vxbush 10/4/2023 5:15:17 AM

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Speculation #1: Someone is giving money to Matt Gaetz to screw with Republicans and that's why he went after McCarthy and is part of the Freedom Caucus. 

Speculation #2: Gaetz knew something really dirty or bad about McCarthy and used the recent continuing resolution to fund the government as the excuse to have him ousted. 

If the situation were Speculation #1, then I would have expected Gaetz to want the chair. He doesn't. In either case, the Democrats in the House saw a great opportunity to damage the Republicans and went for it. I really have to wonder who has been talking to Gaetz to get him to go this route--or is he a student of McConnell and saw how rich McConnell got while proclaiming to love America and stabbing it in the back? 

As if we needed another example of the inability to think beyond first-order logic with these congresscritters. 

vxbush 10/4/2023 5:19:09 AM

2

Sundance believes Gaetz is finally delivering on all the frustration that Republicans have with the party that has been repeatedly voted into office and yet has not delivered on any of its promises since 2010. To be honest, I haven't seen any video of Gaetz presenting this opinion, so that doesn't seem like a reasonable assumption, although it might explain why some Republicans are happy to see McCarthy go.

vxbush 10/4/2023 5:20:36 AM

3

And Laphonza Butler, despite NOT being a resident of California, has already been sworn in as the senator from California. 

And no one in the Senate batted an eye or even raised a single protest. 

We are so screwed. 

vxbush 10/4/2023 5:23:30 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 3:

Maybe this is why Gaetz moved when he did; Dems needed a distraction from Butler. 

vxbush 10/4/2023 5:27:02 AM

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vxbush 10/4/2023 5:34:10 AM

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Only the ‘Far Right’ Is Standing Between You and the Death of Free Speech

vxbush 10/4/2023 5:37:43 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

Dem stories the Gaetz removal of McCarthy took off the front page: 

• Democrat congressman who pulled the fire alarm, which is a felony offense
• The Biden administration lead Iranian negotiator caught in an Iranian spy ring
• Butler's ascension to the Senate
• The chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committe was charged with taking bribes from a foreign government
• Hunter Biden pled not guilty and his lawyers plan to call on the president as a witness
• The continuing saga of money heading to the extended Biden family for no recognizable services other than influence peddling

Occasional Reader 10/4/2023 5:44:19 AM

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Oh, and meanwhile: Report: Biden’s Iran special envoy was a key member of an Iranian government influence/espionage operstion:

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/10/04/biden-iran-envoy-key-member-of-iranian-government-spy-ring-influence-operation-n582188

Just…. Incredible.

Occasional Reader 10/4/2023 5:49:05 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 8:

“ The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails. The emails, which were reported on by veteran Wall Street Journalcorrespondent Jay Solomon, writing in Semafor, and by Iran International, the London-based émigré opposition outlet which is the most widely read independent news source inside Iran, were published last week after being extensively verified over a period of several months by the two outlets. They showed that Malley had helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier.”

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-spy-ring-robert-malley-lee-smith

Occasional Reader 10/4/2023 6:38:02 AM

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vxbush 10/4/2023 6:38:06 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 9:

FARA violations, anyone? 

/

Occasional Reader 10/4/2023 6:42:07 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 10:

That said, it appears that there are questions about the veracity of the story. 

vxbush 10/4/2023 6:51:36 AM

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Poor Nancy Pelosi. Said she wouldn't stab McCarthy in the back, but did. Result? She loses a special office. 

Poor baby.

JCM 10/4/2023 7:17:32 AM

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RE: House (R) drama.

It looks to me like Court Eunuchs have taken over.

JCM 10/4/2023 7:20:49 AM

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This level of petty does make me smile.

Nancy Pelosi evicted from her private office in the Capitol by interim House speaker

vxbush 10/4/2023 7:30:39 AM

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Reply to JCM in 15:

Um, already posted in #13. But it's sweet enough to post twice, I grant you.

JCM 10/4/2023 7:38:55 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 16:

Caffeine blood levels are not yet nominal!

JCM 10/4/2023 7:43:15 AM

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I lost all faith in the (R) in many respects consider them more vile than the (D)s.

The failure to repeal Obamacare, countless investigations full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.

