Speaker of the House discussion

[Mike Honcho 5,140]

23 minutes ago, squistion said:

 

I guess that makes him speaker, since he doesn't accept election results that don't break the way he wants.

[IGotWorms 4,057]

Poor Jim Jordan.  

It’s almost like you reap what you sow  

[Mike Honcho 5,140]

3 minutes ago, IGotWorms said:

Poor Jim Jordan.  

It’s almost like you reap what you sow  

Agreed, he proved years ago at OSU he's just not your guy when it comes to speaking up.

[The Real timschochet 6,512]

21 minutes ago, Patented Phil said:

As a Republican and a Conservative, I am disgusted by all this.  A pox on all these houses.

The American political system is broken.  The Liberals/Democrats are absolute nut jobs, and the Republicans aren't much better.

Your opposition to Democrats is based on policy. But this situation is based on competence. 

The American political system isn’t broken. At least it needn’t be. Every Democrat in the House will go along with a coalition compromise with a Republican in charge. It’s the Freedom Party extremists who won’t agree. 

[Hardcore troubadour 14,988]

Emerson College Poll has Trump over Biden 47-45.  Trump picking up ground with young voters. 

[IGotWorms 4,057]

I don’t know about that McHenry fella though. Can’t trust those bow tie weirdos

[RogerDodger 797]

 

 

[RogerDodger 797]

Seems kind of important.

 

 

[Fnord 2,063]

1 minute ago, RogerDodger said:

Seems kind of important.

 

 

Nice. Give him all three. Not that he'd GAF. This is just about self promotion with that slicked-up pedo. He and Trump are perfect teammates. 

[The Real timschochet 6,512]

7 minutes ago, RogerDodger said:

Seems kind of important.

 

 

If you just allow us to win we will surrender! I’m sure that will work . 

[RogerDodger 797]

5 minutes ago, The Real timschochet said:

If you just allow us to win we will surrender! I’m sure that will work . 

Driving you nuts isn't it. 

 

 

 

[IGotWorms 4,057]

37 minutes ago, RogerDodger said:

 

 

What is this, the fockin WWE?

Grow up

[Hardcore troubadour 14,988]

Beats standing with terrorists any day. 

[RogerDodger 797]

6 minutes ago, RogerDodger said:

Driving you nuts isn't it. 

 

6 minutes ago, IGotWorms said:

What is this, the fockin WWE?

Grow up

[HellToupee 1,607]

Oh it’s so embarrassing

[Patented Phil 1,469]

1 hour ago, The Real timschochet said:

Your opposition to Democrats is based on policy. But this situation is based on competence. 

The American political system isn’t broken. At least it needn’t be. Every Democrat in the House will go along with a coalition compromise with a Republican in charge. It’s the Freedom Party extremists who won’t agree. 

Oh I see.  It’s just the Republican side of Government that is broken.

You aren’t a serious player.  You’re a partisan hack.

You support the Party that is openly anti-Semitic.  Pathetic.

[Hardcore troubadour 14,988]

Talib still hasn’t taken down her statement blaming Israel for the hospital bombing. 

[EternalShinyAndChrome 3,880]

2 hours ago, squistion said:

We had no problem picking a Speaker and an effective one at that. Remember Nancy Pelosi? 

She was also awful and one of the worst.  She's one of the reasons America is so divided.

[EternalShinyAndChrome 3,880]

2 hours ago, The Real timschochet said:

You seem rather embarrassed. 
 

Both parties elect crazies. But Democrats don’t put them in positions of power. Disagree with Pelosi and Biden all you want, but the one thing you can’t deny is that they’ve been effective leaders. They get things done. Democrats don’t have people like Trump and Jim Jordan in charge. 

Of course they do. I just listed a bunch of people with power, INCLUDING the POTUS.  Doesn't get much more powerful than that.  

[IGotWorms 4,057]

17 minutes ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

Talib still hasn’t taken down her statement blaming Israel for the hospital bombing. 

