US House of Representatives 4: Day One And The Clown Caucus is Already in Disarray.

[AnywhereButHere]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/politics/live-news/government-shutdown-deadline-09-30-23/index.html

 

It seems like the Democrats in both the House and Senate, along with McConnell and McCarthy (who may need the dems to keep his gavel) are doing an end run around the MAGAts. Political theatre at its best, but at least shutdown averted for now. 

Quote

House Democratic leadership said in a statement Saturday that they expect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to bring a separate Ukraine aid bill to vote when the House returns. 

The statement, signed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, caucus chair Pete Aguilar and vice chair Ted Lieu, said that the House needs to show “renewing support for the valiant Ukrainian effort” by voting on additional Ukraine aid. 

“When the House returns, we expect Speaker McCarthy to advance a bill to the House Floor for an up-or-down vote that supports Ukraine, consistent with his commitment to making sure that Vladimir Putin, Russia and authoritarianism are defeated. We must stand with the Ukrainian people until victory is won,” the statement said.

This will be a key leverage if McCarthy needs the votes from his Democratic colleagues to survive a motion to vacate vote.
 

…

In remarks ahead of the vote on the stopgap bill, both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell promised further assistance to Ukraine, even though the bill does not include it. 

“Democrats and Republicans have come to an agreement and the government will remain open. We will have avoided a shutdown. Bipartisanship, which has been the trademark of the Senate, has prevailed and the American people can breathe a sigh of relief,” Schumer said.

"Leader McConnell and I have agreed to continue fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine. We support Ukraine's efforts to defend its sovereignty against Putin's aggression,” Schumer said, addressing Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet’s concerns about the lack of funding for Ukraine in the bill.

McConnell said in his remarks, "With just a few hours to spare, the Senate is now in a position to prevent a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown." 

"Passing this measure, keeping the lights on, will allow us to return our attention to making headway on full-year appropriations our colleagues have been working on, literally for months, and will give us the flexibility to meet urgent supplemental priorities both at home and abroad. Therefore, I would urge our colleagues to join me in supporting this important step in the right direction," he added.

McConnell said, "I'm confident the Senate will pass further urgent assistance to Ukraine later this year." 

 

[onekidanddone]

29 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/politics/live-news/government-shutdown-deadline-09-30-23/index.html

 

It seems like the Democrats in both the House and Senate, along with McConnell and McCarthy (who may need the dems to keep his gavel) are doing an end run around the MAGAts. Political theatre at its best, but at least shutdown averted for now. 

 

I scheduled appointments for this coming week thinking there’d be a shutdown. I’ll submit the leave requests Monday. 

One of the appointments is with my financial advisor for retirement planning. 
I am so done with all this shit. 

When I started working for my agency I was so starry eyed and optimistic. Now I’m emotionally exhausted and beyond jaded. Dare say I’m bitter. 

I’ve been diagnosed with two new health conditions this year. I refuse to work myself into the ground like my father did. He worked into us 70s well past retirement age. Then he had a stroke and spent his remaining years debilitated and mostly home bound. 
Fuck if I’m going to let that happen to me 

[fraurosena]

As the Dutch saying goes, "Hit them about the ears with their own words".

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Nancy is great at throwing shade:

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

Nice.  We should all call him "what's his name" because - even according to him - that name is his most valuable and prized possession.

Back in the day I heard some report that shooters shouldn't be referred to by name on the news after the fact so that it doesn't glorify the act of going and shooting up a place. So that this losers don't think "well I'm gonna kill myself, might as well get the attention/name recognition" etc and so on.

I'd more interested than usual to see what happens next in the house. If the republicans take out their speaker and side with their extra crazy side, the extra crazies will feel free to do absolutely anything.

McCarthy seems to be incredibly weak minded but I would hop that his takeaway from this is that bowing and scraping to them is not going to end well....and actually doing bipartisan things is not evil. We need to freaking function. not play the most ridiculous game of us vs them in our own country.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I love Margaret laughing at idiot Qevin:

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I don't want the gov to shut down but I sure do want mccarthy to eat the freakin humble pie. you ass.

I'm so annoyed that rep pulled the fire alarm. whether it was a mistake or not - it's given the crazies and the illogical news something to carry on about.

I don't understand how it came to be that:

all of what's his name's possible crimes (which are very very serious) are always now weighed against whatever crimes biden's son did. As if anything hunter biden did comes even remotely up to the level of what what's his name has done.

It's become SEEEEEEE THE DEMS ARE EQUALLY CORRUPT!!!!

So all the right wing nuts do all this nonsense and now it's SEeeE the DEMS aRE EQuaLly BAd! 

cuz some guy may or may not have gotten confused about a fire alarm. Even if  he did it on purpose...it harmed nothing and nobody and was just a stupid stunt. It apparently didn't even delay the vote. This is not equivalent to the various stunts that Republicans are pulling....like playing a game of chicken about shutting down the  entire gov or refusing to raise the credit limit and crashing our credit rating.

