It looks like déjà vu all over again

The GOP circus in the US House of Representatives keeps going on. After multiple votes for the nine candidates who had entered the race, the last person standing was Tom Emmer, the chief whip and the third in the party’s house hierarchy. (I had not realized that Emmer was first elected to congress in 2014, filling the seat vacated by that other noted nutjob Michele Bachmann.) Since the former speaker Kevin McCarthy and the next in line majority leader Steve Scalise were rejected, it was fitting that Emmer would be the next person to be unceremoniously dumped by his colleagues.

And so it appears. Emmer had 26 defections in a vote to see how many would vote for him on the floor of the house, even more that Scalise and Jim Jordan. In fact, 15 of those defectors voted for Jordan. And then serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) launched a major attack on him even though Emmer had tried groveling to SSAT. That pretty much doomed his chances and the latest reports are that Emmer has dropped out.

So now what? Does the GOP go down the list of the eight people who lost to Emmer to see if any of them is willing to be humiliated next? Do they go back to McCarthy, Scalise, and Jordan? Do they look for someone else entirely? How long before the only people left are Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert? The former has been sucking up SSAT in the most disgusting fashion and the latter has shown that she is willing to ‘reach across the aisle’ with at least one Democrat. (Ha!)

All such impasses have to end some time, even if just out of exhaustion or because some catastrophe is imminent. But I just cannot see what form that ending will take with this bunch of rigid extremists with idiosyncratic obsessions that they are unwilling to let go of.

Ellis becomes the fourth to take a plea deal in Georgia

Jenna Ellis, who toured the country with Rudy Giuliani to testify before bodies with false claims about how the 2020 election was stolen from serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT), has become the fourth of the 19 people charged with conspiracy to overturn the Georgia results to take a plea deal, with terms similar to the other three.

Jenna Ellis, the lawyer for Donald Trump who was also facing criminal charges for attempted election subversion, is taking a plea deal, pleading guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.

In Fulton county on Tuesday, Ellis became the fourth of 19 defendants to plead guilty as part of the wide-ranging racketeering charges into Trump and allies in the 2020 election in Georgia. Last week, both Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty before their trials were to start. Scott Hall, an Atlanta bail bondsman, has also pleaded guilty.
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The Republican beauty contest

Nine Republican members of the House of Representatives will go before their party colleagues behind closed doors tonight to make their case to be the party’s nominee for speaker. Then they will vote on Tuesday for whom to nominate to be the next sacrificial lamb publicly humiliated when and if they go to the floor of the House for the vote. As far as I know, no decision has been made as to how the selection will be made. Since the McCarthy ouster debacle, there seem to be no rules governing how the party works so we can expect yet another free-for-all.

One option is, after all nine have made their case, to have a preferential ballot where each member ranks their choices one through nine. But this may be too complicated for some of them who are not exactly Einsteins when it comes to reasoning (I am looking at you, Louis Gohmert) and so they could have eight rounds of voting where after each round, the lowest vote-getter is eliminated. Or they could simply take the top vote-getter after the first round as their nominee. These would be a rational ways of going about things so we can be fairly sure that it will not happen and instead there will be chaos. The race has already degenerated into flame wars and obscene tweets.
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Is Trump showing signs of dementia?

Kevin Drum argues that serial sex offender Donald Trump (SSAT) is showing signs of steady decline in cognitive ability and gives a list of recent statements that SSAT has made in support of that claim.

September 16: Says you need ID to buy a loaf of bread. (No you don’t.)

September 18: Claims that under Biden, we would be in World War II. (World War II already happened.)

September 18: Says he beat Obama in 2016. (He beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.)

September 26: Tells a rally audience that Jeb Bush invaded Iraq. (George W. Bush led us into Iraq.)

October 8: Says Hannibal Lecter was a great actor. (Lecter was a fictional character played by the great actor Anthony Hopkins.)

October 13: Thinks Obama is currently president. (Joe Biden is the current president.)

October 14: Says Republicans “eat their young” when they attack him. (The teleprompter probably said “eat their own.”)

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The GOP fed the beast. Now the beast is turning on them

I have been posting a lot about the utterly chaotic search for a new speaker for the House of Representatives. This is not because that news story is so important that nothing else matters. Although the lack of a speaker and the resulting paralysis in government may well lead to a government shutdown on November 17, there are other important things going on in the world as well.

