Tag: Speaker of the House

A ‘Useless Entity’

“Useless Entity”?

And we are just now noticing how useless they are?

That is what many are saying about the chaos in the House of Representatives as they try to find a leader, a Speaker…..but I have been saying that for decades.

I believe that there has been 11 votes and so far no leader.

What some critics would argue is the usual state of affairs is currently the official reality in the House of Representatives: With no speaker chosen, the chamber is a “useless entity,” unable to swear in its members, let alone conduct other business including passing laws or forming committees, the New York Times reports. As things stand, the House doesn’t even have representatives, only representatives-elect. “If there’s a real emergency, we couldn’t respond,” says Democratic Rep. (or Rep.-elect) Jerrold Nadler, per the Times. “Either the Republicans don’t understand that, or they do understand that and they don’t care. I don’t know which is worse, but it is a profound danger to the country as long as it lasts.”

The speakerless House is a situation unprecedented in living memory—the last time a speaker wasn’t elected on the first ballot was in 1923. In that year, it took three days to elect a speaker. Thursday will be the third day of voting for a speaker in the 118th Congress, and some analysts predict the deadlock among Republicans will continue for a fourth day and beyond. The AP reports that the lack of a speaker and uncertainty about the rules added to the “surreal, looser-than usual atmosphere on the House floor” on Wednesday, when members were seen taking photos, which is normally banned. Clerk Cheryl Johnson has been the one holding the gavel, and Republican lawmaker Chip Roy called her “Madam speaker” Wednesday before correcting himself.

“I think more people need to be aware of the institutional damage that’s going on here,” a House procedural expert speaking on condition of anonymity tells the Washington Post. “If one of those branches is so hamstringed, so paralyzed, as it is right now, do you really have the three equal branches of government that our Constitution has set out?” The representatives-elect say they’re confused about many issues, including whether they’re going to get paid if the stalemate drags on. The Post reports that when Greg Pence, brother of the former vice president, was asked who was in charge Wednesday, he pointed to the ceiling and said “God.

The House has been a clown show for decades so to say it is now useless is just silly….it has been that way for many decades.

The one thing I can say is that at least our much needed programs are safe….at least for now.

Any thoughts on our House performance…then now and in the future?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

New Leadership Is Coming

I would like to apologize for the delay in my replies for I have been dealing with WiFi problems….I finally had to replace my modem and that was a chore…..but all seems to be working properly…..so fingers crossed.

The big news of the day yesterday…..

In 2023 we will have a new House and new leadership….the big news is Pelosi will step down as the leader of the House Dems…..

Nancy Pelosi won’t be House speaker next year, but she’s not retiring from Congress, either. In a speech Thursday to the House, Pelosi told her fellow lawmakers that she would continue to represent her San Francisco constituents but would not seek re-election to a leadership position in the Democratic party, per NPR. Instead, the 82-year-old is expected to remain in what the New York Times describes as “sort of an emeritus role.” Meaning, she will act as a “backbencher” providing guidance to the next generation of party leaders, per Puck.

The AP reported that Pelosi went home with two versions of her speech for review Wednesday night, with one option being full retirement. Pelosi was first elected to the House in 1987 and became the first female House speaker in 2007. She was in the role until 2011, and returned to it in 2019 when the Democrats took back the House. She vowed in 2018 that she would only serve four more years in the role, reports the Washington Post, and CNN adds that she said earlier in November that the October attack on her husband would factor in to her decision-making. Whether Pelosi just set off a domino effect in House Democratic leadership ahead of internal party elections next month remains to be seen.

Her leadership team, with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, has long moved as a triumvirate. Hoyer and Clyburn are also making decisions about their futures; like Pelosi, they are in their 80s. The AP notes that a second younger trio exists in the House: that of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, and Rep. Pete Aguilar of California. NBC News reports Jeffries, who chairs the House Democratic Caucus, “is being urged to pursue the leadership role and has met with rank-and-file members” and agrees the three “have been widely seen to be part of a trio who could embody a new era of leadership.”

Personally I say ‘about damn time’….Dems have not passed anything but corporate favored bills in a very long time.

Is this a bright future for the Dems?

Personal thought….not likely.

Now the question is ….who will step up to lead the House Dems?

