(7 minute read)
Sue
About that House of Representatives vote? If no one could be sworn in then how was it legal for them to vote? Sounds fishy to me. Was it legit? Was there any voter fraud? I didn’t see anyone checking voter IDs, did you? People were just hollering out who they voted for. Or were they really? There was a POC in charge. There was all sorts of talk about people changing their votes after they had been cast. House members that failed to vote when their names were called were given the opportunity to revote again later. Did we get to see all the voter tally sheets? Why did one teller write votes down on a little tiny paper while the other tellers used big sheets of paper? Was the paper Chinese? How do we know that somebody didn’t vote for the dead guy? Were Jewish space lasers involved again? Seriously, can people really tell one pasty old white guy from another? Were stand-ins used? Is it time to call out the lawyers, get the courts involved?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Out of character
I originally had a much different title for this post but my editor had a different idea. My title had to do with cats. I’ll just leave it at that.
Of the Republican Fascists not choosing to elect McCarthy I really thought that daring duo of the Republican fascist wing, Gaetz and Boebert, would not fold. Especially Gaetz since he had said that McCarthy would never be speaker.[1] Turns out that he really doesn’t mean or believe what he says either. I have to admit that he could have believed it in the moment. Like Trump knowing that he lost but later deciding to go with he won. Both G and B have reveled in their outspokenness and going against the grain. They have wallowed in their belligerence. That’s their strength of character.
I can understand Greene throwing in with McCarthy. Her Ducé Donald told her to. I think that it’s well within the realm of possibility that she believes that the Donald will ask her to be his Vice President in 2024. Kari Lake is going to edge her out though thanks to the Trump rating numbering system for women. Perhaps if Greene starts using soft focus lenses and spends more time on her makeup, she could get a higher number and give Lake a run for her money.
I’ve drifted.
For all the high-sounding dialog it turns out that those madcap rebels just wanted plum jobs and more notoriety going forward in the 118th Congress. Their “transparency” consisted of backroom dealing trades for votes.
Republican Neofascists are the swamp.
It turns out that in his time of most dire need McCarthy along with the Republican Neofascists turned to their Ducé, Trump, to save them. You know, Trump the election denying loser. The guy that tried to overthrow our government. Of all those opposed to McCarthy only 2 weren’t election deniers.[2] The Republican side of the House now has 145 election denier fascists.[3] That’s more than they had before they tried to overturn the election. The fascists are gaining strength.
Now they’re in charge of the House.
This election of the House Speaker certainly provided plenty of entertainment. I’m not counting the hours of voice voting but there were little splashes of drama there too.
- I really liked that picture of the Democrat taking in the popcorn. I mean seriously, that was funny.[4]
- The Republican that joked about Democrats drinking on the House floor was pretty funny too.[5] I think that there may have been a few Republicans throwing down some hard stuff as well.
- And it isn’t often that there’s the threat of a fight on the House floor either. It really didn’t look to me like the guy lunged at Gaetz.[6] House member Rogers did have to be restrained.[7] My guess is a lot of House members would have liked to have a piece of Gaetz at that point.
- I mean we got to see Gaetz speaking with AOC! How often does that happen? Then there was the newly elected head of the Republican Fascist Caucus Liar Santos hobknobbing with his brothers-in-arms.[8]
- A white man accusing a black woman of making a racist comment is always good for a headline or two.[9]
How bizarre!
Herald
What is in store for the nation now with over half of the Republican House members being fascists that seek to overthrow our form of government being in charge? They received major concessions in order to get their votes for McCarthy.[10] Think that made others in their party happy?[11] Congressman Crenshaw called them terrorists.[12] They can claim anything they want but these are not patriots that have the best interests of all the people in mind just the MAGA Heads that support them and their quest to create a fascist state. They like to refer to the government that they are a part of as being a swamp and then do their very best to fulfill that title.
- Chaos. There will be lots of front-page headlines of dysfunction in Congress. That is the narrative that Republicans have been selling for decades. MAGA Heads eat this stuff up right along with threats and actions of physical violence. (And yet -65somehow the dysfunction will still be the Democrats’ fault.)
- There will be a lot of theater. With the likes of Jordan, Boebert, Gaetz, Greene, Gosar, Perry, Gohmert, Biggs and company there will be a LOT of their very best attributes presented for consumption to the American public on a regular basis.[13] Cooler heads of the party will NOT prevail.
