Tag: Republicans

Democrat Vs Republican

This is an age old debate….do we follow the ideas of the GOP or the Dems…..one makes you a ‘fascist’ and the other makes you a ‘socialist’…..and all that division is just the media ramping up the animosities to sell content.

I have been saying for years that there is not much difference between the two….different sides of the same coin type of thing.

Actually the voter when asked no matter the party had similar concerns….

A new study suggests that perceived political polarization in the USA is influenced by a focus on difference, rather than similarities.

In just over three months, US voters will be asked to choose their new President. For most, the question is binary: Democrat or Republican? At the time of writing only 20 percent of independent voters are reportedly still undecided about who they will vote for. It’s a choice that has come to polarize the American population. In 2019, eight in ten US adults saw the divisions between the parties increasing and expressed concern over this trend. The lines have been drawn, or so it seems. 

This is a story about how different ways of presenting the same data can strongly influence people’s opinions.

“There’s a general perception that Republican and Democratic voters are deeply divided but our new study suggests these differences of opinion between the two groups are greatly exaggerated and that the groups are actually very similar in the values they hold as important,” said author Dr Lukas Wolf from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath in a statement.

In their study the team set out to investigate how presentation of similarity in values impacts voters’ perception of their differences. Dr Wolf believes that “Generally, the media and social scientists compare groups by describing differences, for example by using barplots, which ignore overlap and show exaggerated divisions in US society.”

The researchers used data from a previous study polling Democrats and Republicans on their values, and presented it to the participants in one of two ways. One group was shown the results as overlapping distributions, thereby highlighting the similarities. The other group was shown bar plots of the mean of the distributions, with the y-axis truncated to strongly emphasize the differences. 

The participants who were shown distributions felt that Democrats and Republicans were more similar, and had more similar values. Importantly, this “increased their sense of hope about the future and inspired trust in people they have seen as fundamentally different to them,” said Dr Wolf. Perceived similarities also increased their perceived potential for compromise.

https://www.iflscience.com/democrats-vs-republicans-not-so-different-after-all-75359

Truthfully the voters have similar concerns the problem with solving problems is rhetoric gets in the way of solutions.

Instead of looking at the similarities they, the voter, allows the rhetoric to rule the conversation and the election.  At this rate there will never be any solutions for the creeping problems of our society…..and compromise is a dirty word.

Way to go you dullards!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–05Jun24

The testing ground for right wing stupidity seems to be Florida and Texas….and that brings me to the Texas GOP platform that has been approved.

Republican Party of Texas delegates voted Saturday on a platform that called for new laws to require the Bible to be taught in public schools and a constitutional amendment that would require statewide elected leaders to win the popular vote in a majority of Texas counties.

Other proposed planks of the 50-page platform included proclamations that “abortion is not healthcare it is homicide”; that gender-transition treatment for children is “child abuse”; calls to reverse recent name changes to military bases and “publicly honor the southern heroes”; support for declaring gold and silver as legal tender; and demands that the U.S. government disclose “all pertinent information and knowledge” of UFOs.

The party hopes to finalize its platform on Wednesday, after Saturday’s votes on each proposal are tabulated.

Passed by delegates at the party’s biennial convention, the platform has traditionally been seen not as a definitive list of Republican stances, but a compromise document that represents the interests of the party’s various business, activist and social conservative factions. But in recent years — and amid a party civil war that’s pushed it further right — the platform has been increasingly used as a basis for censuring Republican officeholders who the party’s far right has attacked as insufficiently conservative, including Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-San Antonio.

As the party has drifted further right, its platform has done the same. In 2022, it called for a referendum on Texas secession; resistance to the “Great Reset,” a conspiracy theory that claims global elites are using environmental and social policies to enslave the world’s population; proclamations that homosexuality is an “abnormal lifestyle choice”; and a declaration that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.

…

The platform also takes a step further some of the party’s previous calls for more Christianity in public life. The 2022 platform proclaimed that the United States was “founded on Judeo-Christian principles,” for instance, and demanded the repeal of federal prohibitions on political activity by churches.

The 2024 platform goes significantly further: It urges lawmakers and the State Board of Education to “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance,” and supports the use of religious chaplains in schools — which was made legal under a law passed by the state Legislature last year.

