America - The Official Thread

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Blitz24
Colleyville. Isn't that the same town where the synagogue attack occurred?
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There was a hostage situation at a synagogue there last year. Book ban efforts also concentrate there and a black school principal was forced out for "critical race theory," curiously after having been told to remove pictures of himself and his white wife on the beach from his personal Facebook page.
 
www.cnn.com

McCarthy appears to suffer defeat in 7th round of voting for House speakership

A House speaker stalemate continues after GOP leader Kevin McCarthy failed to secure the necessary support in past rounds of voting. Follow for the latest live news updates.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

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McCarthy's racking and stacking those L's. Also, Gaetz voted for Trump so things are moving further away from a consensus.
 
Honest question, because I really don't know. Should Democrats be rooting for McCarthy? As far as I can tell, the ultra-right-wingers are upset about him because he won't be extreme enough for them. If they need to be appeased, doesn't this mean a more insane house than it would be under McCarthy?
 
Danoff
Honest question, because I really don't know. Should Democrats be rooting for McCarthy? As far as I can tell, the ultra-right-wingers are upset about him because he won't be extreme enough for them. If they need to be appeased, doesn't this mean a more insane house than it would be under McCarthy?
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I think Democrats are just happy to see the infighting among the Republicans. I don't think they want McCarthy, but I'm going to guess Donalds would be more extreme. I think in the next round of voting you'll see more support for Trump. It won't be anything major, but I expect at least 3-4 people will vote for him.

I'm not sure what the outcome is going to be though because I don't think McCarthy can win since he can only lose four votes to someone else. I think it's getting close to the time when they need to find a new, more moderate Republican and try to convince some Democrats to get on board. I mean they won't do this, but it's probably what should happen. Instead, they're going to hold another vote where the count is more or less the same because doing something over and over again when you get the same result makes sense.
 
TexRex
There was a hostage situation at a synagogue there last year. Book ban efforts also concentrate there and a black school principal was forced out for "critical race theory," curiously after having been told to remove pictures of himself and his white wife on the beach from his personal Facebook page.
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All of this is nothing compared to that town's egregious land use policies. :yuck: I swear that whole band of suburbs above I30 between Dallas and Fort Worth is non-space; a parallel dimension of no centers, just an endless blended milieu of low density commercial buildings, parking lots, and unintentionally satirical big-gable cheaply constructed tract homes on pointlessly swerving streets all carelessly splatted down across the prairie.

Danoff
Honest question, because I really don't know. Should Democrats be rooting for McCarthy? As far as I can tell, the ultra-right-wingers are upset about him because he won't be extreme enough for them. If they need to be appeased, doesn't this mean a more insane house than it would be under McCarthy?
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This is what I was alluding to earlier. At some point it will be in the Dems best interest to vote for him before he promises the true psychos positions with teeth...and I think they would eventually step up if that seemed like it was going to happen (or at least vote present, which would effectively do the same thing). I keep wondering if a moderate will step up for some Israel-politics style coalition building - it seems plausible and honestly probably in the nation's best interest. This congress is functioning very nearly like a 3-party one.
 
Danoff
Honest question, because I really don't know. Should Democrats be rooting for McCarthy? As far as I can tell, the ultra-right-wingers are upset about him because he won't be extreme enough for them. If they need to be appeased, doesn't this mean a more insane house than it would be under McCarthy?
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I have been musing this also. Yes, it's funny to see McCarthy squirm, but the people doing it are among the stupidest asshats ever to occupy their respective positions - Boebert missed one vote because she was nattering and on her phone - and have been gulping down the Qoolaid for the past eight years.

While potentially a logical fallacy, if they are against him it doesn't seem like a sensible position to hold. Obviously they don't really hold the position that McCarthy is himself a communal fleshlight (which he is) and they're simply holding him ransom for some concessions (apparently they want their own Congressional hit squad, to act like they think the J6 committee does) once they do vote for him.

