This took a lot longer to debate than the recent $1.7T bill, which is a whole different problem. Congress critters really think their job is to just sit in office and get rich by selling their influence. They have no ability to lead or reason or do anything but belong to the correct party.
Good points. We may finally reap some benefits from the mindlessly uniform D caucus with the current slim GOP minority. Kinda puts all the power in the hands of anyone who won't compromise on the R side. Guess it doesn't matter much without the Senate though.
If my spineless general assembly(georgia)would recall one of our thieving senators though that might change
The Damar Hamlin aftermath has hit me with a new wave of irritation and weariness at the fact that *everything has become a psy op*. Whatever the etiology of his on-field collapse turns out to be, it was not a “football injury” in any ordinary sense of the word. Yet a parade of handwringing news coverage has ensued about the dangers of this oh-so violent sport and the ethical dilemmas of watching it and letting kids play it. (I’m not denying the legitimacy of those concerns, but they’re barely or not at all related to what happened on Monday.)
It’s not seeing things I disagree with that bothers me; it’s the oppressiveness of being subjected to what is clearly a program co-ordinated (exactly how or by whom, I do not know) to cloud our minds and distract us from what is in front of us.
Similarly, they’ve been trying to wear us down with shrieks about how the contested vote for Speaker is such an *embarrassment* and emblem of dysfunction, instead of it just being something happening in Congress, under its rules, under the Constitution, which we can judge according to our lights. And you see and read the same thing everywhere, because it’s another psy op.
P.S. That was quite a sumptuous spread for them to tuck into in the War Room! It was the end of the world as they knew it, and they ate fine.
A low-grade biological weapon is released upon the world. The intelligence agencies launch a well-planned disinformation campaign to promote hysteria, lock down the economy, suspend every civil right, establish a biosecurity regime to coerce the injection of an experimental substance into most of the population which they know to be harmful, blatant and massive election fraud, the murder of millions of babies, the chemical, physical and emotional castration of our youth through tranny indoctrination. And so many other things that are being done to destroy our liberty. Where is the resistance to this tyranny from an organized political opposition at the federal level? Nowhere? All the vast corruption, and as a political response we have McConnell and McCarthy representing the “resistance” to tyranny.
The Republicans who refused to rubber stamp McCarthy fought to ensure that, if elected, he would pursue - and would allow them to pursue - the policies that Republicans were elected to pursue. It was a shining moment for the House. Yet, there are so many people who consider themselves smart and knowledgeable, mostly in places like the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Park Slope, Brooklyn, and, apparently, Minnesota, shaking their heads in agreement with that idiotic take on the process. The smug self-righteous jerks who are happy with a Congress that solves no problems, makes real problems worse and virtue signals get what they deserve. However, like parents who force a sick child to take her medicine, maybe Gaetz and Co will receive the credit they deserve for a healthier Congress than we would otherwise have had.
The same people who celebrated the "adults" being back in charge after Grandpa Badfinger was sworn in were appalled all week. The house shouldn't take a week to deliberate on a Speaker but the people should take a month and a half to vote for the candidates that campaigned and maybe debated for a year and a half. Makes perfect sense.
...and now all we have to do is watch the McGOP disavow all of the promises made to secure the McCarthy selection as Speaker. The uniparty is, once again, in control.
The GOP needs to 218 votes to pass Republican legislation. The leadership will need to work with the MAGA members or they will have to work with Democrats. If they choose the latter, they (and our country) are finished.
Um. Our country was finished...well, take your pick of dates, so many to choose from. Offhand, was it the assassination of JFK by the CIA to establish the supremacy of the national security agencies? Was it the contrived killing of Americans on 911 to establish a new faux terror justifying the Patriot Act and our subjugation as domestic terrorists? Was it the utter corruption of federal government where no one is ever held to account? Was it the utter corruption of voting that allows all federal elections to be decided by the Uniparty hacks?
Stop following the dc soap opera. It's a distraction.
The movie Lincoln gives an insight into the debate of the House. The shouting, the name calling, the heckling as the Dems and GOP fought over the 13th Amendment dealing with slavery. It was nasty, filled with back room deals, and knife stabbing in January 1865. As one GOP member later said it was the most corrupt deal making by one of the most honest Presidents of the US (paraphrasing). It was one of the last pieces of legislation that Lincoln signed before his assassination that April of 1865.