(such bullshit!   What happened to separation of church and state….besides I do not believe in ‘forced’ religion)

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/25/texas-republican-party-convention-platform/

Nothing about this platform works to make lives better for the people of Texas…..instead it wasted time on issues that mean nothing to the average Texan…..but this is typical of every Red State….the people mean absolutely nothing to these clowns….and that is just a little sad….that they vote these d/bags into office every time.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

GOP And The Workers

It always amazes me just how strong Repubs can be with the workers….and yet the GOP goes out of its way to screw the worker as often as possible.

Since about 1960 the GOP has been on a vendetta against the working class….and it just keeps getting worse.

It is 2024 and yet the workers have to put up with policies from the 1920s…..

But not to worry the GOP has plans for the working class….

Recently, you may have noticed that the hot weather is getting ever hotter. Every year the United States swelters under warmer temperatures and longer periods of sustained heat. In fact, each of the last nine months — May 2023 through February 2024 — set a world record for heat. As I’m writing this, March still has a couple of days to go, but likely as not, it, too, will set a record.

Such heat poses increasing health hazards for many groups: the old, the very young, those of us who don’t have access to air conditioning. One group, however, is at particular risk: people whose jobs require lengthy exposure to heat. Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that about 40 workers died of heat exposure between 2011 and 2021, although, as CNN reports, that’s probably a significant undercount. In February 2024, responding to this growing threat, a coalition of 10 state attorneys general petitioned the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to implement “a nationwide extreme heat emergency standard” to protect workers from the kinds of dangers that last year killed, among others, construction workers, farm workers, factory workers, and at least one employee who was laboring in an unairconditioned area of a warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee.

Facing the threat of overweening government interference from OSHA or state regulators, two brave Republican-run state governments have stepped in to protect employers from just such dangerous oversight. Florida and Texas have both passed laws prohibiting localities from mandating protections like rest breaks for, or even having to provide drinking water to, workers in extreme heat situations. Seriously, Florida and Texas have made it illegal for local cities to protect their workers from the direct effects of climate change. Apparently, being “woke” includes an absurd desire not to see workers die of heat exhaustion.

And those state laws are very much in keeping with the plans that the national right-wing has for workers, should the wholly-owned Trump subsidiary that is today’s Republican Party take control of the federal government this November.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/11/republicans-have-plans-for-working-people/

This is only a couple of states but I look for it to appear in most Red States in the next 4 years or so.

If you work hard for a living why on earth would you vote for this band of thugs?

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

RNC Job Interview

Who did not see this coming?

If you watch politics this is not a surprise….but it is a major news story….and a source of humor for people like me.

We have new leadership for the RNC, Trump has his people entrenched in control over party politics….no one will buck ‘The Boss’….this means they need to hire more people to help lead the rush to whatever it is that Trump envisions for the US.

If you need a job and are considering applying to the RNC you might want to have a heads up….

Republican National Committee employees let go in a “bloodbath” earlier this month are being allowed to reapply for their jobs—and insiders say they’ve been startled by one of the interview questions. Sources tell the Washington Post and the New York Times that Trump advisers conducting the interviews have asked: “Do you think the 2020 election was stolen?” The question about Trump’s false claim is seen as a “litmus test” for loyalty to the former president, the Post notes.

  • RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez did not deny the question had been asked. “Candidates who worked on the front line in battleground states or are currently in states where fraud allegations have been prevalent were asked about their work experience,” she said in a statement. “We want experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches.”
  • Insiders tell the Post the question was “open-ended,” though one former RNC employee says: “But if you say the election wasn’t stolen, do you really think you’re going to get hired?” The Times‘ sources say most of the applicants told interviewers there were some irregularities and changes to procedures in 2020 that were cause for concern.
  • The Trump campaign “has effectively merged its operations with the RNC,” CNN reports, and potential hires were told they might have to move to West Palm Beach, Florida, where the campaign is based.
  • “Donald Trump is demanding fealty to his extreme, antidemocratic beliefs to be part of his Republican Party,” Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
  • Trump installed loyal supporter Michael Whatley and daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-chairs of the RNC earlier this month. On Tuesday, Lara Trump told NBC News that the party is “past” litigating the 2020 election. “The past is the past, and unfortunately, we had to learn a couple of hard lessons in 2020,” she said. “Believe me, we are applying them all across this country in every single state, and we want to ensure that, indeed, every single legal vote is counted.”

Also keep in mind Project 2025….the playbook for a Trump presidency….

