Thread: 2022 US Mid-term elections

Mike Rogers owes the guy who pulled him away from Matt Gaetz a beer. Any fisticuffs would have been on the telly in minutes all around the world. Perhaps Rogers had already had a few alcoholic refreshments.

Originally Posted by 39TG

Mike Rogers owes the guy who pulled him away from Matt Gaetz a beer. Any fisticuffs would have been on the telly in minutes all around the world. Perhaps Rogers had already had a few alcoholic refreshments.

Yes, but most would like to see Gaetz getting a well-deserved smack in the kisser.

Their first Act

• House GOP passes bill to slash IRS funding in first act of new Congress

The Republican-controlled House passed a bill Monday night that would slash tens of billions of funding dollars for the Internal Revenue Service.

Why it matters: The bill is unlikely to pass the Democratic-led Senate, but its presence at the top of the House GOP agenda suggests that IRS funding could be a reoccurring sticking point in future budget clashes.

• It's the first piece of legislation passed in the 118th Congress.

Driving the news: The bill, which passed 221-210 along party lines, targets the IRS funding boost in the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act passed last year.

Between the lines: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report that found House Republicans' IRS legislation would increase the budget deficit by $114 billion over 10 years.

Looks like McCarthy had to sell out.

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Monday adopted a package of internal rules that give right-wing hardliners more leverage over the chamber's newly elected Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy.
Lawmakers voted 220-213 to approve the legislation. One Republican, Representative Tony Gonzales, joined all 212 Democrats in voting against the rules package. Another Republican did not vote.

The rules package, which will govern House operations over the next two years, represented an early test of McCarthy's ability to keep his caucus together, after he suffered the humiliation of 14 failed ballots last week before finally being elected speaker on Saturday.
The legislation includes key concessions that hardliners sought and McCarthy agreed to in his quest for the speaker's gavel. The changes include allowing a single lawmaker to call for his removal at any time. Other changes would place new restrictions on federal spending, potentially limiting McCarthy's ability to negotiate government funding packages with President Joe Biden, whose fellow Democrats control the Senate.

U.S. House adopts rules sought by hardliners to control McCarthy | Reuters

no way to get rid of him

• Curious about George: House Republicans debate Santos’ fate

House Republicans know George Santos is a problem. They’re just not sure what to do about him yet.

The New York Republican landed on the Hill for his first term last week with a reputation marred by multiple public falsehoods about his past — behavior that conflicts with his party’s vocal campaign pledges to step up accountability and transparency, particularly among government officials.

The GOP conference is now deliberating over how to handle a member who’s been publicly ridiculed as a fraudster, including whether Santos should receive committee assignments. Some members are openly pushing to sideline him until internal investigations can dig through his campaign finances, and even basic biographical information.

“I don’t have any historical precedent about what’s appropriate here. And I do think that matters,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus. “In my mind, I wouldn’t seat the guy until we have an investigation done. I think there are enough legitimate concerns out there about his behavior.”

Time will tell but the majority is slim so if the Dems can get just 10 GOP members to vote with them hopefully some decent bills will get passed.

^I hope but if the republicans and dems agree to any bill that will mean a win for Biden so I have my doubts that much will get done.

• House GOP approves resolution to create panel to probe ‘weaponization’ of federal government

Republican lawmakers on Tuesday gave their approval to a new House subcommittee designed to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government, giving the panel access to sensitive intelligence and the power to oversee ongoing criminal investigations.

The resolution passed in a party-line vote, 221-211.

The subcommittee, part of the House Judiciary Committee, is expected to be chaired by the full panel’s chair, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Such a move would give broad authority to an ally of Donald Trump who has railed against current and prior investigations of the former president.

“This is about the First Amendment, something you guys used to care about. And I’d actually hoped we could get bipartisan agreement on protecting the First Amendment — the five rights we enjoy as Americans under the First Amendment,” Jordan said during debate on the House floor Tuesday.

“We don’t want to go after anyone, we just want it to stop. And we want to respect the First Amendment to the Constitution that the greatest country in the world has. That’s what this committee is all about, and that’s what we’re gonna focus on, that’s what we are going to do,” he later added.

The panel’s creation is a victory for the House’s Freedom Caucus, which pushed for a body that would tackle a number of GOP gripes, carrying on Jordan’s prior claims that the Justice Department, and most particularly the FBI, has “ridiculed conservative Americans.”

