I was at an impasse in Book VIII – mostly how to deal with a character who, it turns out, does have to die in order to build a really good story line for another character – the other day and so I sat myself in front of the idiot box to drop thinking for a bit (it does help; a clear mind can suddenly solve a riddle that has bothered you all day) and just absorb passively. As I clicked through the available product – mostly dreck, it goes without saying – I came across an interesting documentary. Produced by the BBC in 2015, it is called 1945: The Savage Peace.
The story it tells is what happened to the Germans of eastern Europe after WWII. Spoiler: it was bad. Like really, really bad. For a lot of people it will come as a revelation because it is something not covered in depth in Western histories of WWII and its aftermath. To nutshell it, after WWII the German territories of East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia were transferred to other nations – most to Poland with a slice of East Prussia going to the Soviet Union (and still part of Russia today – you can see it on the map as a small exclave between Lithuania and Poland). The German population of these territories was forced out – ethnically cleansed as we would put it today. Additionally, the German population of the Sudetenland in today’s Czech Republic as well as long-established German communities in Hungary and Romania were also sent off to Germany. It was many millions of people. Nobody knows exactly how many because in the chaos of the time nobody bothered to count how many were left in these Soviet-occupied areas of post-WWII Europe (quite a large number of them had, of course, fled ahead of the Soviet advance at the end of the war).
And it wasn’t done gently; the people who exiled the Germans were Poles, Czechs and others who had just spent years under very brutal Nazi German occupation and once they got on top of the Germans they very cruelly extracted their pound of flesh. Not only did these Germans lose their land, they lost pretty much everything but the clothes on their backs and while in transit to Germany they were subjected to beatings, rapes and murders. The documentary interviews several Germans who endured it – all very old by 2015 and between 10 and 15 years old or so when it happened. So, it is designed to evoke sympathy for the Germans and while the documentary does make passing reference to the immediately prior Nazi brutality, the whole thing is pitched to make out that the Germans were mere victims. And, to be sure, the people they interviewed – all kids at the time – were specifically innocent. They couldn’t interview their parents because by 2015 all those who were adults in 1945 were dead. But by doing this, it really wrecked the context. While little Helga was innocent her mom and dad were probably participants – or approved of – the equally brutal relocation of Poles in 1939-40. And like all German adults, they knew about the Holocaust and did nothing about it. And like the Russians who threw themselves upon the German population at the end of the war, the Poles and Czech almost to a man and woman had someone close murdered or otherwise brutalized by the Germans during the war. Two wrongs do not make a right…but you can’t lord it over people and treat them like despised slaves for 5 years and not expect some payback. That Helga had to watch in terror as her family was brutally exiled is sad…but Helga’s family should have considered that possibility while they were going Sieg Heil for all those years (East Prussia, for instance, voted overwhelmingly Nazi in the last free election).
I bring this up because this documentary works out to a re-write of history and coming off very badly in it are the Poles. Jews and Czechs also not looking all too kind. It is a white-wash of Nazi history and an attempt to slander people who are clearly out of favor in the European Establishment; the Poles, especially, not knuckling under to EU dictates about Woke policies and immigration. Germans, of course, are the pillar of the EU Establishment…so I guess they’ve decided to kinda gloss over that 1939-45 unpleasantness. I do perceive that we’re getting a lot more of this sort of thing…not just the “black people did everything wonderful” drivel, but attempts to reassign within European/Western history who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. The bad guys are, of course, you; this started actually back in the 1980’s when people accused Ike of being a war criminal because some number of German POWs died in American captivity post-WWII. Some did; but people are always dying. An in-depth study showed that the German POW death rate was in line with everyone else in the area…all higher than normal but it was the immediate aftermath of WWII with Germany an entire wreck. But that didn’t stop the “bad Ike” stories…and in spite of being debunked, the myth persists to this day. The past is being edited just as in 1984 in order to control the present and future.
In a ridiculous attempt to cover up the side effects of the Covid vaccine they are now claiming that the common cold, all along, causes heart problems. They are really desperate to hide the truth.
The former CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch is accused of sexual abuse. I do admit to being entirely creeped out by the picture of the guy. Our world is run by degenerates.
Blogs For Victory 
For years conservatives have been saying that Washington needs to change the way it operates, and now that this change has been attempted, conservatives are outraged. Hard to believe.
Nothing has changed, just a different face on the same old same old. Gaetz doesn’t seem to have a plan other than to get McCarthy out. Back to my old refrain: Then what?
Jim Jordan. Steve Scalise. Byron Donalds. Chip Roy. Andy Biggs. Anyone of these guys will be a better Speaker. And I think Gaetz’s plan was to simply hold people accountable and that is something sorely missing in Washington. McCarthy broke some serious promises.
Sounds like you need to step away from your realtor desk in Arizona and get to DC and tell those senior Republicans how to run the House.
McCarthy broke some serious promises. Well, hell! Get a rope! No politician in history has found himself unable to keep all his promises! Even those with a razor-thin majority and many of those spineless squishes should have been able to get ‘er all done!
How many on your list voted with the Dems to get rid of McCarthy? Does that sound like the people who actually KNOW something thought it was time to kick McCarthy out?
You guys are amazing.. You are worse than Monday morning quarterbacks. You are like Monday morning quarterbacks ticked off because the quarterback didn’t shoot from behind the three point line with two men on base.
I like Newt a lot but he is unhinged on this issue … calling them traitors is just ridiculous. Calling for expulsion is equally absurd. The only people upset today are those afraid of actually challenging the status quo and shaking things up, when in reality the only thing that will happen is that conservatives will end up with a more conservative Speaker. Nothing wrong with that. Maybe he will limit their vacations.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12590903/newt-gingrich-expel-matt-gaetz-republican-party-kevin-mccarthy.html
“calling them traitors is just ridiculous” yet you and others toss this word around like confetti. Every time someone goes against something you don’t like that person is a “traitor”.