She sucks and needs to go 

[squistion 1,972]

36 minutes ago, Patented Phil said:

Oh I see.  It’s just the Republican side of Government that is broken.

You aren’t a serious player.  You’re a partisan hack.

You support the Party that is openly anti-Semitic.  Pathetic.

The Democratic Party is openly anti-Semitic? 

[squistion 1,972]

To quote The Kinks, "Who will be the next in line?"

 

[IGotWorms 4,057]

4 minutes ago, squistion said:

To quote The Kinks, "Who will be the next in line?"

 

It’s not that hard.

McCarthy was closer to the center than most republicans. Hell that’s the very definition of a California Republican.

Jim Jordan was way far to the right of even most republicans today, which is really saying something. Now it’s possible that can still work - Pelosi was pretty far to the left of most democrats. But Jordan is just a toxic sh1tbag.

Anyway, they need somebody in between McCarthy and Jordan and with the necessary experience and hopefully gravitas. (Doubt that last one is going to happen but you can’t have everything.)

I don’t know who that is but it can’t be that hard for the party to identify them. Actually Scalise was close but no cigar 

[Patented Phil 1,469]

19 minutes ago, squistion said:

The Democratic Party is openly anti-Semitic? 

Time for Democrats to Address Their Anti-Semitism Problem
 

Last week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators trolled the streets of New York and Los Angeles to terrorize and attack Jews. Such outbreaks of violence, perpetrated under the guise of “anti-Zionism,” are commonplace in Europe and the Middle East. It would be an unmitigated tragedy if such political violence were to become the norm in the United States.

Anti-Jewish attacks did not spring forth in a vacuum. Increasingly, the American Left has gone beyond mere criticism of the Jewish State (of the sort that is made against other nations) and adopted the kind of virulent strain of anti-Israel rhetoric that was once mercifully relegated to far-left college campuses.

In this environment, Squad members Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib can falsely accuse Israel of being an “apartheid state” and of employing U.S. military aid to target civilians and children — a new spin on an old blood libel — and experience almost no rebuke from their own party.

The intense opprobrium saved for Israel, and spared authoritarian nations such as China and Iran, betrays the progressive left’s moral corruption. And rather than react in dismay, New York Times progressive columnist Michelle Goldberg lamented that attacks on Jews might undermine the Palestinian political cause. Rather than distance themselves from violence conducted by their allies, former Bernie Sanders surrogate Amer Zahr implored progressives in a video and tweet to “stop condemning anti-Semitism.” He said, “You are not helping. You are playing their games. It’s a distraction.” Instead, he urged followers to say, “Free Palestine — and nothing else!”

Zahr needn’t worry. Most progressive politicians who did bother denouncing the recent wave of violence against Jews diluted their rebukes by also condemning rising Islamophobia, creating the impression that advocates of both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian debate were engaging in violence — which is, needless to say, a myth.

There is little political upside for Democrats to call out the Squad. Polls show a party that has lurched leftward and become increasingly antagonistic towards the Jewish State. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali recently noted, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict feeds into many of the progressive left’s ideological biases: “the narrative of the oppressor versus the oppressed, of the coloniser versus the colonised, of the genocide perpetrator and system of supremacy.”

Those few Democrats who unapologetically defend Israel, such as Ritchie Torres, a freshman congressman representing New York’s 15th district, find themselves ostracized. “The moment I sent out a statement denouncing the terrorism of Hamas, I was swiftly demonized by extremists as a white supremacist, as a supporter of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide,” Torres told an audience at a recent United Jewish Appeal–sponsored event.

Surely, condemning those who instigate anti-Jewish violence should not undermine the cause of Palestinian statehood. And if it does, then there is something wrong with that cause.

After Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene recently made an ignorant and intellectually lazy historical analogy, comparing the campaign for vaccination passports to the Nazis’ forcing of Jews to wear “gold” stars, reporters began chasing down Republicans to get their reactions. Minority leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of the House leadership eventually issued statements condemning the Georgia congresswoman.

