Board 8 > Politics Containment Topic 407: Lauren Boebert's Handiwork

(+) Yeah! (+)

I don't really care which R gets speaker. I mean, preferably not Jordan, but still.

The only outcome that matters to me is getting enough spiteful Rs to troll vote Jeffries into the seat.

Ballot 2:

Jeffries - 212
Jordan - 199
Scalise - 7
McCarthy - 5
Zeldin - 3
Boehner - 1
Donalds - 1
Emmer - 1
Garcia - 1
Granger - 1
Miller (I think?) - 1
Westerman - 1

Jordan flips 2 no votes back to him and picks up a guy who missed yesterday (funeral) but loses 4 previous votes so the anti-Jordan group grows from 20 to 22.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I don't really care which R gets speaker. I mean, preferably not Jordan, but still.

The only outcome that matters to me is getting enough spiteful Rs to troll vote Jeffries into the seat.

Sadly, there's zero chance of the GOP letting Jeffries win. The real question is what can the Dems get in exchange for letting a Republican win.

Things will get incredibly confusing in this thread if the Israel/Palestine conflict really does spill over to the country of Jordan.

LightningStrikes posted...

Things will get incredibly confusing in this thread if the Israel/Palestine conflict really does spill over to the country of Jordan.

I've already been living this problem for the past day on Twitter.

LightningStrikes posted...

Things will get incredibly confusing in this thread if the Israel/Palestine conflict really does spill over to the country of Jordan.

Already happened to me with the comment about Jordan using anonymous threats lol

https://twitter.com/UN_News_Centre/status/1714649681521791305

I am confused on the wording there. It say the US vetoed a call for a "pause", but it say a "pause to deliver aid". I can't actually tell whether this was vetoing a request to stop sending aid or a request to send aid.

a pause for the purposes of allowing aid

Based on the wording I think what it's saying is the Security Council wanted to call for pauses in the fighting so that humanitarian aid could be delivered without fear of getting killed.

Basically I think the US voted for the bad option.

edit: what nfun said

Ah, OK.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/0/AAeolZAAE8rM.jpg

Who is in charge of casting that vote? And how do we put someone else in that position?

Trying to look into this more.

Apparently the excuse given was that we weren't comfortable that the request didn't outright state Israel had a right to defend itself. Like, they wanted it worded differently.

Uh....OK.

Like, I know America is technically the bad guys a lot of the time, but usually we're less blatant about it.

That's almost more yikes than not giving any excuse at all

PeaceFrog posted...

I can't confirm the accuracy of this UN news, but either way I'd like it if the US was less complicit in supporting Israel to commit whatever crimes it wants to.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/4/8/AACm-yAAE8r8.jpg

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Trying to look into this more.

Apparently the excuse given was that we weren't comfortable that the request didn't outright state Israel had a right to defend itself. Like, they wanted it worded differently.

Uh....OK.

Like, I know America is technically the bad guys a lot of the time, but usually we're less blatant about it.

That feels so much worse.

Is there any reputable and reasonably impartial source that has reported verified information on the hospital in Gaza?

I did see what Biden said but don't believe the US to be impartial.

Forceful_Dragon posted...

Who is in charge of casting that vote? And how do we put someone else in that position?

would a different person (with a real chance of being the replacement) HELP?

There's a ceasefire protest today in the capitol building, basically a continuation of yesterday's where a few dozen Jewish activists were arrested for blocking entrances to the white house.

MTG called it an insurrection lol

https://twitter.com/jvplive/status/1714715291702149176

Everything is to her other than the actual one attempted by the loser ex President and his 0 IQ crew

https://www.theonion.com/israel-military-reports-it-was-you-the-reader-who-ble-1850939156

That hospital business appears to have been Hamas propaganda, and it's laughable how quickly people swallowed it

Brayze_II posted...

That hospital business appears to have been Hamas propaganda, and it's laughable how quickly people swallowed it

https://twitter.com/marwasf/status/1714754794240291193?s=20

Speaking of propaganda, the IDF tweeted this Looney Tunes ass, Abbot and Costello ass, 1st year Arabic school project ass "phone call" between two "Hamas operatives" lmao.

They also posted videos timestamped 30 minutes after the hospital explosion that they said were footage of proof Hamas did it, then deleted it when every reply was people going "why is the timestamp 30 minutes after it happened?"

