Let’s have another roundup
(1) If you’re interested in the process of how a Speaker could be removed, I think this article is pretty accurate about how it could work, even at this point.
(2) Russian bots didn’t matter in the election of 2016. Now It Can Be Told.
(3) Here are the current investigative plans of the House, agreed to by McCarthy. A lot of people who detest and/or distrust McCarthy think he agreed only because his arm was twisted. I’m pretty sure that’s true of some and perhaps all of the rules that limit his power – I have little doubt he only surrendered on many or all of those because of the pressure. But even before the election I recall reading quotes by McCarthy and many of the more middle-right wing of the GOP that investigations of the FBI et al (Hunter Biden, COVID lockdowns) were already planned.
Now, you may say it was all hot air, but McCarthy was talking about certain investigations of that sort back in August. Jordan was a McCarthy ally, and he was poised to be given power in the Judiciary Committee to investigate “weaponization of the DOJ against the American people.” In this article from October, McCarthy said the following:
McCarthy says he intends to boot Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both Californians, from the Intelligence Committee and remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from Foreign Affairs.
Pushed on how he might use subpoena power in hypothetical investigations of Hunter Biden or the Department of Justice, given Democrats’ decision to press for Republicans’ phone records, McCarthy responds, “Our role is oversight, and we’re not going to sit back and not do it.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to know where Covid originated?” he asks. “Why would you not want to know what happened in Afghanistan? Why wouldn’t you want to know why the DOJ went after parents?”
You may distrust him (and the GOP) so much that you say none of this would have happened without the Freedom Caucus. That’s certainly possible, but even prior to the fight over the Speakership I fully expected that it would happen.
After thousands of Bolsonaro’s backers stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace on Sunday, police in riot gear amassed at the pro-Bolsonaro camp outside Brasilia’s army headquarters, while troops took down tents, Reuters witnesses said. The protesters were dispersed.
(5) DEI has become the overarching mission of American universities, replacing the quest for truth.
Alex Berenson, Twitter Files 13(?), Covid-edition: https://twitter.com/AlexBerenson/status/1612526697038897167
Berenson is just beginning now, only four or five tweets have dropped. Expect the rest to follow over the afternoon.
Damar Hamlin released from hospital and returned home to Buffalo.
If my own experience as an institutional employee is any guide, the tenured faculty get what they want. They generally do not get it now, but about 15 years down the road. Their attitudes win out over competing constituencies. The impetus for this is coming from the administration. Neither the trustees nor the faculty are putting up any resistance to it because it does not do violence to their core concerns. The motor for it may be people who work in HR or corporate communications or student affairs (who are commonly the issue of the schools of education), along with some crap faculty. It does not irritate the regular faculty.
In regard to this fellow at UCLA, I think it might have been more rhetorically effective had he said he wouldn’t be doing his job if he did not give people honest assessments of their work and that he’s in the business of imparting knowledge and skills and no other.
Educational institutions are what Fr. Paul Shaugnessy, SJ has called ‘sociologically corrupt’. They lack the capacity from their own resources to repair themselves and they deserve to die. The one way to fix them is for well-intentioned politicians and judges to put them under conservatorships and bring in people from the outside who have a free hand to clean out bad actors in the administration, the faculty, the staff, and from among the Antifa types among the students.
I much prefer DIE over DEI. It is a more meaningful acronym, foretelling the future.
All the hoo-ha over McCarthy’s election is irrelevant, He is Speaker, and he has power, just like (shudder) Pelosi had. Pelosi is as anti-American as anyone I’ve seen in the game.
On 3): I fully expected the GOP House to begin these investigations even before the Speaker blowup. What I also expect is that no matter how concrete the results of the investigations, absolutely nothing will come of them. No one will be prosecuted, no one will be held accountable, no one will be fired etc etc. Ultimately, a waste of time and money.
