(Thirty) Two-Bit Pieces of Silver

None so indignant as the scoundrel.

-mois

Long ago and far away on a Pie-Supper Night at a one-room schoolhouse, the auctioneer cried, “I’ve got two, who’ll give me four? Now, I’ve got four, who’ll give me six?” Two, four and six bits that is. Stock market still works with the fictional one-eighth dollar.

But little later on, up in #2 on the good ship, GM2 Cross told those of us there that day that once whilst ashore haggling with a prostitute over price he called her a two-bit whore whereupon she promptly hit him up side the head with her bag of quarters.

Then, quarters were made of silver. So, the half dollar (four-bit piece), and the silver dollar (eight-bit piece). Could have been worse. Imagine getting hit up beside the head with a sack of eight-bit real silver dollars. For some time now, even l’argent isn’t. Now, it is l’euro which is neither French nor silver. But then neither is the Nordic gold of the euro made of gold.

These days the Republican Senator comes into the hearing room just as it is his or her turn to question the committee witness. Does a five minute sound/sight bite during which they berate the expert, ridicule the cabinet member of a Democratic President, belittle the appointee of a Democratic President, … ; then indignantly leave the room. None of this was for the benefit of the hearing nor for the C-Span audience. The theatrics was all meant for the dumbf**k viewership of Fox and Newsmax. Any attempt by the interviewee or a Democratic Senator to respond to the Republican Senator’s tirade falls on the senator’s just emptied chair.

If any edifying information was elucidated by any of this it was done so by mistake. The performance was intended to benefit theirs and their patron’s interests, only. These days, over on the House side, these same theatrics are performed by Republican Representatives. Doing the Fox Trot. America’s rot from within.

How it is that we have come to this sorry state of affairs where Texas sends the likes of Ted Cruz to the US Senate where he along with the likes of Josh Hawley, MO; Tom Cotton, AR; Marsha Blackburn, TN; and Rand Paul, KY; none of whom are worth a plug nickel, let alone two-bits, nor the powder to blow them to hell; where they under the leadership of his leadership, the a-whole-lot-less-than-patriotic Mitch McConnell routinely perform these disrespectful, stupid, idiotic routines?

This all is not at all intended to imply that the aforementioned Senators are two-bit whores. No bills smaller than $100 accepted. In sacks no smaller than a feed sack. Please. Plus, too hard to envision Mitch McConnell swinging a sack or purse full of anything with or without indignation. Besides, no one could drag that much around with them.

Back when GM2 Cross was manning the mounts and turrets, anyone who had completed boot camp knew full well that they would give up their life for the ship, for their shipmates, for the nation. Not so for today’s Republicans. More like, “What can the country do for me? And, please sir may I have a little more blue state money for me minions? They’re my constituents, sir.”

Better they not have been born.