The only people upset today are those afraid of actually challenging the status quo and shaking things up, Nonsense. This was just a lot of virtue signaling. Unless Gaetz has some miracle plan that will increase the Republican majority, or get Dems to vote with us (instead of voting with them, as he did) then he has accomplished nothing but some pandering to the WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING SOMETHING SOMETHING NO MATTER WHAT IT IS !!!!! crowd.
I’ve never been a McCarthy fan, but I also understand that there is a lot, like about 99.9%, of how Congress works that I don’t understand. So, while not defending McCarthy, I do defend the idea that he might have been doing the best he could given a tiny majority and some of them squishes who would walk through fire to side with the Dems.
So refusing to put line item spending bills on the floor for votes, as he promised, and preferring instead to take a six week vacation then come back with hair on fire shouting the “government will shut down” and offering up a pork filled CR is doing the best he can? I don’t agree. That’s business as usual. And for the record, I don’t call people traitors. I call them morons and stupid and not worth the air they breathe … which is different 😂
Well, SOME folks here have sure tossed the word around a lot, and I can name two, other than me, who haven’t.
I don’t always agree with what McCarthy did, but as I have zero first hand knowledge of what goes on behind the curtain and why things happen the way they do I at least don’t pretend to be enough of an authority to judge. And the representatives I respect the most chose not to vote him out, which says a lot more to me than only finding 8 squishes willing to vote with the Dems.
Anyone taking bets on whether or not the Dems will pick the next Speaker? I understand Jeffries is polishing his gavel, now that the Gaetz cabal has paid attention to his lecture about how independence within the GOP was “hurting the people”.
“This is a solemn day in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Democratic Whip Katherine Clark said in a statement Tuesday. “Through his duplicitous misuse of power, profound disregard for the needs of the American people, and disloyalty to anyone but himself, Kevin McCarthy has proven unworthy of presiding over the House.”
She added: “But the Republican civil war is bigger than one man. Right-wing MAGA extremism has enveloped the Republican Party and taken over the business of the People’s House.
Well, at least 8 Republicans have distanced themselves from that radical “right-wing MAGA extremism ” and done their part to keep it from “taking over the business of the People’s House”. Generous of them to let what some of us, at least, still think of as the “opposition” to tell us how to run our business.
I would say the “squishes” are the 96% who voted for status quo, and I don’t care what any Democrat has to say about anything. I have listened to 4 of the 8 members who voted him out, and all of them sound more reasoned, more determined, and more focused than any current abstractor, including Newt.
Darn, it’s hard to keep up. Within an hour Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, Byron Donald and Chip Roy went from “Anyone of these guys will be a better Speaker” to being squishes, part of ” the 96% who voted for status quo”.
Clearly you need to shift your support for who will be the next Speaker to one of those four “focused” (ie: agreeing with you) who sided with the Dems to kick a Republican out of office. YOU don’t have to “care what any Democrat has to say about anything”. You just have to hope that this is an unusual situation where one side won’t have to make concessions to the other in exchange for getting something accomplished, such as a quid pro quo where some republicans DO have to care what the Democrats have to say. I suppose it’s possible that the Dem side will be happy with just ousting McCarthy (though I personally draw the line at anything that makes Dems happy, but I guess that’s just me…..) and not also expect a little reciprocity. Let’s wait and see how the Jeffries For Speaker campaign goes.
Who would even want the job with the current rule allowing a single member to call for a floor vote to remove him or her?
What is the percentage of House Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy? Come on, do the math. It was a Dem coup, aided by a handful of “moderate” Republicans and one guy ticked off because he didn’t get help from the Speaker in dealing with an ethics investigation.
However House Republicans settle on their new leader, one thing is a must: The rule that lets a single member call for a floor vote on unseating the speaker has to go.
Now-ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to the rule back in January, in the negotiations for the votes to get the job. But his critics started using the threat against him by about Day 2, and finally pounced this week.
Indeed, the eight Republicans who united with the Democratic caucus to vote to unseat him had surely been egging each other on for weeks or months, talking it up as a “bold” and/or “necessary” move.
In the event, though, it was just Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla) who made the motion.
McCarthy is convinced Gaetz did it because the speaker refused to quash an Ethics Committee probe. Gaetz denies it, but the fact remains: It was one member’s action.
This is no way to run anything: Unseating the speaker of the House — second in line to succeed the president, right after the veep — should require a far more substantial level of discontent, say 10% of the majority members.
That would force the rebels to debate the idea among themselves and reach a consensus and a critical mass.
They might even (unlike Gaetz this week) pause to consider what comes next if they succeed.
As it is, the House floor is frozen from taking on any other business until a new speaker gets installed.
Worse, even committee work — like the Biden impeachment inquiry — is hobbled, with questionable powers to, for example, subpoena witnesses.
No one seems interested in the personal conflict which does imply that Gaetz was acting either out of revenge or to cover his own rear end.
To be more specific, about McCarthy’s refusal to get involved in the ethics investigation of Gaetz. McCarthy charged that his Florida counterpart’s actions were “not becoming of a member of Congress,” and that Gaetz’s long-expected motion to strip him of his gavel was fueled entirely by a House Ethics Committee investigation of the Sunshine State lawmaker and McCarthy’s refusal to intervene in the matter — a claim Gaetz denies.
“Regardless of what you think, I’ve seen the texts. It was all about his ethics.
Was Nancy Mace one of these reasoned, focused and above all determined people who impressed you so much? Because it looks like Nancy has trouble picking a lane and staying in it. Or, rather, finding a story and sticking with it.
In the clip, Gaetz goes on to say that Mace joined his fight because she’s a “fiscal hawk.” That’s not the reported reason she was so upset with McCarthy, though. Rather, if you look at her tweet storm following her vote for the motion the vacate, she mentioned a broken promise over “women’s issues,” and there have been rumblings about her discontent in that area for months.
She has been trying to make a pro-abortion push within the GOP, claiming that compromises must be made on the issue to win elections. In fact, she joined with Democrats recently in calling for the Biden administration to ignore a judge’s order regarding an abortion pill. It seems fairly certain that was the issue that pushed her into opposing McCarthy, not any sudden care for spending levels.
