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Post by mhbruin on Oct 2, 2023 10:09:49 GMT -8
I asked the bus driver "How long will the next bus be?" He replied "Same length as this one."
Kevin is Between the QOP and a Hard Place
In the wake of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's reliance on mostly Democratic votes to temporarily avert a government shutdown, the threat of ouster from his fellow Republicans is more apparent – especially after Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz's signaling that he will move forward with a "motion to vacate."
According to The Washington Post's Aaron Blake, it wouldn't take a whole lot of Republicans voting to oust McCarthy to give Democrats an advantage.
"Given that McCarthy has just five GOP votes to spare while keeping a majority, a relatively small number of Republicans voting to oust him could give the Democrats leverage," Blake writes. "For every Republican who would vote to oust McCarthy beyond those five, he would need to pick off a Democrat willing to keep him in the job. So, for example, if the 20 Republicans who initially voted against McCarthy for speaker voted to remove him, McCarthy would need around 15 Democrats to vote to keep him in the job."
Democrats are keeping their cards close to the vest in regards to whether they'll vote to oust McCarthy. Some are suggesting they want to use the instability behind his speakership as a bargaining chip to obtain concessions from Republicans.
"As for what those concessions could even be? It’s entirely unclear. McCarthy undoubtedly lost any shot he had at goodwill with Democrats by recently launching a speculative impeachment inquiry into President Biden that they regard as a cynical and baseless attempt to save his own skin," writes Blake. "The Post has noted that he could promise votes on certain Democratic priorities — perhaps on something like Ukraine funding — give Democrats more representation on committees, allot them more spending earmarks or promise to govern more from the center."
Speaking to The Post, Matt Glassman, an expert on the politics of the House and the speakership at Georgetown University, said that it seems "exceedingly unlikely — basically impossible — for McCarthy to create a durable bipartisan procedural coalition."
“And even if he tried, that would require completely adjusting his policy program toward the Democrats that he would be bargaining with, and that would probably make more Republicans abandon him.”
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 2, 2023 10:11:39 GMT -8
How Not to Win Friends and Influence People
During the lunch break, Trump spoke in front of cameras inside the courthouse arguing that Engoron is a "rogue judge" and that James is a "corrupt person" and a "terrible person."
Trump said this is a "disgraceful situation" and claimed that he had already won 80% of the case from a ruling issued by an appellate court in June. However, that's not entirely accurate. Trump's team argued there were statute of limitations issues, which could have resulted in about 80% of the case being tossed, and claimed that an appeals court decision did that. They then argued that Engoron hadn't taken the appeals court decision into consideration, but the judge did in the summary judgment against Trump last week.
The former president also called Engoron a "Trump-hater," and at one point spoke about how people are "being murdered right outside in the street" and that nothing happens to those criminals.
Asked why he wanted to attend the opening of the trial today, he said he wanted to "watch this witch hunt," whose purpose, he said, is to interfere with the country's elections.
Trump also bashed special counsel Jack Smith, who has charged him with federal counts in two other unrelated cases.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 2, 2023 10:14:13 GMT -8
What Will the Democrats Do If There is a Motion to Vacate?
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries remains noncommittal. Last week, he told reporters his team hadn’t “given any thought to how to handle a hypothetical motion to vacate, because we are entirely focused on making sure that we avoid this extreme MAGA Republican shutdown.” On Sunday, Minority Whip Katherine Clark sent a letter to all House Democrats, putting them on notice that as soon as Gaetz drops his motion on the floor, there will be a “Caucus wide discussion on how to address the motion to best meet the needs of the American people,” and telling them to keep their schedules flexible so they “may be present for these important votes should they occur.”
It’s likely many Democrats will take their lead from House Speaker-emerita Nancy Pelosi, who has reportedly warned Jeffries and other Democrats against helping McCarthy, saying he can’t be trusted. Her advice has been to make the Republicans figure this out on their own. Democrats will, however, have to do something, even if it’s doing nothing.
Here’s how it works: Once Gaetz makes the motion to vacate, leadership has two days to schedule a vote on it. The motion to vacate is a privileged resolution, which means that it doesn’t have to go through the Rules Committee to be scheduled, and that it has to be considered once it’s put on the floor. There is an option, called the “Question of consideration,” that could be used to kill the vote. Any member can call for it, and if a majority votes to kill Gaetz’s motion, that’s how they’d do it.
At that point, Democrats would have the option of helping Republicans by voting for the question and killing the motion to vacate, not voting or voting “present,” or voting against the question and with Gaetz. The problem for Republican leadership with this option is that it doesn’t stop Gaetz from coming back again and again with his motion to vacate. Because of that, Republican leadership might just decide to go ahead with the vote on McCarthy’s ouster.
