Tag Archives: mike-johnson

And So It Goes

Today is Thursday, January 2, 2025. Yesterday I forgot to mention another disturbing incident involving an explosion outside a Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, in which someone inside a Tesla – you know, Elon Musk’s brand – Cybertruck died whose body was burned beyond recognition. This second act of violence occurred on the same day that an Army veteran drove into a crowd of New Year Eve revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and killed fourteen people. I didn’t mention the second attack because I originally believed no one was killed in that explosion and that it involved some property owned by the president-elect. Which I really don’t care about if there’s damage to any of his properties, but there were several injured as a result of the massive explosion. Which is unacceptable.

Also what was eerily similar to this incident is that the driver of the Cybertruck rented it on Turo, the same car rental company that the New Orleans assailant used to rent his weapon of mass destruction. That weapon was also a truck, by the way. So far, authorities have not determined any connection between the two incidents at this time. But I did see the tweet Musk posted on his right-wing social media forum, X, in which the egomaniac had to somehow boost his own company so transparently, “The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle. Musk noted, adding that the Cybertruck directed the blast upwards and helped contain the blast. “Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”

What should not be done in both of these developing incidents is what stupid politicians like the president-elect and other lawmakers have done and that is rush to judgment about the motivation and the identity of the two assailants, as Chump did yesterday in which he hastily reported that the New Orleans assailant was an undocumented immigrant, which was patently false. This type of typecasting from the soon-to-be president is just a preview of how delusional his instincts will be when more of these incidents occur all throughout his second term. May God save us all!

What could also be a slim sliver of hope in the political firmament is tomorrow’s election off House speaker which now seems to be in jeopardy and could actually delay the finalization of Donald Dump’s White House win. Oh, how sweet that might be! We’ll have more chaos which will again be a template for Chump’s second – and final – term before it even begins.

This development in the speaker’s race is covered in a CNN article by Sarah Ferris and Alayna Treene entitled “Johnson allies warn that a speakership battle could delay Trump’s victory certification.”

Thus a vote against the present speaker, MAGA Mike Johnson, whom I hate, could actually delay the finalization of Dump’s second term.

The speaker has been endorsed by the Orange Menace since he’s the Turd’s biggest booster to keep the top leadership post, but he’s still racing to win over multiple GOP holdouts, a scenario that some repugnicans privately fear could lead to another days-long protracted floor fight.

This time, however, there’s a huge shadow over the race: Congress has never before tried to certify a presidential election without a House speaker in place. Some senior repugnicans say it’s unclear what would happen if there is no speaker on January 6 – the fourth anniversary of Trump’s insurrection – when Congress is scheduled to certify Dump’s win.

Therefore, it would not be a good idea to oppose Johnson, but the repugnicans have such a slim majority in the House – thank God! – that just one repugnican or two saying no could torpedo his chances of keeping the top position. If every House lawmaker shows up and votes, Johnson cannot afford to lose more than one member of his conference to win the gavel, and that has not been predicted by pundits thus far. And one repugnican lawmaker has already said he won’t support MAGA Mike.

Johnson himself told the largest purveyor of fake news, Fox News, today that he has spoken to every one of his House Freedom Caucus detractors and promised those with concerns “process reforms,” acknowledging it’s a “numbers game” and a historically slim margin. Which is good for Democrats because none expect to vote for him as House speaker.

The creepy House speaker feels he will get the votes since. . . “we’re shifting into a brand-new paradigm. We have unified government that begins tomorrow. We have the White House, the Senate, and the House, a totally different situation than we dealt with over the last 14 months since I’ve been speaker. So we’re excited to deliver on the America first [fascism] first agenda.”

Let’s see if MAGA Mike’s optimism rules the day tomorrow. I can’t wait to see what the outcome will be.

Tomorrow Elliot and I have plans to gingerly celebrate the New Year by going to Peter Luger’s Steakhouse for a late lunch/early dinner and then travel into Manhattan to, possibly, see a new Richard Gere film called Oh, Canada at IFC. The movie is an adaptation of one of Russell Banks’ last novels, written in 2021, called Foregone which I have but haven’t read. The film starts at 8, so I probably will not be writing this blog tomorrow.

If I’m not here, have a good Friday.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Wednesday, December 18, 2024. In an online article for Raw Story, longtime political analyst John Heilemann predicted that the overreach of the incoming Dump administration would open the door to Democrats to gain back voters they lost in the recent election. The article is named “Trump will hand Democrats an opportunity ‘to get their mojo back’: analyst.” Let’s pray that this expert’s prediction does come to fruition in due time.

The longtime analyst made his prediction during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program (which I don’t watch any more, by the way) in which he said that Democrats have suffered from an image problem that depressed turnout for Vice President Kamala Harris, but that it’s not an insurmountable problem.

Heilemann said, “It started with weakness with white working-class voters and now with Latino working-class voters and increasingly with working-class Black men and that’s not a position that allows for the Democratic Party to be the majority party in America.” In another quote, Heilemann provided the true reason why Harris lost the election: “We still have a country where, you know, 60 percent of the country is not college-educated and if you are not able to compete for working-class votes, you cannot be a majority party.” Heilemann elaborated that the Democratic Party has to figure out that it has become the party for a lot of people of the establishment, of the institutions, and of the rich, to some extent, and that it has to do something to counter that image.

The analyst sees an opportunity for Democrats to capitalize from Dump practically giving it away to American plutocrats and thus opening up pathways for Democrats on both fronts. Only time will tell if this guy’s predictions will come true in the very foreseeable future.

In an insane measure of how this incoming administration will burn down America’s most august institutions, the action by MAGA Mike Johnson to scrap a last-minute measure to keep the government funded into spring and avoid a shutdown as he faced a revolt from his fellow repugnicans and an increasing number of allies – including president-elect Orange Turd himself – is just representative of one of them even before the Orange Menace promises to uphold the Constitution (LOL). This latest outrage by conservative members of the House is covered in a CBS News article by Kaia Hubbard, Caitlin Yilek, and Caitlin Huey-Burns entitled “House conservatives revolt over GOP-backed spending bill to avoid shutdown.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, confirmed that the stopgap funding measure released yesterday is dead and that the path forward is unclear.

Stating the obvious, Scalise said, “There’s no new agreement right now.”

Lawmakers are facing a Friday deadline to approve new spending. The measure released yesterday would have extended funding through March 14, but it also included disaster aid, health care policy extenders, and a pay raise for members of Congress, among other provisions. The disaster relief portion of the bill alone carried a price tag of $110 billion.

As you would expect, it was Republicans who criticized the bill for giving Democrats everything they wanted. Democrats called for House repugnicans to increase the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow to pay its bills. And repugnicans typically oppose raising it. But this mounting fight taken up by the majority party only adds more tension to trying to come up with a compromise before funding lapses altogether.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries indicated that it was repugnicans who torpedoed the measure and said, “Republicans have now unilaterally decided to break a bipartisan agreement that they made.” He concluded, “House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the American people that results from a government shutdown or worse. An agreement is an agreement. It was bipartisan. And there is nothing more to say.” No, Mr. Jeffries said it all here. If there is a shutdown – God forbid – will Americans then punish Republicans for what they have done? Probably not, because they will have forgotten it in less than a month.

Now it seems that certain repugnicans are directing their anger toward the House Speaker, MAGA Johnson, and have vowed not to vote for him as speaker again when the new Congress convenes on January 3. It would not affect me one bit if Johnson is removed as speaker; the only problem is what more insane MAGA nut would be considered for the role? There are no more moderate repugnicans in Congress anymore; if there are, they’re hiding under their desks.

And so it went!