Last year I had a supposedly "independent" friend who was saying CNN is equally bad to Fox news. and I was like...what!? I've never noticed CNN putting crazy conspiracy theories on their main page as top stories. (sometimes the opinion pieces get a little loopy for sure). And she was playing the whole dems are just as bad game ...and I'm like you're kidding yourself.

I think "independents" at this point are just republicans with (somewhat?) more moderate social views and they don't want to be ostracized by their more liberal friends and/or lumped in with the ultra right wingers.

I just watched an interview with AOC who was calm and well spoken. Mostly I've seen her speaking when she's more angry/emotional/fired up. She made solid points and didn't go off on any extreme talking points. Like politicians used to do before it became OK to say whatever inflammatory thing you think your most extreme followers what to hear. 

She also stated that because of the possible shut down doors were locked that are not usually locked and it may be that's how he got confused and pulled the alarm. Either way - there's more important things to talk about.

Has nobody every been at school and a kid pulled the alarm? We don't go on national news and worry over it but somebody has a talking to with the kid that did it and if it's an ongoing problem then there's a consequence.

Pulling a fire alarm in this scenario is not equivalent to stating XYZ people should be SHOT or saying stuff like "I will never compromise with republicans and I will vote to oust the speaker because he didn't cow tow to a minority of extremists holding the house hostage" or wouldn't it be nice if somebody took out a general I don't like etc etc etc.

 

[fraurosena]

McCarthy will do anything, absolutely anything, to hold on to the Speaker's gavel.

 

And Matt Gaetz is a blowhard who will back down if confronted with consequences, like, I dunno, being expelled.

 

 

[AnywhereButHere]

https://apple.news/ACSPqFiRgQEq4lt3XUfnC3Q

I guess it’s later now? He’s such a tool. 
 

Quote

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a resolution Monday evening to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his seat, triggering an expected intraparty clash and setting up a showdown for the House to decide whether to depose McCarthy likely within 48 hours.

Gaetz and a handful of hard-right Republicans have repeatedly threatened to go after McCarthy’s speakership if he relied on Democratic votes to pass any spending legislation, which happened Saturday after McCarthy could not get a majority of Republicans to support various proposals to fund the government with only GOP votes. Using a motion to vacate, a single person can force the House to consider removing the speaker. McCarthy agreed to lowering the threshold for bringing the motion to win over enough support to become speaker in January.

“It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden feeble while he continues to take Speaker McCarthy’s lunch money,” Gaetz said. "Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine. I’ll be listening. Stay tuned.”

But it’s not clear Gaetz has 218 votes needed to remove McCarthy without himself relying on Democratic votes. If successful, the motion would not remove McCarthy from the House, but from his leadership position alone. If McCarthy is successfully removed, both Democrats and Republicans worry they will be in a speakership election fight that could drag on for days, blunting progress on passing full year appropriation bills before government funding runs out in mid-November.

The pursuit to depose McCarthy as speaker has alarmed many House Republicans, possibly setting up an internal civil war between staunch allies of McCarthy and those who have pressured him repeatedly with a variety of, at times unrealistic, demands. The effort also likely would force McCarthy and his allies to strategize with Democrats, further irritating the hard-right, because the minority party will play a determinative role in whether McCarthy can hold onto his leadership seat.

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House Democrats have begun to discuss how they would handle a potential challenge to McCarthy’s speakership. House Minority Whip Rep. Katherine M. Clark (Mass.), in a note to Democrats Sunday told them to be ready for a motion to oust McCarthy as speaker “at any time, including Monday.” She did not indicate any preference in how to vote, adding that “we will have a Caucus wide discussion on how to address the motion to best meet the needs of the American people.”

 

 

 

[fraurosena]

The McCarthy soap continues. In today's episode...

 

[AnywhereButHere]

https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/a-motion-to-vacate-the-chair?r=gc6me&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

The linked article goes through the three options for the Dems, but I think I’m leaning towards option 3. I agree with letting McCarthy twist in the wind he created. Any way is going to be a shit show, let them own it all. 