When it comes to Ilhan Omar and Co., where is Nancy Pelosi? Where is Chuck Schumer or Durbin? To this point, nowhere to be found. It is, of course, true that neither Left nor Right has a monopoly on anti-Semitism. These days, however, one party is increasingly under the sway of a noxious, all-encompassing hostility to the Jewish State.

[Patented Phil 1,469]

You want more supporting evidence SquidTard? How about a Gallup poll from 6 months ago?

 
Democrats' Sympathies in Middle East Shift to Palestinians

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After a decade in which Democrats have shown increasing affinity toward the Palestinians, their sympathies in the Middle East now lie more with the Palestinians than the Israelis, 49% versus 38%.

Today’s attitudes reflect an 11-percentage-point increase over the past year in Democrats’ sympathy with the Palestinians. At the same time, the percentages sympathizing more with the Israelis (38%) and those not favoring a side (13%) have dipped to new lows.

Sympathy toward the Palestinians is also at a new high among political independents, up six points to 32%. However, more independents still lean toward the Israelis (49%).

Republicans’ views are unchanged, with nearly eight in 10 (78%) continuing to sympathize more with the Israelis while 11% side with the Palestinians.

The latest findings are from Gallup’s Feb. 1-23 update of its annual World Affairs poll.

Mideast Sympathy Gap Narrows Nationally

As a result of this year’s partisan shifts, sympathy toward the Palestinians among U.S. adults is at a new high of 31%, while the proportion not favoring a side is at a new low of 15%. The 54% of Americans sympathizing more with the Israelis is similar to last year’s 55% but is the lowest since 2005.

The resulting 23-point gap in Americans’ sympathy for Israel versus the Palestinians represents Israel’s slimmest advantage on this question in Gallup’s World Affairs poll trend. It is also the first time Israel has not enjoyed a better than 2-to-1 advantage over the Palestinians in Americans’ sympathies.

The most consequential changes in public opinion on this question have occurred in the past five years, as support for the Palestinians has ticked up and support for Israel as well as ambivalence about the conflict have each declined.

Aside from partisan differences, Gallup continues to see generational distinctions in how U.S. adults view the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Net sympathy toward Israel -- the percentage sympathizing more with the Israelis than the Palestinians -- is solidly positive among older generations, including baby boomers (+46 points), Generation X (+32) and the Silent Generation (+31). By contrast, millennials are now evenly divided, with 42% sympathizing more with the Palestinians and 40% with the Israelis, yielding a -2 net-Israel sympathy score.

There are too few adult members of Generation Z (aged 18 to 22) in the recent poll to report, but the limited available data suggest their views on this question are similar to millennials’.

Today’s divergence reflects a steep drop in recent years in net sympathy for Israel among millennials, whereas net sympathy for Israel has been steadier at a higher level among all three older generations.

Favorability Toward Israel Remains Strong

In addition to the sympathy question, which focuses on the Israeli and Palestinian people, Gallup asks Americans if their overall views of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as countries, are favorable or unfavorable. This is part of a longer list of countries rated each year.

Consistent with prior years, Americans view Israel much more favorably than they do the Palestinian Authority, 68% versus 26%. Israel’s current favorable rating is below Gallup’s annual readings over the past decade, but matches the average since 2001. The Palestinian Authority’s current rating is on par with the slightly elevated level seen since 2021, and is higher than the average 19% recorded since 2001.

As is also typical, Israel is viewed favorably by a majority of all party groups -- 82% of Republicans, 67% of independents and 56% of Democrats. Conversely, relatively few in all three groups view the Palestinian Authority positively: 36% of Democrats, 28% of independents and 9% of Republicans.

What little increase has occurred in the Palestinian Authority’s favorable rating over the past decade has been exclusively among Democrats (up 16 percentage points since 2013) and independents (up 14 points).

Israel’s favorable ratings have been largely stable by party, although this year’s rating from Democrats is slightly below the 60% to 74% range seen over the past decade.

