Members of the House of Representatives returned to work today after their summer break. They came back to a fierce fight over funding the government before the September 30 deadline, with only 12 days of legislative work on the calendar. That fight is also tangled up with Republican extremists’ demands to impeach President Joe Biden—although even members of their own caucus admit there are no grounds for such an impeachment—and threats to the continued position of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker of the House.
The question is are the MAGA crazies in the House a bright and shiny distraction or are they too stupid to understand the grand plan of the Republican oligarchs?
Time for America to get a history lesson about when FDR faced down the "economic royalists".
Some eye-opening reports from Tom Hartmann shed light on this--and Project 2025 is just a revisitation on steroids of what went on when the Republican moneyed interests held government before the Great Depression.
Biden needs to start cribbing FDRs speeches and identifying the underlying threat to decomocracy--the billionaire republicans who are funding the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
Too many Democrats are focused on Trump and Tuberville and MTG and the Proud Boys--the bright and shiny objects. The real threat that needs to be called out is the unelected billionaires that are developing the strategy to take over government. That is what FDR did, That is what Biden needs to do,
Here are the links to two of Hartmann's posts. He writes about this with much more eloquence and knowledge than I have.
The House Republicans are holding a hand grenade, thinking they have the ultimate weapon to win. But they don’t realize they’ve dislodged the pin, and they’re about to blow themselves to smithereens.
But there’s going to be a lot of collateral damage from a prolonged government shutdown.
They break things because it creates chaos and this general mistrust and paranoia. Hence inability to believe in any truth—which as Hannah Arendt said is part of moving toward totalitarian or authoritarian seizure of power. People experience the disorder, become afraid, look for a strong man or an enemy or both. It is a not an irrational strategy it is what Trump already figured out aided by Bannon and co. It is imperative not to underestimate these people and also recognize the media’s Inability to be clear. They call these people conservatives instead of extremists. They pretend to believe that they have legitimate fears about spending and deficit. Dem consultants wise up! Tell it like it is. Thank you Heather!
At this moment I am in Spain, arriving by high speed train from Portugal. I left the USA two weeks ago and have followed the muck and mire the Repubs are and have been creating for too long. Interesting that the time changes at the border between Portugal and Spain. You can watch your digital device move forward an hour thanks to an agreement made by Franco to stay in Hitler’s graces. Decades ago. Two countries share borders but not time zones. Every country has its problems, its needs, its government and solutions. Many are lasting. Since and when the repubs are in control or able to block and obstruct we are closer to Fascism. Americans supporting and voting for tfg and his supporters don’t know or care about History and the wars created by the very people they elect to provide services and safety nets for all citizens. The long list that the Biden administration is tackling includes the critical services and needs for all citizens. Not just the wealthy. For that repubs MTG and friends want to dump their own leader McCarthy and destroy our Democracy and the lives of those who need services the most. I could quote poems and sayings forever, but let this be a reminder to those tfg and repub voters who are standing back and watching. There are not “good people on both sides.”
Why am I still blown away by what these far-right radicals will do for power? The (once) GOP has no discernible platform other than to say “NO” to anything good for America & Americans; proving once again that they really are suffering from a case of the terrible twos.
“Evidence free” claims of election victory becomes “evidence free” impeachments (see the Wisconsin Supreme Court judge too). The GOP wants to rule. They don’t care about facts, laws, or anything that blocks their pathway to authoritarian control. When will the news media stop using “context free reporting” and declare the GOP a domestic threat to the Constitution?
Apropos "overshambles", here are two other similar terms with longer histories, both still used in Vienna, Austria: "schlammasel", which is Yiddish, and "palawatsch", which may once have been Hungarian. Both would work well to describe the current situation in the U.S. House, if it weren't for the fact that this particular mess is being made quite deliberately.
Please, please, Congress...just get to work on what was in front if you with those appropriation bills instead of giving us all brain freeze and sucking the air out of the room with such insipid theatrics
Really, the GOP in Congress are repeats from the Civil War. They have managed to conjure up every lie, every dishonest thing they can think of to win. Win what? Like little children not getting their way, they will not choose Qevin in their game of “Red Rover”. They will pick another person instead, like Gaetz himself or the obnoxious MGT. All of their dirty work is commandeered by their leaders, Donald J. Trump and Vlad Putin. The moderate R’s are very uncomfortable about this impeachment inquiry. There is no evidence and they know it.