On 5): Again, no surprise here. As I retired (3 years ago) the requirement was put in that all candidates for any position/promotion must “bend the knee” to the DEI overlords by stating their fealty to the DEI gods. Hopefully DeSantis is going to make some headway cleaning this up at the public higher ed schools in Florida; but we shall see how successful he really will be. Higher ed is so lost, I doubt anything will bring it back.
physicsguy:
I agree that there will almost certainly be no legal consequences of the investigations in the sense you or I would like to see. But that will not be the fault of the GOP. They do not control the DOJ or the Senate, nor the MSM. However, that doesn’t mean that there is no point in such investigations. It depends whether the public will get the word or whether enough of them will care. The investigations can still be the basis for a bill in the House that could pave the way for future legislative action if voters put the GOP in charge in House and Senate in 2024. Of course, it would help to have the presidency then, too. In addition, such investigations would indicate the fulfillment by the GOP of promises made. They also could become the basis for future lawsuits by individuals or perhaps states.
Amongst the top priorities of the new Congress should be the impeachment (purely symbolic though it will be) of the destructive triumvirate of Biden, Garland, and Mayorkas, who are the most culpable of all in the ruination of the republic. Several months ago, Sailer (author of this dispiriting and obviously accurate piece) wrote an excellent essay on “Higher Ed’s New Woke Loyalty Oaths”), posted at RealClearPolitics/Tablet. The full story of the decline and fall of America’s system of education (from K-12 through university), once upon a time the envy of the world, will some day be told as one of the greatest tragedies in the history of civilization.
j e:
I am not in favor of symbolic impeachment, which will be seen as purely retaliatory.
Each succeeding president is now on track to be automatically impeached if and when the opposing party has the House.
sdferr:
Poetic justice that Berenson gets to review the Twitter files on COVID information.
sdferr, that link is dynamite…itself linking to Berenson’s extended Substack piece.
Thanks much….
I also have very low expectations about the investigations into the corruption of the alphabet agencies but I don’t think it’s a waste of time. I’m pretty cynical about the direction of our country in general but as long as there is a chance that we can turn things around, I think the fight is worth it.
One thing that I notice pretty often is just how ignorant some otherwise smart people are about what the FBI has been up to. I still believe that there are persuadable people out there who are just not that interested in politics and therefore don’t know how bad things have gotten. That’s my hope anyway.
The problem posed by the FBI can be efficaciously addressed thus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj0YQ4SsjEs&t=74s
The House impeaches, but the Senate is the jury on the House charge(s). So impeachment is a BS harassment exercise, typical of Democrats. If I’d been DJT, I’d have paid zero attention to the House Dems and their antics: Go ahead, impeach me! So what?
Neo, you are right, every new REPUBLICAN (fixed it for you) will be subject to Impeachment if the Dems are in Power in the House.
Sometimes symbolism is needed and useful.
physicsguy on 3). Opposition theater. Maintain the pretense.
Pelosi turned the House into a Speaker-run dictatorship. The rules changes move the House towards what it used to be, so McCarthy doesn’t, in fact, have the kind of power Pelosi did. This is a good thing.
Neo,
Unfortunately, the “public will not get the word” as the MSM will suppress and ignore anything that comes out of the investigations.
I hope I’m wrong, but given past history I fear I’m correct.
@physicsguy:What I also expect is that no matter how concrete the results of the investigations, absolutely nothing will come of them. No one will be prosecuted, no one will be held accountable, no one will be fired etc etc. Ultimately, a waste of time and money.
Agree, but unlike neo, I don’t think this is because the GOPe WANTS to do something about it and lacks power. I think they are perfectly happy to have investigations that change nothing, because they can fundraise off them with the little people and not inconvenience any of the big people. All part of the kayfabe.
Perhaps we’ll see some GOPe actions that show they’ve come to Jesus and then I’ll be more likely to credit them with good intentions.
