The Era of rivalry, Biden vs. Trump and their respective parties

What have we done?

Why have we allowed the Republican Party's rural voters, mostly educationally challenged farmers and rural shopkeepers in the southern states, to put our country in this precarious position?

The Republican Party's rural voters elected a man in 2000 who started two of our nation's longest wars. In 2016 they chose a man who lost reelection, falsely claimed the election was stolen from him, then led a failed coup attempt to overthrow our elected government.

These same rural voters elected Republicans that supported the President's huge lie to the American people. On Jan. 6, 2021, 147 Republicans rejected Electoral College votes and endorsed Trump's false electors to replace them.

These same voters chose Kevin McCarthy. He wants to be Speaker of the House.

McCarthy can't even govern his own party.

CNN reports, "House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy outlined some of the concessions that he has agreed to in his campaign for speaker on a Sunday evening conference call – including making it easier to topple the speaker. But McCarthy could not say whether he would have the votes for the speakership, even after giving in to some of the right’s most hardline demands."

In other words, McCarthy agreed to weaken the position he is seeking to rein in his party's extremists.

There could be additional compromises made before this is over, illustrating McCarthy's weaknesses within his own party.

The Speaker of the House is second in line for the Presidency. Our President is 80 years old. That is indeed frightening.

 

Worse than being a jerk, he's a threat to the public's health.

 

Republican voters also chose George Santos.

The Guardian reports, "A crescendo of bipartisan outrage will accompany the swearing in on Tuesday of George Santos, one of the Republican party’s most controversial new Congress members who has admitted large parts of his biography are a fantasy.

"The New York politician, caught in lies over his family background, education and work history, is facing calls to step down from several senior figures within his own party before he even sets foot on the floor of the chamber."

The Republican Party leader in the House remains silent much like Republicans in this thread. McCarthy needs Santos' vote.

 

CNN reports, "House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a make-or-break moment on Tuesday, as he seeks to lock down the support necessary to become the next speaker in a vote that could turn into a chaotic and contentious once-in-a-century floor fight.

"The 118th Congress is set to convene to elect a new speaker, but McCarthy does not yet have the votes to secure the gavel – a major problem for the California Republican that threatens to tear apart the incoming House GOP majority. If McCarthy fails to shore up the support he needs to win in the initial round of voting, the race for speaker could go to multiple ballots – something that hasn’t happened since 1923."

 

How the House elects its speaker, and why Tuesday's vote could make history

NBC reports, "When the 118th Congress convenes Tuesday, the first item on the House's agenda will be choosing a new speaker. While the majority party has elected their nominee on the first ballot over the past century, this year could be different.

"Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, needs a majority of members present to vote for him — which makes the magic number 218 (but that math could get tricky; see below). If he fails to get that level of support, it would be the first time since 1923 that the House would need multiple ballots in a speaker election.

"Since the House can't proceed to other business until it selects the speaker, a loss for McCarthy on the first ballot would require more votes until he or someone else does receive a majority — something that has happened only 14 times in the chamber's history.

In other words, the Republican failure in the House today is historic. After three agonizing votes resulting in failure, the Republicans quit. They recessed until noon tomorrow.

Nothing from the forum's Republicans on this issue. History is being made, and they are nowhere to be found.

 

How did you come to hate Republicans so much?

 

There are four major battles facing Congress in 2023 and 2024 while the Republican House is stalled with no agreement in sight.

NBC explains, "The U.S. is headed for another era of divided government in the new year, as Republicans claimed control of the House of Representatives on Jan. 3. Democrats will wield an expanded 51-seat Senate majority and control the presidency.

"As recent decades have shown, split control of Congress can get messy in an age of rising partisanship and political acrimony.

A House leadership fight

"Can Kevin McCarthy win the speaker’s gavel? He is facing a rebellion from a band of conservative flame-throwers vowing to deny him the speakership Tuesday when the House takes its first floor vote of the new Congress.

"If the rebels — led by Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. — make good on their word, they could spin the speaker’s vote into chaos.
Averting government shutdowns
"Even if the divided Congress leads to legislative gridlock, it will still have to keep the lights on. That will be no easy task: Republican-led Houses have sparked shutdowns under the last two Democratic presidents.
Preventing a catastrophic debt default
"One of the more daunting tasks for the new Congress will be to raise the country's debt ceiling in 2023 to make sure the U.S. can pay its bills and prevent a catastrophic default. Wall Street is already spooked about the prospect of brinkmanship.
GOP investigations — and impeachment?
"After four years in the political wilderness, newly empowered House Republicans are salivating at the chance to investigate Biden and his administration.

"Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who is likely to be the next chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, said Republicans plan to hit the ground running with investigations."

Anarchy anyone?

 

That's some impressive work here Sandy. You should be a writer.

 

Can the republican Party govern? They are tasked with others to govern a nation. They cannot even govern themselves.

Why have we allowed the Republican Party's rural voters, mostly educationally challenged farmers and rural shopkeepers in the southern states, to put our country in this precarious position?