Watching these past 4 days every vote, every failure, every turn of the card I was riveted to my seat nail biting, groaning at times, and thinking how exciting this all was to see HISTORY in the making.
I have lived long enough to see the first Russian go into space, see John Glenn be the first man to circle the Earth from space, three astronauts killed on the launch pad, A president be assassinated, Vietnam, and many more moments in HISTORY. Each moment is filled with anxiety, nail biting, sometimes tears, and sometimes happiness, but it is just a moment that needs to be embraced because it may never happen again. These past 4 days need to be embraced and cherished and let us hope and pray for the sake of our country that they are NOT the last moments in History that we will see come out of the 118th Congress.
Great article. Funny how the voters made it clear back in November that they wanted clearly a change from the way we were headed but the press and the media companies (yes even Fox) immediately start harassing the group of 20 after two or three votes to get one the bus and elect McCarthy. Meanwhile the group of 20 were holding out to get changes on how the House conducts their business so that we voters can get the change we want. The fact that the last Congress passed a spending bill (budget?) after only being printed 24 prior and thousands of pages long is exactly what this fight was about. I am pretty darn sure the Founding Fathers NEVER meant for the House of Representatives to operate with the callous disregard for the voter's desires like it has been for the last 30 years . . . Going forth, both parties need to have that type of lengthy deliberation before they propose to spend another dollar of our hard earned tax dollars, NOT the BS of the last several years.
I wholeheartedly agree Chris. This week I enjoyed watching the rebellion and obstreperous dissent, and I was perplexed by the hand wringing of the establishment Republicans and media. As far as I can tell, these cowboys and cowgirls got what they wanted and set an enormously important precedent. There was actual energy and determination displayed, not the usual milquetoast sycophancy. These are real men and real women and I like it. I like it a lot.
“A member of the House of Representatives has just argued that deliberation is a sign of dysfunction in a deliberative body. That’s how sick and broken this institution has become.”
Well said. I love your writing. It makes my brain and soul feel better.
I stayed up last night to watch all the drama in the House. It was exhilarating. For the first time in a very long time I felt life blood returning to our democratic process. I have to hand it to Gaetz ... love him or hate him, it was fun to watch. And somehow this morning I find Kevin McCarthy just a tad more palatable than ever before.
Your clip showing the North Korean "deliberative body" loudly cheering "Dear Leader" in unison, contrasting with the House's debate for Speaker, and the "D"s trashing the "R"s for debating and arguing, highlights the difference between the two parties. The Democratic Party is known as the "Evil Party" not only because it was the one of slavery, session, the Klan, and Jim Crow, but they are the party of socialism. And that is in all forms, as there have always been communists, facists, Trotskyites, Maoist, etc. all through their party and the institutions they control. (I speak as a former "D" who was involved regularly in campaigns and having to deal with these people, plus the anarchists). They typically don't refer to themselves with those terms: as the late, great president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, who great up under communism pointed out. They call themselves environmentalists or progressives. The threads that runs through all the "D"s are two: corruption and totalitarianism or authoritarianism. That's why Pelosi was able to run through all types of legislation with no debate. All the "D"s were bribed, plus anyone who dared to vote differently than what she told them to would be severely punished.
If Speaker McCarthy honors his commitments, then we can return to regular order and debate, as the founders intended. Then we might be able to start digging out from under the mess the Dems, with the help of a few "R"s, have dumped on us all.
What odds McCarthy will "honor his commitments"? The massive pressures about to be exerted by the bureaucracy, the uniparty, (and the New World Order) make it highly improbable. There is nothing in McCarthy's performance to date to indicate that a man who has never taken a principled position, on anything, will all of a sudden 'grow a pair'.
Yeah. I applaud the Freedom Fighters getting McCarthy to put his commitments in writing, but there is realistically no cost to him to break them. He will either outright break his commitments to them or simply do them in the weaselliest way possible.
They put up a good fight, but making a deal with someone who loses nothing if he breaks it is a water of time. They fought for nothing. They gained nothing.
A promise from a man like McCarthy is just theater.
Yes Danny...”IF” McCarthy keeps his word. We all need to keep in mind that there are powerful people and instructions with huge sums of money who will work tirelessly to see that McCarthy does NOT keep his word. Only time will tell.