@j e:Amongst the top priorities of the new Congress should be the impeachment (purely symbolic though it will be) of the destructive triumvirate of Biden, Garland, and Mayorkas
I think it’s a sign of the GOPe attitude toward the base: notice they’re not talking about impeachment. The Dems knew they could not succeed in convicting Trump but went ahead and impeached him twice anyway. That’s because they cared a lot more* about showing their base they were serious.
But Trump’s an outsider. I don’t think they would have done that to Jeb Bush, say. Biden of course is an insider, and the GOPe needs insiders to collect pork…
*Anticipating the “media” objection, that Republicans would be crucified by the media for impeaching Biden. Everyone already knows that the media already makes Republicans to look as bad as possible for anything or nothing. The Republican base certainly knows that. If the GOPe cared about impressing the base more than antagonizing the Swamp, the House would impeach Biden. There’s other things they could do that have more teeth, we’ll see if ANY of them come to pass…
well impeaching biden, is like impeaching a turnip now mayorkas who looks like a outcast from a original trek episode, austin is out because reasons, garland who is the mirror universe of mitchell palmer, is another worthy target,
Time will tell. Events. Cynics gonna be cynical.
Pelosi turned the House into a Speaker-run dictatorship. The rules changes move the House towards what it used to be, so McCarthy doesn’t, in fact, have the kind of power Pelosi did. This is a good thing.
This is correct, important, and why I check in on this blog at least once per day.
If the GOPe truly wanted change, they would not be tackling purely partisan issues. They would be taking an approach similar to DeSantis, by tackling things that improve the lot for everyone, regardless of affiliation. Namely, things like border control, balancing the budget, reining in the money supply, and destroying the Woke world agenda. DeSantis has been so effective, there is a subset of DeSantis Democrats.
McCarthy’s avowing to ‘proceed with investigations’ was just hot air of the type that lays future options, in my opinion. The promises still left him plenty of wiggle room for re-imagining the solution at the time of delivery. This is also a favorite tactic of Lindsey Graham, I notice. Get on the air, make hard-nosed statements and tough-talking grandiose plans, and then quietly sabotage them in subcommittee by scaling them way down, away from the cameras – unless there’s an advantage to talking them up again.
1) so even if McCarthy renegs on all of his promises,
there will be no meaningful consequence for him?
2) it was never about concerns with Russian interference. It was always about screaming loudly and often enough that the LIE would be believed by the gullible.
3) however sincere McCarthy might be, Congressional investigations will go nowhere. At least as long as Democrats both control the DOJ and as long as Democrats and RINOs prevent impeachment convictions.
4) upon what basis might we assume that the left will voluntarily cooperate in any future transfer of power?
5) “many of our most important institutions—medicine, the media, the law—are increasingly being captured by an ideology that is hollowing out their core functions.”
Hollow out institutional infrastructures enough and the entire edifice collapses. Which of course is the point.
Cicero,
“Pelosi is as anti-American as anyone I’ve seen in the game.”
Pelosi is only anti-American in that she opposes Constitutional governance. I don’t perceive her to be an ideologue, what she lusted for was power and her support for the Left gave her both the power she sought and allowed her personal corruption to flourish.
“…..current investigative plans of the House, agreed to by McCarthy…….”
The cynic in me tells me that the results of these investigations will be a big fat zero; a rerun of the Durham “investigation.”
Those testifying will plead ignorance or just provide the usual “I do not recall…I do not remember…, I don’t remember it that way…, I’ll have to get back to you on
that.., no.., no..no.., no…, no…, that’s not how I interpret that, it was so and so’s decisions , not mine; I was convinced I was acting upon reliable data provided by the CIA / NSA / DOJ /FBI / NATO / DOT/ FDA /CBS / NBC/ CNN / AARP / FBI/ The Daily Planet/ MI5 / MI6 / MI7 / MI8, Boris Johnson, Kim Jong, The Cheka, the Geheime StaatsPolitzei, Rodan, Batman, Perry White, the Three Stooges, the Beatles, the Rockettes, the KGB, …… and even if they sing like a bird, breaking down in tears and confessing to all sorts of improper actions, no punishments will be meted out to the miscreants.