Other top Democrats announced Thursday that they’ll follow Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of top House leadership while remaining members of Congress. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said immediately after Pelosi’s announcement that they too will step aside, the Hill reports. Their decisions clear the way for New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who now chairs the House Democratic Caucus, to run for minority leader for the next Congress, which will be the top party job once Republicans take control of the House. Hoyer has been in Congress for more than 40 years and has held the No. 2 House position in his party since 2003.

“Now is the time for a new generation of leaders,” Hoyer, 83, said in endorsing Jeffries, whom he called “a skilled and capable leader,” per the Washington Post. Hoyer said he’ll return to the Appropriations Committee, where he served early in his career, to concentrate on education, health care, and increasing US manufacturing. Though he won’t stay on in a top post, Clyburn said he’d remain as assistant minority leader, the fourth-highest position. Like Hoyer, he backed Jeffries, 52, while adding endorsements of the two members planning to seek the two spots immediately below speaker: Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark and California Rep. Pete Aguilar. House Democrats plan to vote on the positions on Nov. 30, per the Wall Street Journal.

Dems need to be forward looking…..so far the best they can do is spin their wheels….it will be interesting to see who the Dems pick to lead them into 2 years of total chaos….

My guess is that nothing will change…..possibly the rhetoric but not the action.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

That China Thing

I have noticed that my posts on Ukraine are drawing very little attention……seems readers have lost all interest in the conflict while the US packs money into the country at an alarming rate.

The focus now is on China and Taiwan….gives the armchair analyst lots to write about (for now)….

For a couple of years now we have been told that China was on the move and becoming a major player in the Pacific……it has been sold as important so much so that Pelosi had to go to Asia and Taiwan especially to illustrate the US commitment to the region.

Pelosi’s most controversial visit is of course with Taiwan…..and she has an explanation (none of which is valid in my opinion)…..

Just minutes after Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taiwan, a piece she wrote for the Washington Post went live. Titled “Why I’m leading a congressional delegation to Taiwan,” Pelosi quite simply explains that very thing. Some key lines:

  • “In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) accelerating aggression, our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom.”
  • “Our visit—one of several congressional delegations to the island—in no way contradicts the long-standing one-China policy [which recognizes, but does not endorse, China’s position that Taiwan is its territory], guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, the US-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo.”

“America’s solidarity with Taiwan is more important today than ever—not only to the 23 million people of the island but also to millions of others oppressed and menaced by the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”

“We take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy. As Russia wages its premeditated, illegal war against Ukraine, killing thousands of innocents—even children—it is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats.”

AS if on cue China responds to Pelosi…..

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement of its own upon Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan. It reads in part: “Congress, as a part of the US Government, is inherently obliged to strictly observe the one-China policy of the US Government and refrain from having any official exchanges with China’s Taiwan region. China is all along opposed to the visit to Taiwan by US congressional members, and the US executive branch has the responsibility to stop such visit. Since Speaker Pelosi is the incumbent leader of the US Congress, her visit to and activities in Taiwan, in whatever form and for whatever reason, is a major political provocation.”

As for what the White House is saying, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN Pelosi’s visit “is completely consistent with American policy. No change to our One China policy … There should be no reason for them to use this visit as some sort of a pretext for any kind of action that would escalate tensions.”

China reactions……

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the announcements from China were “unfortunately right in line with what we had anticipated,” the Washington Post reports. Kirby said there is no reason for “Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with long-standing US policy, into some sort of crisis, or use it as a pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait.” He added: “We are prepared to manage what Beijing chooses to do. At the same time, we will not engage in saber-rattling.”

Analysts say that while the exercises will temporarily block some Taiwanese ports, China appears to be planning a show of strength but not an invasion of the island, reports the New York Times. But with tensions high, there is a chance that an accidental encounter between the Chinese and Taiwanese militaries that could spark a conflict. In a fiery editorial, the state-run Global Times said “forces like Pelosi” could not stop “full reunification” of the mainland and Taiwan—and she should pay a price for the “reckless” visit. “We should make people like Pelosi understand that Taiwan is not a place where they can visit at will,” the editorial said.

Even the people of Taiwan is not thrilled about Pelosi’s visit……

Many of the island’s 23.5 million people, said Yang, “are saying that she is causing trouble” while many more “do not care much about it.” They were inclined to shrug it off while obsessed with “domestic issues that are much bigger and attracting more attention than Pelosi’s visit.”