Bottom Line

Americans’ views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have become more polarized as Democrats increasingly commiserate with the Palestinians, while Republicans maintain their solid alignment with the Israelis. The escalation of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities over the past year, resulting in a high number of Palestinians killed, could partly explain the most recent shift in Democrats’ perspective. But Democrats’ waning religiosity may be a factor in the longer-term trend. Sympathy for Israel has historically been highly correlated with religion, with those attending religious services weekly being much more sympathetic to the Israelis than those who seldom or never attend.

Regardless of the reasons that Democrats’ (and, to a lesser extent, independents’) views have changed on the conflict, majorities of all generational and party groups still view Israel favorably and look more favorably on Israel than on the Palestinian Authority. This suggests that while rank-and-file Democrats may want Palestinians’ needs addressed, they will want solutions that respect Israel’s needs as well.

[squistion 1,972]

1 hour ago, Patented Phil said:

Time for Democrats to Address Their Anti-Semitism Problem
 

Last week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators trolled the streets of New York and Los Angeles to terrorize and attack Jews. Such outbreaks of violence, perpetrated under the guise of “anti-Zionism,” are commonplace in Europe and the Middle East. It would be an unmitigated tragedy if such political violence were to become the norm in the United States.

Anti-Jewish attacks did not spring forth in a vacuum. Increasingly, the American Left has gone beyond mere criticism of the Jewish State (of the sort that is made against other nations) and adopted the kind of virulent strain of anti-Israel rhetoric that was once mercifully relegated to far-left college campuses.

In this environment, Squad members Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib can falsely accuse Israel of being an “apartheid state” and of employing U.S. military aid to target civilians and children — a new spin on an old blood libel — and experience almost no rebuke from their own party.

The intense opprobrium saved for Israel, and spared authoritarian nations such as China and Iran, betrays the progressive left’s moral corruption. And rather than react in dismay, New York Times progressive columnist Michelle Goldberg lamented that attacks on Jews might undermine the Palestinian political cause. Rather than distance themselves from violence conducted by their allies, former Bernie Sanders surrogate Amer Zahr implored progressives in a video and tweet to “stop condemning anti-Semitism.” He said, “You are not helping. You are playing their games. It’s a distraction.” Instead, he urged followers to say, “Free Palestine — and nothing else!”

Zahr needn’t worry. Most progressive politicians who did bother denouncing the recent wave of violence against Jews diluted their rebukes by also condemning rising Islamophobia, creating the impression that advocates of both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian debate were engaging in violence — which is, needless to say, a myth.

There is little political upside for Democrats to call out the Squad. Polls show a party that has lurched leftward and become increasingly antagonistic towards the Jewish State. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali recently noted, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict feeds into many of the progressive left’s ideological biases: “the narrative of the oppressor versus the oppressed, of the coloniser versus the colonised, of the genocide perpetrator and system of supremacy.”

Those few Democrats who unapologetically defend Israel, such as Ritchie Torres, a freshman congressman representing New York’s 15th district, find themselves ostracized. “The moment I sent out a statement denouncing the terrorism of Hamas, I was swiftly demonized by extremists as a white supremacist, as a supporter of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide,” Torres told an audience at a recent United Jewish Appeal–sponsored event.

Surely, condemning those who instigate anti-Jewish violence should not undermine the cause of Palestinian statehood. And if it does, then there is something wrong with that cause.

After Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene recently made an ignorant and intellectually lazy historical analogy, comparing the campaign for vaccination passports to the Nazis’ forcing of Jews to wear “gold” stars, reporters began chasing down Republicans to get their reactions. Minority leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of the House leadership eventually issued statements condemning the Georgia congresswoman.

When it comes to Ilhan Omar and Co., where is Nancy Pelosi? Where is Chuck Schumer or Durbin? To this point, nowhere to be found. It is, of course, true that neither Left nor Right has a monopoly on anti-Semitism. These days, however, one party is increasingly under the sway of a noxious, all-encompassing hostility to the Jewish State.