It’s unfortunate that Joe’s son, Hunter, made very poor choices in his life. For that, he will pay a price but Joe shouldn’t. These Christian Fake Nationalists just want a go at Joe, like he’s the one sitting in the dunk tank at a carnival. They have nothing and they are nothing. We have one year to convince them of that. Let’s do it!
Notice how the republicans go after President Biden when there is nothing, but haven’t done anything with the true definition of political fraud: George Santos. Republican hypocrisy at its best.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy makes me remember with some nostalgia Senator Joe McCarthy. Tail Gunner Joe, with his bold faced lies, anti-communist foo foo dust, and his alcoholism, at least had
Cohesion in his venality.
Castrated McCarthy is flaying like a locomotive without an engineer. During the 15 votes to name a House speaker, McCarthy prostrated himself before the House Republican Feckless Committee: he gave them effective veto power over responsible House governance.
1) After a Perils of Pauline debt limit brouhaha in which limits were placed on forthcoming budgets, the Feckless Committee has demanded more draconian budget cuts;
2) The Feckless Committee demanded that McCarthy initiate impeachment proceedings against President Biden before any discussions on approving budget funding after a September 30th deadline;
3) Cuckold McCarthy, fearful of losing his cherished speakership, has initiated an absolutely ludicrous ‘impeachment inquiry’ of President Biden with zippo grounds for indictment.
Even Republican Senate leader McConnell, who is not a paragon of responsible leadership, seems speechless at Speaker McCarthy’s antics.
With a September 30th budget funding deadline looming, I haven’t a clue how this political chicanery will turn out. The House Feckless Committee is holding the country hostage while Trumpublicans seem stymied with their fingers up their butts.
When I was a Foreign Service Officer in Congo, I thought it ridiculous when the Congolese Assembly, including members of the government, voted unanimously against the government, and the government then continued on its merry way.
Now it’s seems less ridiculous, given Muckiman McCarthy’s political antics.
When I taught first grade, every once in awhile one of the 6-year-olds would lose control and throw a tantrum. Reminds me of Congress, except these are supposedly mature adults and their tantrums seem to last for weeks, months, years at a time. I just don't understand why we are willing to accept this.
No evidence. No vote. No spine.
God help us, the insane are running the asylum!
The question is are the MAGA crazies in the House a bright and shiny distraction or are they too stupid to understand the grand plan of the Republican oligarchs?
Time for America to get a history lesson about when FDR faced down the "economic royalists".
Some eye-opening reports from Tom Hartmann shed light on this--and Project 2025 is just a revisitation on steroids of what went on when the Republican moneyed interests held government before the Great Depression.
Biden needs to start cribbing FDRs speeches and identifying the underlying threat to decomocracy--the billionaire republicans who are funding the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
Too many Democrats are focused on Trump and Tuberville and MTG and the Proud Boys--the bright and shiny objects. The real threat that needs to be called out is the unelected billionaires that are developing the strategy to take over government. That is what FDR did, That is what Biden needs to do,
Here are the links to two of Hartmann's posts. He writes about this with much more eloquence and knowledge than I have.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/can-america-take-on-and-defeat-the-425
https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-shocking-gop-plan-to-dismantle-e60
The House Republicans are holding a hand grenade, thinking they have the ultimate weapon to win. But they don’t realize they’ve dislodged the pin, and they’re about to blow themselves to smithereens.
But there’s going to be a lot of collateral damage from a prolonged government shutdown.
They break things because it creates chaos and this general mistrust and paranoia. Hence inability to believe in any truth—which as Hannah Arendt said is part of moving toward totalitarian or authoritarian seizure of power. People experience the disorder, become afraid, look for a strong man or an enemy or both. It is a not an irrational strategy it is what Trump already figured out aided by Bannon and co. It is imperative not to underestimate these people and also recognize the media’s Inability to be clear. They call these people conservatives instead of extremists. They pretend to believe that they have legitimate fears about spending and deficit. Dem consultants wise up! Tell it like it is. Thank you Heather!
At this moment I am in Spain, arriving by high speed train from Portugal. I left the USA two weeks ago and have followed the muck and mire the Repubs are and have been creating for too long. Interesting that the time changes at the border between Portugal and Spain. You can watch your digital device move forward an hour thanks to an agreement made by Franco to stay in Hitler’s graces. Decades ago. Two countries share borders but not time zones. Every country has its problems, its needs, its government and solutions. Many are lasting. Since and when the repubs are in control or able to block and obstruct we are closer to Fascism. Americans supporting and voting for tfg and his supporters don’t know or care about History and the wars created by the very people they elect to provide services and safety nets for all citizens. The long list that the Biden administration is tackling includes the critical services and needs for all citizens. Not just the wealthy. For that repubs MTG and friends want to dump their own leader McCarthy and destroy our Democracy and the lives of those who need services the most. I could quote poems and sayings forever, but let this be a reminder to those tfg and repub voters who are standing back and watching. There are not “good people on both sides.”