Watching the Dems lockstep their vote each time was chilling, I must say. My visual was the Chinese army marching past Xi. Thank God for the “terrorists” who held their ground and insisted on making the House a functioning body. Hoorah!
Yes but, somehow the American public has determined (been told) that debate & negotiation is a negative thing. It’s actually hard. It takes analytical thought & moral courage. Somehow that’s been replaced by crying & screaming; the response of a toddler.
Imagine what would happen should real debate with facts, figures, data, & persuasive arguments were viewed as credible action when faced with adversity.
Absolutely. It is the cowering in the face of being called names that has left us with the tiny fraction of the population who live their lives based on the 'intersectionality' or 'on how many fronts can I claim to be a victim' chart ruling the day. We need to start standing up to their nonsense just as you have stated: with facts, figures, data and persuasive arguments.
Sadly, Phillips represents my district, which was reliably red for about 120 out of the 140 years preceding his first run in 2018. He is the poster boy of white privilege—wealthy heir of the Phillips family business, bottlers of cheap vodka, tequila and liqueurs for indiscriminate tipplers on a budget. In 2020 he was opposed by a black US Army vet and self-made entrepreneur who was roundly rejected by the same folks with freshly printed BLM signs in their yards.
This took a lot longer to debate than the recent $1.7T bill, which is a whole different problem. Congress critters really think their job is to just sit in office and get rich by selling their influence. They have no ability to lead or reason or do anything but belong to the correct party.
The appropriations bill was the last straw for the McCarthy resisters, I suppose. There's this threat from them on Dec. 21 in response: https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/31-house-republicans-led-rep-roy-vow-oppose-any-legislative-priority-senators
Good points. We may finally reap some benefits from the mindlessly uniform D caucus with the current slim GOP minority. Kinda puts all the power in the hands of anyone who won't compromise on the R side. Guess it doesn't matter much without the Senate though.
If my spineless general assembly(georgia)would recall one of our thieving senators though that might change
My money is on the GOP caving on anything important while talking big, just like 2010-2016.
If you find anybody to take that bet I'll back your stake. At any odds
Phenomenal observation. 1.7tt good points made.
Nor any ability to actually craft legislation.
Incompetent grifters, who's work is done by corporate lawyers who know what they're doing.
The Damar Hamlin aftermath has hit me with a new wave of irritation and weariness at the fact that *everything has become a psy op*. Whatever the etiology of his on-field collapse turns out to be, it was not a “football injury” in any ordinary sense of the word. Yet a parade of handwringing news coverage has ensued about the dangers of this oh-so violent sport and the ethical dilemmas of watching it and letting kids play it. (I’m not denying the legitimacy of those concerns, but they’re barely or not at all related to what happened on Monday.)
It’s not seeing things I disagree with that bothers me; it’s the oppressiveness of being subjected to what is clearly a program co-ordinated (exactly how or by whom, I do not know) to cloud our minds and distract us from what is in front of us.
Similarly, they’ve been trying to wear us down with shrieks about how the contested vote for Speaker is such an *embarrassment* and emblem of dysfunction, instead of it just being something happening in Congress, under its rules, under the Constitution, which we can judge according to our lights. And you see and read the same thing everywhere, because it’s another psy op.
P.S. That was quite a sumptuous spread for them to tuck into in the War Room! It was the end of the world as they knew it, and they ate fine.
Very well put! Like your sense of humor too.
"Wow" indeed. Performative arts controls Congress...and, as you correctly conclude, everything else, apparently.
A low-grade biological weapon is released upon the world. The intelligence agencies launch a well-planned disinformation campaign to promote hysteria, lock down the economy, suspend every civil right, establish a biosecurity regime to coerce the injection of an experimental substance into most of the population which they know to be harmful, blatant and massive election fraud, the murder of millions of babies, the chemical, physical and emotional castration of our youth through tranny indoctrination. And so many other things that are being done to destroy our liberty. Where is the resistance to this tyranny from an organized political opposition at the federal level? Nowhere? All the vast corruption, and as a political response we have McConnell and McCarthy representing the “resistance” to tyranny.
Very nicely put!