The subcommittee, set to include 13 Republicans and five Democrats, comes amid numerous criminal probes into Trump and his associates.

The Justice Department continues its investigation into Trump and others for their efforts to prevent the transfer of power, appointing a special counsel to oversee that matter as well as the ongoing investigation into the mishandling of records at Trump’s Florida home.

Freshman Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), who as a congressional staffer served as counsel in both of Trump’s impeachments, sees the subcommittee as a direct attack on those ongoing DOJ investigations.

“I rise to make something crystal clear: the primary purpose of this special subcommittee is to interfere with the special counsel’s ongoing investigation into a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. This is a shocking abuse of power,” he said.

Still looking for work

• Kari Lake Says If She's Not Made Arizona Governor, America Will 'Turn Into A Venezuela'

Failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake insisted in an interview Friday that if she is not made governor of Arizona, the U.S. will turn into Venezuela.

The Donald Trump-backed Republican raised the specter of a Venezuelan America in an interview with far-right student agitator Charlie Kirk.

Lake lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs in November, the election has been certified and Hobbs has taken office. Lake also lost a court case last month challenging the election result and has since appealed.

“There’s a boatload of evidence in our favor,” Lake baselessly claimed in the interview. “We just need a judge to wake up and realize what’s on the line here, and if we do not restore honest elections right now, our country will turn into a Venezuela. We have Venezuelan-style elections, and this is how you destroy a country.”

Ironically, the ascension to power by someone who isn’t chosen in a free election is typical of authoritarian leadership in Venezuela, not in an American democracy.

Lake’s warning here: https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/s...40776312332288

It will be an eventful two years

• GOP hardliners reap benefits of McCarthy speaker deal

Members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus are seeing the first dividends from the deal they struck to give House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) his gavel: prime committee assignments.

Why it matters: The plum postings for Republican rebels fulfill a key concession McCarthy made, handing conservatives greater influence over the GOP conference's congressional probes and legislative agenda.

Driving the news: The powerful House Oversight Committee, which is set to be the clearinghouse for many of the GOP's marquee investigations into the Biden administration, is adding half a dozen Freedom Caucus members and McCarthy rebels to its ranks.

• That includes Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) — who initially opposed McCarthy during the speaker election before striking a deal — and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who refused to vote for him.
• Another addition is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a right-wing McCarthy ally who, like Gosar, was booted from committees by Democrats and a handful of Republicans in 2021.

The Freedom Caucus nabbed a new committee gavel — on top of Rep. Jim Jordan's (R-Ohio) chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee — with Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) beating out more moderate Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) to lead the Homeland Security Committee last week.

• Greene and Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) — a freshman who, like Boebert, refused to back McCarthy for speaker and instead voted present — received seats on that committee.
• Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), another McCarthy detractor who eventually got in line, won the gavel of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture.
• Leading rebel Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) retained his seats on the Judiciary Committee, where articles of impeachment against Biden officials would originate, and Armed Services.
• And nearly every "A" committee — the four most desirable panels — got new members associated with the Freedom Caucus: Reps. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and Michael Cloud (R-Texas) will serve on Appropriations, while Donalds and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) will be on Financial Services.

What they're saying: Members of the GOP steering committee argued that McCarthy's foes in the speaker election — including those who held firm in refusing to vote for him — were richly rewarded in the committee assignment process.

• "I was watching that and I thought, 'Maybe there will be some retribution,'" Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) told Axios. "Honestly, it was so fair, right across the board ... there's no residual from [the speaker election], nobody had a hangover."
• Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) said: "We as a steering committee focused on making sure there was balance on all the committees. I think the speaker did a good job with it."

What we're watching: One of the biggest concessions McCarthy gave to hardliners was a commitment to appoint three conservatives to the Rules Committee, which holds considerable sway over what legislation is brought to the House floor.

• Unlike with most committees, members of the Rules Committee are tapped by their party's leaders, giving McCarthy sole discretion over which Republicans get appointed.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

holds considerable sway over what legislation is brought to the House floor.

Hence the next couple years will produce pretty much no legislation of significance. Nothing but right wing crap will get to the floor which if passed in the house, will never make it through the Senate or get signed by Biden.

