The Coup is complete

[edhopper]

if accounts are true as to what McCarthy has agreed to, the likes of Gaetz, Boebart, Greene and Gozar now run the House.
I would like to think all the other GOP Congress people will not go along with their plan to destroy the United States. But they are Republicans, so I wouldn't put any faith in that.

[33taw]

1. The house can obstruct, but they cannot pass legislation on their own.

[catbyte]

3. But they can stop any legislation from being passed at all and that's almost worse.

[Caliman73]

11. No doubt we are in for some very difficult times, but there may be consequences.

I say the above with one caveat. If the media does its goddamned job, then there will be consequences. That is a very big IF. So far the media has utterly failed to accurately report the disaster that is the Conservative movement and their political vehicle, the Republicans Party.

They can and will stop any meaningful legislation from being passed. They will pursue stupid and cruel legislation. They will gamble with the full faith and credit of the United States.

Thing is and again, HUGE IF... if the media reports all the bullshit they will get up to, in any truthful way, The Republicans are going to get spanked in the next election because they CANNOT govern. They will show their cruelty, and they are in a position of power and will fuck it and the country up.

So, again, we are in for some really rough times and unfortunately, the institution that can at least tell the tale, is the media, which has done a really really shitty job at telling the tale so far.

[edhopper]

13. The Media

will ask the Democrats why they are in favor of run away spending.

[Evolve Dammit]

33. This!

[Uncle Joe]

29. The corporate media may give lip service to democracy for a while but I don't expect that to last

through 2024.

Their major concerns are keeping their corporate conglomerate owners happy and their bottom lines, which just means selling more commercials; drugs, fossil fuels or whatever.

As I have posted before the corporate media is at the zenith of capitalism, no political party is more owned by oligarchs and the mega-corporations than the Republicans.

Democracy may be most important to the American People but capitalism is the corporate media's baby.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

73. Capitalism and liberal democracy are inextricably linked.

Command economies have resulted in economic misery and the crushing of freedom and human rights every time they've been implemented despite the claims made by populists and autocrats.

The Democratic Party is committed to the values of liberal democracy.

[Uncle Joe]

75. It was unfettered capitalism aka corporate supremacy that did nothing but

work to overthrow democracy around the world.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

76. The economic and political record of populist authoritarian/totalitarian societies

with command economies is far (far) worse.

Name one state with a command economy that you'd hold up as a model for those who prize the sort of freedoms we enjoy in a liberal democracy.

[Uncle Joe]

78. There will always be a command economy, the preeminent question being,

who do you want to give the command (s), 'We the People" tasked with representing all Americans, the public good and that can be voted out of office if they fail in their job or mega-conglomerate corporations and oligarchs with their preeminent allegiance to their major shareholders; (which is an extremely small percent of the overall population) and oligarchs?

[Polybius]

61. We got a lot of good stuff passed in the past two years

Most of the things we wanted are law already. Much is still on the table though, such as voting rights laws. A national abortion law I don't see happening anyway with the filibuster in the Senate.

[edhopper]

12. They are planning to shut down the Government

and do untold damage.

[Iwasthere]

15. Mint the platinum coin

[edhopper]

26. Would love Joe

to do that.

[Initech]

24. This is exactly why I say that MAGA / America First is a cancer on politics.

They must be eradicated at all costs.

[Takket]

2. they can try to ruin anything they want but is is DOA at the Senate

[at140]

5. No. Not everything.

All new funding bills originate in the House.

[at140]

9. Next election is 22 months away.

They can do lot of damage in the meanwhile.

[edhopper]

16. They did it under Clinton

and still won in 2000, They did it under Obama, and still won in 2010.

[Dave says]

66. Didn't they shutdown government

In 2011? After the midterms?

[former9thward]

81. The first shutdown was in 1995-96 (Clinton)

21 days. Then in 2013. (Obama) 16 days. Then in 2018-19. (Trump) 35 days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdowns_in_the_United_States

[Dave says]

83. Ah yes, forgot about that

But after the ‘95-‘96 shutdown, the Repubs picked up 2 senate seats and lost onlyv2 house seats (if I’m reading Wikipedia correctly - sorry, under the weather here). Clinton did deliver a thorough drubbing of Bob Dole, though.

I think the mild electoral impact was due to the mild, if any, economic impact that first closure had?

EDIT: I see that was your point!

[Boomerproud]

25. Republicans never get blamed for anything.

Eom

[Evolve Dammit]

34. WTF is up with that?? It is so historically true going back to Gingrich/ Delay in the 90's. It's

like the two levels of "justice" for blacks and whites, rich and poor. Same shit. MSM sucks.

