By Robert Willmann
After two more unsuccessful votes today, 6 January 2023, for Speaker of the U.S House of Representatives, the House will start again at 10:00 p.m. eastern time tonight for more voting. However, in the two votes starting at noon today, the opposing number dropped from around 20 to seven, and then six–
“1:56:45 p.m. Roll call 15 – Election of the Speaker. Mr. McCarthy 213, Mr. Jeffries 211, Mr. Jordan 4, and Mr. Hern 3 (Roll no. 15).
“3:21:58 p.m. Roll call 16 – Election of the Speaker. Mr. McCarthy 214, Mr. Jeffries 212, and Mr. Jordan 6 (Roll no. 16)”.
The chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Scott Perry (Repub. Pennsylvania), appeared on FoxNews television today to speak of a “framework” to have Kevin McCarthy elected as Speaker–
Anna Paulina Luna (Repub. Florida) won a seat in Congress in the November 2022 election. She switched her vote today to McCarthy, saying on the House floor when doing so: “pending negotiations in good faith….” Her statement is pretty funny. In an interview later today after the vote, she said that the letter, or whatever it is — which is to set out what is to happen — is about three and a half pages long, and we will get to see it. Is this paper going to be disclosed before or after tonight’s vote(s)?
Switching their vote to McCarthy by those objecting hinges primarily on changes to the House rules, one of which will allow a single member to make a “motion to vacate the chair”, and if a vote on it is successful, the Speaker will be effectively removed. They think they can use that procedure (if it becomes part of the rules) to make McCarthy do what they want.
In my opinion, McCarthy is not a natural leader, he is a vindictive type, and he cannot be trusted. We will see what happens starting shortly at 10:00 p.m.
Willlmann
I listened to Anna Paulina today and am encouraged a little by what she said. I will be looking for what she has written on this.
It has been a while since we have seen the US House operate even a little like it was intended (IMO) so this Speakership voting is a new thing for a lot of young adults (I am sure)…
Well – Wikipedia says McCarthy is in-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_McCarthy
I recall an old saying ‘It is allover but the shouting” although in this case… I am not so sure about the shouting being over..
kj
McCarthy is the ultimate flip flopper in DC. House Repubs would have a better leader with Scalise as Speaker.
There are two parties; which do you mean. Do you refer to the post ’48 GOPe RINOs, or the pre ’48 GOP conservatives n libertarians. They are not the same.
I’m unsure how off-topic this story is. I have preemptively excused myself because as with the post above regarding McCarthy, it falls under the broader category of domestic US affairs. (And the security minded among the readers may enjoy visualizing let’s say a prominent politician while on the hustings reaching out to pick up a cute child or infant for a photo-op when .. uh oh!)
Trump called the floor and McCarthy made it in 15 – breaking news. Figured out what I did? They wanted it to resemble the old championship prize fights of yore when men were men.
This photo is too good not to share. If I knew how to make it appear in this text I would have:
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/01/06/multimedia/06house-speaker-vote-reporter-updates-1210-1-3c3a/06house-speaker-vote-reporter-updates-1210-1-3c3a-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=600
I’m considering as caption: Marjorie Taylor-Greene catches Donald Trump deep pop-fly with one hand and says “He hits the Smartphone like a champ!”
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The United States educational system continues to discover child prodigies. Six years old and shoots his teacher, a woman. An archive search discovered at least two other six year old school shooters and get this .. a five year old!
Did the teacher say something disapproving of President Biden’s policy’s regarding Your Cranium? It will be exciting if so.
The name of the elementary school under discussion is rumored to have been a compromise between the two most often proferred choices: Redneck Elementary and Reichneck Elementary. They settled on Richneck Elementary, honoring our long national political tradition of compromise.
I paste at length below because the article requires a subscription. Happy 2023.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/us/newport-news-school-shooting-virginia.html
A 6-year-old first-grader at an elementary school in Newport News, Va., shot a teacher on Friday afternoon during an altercation in a classroom, the authorities said, leaving her with “life-threatening” injuries and renewing calls for greater gun restrictions.
The boy, who shot the teacher once with a handgun at about 2 p.m., was in police custody on Friday evening, Steve Drew, the chief of the Newport News Police Department, said at a news conference. He added that the teacher, a woman in her 30s, was taken to a local hospital and that her condition had slightly improved by late Friday afternoon.
The superintendent of Newport News Public Schools, Dr. George Parker, said at the news conference that “we need to keep guns out of the hands of our young people.”
Photos and video taken immediately after the shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News on Friday showed the chaos that had ensued as officers swarmed the school’s brick building: children appeared afraid and confused, parents stood beside crime scene tape and dozens of officers patrolled the area.