Lying while testifying before these committees has been shown to be a risk free endeavor; sort of like committing a crime in NYC. You get arrested, released immediately, repeat the crime, get arrested, released immediately, repeat……..
Anyway, one witness they should really get to testify is that lying POS scumbag Senator Adam Schiff. Not that it will embarrass him – nothing will.
Pelosi is only anti-American in that she opposes Constitutional governance
Wow – another perfect comment in my opinion.
I could go on longer about this than anyone wants, but Lincoln spoke of government by, of, and for the people. When I was young I thought that poetic political rhetoric. I now realize it’s brilliance. The left, which includes Pelosi, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the by and of part. They likely really believe they are FOR the people, and that’s good enough for them. Robespierre and Stalin probably felt the same.
the rules package did pass, with one holdout, a paisan who had compared the reformer to insurgents,
they were on the soviet side in the cold war, to think they are affirmatively pro Americans,
John Tyler @ 7:18: Adam Schiff is not a senator. McCarthy promised to remove him from the intelligence committee in the House. I hope he does that.
Re (5), DEI in medical education and clinical practice threatens to increase health disparities between blacks and patients of other ethnicities rather than reduce them: “I want to draw attention to the biologically valid reasons for including race in patient discussions, evaluations, and treatment decisions. This is not simply an abstract point about political correctness—the exclusion of race as a variable when determining patient susceptibility and treatments may leave medical practitioners unable to provide black patients with optimal care.” The author proceeds to discuss a number of diseases and disorders that are either more common in black patients, more severe, or both:
https://quillette.com/2023/01/08/more-than-just-a-social-construct/
“. . . Adam Schiff is not a senator.” True dat, but — 1) he wants to be, 2) DiFi steps aside (or otherwise leaves the scene), 3) Newsome appoints Schiff, and 4) presto-change-o, who cut the cheese?
sdferr, is Schiff the designated replacement? Ah, well, it’s California.
I wouldn’t know about designations Kate. Imagining evil doings is all I got there.
According to a DuckDuckGo search, in mid-2021 Newsom promised to appoint a black woman if Feinstein leaves office early. That would be, perhaps, Rep. Barbara Lee, or newly-elected LA Mayor Karen Bass.
Other considering running in 2024, besides Schiff, are Ro Khanna and Katie Porter.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/feinstein-californiademocrats-senate/2022/12/04/id/1099040/
Schiff surely knows how to be a black woman by now: all he’s got to do is self-identify. But it’s a lie. O!, right in his wheelhouse.
Sdferr, 🙂
Tucker with various updates, all of which amount to a critique of MSM coverage. The footage from Mexico looks and sounds like a war zone.
Brazil knows coups and insurrections. If they really wanted to have one, it wouldn’t look like what happened this week.
Looking at everything that the federal government gets up to, it’s hard to understand how the country worked itself up into such high moral dudgeon over Watergate, and looking at the last election results it’s hard to think they’ll be much enthusiasm for impeachments, but I really would like to know more about why things are so messed up now and who is responsible.
All those professors and especially all those administrators aren’t going to have much to do without DEI. The humanities and the universities don’t have much of a sense of mission apart from that. When colleges are basically trade schools, but think that it’s beneath their dignity to admit it, they fall back on DEI to give themselves a meaning and a sense of purpose.
While the many are justifiable pessimistic, there is another game here revealed by the House Speaker contretemps.
Robert Barnes (at VivaFrei-Barnes pLaw) correctly points out that democracies have more resources to instigate reform than non-democracies. And the US was bequeathed more instruments than any other democracy. Could that great American resource fomenting sparks into meaningful change, have lit a flame that can become a fire?
