Slack Babbath

Before we move on from the Eric Schmitt humiliation to the next Trumpian GOP humiliation, I wanted to point out a few things for context: 1. Schmitt smirked - visibly - when he asked Jack Smith if he attended a Hawks game in Atlanta and Smith said "no." He was playing gotcha, and this was the entire purpose of the Smith hearing - garnering sound bites that may help reverse a GOP polling slide. 2. Seconds after the smirk, Schmitt - unable to contain his ill-conceived glee - mentioned perjury - twice. He couldn't control himself. 3. Smith remained unflappable throughout. He wasn't emotional nor indignant. In fact, he was respectful and thoughtful, and it was his respect and reasoned thought that led to the uncovering of the mix-up, as he himself recalled attending a different basketball game in a different city, because he was thinking and not feeling. 4. Klobuchar played the detective and she did her part with class. She didn't call Schmitt an idiot, a dirtbag, a presumptive partisan hack, or any name. She calmly pointed out the Hawks/Hawkeyes error. 5. Schmitt, who IS an idiot, a dirtbag, and a presumptive partisan hack, attacked Klobuchar and claimed she didn't have the floor to speak. Then, someone must have whispered something to him, and he shut up. 6. In the few minutes between Schmitt's questioning and Klobuchar's explanation, the RW media machine, like the rabid dogs they are, were out in force amplifying the "gotcha" on social media. Hannity and Benny Johnson and others later deleted their tweets, and numerous Community Notes were posted - that's my favorite feature on X, btw. 7. Even after the embarrassment, Schmitt went on the Charlie Kirk podcast and was complimented for his questioning, and he went with it, not putting any truth our there with any context, let alone any contrition. Add scumbag to my epithets for him. 8. And of course, GOP lawmakers STILL spin the hearing falsely - even now; Hawley in particular (like Schmitt - also from Missouri). OK. Take this whole thing in its entirety, to see it for what it is. Look at the sordid intent, the lack of shame, the gaslighting, the lack of contrition - today it was Eric Schmitt, tomorrow it will be someone else, and they keep throwing false narratives out there - for three reasons: first, they're desperate and losing; second, their followers are tribal, frothing, and addicted to dopamine; and third, they play to an audience of one, whose entire rise to power was based on false narratives - a malignantly narcissistic audience of one. It's the same malignantly narcissistic audience that - as Jack Smith knows and can prove - took classified documents with nefarious intent. And it's the same malignantly narcissistic audience - that we ALL know - engineered and inflamed a shameful insurrection to thwart the peaceful transfer of power after LOSING an election. And ... it's the same malignantly narcissistic audience that we need to neuter as a lame duck - and that neutering needs to be Party wide. We need to return to truth and doing the job - like Jack Smith, to fairness and decorum - like Amy Klobuchar, and to empathy, contrition, non-disordered brains, and an electorate capable of reasoned thought. The entire incident is proof that the entire GOP needs to be voted out.