The Republicans who refused to rubber stamp McCarthy fought to ensure that, if elected, he would pursue - and would allow them to pursue - the policies that Republicans were elected to pursue. It was a shining moment for the House. Yet, there are so many people who consider themselves smart and knowledgeable, mostly in places like the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Park Slope, Brooklyn, and, apparently, Minnesota, shaking their heads in agreement with that idiotic take on the process. The smug self-righteous jerks who are happy with a Congress that solves no problems, makes real problems worse and virtue signals get what they deserve. However, like parents who force a sick child to take her medicine, maybe Gaetz and Co will receive the credit they deserve for a healthier Congress than we would otherwise have had.
The same people who celebrated the "adults" being back in charge after Grandpa Badfinger was sworn in were appalled all week. The house shouldn't take a week to deliberate on a Speaker but the people should take a month and a half to vote for the candidates that campaigned and maybe debated for a year and a half. Makes perfect sense.
...and now all we have to do is watch the McGOP disavow all of the promises made to secure the McCarthy selection as Speaker. The uniparty is, once again, in control.
The GOP needs to 218 votes to pass Republican legislation. The leadership will need to work with the MAGA members or they will have to work with Democrats. If they choose the latter, they (and our country) are finished.
Um. Our country was finished...well, take your pick of dates, so many to choose from. Offhand, was it the assassination of JFK by the CIA to establish the supremacy of the national security agencies? Was it the contrived killing of Americans on 911 to establish a new faux terror justifying the Patriot Act and our subjugation as domestic terrorists? Was it the utter corruption of federal government where no one is ever held to account? Was it the utter corruption of voting that allows all federal elections to be decided by the Uniparty hacks?
Stop following the dc soap opera. It's a distraction.
I hope you are wrong. I fear you are right!
The movie Lincoln gives an insight into the debate of the House. The shouting, the name calling, the heckling as the Dems and GOP fought over the 13th Amendment dealing with slavery. It was nasty, filled with back room deals, and knife stabbing in January 1865. As one GOP member later said it was the most corrupt deal making by one of the most honest Presidents of the US (paraphrasing). It was one of the last pieces of legislation that Lincoln signed before his assassination that April of 1865.
Watching these past 4 days every vote, every failure, every turn of the card I was riveted to my seat nail biting, groaning at times, and thinking how exciting this all was to see HISTORY in the making.
I have lived long enough to see the first Russian go into space, see John Glenn be the first man to circle the Earth from space, three astronauts killed on the launch pad, A president be assassinated, Vietnam, and many more moments in HISTORY. Each moment is filled with anxiety, nail biting, sometimes tears, and sometimes happiness, but it is just a moment that needs to be embraced because it may never happen again. These past 4 days need to be embraced and cherished and let us hope and pray for the sake of our country that they are NOT the last moments in History that we will see come out of the 118th Congress.
I too saw all the events you mention.
Great article. Funny how the voters made it clear back in November that they wanted clearly a change from the way we were headed but the press and the media companies (yes even Fox) immediately start harassing the group of 20 after two or three votes to get one the bus and elect McCarthy. Meanwhile the group of 20 were holding out to get changes on how the House conducts their business so that we voters can get the change we want. The fact that the last Congress passed a spending bill (budget?) after only being printed 24 prior and thousands of pages long is exactly what this fight was about. I am pretty darn sure the Founding Fathers NEVER meant for the House of Representatives to operate with the callous disregard for the voter's desires like it has been for the last 30 years . . . Going forth, both parties need to have that type of lengthy deliberation before they propose to spend another dollar of our hard earned tax dollars, NOT the BS of the last several years.
It's a sad state of affairs when they pass a $1,700,000,000,000 trillion bill without reading BUT demand to know where you spend $600.
Whoa! So true.
My sentiments exactly!
A perfect real world illustration of "The Law of Triviality" documented in C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 book, "Parkinson's Law". (Look t up!)
I will!
This is an excellent point.
A homunculus?
I would say lobbyists are responsible for over half
I wholeheartedly agree Chris. This week I enjoyed watching the rebellion and obstreperous dissent, and I was perplexed by the hand wringing of the establishment Republicans and media. As far as I can tell, these cowboys and cowgirls got what they wanted and set an enormously important precedent. There was actual energy and determination displayed, not the usual milquetoast sycophancy. These are real men and real women and I like it. I like it a lot.