[hadEnuf]

44. Yes. In the 1990's, right around the time that unregulated right-wing media started

to get a firm hold in American politics.

The good guys slept while the bad guys launched an invasion.
Now the media is nothing more than a profit machine for their corporate owners and we know who those owners' support.

[Evolve Dammit]

68. Coincides with Fairness Doctrine going away

[hadEnuf]

69. Absolutely. And media deregulation.

Those were the golden ring for the right.

[Evolve Dammit]

70. I am wondering if anyone has initiated legislation to remedy that over last 20 years? Never heard

a peep. Anyone?

[hadEnuf]

74. No legislation that I know of.

Most people thought it would ever get this bad. Some of us saw it but I think a lot felt it would run it's course. Others argue it's a free speech issue. In my opinion, many on our side simply did not, or do not understand what we are dealing with.

Legislation may have nipped it in the bud 25 years ago, but now it may take several cycles of full Democratic control for any legislation to arise and actually pass.

[Evolve Dammit]

79. The Fairness Doctrine was passed as the need for "fairness" was real and identified. WTF happened?

I suspect it was GOP lobbying and RW smearing that accomplished its recission.

[Genki Hikari]

48. What's up is that

Our traitor mainstream media acts as willing accomplices to spreading r thug propaganda.

The traitor media oligarch lapdogs have been doing this for decades now. They have been treating the Democrats like pariahs while exalting every stupid thing r thugs get up to, and people keep going to them to be lied to this way.

The traitor media will NOT give Democrats equal access to expressing their message to the American people. They haven't done it for the majority of my adult life, so why expect them to do it now?

That is why this stupid r thug takeover will work--because the traitor media will aid and abet them in their goals. They've been doing it all along.

[Evolve Dammit]

67. not disagreeing. I only listen to Democracy Now and MSNBC at this point. CNN against my better

judgment...

[brooklynite]

30. "All new funding bills originate in the House"...and need to be passed as well by the Senate.

[at140]

36. yes, and signed by the president

However the House can choke off new bills with funding for ordinary people's needs.

[edhopper]

14. And not raising the debt ceiling

and shutting down the government?

[at140]

4. Is this any way to run a democracy?

A better strategy would have been for a dozen democratic rep-elects to have voted for McCarthy BEFORE Gaetz, Boebart, Greene and Gozar squeezed McCarthy enough to extract written policy changes.

[Genki Hikari]

49. Uh, no, Democrats voting for that traitor trash scumbag

Would NOT have changed one single thing.

McCarthy was giving away the store to the Traitor Caucus in NOVEMBER. He knew he had to appease them, and he has turned himself inside out every day since 8 November to get their votes.

NOTHING the Democrats could have done would have changed any of that. Or any of what has happened since.

So top blaming Democrats for THEIR dysfunction. Democrats are in no way to blame for this seditious filth. THE FASCIST r THUGS ARE.

Never forget it.

[at140]

59. My point is McCarthy will be even worse now

with the store he gave away IN WRITING to the extreme right wingers.

[Botany]

7. The only reason the Rs have the House is because of their cheating in gerrymandering districts .....

.... end of story.

[at140]

10. That and our effective campaign issue of

GOP wanting to stop all abortions.

[edhopper]

18. But they don't care

how they got power, only using it to fuck things up.

[Botany]

21. And they say with a straight face about how the won back the House w/the support of the voters.

Gym Jordan's district.



The Ohio Supreme Court (controlled by the GOP) ruled the districts in OH were not fair
but the republicans in the State Legislature and the SCOTUS let the dirty districts stand
not only in OH but nationwide.

[Evolve Dammit]

37. Good example of how truly fucked up we are allowing this to be normalized. n/t

[Thunderbeast]

28. THAT...and the fact that they got more votes.

Of the total ballots cast for Congress, THREE MILLION more voters cast ballots for Republicans.

The unsaid truth is that we live among many (if not most) people who want a Christo‐fasciest King to restore their white dominated view of the world.

[Genki Hikari]

50. Getting three million more votes didn't hurt, either

We have to stop blaming gerrymandering alone. The problem is that too many Americans are awful people.

[keithbvadu2]

8. Does he have to keep his promises to them?

Does he have to keep his promises to them?

After all, a republican's word is only credible if he promises cruelty or revenge.

[Cha]

19. Well.. another concession is

it will only take one person to .. "Move to Vacate" if I have that right>

And, ol Cave in Kev could be out.