Let’s all be “fiscal hawks” but real ones, not virtue signaling posers.
What I would do if I had a magic Budget Wand:
The budget for the IRS is about $14 billion-with-a-B. Switch to a Fair Tax and slash the IRS by 90%, while increasing revenue. Eliminate the departments of education and energy,, fold energy concerns into Interior. Cut the size of every agency by at least 25% and reduce their scopes back to their original charters. Serious pruning of the FBI and all the “intelligence” agencies will help. No aid of any kind to illegal aliens, even when they are called “migrants”. Make able bodied welfare recipients get jobs.
If the feds can interfere with state laws legalizing marijuana they should, as hundreds of thousands of jobs are not filled because people can’t pass drug tests. Stop every penny of federal money to any state or city that will not enforce the law, especially immigration laws.
Get rid of economy-killing regulations and let the nation start to heal itself as it gets back to productivity and energy independence. Part of budgeting is increasing revenue. Change insurance regulations so companies can sell across the whole country—when risk pools are bigger, costs go down—and this would allow people to get health insurance when they are younger and healthier and then keep it no matter where they live or work, no longer tying it to employment and starting to move health care costs back to insurance companies. If any federal money goes to schools then get admin costs down to reasonable levels—way too much money goes elsewhere than to teachers and students. Get rid of public sector unions and revise or get rid of Civil Service laws so government slackers can get fired.
And cut all funding to Leftist slush funds like PBS and Planned Parenthood.
There is one place I would agree to spending money on illegal aliens. That would be to pay for transportation back to their homes. We lured them here and I think we have some responsibility for sending the message that they should sell everything they own and pay coyotes to get them to our border, with promises of free everything. Every nice hotel room, every cell phone, every meal ticket, is an invitation for someone back in the homeland to come here, too. So I would support an airlift back to the various countries—one-way tickets, because once they violate our laws they can’t come back.
You only buy a plane ticket once, not 30 times a month
the only thing that will happen is that conservatives will end up with a more conservative Speaker. Nothing wrong with that Sure. Once we get the House back on track with its Biden inquiry, which just last week was the absolute most important thing EVER, that HAD to be done NOWNOWNOW, at least to decent law abiding Americans who care about the law. Once we get back to the other investigations, into Mayrokas and the border, into the FBI, etc. Once the House recovers from the distractions and time-eating discussions, meetings, etc. necessary to agree on a new Speaker.
As it is, the House floor is frozen from taking on any other business until a new speaker gets installed.
Worse, even committee work — like the Biden impeachment inquiry — is hobbled, with questionable powers to, for example, subpoena witnesses.
The House floor is frozen because someone sent them home again, and the worries from many conservatives that the House is getting nothing done is a ridiculous argument considering they just came off a six week vacation. Who takes six week vacations??? And Comer has already said his committee work continues, as will all other committee work. Also there is an interim Speaker and his first action was to remove Pelosi from her privileged offices, gotta like that.
I was unsure if Gaetz did the right thing or not, but I am now convinced he did. The amount of pork in the CR McCarthy passed is mind numbing and this country will now carry a $2.5 trillion dollar deficit this year and surpass $33 trillion in debt, that’s the real danger to all Americans. If we don’t get a handle on government spending, we may lose reserve currency status and that will impoverish millions of Americans overnight.
And I don’t hold a vote in support of McCarthy against anyone, that was their opinion and I respect that. but my statement is still true … anyone of those guys will run a more conservative House then McCarthy did. In fact, McCarthy may have been one the worst choices for Speaker for conservatives.
Everyone is back at work now, but “at work” now means going through the process of getting a new Speaker.
I don’t have the knowledge to say if it was a good idea to remove McCarthy or not. I have issues with the fact that less than ten percent of the Republican side thought it was a good idea, I have issues with the apparent conflict between Gaetz and McCarthy revolving around the Gaetz ethics probe, I have issues with collusion with the Democrats (particularly as so many of them seem to think this will lead to a Jeffries speakership) and most of all I have issues about the timing.
It kind of feels as well thought-out as gutting and remodeling your kitchen a week before Thanksgiving dinner. The question is less about whether it needed to be done, or what color the new cabinets should be, than about the timing. The bills you find objectionable are already passed. They can’t be changed now. It’s not as if removing McCarthy now means we are not stuck with the bill just passed—and remember, it is smaller than the one the Dems fought for.
If the impeachment inquiry was so important, at least to Americans who care about the law, then why do anything to interrupt the proceedings? Things like this have a tempo, a flow, and starting only to stop again just doesn’t make sense, especially as there is no real urgency. We were building up a pretty good rhythm in the House, grilling people who needed to be grilled, establishing wrongdoing, etc. Now it’s all on the back burner while we’re doing something that could have waited even IF necessary.
Also, who says these Representatives were on “vacation?” To me, a vacation is fishing or skiing, not working with constituents. It’s as if the only work that matters takes place in DC.
Do you disagree that the House floor is frozen from taking on any other business until a new speaker gets installed.?
A new entry into YCMTSU:
The FBI, while under investigation for weaponizing the agency to suppress political opposition, has doubled down.
As the 2024 presidential election looms, the FBI has created a new class of “domestic violent extremists” to track and place under surveillance: Donald Trump supporters. This new category, AGAAVE (“anti-government, anti-authority violent extremism”), was created to capture people motivated by political or social issues, not just ideology
But we need to realize this does not cover all “political or social issues”. No sirree. It is, in fact, tightly focused on the only political and social issues that bother the Left.
“What other name could we use?” asks one FBI officer who spoke with Newsweek, and who defends what he says is merely a record-keeping change in response to Congressional pressure to track things better. “Obviously if Democratic Party supporters resort to violence, it [AGAAVE-Other] would apply to them as well. It doesn’t matter that there is a low likelihood of that. So yes, in practical terms, it refers to MAGA, though the carefully constructed language is wholly nonpartisan.”
Note: In no way can FBI targeting of MAGA supporters be construed as an effort to influence the election. Don’t be silly.
During his first sham impeachment, then-President Trump tweeted a poster of himself that said, “In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way.” He’s never been more correct about anything.
Forget bringing back COVID. The FBI is going to make up reasons to harass, intimidate, and even arrest anyone who professes that they are going to vote for Trump, no matter how tepid their support may be. This isn’t really just about the MAGA faithful; it’s about any Republican, Independent, or moderate Democrat who wants to get this Constitution-hating regime out of Washington.
If Trump isn’t the nominee, the FBI will have no trouble at all declaring that anyone supporting a different nominee is a domestic terrorist.
Now that we have to worry about voting freely, the country’s transition to a hideous Third World banana republic is complete. We would have been better off if Biden hadn’t mentally checked out and actually ran his own presidency because it feels more and more as if some Soviet leftovers are running things in his stead.
Here’s a perspective on the Speaker issue:
What Happens When the Dog Catches the Car
By Joe Cunningham
Dogs chase cars. They do so because they live entirely in the moment. They see a car and they chase it with nary a concern for the consequences of their pursuit and no plan whatsoever for what they intend to do once they catch the car.
The dog simply chases because they can and they want to. The House GOP currently appears to be guided by similar impulses.
Matt Gaetz has been dead set on getting rid of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. He stood opposed to McCarthy’s ascension from the start, even when other principled conservatives forced McCarthy to give in to demands that made the chamber as a whole move to the right. The fight for appropriations bills, conservatives on the rules committee, and other giveaways empowered conservatives and forced a return to the functions of the chamber as it was meant to be run.
But Gaetz did not appear interested in that fight. He was interested in fighting McCarthy and that was it. That fight continued into this weekend and early this week.
It’s important to note that an earlier attempt at a continuing resolution was a conservative plan that moderates agreed to. We had the chance to pass an 8 percent cut in non-defense spending, funding the border, and not funding Ukraine. That would have gotten us into November with reduced spending and more time for the proper appropriations bills. It was a good plan. But Gaetz scuttled that plan by recruiting some of his colleagues to join him. That all but forced McCarthy to come up with a clean CR that kept spending at current levels and required Democratic support.
Which, incidentally, is exactly what Gaetz said would happen. He made his own prophecy come true and used that turn of events as the basis for his call to get rid of McCarthy. It ultimately worked, and now the House is in a deadlock because there is no Speaker, and they have to rush to find a new Speaker instead of working on the appropriations bills that had been the goal until now.
But even Gaetz has admitted that there was no plan for a replacement. His sole intention was to get rid of McCarthy, and he’s fundraising off it and preparing for his next political venture – a run for Governor of Florida. The dog caught the car, but in doing so, the conservative agenda was stalled and it’s now more likely that the next spending agreement will be without conservative input. But he did what he wanted to do, so congrats, Matt Gaetz.
BTW, I don’t think he’s very popular in Florida, so good luck with that, Matt, especially after this.
I’ve been kind of holding off on commenting on McCarthy’s ouster till the dust settled. I’m not a big McCarthy fan. Every time I see him interviewed, he comes across as dishonest and calculating. But I’m an even a lesser fan of Matt Gaetz, so…….
My first thought, when seeing comments like this:
the House floor is frozen from taking on any other business until a new speaker gets installed.?
I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing. When they’re not doing “business,” they’re not spending money we don’t have, and they’re not sending any more money to Ukraine.
Whoever ends up as the next Speaker is going to face the same nearly impossible task that McCarthy faced, getting anything done with a 4 seat majority and 100% opposition from Democrats on anything that the Dems don’t like. The Republican majority, whether you agree with them or not, has a few independent thinkers who are not afraid to buck the status quo. They also have more than a few who aren’t worth a bucket of warm piss. Contrast that to the Democrats who are almost always ALL ON THE SAME PAGE politically. Unfortunately, they’re also almost all radical Leftists. Not sure how it all shakes out, but it’s going to be interesting.
We’re on the same page here, Spook. (Pause here to register amazement.)
McCarthy has always had a shifty vibe to me, but as I am constantly harping on the dangers of Identity Politics I tried to look past that. And you are right, his was always a nearly impossible job. I’ve become such a skeptic when it come to what I am told/fed that I take it all with buckets of salt but evidently McCarthy did try to push through a better financial deal and it got sandbagged by Gaetz who then used the fact it didn’t go through to attack him. (And as for “shifty” Gaetz is like a poster boy for the phrase.)
We got where we are incrementally, and that’s the only way we will get out. And, sadly, we are hampered by the lack of a coherent, cohesive, party. I’m all about being an independent thinker, but when it comes to a political party I think the “independence” has to be about how you get something accomplished, not what you want to accomplish. I’m guessing that McCarthy thought he could be the Republican Pelosi and hammer his side into agreement, and he just had too many squishes to make that realistic.
We’re on the same page here, Spook. (Pause here to register amazement.)
No amazement — you and I are on the same page most of the time.
You know who are also “all on the same page”?? Communists, and that’s the current state of the Democrat Party, and that’s where the real problem lies. McCarthy was an establishment speaker and someone who I know many Democrats would support had they ability to do that, but that party demands allegiance and they all comply without question so they vote in a single bloc, always. This is dangerous, This is not American.
Changing the way DC operates is never easy or free from controversy, but make no mistake about it, this was a real blow to the status quo if we can follow through. For 25 years, DC politicians crafted pork laden CR’s with earmarks costing tax payers millions while politicians greased the skids for their donors, lobbyists, and of course their own campaign coffers, and finally Congress said enough. If we can change the way money flows through DC, we can change a lot.
McCarthy was an establishment speaker and someone who I know many Democrats would support had they ability to do that
Jeff Childers points that out in his C&C post this morning — all the Leftist groups who normally wouldn’t give Kevin McCarthy the time of day who are coming to his defense.
Surely we can’t be surprised that Leftists ally with whatever position helps them out—like helping throw the House into chaos by siding with a few “moderate” Republicans to get rid of their top officer—and then flip to defend the guy they helped get rid of.
The only consistency you will ever get from the Left is its consistent focus on fomenting conflict and contributing to chaos. It’s just interesting to see who they sometimes get to help them.
I think Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise will be nominated Speaker next week and will receive more votes then McCarthy did, uniting the caucus. Let’s not forget, McCarthy had to prod people and make many concessions to get the votes to be Speaker so he never had a mandate. And to me the squishes are those who vote for the status quo. That’s the safe and easy thing to do.
I have the sense that both of them are more liked by more GOP House members than McCarthy is. I’d be shocked if the next Speaker doesn’t end up being one or the other of them, and I think either one would be better than McCarthy.
I think the reason why the squeals from DC are so loud over this is because this is all about their money. This is about their earmarks, their donors, and their campaigns and how the 25 year CR gravy train may be coming to an end. 98% of DC politicians don’t care about their constituents, they care about their money and we are hearing that now. The ironic thing is that 100% of the Democrat caucus who voted against McCarthy, actually voted against their interests if we are successful in demanding single line item spending bills.
You mean it’s not about cocktail parties?
OF COURSE it’s about earmarks, Captain Obvious. It always is. So the question is, whose earmarks? Whose Republican oxen would have been gored by McCarthy’s recommendations, vs those on the Left? And it’s the constituents who usually drive the bus. It’s the people in Bee Fart Oregon who don’t want Fort Alinksy (nod here to Schlichter) defunded who demand continued funding and the guy who doesn’t provide it gets dumped in the next election. So what’s the solution? Convincing people to commit political suicide, or finding a way to change the funding of political campaigns?
And how is the new Speaker going to change any of that?
OTOH, McCarthy has been a powerhouse fundraiser for Republicans, including some of those who shafted him.
I’m going to have to see what “better than” looks like. I’m guessing that the Gang of 8 will back the new Speaker just to send the message of “See? We were right!” But opportunism will always win out over character with some people, so I expect this new coalition to fall apart. Mace is already being caught in lies about her motivation, which turn out to be butthurt at McCarthy’s lack of support for her pro-abortion efforts. Gaetz is so strongly implicated in a CYA move mixed with an even higher level of butthurt because McCarthy wouldn’t interfere in his ethics investigation (which McCarthy never discussed in detail, saying merely “I saw the texts”) that he couldn’t carry off a pretense of acting with integrity for very long. So that’s 2 out of 8 whose claims of being heroes of a revolution against a “status quo” are already proving to be pretty shabby.
(McCarthy has repeatedly claimed Gaetz has borne him a grudge for refusing his demand that McCarthy intervene in an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation.
“He’s blaming me for an ethics complaint against him that happened in the last Congress. I have nothing to do with it,” McCarthy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” just hours before he was voted out.
Gaetz, who is rumored to be eyeing a run for Florida governor in 2026, is being eyed by the ethics panel over allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and campaign finance violations as well as taking bribes. )
I just think it’s hilarious to see you label people like Jordan, Scalise, Hageman—207 of 215 Republican members of Congress—as the “squishes” while fawning over those who sided with the Dems to get rid of a Republican officer.
Laugh all you want. This isn’t a personality thing to me. We either stop the bleeding, or we just manage the decline. Those are the two options and it appears to me that 8 people were willing to risk their reputations and careers to get that done. I don’t fault them for that.
Calling it “hilarious” to see a 180 degree flip in less than a day, as formerly admired conservative House members suddenly become “squishes” because they base their opinions and choices in what they know, personally, from experience, in the House and not what the media have been telling/feeding the public is not really a statement that it’s funny or that I am laughing about it.
As for “risking reputations” that’s also funny, and also not in a ha-ha kind of way. The sanctification of the “moderates”, two of whom we know so far acted out of personal conflict no matter how much they try to wrap themselves in the cloak of “fiscal responsibility is weird. Some, the ringleaders, immediately launched what had to be preprepared hustling for donations, trying to make money off their actions.
And the idea that they got anything “done” is just a fantasy.
What do you think of this comment by McCarthy about the 8 “heroes.”
“They voted against one of the greatest cuts in history that Congress has ever voted for, they voted against work requirements, they voted against NEPA reform, they voted against border security.”
“They voted against one of the greatest cut in history that Congress has ever voted for, they voted against work requirements, they voted against NEPA reform, they voted against border security.(
Can you address the things Mark Levin (another “squish”?) had to say?
“Let’s cut to the chase. Gaetz is a POS demagogue who repeatedly lied during the House floor debate yesterday, and then, of course, simultaneously was fundraising and collecting email lists on behalf of the people. He insisted that the House failed to bring up 12 separate appropriations bills. The fact is they could not get them out of committee because Democrats wanted to spend a great deal more, which would have blown up the budget further, and conservatives opposed the bills. It had nothing to do with a refusal by McCarthy to oppose regular order. McCarthy refused to go along with a CR that essentially adopted the Senate omnibus spending agreed to, yet again, by McConnell and Schumer,”
That is, address individual facts instead of repeating broad-brush Clif notes.
I just use the word squishes because you use that disparaging term. I still have respect for all those caucus members even though I disagree with them. Calling someone who is trying to hold congress accountable as a POS is absurd and unbecoming of Levine. I find it very strange how unhinged many conservatives are today when the only thing that happened was an establishment republican lost his chair. Everything is going to be fine, if not better. We can always fall back to the status quo. That’s the easy thing to do
It IS a disparaging term, and is meant to be. It is for people who kind of maybe in a way around the edges when it is convenient lay claim to a philosophy that crumples when challenged.
You are the one who called those who voted against ousting McCarthy “squished” and insulted them by asserting that they were defending a “status quo” you define as defective. All 207 of them. People you admired until they failed to support your perspective, when you applied what you admit is a disparaging term to them.
I did not call Gaetz a POS. I think Mark Levine can handle having an opinion of his being labeled as “unbecoming”. I personally did not go that far. I personally said Gaetz strikes me as shifty and an opportunist (citing the specifics of his immediate and obviously pre-planned effort to make bank on his action and the observation that he was taking advantage of bad rule to get revenge on someone who did not help him fight a personal battle) and noted that he is being investigated for some pretty serious ethical violations. His personal grudge against McCarthy has been obvious for months, but now all of a sudden it’s as if that never played a role, and he is, instead, the white knight riding in to act nobly in a courageous strike against “the establishment” boo hiss.
You always resort to blithely restating facts to try to shore up your position. Now it’s not the tiny handful of Republicans who sided with Democrats to oust a party leader, at least two for personal reasons and citing lies to justify their actions, but the rational heads who calmly observe it was a rash, poorly thought-out and badly timed coup who are “unhinged”.
You have a history here of advocating for some dramatic action without the slightest concern for its effects, always just saying the equivalent of “we can deal with that when we have to” and this is no different. Now it’s “OK, a grenade was just dropped in the middle of the House efforts to do serious work, and eventually it might turn out to be a good thing, but even if it isn’t we can rebuild what we damaged so no biggie. I just really wanted to see the grenade go off.”
I also note the disparaging references to the “status quo”. But that condition can describe stability, which is pretty helpful when adults are doing grown-up work, like dealing with government corruption, weaponization of federal agencies to advance political agendas, and trying to hammer out compromises on budgets till we can get a larger majority to try to do more. It’s just boring, to the bomb-throwing among us craving more drama.
Great news this morning
United, American, Delta and Southwest ground planes amid bombshell lawsuit claiming they’ve bought thousands of faulty engine parts with FAKE safety certificates from dubious company
Now consider the fact that pilots are being hired for their skin color rather than their expertise. Happy travels
I’m glad I’m at the point in my life where I don’t fly much anymore.
Remember when Trump requested $4 billion to secure the border and Democrats called him a racist and wouldn’t give him the money? Biden just requested $4 billion for border security.
Biden just requested $4 billion for border security.
Our border or Ukraine’s border?
LOL, yea maybe I should re read that
Here’s where I am at post 2020 … nothing surprises me anymore and I trust no one. I wake up to headlines everyday that I never thought possible just a few short years ago. Everything has changed in this country and not for the better, therefore every single standard operating procedure should be challenged. Stephen Miller, who I like a lot, said something the other day in re: to Democrats that got me thinking. He pointed out the obvious that Democrats operate as a single unit where allegiance is demanded (think: communists) and he said Republicans should learn from that and act the same. I see the short term benefits of that, but I think that strategy is dangerous in the long run. America was never meant to be a country of “voting blocs”. We need to bring free thinkers and individualism back to this country which breeds innovation, independence, and personal responsibility.
It’s interesting, in an odd way, to see collusion with the opposition to achieve personal agendas being rewritten as noble forays into independence and standing up to that dreaded “status quo”.
Since when is it news that the Left operates in rigid lockstep, giving it an advantage over the refusing-to-be-herded cats of the Right? This is finally sinking in? STOP THE PRESSES! Who knew? Except for almost everybody, I guess.
Since when is it a radical new concept that to gain any traction the Right has got to pull its collective head out and start to work as a team instead of as a ragtag rabble loosely lumped together as “Republicans”?
America may never have been meant to be a country of voting blocs but it was also never meant to be a country with a hugely bloated federal government seeking and gaining power by subverting its own Constitution. Several ships have sailed here. We have to play the cards we’re dealt, and we have so far ceded control over the deck to the Left, If we have to play by those rules to regain some control and start to make corrections, well, so be it.
We have let the term “conservative” bleed off into all sorts of territory not really connected with the best blueprint for governing the nation. How can we unify a party if we can’t even effectively define it?
Perhaps if we were to define out POLITICS as purely the best blueprint for governing the nation, and leave all the “innovation, independence, and personal responsibility” to individuals or non-political entities, we might be able to attract people who are united by a single clearly understood and agreed-upon principle of governance. After all, that’s how the Constitution was written. That was the vision of the Founders.
As a prominent religious leader said a few years ago, the federal government should have nothing to do with virtue. It exists purely for a very few defined reasons: To provide a national identity, to prove for national defense, to allow for international diplomacy, and a very few other defined and delegated purposes—and to provide an umbrella of protections of our basic rights, to give us the freedom to engage in “innovation, independence, and personal responsibility” on state levels, on local levels and on personal levels.
I contend that if were to declutter our founding principles as a party to that bare-bones outline of pure governance and then figure out how to convey that, we would be far more able to attract people to our side and keep them focused on what is important—which is to win political battles to keep that vision relevant and effective.
For all of the bleating about this concept being just “flowery words”, for all the explanations that people just can’t understand these concepts, I say BS. We were once the Big Tent party because those WERE our foundational precepts, and we welcomed people into the tent who agreed with THEM, even if they had other ideas about morality or propriety. When we say “If you don’t agree with us on abortion you can’t be considered a conservative” we shut out a lot of people who might agree with our basic concept of governance but have different ideas of what is moral. When we erect guiderails of “morality” to belong to a club that should be about nothing but the bare bones of how to run the country, we shut out too many people to ever be confident of a large enough membership to be effective.
I personally am whole-heartedly against abortion, for example, finding it barbaric and an atrocity, inhumane on many levels. And I still say WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT IT IN CONGRESS? I find all of the Leftist movements regarding gender to be abhorrent and repellant and inexcusable, but they should not be part of our analysis of how to govern the nation at the federal level. Let people vote for a federal government restricted in its size, scope and power even if they believe in gender reassignment. The former is crucial to the future of the nation: The latter is a matter for states to work on.
To be a Democrat, all you have to do is accept the narrative that the Right is evil and that opposing it is virtuous, and then everything else follows because supporting any Dem initiative is really just opposing the evil of that Invented Other. But to be a Republican you have to buy into all sorts of various ideas, moral stances, social stances, etc. and be ready to be called a fake Republican if you fall short on any of those judgments even if you are deeply dedicated to the principle of Constitutional governance.