The Republican Party's rural voters elected a man in 2000 who started two of our nation's longest wars. In 2016 they chose a man who lost reelection, falsely claimed the election was stolen from him, then led a failed coup attempt to overthrow our elected government. On his way out the door, the ex-President stole classified documents that belong to the American people.

These same rural voters elected Republicans who believed the ex-President's treasonous lie to the American people. On Jan. 6, 2021, 147 Republicans rejected Electoral College votes and endorsed Trump's false electors to replace them.

These same voters chose Kevin McCarthy. He wants to be Speaker of the House.

As today shows, McCarthy can't even control his own party.

The Speaker of the House is second in line for the Presidency. Our President is 80 years old. That is indeed frightening.

Is the Republican Party a threat to American democracy?

Are Republican voters a threat to American democracy? No one knows. They don't say anything.

 

So you would have no problems oppressing America's rural voters? Just because they don't vote the way you would prefer?

 

The Republican debacle in the House continues. There have been six votes for Speaker. McCarthy, the Republican leader, has been defeated six times. Despite the fact that the Republicans have a slim majority in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader has received more votes than McCarthy.

That's embarrassing!

It is largely McCarthy's own fault. CNN explains.

"He has spent the past several years courting and catering to those in his party who engage in conspiracy theorizing and election denial, and has even supported members who have played footsie with White nationalists.

"He seems to understand now just how damaging Trump and the cult of personality around him has been to the GOP – his private phone calls made in the aftermath of January 6, 2021, made clear that he worried that members of his own party were endangering other lawmakers with their rhetoric – but then chooses to empower those dangerous members anyway.

"He is reaping the consequences of helping to reshape his party in the image of Trump. A hallmark of Trumpism was a rejection of decency and moderation and the intentional destruction of the institutions that kept our country stable."

139 Republicans in the House, including McCarthy, voted to reject Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html

After the sixth vote, the House recessed again. No one knows how long the Republican failures will continue. In the meantime, the government is stalled. The House cannot conduct business without a speaker.

Technically, the House of Representatives does not exist. No one has been sworn in yet.

Vladimir Putin, who helped Trump become President in 2016, is pleased.

 

Prove it

 

As always, the forum's Republicans are silent on the issues.

 

What do you expect them (us) to say?

 

The [Republican] Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday [4/21/2020] reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/...rms-russia-aimed-to-help-trump-in-2016-198171

 

Prove Putin "is pleased" as you claimed.

 

Jill Filipovic opines, "Tuesday should have been a joyous day for Republicans in Congress, as they kicked off two years as the majority party in the House of Representatives by swearing in new members and electing one of their own as speaker of the House. Instead, Tuesday’s vote for speaker showed just how dysfunctional the GOP has become and what a precarious position the party has put itself in.

"Despite finding themselves in the minority, it was Democrats who were jubilant on Tuesday, voting unanimously for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the first African American to lead a major party in Congress, as speaker. He succeeded Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, who led House Democrats for two decades.

"But the Republican House majority is a narrow one, and Republican candidates far underperformed expectations in the midterms, as a promised red wave was more of a small but toxic red tide. Voters generally rejected Republican extremism, but the party has unfortunately moved so far toward conspiracy and the cult of former President Donald Trump that many of its most untethered members – including but not limited to Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Jim Jordan of Ohio – were reelected [by the GOP's rural base].

"Now, the GOP is in a precarious position. Even if McCarthy manages to squeak out the leadership, a powerful and vocal contingent of his party has publicly humiliated him and expressed their lack of confidence in his control (it seems worth pointing out that several of the extremists who voted against McCarthy are also among the loudest and most recognizable members of Congress).

"That does not bode well for the Republican Party’s ability to govern, and instead suggests that the next two years might be characterized not just by intense partisan divides, but by a profoundly dysfunctional GOP heading into a contentious presidential election.

"This is the Republican Party that Trump made."

 

Why do you constantly mock and belittle the "rural base" of the Republican Party?

 

Incidentally, Steve Scalise, the deputy Republican leader, also endorsed Trump's bogus claim that the election was stolen from him.

Scalise, along with McCarthy, voted to reject Electoral College votes.

As the chaos continues in the House with no end in sight, this is today's Republican Party.

 

No it isn't

 

Sandy Shanks said:
Republican-led Alabama joined predominately Republican-led states in allowing people to carry a concealed handgun without a state permit, which also eliminated the need for a background check.

As the Republican intelligence challenged rural voters, mostly farmers and rural shopkeepers, buy guns without any checks to protect themselves from other farmers and rural shopkeepers the NRA is loving it. Business is good.
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ABC reports, "One person is dead and nine are injured following a shooting on New Year's Eve in Mobile, Alabama.

"The shooting happened around 11:14 p.m. local time on the 200 block of Dauphin Street, according to the Mobile Police Department.

"When officers arrived, police found a deceased 24-year-old male. Nine other people suffered gunshot wounds, according to police.