If the Democrats don't act to solve the Republicans' mess (change the record), they may end up giving the assqlowns what they want.
 
McCarthy loses round 8, with Herns picking up a couple of votes and one for Trump.

I don't know why they voted again so soon after the last vote. It wasn't like anything was going to change and this just seems to be wasting time at this point.
 
Famine
I have been musing this also. Yes, it's funny to see McCarthy squirm, but the people doing it are among the stupidest asshats ever to occupy their respective positions - Boebert missed one vote because she was nattering and on her phone - and have been gulping down the Qoolaid for the past eight years.

While potentially a logical fallacy, if they are against him it doesn't seem like a sensible position to hold. Obviously they don't really hold the position that McCarthy is himself a communal fleshlight (which he is) and they're simply holding him ransom for some concessions (apparently they want their own Congressional hit squad, to act like they think the J6 committee does) once they do vote for him.

If the Democrats don't act to solve the Republicans' mess (change the record), they may end up giving the assqlowns what they want.
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I would really love to see all of the Democrats vote for a moderate Republican, in-bloc in the next round of voting. If nothing else it would demonstrate they are united and contrast themselves with the total **** show the GOP has become. How about this guy? He looks like he could do the job. Funnily enough, I bet some of the 19/20 morons currently sinking McCarthy's ship would vote with the Democrats just to spite McCarthy for no plausible reason other than personal satisfaction.
 
Famine
I have been musing this also. Yes, it's funny to see McCarthy squirm, but the people doing it are among the stupidest asshats ever to occupy their respective positions - Boebert missed one vote because she was nattering and on her phone - and have been gulping down the Qoolaid for the past eight years.

While potentially a logical fallacy, if they are against him it doesn't seem like a sensible position to hold. Obviously they don't really hold the position that McCarthy is himself a communal fleshlight (which he is) and they're simply holding him ransom for some concessions (apparently they want their own Congressional hit squad, to act like they think the J6 committee does) once they do vote for him.

If the Democrats don't act to solve the Republicans' mess (change the record), they may end up giving the assqlowns what they want.
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One of the concessions that McCarthy has already promised to get the votes he has is that it will only take 5 house majority members to trigger a vote of no confidence. Some of the holdouts apparently want it to be that any member of the majority can trigger such a vote. Even still, at 5 members, I think the democrats cross party lines at their own peril. Electing him speaker can be undone rather quickly, especially if he's collaborating with the unholy demon spawn on the other side.
 
McCarthy gets the L for the 9th time.

This really is getting ridiculous. Nominating the same people over and over again and expecting a different result is completely asinine. Did they really not discuss a backup plan, especially when so many Reps stated they were in the "Never Kevin" group?
 
Joey D
McCarthy gets the L for the 9th time.

This really is getting ridiculous. Nominating the same people over and over again and expecting a different result is completely asinine. Did they really not discuss a backup plan, especially when so many Reps stated they were in the "Never Kevin" group?
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It seems as though they thought the petulant children would get in line rather than embarrass the entire party. Incorrect assumption.
 
They're making money off this, so they're never going to change their vote.
 
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Remember, Republicans are never at fault for their own trash fires.
 
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The United States has long vacated the crown of greatest democracy in the world but this really is childish, disturbing, pathetic, selfish, absurd, facile, immature and embarrassing.

Republican humiliation fetishes need to stay private.
 
Isn't there a limit to how many votes they can have before they end up having their votes forfeited?
 
Blitz24
Isn't there a limit to how many votes they can have before they end up having their votes forfeited?
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Doesn't seem like it based on our history.
Today McCarthy lost the vote for the 9th time. This is now going to be the longest Speaker vote since 1859 when it required 44 ballots.[1]

For reference, the longest Speaker election was in 1855 - 1856 that required 133 ballots over the course of 2 months.[2]
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As far as I understand it, the house of representatives is a house of representatives-elect until the members are seated by the speaker. Meaning that practically speaking, we don't actually have a house of representatives at the moment...they cannot actually do anything.
 
