All Blood. No Bath.
Red tape is red for a reason, and not because it looks pretty. It's this week's news.
Hey Friends,
Good morning to everyone except for Kevin McCarthy, who is no longer the Speaker of the House.
Nothing says family like the Republican Party. Just like a family, the first order of business is to attack the people in your own house. In this case, The House of Representatives.
More on that in a minute...
But first, let's get to The News.
Hot Takes
Week 40 of 2023
Build the Wall
Joe Biden doesn't think building a wall at the Mexican border works, but he's doing it anyway. He says it's because the money was already earmarked in 2019 and that, by law, he couldn't move it. That's all true, but personally, I think we have a bigger illegal alien problem than the southern border, given all these UFO reports I'm hearing. If you ask me, I think we should build a ceiling and make China pay for it. (more)
Letitia Vs. Donald
Trump went to court this week in Manhattan, looking really bored. He was there to defend his business from receivership and a ruling that could cost him control of many of his properties, including Manhattan's Trump Tower, the building where his extra hair is stored. It's unclear what the results of the summary judgment will mean for Trump, but the findings seem to clarify why Trump Steaks went under after two months. It wasn't worth it. (more)
Vatican't Decide
The Pope is bringing up the touchy topics at this upcoming synod, which is the code name for a big event we non-Catholics know nothing about without asking our non-practicing spouses. The largest religious denomination in the world will be deciding if they should let priests get married and also if they should get off gay people's backs about their privates (obviously, no pun intended). I say go for it, and maybe they won't have the sexual abuse problems they're famous for. Side note: This will be the first time lay people, including women, get to vote on this sort of thing, too. (more)
Save the Debt
Biden canceled 9 billion in student loan debt, reminding us that the more we borrow, the more we save. This makes $127 billion so far that has been wiped away for college borrowers, and exactly zero dollars for me personally, having never been to college, but I've written off every email subscription I've signed up for as "research," so at least I'm getting a tax break here and there. (more)
Year Of The Strike
Apparently, workers are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it any longer. This includes auto workers, actors, and, of course, it kind of seems like Congress, too, if I read it right. This week, 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees, one of the largest healthcare employers, said they wanted "permanente" wage increases across the board, so they walked off the job in protest for three days. I'd consider it more of a "strike-tease" but if a deal is not reached soon, they say they have another longer strike planned in November. (more)
Political Back Biting
With all this talk about attacking one another in Washington, President Biden is trying to set a good example by telling his staff we won't bite each other. Normally, it's the voter's job to remove someone from the White House, but Chief has been impeached. It took eleven incidents of aggressive behavior against Secret Service and staff members before the First Family's German shepherd was moved out of the White House. (more)
Quickly
- Alabama got a spanking for gerrymandering, giving Dems an advantage.
- NFL player Dick Butkus died yesterday, and no one made fun of his name.
That's it for the news. Now, here's this week's Feature.
Seeing Red
Feature Story
In 1997, Newt Gingerich called Democrats pathetic, selfish traitors. Not necessarily all in the same sentence, but he used each of those words. Gingerich was credited with introducing a new level of partisanship as speaker in the house, lobbing harsher insults against his opponents, and holding a tougher line toward party prerogatives over governing priorities. He also refused to tell America what kind of underwear he wears, and we have never gotten over it.
Whether it was boxers or briefs, the truth is, if we knew his subterranean status, we would know not only the stain he left on democracy but the stain he left on himself as well.
Newt didn't hold onto the House for long. Under the pressure of an investigation into purported ethics violations, he was given an ultimatum. Resign or be voted out.
He was succeded by John Boehner, who, for some reason, couldn't seem to stop crying and eventually would tearfully resign—followed by Paul Ryan, who thought that even sitting on the board for Fox News affords him less of the burden of identity politics than elected office.
The party has eaten its own for years, and the outer wing politics have driven the agenda.
But Kevin is different than his predecessors. He's accomplished two things—sorting Starburst for Trump, who loves the pink ones, and striking more deals than anyone in Congress. And that's what put Kevin where he is now.
If Kevin sold a used car, he'd probably sell it to 2 or 3 people before any of them ever got the keys. Kevin is a bottom feeder who did what he needed to do to get Pelosi's office. He voted to overturn the election and said it never should have happened the next day. He promised hard-right Republicans their ship would come in and then sent it to another pier. He begged Trump for power and then gave it all to his water boys.
There's no need to feel sorry for Kevin. Kevin had it coming. And so did the Republicans.
Currently, democracy is facing a delicate balance. In fact, almost literally, our current president has a whole team of people focused on helping him keep his own balance, fearing a fall that could cause more presidential embarrassment but also result in a disappointing election. But as much as democracy might depend on Biden wearing tennis shoes, it depends mostly on one thing. Voting Republicans out of office.
We all know the government is designed to fight through dysfunction if it's going to function at all. Red tape is red for a reason, and not because it looks pretty. But this week, the business of governing has been a blood bath, although a lot more blood than bath. The Republican Party needs to wash off the MAGA and move on.
That's it for this week.
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Have a great weekend!