Knock Knock, Congress, Are You There?

You got some work to do now!

So, the No New Wars President, Donald J. Trump, has turned out to be a genocidal maniac and vowed that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” in Iran. His own self-made six week deadline for ending the “precise” “little excursion,” the “short-term” operation he started February 28 has come and gone. And instead of giving him a “war boost” with voters, it’s increasingly unpopular. The rising gas, groceries, medical bills etc. are busting household budgets across the land. But a small handful of people could put a stop to his war-crime madness, or at least give it a gung-ho try!

Congress, where are you? You got some work to do now! They can’t hear you, too many whirring Vitamixes blending up their spring break daiquiris and refreshing lemon drops.

Democratic House leadership issued a statement for the House to “come back into session immediately and vote to end this reckless war of choice in the Middle East before Donald Trump plunges our country into World War III. It’s time for House Republicans to put patriotic duty over party loyalty and join Democrats in stopping this madness,” and a growing list are also calling for his removal by the 25th Amendment.

But as far as Trump’s concerned, as long as he doesn’t call it war, he is not obligated to ask permission or tell them shit, and that clearly suits most of them just fine.

“I won’t use the word war because they say if you use the word war, that’s maybe not a good thing to do,” Trump told the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner on March 25. “They don’t like the word war, because you’re supposed to get approval, so I’ll use the word military operation, which is really what it is.”

Have his briefings devolved from the depth of Marmaduke strips to Ziggy?

Surely it is a bit demeaning for congressional Republicans, being blocked from any information and portrayed as incapable of doing the job they were elected to do? And was it really necessary for Trump to go publicly tie up their balls in little pink bows like that, just to make a point?

And now whoa, Trump pal Sen. Ronald Harold Johnson of Wisconsin went and told the “John Solomon Reports” podcast that “I hope and pray” Trump is “using this [screaming Carlos the Jackal genocide talk] as bluster.”

“I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure. [...] We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them.”

Sigh, that was yesterday, RonJohnWiscon, Trump is now quite clear that his plan is to liberate 93 million of their souls from their bodies at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific. Check your local listings for details.

And Rep. Mike Lawler is sure that Trump didn’t mean what he said about the whole destroying an entire civilization thing.

Lawler and Sen. John Curtis of Utah also both said a month ago that lawmakers should intervene and assert their authority if the conflict extends past 60 days, or maybe 90, which would be April 29 or May 29. Tick tock, boys, what’s the plan?

As for majority leaders Mike Johnson in the House and John Thune in the Senate, well. All Johnson has to said about the war-peration is he doesn’t want to nation-build. And while Thune supported the strikes, he did tell NOTUS last week that he’d warned Trump behind closed doors that if the war-whatever doesn’t end “in the near term,” he was going to start having “fallout” in the Senate on account of the prices:

“People are pocketbook voters, and even those who are inclined to say this makes sense from a national security standpoint. So yeah, it has real implications and ramifications, and I think an extended presence there creates that.”

Yes, if you exchange dollars for goods and services, hard to miss it takes more of them to get less. And even if you do support the US taking over Iran and drinking their milkshake of oil forever and ever, Trump/Hegseth are failing by their own admissions. They are past their own seven deadlines, including the maximum six-week one for the operation, and the US still does not control the skies over Iran, the Strait through which a fifth of the world’s crude flows, a pocketful of uranium or anything else. Gee, if only there was some technology to harvest the power of the sun, and/or wind so our economy was not so dependent on cheap crude!

It’s a pickle for legislators, though, they get on Trump’s BADTHINK side at one’s own peril! Still, as elections since 2024 have shown, a Trump-dorsement doesn’t have the cachet it used to, even in blood-red Texas. And jacked trucks use a lot of dino juice!

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Uh Oh, BIG MAGA FIGHT Over Iran, And Tucker Carlson Is ... Correct.

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Meanwhile, Democrats — other than John fucking Fetterman, that is — are urging with all their might for their colleagues to do something, anything about the guy.

You are correct, minority leader Chuck Schumer! But if Republicans ever owned the consequences of their actions, they wouldn’t be Republicans, would they?

Some are even calling for full impeachment, or a 25th Amendment-ing, or the Apollo Sandman tap-dancing him offstage with a giant clown hook. As well they fucking should, though those things actually happening are all equally unlikely.

Yes, you can, people on the business end of the presidential human centipede. Yes, you can, Congress!

Well??

OPEN THREAD.

[ABC / NOTUS]