With Pelosi now firmly on the disputed Chinese territory, the ball is in China’s court to fire back. There was no doubt her visit would be filled with nothing but upbeat statements and expressions of friendship, but all the happy talk isn’t likely to convince a lot of people on Taiwan that her presence is an unmixed blessing.

This mash-up is starting to look like provocation to me.

Taiwan is a convenient spot to make a stand….if not for Taiwan where would it be?

Nothing more than a simple way to keep cash flowing from treasury to the defense industry.

Once this situation is lost in the headlines….where will we be sending our cash?

Could all this just be a fake?

From the front pages of The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, the Economist, to The New York Times’ Best Sellers List; from CNN and MSNBC to FOX and NEWSMAX; from think tanks to Pentagon planners, congressional testimonies and White House statements: CHINA! So singularly focused and omnipresent has the narrative of the China Threat become, one can be forgiven for forgetting that China is in fact a middle income country of modest capabilities and with no stated intention of doing any harm to Americans or the United States. Further, that China is not bent on world domination; and further still, as shall be clearly demonstrated, even if it secretly were there is a negligible chance of that coming to pass whatever Beijing’s efforts.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-fake-china-threat-and-its-very-real-danger/

Just a thought.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–20Oct21

In little over a year the polls will open and we Americans will vote…..I have been waiting to see if the GOP has decided to have actual policies over wedge issues….the below is a flyer from my Congressman (who I would NEVER vote for because he is a mental midget political hack)……

Sorry I could not get the image to copy…..these are three areas that Palazzo wants to  champion….

Stand up for law enforcement—Really?

Restore Honest, Patriotic Education To Our Schools–that means continuing to teach the whole myth of the “Lost cause”…..

Protect Our Borders–from whom…Alabama, Louisiana or Tennessee?

If you would like to see why I could never vote for this tool then check out his stance on the issues……

https://www.ontheissues.org/House/Steven_Palazzo.htm

These are going to be the major points of the next couple of elections.  Nothing about the economy or social strife or climate change or….well you get the point….the GOP has NOTHING to offer the voter other than vague wedge issues that do NOTHING to help this country heal and prosper.

What does the voter have as a choice?

The vague babbling of a party in a downward spiral or a party that has big ideas that go nowhere?

Some choice, huh?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–03Aug21

From The ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ Files

This time it is the mouth of the House minority leader, Kevin, The Weasel, McCarthy…..

His words show that all civility has left the building…..

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) joked over the weekend that it would be hard for him not to hit Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.) with a gavel if the GOP wins control of the lower chamber in next year’s midterm elections. 

At a dinner on Saturday evening, members of Tennessee’s Republican congressional delegation gave McCarthy an oversized gavel with the words “Fire Pelosi” on it. 

“It will be hard not to hit her with it but I will bang it down,” McCarthy reportedly joked, according to Washington Post reporter Michael Scherer. 

(thehill.com)

Is this the way that statesmen talk?

Civility is gone in our government.

It is all about hating the ‘other’ side.

It is sickening and very pathetic that our ‘leaders’ have descended into this stupidity.

There are calls for this d/bag to resign for his unfeeling and undignified statement….

The Kevin McCarthy-Nancy Pelosi feud has taken on an aggressive tenor: Speaking at a Tennessee Republican Party fundraiser Saturday night, the House minority leader addressed the possibility that he may become Speaker of the House after the midterm elections. “I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel,” he said. “It’ll be hard not to hit her with it, but I will bang it down.” Democrats quickly spoke out against the violent imagery, NBC News reports, with one representative calling for an apology and another calling for McCarthy’s resignation. So far, they’ve gotten neither; a McCarthy rep said the lawmaker was “obviously joking.”

McCarthy had been gifted a giant gavel reading “Fire Pelosi” at the event, reports Fox News, which notes other Democrats are also calling for McCarthy to resign. As for Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, he tweeted, “A threat of violence to someone who was a target of a #January6th assassination attempt from your fellow Trump supporters is irresponsible and disgusting.” This is just the latest in the back-and-forth between McCarthy and Pelosi over the House select committee’s investigation into the Capitol attack (McCarthy pulled all his picks for the panel after Pelosi vetoed two of them) and the reinstated mask mandates in the House (Pelosi recently called McCarthy a moron in that matter, CNN reports). You can hear McCarthy’s gavel remark here.

Joking?

Thoughts?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Letter From The Edge

Or….My Baby Wrote Me A Letter!  (sorry had to channel my 60s experience)……

The news has been full of the report that Trump has written (?) a letter to Pelosi ahead of the impeachment vote…..