My fascination with this story is because I do not think that I have ever witnessed such a spectacular act of self-immolation by a major political party. Let us be perfectly clear. This is a completely self-inflicted party death. It was not caused by any external factors or forces. It was not caused by being routed at the polls. It was not caused by people rioting in the streets against it. What happened is as if some members of the party secretly decided to destroy the party from within and set the wheels in motion. I am not saying that that is what happened. But if it had, this is what it might have looked like.

I have to admit that I am feeling considerable schadenfreude at this implosion. The GOP has become a vehicle for hate and demonization of anyone who does not support serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) and all his lies and attacks on people. It has been waging war on marginalized groups and opposing anything that might seek to redress the legitimate grievances of anyone who does not belong to the ruling class. It has welcomed to its bosom white, right wing, xenophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, racists. Seeing it turn on itself provides a satisfying feeling akin to what one experiences in films where the bad guys, after riding high for a while, get their just deserts at the end. But that enjoyment is tinged with concern that it also shows that the state of democracy in the US is not healthy.
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Things fall apart: The GOP cannot hold

In what has to be a real slap in his face, on Friday afternoon, in a closed door meeting, the Republican members of the House of Representatives in a secret ballot voted by a margin of 122 to 86 for Jim Jordan to withdraw from the contest for speaker. This followed the third open vote on the house floor where Jordan once again failed to get the votes to be elected speaker. He had been hoping to go for a fourth ballot and had called for this secret ballot to show the strength of his support, but the number of negative votes being five times the number in the open vote ones conveyed the clear message that he should just go away. He finally announced that he was giving up his attempt and would ‘go back to work’, which in his case does not involve any real work but simply grandstanding about MAGA obsessions.

So what does the party do? They go home for the weekend again. They will come back for a candidate forum on Monday and maybe hold a closed door vote on Tuesday to see if anyone can win a majority. All nominations will have to be in by noon on Sunday.

This episode illustrates how without proper procedure and protocols and structure, an organization can fall apart quickly. Normally, organizations have some sort of hierarchy to allow for smooth transitions. In the case of the Republicans, the leader is the speaker which used to be Kevin McCarthy. If the speaker resigns, dies, or is otherwise unable to continue (such as in this unprecedented case of being ousted), the majority leader (Steve Scalise) would step up to the position and the third person who is the majority whip (Tom Emmer) would usually become majority leader.
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Jordan goes down for the third time

The House of Representatives convened this morning because Jim Jordan wanted yet another vote on him becoming speaker. The result was even worse, with 25 Republicans defecting, even more than the 22 on the second vote and 20 on the first. Jordan is clearly someone who cannot read the room and does not know how to count votes. It took Kevin McCarthy 15 votes to become speaker but at least his vote totals were inching up. This is a farce.

Yesterday, after the second defeat, Jordan announced that he was suspending his candidacy and supporting a move to give the interim speaker limited extra powers for about three months. So why did he suddenly decide to suspend his suspension and try for a third vote so soon?

Jordan’s strategy seemed to be that, if he cannot get the votes now, to prevent someone else from deciding to try their luck and maybe succeeding where he had failed. Hence the proposal for a limited extension. That way, he could freeze the field and give him a lot of time to wear down his opponents. Unfortunately for him, that proposal was was shot down almost immediately by his party. So he had no alternative but to try for another vote or have someone else take center stage.

The guy is flailing. If he had a shred of self-respect, he would realize that people just don’t like him. But like all MAGA cultists, they never give up trying to gain power by whatever means necessary.

The siege of Gaza

Gaza has frequently been referred to as the world’s largest open-air prison, housing about two million inmates. If anyone thought that this was just hyperbolic language, the events of the past week would have put paid to that since Israel was able to instantaneously cut off all food, water, and electricity to everyone living there. That kind of action can only be done with the kind of control that prison authorities have.

The attack by Hamas that killed large numbers of ordinary Israeli people and took many as hostages was a horrendous act that has deservedly been widely condemned. But those of us who are familiar with the history of the region knew that Israel routinely enacts collective punishments and would react to this with disproportionate force, just as it has done in the past. But to cut off the basic elements of existence to two million people, essentially causing an entire population to die slow and painful deaths of thirst and starvation, is an unconscionable act that violates not just the laws of war but the norms of basic human decency.