Originally Posted by Norton

Hence the next couple years will produce pretty much no legislation of significance. Nothing but right wing crap....

As this bill

House passes first anti-abortion bill post Roe decision

House Republicans on Wednesday used their new majority to push through a largely symbolic bill that would require health care providers to provide care to infants born after an attempted abortion.

Don't forget: Health providers are already required under law to act to provide medical services to any infant born at any gestational age. The House bill also penalizes the "intentional killing of a born-alive child," which is already illegal.

• The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, enacted in 2002, says that any child born at any stage of development — including potentially after an abortion — should be considered a "person" and a "human being," and thus is entitled to the same legal protections.
• The measure, which passed 220-210, has virtually no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.
  
  • Rep. Henry Cuellar, the only House Democrat that does not support abortion rights, voted in support of the bill.

Details: The main difference between the 2002 law and the most current one — the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act — is that the latter establishes penalties for health providers who do not act to "preserve the life and health of the child."

• Providers would face up to five years in prison under the new bill. Additionally, if they are found to have "intentionally" killed or attempted to kill a child, they could be found guilty of murder.
• Providers can also be sued by the person "upon whom the abortion was performed or attempted."

Between the lines: 93.1% of abortions in 2020 were performed at or before 13 weeks of pregnancy, 5.8% were conducted between 14-20 weeks and 0.9% were performed at or after 21 weeks, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• People who have abortions later in the pregnancy do so because of "medical concerns such as fetal anomalies or maternal life endangerment, as well as barriers to care that cause delays in obtaining an abortion," per the Kaiser Family Foundation.
• During the first trimester, the time in which most abortions are performed, fetuses cannot survive outside of the womb.

What they're saying: House Republicans "are using their razor-thin majority to fearmonger and stigmatize abortion, ignoring the clear message that voters delivered in November: they want to protect and expand reproductive health care and rights," said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

• "This bill is deliberately misleading and offensive to pregnant people and the doctors and nurses who provide their care," said Jacqueline Ayers, Planned Parenthood's senior vice president of policy, organizing and campaigns.

The other side: Anti-abortion groups praised the effort, with Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said the bill would protect "vulnerable children and their mothers."

• March for Life President Jeanne Mancini called the bill "commonsense and compassionate."

Zoom out: A similar measure on Montana's ballot for the midterms was rejected by voters.

• Some House Republicans have questioned a strategy of pushing abortion restrictions early in the new session after the polling indicated the issue worked against the party in the midterms.

What else happened: The House also voted in support of a resolution to condemn attacks on “pro-life facilities, groups, and churches.”

• The resolution also states that the House “recognizes the sanctity of life.”
• Three Democrats voted for the resolution: Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), Marie Perez (D-Wash.) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.).

Originally Posted by Norton

Hence the next couple years will produce pretty much no legislation of significance. Nothing but right wing crap will get to the floor which if passed in the house, will never make it through the Senate or get signed by Biden.

McCarthy will block anything decent from a vote even if it's bipartisan, because he's now MAGA's bitch.

Originally Posted by Norton

Hence the next couple years will produce pretty much no legislation of significance. Nothing but right wing crap.......

and another bill that will never see light of day

• Biden energy chief pushes back on GOP bill

The story so far: House Republicans are expected to vote soon on a bill that would prevent the Department of Energy from releasing oil from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) until the administration develops a plan to increase the percentage of federal lands that are leased for new oil and gas production.

• U.S. energy head warns Republicans oil bill would lift pump prices

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm warned Republicans in a letter seen by Reuters on Wednesday that limiting President Joe Biden's authority to tap the nation's oil reserves would undermine national security, cause crude oil shortages and raise gasoline prices.

Biden repeatedly tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) last year to manage rising gasoline prices and disruptions to supply caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The sales shrank the SPR to about 380 million barrels, the lowest level since 1984, raising concerns about energy security.

A bill called the Strategic Production Response Act, introduced earlier this month by Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, would limit presidential authority in releasing oil from the strategic reserve, except in the case of a severe energy supply interruption.

McMorris Rodgers now chairs the House Energy & Commerce Committee, after Republicans took over the chamber this month from Democrats.