Project 2025

Just a reminder of what could come.  You want to be terrified then read this playbook.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Handmaiden’s Tale” Comes To Life

We recently had the speech by Biden on the state of the union and as usual the right wing had to dash some weird person out to rebut what the president had to say….this time it is some strange senator from Alabama. (I was not going to post on this person’s shot at immortality but after reading an article I decided to throw it in there.) (BTW way this is also a shout out to my friend Pete at https://beetleypete.com/ )

Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama delivered her party’s official response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union on Thursday night and offered viewers a horrifying glimpse of the far-right Christian nationalism now embedded in the GOP, which has succumbed fully to Donald Trump’s fascist vision for the country.

Speaking in hushed tones and intermittently flashing a menacing smile, Britt—the former CEO of an Alabama corporate lobbying organization and the wife of a lobbyist—said from the comfort of her posh kitchen inside her 6,000-square-foot mansion that she understands and sympathizes with “what real families are facing.”

Britt, who has been floated as a possible 2024 running mate for former President Donald Trump, characterized the GOP as the “party of hardworking parents and families”—neglecting to mention the trillions of dollars in tax breaks the party has funneled to the rich and large corporations in recent years while opposing programs such as the expanded child tax credit, which briefly slashed U.S. child poverty in half.

“Growing up sweeping the floor at my dad’s hardware store and cleaning the bathroom at my mom’s dance studio, I never could have imagined what my story would entail,” said Britt. “To think what the American Dream can do across just one generation, in just one lifetime, is truly breathtaking. But right now, the American Dream has turned into a nightmare for so many families.”

–Read on it will enlighten you–

https://www.commondreams.org/news/katie-britt-state-of-the-union

That speech was typical right wing pron….lies misinformation and total buffoonery….like everyone that come before.

Not to worry she was not the only rebuttal the anti-vaxxer champion just had to have his say.

So this is what American politics has become….oh goody!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Ignorant Takeover Of Education

As someone who cherish the education that I have been able to get I am appalled at the lack of concern by our Congress and president for the sad condition of the educational system in this country.

I received a public school education and it was a good one that prepared me to face life and especially my college.

I hate to see what my state (run by GOP lackeys) are doing to the system in Mississippi and then there is the national GOP that hates education altogether

The GOP is trying to loot public education to weaken it….the Repubs favor a voucher system and in some states are looting the public arena to fund these voucher schemes….

In North Carolina, the Republican legislature passed a voucher program with no income limit, no accountability and no requirement that children can’t already go to a private school. This radical plan will cost the state $4 billion over the next 10 years, money that could be going to fully fund our public schools. In Kentucky, legislators are trying to amend our constitution to enshrine their efforts to take taxpayer money from public schools and use it for private schools.

Our public schools serve all children. They provide transportation and meals and educate students with disabilities. And they’re accountable to taxpayers with public assessments showing how students and schools are doing and where they need to improve.

But private schools that get this taxpayer money have little to no accountability. They aren’t even required to hire licensed teachers, provide meals, transportation or services for disabled students. They don’t even have to tell the taxpayers what they teach or how their students perform. North Carolina’s voucher system has been described as “the least regulated private school voucher program in the country.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/02/26/republicans-cut-public-schools-for-private-kentucky-north-carolina/72670677007/

This is happening in most Red States and it should be stopped and stopped now!

I am a staunch supporter of public schools….matter of fact I think K-12 should be mandatory and home schooling does not equate.

I have no agreement with my public school education and I think a new standard should be brought forth.

Why do we let the ignorant among us educate our children?

Just asking?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

An End Of An Era?

The big news yesterday was that the leader of the GOP Senate would be stepping down after years and years of game playing….

Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history who maintained his power in the face of dramatic convulsions in the Republican Party for almost two decades, will step down from that position in November. The AP reports McConnell, who turned 82 last week, is set to announce his decision Wednesday. “One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said in prepared remarks obtained by the AP. “So I stand before you today … to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.” What you need to know:

  • “As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,” McConnell said in his prepared remarks. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.”
  • McConnell said he plans to serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.”
  • Aides said McConnell’s announcement about the leadership post was unrelated to his health. The Kentucky senator had a concussion from a fall last year and two public episodes where his face briefly froze while he was speaking.
  • McConnell gave no specific reason for the timing of his decision, which he has been contemplating for months, but he cited the recent death of his wife’s youngest sister as a moment that prompted introspection. “The end of my contributions are closer than I’d prefer,” McConnell said.
  • But his remarks were also light at times. He noted that when he arrived in the Senate, “I was just happy if anybody remembered my name.” During his campaign in 1984, when Ronald Reagan was visiting Kentucky, the president called him “Mitch O’Donnell.”
  • “I love the Senate,” he said in his prepared remarks. “It has been my life. There may be more distinguished members of this body throughout our history, but I doubt there are any with more admiration for it.”
  • But, he added, “Father Time remains undefeated. I am no longer the young man sitting in the back, hoping colleagues would remember my name. It is time for the next generation of leadership.”
  • There will be a time to reminisce, he said, but not today. “I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed.”

Say good-bye to Reagan conservatism and say hello to the dystopian crap of the now GOP.

Not to worry this will replay in a few weeks and then again later in the year….the games are endlessly with these spineless d/bags.

And then there was the not so big news later yesterday….the ‘shutdown two-step’ has ended (as I knew it would before a shutdown)….

Congressional leaders announced Wednesday that they have reached a tentative agreement to prevent a government shutdown for now, days before an end-of-the-week deadline that risked shuttering some federal operations. Under the plan, Congress would temporarily fund one set of federal agencies through March 8 and another set through March 22. In the meantime, Congress would intend to pass packages of legislation to fund the government for the remainder of the budget year, the AP reports. There was no immediate plan to approve the $95 billion emergency national security funds for Ukraine, Israel, and other allies.

This would be the fourth short-term funding extension in about a five-month span. The House and Senate next will need to vote and approve the deal with its temporary funds ahead of the Friday deadline, when some federal monies run out. “We are in agreement that Congress must work in a bipartisan manner to fund our government,” said the joint statement from Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, along with the Appropriation Committee leaders. Negotiators have been working furiously to finish up a federal spending plan while Ukraine and other American allies watched for Johnson’s next move on the aid.

Congressional leaders said they reached an agreement on six bills that will adhere to spending levels agreed to last year. Those bills involve Veterans Affairs and the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Interior, and others and will be voted on and enacted before March 8, per the AP. The remaining six bills for the Pentagon, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the State Department still need to be finalized, voted on, and enacted before March 22. If the deal and the subsequent bills are approved, it would keep the federal government funded until the end of the budget year, on Sept. 30, and avoid more short-term measures.

Ukraine got its blood money but poor Israel left the table still hungry for US stuff.

What will Israel do?  Probably find an excuse to attack Lebanon.

And that was DC on a Wednesday.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Agenda 47

I know it sounds like the code word that turns the clones against the Jedi.

But that is a work of fiction and Agenda 47 is a very real threat to our society.

First of all….what the Hell is Agenda 47?

Read on and be afraid….very afraid….

Agenda 47 would consist of an end to birthright citizenship, further criminalizing transgender people and the LGBTQI community more broadly, expanding the thought crime and other censorship laws to end the teaching of “critical race theory” and to defeat “Woke” and “Black Lives Matter”, attacking academic freedom and replacing it with “patriot education”, implementing a national stop and frisk law, pardoning the Jan. 6 terrorists, putting homeless people in camps or some other designated area under threat of arrest, building high tech “freedom cities”, ending the professional civil service and replacing it with right-wing political appointees and other such partisan agents, gutting the Department of Justice and other parts of the government that opposed Trump’s attacks on democracy and the rule of law, executing drug dealers, starting a trade war with China, and making “peace” with Vladimir Putin by withdrawing support for the Ukrainian people and their freedom struggle. In many ways, Agenda 47 is a continuation of the fascist and other authoritarian policies Trump put in place during his first regime but now made even more extreme and cruel.

The Hartmann Report gives a much harder look at the dystopian nightmare that is ‘Agenda 47’.

If Trump is re-elected, he’d be America’s 47th president, so he’s named the plans for his second term “Agenda 47.” At best, it’s a dystopian nightmare: at worst it means ending our current system of American government; aligning the US with Russia and other autocratic nations; and the USA leading the charge against democracy and in favor of authoritarian, strong-man forms of government across the world.

Over at his website, Trump lays out the details of his governing agenda, complete with short videos promoting each of the steps he plans to take. They, and his many statements about future plans, include:

https://hartmannreport.com/p/project-47-trumps-and-the-gops-dystopian-3b1

Read carefully before you vote….

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

GOP Debate–Round 3 (dreary)

The news these days is just the same as the day before so when something now hits I need to cleanse my brain….

The candidates did what they always do….throw barbs at Trump and at times each other….

