Aural Ipecac

A university music department, for music majors, is something like a second family.   Only you're more likely to feel an obligation to try to like everyone in your family.   Back, about half a century and it's none of your business ago there was a guy in our music department who was on work study and who worked for the music department.  I worked in the library, wanting to get out of the music wing of the arts building as much as possible.

Anyway, this guy, I'll call him "Bob" because that wasn't his name and the real guy might still be alive, if he managed to avoid someone throttling him, was a ubiquitous presence and constant irritant. He wasn't that bright but, somehow, several times a day, he managed to, somehow, find the right thing to say that would be really embarrassing to someone or really hurtful.  He generally did that as he was being helpful.  People would roll their eyes and say,  That's just Bob being Bob, he's not too bright.  Only, after a while I realized there was no possible realm of possibility in which someone could be so accidentally malevolent without planning involved.  I came to the conclusion that, far from being an innocuous dolt, Bob was a mean little bastard who you should be careful of.    He obviously liked pushing peoples' buttons and causing them pain.   No one would do it so consistently by accident.

I think the same is true of a majority of Republicans, especially those who present themselves as moral or idealistic.  Paul Ryan, James Comey, the entirety of those who are presented as moderate in the lying media.   They love to hurt people, they love to think about hurting people, they love seeing that people are hurting and the love that they are the ones who have the power to make people hurt.

The Republican Party that finally pushed Nixon out the door and onto the helicopter is not the Republican Party of today.  Those people all died and their successors are all the Nixon type.  There is, literally, no one of any good will in that party now.   Anyone with any shred of good will either left the party or died.   You can remember that during the confirmation hearings as you hear calls for comity among Senators.  Democrats should go for the neck, every time.

Looking for that old post from my first blog, I also came across this haiku.

Senate Hearings Haiku

Take some comity.
Add old football metaphores.
Aural ipecac