"This bill would significantly weaken this critical energy security tool, resulting in more oil supply shortages in times of crisis and higher gasoline prices for Americans," Granholm said in the letter to the House energy panel, first seen by Reuters.

snip

The new House bill would make Biden's authority conditional on him opening up more federal lands to oil and gas drilling at the same time, a long-held view of Republican lawmakers.

The Biden administration has no set plans to conduct further sales from the SPR, though some smaller sales required by legislation passed by Congress in prior years could occur this year.

The White House has criticized the legislation, calling it "backwards" and an attempt by House Republicans to help oil companies make more profits.

The systems continue to be corrupted and criminal.
...and accepted.

fvck off jeff

________

• Wes Moore makes history as Maryland’s first Black governor

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore made history Wednesday, officially assuming office as Maryland’s first Black chief executive during a ceremony at the state’s capitol building in Annapolis.

But for Moore — the nation’s third Black governor and the only one currently serving — the road to the office was about more than breaking the glass ceiling.

“This journey has never been about making history,” said Moore, an Army veteran, author and former nonprofit director, during his inaugural address. “It’s about marching forward. Today is not an indictment of the past. Today is a celebration of our collective future.”

Moore was sworn in using two Bibles, one of which belonged to abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The new governor wasn’t Maryland’s only history-maker Wednesday: His lieutenant governor, Aruna Miller, became the state’s first woman of color and first immigrant to take on that role. And earlier this month, Anthony G. Brown became Maryland’s first Black attorney general, while Brooke Lierman became the first woman to serve as comptroller.

The son of a Jamaican immigrant, Moore ran on a pledge to “leave no one behind,” campaigning on a set of progressive policies such as raising the minimum wage, increasing clean energy initiatives and reforming education and policing — many of which he touched on during his address. Marylanders have been offered a number of “false choices,” Moore said, including the choice between “a competitive economy and an equitable one,” and people “feeling safe in their own community and feeling safe in their own skin.”

Moore swept the election in November, trouncing Republican challenger Dan Cox by 33 percentage points in a race for the seat left open by former Gov. Larry Hogan, who had met the state’s two-term limit. Democrats were whispering of a potential future presidential run for Moore before the 44-year-old even won the election, likening the political newcomer to former President Barack Obama, who aided Moore on the campaign trail.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

The systems continue to be corrupted and criminal.
...and accepted.

Have to be blind and deaf not to know that

Originally Posted by HuangLao

The systems continue to be corrupted and criminal.
...and accepted.

Originally Posted by helge

Have to be blind and deaf not to know that

Obviously not within some circles. Any such real and lucid knowledge is quite vacant. Flag-waving blinders.
A score of Helen Keller types abound.....a few distinctive examples here on our beloved TD.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Flag-waving blinders.
A score of Helen Keller types abound.....a few distinctive examples here on our beloved TD.

This very thread has been taken over by the greatest flag waving, Kool Aid drinking, propagandist on TD.

Nobody comes near him


(he did post a nice pic of a cuban ...lady though)

Gaetz introduces 'Abolish the ATF Act'' after ruling against stabilizing braces | Fox News

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a bill to eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) following a controversial ruling that tightens regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces.

"The continued existence of the ATF is increasingly unwarranted based on the actions they're taking to convert otherwise law-abiding people into felons," he said. "My bill would abolish the ATF. If that doesn't work, we're going to try defunding the ATF. If that doesn't work, we're going to target the individual bureaucrats at the top of the ATF who have exceeded their authority in rulemaking. And if that doesn't work, we're going to take a meat cleaver to the statutes that the ATF believes broadly authorize their actions."

Gaetz’s bill, which has been referred to the Judiciary Committee, does not have any cosponsors yet, but he said there’s "broad support" among Republicans "to go after the actions of ATF."

H.R.374 - To abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

ATF - What We Do | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Originally Posted by S Landreth

My bill would abolish the ATF.

You tell em Matt! Yeeee...ha.

Originally Posted by 39TG

Mike Rogers owes the guy who pulled him away from Matt Gaetz a beer. Any fisticuffs would have been on the telly in minutes all around the world. Perhaps Rogers had already had a few alcoholic refreshments.

I would had paid to see that.It would had been funny as hell.
Both of these guys have no seen a bar fight, never mind being in one, They would have pulled each hair and cried like the bitches they both are.

^^I waiting to see what some of the GOP cowboys will do with a stick of dynamite once the ATF is out of business