Quote

The party-line way
Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi has cautioned Democrats against getting involved in an internecine fight. Let the Republicans sort out their own mess, she has advised, and don’t get involved. But in all respects, follow the direction of your leader!
This approach has its advantages. Democrats are supposed to support Democrats and to vote against Republican extremists. This way, the messaging is cleaner. Honor and principles are preserved. 
And in any event, parties should be able to choose their own leaders in the House, because that’s the way the House is set up: for rule by majority. A “consensus” government would collapse rather quickly because of easily shifting alliances, backbiting and lack of party discipline.
The drawback is that if McCarthy really is deposed by his own party this week, that will leave the House rudderless with less than 45 days to elect a new leader and then pass 11 more appropriation bills. If history is any guide, there will be no one person who can step in to lead—at least no one who can garner the support of more than half the House, assuming all Democrats vote for Jeffries as they did before. We may even wind up with McCarthy again on a reelection bid. Barring that, the House could find itself without leadership during a critical budget time.
That said, if you want to demonstrate to voters that the GOP is unfit to lead, this is a clear way to do so. Eventually, they will either force another shutdown, reelect the same guy, or put up someone even more extreme who will do no better than McCarthy. Whoever leads the House will have to reconcile the House budget bill with the Senate bill—likely meaning another shutdown or another capitulation by the next GOP Speaker, whoever it is.
I trust Pelosi’s advice. The crisis in government right now is one of the GOP’s own making. If they cannot resolve it, the country will suffer pain, but that has a way of clarifying who has committed it. The solution to that pain is to vote them out next November, and not to give them lifelines so that they can claim they were effective leaders. 
We already know how this story in the House ends, no matter who the Speaker is. The GOP will arrive back at political equilibrium and pass the budget that the Senate already approved, or they will cause havoc until the voters force them to do so. Because that outcome is more or less preordained, Democrats are best off letting the dysfunction play itself out in the Republican side of the chamber, and stand ready to step in to vote for bipartisan bills, not GOP Speakers, to actually benefit the country.

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by AnywhereButHere

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, AnywhereButHere said:

https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/a-motion-to-vacate-the-chair?r=gc6me&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

The linked article goes through the three options for the Dems, but I think I’m leaning towards option 3. I agree with letting McCarthy twist in the wind he created. Any way is going to be a shit show, let them own it all. 

 

Well, the Dems are going to let McCarthy swing in the wind. 

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by fraurosena
clarity

[fraurosena]

Even McCarthy believes he will be ousted. If I were him, I'd take the honorable way and resign before that happens. Knowing McCarthy, he's probably too much of a coward to take that route.

 

[fraurosena]

Pramila Jayapal is not cutting McCarthy any slack.

"Nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. Why should we?" 

 

[Alisamer]

On 9/30/2023 at 5:59 PM, Becky said:

Now I am wondering if that is part of Putin's strategy at this point, as well - hoping the American people will get tired of sending money and guns to Ukraine, and they will vote in a change of administration, namely Trump.

If Putin is hoping that happens, he must have some serious dirt on what's his name, because that guy would turn on anyone in a heartbeat if it benefited him. And I'm really not sure there is anything at all that could ever turn the diehard MAGAts against him. There is literally nothing repugnant enough to turn them. And if something did come up, something horrifically awful that no sane person would ever think was acceptable to ever do, that they couldn't manage to spin into something good, they'd claim it was fake news. 

Like, video of him at Epstein's island with a 10-year-old? They'd claim it was fake. The reported PP tape from Moscow? Just having fun, isn't he? Nobody's business. Look, over there, Hunter Biden!

On 10/1/2023 at 12:57 PM, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

Nice.  We should all call him "what's his name" because - even according to him - that name is his most valuable and prized possession.

I was wondering if at some point he might decide to treat his name like "Super Bowl" where most media have to pay to have the privilege of saying it. But I think he's far too vain for that.

Quote

"Let [Republicans] wallow in their pigsty of incompetence and inability to govern. They are destroying our institutions."

Well said. What a concise way to point out the truth.

If only R voters could SEE that. 

[fraurosena]

36 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

If only R voters could SEE that. 

Oh, but they could... if they pull their heads out of their asses, opened their eyes, took their fingers out of their ears and stopped chanting "Lalalalala".

[SPHASH]

I despise Qevin just as much as anybody here but would a Speaker Jordan or Speaker Gaetz be any better.

[fraurosena]

Official statement from Hakeem Jeffries.

Speaker emerita Pelosi is of like mind.

 

2 minutes ago, SPHASH said:

I despise Qevin just as much as anybody here but would a Speaker Jordan or Speaker Gaetz be any better.

They don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting enough votes to become Speaker.

[fraurosena]

Jeffries' complete statement on the matter is worth a read.

[fraurosena]

 

 

 

[fraurosena]

 

[Xan]

McCarthy is out.  The vote was 216-210.  The Democrats didn't help him and several Repubs turned against him.  I'm okay with that.  He's the one who sucked up to Trump and enabled him.  And I like how dysfunctional the Republicans now look.  

There's also movement afoot to punish Gaetz and I'm here for it.

[fraurosena]

And he’s out!

RIP Speaker McCarthy. He lasted a single thread.

Just now, Xan said:

There's also movement afoot to punish Gaetz and I'm here for it.

I will just laugh and laugh if that happens!

[Xan]

3 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I will just laugh and laugh if that happens!

So will I.  The bulk of the Republicans are placing the blame squarely on Gaetz.  This might not have been the political stepping stone that he thought it would be.  When Gosar and Boebert look more sane than you do, you're in trouble.

[GreyhoundFan]

I love when rethugs go after each other: