Vacate Watch - Speaker Mike Johnson (R - LA)

[jaF0]

Third parties have been discussed repeatedly over recent years. Tea Party times for one. Then not too long ago real 'Pubs wanted to start one to break away from the Orange Cult.

So far, Nada.

 

[RoryN]

More evidence of the Speaker bullshit being a positive for the Democratic party. MAGA kids are already discussing a third party.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1715455439486218343

"America First": good name for a MAGAt party.

You can just envision the American & Confederate flags mounted on it, like it's a pick-up.

 

[ll74]

Third parties have been discussed repeatedly over recent years. Tea Party times for one. Then not too long ago real 'Pubs wanted to start one to break away from the Orange Cult.

So far, Nada.

I'll be interested in the staying power of this crew and the effort they put in.

My guess is that they don't have any fortitude to do it. I do think it will dilute the GOP candidates that come out of the primaries in regards to electability...which ultimately is a win for Dems.

 

[phrodeau]

27 days and counting to shutdown.

Plenty of time to hold votes for the dozen or so nominees, then the dropouts endorsing two or three leading candidates, then the negotiating down to one, who will just squeak by with a majority.

 

[dmallord]

I opened this to read what I thought would be intelligent input into the situation of the speaker of the house. Nothing but a bunch of assholes calling each other names.
There, I joined the crowd.

Welcome to the cesspool of Lit's politics. That's also how I found it when I wandered in, looking for compelling thought. Nah, just the typical hate-isms of 'My party is better than yours.' and 'Oh yeah, mine at least wears underpants.' kind of responses. [Those Melanie, Melania, and Michelle rants, for example.]

Regarding the house speaker, that selection process still needs to be solved. Who would have thought two diverse and erudite groups of intelligent men and women would be unable to reach an amicable resolution in our shared time of crisis? [Yep, just a bit of editing humor this morning; I couldn't resist.]

We arrived at this parallax situation because the majority party gets to write and rewrite the procedural rules over the objections of the other party or parties. Somehow, the representatives who used to address each other as 'distinguished gentleperson from [insert state here], and the rebuttals were done similarly, now address each other with 'Fuck you,' and 'I'll kick your ass, asshole, just come to my office for that.' They don't stop at insults. Their team now calls the wives and threatens them with abuse and death. The party in power refuses to offer solutions to get out of the quagmire Americans expect of them as leaders. It adheres to the definition of insanity: Behave the same way and expect different outcomes.

There seems to be no adult in the house [no pun intended]. How do you fix what the Constitutional framers never conceptualized as a possibility of our inability to govern? I am surprised that legal scholars have yet to step up and offer erudite solutions to this mess. The process needs to be fixed. Isn't there some intervention, a rabbit-out-the-hat move, that the other two branches can invoke in such a scenario? If it doesn't exist, one branch should invoke a temporary claim to have one and put the house in order with a temporary leader empowered with emergency authority. The Pro-tem Speaker role supposedly did that when it was created; however, even that individual's rules are riddled with inept powers in a crisis. His hands are tied behind his back: the ability to call Congress into session, but only to recognize the legitimacy of a new speaker's rise to power and some watered-down control. The Republicans wrote that set of rules.

Envision this: a Republican body stands at the bottom of a rapidly filling well. The only way out is up. Like rats, they climb over one another's crushed bodies to reach the top. Alas, they cannot reach the rim and pull themselves out. Meanwhile, the President, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the American public surround the rim, watching the spectacle. All chant, "You can do it. You can do it! Jump higher!" Meanwhile, some quiet Democrat is lowering a rope - but the Republicans left standing at the bottom as it fills with water refuse to take the offered rope because a lowly Democrat holds the other end of its tenuous lifeline. They seem bent on death before salvation and rationality prevail.

Will Rogers probably foresaw this event when he said, "Congress meets tomorrow morning. Let us all pray: Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with them, oh Lord, for they know not what they’re doing. Amen.”

And now, back to our regular entertainment segments. Thanks for tuning in to my take on Will Rogers' viewpoint.

 

[ll74]

Welcome to the cesspool of Lit's politics. That's also how I found it when I wandered in, looking for compelling thought. Nah, just the typical hate-isms of 'My party is better than yours.' and 'Oh yeah, mine at least wears underpants.' kind of responses. [Those Melanie, Melania, and Michelle rants, for example.]

Regarding the house speaker, that selection process still needs to be solved. Who would have thought two diverse and erudite groups of intelligent men and women would be unable to reach an amicable resolution in our shared time of crisis? [Yep, just a bit of editing humor this morning; I couldn't resist.]

We arrived at this parallax situation because the majority party gets to write and rewrite the procedural rules over the objections of the other party or parties. Somehow, the representatives who used to address each other as 'distinguished gentleperson from [insert state here], and the rebuttals were done similarly, now address each other with 'Fuck you,' and 'I'll kick your ass, asshole, just come to my office for that.' They don't stop at insults. Their team now calls the wives and threatens them with abuse and death. The party in power refuses to offer solutions to get out of the quagmire Americans expect of them as leaders. It adheres to the definition of insanity: Behave the same way and expect different outcomes.

There seems to be no adult in the house [no pun intended]. How do you fix what the Constitutional framers never conceptualized as a possibility of our inability to govern? I am surprised that legal scholars have yet to step up and offer erudite solutions to this mess. The process needs to be fixed. Isn't there some intervention, a rabbit-out-the-hat move, that the other two branches can invoke in such a scenario? If it doesn't exist, one branch should invoke a temporary claim to have one and put the house in order with a temporary leader empowered with emergency authority. The Pro-tem Speaker role supposedly did that when it was created; however, even that individual's rules are riddled with inept powers in a crisis. His hands are tied behind his back: the ability to call Congress into session, but only to recognize the legitimacy of a new speaker's rise to power and some watered-down control. The Republicans wrote that set of rules.

Envision this: a Republican body stands at the bottom of a rapidly filling well. The only way out is up. Like rats, they climb over one another's crushed bodies to reach the top. Alas, they cannot reach the rim and pull themselves out. Meanwhile, the President, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the American public surround the rim, watching the spectacle. All chant, "You can do it. You can do it! Jump higher!" Meanwhile, some quiet Democrat is lowering a rope - but the Republicans left standing at the bottom as it fills with water refuse to take the offered rope because a lowly Democrat holds the other end of its tenuous lifeline. They seem bent on death before salvation and rationality prevail.

Will Rogers probably foresaw this event when he said, "Congress meets tomorrow morning. Let us all pray: Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with them, oh Lord, for they know not what they’re doing. Amen.”

And now, back to our regular entertainment segments. Thanks for tuning in to my take on Will Rogers' viewpoint.

Good summation.

I wonder if one of the other branches could be compelled to act.

 

[Bn2f]

Agreed. Good summation, but... the Melania thingy. One person gave, shall we be gracious and say, negligent misinformation and then others chimed in with artful corrections. I make no apologies for my gleeful participation. But to the matter at hand - what can the other branches do? Boehbert, Mace, and MGT through various quotes have been railing against the male dominated republican establishment. House republicans are all but ignoring MCConnell. Gaetz and Jordan are seemingly doing the bidding of the candidate that's leading their party for the nomination and his motives are always selfish with an eye towards polling vs Biden. I know that Jeffries has reached out to moderate republican members, but as noted, none has felt the water yet reach their nose to grab any lifeline. This, as it has always been, a problem for the party with no practical solutions to anything for themselves to solve.

 

[coati]

Boy, that MAGAt Jim Jordan sure did a good job of unifying the GOP.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Welcome to the cesspool of Lit's politics. That's also how I found it when I wandered in, looking for compelling thought. Nah, just the typical hate-isms of 'My party is better than yours.' and 'Oh yeah, mine at least wears underpants.' kind of responses. [Those Melanie, Melania, and Michelle rants, for example.]

Regarding the house speaker, that selection process still needs to be solved. Who would have thought two diverse and erudite groups of intelligent men and women would be unable to reach an amicable resolution in our shared time of crisis? [Yep, just a bit of editing humor this morning; I couldn't resist.]

We arrived at this parallax situation because the majority party gets to write and rewrite the procedural rules over the objections of the other party or parties. Somehow, the representatives who used to address each other as 'distinguished gentleperson from [insert state here], and the rebuttals were done similarly, now address each other with 'Fuck you,' and 'I'll kick your ass, asshole, just come to my office for that.' They don't stop at insults. Their team now calls the wives and threatens them with abuse and death. The party in power refuses to offer solutions to get out of the quagmire Americans expect of them as leaders. It adheres to the definition of insanity: Behave the same way and expect different outcomes.

There seems to be no adult in the house [no pun intended]. How do you fix what the Constitutional framers never conceptualized as a possibility of our inability to govern? I am surprised that legal scholars have yet to step up and offer erudite solutions to this mess. The process needs to be fixed. Isn't there some intervention, a rabbit-out-the-hat move, that the other two branches can invoke in such a scenario? If it doesn't exist, one branch should invoke a temporary claim to have one and put the house in order with a temporary leader empowered with emergency authority. The Pro-tem Speaker role supposedly did that when it was created; however, even that individual's rules are riddled with inept powers in a crisis. His hands are tied behind his back: the ability to call Congress into session, but only to recognize the legitimacy of a new speaker's rise to power and some watered-down control. The Republicans wrote that set of rules.

Envision this: a Republican body stands at the bottom of a rapidly filling well. The only way out is up. Like rats, they climb over one another's crushed bodies to reach the top. Alas, they cannot reach the rim and pull themselves out. Meanwhile, the President, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the American public surround the rim, watching the spectacle. All chant, "You can do it. You can do it! Jump higher!" Meanwhile, some quiet Democrat is lowering a rope - but the Republicans left standing at the bottom as it fills with water refuse to take the offered rope because a lowly Democrat holds the other end of its tenuous lifeline. They seem bent on death before salvation and rationality prevail.

Will Rogers probably foresaw this event when he said, "Congress meets tomorrow morning. Let us all pray: Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with them, oh Lord, for they know not what they’re doing. Amen.”

And now, back to our regular entertainment segments. Thanks for tuning in to my take on Will Rogers' viewpoint.

The framers envisioned situations like this being resolved by the offenders being voted out of office. Once people stop voting for Republicans, the House will start functioning again.

 

[Bn2f]

You have a party that deposed their speaker because he passed a short term spending bill that didn’t fund Ukraine. Now, they’re struggling to choose a leader who will immediately face passing a spending bill that will demand, because of American security interests abroad, funding to Israel AND Ukraine. .

 

[Bn2f]

IMO it’s as if they’re advocating for a leader who conveys strength but one who also has Neville Chamberlain like qualities. But that would be crazy for them, right? Right???

 

[dmallord]

Good summation.

I wonder if one of the other branches could be compelled to act.

Yes, there are other avenues for that to take place. It takes some brave intestinal fortitude from our leadership.

The Constitution doesn't have any provisions to fix the current paralysis of the House of Representatives, as previously noted.

Two possible paths can compel action:

Path One, the US Senate can call for an emergency joint session of both houses and, under those guidelines, evoke actions that would fund the government and hammer out the funding for the war efforts without having a Speaker of the House. It would eventually be subject to appeal to the Supreme Court, but with pressure from concerned citizens, it is 'doable.' There are a few past precedence situations, e.g., September 11, 2001, was such a case over the Twin Towers attack on our country. Congress jointly passed that funding, and it went into action immediately.

Path Two, under the Emergency Powers Act, the US President has the ability to protect America's best interests by Presidental declaration of funding the war efforts, declaring America is in danger. That, too, would be subject to review, eventually. But he could temporarily override Congressional inaction due to an extraordinary state of paralysis in Congress. The clear and present danger environment and the public's will would come into play. And those Supreme Court robed people.

Anyone higher than a Speaker Pro-tempore want to stick out their necks - step up for the well-being of our Country first before politics?

 

[Bn2f]

I believe in the democratic process and republicans have the majority so it’s hard for me to envision doing something un-democratic to circumvent that - which leads to my concerns that the narrative from right wing media will continue to be towards an authoritarian who can bypass the crisis that republicans themselves have put America in - I think republicans learned that tactic from Saul Alinsky.

 

[Bn2f]

Ugh screw this! My brain startin to hurt.
AGAIN! Look who are the only ones showing concern about this and chiming in opinions? And it’s not just now and this moment - it’s been 24 pages of concerned Americans discussing this matter with brief intermissions from Deplorables complaining about Vogue magazine covers and what not.
I’m out.

