From Album 5

So, the clown-carload of would-be GOP presidential nominees paid tribute to their Hero, First Class, of the vaunted private sector by gathering before his taxpayer funded personal jumbo jet. Interesting. I was going to — once again — note the repetition of history as farce with this collection, but after reading Rick Perstein’s book The Invisible Bridge…nah. St. Ronaldus was a vapid as any of them. Maybe his inner circle had some realization of the larger picture — e.g., George Schultz apparently recognizes the need to act on climate change — but Marco Rubio sure as hell won’t. Nope. Not him.

All in all, a pretty dreary affair. I was worried that 2 plus hours of undiluted wingnuttery would have me gouging my own eyes out, but, it was really more just kind of sad and pathetic. Even Trump seemed a little off, avoiding several opportunities to be outrageously obnoxious, settling instead for normal obnoxious. One big old elephant in the room — Ronnie-who-trod-the-earth-without-sin’s cozying up to the Iranian mullahs — was ignored (I think — I tuned in a little late), even as everyone but John Kasich competed over how thoroughly and publicly they would destroy/obliterate/atomize Obama’s nuclear deal…well, and everything else Obama. Also, too, Hillary’s emails. And Benghazi.

This is the all they’ve got? It really has come down to farce: Jeb insisting his brother “kept us safe” (as long as you ignore 9/11), Huck demanding an “Apollo” program to find cures for chronic diseases (which, Charles Pierce notes, would rely heavily on fetal tissue research)…Scott Walker touting his record on higher education, which must have been news to Doc, along with the rest of the State of Wisconsin.

And I haven’t even talked about the jayvee undercard. But, then again, I don’t think anyone else did. Because…why?

That said, it is something to think about — or stay awake over — when you realize that the nature of the system means that one of these fifteen nits will actually stand as a major party candidate.

Damn.