Trump rattled on…the same song that his Tweets reflect…..

Nancy Pelosi was on the receiving end of what the Washington Post calls an “extraordinary letter” written by President Trump. Over six pages that you can read in full here, he voices his “strongest and most powerful protest” against impeachment, writing that “this impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.” The AP reports that the “fiery” letter, which comes a day before his expected impeachment, voices Trump’s displeasure at how the House inquiry was handled, alleging “more due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.”

Trump writes that the Articles of Impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee has come up with “include no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses whatsoever. You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!” He addresses the claims of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress at length, then goes on to tout a long list of successes that have occurred in his term, writing, “you and your party are desperate to distract” from them. He expresses that he doesn’t believe his letter will change anything, but that he wanted to record his objections “for the purpose of history. … One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President again.”

I really would like to hear what my readers think about this letter…it is not a long read….only about 6 pages……

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Madam Speaker:

I write to express my strongest and most powerful protest against the partisan impeachment crusade being pursued by the Democrats in the House of Representatives. This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.

The Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory, interpretation, or jurisprudence. They include no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses whatsoever. You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!

…Read On….

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/letter-president-donald-j-trump-speaker-house-representatives/

Did you read?

Whatcha think?

My thoughts is it should have been left un-mailed…..it makes the president look like a childish d/bag….it is a rambling piece of manure that would be better on the rally trail and not in the House.

It sounds more like someone afraid their “brand” will be tainted….he keeps thinking that his legacy will always have a stigma about it with a asterisk after his name….a stain on his person.

But that is just me.

I Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Onward To Impeachment

Surprise!  No need for a second day of the Judiciary hearings….Pelosi told the Dems to move on to impeachment….apparently she wants to get on with it before the Christmas break….my question is what is the rush?

The evidence is available……I post this knowing that many have already made up their minds and will not bother to check the evidence before they comment…..to include some senators…..be thankful that is NOT the way a jury acts in the public domain.

I. The President’s Misconduct: The President Conditioned a White House Meeting and Military Aid to Ukraine on a Public Announcement of Investigations Beneficial to his Reelection Campaign

The President’s Request for a Political Favor | The President Removed Anti-Corruption Champion Ambassador Yovanovitch | The President’s Hand-picked Agents Begin the Scheme | President Trump Froze Vital Military Assistance | The President Conditioned a White House Meeting on Investigations | The President’s Agents Pursued a “Drug Deal” | President Trump Pressed President Zelensky to Do a Political Favor | The President’s Representatives Ratcheted up Pressure on the Ukrainian President | Ukrainians Inquired about the President’s Hold on Security Assistance | The President’s Security Assistance Hold Became Public | The President’s Scheme Unraveled | The President’s Chief of Staff Confirmed Aid was Conditioned on Investigations

II. The President’s Obstruction of the House of Representatives’ Impeachment Inquiry: The President Obstructed the Impeachment Inquiry by Instructing Witnesses and Agencies to Ignore Subpoenas for Documents and Testimony

An Unprecedented Effort to Obstruct an Impeachment Inquiry | Constitutional Authority for Congressional Oversight and Impeachment | The President’s Categorical Refusal to Comply | The President’s Refusal to Produce Any and All Subpoenaed Documents | The President’s Refusal to Allow Top Aides to Testify | The President’s Unsuccessful Attempts to Block Other Key Witnesses | The President’s Intimidation of Witnesses

Speaker of the House Pelosi has made her thoughts known and the faithful will follow…..

The House is formally moving ahead with impeachment—and that timeline is just fine with President Trump. Nancy Pelosi on Thursday announced that the House will draft articles of impeachment against the president. “The facts are uncontested,” she said, per CBS News. “The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security by withholding military aid and [a] crucial Oval Office meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival.” In doing so, “the president leaves us no choice but to act.” And so “sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders, and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment.”

The exact timeline remains unclear, though Politico expects a House vote before the end of the month. Pelosi’s comments come a day after the House Judiciary panel had its first impeachment hearing. Also on Wednesday, Pelosi met behind closed doors with the Democratic caucus and asked, “Are you ready?” reports the AP. Those in the room responded with what the AP characterizes as a “resounding yes.” A speedy vote is OK with Trump. On Thursday, he tweeted that if House Democrats “are going to impeach me, do it now, fast,” because he is confident he will be cleared in a Senate trial.