Why am I still blown away by what these far-right radicals will do for power? The (once) GOP has no discernible platform other than to say “NO” to anything good for America & Americans; proving once again that they really are suffering from a case of the terrible twos.
“Evidence free” claims of election victory becomes “evidence free” impeachments (see the Wisconsin Supreme Court judge too). The GOP wants to rule. They don’t care about facts, laws, or anything that blocks their pathway to authoritarian control. When will the news media stop using “context free reporting” and declare the GOP a domestic threat to the Constitution?
Putin Republicans is too nice. Juat say what they really are: anarchists, stochastic terrorists and psychopaths.
Apropos "overshambles", here are two other similar terms with longer histories, both still used in Vienna, Austria: "schlammasel", which is Yiddish, and "palawatsch", which may once have been Hungarian. Both would work well to describe the current situation in the U.S. House, if it weren't for the fact that this particular mess is being made quite deliberately.
Please, please, Congress...just get to work on what was in front if you with those appropriation bills instead of giving us all brain freeze and sucking the air out of the room with such insipid theatrics
Really, the GOP in Congress are repeats from the Civil War. They have managed to conjure up every lie, every dishonest thing they can think of to win. Win what? Like little children not getting their way, they will not choose Qevin in their game of “Red Rover”. They will pick another person instead, like Gaetz himself or the obnoxious MGT. All of their dirty work is commandeered by their leaders, Donald J. Trump and Vlad Putin. The moderate R’s are very uncomfortable about this impeachment inquiry. There is no evidence and they know it.
It’s unfortunate that Joe’s son, Hunter, made very poor choices in his life. For that, he will pay a price but Joe shouldn’t. These Christian Fake Nationalists just want a go at Joe, like he’s the one sitting in the dunk tank at a carnival. They have nothing and they are nothing. We have one year to convince them of that. Let’s do it!
Notice how the republicans go after President Biden when there is nothing, but haven’t done anything with the true definition of political fraud: George Santos. Republican hypocrisy at its best.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy makes me remember with some nostalgia Senator Joe McCarthy. Tail Gunner Joe, with his bold faced lies, anti-communist foo foo dust, and his alcoholism, at least had
Cohesion in his venality.
Castrated McCarthy is flaying like a locomotive without an engineer. During the 15 votes to name a House speaker, McCarthy prostrated himself before the House Republican Feckless Committee: he gave them effective veto power over responsible House governance.
1) After a Perils of Pauline debt limit brouhaha in which limits were placed on forthcoming budgets, the Feckless Committee has demanded more draconian budget cuts;
2) The Feckless Committee demanded that McCarthy initiate impeachment proceedings against President Biden before any discussions on approving budget funding after a September 30th deadline;
3) Cuckold McCarthy, fearful of losing his cherished speakership, has initiated an absolutely ludicrous ‘impeachment inquiry’ of President Biden with zippo grounds for indictment.
Even Republican Senate leader McConnell, who is not a paragon of responsible leadership, seems speechless at Speaker McCarthy’s antics.
With a September 30th budget funding deadline looming, I haven’t a clue how this political chicanery will turn out. The House Feckless Committee is holding the country hostage while Trumpublicans seem stymied with their fingers up their butts.
When I was a Foreign Service Officer in Congo, I thought it ridiculous when the Congolese Assembly, including members of the government, voted unanimously against the government, and the government then continued on its merry way.
Now it’s seems less ridiculous, given Muckiman McCarthy’s political antics.
Perhaps the "moderate" Republi-cons should remove McCarthy & vote one of their own in.
Though as Matt Taibbi pointed out earlier, this is really about distracting attention away from Trump's 4 trials.
As always, spot on. Thank you.
Watching the news through fingers covering my eyes.
When I taught first grade, every once in awhile one of the 6-year-olds would lose control and throw a tantrum. Reminds me of Congress, except these are supposedly mature adults and their tantrums seem to last for weeks, months, years at a time. I just don't understand why we are willing to accept this.