Republican debate No. 3 is underway, with a smaller of field of candidates—five—though none of them named Donald Trump. In the first question of the night, Lester Holt of NBC News asked each candidate why they should be the nominee instead of Trump. Some highlights:

  • Ron DeSantis: The Florida governor brought up Trump’s famous statement that Republicans would get tired of winning under his leadership. Pointing to the election results Tuesday night, DeSantis said, “I’m sick of Republicans losing.” He cited his own landslide win in Florida last year, and again went after Trump for skipping the debate, per the New York Times.
  • Nikki Haley: She praised Trump’s presidency but said, “I don’t think he’s the right president now,” per the Washington Post. She faulted him for running up the nation’s debt and accused him of becoming “weak in the knees” on Ukraine
  • Vivek Ramaswamy: He also cited Tuesday night’s GOP losses but chose to attack Republican National Committee leader Ronna McDaniel instead of the former president. “We’ve become a party of losers,” he said, per Politico. The Post notes that right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk suggested this week that Ramaswamy take over the position.
  • Chris Christie: The former New Jersey governor suggested Trump would have to devote too much time to his legal fights over the next year to be an effective president. He also said inflation is “choking” Americans, per the Hill.
  • Tim Scott: He struck a a more optimistic tone than his rivals, per the Times. The South Carolina senator said he could unite the country on matters including religion.

The debate, sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition, is being held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. Five Republicans will be on the debate stage, the smallest field yet as polling and donor benchmarks for qualification rise, the AP reports. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will participate in the Miami event. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who barely made the second debate, won’t be on stage. Neither will former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who participated in the first debate but missed the cut for the subsequent two.

Since a Jewish political group is the sponsor I guess the candidates had to weigh in on the Gaza thing.

One issue the five GOP candidates on stage Wednesday night agree upon appears to be Israel, or more specifically the need to wipe out Hamas. All were asked how they would respond to the Israel-Hamas situation:

  • Ron DeSantis: He said Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu should “finish the job once and for all with these butchers, Hamas.” The Florida governor also said he was “sick of hearing other people blame Israel for defending itself,” and he called for students who criticize Israel or join protests on behalf of Palestinians to be deported, reports the Washington Post.
  • Nikki Haley: She, too, called for Israel to “finish” Hamas, per the Hill. “The last thing we need to do is to tell Israel what to do,” said the former UN ambassador. “The only thing we should be doing is supporting them in eliminating Hamas.” The US, she added, should give Israel “whatever they need, whenever they need it.”
  • Chris Christie: He said the US must work with Israel to go after Hamas and make sure “something like this can’t happen to kill 1,400 individuals again.” However, Christie faulted Netanyahu and Israeli’s leaders for allowing the attack to happen. “They failed here, and they failed the people of the state of Israel,” he said.
  • Tim Scott: The South Carolina senator said he would send a clear message to Netanyahu: “Not only do you have the responsibility and the right to wipe Hamas off of the map, we will support you,” he said, per Politico. Scott also called for strikes and Iran, a Hamas supporter, and he supported DeSantis’s call to deport students who protest against Israel.
  • Vivek Ramaswamy: He said he would tell Netanyahu “to smoke those terrorists on his southern border,” adding: “I’ll tell him as president of the United States, I’ll be smoking the terrorists on our southern border. That’s his responsibility. This is our responsibility.” He faulted the “mistakes from the neocon establishment of the past,” suggesting he thought the US has been too involved in the Mideast, per the New York Times.

And that was about as interesting as the ‘debate’ got….

All in all this one was a sleeper….be thankful you guys have me to do this lifting for you….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is He The Anointed One?

This bit dramedy(drama-comedy) took place over the weekend and it is just too juicy to ignore.

Scalise has taken a back seat in the run for Speaker….that leaves Jordan as the the most likely new Speaker….but does he have the clout to get elected?

Ten days after Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker from the House, the chamber’s Republicans appear to still be a long way from choosing a replacement—and they’ve rejected a proposal to avoid a potentially messy vote on the House floor. Politico reports that GOP lawmakers voted against a plan to require 217 members of the conference to agree on a nominee before there is a vote on the full House floor. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was nominated in a 113-99 vote on Wednesday, but he dropped out Thursday night after it became clear that he had no hope of getting 217 votes, the minimum needed to be elected speaker.