Which is my way of saying that if we could get our act together we could match the Left in commitment to a unified political theory and agenda, without sacrificing “innovation, independence, and personal responsibility” on personal and individual levels. The two are not mutually exclusive, but they do require a clear vision and the ability to convey it to try to appeal to more who are now stuck between the Left and the Invented Other of the Right. We need to reinvent the Right and jettison the elements that allow it to be redefined by the Left. Not abandon those elements, not reject them, not deny them, but stop making them an integral part of the identity of the party.
Daniel Horowitz absolutely NAILS it.
Horowitz is right when he says We will not reverse this evil tide of tyranny until someone who represents the right side is more fearful of our societal and economic collapse than of a temporary lapse in federal funding.
So—do any of the new speaker wannabes lay claim to willingness to fight this fight?
Will any on the Gang of 8 commit to it?
I’m pretty belligerent when it comes to fighting the Left: I just don’t think it makes sense to charge into a battle armed with nothing but indignation and a general sense that “we have to do SOMETHING” with no clear plan for what that “something” might be.
If the Right can commit to the CONCEPT laid out by Horowitz I will support anyone who wants to lead that charge. I just haven’t seen it yet.
And I still see the recent McCarthy ouster as a personality-driven virtue signal with no goal other than the immediate one of getting rid of him “because he disappointed people”. Do I wish he had played the Horowitz card? In a way, yes—but then without the assurance of full backing from the rest of the R’s in the House it would have been a suicide mission with no possible chance of success. I won’t fault any general for refusing to charge up a hill if we all know his “army” is going to hang around at the bottom to see how many shots it will take to kill him.
After Tuesday’s vote on Rep. Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate the chair that saw him make his case surrounded by House Democrats on their side of the chamber resulted in the removal of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, many conservatives are left wondering: what about our priorities?
Americans are right to ask that question, and the others that follow. What happens with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Biden family and the ever-growing pile of evidence that disproves Biden’s long-running claim that he “never discussed” Hunter’s business? What happens to addressing the seemingly existential threats posed by an open border across which 7,000 illegal immigrants flow on the average day? What becomes of efforts to rein in federal spending to start actually moving the price needle toward deflation?
For now, nothing is happening in Congress. The lower chamber is paralyzed without a speaker, unable to move legislation. The battle started by Gaetz against McCarthy and finished with the help of Democrats is now just a precursor to the fights that will accompany the race to fill his seat and seize the gavel.
But hey, at least no more of that pesky "status quo", which is already starting to sound as thin as "At least no more mean tweets".
Meanwhile, Joe Biden breathes — at least for a moment — a sigh of relief that Republicans’ attention is off of his alleged criminal bribery scheme. Hunter Biden and his alleged lies about drug use to purchase and possess a firearm won’t be top-of-mind for conservatives, and Republican members of Congress won’t be asked about inflation, the border, or Biden’s fitness to serve for a few days.
Instead of what Republicans are doing to beat Biden, the narratives will be all about what Republican A is doing to beat Republican B — and vice versa.
Everything is going to be just fine. The emotions over this is way over the top. I heard that Trump may address the GOP Caucus next week and I suspect he’ll endorse Jim Jordan and knowing Jim’s record and support in Congress, I suspect he will be the next Speaker and I think he will be a great choice and run a much more effective and organized conservative House than McCarthy did.
And honestly I’m a bit perplexed about the outrage that has ensued over this. Here we have an invasion at our southern border, we’re paying Ukrainian government officials salaries while the people in Maui are homeless and got just $700, we have fentanyl destroying our youth, our school kids are proficient in nothing, and yet I’ve seen more unhinged outrage over removing a RINO from the Speaker chair. I remember when conservatives were outraged over an $800 hammer during the Bush administration yet today a $5 million dollar elevator was just approved for Nancy Pelosi’s district, and crickets. Gaetz brought that to the attention of the American people and did something about it, and Levine calls him a POS traitor. Bizarre doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Will a new Speaker correct all this? Not sure. But I know McCarthy would have never done anything.
Here we have an invasion at our southern border, we’re paying Ukrainian government officials salaries while the people in Maui are homeless and got just $700, we have fentanyl destroying our youth, our school kids are proficient in nothing, and yet I’ve seen more unhinged outrage over who is the Speaker of the House than addressing any of these things.
It’s time to quit wearing out the hyperbolic term “outraged” to describe observations about the problems associated with this rash action taken by Democrats and 8 Republicans.
I know McCarthy would have never done anything You don’t know any such thing. You speculate that he wouldn’t “do something”. What did Gaetz “do”?
Well when Levine and others call them traitors and POS’s that seems to be unhinged outrage to me. And what Gaetz did was to just clear the field so maybe the next Speaker can get something done.
Gaetz has a long standing reputation as an arrogant slimeball, whose ethics investigation(s) surprise no one who knows him. Adding his recent grandstanding/effort to use it to get donations is just another reason to have a very negative opinion of him. Get all defensive about the bad man using bad language and call it “unhinged” if that makes you feel better, but the fact is that the sobriquet is not based solely on his spiteful attack on McCarthy.
(Hint to Matt: If you want to convince other than a few bomb-throwers out there who think it’s smart to knock stuff down and hope that then it will somehow “get better” that you are really acting out of principle, don’t telegraph your petty malice for months in advance.)
The word “traitor” has been used so much lately it no longer has much meaning. I’ve seen it a lot here, and I’ve called it out. But if you want a non-legal definition, one that a couple of highly flexible online dictionaries have adopted, it can mean betraying a trust or going against your own group. So settle down, Nancy, and stop hyperventilating about the language. Matt has the Squad taking care of him, and doesn’t need you to charge in and get all fluttery about a couple of words.
You just keep spinning and spinning and spinning, trying sooooo hard to prove you are right. And you can’t, because no one knows if you are or not, and no one can know till the dust settles. My prediction is that Jordan will be speaker, the Gang of 8 will make a point of backing his moves for a while to send the message that it was never a power play and always just about principle, and then when push comes to shove they’ll leave him out in the cold, too, without all the Republican votes he needs to do something important.
But for now, there is no “right” or “wrong”. There is just opinion/guessing/speculation.