McLaren
Doesn't seem like it based on our history.
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What happened in 1856? Was Kevin MacArthur up for the seat?
Eunos_Cosmo
As far as I understand it, the house of representatives is a house of representatives-elect until the members are seated by the speaker. Meaning that practically speaking, we don't actually have a house of representatives at the moment...they cannot actually do anything.
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That is what I read as well. Until the speaker is elected, they can't work on anything which is one of the worries if something urgent were to come up.

Mr Chips played it down saying that's not an important issue. I can't find the source now.
 
Looking on from wishy washy Canada what strikes me about the American political process is that it's absurdly, dysfunctionally polarized. Whichever party wins the majority in the House or Senate - no matter how small the majority actually is - appears to consider that a blank cheque to pursue the most partisan approach possible. In Canada, a close election result is generally considered - by both of the main governing parties - as a reason to govern from a more centrist position. The GOP seems to be following a scorched earth policy, with a small group within the House Republican caucus advocating an even more extreme scorched earth policy ... even though they don't have have any real mandate to do it ... and don't even have the votes to do it. Crazy.
 
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Eunos_Cosmo
As far as I understand it, the house of representatives is a house of representatives-elect until the members are seated by the speaker. Meaning that practically speaking, we don't actually have a house of representatives at the moment...they cannot actually do anything.
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We're not missing out on much, let's be honest.

First order of business will be investigating what Hunter Biden is packing & why it's a national threat.
 
Biggles
Looking on from wishy washy Canada what strikes me about the American political process is that it's absurdly, dysfunctional polarized. Whichever party wins the majority in the House or Senate - no matter how small the majority actually is - appears to consider that a blank cheque to pursue the most partisan approach possible. In Canada, a close election result is generally considered - by both of the main governing parties - as a reason to govern from a more centrist position. The GOP seems to be following a scorched earth policy, with a small group within the House Republican caucus advocating an even more extreme scorched earth policy ... even though they don't have have any real mandate to do it ... and don't even have the votes to do it. Crazy.
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That's because in Canada you have people who care more about the country than the GOP does. They pine for the country from a century ago.
 
Blitz24
That's because in Canada you have people who care more about the country than the GOP does. They pine for the country from a century ago.
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I'm not sure that's really true. It's more about the political culture in Canada. There have been attempts to import the US kind of extreme partisanship into Canadian politics but they haven't gained much traction. Also, the extreme right in Canada is a pretty small minority - the majority of Canadians are centrist or somewhat left-of-centre (ie. wild socialists by American standards). From 1947 to 2003 the Conservative party actually went by the name "Progressive Conservative Party" ... imagine that in the US! 🤔

Thank God Republicans still can count on the voice of reason ...

... from Marjorie Taylor Greene!

 
I know someone from the UK can hardly talk when it comes to political shambles, but this whole Speaker thing in Congress is really ludicrous.

I guess, however, that the real problem here is the presence of far-right actual nutjobs who should be nowhere near the levers of power in any country, let alone the US, but alas they are.

It is somewhat ironic that some are seeing this as a power-play by Matt Gaetz (how is he even still a thing in US politics anyway?) to oust Trump from the top of the MAGA tree, and hence why Trump has endorsed McCarthy - so Gaetz is making Trump look more and more irrelevant, though it is hard to see where the MAGA/fascist bloc think they are going with this whole circus.

It's also a tad rich that the same people who are demanding 'change', supposedly in the name of 'fixing a broken system' are largely the same people who have consistently and erroneously claimed that Trump won the 2020 US Presidential election. The big question is, how do you fix a broken political system when it is awash with people like that?
 
One of the maddest things I find about US politics, and similarly here with Tories and Labour, is that Republicans seem to think that the Democratic Party is "the left" :lol:
 

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