;)
January 8, 2023
Late Morning Update:
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "As President Biden heads [to El Paso, Texas,] on Sunday to tour an American border city swamped by migrants, he has found himself under siege from all sides. Democrats and human rights activists condemned his new enforcement plan as a 'humanitarian disgrace.' Republicans blasted his two-year delay in coming to a border they say is 'wide open' to undocumented immigrants. And Mexican officials -- who are preparing to welcome him to a summit of North American leaders on Monday -- warned that his proposals would cross a 'red line' for them."
~~~~~~~~~~
Democrat Republicans ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the lead.
Melanie Zanona, et al., of CNN write a good summary of how (and, to an extent, why) Kevin McCarthy "won" the speakership on the 15th round of votes. For instance, we learned from Matt Gaetz that his principled reason for changing his vote from "Anyone But Kevin" to "present" was, "I ran out of things I could even imagine to ask for." If you have been busy with your real life, this article will catch you up.
Arianna Coghill of Mother Jones borrows from CNN to summarize what concessions the extremists wrenched from McCarthy. MB: These concessions presumably will be incorporated into House rules. The rules would normally be adopted just after the speaker & the members are sworn in, but that didn't happen Saturday morning, either because McCarthy didn't have them written up yet or because he didn't have the votes to pass them. In any event, the concessions will not just weaken McCarthy to nothing more than a puppet of the extremists, they will also render the House unable to perform its fundamental duties to legislate.
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The astonishing spectacle [of the floor fight between Kevin McCarthy & Matt Gaetz] that played out into the early hours of Saturday morning was a fitting coda to a week that spotlighted the deep divisions in the Republican Party, the power of an unyielding hard-right flank that revels in upending normal operations of government and a leader who has repeatedly capitulated to the right in his quest for power.... The dysfunction that left the House without a speaker for a week also allowed the indignities to become more public. Photographers and videographers, unfettered from the normal rules governing their conduct because there was no speaker to put any in place, allowed spectators the opportunity to parse rare footage live from the House floor....
"[Donald] Trump ...attributed [Mr. McCarthy's] success to his interventions in a post on his social media site on Saturday, claiming news coverage had shown he had 'greatly helped' Mr. McCarthy in winning the speaker post. 'Thank you, I did our Country a big favor!'... Mr. McCarthy made a point of lavishing praise on Mr. Trump during a news conference in the Statuary Hall after he was elected."
~~~ Marie: Another thing the absence of House rules allowed was cursing. I think it was Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) who said on MSNBC that he'd never heard so many F-bombs dropped anywhere.
Robert Draper of the New York Times: "... to both Democrats and Republicans, the jut-jawed intransigence of House Republicans opposing Representative Kevin McCarthy's ultimately successful bid to be speaker [began with Newt Gingrich].... Mr. Gingrich's triumph in 1994 in wresting the House from a Democratic majority for the first time since 1952 was the starting point for the zero-sum brand of politics that mutated into the Tea Party movement, the grievance-based populism of the Trump era, and what was garishly displayed on the House floor in a raucous four-day speaker battle.... Those mutations have culminated in a tissue-thin Republican majority, auguring legislative episodes likely long on melodrama and short on happy endings, thanks to cameo actors such as [Matt] Gaetz.... The bitterly partisan stalemates of the Gingrich era may well have metastasized into a state of governance by chaos."
E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "In creating a humiliating, days-long spectacle that delayed the election of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House until the early hours of Saturday morning on the 15th ballot, the far right of the Republican Party has won.... Most of the drama played out on Friday, as President Biden was honoring democracy's protectors at an event marking the anniversary of the 2021 attack on the Capitol. This only brought home that a majority of House Republicans, and not just McCarthy's foes, voted to reject the outcome of the 2020 election.... As a practical matter going forward, [Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)] said, the concessions McCarthy made to the rebels, including expanding far-right membership on a Rules Committee that determines what gets to the House floor, will hollow out the speaker's power, enable a radical right agenda and make it far more difficult to get anything done in a politically divided federal government.... The result will be a new House majority that is not much of a majority at all."