So here’s where the potential dealmaking with Democrats comes in.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 2, 2023 10:20:04 GMT -8
The Butler Will Do It.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced he’s appointing EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to finish out the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Senate term, making good on his promise to fill the vacancy with a Black woman.
The swift appointment was essential for Democrats’ power in the Senate, where they have a slim 50-49 majority following Feinstein’s death at age 90.
Butler’s appointment will last until January 2025, when Feinstein’s sixth term in the chamber was due to end. It’s up to voters to select a permanent senator for the next six-year term.
The race for Feinstein’s seat was well underway at the time of her death. Three Democrats representing California in the House had launched campaigns: Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. While Newsom made good on his pledge of appointing a Black woman by selecting Butler, he said in September he wouldn’t nominate someone who’s seeking to hold the seat permanently.
An adviser to the governor told Politico that Newsom didn’t place preconditions on whether Butler can run for the seat in 2024.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 2, 2023 10:21:26 GMT -8
Gaetz Wants to Show McCarthy the Exit. Some Want to Show Gaetz the Exit
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) could soon face a push for his own ouster, according to CNN and Fox News.
The Florida congressman said Sunday that he will attempt to strip House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of his gavel after the California Republican relied on Democrats to pass stopgap spending legislation that narrowly averted a government shutdown over the weekend.
Gaetz’s threat, which he has been repeating for weeks, has apparently rankled some of his colleagues.
“We want him out,” one unnamed Republican lawmaker told CNN in a report published Sunday.
Gaetz is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and corruption. He has denied wrongdoing.
The Republican lawmaker told CNN that Gaetz could be ousted by those who oppose him if he’s found guilty.
Fox News reported Sunday that members of the House Republican conference are preparing a motion to expel Gaetz if the ethics committee’s report does not clear him of wrongdoing. It would take a two-thirds vote in the House to expel him.
“No one can stand him at this point. A smart guy without morals,” one member said, according to Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 2, 2023 10:23:50 GMT -8
Biles is a Lot Easier to Spell thatn Yurchanko
Simone Biles just put her name on a Yurchenko double pike at the world gymnastics championships ― literally.
The Olympic great on Sunday became the first woman to ever perform the complex maneuver in international competition, so it’s now called the Biles II, NBC reported. (Watch the video below.)
And it’s II cool.
Watch Biles sprint down the runway and nearly nail the vault, which consists in part of a back flip into the apparatus followed by two full rotations in a pike:
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 2, 2023 10:30:18 GMT -8
Keith Richard Can't Get No Satisfaction from Rap.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards can’t always get what he wants out of pop and hip-hop.
The 79-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee slammed the two music genres in a recent interview with The Telegraph.
“I don’t really like to hear people yelling at me and telling me it’s music, AKA rap,” Richards told the British paper. “I can get enough of that without leaving my house.”
Richards, whose tastes lean more toward the blues, jazz and classical music, said he didn’t “want to start complaining about pop music” too, but offered his two cents anyway.
“It’s always been rubbish. I mean, that’s the point of it. They make it as cheap and as easy as possible and therefore it always sounds the same; there’s very little feel in it,” said Richards, whose manager reportedly once “instructed” him to drop the s in his surname because it “looked more pop.”
“I like to hear music by people playing instruments,” Richards told the paper. “That is, I don’t like to hear plastic synthesised Muzak, as it used to be known, what you hear in elevators, which is now the par for the course.”
Richards has criticized hip-hop in the past, telling the New York Daily News in 2015 that “what rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there.”
He continued: “All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another.”
The rock icon told Rolling Stone magazine in 2007 that hip-hop leaves him “cold.”
Or To Put It Another Way
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 2, 2023 10:32:41 GMT -8
Artillery Fire for DummiesRussian forces have destroyed about half the battlefield equipment that Ukrainian company Metinvest has produced for the country’s military. Managers want Russian troops to target more of it. At a workshop in central Ukraine, workers are busy making parts for howitzers, radar stations and mortars. They are all fakes. Metinvest churns out high-quality replicas that serve as decoys, seeking to lure Russian fire. Made from rigid plastic foam, plumbing and scrap equipment, the gear is produced based on the logic that every Russian missile, shell or drone used to strike them is one fewer targeting real equipment and troops. “When we place these decoys along certain areas of the front, they attract the attention of the enemy,” said a worker. One Ukrainian platoon commander said his unit had used decoys to pinpoint from where Russian artillery was firing so that other Ukrainian forces could target it. An independent monitor last year posted video of a Russian Lancet drone striking a Ukrainian radar system that turned out to be a decoy made from a wrecked vehicle. How Ukraine Tricks Russia Into Wasting Ammunition
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