The General US Politics Thread

The problem is that not electing a speaker means that the only thing that can happen is votes to elect the speaker. Not having a speaker means the House is completely useless and nothing happens.

Edited by Zendervai on Jun 7th 2023 at 2:19:50 PM

Were we expecting the House to do anything productive between now and the election? Because I wasn’t.

Jeffries has said something along the lines that they don't have a deal to keep McCarthy in power, but they'll stand back and see how the situation develops and make a decision when they have to.

Perfect springboard for two bits of news, Hodor.

Amy Entelis will be interim CNN leader. She was in charge of the network's film division before Licht came and under her they produced some award winning documentaries.

At least for now Zaslav is leaving CNN staffers in charge. One of the reasons Licht was brought on in the first place was because he was an outsider.

And on to the second bit: Tucker Carlson aired the first episode of his new Twitter show.

• Said the Ukrainians blew up a dam that Russia is widely suspected of doing.
• Called Zelensky a sweaty rat-facer oligarch who persecutes Christians.
• Implied Lindsay Graham was gay.
• Said the government is hiding proof of aliens.
• "What exactly happened on 9/11? Well, it's still classified. How did Jeffrey Epstein make all that money. How did he die? How about JFK and so endlessly on."

Apparently you could see him operating his own teleprompter.

May his pile of crap of a show get lost when Twitter crashes.

I'm gonna note that you'll see people citing the viewcount for the video. It's somewhere above 65 million now.

But it's important to remember that the way twitter tracks viewcounts is completely useless as a metric. Youtube requires you to watch a certain percentage of the video first. Twitter counts it if the video plays at all. So if someone is scrolling through twitter, pauses to read a tweet and Carlson's thing is on the page and starts autoplaying, that counts, even if the user immediately scrolls on and doesn't actually engage or click on it.

Also, the view counts of a first episode means less than the view count on the second one.

Agreed, nothing is actually lost by doing this and there is quite a bit of benefit in that it would showcase Republican dysfunction to voters.

I don't see any reason for Dems to hold back, stoking Republican in-fighting can only be good for them and the nation as a whole.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Jun 7th 2023 at 12:50:51 PM

And that's if Musk doesn't find a way to skew the numbers somehow.

Jack Smith reportedly ready to go to the Grand Jury with espionage indictment. Also, it appears Mark Meadows has taken a plea deal to testify against TFG.

I have never heard Jack Smith speak and I have chosen to believe he communicates entirely through frowns.

CNN reporter: House got absolutely nothing done today because of the MAGA revolt and won't meet again till next week.

Southern Poverty Law Center has officially labeled Moms For Liberty a hate group.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jun 7th 2023 at 4:31:58 AM

As far as the House having nothing to do between now and the election, won't they still have to pass the actual appropriations bills for this year and the next? I know the debt ceiling was raised for two years and certain budgetary numbers were set, but I thought that the actual bills still need to be passed or else there'll be a government shutdown and something will kick in that makes cuts across the board, including to defense and veterans. And if they won't pass them they also still have to pass continuing resolutions.

I remenber saying that biden capitulate to GOP and that GOP got what they ask, this infighting show exactly why that idea was bad to begin with and show why GOP main problem: if they cant bring wins to their base they tear each other out.

You're forgetting that the Speaker had to be the one to bring a bill to the floor to avoid a default. Playing chicken and hoping you could get enough republicans on board to get Jeffries in as a speaker and pass a bill in time would have been hideously reckless.

I'd very much like them to pass a budget so that the federal government doesn't shut down, which they need to do before the new FY begins in October (or pass a CR).

Correct. The House still needs to bring certain routine bills for the basic functioning of the government.

So right now, absent an actual coalition agreement of some kind, the Democrats are not going to vote to kick McCarthy out, because what'll follow is a fractured Republican caucus that won't be able to elect a Speaker at all for even the most vital bills.

Though I could see them voting to vacate after the 2024 appropriations bill is passed and watching the Republicans eat each other for the rest of the term (in an election year). That said, unfortunately, that might backfire if the McCarthy wing line up behind the MAGAT candidate, which is pretty much how Republicans do business (the "moderates" will kiss the ring so long as it's red, while the MAGATs demand a full implementation of their policy or they'll walk out).

Honestly, if I were Jeffries and the Republican caucus called a vote to vacate, I'd whip the Democrats to line up behind McCarthy on the floor, preferably but not mandatorily in exchange for his agreement to trash the majority-of-the-majority rule. Him being held in position by the Democrats is probably the most humiliating thing that the Republican caucus can face.

@sgamer “Pence argued that Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election should disqualify him from running for president.”

Well, look who finally found that last tiny remnant of spine in their body. I thought the desire of the rioters in January 6th to hang him was a fool’s dream because hanging usually kills by breaking the vertebrae with the body’s weight but it turns out, the man may not be 100% spineless jellyfish. Only 99.99%.

Edited by fredhot16 on Jun 7th 2023 at 7:04:28 AM

CNN is having a town hall with Pence. Not sure if they finally found their footing or if Pence is just not good at this, but I doubt this is the exciting kickoff he was hoping for.

Nope. He's only arguing it in an attempt to clear the field for his own run.

Yeah, no points for Pence here. In the same breath of saying no one is above the law, he doesn't think Trump should be held accountable because it would be "divisive".

A friend from New York told me that a heavy smog is covering the city. I looked upon it, and wow it's denser and more orange than Trump's skin. My friend also told me that schools weren't closed there too.

I heard that there was that thick orange smog from California 3 years ago too, yet this is the first time I have seen New York in thick orange smog. Was this the first time, or has this happened before?

It's not quite as bad as The Day Without a Sunrise was here (as the name implies, it was no brighter than dusk pretty much the whole day), but it does look like annoyingly low air quality.

consider taping some of those furnace air filters to the intake of a fan and leaving out a large surface area of water if you can, if you live in a low air quality zone, those tend to increase the air quality indoors a bit.

Edited by Florien on Jun 7th 2023 at 8:24:09 AM

It's the entire northern East Coast and it's from wildfires in Quebec.

New York City skyline earlier today for context:

Edited by tclittle on Jun 7th 2023 at 10:27:54 AM