Immediately after the Hamas attack, several Israeli government spokespersons repeatedly referred to this as their equivalent of the 9/11 attacks and one knew that they were deliberately laying the foundation for rallying American public opinion to their side in anticipation of their carrying out an extreme response, because the 9/11 attacks were used by the US to justify massive attacks that resulted in the deaths of huge numbers of people in many countries, far out of proportion to what the US suffered, using the language of revenge as an excuse. It was clear that Israel was going to use the same rationale for a similar over-reaction. But I did not expect them to seek such an extensive and cruel form of retribution as cutting off food and water to two million people.

As usual, the US political establishment has come down firmly on the side of Israel, using the familiar trope of ‘Israel has every right to defend itself’ , though they never say that ‘Palestinians have every right to defend themselves’ whenever they are under attack.

Sydney Powell takes a plea deal

One of the looniest of serial sex abuser Donald Trump’s (SSAT) ‘gaggle of crackpot lawyers’ Sydney Powell has agreed to a plea deal with Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, pleading guilty to the racketeering and other charges in her trial that was due to start on Monday. She is the second person to take a plea deal in that wide-ranging case that involved charges against 19 people including SSAT.

Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election interference case in Fulton county, just days before jury selection for her trial was scheduled to start.

Powell, charged alongside Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, entered into a plea agreement on Thursday to become the second defendant to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges and cooperate with prosecutors in the sprawling criminal case.

Powell was sentenced to six years’ probation, a $6,000 fine and $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia. She will also have to write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia and to testify truthfully at trial – perhaps the most consequential part of the plea agreement.

The move marks a major victory for the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, who secured Powell as a state witness just days before the start of jury selection in her trial. Powell was seen pleading guilty on a live video of court proceedings.

The tangible punishments are negligible though I expect that she will also face disbarment from legal bodies. The key item is her agreement to testify truthfully at SSAT’s trial. Since she is a serial liar and fabulist like her hero SSAT, one has to assume that she has already told prosecutors enough things of value that merited them giving her a slap on the wrist, that she cannot, as a witness, lie any more.

The next person whose trial on racketeering and other charges is due to start on Monday is another SSAT crackpot lawyer advisor Kenneth Chesebro.

The indictment accuses Chesebro of writing memos in early December 2020 suggesting that alternate electors from key states – where former President Donald Trump’s campaign contested the election outcome – could cast votes for Trump, despite the fact he had lost in those states. Chesebro also allegedly helped coordinate logistics of this plan.

He may be the next domino to fall. He only has time until Monday to make a deal.

The surprising resistance to Jim Jordan for speaker

[UPDATE: Jordan has said that he is ‘suspending’ his bid for the speakership (not withdrawing) and supports giving the interim speaker more powers until January 15 so that the house can conduct some business, not the least of which is the budget that is due on November 17. This means that he has figured out that he does not have the votes right now but is clearly hoping that by January, the anti-Jordan sentiment may have diminished enough for him to be elected.]

The second round of voting for the speaker of the House of Representatives that was called for by Jim Jordan saw him actually getting fewer votes than in the first round. The final tally was 212 for Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and 199 for Jordan with 22 Republicans voting for various people. Two people who voted against Jordan in the first round voted in favor of him this time but four switched the other way so that he lost ground.

I was actually surprised by this. The GOP is now a party whose dynamics are like those of a children’s playground, where one has the bullies and their allies and the bullied. In those situations, the bullied almost always cave to the pressure because they have nowhere to turn. Jordan clearly thought that having the support of serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) would enable him to bully enough members to put him over the top. I too thought that these holdouts would fold but was wrong.

The Republican party has abandoned all semblance of having any principles and in discussing what is going on, we should ignore any talk of ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’.

You’ve likely seen a lot of the holdouts described as “moderates.” An overwhelming majority of them are nothing of the sort and their ideological views are almost identical. Where they differ is their temperament and tactics. The old way of business – which is still very much alive in the Democratic Caucus and across the Capitol in the Senate – is that you move up the ranks by making allies and getting stuff done. Consistency is key and it pays off through promotions, plum committee assignments, and hopefully, at the ballot box.

In his warparth to the speakership, Jordan has been destroying the traditional system (a common theme in today’s Republican party). Jordan has been in Congress since 2007. Not once during the past 16 years has any of the legislation he’s sponsored become law. Just three of his bills have passed the full House: this year’s establishment of a subcommittee on the “weaponization” of the federal government, a call for the attorney general to appoint a special counsel nine years ago during the Obama administration, and in his first term, an resolution expressing sympathy for Ohio flood victims (the resolution did not authorize any additional funds for the flood victims—it just expressed sympathy).

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