Today is Wednesday 4, October 4, 2o23. The day is coming to a close since Elliot and I went out to dinner in Whitestone, Queens, to a favorite Italian restaurant, but the absence of two friends, “Gene,” who moved out of Bayside last week, and “Mark,” who died in April was deeply felt all throughout the meal. We thought of them as we sat down to dinner around 6 p.m. As we were eating, my phone rang, and it was “Harold” at the other end. I mentioned to him that I would call him back after we finished with dinner.

So when we got back from the Riviera, I called Harold around 8:15 p.m. and talked to him over an hour. When I finished with Harold, I came into the living room to watch another episode of James May’s series on Japan. Here Elliot and I watched the episode on Kyoto, which ran close to an hour. (There was not too much information provided in May’s travelogue that we didn’t know already from reading several guidebooks and seeing YouTube videos.). So it’s now past 11; actually, it’s 11:15 right now.

The only story I can report on is the first ridiculous action that U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) carried out in his new role as Kevin McCarthy’s temporary replacement as House speaker. He evicted Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, the former Democratic House Majority Leader, from their Capitol offices, in what reportedly is an act of “revenge.” I kid you not! This ludicrous first action by the Speaker Pro Tempore was covered in an online Alter Net article by David Badash entitled “Pelosi strikes back after new House GOP leadership immediately targets top Democrats in act of ‘revenge.'”

It seems that this replacement for the horrible McCarthy is just as bad. He’s a hard-core conservative (read: MAGAt) and he carried out his first act as speaker in an angry fashion when he ordered Pelosi late Tuesday night to vacate her office immediately. An aide to McHenry directed Pelosi to “Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be rekeyed.”

Overnight, McHenry made the same demand of Hoyer.

The former Democratic Speaker of the House struck back at this petty action by the new kid on the block, saying, “With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol.” She added, “Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems important to them [the Republicans].” She continued her rebuke of this repugnican “leadership,” by saying, “Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important to the American people.” Who really believes this will happen if this crazy caucus gets its way?

In terms of whether Pelosi would have voted to oust McCarthy, as many in her conference did so, she was not in Washington to cast a vote since she was in California attending memorial services for the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was a former colleague and friend of hers. But after Hoyer was targeted for eviction, the Speaker Emerita issued an official announcement to be placed in the Congressional Record. It is now on record that Pelosi would have voted to expel the white-haired feckless speaker from his speakership. Good, Ms. Pelosi. You were a much better speaker than your successor any day, and the American people miss you in that role.

The chaos is rolling down the Hill day in and day out. When can we get these bums out? is all I can say. Today extremism, dysfunction, and divisiveness has won the day and seems to continue to roam the halls of Congress for the time being. I just worry about what is going to happen in mid-November when the government could face another shutdown decision if these dysfunctional republicans cannot get their act together to reach a decision to avert national disaster.

God help us!

Stay safe and be well.