Now we wait for the articles of impeachment and the counts…..and we wait….which is good for it gives the slower thinkers time to write their stuff.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

SOTU-2019

As we approach the day that the president would stroll over to the Capital and give his SOTU speech before Congress has been “postponed”…..

You see Pelosi sent a letter to Trump about the SOTU……

On Jan. 3 she formally invited him to deliver the State of the Union address on Jan. 29; just shy of two weeks later, Nancy Pelosi wants it rescheduled until after the shutdown ends—or just delivered in writing. In a letter sent to President Trump, Pelosi cited security concerns, noting that in September Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen designated the address as a “National Special Security Event.” That puts it in a category that demands “weeks of detailed planning with dozens of agencies,” in an effort led by the Secret Service.

Except, she writes, the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security have gone 26 days without funding, creating the “security concerns” fueling her request. Barring an end to the shutdown this week, Pelosi asks that the president work with her “to determine another suitable date” to deliver it or just deliver it in writing, as was the practice during the 19th century and up until the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.

Trump got butt hurt and cancelled a scheduled trip by the Speaker to speak to our soldiers serving overseas…..

…Thursday letter announcing he’d cancelled a military flight meant to carry Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers to Brussels and Afghanistan, President Trump noted that the House Speaker was still free to fly commercial. But on Friday, Pelosi shot back that the White House made that impossible, too. “We had the prerogative to travel commercially, and we made plans to do that until the administration then leaked that we were traveling commercially,” Pelosi said, per the Washington Post. “You never give advance notice of going into a battle area—you just never do it,” she said. The White House, however, denied that it leaked any information about a potential commercial flight and called Pelosi’s accusation a “flat-out lie,” reports the Hill. The president, meanwhile, doubled down on his move to cancel the military flight in a Friday morning tweet

What a juvenile bunch of manure!

Trump has threatened to take his SOTU on the road and give it to his supporters in a campaign-esque setting…..

The last time one of his speeches were televised it was a racist rant about the border and not enough people condemned the MSM for carrying it…

After President Donald Trump exploited the enormous free platform he was needlessly granted by America’s major television networks Tuesday night to deliver an immigration address replete with the same disinformation and dehumanizing rhetoric he has deployed since stepping foot on the campaign trail, critics denounced the corporate media’s continued role in amplifying Trump’s speeches despite knowing they will be full of harmful lies.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/09/corporate-media-condemned-handing-trump-megaphone-spout-racist-stream-lies

Hopefully the MSM will not make that mistake again!

I am a political wonk so I will keep an eye on the SOTU if he indeed takes it on the road……but that would just be another rally and would not hold the prestige of an actual SOTU.

For now the rest of the SOTU story…..

Sources say Trump is currently planning to be at the Capitol on the 29th to give the speech. However, contingency plans (including other venues, possibly even outside Washington) and alternatives (a rally, for instance) are also being considered, and all the details remain unclear at this point. “We are still in a holding pattern,” one senior source says. In fact, ABC’s sources say Trump is preparing two different speeches: One for members of Congress, as originally planned, if the speech is given in DC; the other for a rally audience if the speech is given outside DC. White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said Tuesday during an appearance on Fox that if Pelosi ultimately blocks Trump from delivering the address on the House floor, “there are many ways he can” still deliver it.

Breaking News:  After I wrote this draft post word has come out the Pelosi has won the war of wills…..

Unless lawmakers strike a deal to reopen the government by next Tuesday, President Trump’s second State of the Union address will be the first in history to be delayed by a shutdown. The president was the first to blink in his SOTU standoff with Nancy Pelosi Wednesday, the BBC reports. After the House speaker told Trump that he would not be invited to deliver the address in the House chamber until the shutdown was resolved, he announced late Wednesday that he would postpone the speech. “As the Shutdown was going on, Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address. I agreed,” Trump tweeted. “She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative – I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over.”

Turn The Page!

The New House Begins Work

Let me say in the offset that these women that are new to the House are showing balls……something even the men could not accomplish.  Rashida Tlaid and AOC are showing spine and not shrinking from opposition by the old farts that cannot understand progressivism…..thumbs up…I love these women!

On to their, the House, getting to work…….