- Remember all the attempts that Republicans made to stop the Affordable Care Act that brought medical coverage to millions of people that didn’t have it? I kind of lost track after 50. There’ll be lots of bills being passed that won’t have a chance of getting passed by the Senate.
- Impeaching President Biden for anything that they can dream up will be high on their list. After all Democrats impeached their Ducé twice. Once for blackmailing Ukraine by holding up aid to try and get them to lie about Biden and once for staging a coup. It’s not likely that the Senate will vote to convict. Good grief Republican Neofascists tried to impeach Biden when they didn’t have control of the House.[14] What do you think that they’ll do now?
- They will do their best to halt the DOJ investigation and prosecution of Trump and his co-conspirators.[15] Many of them are ones that were involved in the January 6 coup attempt.[16] It’s why they sought pardons from their Ducé.[17] They have already threatened to cut funding to the Special Counsel. Will that be considered obstruction of justice by Republican Neofascists? Of course not. Look for lots of court filings to gum up the works and slow everything down.
- Remember all the Republican Committees and investigations of Benghazi? They’re going to do the same thing with the Afghanistan surrender negotiated by Trump. You remember the one. The one where they released 5,000 Taliban. The ones that attacked and killed our service men and women as they were leaving.
- The Republican Fascist wing will do their level best to undercut if not stop support for Ukraine.[18]
- They will try and may very well succeed in shutting down government in the fall and force the country to default. It isn’t like they haven’t done this before. A robust economy does not help them politically. They can be expected to propose cuts that Democrats will find unacceptable, like cuts to Defense, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid or funding to Ukraine.[19]
- They will try and undermine NATO whenever possible.[20] Their Ducé and Putin want this to happen especially with Putin on the ropes in Ukraine.
- They’ll cut funding to the IRS in order to protect the money of their rich patrons. One of the problems that the IRS has is that they are understaffed and investigating the complicated tax returns of the rich especially the ultra-rich takes more resources and staffing.[21]
Will our republic make it through the next couple of years intact?
Time will tell.
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gaetz-speech-ripping-mccarthy-s-vanity-disrupted-by-screaming-republican/ar-AA163lk2
[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/all-but-two-mccarthy-defectors-in-house-are-election-deniers/ar-AA15WwFH
[3] https://news.yahoo.com/next-congress-even-more-election-044207766.html
[4] https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/democrat-mocks-gop-disarray-posing-with-popcorn-bag-ahead-of-speaker-vote/vi-AA15WlNV?t=5&category=foryou
[6] Restrained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__galEKI-4o
[7] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-congressman-apologizes-to-matt-gaetz-for-losing-temper-on-house-floor/ar-AA1670R4
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D78hEQ_BPAA
[9] https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/07/dramatic-moments-mccarthy-speaker-vote/
[10] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/five-key-concessions-kevin-mccarthy-gave-up-to-win-house-speakership/ar-AA166gHk?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=a714d00adc9f4cd48b774b40c70feb8d
[11] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mccarthy-speaker-bid-has-freedom-caucus-members-turning-on-each-other-as-faction-plots-to-undermine-him/ar-AA165X65?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=a714d00adc9f4cd48b774b40c70feb8d
[12] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/crenshaw-apologizes-if-colleagues-were-offended-by-terrorists-jab-during-speaker-battle/ar-AA166v2Y
[13] https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-laser-mockery-1565325
[14] https://nypost.com/2021/09/22/house-republicans-file-impeachment-articles-against-biden/
[15] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jim-jordan-needs-to-shut-the-hell-up-former-gop-adviser-buries-insurrectionist-lawmaker-over-his-latest-comments/ar-AA166LK4?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=a714d00adc9f4cd48b774b40c70feb8d
[16] https://www.thedailybeast.com/rep-scott-perry-wont-recuse-himself-from-jan-6-probe-despite-being-subject
[17] https://news.yahoo.com/members-congress-asked-trump-pardons-212700632.html
[18] [Bottom of article.] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jim-jordan-offers-unreal-defense-of-rep-s-wild-lunge-at-matt-gaetz/ar-AA166twz?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=a714d00adc9f4cd48b774b40c70feb8d
[19] https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresaghilarducci/2022/11/05/social-security-has-been-slashed-before-our-eyes-for-decades-and-voters-barely-notice/?sh=28896c3ef5ad
[20] https://news.yahoo.com/63-republicans-vote-against-house-042548924.html
[21] https://news.yahoo.com/why-republicans-attacking-irs-funding-094500374.html