David Riedman, who founded the K-12 School Shooting Database after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., in 2018, has compiled data on every school shooting — anytime a firearm has been discharged on school property — dating back to 1970. He found 16 cases involving shooters under the age of 10.
Three of them involved 6-year-old children. Two of those were ruled accidental shootings: One in 2011 at an elementary school in Houston in which a student had a gun that went off, injuring three people; and another in Mississippi in 2021, when a first-grader shot a fellow student with a gun he had brought to school and was playing with. In the third case, which attracted national attention, a 6-year-old boy shot and killed a young girl as the teacher was lining up students in a hallway.
According to Mr. Riedman’s research, there has been only one shooting at a school that involved someone under 6 years old: a kindergartner, aged 5, shot a gun in the cafeteria of his school in Memphis, Tenn., in 2013. No one was injured.
The violent episode in Newport News underscored the persistent threat of gun violence at schools across the country. In May, a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead. In September, another school shooting in Oakland, Calif., left six injured.
F&L,
McCarthy is from California not Virginia, so good luck driving the narrative on this one.
Fred,
But California and Virginia both end in – n i a.
Let’s not guess what that stands for. My offer – nitwit intelligence agency.
More seriously where did I say McCarthy was from Virginia? He works in DC, pretty close.
I was begging the poster’s pardon for interrupting with an off topic post by saying it was a domestic issue – 6 year old kids shooting their teachers and students.
My apologies. Do you object to the display of a congressional representative’s comely arms? (She’s the blonde constitutional scholar catching a smartphone). Ok. I have a weakness.
If I’d congratulated junior on his marksmanship would it have met with approval? The child might have benefited from Johnny Depp’s Whitey Bulger advising his son in “Black Mass” – “it’s not so bad shooting your teacher, kid, it’s letting someone see you do it.” A movie which our crypto exchange embezzlement ponzi scheme whiz kid from …. might have been wise to watch.
F&L,
Do you object to parents failing in their obligations to train and discipline children? That’s a common theme from this tragedy to to the one in Sandy Hook. The NYT also failed to notice.
Fred,
Ok. Show me Ma and Pa.
From Wanda J Stapleton’s review of the late Joe Bageant’s book “Dear Hunting With Jesus.”
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GUN OWNERSHIP EQUALS PERSONAL FREEDOM
Workplace conditions had so ground the working class down that had to have something to hold on to. As far fetched as it seems, they held on to their guns as a symbol of their personal freedom. Each worker’s gun became a “liberty bell.” And they could, no doubt, agree with former National Rifle Association’s president Charlton Heston who declared: “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
Finally, the title of this book, Deer Hunting With Jesus, captures the intersection between Protestant fundamentalism and deer hunting which was popular with the working class. They hunted mainly for the meat. According to the author, a Protestant fundamentalist stands quietly, sometimes for hours, in the natural world watching for deer. That quiet commune with nature leads to contemplation of God’s gift to man. And it becomes easy to imagine that “God’s son might be watching too and maybe even willing to summon a couple of nice fat does within shooting range.”
F&L,
Did he write one titled “Weapons of War for Oligarch Bodyguards”?
Now that Mighty Kevin has won, the operative phrase going forward should be “Trust But Verify”.
https://twitter.com/stephensemler/status/1611133644646584332?s=21
There’s one thing common about both Republicans (including Trump) and the Democrats. They both borrow from the next generations to spend on the national security state.
It is amazing how democracy works when you verify the identity of qualified voters and the votes cast.
Fred – yes, it is amazing
kj
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11616891/New-House-GOP-majority-PASSES-rules-package-one-Republican-defection.html
The GOP rebels by standing their ground got this rules package passed. And a defeat for neocon Dan Crenshaw to head Homeland Security Committee.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11618841/Kevin-McCarthy-kicks-lhan-Omar-Eric-Swalwell-Adam-Schiff-committees.html
Nancy Pelosi and her House Dems getting a little taste of their own medicine. Appears that the GOP rebels not only got a rules package approved but got McCarthy to grow a bit of a spine.
https://twitter.com/thelastrefuge2/status/1612996709126225921?s=21
Fascinating interview of Matt Gaetz on the rule changes of how the House of Representatives will operate under the Republican majority. I believe the rule change on the appropriation bills are very good. It will now become more difficult to jam in all the boondoggles into a must pass omnibus as they have done in the past. I’m however doubtful their “Church Committee” will get very far. The national security apparatus will throw all kinds of roadblocks including classification to prevent any accountability of their nefariousness in becoming the unaccountable 4th branch of government.
https://twitter.com/repdanbishop/status/1612890497844117507?s=21
Rep. Dan Bishop says the House of Representatives will get to the bottom of the national security surveillance state. Will it happen? I remain skeptical until the Patriot Act, AUMF, FISA and other security state legislation are repealed.