladimir Putin ain't and cannot justifiably be made or presented as a fucking American.

Right now they're defending Trump, but trying to read the vicissitudes of the mob, and praying like hell to Dis Pater that some better, stronger authoritarian dickbag comes along so they can ditch Trump and hop on that bandwagon instead. 

"Slaves Of The Caesars" does not even begin to cover it.

There is a (very likely apocryphal) old Air Force story about how General Curtis LeMay, then the CO of a Bomb Group in England, lit up a cigar while standing next to a just-fueled and-armed bomber. He was told by some junior officer to put it out, lest he ignite fuel vapors and cause the aircraft to explode. He replied "It Wouldn't Dare."

And that is exactly what "Conservatives" think they want, which is (unfortunately for them) exactly the kind of leader Trump didn't have the guts to be. 

LeMay was, in point of fact, a hard-right war-hawk scum-fuck who was basically forced to retire from the Air Force over his disagreements with the Johnson administration on Vietnam War policy, In 1968 LeMay served as George Wallace's running mate in 1968. 

But, at least Curtis LeMay had a considerable degree of personal courage and (for better and worse) could actually motivate people.

I have a feeling Civis Americanus Sum was still a phrase a guy like Curtis LeMay understood, if possibly for different reasons than I.

Trump, not so much.

These motherfuckers aren't defending Trump because they love him or because they think he's a good leader. They're defending him because his shitty character matches their own. They're defending him because if they lose him, they lose the grift, they lose the mob, and they'd rather lose America than lose their "place" in the Magical City.

If they had to bow down before Vladimir Putin and serve as the Occupation Government of a defeated America, becoming card-carrying Communists to keep their "station" they would do it.

But since President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian Army have shown Russia to be not much more than a tiger woven from old cobwebs stuffed with shredded copies of Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto with an army of drunken peasants led by thieves, they know that short of gross betrayal and incompetence that's off the table.

And they know, short of the (extremely unlikely) mass adoption of their Anti-American, Antichristian Nationalism, they couldn't justify such anyway. That only ends one way.

They know if things continue as they are (You know, the actual conservative trajectory) they'll get destroyed and they know they'll deserve it. Lindsey Graham was right.

He just hopes you don't know it. 

This is the Invasion Of The Booty Smoochers.

And if Trump goes down or his prospects decrease they'll just get another one.

What has become of the Republican Party is itself the goddamned problem. These fucking people aren't and don't want to be the heirs of Abraham Lincoln. They want to be the heirs to Trump's Golden Toilet.

And they want it with malice aforethought.

You have been warned.

If you want a better nation you have to be a better citizen. 

And this? This ain't it.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those...moments will be lost in time, like tears...in rain. Time to die. ~Roy Batty, Blade Runner.

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For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27