For example, says Barnes, people on the Right like Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, do not get this point. Elections are not the only way to reform. They don’t “get” what happened the past week.
The divided sources of power, the three traditional branches of government, are hybrids. Each branch is a separate island of authority. Yet each has responsibility to check the others, and especially where abuse of power is concerned, to investigate and expose egregious abuse through the instruments of investigation and transparency.
This means gathering documents and taking testimony while the irons of malice remain hot and viciousness still readily observable, even if there is no proper prosecution.
Democrat reputations can be exposed to scrutiny and hence to public judgement.
While the futility of no follow through has been repetitious here, do not forget than no justice does not entail no retributive judgment.
For example, despite no meaningful convictions of the Russiagate —- later, Spygate, then Obamagate — criminal crews in and out of public power have occurred, the damaging public estimate that the FIB is not a proper police agency but corrupt and questionable affects around half of all Americans.
There are a slew of analogous judgments floating out there, among popular opinion. And these help our case and cause.
If a determined prosecution and exposure develops from Congress, the damaging reputational mud can spread generally.
This could shape our future political debates more profoundly that anything else.
Robert Barnes is historically well read and alive to observe how history not in rhymes but also sometimes even repeats.
His hope is that a strong and effective Congressional investigation of corruption can prove lasting, as has happened twice in the past century.
Neo has given us a recent primer on Idaho Senator Frank Church’s committee exposing federal surveillance. This one is alive to sentient memories.
But Barnes called the fiery Congressional investigations of banking, finance, and military contracting, exposing often (now forgotten) political corruption in the decades after World War One.
THIS is more the historical model for reform Barnes has in mind.
It literally shaped Eisenhower’s famous Farewell Address in 1961.
If our enemies can be thoroughly denigrated and discredited, is this not a more vital form of victory than the proverbial “changing of the guards?”
“…all he’s got to do is self-identify….”
No doubt.
I mean, if Larry Elder can be a “white supremacist” there’s absolutely no reason why Adam Schiff can’t be a “woman of color”. (He wouldn’t even have to lie about it—not that that’s any impediment for him, mind you…)
– – – – – – – – – – –
“…This means gathering documents…”
And wouldn’t ye’ know it!
This just in….(heh…) right on cue!!
“Classified Documents Found At President Biden’s Think Tank”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/classified-documents-found-president-bidens-think-tank
Opening graf:
“Classified documents from Joe Biden’s tenure as Vice President were found in early November at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, CBS News reports, citing two sources with knowledge of an inquiry launched by Attorney General Merrick Garland….”
– – – – – – – – – – –
“Brazil knows coups and insurrections. If they really wanted to have one, it wouldn’t look like what happened this week….”
Indeed. One might well wonder who those guys REALLY were…IOW, whether Lula was thinking that what worked so awesomely for “Biden” (and “his” clown car of “concerned” legislators and media hysterics) on Jan. 6 would be well worth emulating—as a fabulous distraction and to milk for all it was worth.
(I imagine Glenn Greenwald might be able to offer some sort of comment about this gruesome possibility, given his experience and knowledge of Brazil…but I don’t know if he’s mentioned anything about it…)
@ PA Cat > “the exclusion of race as a variable when determining patient susceptibility and treatments may leave medical practitioners unable to provide black patients with optimal care”
Democrat policies have been destroying black people for over a century; why stop now?
I liked this post on the Speaker Stand-off, although it was written in the midst of the drama, before the curtain came down.
It’s the most detailed of the reports I’ve seen, essentially a play-by-play of the negotiations and drama and votes, so I’m sorry he didn’t wait until the end – but the gods of the news-cycle must be appeased.
It didn’t seem too biased one way or the other.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/scalping-a-hopeful-speaker/
Bradley Devlin Jan 5, 2023
Anybody, that is, outside of the political pundits and those of us addicted to their soap operas.