I mean, that is absolutely NOT sufficient evidence on its own (though of course that doesnt mean they didnt do it), but there is obviously a concerted effort to try and blame the other side. My advice is for everybody to step back and wait for solid intelligence. The truth is we dont know yet. Fog of war is a powerful thing.

I already know everyone on Twitter has a theory which is why I'm looking for information from a reputable source that has gone through some effort to verify that information.

I did find this BBC article which is the type of thing I'm looking for but doesn't really come to any conclusion beyond not being able to dismiss either side of the story out-of-hand.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67144061

As far as I can tell both the NYT and WaPo state, "Palestinians (and some other states like Turkey and the UAE) say it was Israel, Israel says it was from Gaza. The US says that the rocket came from Gaza. No one can independently verify any of this yet."

The problem that was proven today is that the US ISN'T a reliable source on what actually happened here, regardless of how much investigation they say they will perform. The US government has chosen its side.

well i mean the articles also state that the us's account probably holds little weight with arab states precisely because of that

but i was summarizing with the conclusion of "No, I don't think any reputable news agency has gotten to the bottom of this so I think verifying one side of the story or the other is beyond their capability, at least right now." One mentioned that the UN wanted to open an independent investigation into it but IDK how that will go - if it can even be approved.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/former-trump-lawyer-sidney-powell-takes-plea-deal/story?id=104136350

Sidney Powell, one of 18 co-defendants in former President Donald Trump's election interference case in Georgia, has taken a plea deal in the case.
She is pleading to six misdemeanor charges, according to the agreement read in court Thursday. She will get 12 months of probation for each count, as well as a $6,000 fine.
As part of the agreement, Powell must "testify truthfully about any codefendants" involved in the case and "provide all documents to the district attorney's office" relevant to their case against the other co-defendants, according to Judge Scott McAfee.

News with a pretty big potential impact given the troubles with the speaker:

https://www.wral.com/story/republican-leaders-unveil-new-nc-congressional-maps-cementing-their-party-s-political-power/21103436/

North Carolina Republican lawmakers proposed new congressional districts Wednesday that, if approved, would likely unseat several Democrats and shift the states balanced representation in the U.S. House well to the right.
North Carolinas 14-seat congressional delegation currently consists of seven Democrats and seven Republicans. State Republican lawmakers, who are tasked with redrawing the districts, unveiled two proposed maps that are to be debated by legislative committees on Thursday.

The newly drawn districts would flip as many as four U.S. House districts from blue to red in the 2024 elections a boost to national Republicans, who control a shaky majority of just a few seats in the House, as illustrated by recent unsuccessful attempts by Republican members of Congress to pick a permanent Speaker of the House.
All told, North Carolina where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters make up the largest voting bloc could be represented by up to 11 Republicans and as few as three Democrats in the House.

Well, Speaker Battle II may have just ended with Jordan waving the white flag and the GOP collectively giving up on even trying to find a Speaker.

https://twitter.com/LACaldwellDC/status/1715019664202293606

Jordan now backing the proposal to empower McHenry as interim Speaker through January 3.

sad

low energy

What would change on 1/3? Its not an election year

Any chance of Jeffries becoming Speaker?

Jakyl25 posted...

What would change on 1/3? Its not an election year

Nothing, but the reporting is that Jordan hasn't fully given up and would remain "speaker designee" (that is to say - the GOP conference's selected choice) and would retain the ability to call for a Speaker vote whenever he wants. Essentially the play seems to be to buy two months to try and win back his detractors while in the meantime allowing the House to pass things like funding the government which we're slowly creeping up on.

LightningStrikes posted...

Any chance of Jeffries becoming Speaker?

Zero. That is, and always was, fanfiction. (Unless like 10 GOP members resign this week - but again, fanfiction.)

Jeffires becoming Speaker would require 5-10 Republicans voting for Jeffries (or Present) and that's the one thing none of them will ever do. Any type of coalition Speaker involving the Dems would involve finding a Republican rep that the Dems can trust/tolerate and making a deal with frustrated Republicans to vote for that guy instead.

I actually mentioned I felt the odds for that went up from 0 to like... a-small-number-but-notably-NOT-zero after the Scalise bid ended before it could really start and Jordan's internal conference votes (before either of the actual floor votes he held) were so abysmal.

In theory you'd think this wouldn't change that, but I think empowering McHenry lowers the odds of a coalition Speaker back down to "basically zero" because it would demonstrate they have another path to keep the House running that doesn't involve such explicit power sharing with the Dems even if a resolution empowering McHenry would (and it seems it will) require Dem votes.