National Review. 

[BeachGuy23 642]

How anyone could vote R after this disaster is beyond me.  Just like the covid response, unorganized, lying, no plan, just react like children.

Can't wait to see the Rs expunged from national politics as much as possible. 

[The Real timschochet 6,512]

@Patented Phil the problem with your argument, as well as the articles you’re quoting, is that you are conflating criticism of Israel with anti-semitism. There is a HUGE difference between somebody who says “Jews control the media” or “wealthy Jews control the United States” and “I don’t like the way the Israeli government is treating Palestinians; I’m sympathetic to the Palestinians.” The first two views are anti-Semitic, the third is not. But you can’t, or won’t, recognize this fact. 

[Strike 5,261]

1 hour ago, squistion said:

National Review. 

If it isn't Twitter you just won't believe it! 

[Blue Horseshoe 348]

2 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

It’s not that hard.

McCarthy was closer to the center than most republicans. Hell that’s the very definition of a California Republican.

 

Donald Trump

McCarthy was an early supporter of Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, saying that Trump's "intensity" could help the Republicans win House seats....After the 2018 midterm elections, in which Democrats won a majority in the House, McCarthy said that Democrats should not investigate Trump. He described investigations of Trump as a "small agenda" and that "America's too great of a nation to have such a small agenda." He said that Trump had already been investigated "for a long period of time". McCarthy and other House Republicans investigated Hillary Clinton for years over the 2012 Benghazi attack.[11] In 2015, McCarthy said that the investigation, which found no evidence of wrongdoing on Clinton's part, had hurt poll numbers.[12][13][14]

In 2019, McCarthy defended government officials spending money at resorts Trump owned. He said there was no difference between government officials spending money at hotels Trump owned and other hotels.[15]

In October 2019, McCarthy said "there's nothing that the president did wrong" in regard to Trump requesting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.[16] McCarthy added: "The president wasn't investigating a campaign rival. The president was trying to get to the bottom, just as every American would want to know, why did we have this Russia hoax that actually started within Ukraine."[16]

That same month, when Trump said "China should start an investigation into the Bidens", McCarthy shortly thereafter went on Fox & Friends to say, "You watch what the president said—he's not saying China should investigate."[17]

 

Capitol riot and reaction

In 2021, of the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, McCarthy said that "as a nation", "we all have some responsibility" for the event.[18] McCarthy had been among those Republicans who in the weeks before the attack on the Capitol had spread false claims about the validity of the presidential election.[18] On January 13, McCarthy said that Trump "bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding." McCarthy did not vote to impeach Trump for a second time, instead calling for a censure resolution against Trump for his role in the attack.[19][20][21] On January 21, McCarthy said he did not think that Trump "provoked" the attack.[18] Two days later, McCarthy said that Trump "had some responsibility when it came to the response", and then stressed his original position that all Americans have "some responsibility".[18] Republicans have criticized McCarthy for inconsistent statements about Trump after the attack.[22] Despite the condemnation, McCarthy visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort to discuss the future of the Republican Party. McCarthy released a statement that read in part, "Today, President Trump committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022".[23]

On May 19, 2021, McCarthy and all the other Republican House leaders in the 117th Congress voted against establishing the January 6 commission. Thirty-five Republican House members and all 217 Democrats present voted to establish such a commission.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kevin_McCarthy

[Hardcore troubadour 14,988]

Have they gotten ahold of the chaos on the border yet or are they still just waving them in and having them sign an attendance sheet and given an appointment 6 years from now? No background checks or health checks ? 

[wiffleball 4,788]

You spelled "fail" wrongly. 

[MDC 7,164]

I appreciate the updated thread titles. That way I barely need to read the thread. I just read the title and know that House Republicans continue to flail ineptly and embarrass themselves.

Thanks Tim!

[EternalShinyAndChrome 3,880]

2 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

It’s not that hard.