 

[coati]

Hey, how 'bout that guy Matt Gaetz? Maybe he could unify his party.

 

[domroger]

If after all this drama, delay and idiocy McCarthy ends up back as speaker then the GOP is going to come off as the biggest group of morons. Putting the country at risk because of an internal temper tantrum just to end back at where they started would be a stunningly stupid move.

I don't think this will happen because the Venmo 8 won't vote for McCarthy,although with the current GOP anything is possible.

 

[YDB95]

No, they accused Michelle of being a man.

And there ain't no way Icanthelpit missed that. It simply didn't register with him because that kind of disrespect doesn't bother him when aimed at Democrats.

Not to mention, Icant, in this very thread you accused her of being "anti-American". That's bashing, no matter how desperately you want to believe it's true.

 

[coati]

I don't think this will happen because the Venmo 8 won't vote for McCarthy,although with the current GOP anything is possible.

There certainly is not a single patriot in the Republican Party who would be willing to to negotiate with Democrats for a coalition agreement, like they do in civilized countries.

 

[RandyRebecca]

The "two party system" is killing America. Two right-wings representing the big business capitalist class while people's living standards fall or even collapse, our taxes taken while communities decline, yet there's always money for the mega rich and for foreign imperialist wars to the tune of billions of $$$$$. A lot of Trump supporters don't support him because they believe in his policies, but because they think that he will burn it all down and stick it to the big city liberals. The Democrats always side with the big city, Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley types while peddling their "progressive" myths, while the Republicans are always pandering to the evangelical crazies while the Democrats seek "consensus" with them. This all has to end. End the madness.

 

[ll74]

The "two party system" is killing America. Two right-wings representing the big business capitalist class while people's living standards fall or even collapse, yet there's always money for the mega rich and for foreign imperialist wars to the tune of billions of $$$$$. A lot of Trump supporters don't support him because they believe in his policies, but because they think that he will burn it all down and stick it to the big city liberals. The Democrats always side with the big city, Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley types while pandering their "progressive" myths, while the Republicans are always pandering to the evangelical crazies while the Democrats seek "consensus" with them. This all has to end. End the madness.

Good luck on making your third party

 

[RandyRebecca]

Good luck on making your third party

Now you understand why many people support Trump, to burn it all to the ground. And in that outlook, what do the Democrats represent?

 

[RandyRebecca]

When people are stressed, they tend to retreat or default into binary thinking, because it's easier. Good/bad, us/them, Republican/Democrat, etc. But the stresses within both parties may rip them apart. A bag of popcorn may be a better investment than membership or loyalty to either party.

That would be fine if this world of ours was a TV movie, rather than threatening to devour us with it, just so some billionaire can get another billion dollars in his or her bank account and balance sheets.

 

[ll74]

Now you understand why many people support Trump, to burn it all to the ground. And in that outlook, what do the Democrats represent?

Trump is a Republican.

The Democrats passed the largest infrastructure bill, the largest green energy bill and the largest modern microchip manufacturing expansion bill in history.

Their addition of the child tax credit led to the highest decline of child poverty in history

 

[ll74]

Oh, and every single one was.passed.woth Republican support

 

[RandyRebecca]

Trump is a Republican.

He is seen very differently to a Romney or McCain by the MAGA supporters, I assure you.

The Democrats passed the largest infrastructure bill, the largest green energy bill and the largest modern microchip manufacturing expansion bill in history.

For what purpose? To ensure inflation instead of deflation when the war in Ukraine starts? Deflation would have meant falling commodity prices alongside sluggish economic growth. By pumping trillions of dollars of taxpayers money into "infrastructure", inflation comes instead, meaning rising commodity prices to "discipline" ordinary Americans and ordinary people internationally, making them pay the price so that the richest get richer still.

And also, what do the small cities, suburbs and towns get out of it all? It all goes to the big cities. Not all of these towns are rural either. Many are deindustrialized, places where factories once made things and those jobs later left town and were shipped abroad. The big city rich, especially in the media, then have the audacity to say that the big cities fund the small cities, towns and rural areas, after taking away their livelihoods and using their taxes on foreign wars and big city services while leaving the smaller areas to rot away. This is an international phenomenon too.

And "green policies" under capitalism mean making ordinary people pay for it all, not the richest. That is why anti-green platforms get support.