Kind of puts complaints about the House wasting time into perspective.
They didn’t take McCarthy down, but they “scalped” him out of a lot of concessions he apparently didn’t want to make.
Some people believe they made their point.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/01/our-extremists-vs-theirs.php
Always saddening when one realizes how absolutely, gobsmacking STUPID some people can be….
[Prayer to self… Dear Lord…teach us—grace us with—patience, compassion and understanding…]…
‘…I’d love it if [Matt Taibbi] could do big important work, and not “expose” that Twitter was hard to run’—
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1612604931722149888?cxt=HHwWgIC85Ybpj-EsAAAA
H/T Hans Mahncke twitter feed.
(Yes, yes, of COURSE it’s politically motivated…but still… IN WRITING? IN PUBLIC? Well, I guess this fellow has his “virtuous” base, including “virtuous” self, to kowtow to…so any smattering of intelligence MUST take a back seat…)
Speaking of illegitimate governments, President 81 Million Votes tweeted a booster promo aimed at tots and toddlers.
Check the comments.
Actually they got the green nude eel as pointed out in jason barmes twitter they had a proforma contest in 2018
I hope that the new rules will give locals more opportunity to bring up issues that affect locals and then to influence local elections. The best way to drain the swamp is to get more contenders for local offices and thereby force swamp dwellers to adjust their positions. The 72 hour rule is good, and smart locals can use it to inform other locals and hold their reps up to scrutiny. Even people who are not politically informed can be reached if you talk to their pocketbooks or to gov’t regs that directly affect their communities.
Next door in bolivia they are burning the house down at least 30 dead but some broken crockery matters more
Nixon revealed the dems had a soviet agent that could have been secretary of state the dems have nominated two since kerry and biden
What have we here?
Looks like the long arm of the utterly lawless….
“Former Trump Org CFO Weisselberg to be sentenced, prepares to serve in Rikers Island jail;
“Weisselberg is preparing for his sentence at Rikers with a prison consultant.”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/former-trump-cfo-weisselberg-prepares-rikers-island-jail
Of course there’s more…
‘Trump to face New York lawsuit over alleged financial fraud following judge’s ruling;
‘Trump claims the investigation is a politically motivated “witch hunt” and has tried unsuccessfully to block the Democratic AG’s probe through the courts’—
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/trump-face-new-york-lawsuit-following-judges-ruling
If course the GOP should impeach everyone guilty of impeachable offenses. The notion that they shouldn’t because then Democrats will then impeach Republicans for non-impeachable offenses is a perfect example of specious thinking.
Democrats abuse power, lie, slander, steal and cheat relentlessly. They always have and always will. Not because the GOP might someday actually try to fight back by doing their jobs.
The cowardice of far too many on the right is our biggest problem. Kelly nails it.
Jesse Kelly
@JesseKellyDC
·
Jan 7
The last few days have reinforced my belief that the challenge we face is the loser mentality on the Right. The communists, to their credit, love to fight. The Right gets so uncomfortable when someone raises their voice they’ll agree to anything to make the noise stop.
—
Life better get pretty damn noisy pretty soon or we aren’t going to enjoy it for long.
The Freedom Caucus did a great job in holding McCarthy’s feet to the fire. The reforms restore some of the traditions of the House. Crenshaw is a poseur and phony. McCarthy is a swamp dweller and I don’t trust him. Too bad Devon Nunez took the Trump exit. Probably to fund his kids’ education without graft. The loss of Tom Coburn was a tragedy for the Senate.
I agree with neo that investigations matter even if there is no legal consequence. At a minimum I want to know as much as I can where this society stands.
If our enemies can be thoroughly denigrated and discredited, is this not a more vital form of victory than the proverbial “changing of the guards?”
I’m all for it, but:
1) MSM will hide as much as they can.
2) We can’t count on elections. 2022 should have been a wave election. It wasn’t, despite the current conditions as well as the failure of the current president.