AP: "A former U.S. defense intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying for Cuba more than 20 years ago has been released from a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Ana Belen Montes, 65, was released Friday, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Scott Taylor said Saturday. Montes, an analyst for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, was arrested in September 2001 and charged with spying for Cuba. Montes pleaded guilty in 2002 to conspiring to commit espionage as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors and was sentenced to 25 years in prison." CNN has a bit more on Montes' life as a double agent, & how she was caught.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Iran. Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "Iran on Saturday hanged two men, a 22-year-old national karate champion and a 39-year-old poultry worker, who participated in antigovernment demonstrations and whose executions were condemned as a ploy by the government to use violence and sow fear to crush the protests. The men, Mohammad Mehdi Karami, the karate champion, and Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, the factory worker, were hanged at dawn on Saturday in the city of Karaj near the capital, Tehran, after hasty trials on charges that they participated in the killing of a member of the Basij paramilitary group in November, according to the judiciary. Iran has deployed heavy-handed violence against protesters since mid-September, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police sparked a nationwide uprising to demand an end to theocratic rule in Iran. Rights groups say at least 500 people have been killed by security forces, including 50 children, and the United Nations says at least 14,000 have been arrested."
Ukraine, et al.
The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Moscow's unilaterally declared cease-fire came to an end after no sign of a pause in fighting in the 36 hours that it was apparently in place. Both sides traded blame for the ongoing shelling, which continued early Sunday and threatened to mar Orthodox Christmas celebrations on both sides. Ukraine had not agreed to the supposed truce, viewing it as a ploy for Russian forces to regroup." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
Condoleezza Rice & Robert Gates, in a Washington Post op-ed: "When it comes to the war in Ukraine, about the only thing that's certain right now is that the fighting and destruction will continue. Vladimir Putin remains fully committed to bringing all of Ukraine back under Russian control or -- failing that -- destroying it as a viable country.... Both of us have dealt with Putin on a number of occasions, and we are convinced he believes time is on his side: that he can wear down the Ukrainians and that U.S. and European unity and support for Ukraine will eventually erode and fracture.... For Putin, defeat is not an option. He cannot cede to Ukraine the four eastern provinces he has declared part of Russia.... We agree with the Biden administration's determination to avoid direct confrontation with Russia. However, an emboldened Putin might not give us that choice. The way to avoid confrontation with Russia in the future is to help Ukraine push back the invader now."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Bernard Kalb, a journalist and author who covered global affairs and later cast a critical eye on the media as a commentator for CNN, but who may be best remembered for his resignation in 1986 as State Department spokesman to protest a government disinformation campaign, died Jan. 8 at his home in North Bethesda, Md. He was 100."
New York Times: "Russell Banks, whose vivid portrayals of working-class Americans grappling with issues of poverty, race and class placed him among the first ranks of contemporary novelists, died on Sunday at his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was 82."
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Reader Comments (12)
There were more concessions by McCarthy, according to CNN:
1. Can only bang gavel on his own crotch
2. Build the border wall and he has to be on the other side of it
3. Install those Wild West saloon doors in Capitol to make future
insurrections easier
4. Subpoena Hunter Biden's penis
5. Once a year, Lauren Boebert can hunt him for sport
6. First Friday of the monty will be "Take Your Daughter to Matt
Gaetze's Office Day".
@Forrest Morris: Thanks so much for publishing this important addendum. When I read that Matt Gaetz said he couldn't think of anything else to ask for, I knew there must be more than Mother Jones had let on.
#6 should be First Friday of the Month. Monty is entirely different,
as in Full Monty.
Sorry, the arthritis kicks in occasionally, fingers and neck.
Forest: I rather like the sound of "the first Friday of the Monty"–-being the end of naked truths displayed by the "full of it" creatures who will kill us with their fractured house of swinging Dicks and crazy Chicks.