McCarthy was closer to the center than most republicans. Hell that’s the very definition of a California Republican.

Jim Jordan was way far to the right of even most republicans today, which is really saying something. Now it’s possible that can still work - Pelosi was pretty far to the left of most democrats. But Jordan is just a toxic sh1tbag.

Anyway, they need somebody in between McCarthy and Jordan and with the necessary experience and hopefully gravitas. (Doubt that last one is going to happen but you can’t have everything.)

I don’t know who that is but it can’t be that hard for the party to identify them. Actually Scalise was close but no cigar 

It's a good thing we have our resident far left liberals telling us who the proper conservative is. 

[IGotWorms 4,057]

23 minutes ago, EternalShinyAndChrome said:

It's a good thing we have our resident far left liberals telling us who the proper conservative is. 

I’m only far left if you’re a completely wacko righty. Which you are.

If you were a centrist I would be a moderate liberal.

My liberal friends don’t even like me much. Pretty ambivalent on abortion (yes it’s killing babies) and don’t go for the woke stuff at all. Also hate the trans bullsh1t except for those people who are truly trans and not just trying something out because they think it makes them interesting or something. I also don’t support race-based affirmative action. Theres probably others too.

But to you guys I’m Mao, because you’re to the right of Atilla the Hun

[Patented Phil 1,469]

2 hours ago, The Real timschochet said:

@Patented Phil the problem with your argument, as well as the articles you’re quoting, is that you are conflating criticism of Israel with anti-semitism. There is a HUGE difference between somebody who says “Jews control the media” or “wealthy Jews control the United States” and “I don’t like the way the Israeli government is treating Palestinians; I’m sympathetic to the Palestinians.” The first two views are anti-Semitic, the third is not. But you can’t, or won’t, recognize this fact. 

There was a time and a place for that.  Not now.  Not in the middle of a war, when Jews are literally fighting for their survival.  “You are either with us, or with the terrorists.”

[Engorgeous George 2,164]

13 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

I’m only far left if you’re a completely wacko righty. Which you are.

If you were a centrist I would be a moderate liberal.

My liberal friends don’t even like me much. Pretty ambivalent on abortion (yes it’s killing babies) and don’t go for the woke stuff at all. Also hate the trans bullsh1t except for those people who are truly trans and not just trying something out because they think it makes them interesting or something. I also don’t support race-based affirmative action. Theres probably others too.

But to you guys I’m Mao, because you’re to the right of Atilla the Hun

I wonder whether it is necessary to write "the Hun" after Atilla when identifying him.  Are there other Atillas we may mistake him for like Atilla the Irish lounge singer, or Atilla the French dog walker? 

[EternalShinyAndChrome 3,880]

9 minutes ago, Engorgeous George said:

I wonder whether it is necessary to write "the Hun" after Atilla when identifying him.  Are there other Atillas we may mistake him for like Atilla the Irish lounge singer, or Atilla the French dog walker? 

He's so far left that he can't even see or identify the center, much less be able to identify far right.

[IGotWorms 4,057]

5 hours ago, Engorgeous George said:

I wonder whether it is necessary to write "the Hun" after Atilla when identifying him.  Are there other Atillas we may mistake him for like Atilla the Irish lounge singer, or Atilla the French dog walker? 

It sounds cooler

[BeachGuy23 642]

Reminder with the same majority the clueless Rs have now, dems passed the Inflation Reduction Act, American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Package, gun safety laws, PACT Act, CHIPS Act, and reauthorized VAWA.

How many bills has Gym Jordan authored that were passed in the last 10+ years of his "service"?

They also managed to bring the inflation Trump caused with his reckless spending, that added $8T to the debt in just four years, under control.

Now the dems need to bring spending down or they're at risk of approaching how much Trump added to the debt, albeit with much higher interest due to massive rate increases needed to bring down Trump inflation.

Who in their right mind would vote for a republican at the national level again?

Bunch of clowns.