Good Morning! I love the way you cut through the bullshit.
The deliberation and debate over who would be House Speaker shows health in the process. Media doesn't get attention if they say that.
The other good thing about the extended voting is it might have eclipsed some January 6th grandstanding.
“A member of the House of Representatives has just argued that deliberation is a sign of dysfunction in a deliberative body. That’s how sick and broken this institution has become.”
Well said. I love your writing. It makes my brain and soul feel better.
100% agree with that sentiment re: brain and soul.
I stayed up last night to watch all the drama in the House. It was exhilarating. For the first time in a very long time I felt life blood returning to our democratic process. I have to hand it to Gaetz ... love him or hate him, it was fun to watch. And somehow this morning I find Kevin McCarthy just a tad more palatable than ever before.
YES!!
Your clip showing the North Korean "deliberative body" loudly cheering "Dear Leader" in unison, contrasting with the House's debate for Speaker, and the "D"s trashing the "R"s for debating and arguing, highlights the difference between the two parties. The Democratic Party is known as the "Evil Party" not only because it was the one of slavery, session, the Klan, and Jim Crow, but they are the party of socialism. And that is in all forms, as there have always been communists, facists, Trotskyites, Maoist, etc. all through their party and the institutions they control. (I speak as a former "D" who was involved regularly in campaigns and having to deal with these people, plus the anarchists). They typically don't refer to themselves with those terms: as the late, great president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, who great up under communism pointed out. They call themselves environmentalists or progressives. The threads that runs through all the "D"s are two: corruption and totalitarianism or authoritarianism. That's why Pelosi was able to run through all types of legislation with no debate. All the "D"s were bribed, plus anyone who dared to vote differently than what she told them to would be severely punished.
If Speaker McCarthy honors his commitments, then we can return to regular order and debate, as the founders intended. Then we might be able to start digging out from under the mess the Dems, with the help of a few "R"s, have dumped on us all.
Danny Huckabee
What odds McCarthy will "honor his commitments"? The massive pressures about to be exerted by the bureaucracy, the uniparty, (and the New World Order) make it highly improbable. There is nothing in McCarthy's performance to date to indicate that a man who has never taken a principled position, on anything, will all of a sudden 'grow a pair'.
Yeah. I applaud the Freedom Fighters getting McCarthy to put his commitments in writing, but there is realistically no cost to him to break them. He will either outright break his commitments to them or simply do them in the weaselliest way possible.
They put up a good fight, but making a deal with someone who loses nothing if he breaks it is a water of time. They fought for nothing. They gained nothing.
A promise from a man like McCarthy is just theater.
Agree
Yes Danny...”IF” McCarthy keeps his word. We all need to keep in mind that there are powerful people and instructions with huge sums of money who will work tirelessly to see that McCarthy does NOT keep his word. Only time will tell.
Watching the Dems lockstep their vote each time was chilling, I must say. My visual was the Chinese army marching past Xi. Thank God for the “terrorists” who held their ground and insisted on making the House a functioning body. Hoorah!
Yes but, somehow the American public has determined (been told) that debate & negotiation is a negative thing. It’s actually hard. It takes analytical thought & moral courage. Somehow that’s been replaced by crying & screaming; the response of a toddler.
Imagine what would happen should real debate with facts, figures, data, & persuasive arguments were viewed as credible action when faced with adversity.
Absolutely. It is the cowering in the face of being called names that has left us with the tiny fraction of the population who live their lives based on the 'intersectionality' or 'on how many fronts can I claim to be a victim' chart ruling the day. We need to start standing up to their nonsense just as you have stated: with facts, figures, data and persuasive arguments.
Sadly, Phillips represents my district, which was reliably red for about 120 out of the 140 years preceding his first run in 2018. He is the poster boy of white privilege—wealthy heir of the Phillips family business, bottlers of cheap vodka, tequila and liqueurs for indiscriminate tipplers on a budget. In 2020 he was opposed by a black US Army vet and self-made entrepreneur who was roundly rejected by the same folks with freshly printed BLM signs in their yards.
I like The Bee's perspective: https://babylonbee.com/news/nation-in-shock-as-politicians-show-up-to-work-4-days-in-a-row?utm_source=The%20Babylon%20Bee%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email