According to Rollingstone the reason Gaetz put McCarthy through this last week's humiliation is that "Gaetz’s hatred curdled into something even more powerful after it was revealed in early 2021 that the MAGA congressman was the target of a federal investigation into the sex trafficking of a minor. (No charges were filed against Gaetz, but his “wingman” Joel Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison.) McCarthy, in Gaetz’s opinion, failed to mount a forceful enough defense on his behalf. According to two sources familiar with the matter, Gaetz has been furious at McCarthy for the perceived lack of support ever since — despite the fact that McCarthy did not strip him of any committee assignments during the probe." He threw a tantrum in public over Kevin not cleaning up the criminal probe he had caused for himself.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/08/world/brazil-congress-protests-bolsonaro?
Almost two years to the day,
And another Former Guy holed up in Florida...
Kinda eerie.
This week was unbearable. Gaetz is the King A**hole this week. I wish that congresscreep from Alabama had decked him. And he should have been indicted and sentenced for his crappy deeds in FL, although he seems to have slimed through. I just can't wait for the regular business to start thrilling us tomorrow. Those rats in the congress all looked alike: old or middle-aged white guys with thinning hair, thin lips, big mouths, and crappy taste in ties. Not a standout among them although what they have in common is lying speeches and distorted thinking... I wish them all ill, particularly Kevin the Weak.
So, help me understand this. My Kevin agreed that a single congressperson, not only a Brat, can offer a motion that he vacate his speakership. Does that mean that someone who's not a Brat, e.g. Katy Porter who's learning how not to give a fuck, can kick his ass out with sufficient votes from both brats and non-brats. Why would he ever agree to such a thing? Does he think he's playing 10-dimensional chess?
I also heard that only people who show up to the vote count so someone could wait until enough people are out of town to ask for a vote or if there was another snowstorm that kept members away it wouldn't need to the whole Congress to vote him out. Or what stops someone from just continually calling a vote until Kevin is tossed aside. Two years of chaos are in store for us all.
Unwashed,
I don’t believe My Kevin, or indeed any of the traitors, liars, grifters, or inept ignoramuses have the mental acuity to command a single respectable move in regular chess. Nor do I believe a one of them to have the ability to pull off a win in front porch, cracker barrel, grade school checkers.
None of these charlatans could top a four year old in Toyland. Chutes and Ladders would be a challenge on the order of explaining quantum entanglement.
Starting tomorrow, the nation will be held hostage by a small group (abetted through the servile obeisance of a much larger group) of knuckle dragging fascist nitwits.
Think you Kevin. And your Fat eminence grease.
Traitors see, traitors do…
Supporters of losing candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, aka Trump South, have attacked government buildings in Brazil’s capital. Clearly the actions of Trump thugs and criminals supported by the Republican traitors who have taken over the House of Representatives, are now being emulated by Bolsonaro thugs.
It used to be that America exported and supported democracy. Under Trump and Party of Traitor influence, we now export violent fascism and hatred of democracy.
Good work, Gaetz, Greene, Boebert, and all you other fascist traitors.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/01/08/americas/brazil-bolsonaro-supporters-breach-congress/index.html
No doubt the Freeeedom Cock-us and 2nd Amendment feishizers on the right, in Congress, and on the Supreme Court are thrilled that a first grader in Virginia exercised his god given 2nd Amendment rights to shoot his teacher, who was probably teaching those little tykes woke shit, like being aware of racism and bigotry, being a decent human being, and stuff that no self respecting wingers want taught anywhere.
But whatever she was doing, who cares? That little kid needs the support of all real ‘mericans for standing up for his right to shoot anyone he thinks needs shooting. He’s a hero!
Besides, that whiny teacher isn’t going to die. So don’t listen to those evil libs who say guns in schools are dangerous. Why, I once shot a teacher for not explaining cosine, secant, tangent, sine fast enough so’s I could get back to listening to Rush Limbaugh explain how trigonometry was the devil’s teaching’!
NRA give me a medal. They don’t like trigonometry neither.
https://apnews.com/article/teaching-education-newport-news-virginia-2db4662a6d9f711c5bcd27b6142570a8