[SharonClark]

22. Doubtful since a move and a second does

not guarantee the majority would vote him out.

[VMA131Marine]

27. A majority could be all the Democrats ...

And a few rebel Republicans who want to get rid of McCarthy as speaker.

The Dems certainly won’t support Kevin if a Republican tries to oust him.

[edhopper]

20. If he doesn't

and they change the rules to one Congress person being able to bring the Speaker to a vote, he will deal with the same shit as he is now. So yes, they cornered him.

[live love laugh]

17. I would like to think there are unicorns.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

31. Why I thought we should look beyond the " no way should we

help them" trope. We might have gotten a concession! Like committee chair? PLUS most importantly would have ostracized the 20 gang. And they wouldn't have gotten all the concessions! We got worse than nothing

[edhopper]

32. I had

similar thoughts.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. I want my money back!! Wasted a whole week lol

And we are in a worst position than when we started

[Genki Hikari]

51. Oh really?

And what concession the Democrats asked for and got do you think Kev would have, you know, FOLLOWED THROUGH ON?

Because Kev would have promised anything to get his votes, and then stabbed the Democrats in the back in the next breath. THIS IS WHAT r THUGS DO.

You cannot trust these people--EVER. They never make a promise, especially not to a hated Democrat, with the intent to keep it--EVER.

I can't believe people are so naive as to think the word of any r thug is worth a hootin' holler.

Because it's not.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

60. Good point - don't even try! :) I'd take trying and possibly

failing over not trying any day of week!

[Samrob]

35. We can thank FOX and Friends and all FOX pundits for the next two years of mayhem. nt

[Laura PourMeADrink]

40. Why

[housecat]

38. As long as POTUS appoints judges we can move forward without the House

[Laura PourMeADrink]

41. I know! Never understood why this mattered so much given that hopefully we can stop them

In the Senate or like you said with veto. Thankfully we don't always have to rely on the veto

[housecat]

45. I forgot about the veto. Thanks for mentioning that!

[Hekate]

42. That remains to be seen. We have the Senate and the Executive, right?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

46. Exactly. So wonder what they are thinking? Just a bit

of limelight I guess. Just like the momentary glory of nominating a speaker

[onenote]

43. How exactly would the house be any different?

Even before the first vote for speaker, the republicans had announced their agenda. Investigations, rollback of IRS spending, social security "reform" etc etc.

I'd love to see some examples of where the bulk of the House Republicans previously broke with the crazies, but they didn't. The caucus has voted in lockstep on any important bill and will continue to do so. Whatever role Boebert et al have won't make a dime's difference in how the Republicans behave.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

47. Not like during the Speaker vote there was a group that

wanted a more liberal Speaker than KM. Only crazier. Good point.

[FreepFryer]

52. Is a powerless Democratic party implicit in the post? If so, maybe its discourageprop (nt)

[edhopper]

53. No

This has nothing to do with the Democrats in the House. Only with an American public that votes for traitors.

[FreepFryer]

54. Yet there are Democrats in the House. (nt)

[edhopper]

55. I don't unbderstand

what you are trying to say?

[FreepFryer]

57. exactly what u said. your post disregards any impact the Democrats can have in Congress. (nt)

[edhopper]

58. If all the Repubs

follow the Traitor Caucus and vote to shut the Government down (debt ceiling) there is nothing the Democratic minority can do.

[FreepFryer]

62. LOL K. (nt)

[edhopper]

63. It sounds like you think

the Democrats can prevent this and are somehow complicit. Would love to hear your reasoning?

[FreepFryer]

64. in internet parlance, "K" means I'm done talking - because you proved my point.

[edhopper]

65. K

But I still don't know what your point was?

[dalton99a]

56. Indeed.

[FlyingPiggy]

71. We only need a handful of sane republicans to neutralize this extremism

[edhopper]

72. Name 2

in the House?

[FlyingPiggy]

77. There's a couple listed in here:

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/05/house-democrats-moderate-republicans-unite-speaker

[Locutusofborg]

80. The Problem-Solvers Caucus

Is composed of equal numbers of moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans and it is co-Chaired by a Democrat and a Republican. In the just concluded 117th Congress the caucus had 58 members, 29 from each party. The Republicans only can stand for 5 defectors to see any legislation they propose fail if all the Democrats vote no. Of course there are often a few Democrats who vote with the Republicans.

[spanone]

82. Insurrectionists are major players in one of our two political parties.

The foxes are in the hen house.