Yet you are so invested in being “right” that you just make stuff up. For example, in one bizarre sentence you claim that it took Gaetz to expose that we don’t have a budget (which is common knowledge and has been a problem for years) and then that this stunning revelation, thanks to Gaetz, is what Newt was “objecting to”.
You claim that The only reason why Congress isn’t working is because they were told to go home. which is utter bunk. The House got shut down when its Speaker got kicked out, and has been shut down ever since.
Just settle down and stop trying to prove the unprovable. Your position is that eight noble patriots did a noble thing at great personal risk to solve a problem and now it is all going to get better. Mine is that even if McCarthy was the problem the timing of his expulsion was reckless and poorly thought out and has already had some bad repercussions.
Out of the 215 Republicans in the House, only Gaetz and 7 others thought the field needed to be cleared and/or that this was the time to blow it all up. That is, 207 people with boots on the ground IN THE HOUSE with daily experience of what was really happening behind the scenes did not support this “field clearing”.
But some keyboard warriors out in the hinterland, who have never served in Congress or even their statehouses, know better. Just ask them.
I haven’t been able to find anything about a $5 million elevator for Pelosi’s district. Got a link?
I think we should keep provoking Putin, after all we are saving democracy !!!! /sarc
Putin threatens the West with total nuclear destruction leaving ‘no chance of survival’ in the event of a strike on Russia as he warns his ‘Satan-2’ and ‘Flying Chernobyl’ missiles are ready for use in ranting anti-US speech
It’s always a good idea to provoke a cornered animal right? … especially one with nuclear weapons. Jim Jordan as Speaker has said he will cut funding to Ukraine, McCarthy made no such promises. Things are going to get better and I believe all the conservatives who currently have their hair on fire, will have egg on their face.
The hair on fire led to the rash decision to side with the Dems to leave the House without a Speaker in the middle of what were, just a couple of days ago, the most vital important essential acts needed to preserve the Republic—or at least to satisfy the true decent Americans who respect the rule of law (ie: Biden impeachment).
This odd determination to rewrite facts to make the calm, deliberate, calculations of those in a position to actually know what was going on in the House suddenly morph into “hair on fire” wild-eyed hysterics is typical of a certain kind of argumentative style that is transparently flexible, shifting constantly to try to find a position that can be defended.
But at least we are assured that now “things are going to get better”. That is called hopium, as in “I sure hope I haven’t backed the wrong horse by supporting something that has harmed Republicans and helped Democrats”. I sure hope we haven’t screwed up the inquiry into Biden corruption by delaying it for a few weeks, till it bumps up against the holidays and gets sidetracked again.” “I sure hope we can regain some momentum in our investigations into FBI malfeasance now that this a lower priority” “I sure hope hope hope hope hope.”
Hope is not a strategy but it’s all you have when your strategy starts with “Let’s just blow it all up and see what happens”.
Hey, I want things to get better. I don’t even hope that you and your side will be humiliated, which is your hope for the people who think this was a dumb idea. I think it’s kind of sweet, in a very naïve and rather simplistic way, to have such faith in the ability of one man to turn the entire arc of Republican Congressional success in a different direction. OK, that’s sarcasm. Need more fonts.
But you just keep those fingers crossed and if it all goes the way you want it the current “squishes” you used to admire will, as you say, have egg on their faces and a new savior will arise in the House to take over from Saint Matthew as he deals with his fundraising and ethics violations and dreams of being governor of a state that knows him too well to give him a snowball’s chance and then everything will SHAZAAM! be “better”.
Good article and even funnier excerpt …
Democrats giving up on environmental reviews is like Republicans giving up on…
Sorry, bad example. Washington Republicans give up on stuff all the time. But Democrats almost never let go of their pet programs, so Democrats bypassing environmental reviews to build Trump’s wall is the Bat Signal lighting up because the Joker just escaped Arkham Asylum.
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/10/05/white-house-in-full-panic-mode-over-border-crisis-and-you-wont-believe-what-happens-next-n1732307
Those who dominate the sales of drugs rely on a simple concept: The greater the threat of severe symptoms or death, the narrower the scope of treatment is deemed appropriate and viable, with more potential for profits.
Jim Banks is on the local talk show that comes on after Dan Bongino. He just endorsed Jim Jordan for Speaker.
I like and respect Jim, from what I have seen and what you have said about him. It’s interesting that he did not support the McCarthy coup.
I think the rumor is that Trump is going that way, as well.
Without getting into the fight about whether or not Gaetz should have done it, we might be plucking out of this nettle a flower of victory. I’ve been generally supportive of McCarthy understanding the problems he’s been dealing with but at the end of the day, I do think he could have done a lot more.
Most punditry concentrates on, “Well, the Democrats control the Senate and the White House so we can’t get our stuff”. Which is true – but only to a point. We do control the House. The Democrats can’t get anything without us. This is huge leverage. And with Pudding Brain’s people now building the wall and resuming deportations, the political landscape has shifted decisively in our favor. Whoever gets the nod will need to come up with two or three non-negotiable demands. We get A, B and C or nothing happens. Obviously, fully building the wall gets in there – the other two? Could be lots of things…and in a sense, anything. Any particular GOP policy priority can be used. The main thing is to get something. That’s what has been missing – that is why Gaetz was successful. In the big budget fracas just ended we got nothing. The Democrats got all they wanted – the government was funded; that means gazillions of dollars still being shoveled out to cronies and to pay for people to call me a racist. Can’t be like that any more. Without a trifecta we can’t get our wish list but we must get something. And if the GOP doesn’t give us a trophy to mount on the wall, they will just get more and more of what just happened – and deservedly so.
The good news is that I think the smarter part of the Congressional GOP sees this – that they have to get the GOP base a pound of flesh going forward.
Excellent points, Mark, with one exception. While we do have a numerical advantage, slim but still an advantage, in the House, we can’t count on all those votes.
“What’s the plan? Do I look like a guy with a PLAN??”
Quiz question: Quote from Matt Gaetz, The Joker, Joe Biden, or Mayorkas?
…harder than it looks, isn’t it?