Failure on virtually every political front, meanwhile they keep making the same old promises.

vxbush 10/4/2023 8:54:51 AM

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In #17 JCM said: Caffeine blood levels are not yet nominal!

I hear, and I provide. 

vxbush 10/4/2023 8:57:14 AM

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In #18 JCM said: I lost all faith in the (R) in many respects consider them more vile than the (D)s. The failure to repeal Obamacare, countless investigations full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. Failure on virtually every political front, meanwhile they keep making the same old promises.

Yup. That's an accurate assessment. 

Occasional Reader 10/4/2023 8:59:00 AM

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In #11 vxbush said: FARA violations, anyone? 

Oh, this seems to go way beyond that; more like outright espionage.

This story is HUGE, but it makes Democrats look bad, so of course there's nary a peep in the MSM.

On the other hand, I'm surprised the missing Chinese sub story isn't getting more coverage. 

JCM 10/4/2023 9:09:56 AM

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I agree with Gaetz on the budgeting issues.

Congress has had a legally required budget for decades, just a series of omnibus CRs.

Budgeting needs to be agency specific, the budget needs to be zero based and limited to previous years revenue.

JCM 10/4/2023 9:37:52 AM

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Swiss writer who called journalist 'fat lesbian' sentenced to 60 days in prison, LGBTQ groups applaud decision

Is she fat? Is she lesbian?

Is telling truth a crime in Swizterland?

JCM 10/4/2023 9:40:00 AM

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Reply to JCM in 22:

But I don't think that is worth making a deal with the dems to unseat The Speaker.

vxbush 10/4/2023 9:41:37 AM

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In #21 Occasional Reader said: Oh, this seems to go way beyond that; more like outright espionage. This story is HUGE, but it makes Democrats look bad, so of course there's nary a peep in the MSM.

Well, I was making a joke considering that two of Trump's administrative choices were hit with FARA violations as a way to force them to play ball, but I don't disagree with your assessment at all. Just remember, if it does make it into the news, the story will be "Republicans pounce", not the wrongdoing of the Democrat. 

JCM 10/4/2023 9:46:53 AM

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This from Steve Dace.

This fuster cluck is happening right now because the Republican Party is ensnared by a trap of its own making. 

Most of the Republican Party can no longer do out in the open now what it wants to, which is betray the base and pocket the money, because the emergence of Trump and his base existentially disrupted their paradigm. As well as exposed the fecklessness of the GOP to an unsustainable level. Trump, and the movement surrounding him he inspired, should absolutely get credit for that. 

However, Trump the disrupter isn't much of an actual leader. If you're going to blow something up, better have something better ready to replace it. Trump didn't. He really just expected to make better deals with the same swamp rats that were always. Thus, there is no counter-vision, or new breed of leader to replace the surrender caucus with. Because the only standard was will you slurp Trump, you have Trump loyalists like Gaetz and MTG on opposing sides with McCarthy. You got McCarthy as Speaker at all because he gladly slurped Trump for power. You have people with good voting records like Gaetz aligned with total RINOs like Stefanik and Mace, when all they have in common is Trump slurping. 

Everything on the Right is about one man, and one man only. There is no vision (leadership), and without a vision the people perish. Which is why Democrats have out-performed 30 special elections this year by an average of 11 points. They have a vision, albeit a demonic one, but a demonic vision will defeat a cult of personality every single time. 

Just like it is defeating us as we speak. That's why Democrats are fine vacating McCarthy, too, in order to expose these fissures on the Right all the more. Divide and conquer is the oldest strategy known to man. They are united by vision, while we do Kool-Aid acid tests of loyalty not to a vision, but a singular figure, who isn't inclined to return that loyalty all too often. And, given his age, won't be relevant all that much longer anyway. 

So what is the plan? What is the vision? There isn't one, and there never was. Nothing has changed. The cake is still being baked the same, it's just the frosting is zanier than ever. Despite all those zany hijinks, we're right back to where we always started. 

Republicans focus on winning the next election, Democrats are out to win the next generation

vxbush 10/4/2023 10:43:24 AM

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In #26 JCM said: Republicans focus on winning the next election

I would dispute even this. If they were truly serious about winning elections, they would have filed more lawsuits against ballot pickup and Democrat shenanigans. They would have actually considered supporting Trump against all the frivolous lawsuits. They don't. They just want to keep feeding at the trough and get their money.