Rep. Jim Jordan was the only declared GOP candidate for speaker after Scalise’s exit, but he was joined before the noon deadline Friday by Rep. Austin Scott. “I have filed to be Speaker of the House,” the Georgia lawmaker said in a post on X. “We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people.” Republicans are holding more closed-door meetings Friday but a floor vote appears unlikely, NBC News reports. Some lawmakers have already left town for the weekend, leaving only 209 of the 221 Republicans, meaning Democratic nominee Rep. Hakeem Jeffries could be elected if a floor vote happens.

After some late political drama, Republicans have chosen Rep. Jim Jordan as their new nominee to be House speaker. However, it remains very much up in the air whether Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, will be able to get enough votes in the full House to secure the gavel, reports the Hill. Jordan defeated late entrant Austin Scott of Georgia in the Friday afternoon GOP vote. Politico reports he won with 124 ballots, but he will need 217 to become speaker. All of this comes a day after Steve Scalise withdrew as “speaker designate,” knowing he would not be able to reach the magic number of 217. No word yet on when Republicans might schedule a full House vote.

If you think this is a done deal then think again….someone left the back door unlock and a new candidate came through.

When a surprise new challenger emerged Friday for the House speakership, everyone but the most diehard political junkies could be forgiven for asking, “Austin who?” That would be GOP Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, for whom the descriptor “little-known” was being applied often in coverage. “We are busily googling Austin Scott right now,” one House Democrat told Axios. Some basics:

  • The 53-year-old Scott is a “mainstream conservative” and an ally of ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, per the New York Times. Scott has served in Congress since 2011 and sits on the influential Intelligence Committee.
  • He has been openly critical of the hard-right flank in the House that removed McCarthy from his leadership post, per the AP. “It makes us look like a bunch of idiots,” he told CNN earlier this week.
  • After Steve Scalise withdrew from the speaker’s race on Thursday night, Scott made clear that he would not support new front-runner Jim Jordan. The Hill sees him as an “apparent protest” candidate against Jordan, though Scott told reporters Friday, “Jim’s a friend of mine.”
  • The move further complicates Jordan’s path toward receiving the necessary 217 votes to become speaker. “I assume a large block of people that work for Steve will probably start out with Austin,” GOP Rep. Warren Davidson, a Jordan backer, told the Hill.
  • “When I woke up this morning, I had no intention of doing this,” Scott told reporters. “But I believe if we as Republicans are going to make the majority, we have to do the right things the right way. And we’re not doing that right now.”

I told you this would get sillier.

Now we wait for the floor vote to see just how silly this can get.

Then there is a deal being purposed….a bi-partisan deal…..

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat nominee for speaker, said on NBC News Sunday that some moderate Republicans are considering a bipartisan solution. “There are informal conversations that have been underway. When we get back to Washington tomorrow, it’s important to begin to formalize those discussions,” he said. “We have made clear, publicly and privately, that we are ready, willing, and able to enter into a bipartisan governing coalition that puts the American people first.”

Would that mean a Democrat or a Republican as the potential speaker? As Fox News reports, multiple Republicans have predicted that not even their moderate colleagues would agree to vote for a Democrat as speaker. On NBC, Kristen Welker noted to Jeffries that “you’d effectively need about five Democrats to get on board and support a Republican speaker to have a governing coalition,” asking if Democrats had identified any Republican colleague they could get behind. Jeffries said no.

Why not? “Our focus is not on the individual,” he said. “It’s on the institution of Congress and the best interests of the American people, which is why what we suggested is that we reevaluate the rules that are currently in place to facilitate bipartisan cooperation and to eliminate division.”

Personally I believe that this is nothing but wishful thinking….does anyone truly believe there can be a bi-partisan approach to a speaker?

Any guesses?

One final thought….as usual the Repubs try to blame Biden for all this chaos in the House….

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was asked about the chaos amongst House Republicans on CNN Sunday. She led off her answer by addressing “chaos” related to the Biden administration, and was promptly cut off by Jake Tapper, the Hill reports. “You can’t blame that on Biden. You can’t blame this on Biden,” Tapper said. “Well, you have to let me finish,” Haley continued before listing several examples of what she considers “chaotic,” including inflation, the border, crime, education, and world affairs. “What I’m saying is you can’t fix Democrat chaos with Republican chaos. They need to get it together,” she said, ultimately conceding that the speaker debacle is “not a good look” for the GOP.

God I love this stuff….aren’t you glad you have the Old Professor to do the hard lift for you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”