Does an "interim Speaker" have all the powers of an actual Speaker? If so, why not just make McHenry the Speaker? If not, this doesn't solve anything.

Thorn posted...

even if a resolution empowering McHenry would (and it seems it will) require Dem votes

So the Dems need to bail the Reps out of their own mess, else risk a govt shutdown being blamed on them, even though it's not their fault in any way.

Well at least it is the final nail in the coffin of the old argument that two-party & FPTP lead to stable majorities. Every major democracy that still uses it except for India (which has gone very authoritarian) has spent much or most of the last decade with knife edge majorities and hung legislatures thanks to polarisation, while proportional systems just form stable coalitions and get on with it.

Xeybozn posted...

Does an "interim Speaker" have all the powers of an actual Speaker? If so, why not just make McHenry the Speaker? If not, this doesn't solve anything.

We've never had a situation like this before so, as we became increasingly used to during all the norms breaking during Trump's years, "who knows?"

My understanding is that he would have the power to do whatever a majority of the House is willing to let him do. Is that a blank check to act as if he were actually Speaker? Is it specifying exactly what issues they are authorizing him to bring to a vote and only those issues?

I think we have to wait and see what the resolution will end up looking like. What's left of the Blue Dogs had one a few days ago that was basically "We give him 15 day increments and permit him to bring government funding and Ukraine/Israel aid to the floor." GOP members in the "Problem Solvers caucus" had one that was more like "we empower him until Nov 17 (I think that's the new shutdown day." And now this idea of empowering him until January 3 has come up.

Until we know exactly what's in the resolution it's hard to speculate what this will mean.

AFAIK McHenry doesn't want to be Speaker and I actually think his opinion on all this is being a bit overlooked but I'd guess he grudgingly accepts a caretaker role if the rest of the GOP forces him to.

GOP currently in a closed meeting discussing the "empower McHenry" path and Jordan has managed to piss off everyone in the GOP.

His opponents think him angling to remain "Speaker designee" so he can continue to campaign for Speaker is completely self-serving and the only reason he's supporting this - and that he should step down if he's going to support empowering McHenry.

Meanwhile his (once?) supporters are mad he's giving up and choosing an option that would require them to work with Dems to get the votes (not said: that it would require Dems is solely on them - they're the majority!) which is the alleged reason they had for ousting McCarthy.

Temperature check:

https://twitter.com/juliegraceb/status/1715045860512288922

oh okay i guess we're not empowering McHenry now and Jordan is going to continue to flail about impotently

https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1715066518411644946

The Navy says they shot down missiles out of Yemen.

...

LightningStrikes posted...

Any chance of Jeffries becoming Speaker?

I would like to issue a revised answer on this:

If Jordan is dumb enough to actually go along with this reportedly floated idea of starting the third ballot at 10 AM and then just continuously holding speaker votes through the weekend I will - against all odds - raise the "Jeffries becomes Speaker" possibility to "holy shit it is not zero any longer"

https://twitter.com/anniekarni/status/1715191750854422627

Quite literally the only thing that enough Republicans might hate more than Democrats is having to do their jobs. The anti-Jordan squad could just go "fuck this and fuck you" and just leave in the middle of a ballot and lower the threshold for a majority such that Jeffries can win.

Like this plan would just backfire horrendously even if they don't take their spite to that level and allow Jeffries to win. Forget 50 votes against him, he'll end up with over a hundred if he seriously attempts it. Which is why I don't believe they actually will but if nothing else this entire saga has been them finding new ways to surprise me in their dysfunction and incompetence despite the fact that my bar for them started deep in the Marianas Trench. so i can no longer rule this out on the basis of "no one is this stupid"

maybe this is all some 7D chess master plan to give the Dems the trifecta so theres no one else to take the blame on things between now and the 2024 elections. Then they use public disgust to turn out narrow victories across the board and use that to pass some bullshit rules that cement their control forever.

Yeah, totally that and not idiocy and incompetence.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/9/7/AAXc3pAAE895.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/4/6/AAeolZAAE9E6.jpg

I feel like there's this feeling of being considered antisemitic if you oppose helping Israel, in large part because a non-insignificant number of people opposing Israel are antisemitic.

https://twitter.com/Fritschner/status/1715395612852580690

Joke of a political party

They might as well be dressed in clown attire

Republicans will never learn their lesson. They'll dig their heels in and continue doing what they've been doing.

fingers crossed