ABC reports,"A family of eight people, including five children, were found dead with apparent gunshot wounds in a Utah home on Wednesday after police conducted a welfare check, according to the officials in Enoch City, Utah.

"No suspects are at large, and there is no threat to the public according to a press release from Enoch City.

"Enoch is a rural city with roughly 8,000 residents in the southwest corner of Utah."

 

On Thursday Bryan Christopher Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, made his first courtroom appearance in the state.

Some are beginning to wonder, are we being scammed by law enforcement, the courts, and the media? it took a while for law enforcement to make an arrest for these brutal murders, and the evidence against Kohberger is scant at best. Also, he waived extradition -- not the act of a guilty man -- and was anxious to return to Idaho to show he was innocent of the charges.

Other than his car being seen in Moscow, there is questionable DNA evidence.

NBC explains, "A knife sheath found near Mogen's body had a "single source of male DNA." That discovery prompted Pennsylvania police to recover "trash from the Kohberger family residence" in Albrightsville, where they allegedly found genetic evidence that linked him to the Moscow murders."

I am no defense lawyer, but it does not require a law degree to poke holes in that piece of evidence. It just requires common sense.

First, there are countless explanations as to how that DNA got on the sheath, making that evidence moot.

Second, evidence on the sheath is highly suspicious. Why would the killer take the knife with him and leave damning evidence, the sheath? That makes no sense. The sheath was found near Mogen's body? That fact suggests a frame-up. The killer had a sheath belonging to Kohberger, and he left it near the body -- damning evidence left in plain sight. There is no evidence Kohberger was stupid.

Is there more evidence, but it is being kept secret so as not to pollute the jury pool? That does not make sense either. Information does not harm a jury trial.

Kohberger may be the killer, but the evidence brought forward linking him to the crime is nearly non-existent.

 

The voters within the Republican Party have created quite a mess for their own party. They are responsible for Donald Trump who is the leader of their party and a 2024 Presidential candidate. Now this:

In the fight for Speakership in the House of Representatives, McCarthy continues to give concessions that weaken the Speaker position, but he is getting nowhere as he suffers his eleventh stinging defeat.

Republicans have a slim majority in the House, but, because they are impossibly divided and unable to govern, the Democratic minority leader, Jeffries, is receiving more votes than the Republican.

CNN reports, "Rep. Kevin McCarthy suffered defeat in the 11th ballot for House speaker. He has failed to flip a single vote with his harsh concessions.

"The current bid for House leadership is now the longest speaker contest in 164 years.

"A group of hardline Republicans has so far derailed McCarthy's bid to become House speaker — even after McCarthy reportedly proposed major concessions late Wednesday.

"No member of Congress can be sworn in until a House speaker is elected."

Ironically, "Rep. Kevin McCarthy steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to members of the GOP caucus now threatening his bid for Speaker of the House, FEC records show," CNN. That is just plain nuts.

CNN continued, "There’s no rule that the speaker is a House member. Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of the Republicans who has refused to back Rep. Kevin McCarthy for House speaker, nominated former President Donald Trump in the 11th round of voting Thursday night." Trump got one vore, probably Gaetz who obviously thinks all this is a joke.

Are the rural voters of the Republican Party happy? This is their creation.

 

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday won support from 14 of his detractors on the thirteenth ballot. On the fourteenth ballot, it appears likely that McCarthy will be elected speaker.

How ironic is it that, on the second anniversary of President Trump's coup attempt to overthrow our elected government, the Republican Party chooses a Speaker who played a role in that attempt to overthrow our government?

The Times reports, "After a wave of detractors switched their votes on Friday, giving Kevin McCarthy some much-needed momentum, Republicans voted to adjourn until 10 p.m. They hope to use that time to lock down the votes Mr. McCarthy needs to become speaker, ending days of paralysis."

Only one Republican attended a House ceremony commemorating the second anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

 

Contrary to the wishes of Republicans who want and predict a recession to make our President look bad, the Biden economy is doing quite well.

Republicans have their morbid predictions. The President has welcomed facts.

ABC reports, "America’s employers added a solid 223,000 jobs in December, evidence that the economy remains healthy.

"With companies continuing to add jobs across the economy, the unemployment rate fell from 3.6% to 3.5%, matching a 53-year low, the Labor Department said Friday.

"All told, the December jobs report suggested that the labor market may be cooling in a way that could aid the Fed's fight against high inflation. Last month's gain was the smallest in two years, and it extended a hiring slowdown that began last year. And average hourly pay growth eased to its slowest pace in 16 months. That slowdown could reduce pressure on employers to raise prices to offset their higher labor costs.

"Average wage growth was up 4.6% in December from 12 months earlier, compared with a recent peak of 5.6% in March. And in the past three months, job gains have averaged 247,000 — a decent pace but well below 2022's the economy's hot monthly average of 375,000."

Investors were pleased. The DOW shot up over 700 points with other indexes coming along nicely as well.

Taking into account the abortion in the Republican ruled House, we could use the good news.