Some of the first order of business….debt and ethics……

When a new Congress convenes every two years, the majority party must approve a resolution outlining House rules, the intricate parliamentary procedures that govern the chamber. Two notable changes in the Democrats’ package are aimed at avoiding certain confrontations that became commonplace during the Republican majority from 2011 through 2019, after the rout of the party in the 2018 midterms.

Democrats will revive the “Gephardt Rule,” introduced in the late 1970s by Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., that automatically raises the debt ceiling — the nation’s borrowing limit — once the House passes a budget.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/02/681547346/democrats-announce-major-changes-to-u-s-house-rules

Then the debates on economic policies…….

Okay, it’s that time of year when we are all supposed to commit ourselves to performing nearly impossible tasks over the next twelve months. I will play the game. Here is the list of areas where I will try to bring economics into economic policy debates in 2019.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/03/resolutions-to-improve-debates-on-economic-policy-in-2019/

The Dems in the House are trying desperately to return democracy to the system……

In a major step toward fixing our broken system of elections, House Democratic lawmakers introduced a comprehensive democracy reform bill Thursday, the first day of the 116th Congress.

The bill, which is known as H.R. 1, or the For The People Act, and was sponsored by Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), would create a more responsive and representative government by making it easier for voters to cast a ballot and harder for lawmakers to gerrymander, by transforming how campaigns are funded to amplify the voices

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/04/historic-bill-strengthen-democracy-introduced-congress

I know some of these are redundant but I am proud of the direction the House is taking….sadly they will need the Senate to make these things law…..will they get it?

The new members of the House are showing spine….hopefully the old farts of the House do not crap on the progress these women can lead the country into…..Centrists are the cowards of the country.  Remember I said That!

My guess is NO…for they are trying very hard to protect Trump at all costs…….

Some members of the Republican National Committee and grassroots Republicans are backing an effort to block potential primary challengers to President Trump, even though party insiders are insisting it is too late to change the rules for the 2020 campaign.

The push to rally GOP support around the president early comes as freshman Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah published a Washington Post op-ed arguing that on issues of character, “the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.” The 2012 GOP nominee also said he would not run himself in 2020 and declined to endorse Trump, in an interview with CNN.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/04/681987077/rnc-members-want-to-block-a-primary-challenge-to-trump-but-the-rules-may-stop-th

The Senate is old angry white men without a spines.

Paul Ryan–A Tragedy

Soon Ryan will “retire” from Congress…..he will depart with a legislative branch in disarray and impotent.

Like a Greek play…our protagonist has gone through a change that has changed him completely.

Paul Ryan from Janesville, Wisconsin came to Washington as a Jack Kemp Republican….these days being such does not mean much because most people have no idea what that means…..Kemp thought that the GOP should, and could, once again be the “party of Lincoln.” Being pro-civil rights was only part of it. It was famously said that Kemp, as a football player, had showered with more African-Americans than most Republicans had ever met. But Kemp also shared Lincoln’s other big idea, that the essence of America was the “right to rise”—for everybody—through talent and effort. Neither Lincoln nor Kemp favored income redistribution, but they both thought government had a role in helping people climb the ladder. Lincoln favored public investment in infrastructure and education. Kemp wanted lower tax rates.

Ryan came to Washington as a young idealist and he will leave a spineless Trump toady….

Paul Ryan came to Congress as a Jack Kemp conservative and will depart as a Donald Trump Republican.

It’s more complicated than that, certainly. History requires nuance and texture. But legacies are reductive by nature. The House speaker announced his retirement Wednesday, closing a messy and mesmerizing chapter in the history of the Republican Party. And for the affable Wisconsin kid who moved to Washington a quarter-century ago, eager to make his mark on fiscal policy, the harsh reality is that he might be remembered more for accommodating the impulses of the 45th president than for crafting a generational overhaul of the tax code.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/12/how-donald-trump-upended-paul-ryans-plans-217989

Kemp and Ryan have on thing in common….neither became president.  Kemp left Congress with a sterling reputation…..Ryan will depart with a reputation that he will be ashamed of for the rest of his life.

Paul Ryan when discussing the House made a statement……”I am very proud of what this Congress has accomplished”……

Seriously?  And what would that be?  What are the accomplishments?

Congress did not accomplish anything on immigration, screwed millions out of health care, nothing on infrastructure, tried to destroy the FBI and CIA, afraid to vote on authority to kill internationally, permanent tax cuts for the wealthy, threat of attacks on Social Security and Medicare……now just what did they accomplish again?

Apparently Ryan has a low bar for the Congress.