Eating their cake

      Having stripped the Office of Congressional Ethics of any real power to discipline them and securing  3 seats on the Rules Committee, the nihilist caucus seems to have all the power in the House for the next couple of years.   This includes a pledge by powerless Speaker My Kevin McCarthy to hold the country hostage in the debt ceiling debate coming soon to a cable station near you. 

     Many pundits feel the Republican majority is planning to tear what remains of the social safety net to shreds by gutting Social Security and Medicare.  this is seen as a prelude to what a Republican trifecta in 2024 can accomplish.   For some reason they think the American public will somehow embrace this masochistic prescription.  The beatings will continue until morale improves.  

The just say no caucus

       Like an angry bunch of toddlers, the far right of the Republican caucus will probably decide soon that governing is for dummies and doing nothing and seeing what happens is the preferred method for running the country.   Under the rules negotiated by Kevin McCarthy to gain support for his Speakership, individual members can offer amendments to spending bills and also call for a vote to "vacate the chair".  Instead of making the machinery of government more transparent, these amendments are likely to increase dysfunction by making every congressman a decider on whether the House functions or not.  Thanks, Kevin.

These cockroaches love the light

        Desperate to report some progress in efforts to elect a Speaker for this session of Congress, some reporters are speculating that if My Kevin peels off enough of the 20 members of his opposition, somehow the rest of the diehards will somehow slink off and allow his election.   What they won't admit is these holdouts love the spotlight, unlike their insect world counterparts.   The brighter the light, the more intransigent they will become.

Can't look away

      The House adjourned last night before the members could subject Kevin McCarthy to a 7th humiliation, but political junkies like myself could not look away.  I spent another aimless hour absorbing multiple hot takes on what it all means.

      The short answer is, very little.   Someone from the clown car that is the Republican caucus will eventually be elected Speaker and then the real travesty will begin as the leopards will begin eating faces and vitally important work will be ignored.   It's very much like a slow motion traffic accident.  You know you should ignore it and concentrate on driving, but it is hard to ignore the sirens and the ambulances.

Thrice more into the breach

       My Kevin was thoroughly humiliated yesterday by the crazies he nurtured and appeased for the last two years.   It looks like he will be back for more of the same today, unless perhaps he offered his firstborn to the shithouse rats' caucus and they accepted.

       Seriously, as McCarthy's lifelong ambition to be Speaker slips from his grasp, the sanest members of the Republican caucus have some soul searching to do and some hitherto impossible choices to make.   They can continue down the road they are on, possibly electing Steve Scalise or the equally execrable Elise Stefanik to the Speakership.   Or, they can make a deal with Democrats and elect a Speaker from outside the House.  If I was the Dem leader it would have to be a non-partisan actor with impeccable credentials.  Otherwise, let the "Republicans in disarray" narrative continue.

Same as it always was...

       I freely admit I'm not much of a football fan these days, but I did tune in to the MNF game featuring the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals as there was little else on TV that interested me.  I saw the play which resulted in Damar Hamlin's injury and was shocked when he collapsed on the field with an apparent injury.  I tuned out for a few minutes and was again shocked when I found the game had been suspended and the injury was life threatening.

     Having watched the NFL since the mid-1960s I don't recall a single instance of a player's injury halting play for more than a few minutes.   Even paralyzing injuries were treated as momentary inconveniences.  The league's motto may as well have been "the show must go on".   The crowd in Cincinnati certainly seemed to think play would be resumed.  The players reaction to Hamlin's injury has indeed overshadowed the injury itself.   

      This is certainly the NFL's worst nightmare.   How many concerned mothers and fathers will prevent their sons from playing a violent sport in the future?  How many fans will switch to watching other sports and give football a pass?   

Brown nosing for fun and profit

        The mental picture of Elise Stefanik's nose firmly planted in tRump's capacious butt is something that is hard to unsee, but it is essential to our understanding of Stefanik's career choices.   The congresscritter from my district seemingly has been all in when it comes to currying favor with those in a position to help her advance.   From the time she was an 18 year old freshman at Harvard, she threw her integrity under the bus forever.

       She won election in my safe Republican district by promising white males she was no threat to them while allowing women to believe she was a Republican feminist.   With this combination of BS, she can win here as long as she wishes to "represent" us.  In reality, we are just like the others she has brown nosed on her way up the career ladder.   However, she may have made a fatal error in choosing the Donald as her ultimate sugar daddy.   He is likely going down under multiple indictments later this year and you can bet he will take anyone associated with him along for the ride.

     I can't see how she can extricate herself from tRump's derriere, but I suppose where there is the will, there is a way.  Stay tuned.