A new Congress, a new GOP lead House and a new speaker…..and now the majority, GOP, sets its priorities for the new Congress session……
Is it fiscal policies….nope
It mostly centers around the Orange man from Florida….Donald Trump.
Republicans knew better than to make their biggest messaging bill a public display of affection for moneyed criminals. But Trump currently faces both legal and political trouble from his long and storied history of tax fraud. Shortly after the House vote, the Trump Organization’s former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, was sentenced to prison time for his role in Trump’s tax evasion schemes. While Weisselberg’s stiff sentence likely reflects his willingness to take the fall for Trump’s crimes, as Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center lawyer Steven Rosenthal told Mother Jones this week, the Trump tax returns released by House Democrats in December make clear that’s not the only tax trouble Trump still faces. He’s never gotten nailed for any of his likely tax cheating because Trump “overwhelmed” the under-resourced IRS. In other words, the Biden law is designed to catch lawbreakers of precisely the Trump variety. So consider this first bill of the House GOP majority — which will thankfully go nowhere — as a love letter to their favorite crooked ex-president.
For instance, one of the first changes McCarthy pushed through the House involved a series of rules meant to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body empowered to investigate complaints about members of Congress. It’s no mystery why this is a top priority for so many Republicans in Congress. Multiple GOP members have been under suspicion for the role they played in the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, and four were referred to the (now also defanged) House Ethics Committee by the Jan. 6 select committee last year. The Office of Congressional Ethics isn’t under Republican control, which means there’s a very real chance it could have found evidence of sedition-related crimes. Now, effectively disempowered, it may not get the chance.
(salon.com)
Then there are those impeachments of Trump and McCarthy has made it known his thoughts.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Thursday that he would consider expunging one or both of former President Trump’s impeachments.
“I would understand why members would want to bring that forward,” McCarthy said in response to a question at a press conference on Thursday, before listing off several other key priorities for House Republicans.
“But I understand why individuals want to do it, and we’d look at it,” he added.
In the last Congress, a group of more than 30 House Republicans led by Rep. Markwayne Mullin (Okla.) put forward a resolution to expunge Trump’s impeachment in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The resolution was supported by the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y.).
A smaller group, again led by Mullin, also introduced a resolution to expunge Trump’s December 2019 impeachment for allegedly attempting to withhold military aid from Ukraine in an effort to pressure the country to investigate the business dealings of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
The Senate ultimately acquitted Trump in both impeachments, after failing to reach the two-thirds majority required to convict him.
(thehill.com)
Was there any doubt in the direction that McCarthy and the rest of the slugs in the GOP would travel?
Not for me
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
Why drag the repution of good, God-fearing innocent little “Slugs” through the mud? I think I understand though. There aren’t adequate words in the English language to adequately describe those walking shit piles.
They give shit piles a bad name. chuq
But inflation????
It does not effect them so it is not that important to them…..chuq
It seems that they are geting on with the expected agenda. Their antics get very little mention on the news over here.
Best wishes, Pete.
Pete it is a sh*t show and at times it is humorous if it were not so sad. chuq
Pete I thought you might like this piece…..
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/01/18/the-uk-a-return-to-the-past-masquerading-as-the-future/
chuq
Thanks for the link.
Please let me know what you think of it. chuq
It is quite accurate, in all honesty.
Good to know….chuq
The potential harm these thugs are in the process of creating should be celebrated with a massive turnover of Republican seats into those seats being filled with Democratic successors. I’ve wondered for decades, literally decades why anyone trusted a Republican to represent their interests in Congress. Well, anyone with a net worth under $100,000,000!
I cannot understand any support for the GOP….they have a proven track record of crapping on the people…..and yet they still enjoy support…..like I was say ‘can’t fix stupid’. chuq
I live in Nebraska. People here would vote for a hay bale if it ran on the Republican Party.
Mississippi as well…..as long as there is an ‘R’ after the name. How sad is that…..they care nothing for their neighbors. chuq
You trust democrats? They’ve destroyed the economy and allowed an invasion from south of the border and allowed drug cartel cells to establish themselves in hundreds of US cities. You trust the democrats ? The flood of fentanyl has murdered over 100,000 Americans as China and drug cartels are actually waging war against Aamerica and your trust Biden and democrats ? Astonishing.
No I do not trust Dems for they are owned just as the GOP by special interests…..they are no more destroying the economy that the GOP that gives away billions to others than their fellow citizens….you want to ‘save’ this country then stop looking for ways to protect the GOP and allowing them to continue their spending sprees. It really that easy. chuq
John, this is a simple kitty blog. My preference is to try to avoid political discussions, though I slip sometimes. Are you aware 20% of the national debt was accrued during the Trump Administration? Let’s start there. Are you aware the debt ceiling is adjusted to pay for debts already voted for by Congress in the previous year and that the game your Republicans are playing right now will send the world into a financial mess? Are you aware that the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republicans, that they are more interested in punishing Democrats than dealing with corrupting inside their own ranks? I’m amazed that anyone can trust a party where 142 House members supported an insurrection that they deny happened even though they were in the chamber when it happened! My Congressman, Adrian Smith, was among them! That Trump was recorded to tell over 30,000 lies during his presidency is a matter of public record. And you trust Trump and the Republicans. Amazing. The drug wars span decades and generations and are the product of many failed efforts by both parties to control. Immigration will and has always been a resource that improves quality of life in America by furnishing businesses with labor and brain power to invent new technologies and products that help expand the economy and quality of life in this country. Carnegie, Tesla, Einstein are just a few of notable ones, but Chinese and Irish built the railroads. Italians gave us the savior of Chrysler Corporation and the father of the minivan and Mustang autos, Lee Iaccoca, and Frank Sinatra. Without new people to fill those jobs made during the two Biden years, the economy will stagnate, like Japan’s, a country that’s growing older on average, with fewer workers to cover for the growing number of old. The same could easily happen here without intelligent immigration laws, something Republicans and Democrats could work out between them if you didn’t have people like Jim Jordan manning committees. It seems every time a bill’s worked up, it dies in committee. Thanks to an extreme right wing anti-vax bs, more people – largely Trumpsters now that vaccines and boostrs are available and effective – died from COVID-19 than fentanyl during the pandemic, making it still the third greatest cause of American deaths now. One of my classmates, a Trump supporter, retired nurse and improbable anti-vaxer died of it. Pathetic! She was mor intelligent than that but fell for the Trump line. I will block you if you bring up politics again. Do I trust the Democrats? More now than the Republicans, the party I supported until it got too bizarre and fascist for me. I’m registered as an independent now, but you decided I had to defend the Democrats. they aren’t pure as the driven snow either, but I feel they still are an American party, unlike the Republicans, who seem bent on ending democracy by gerrymandering, staging an insurrection in the national capitol, denying election results where no significant fraud can be proven, and more.
Oops! I thought I was responding to someone on my blog, which is mostly about my cat. I stand by my comments here, regardless.
“insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, ”
I’d hardly call this an insurrection. The declaration of over 12 states and several hundred cities to declare themselves illegal immigrant sanctuaries , defy all federal laws, the supremacy of the Constitution and to declare federal immigration law null and void (nullification)and to disable federal security like Border Patrol, Homeland Security and local police , now that’s a REAL insurrection. Where’s the shock ? Where’s the outrage ? Where’s the federal troops ? Dems call MAGAS a threat to our democracy. The situation I describe is not a threat to our democracy? 4 million illegals this two years, none of whom have a background check, criminal records check or even a verifiable birth certificate is not a threat to democracy? 4 months of violence by BLM, ANTIFA and paid criminals to riot, loot and burn in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and declare independent rule over private and federal property were not insurrection of summer 0f 2021 ? VP Kamoooola’s efforts to bail them all out of jail is not a threat to democracy ? Jan 6 was an attempt to save democracy from the dismantling of America and they were patriots all.
I do not see the threat….Americans threat to the structure of our country is the real threat….Antifa is not an organized group…they are just individuals that want to confront fascism….save democracy? that is ludicrous on the face of it. Nothing about the breach of the Capital is no anything just whiners that do not like it when things do not go their way….patriots? I think not. chuq
ANTIFA wants to confront fascism ? They are as fascist as pre WW-2 fascist thugs in Italy and Germany. They have looted, burned, attacked and beaten police and citizens and participation in attacking and burning police, state and federal buildings in summer of 2021. It’s fairly very well organized since few if any have jobs somebody is financing them like a salary and financing travel, clothing , equipment and bail. Perhaps review the inauguration of Andrew Jackson. The frontiersmen fairly wrecked DC in drunken revelry and relished in glory for Andy Jackson. The Jansixers were not whiners troubled by things not going their way. These “deplorablables” were giving congress their comeuppance by letting them know “just who the hell did Hillary’s minions think they are?” and well as
Booobins alleged unity pledge by calling MAGAS biggest threat to democracy and deplorables. The breach of the capital was an attempt of the people to reestablish themselves over the leftist aristocracy who ridicules their patriotism.
Hillary? Are you sure you are not talking about “Oath Keepers’ or “proud boys”…….chuq
For this republican, election results deniers, proud boys , oath keepers, Trumpists, freedom caucus, republican Christian right and such are wing nuts for sure. They call republicans who do not advocate their insanity RINOS but “normal” republicans know these wingnuts are the RINOS.
That is well said chuq