It seems like everywhere we turn there are examples of Republican political corruption almost to a point of making it seem like it’s a normal everyday occurrence and no big deal. We are all numbed by these transactions. I have read about all of the various filings by Trump attorneys either to delay the trials or to have them dismissed and have come to the conclusion that instead of worrying and fretting about them we just need to focus on making sure Trump does not get elected by focusing on voter registration especially with young people. More posts by people like Taylor Swift help but it’s up to us to hit the ground and make it happen. We need to connect to young people how different their lives would be with Trump in office instead of Biden. Biden may be old but this is what he will do for your generation. The big question for the younger voter turnouts is “ what are Republicans going to do for you and the future of your lives and the health of the country. What specific programs and platforms can you count on to improve and maintain your quality of life? We all know the answer to these questions but young voters need to find the answers themselves.
Shouldn’t Trump be tried for treason for divulging information about our nuclear submarines to a friend of his who passed it along to multiple people? This is a disgrace. I wonder what all he told his pals Putin and Kim Jung Un?
Oct 6, 2023·edited Oct 6, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
Kevin McCarthy was totally unfit to be Speaker of the House. His tenure was littered with betrayals, and I was proud that Democrats unanimously voted "yay" on the motion to vacate.
As you say, Robert, the way forward is a bipartisan coalition, as we've been advocating for months at www.FeathersOfHope.net
It's hard to see how any Republican gets 217 votes without Democrats' help. Swing district R's will never vote for MAGA extremists.
Received this message from a friend, “You can vote for the 82 year-old Democrat in 2024, and then vote for the next generation Democrat in 2028...or you can vote for the 79 year-old Republican in 2024 and never vote again.”
Take it from somebody who gets his airplane porn published on the covers of leading airplane porn magazines, Robert - that's some excellent airplane porn. :-)
The thought that Gym Jordan might be the next Speaker sends shivers up and down my spine. Can anyone name a Representative more likely to be demonically partisans in his/her cover-up and support of all things Trump? He won't work with Democrats on anything. Anything. But he'll go all-in on any and all efforts to smear the Bidens. Ohioans are poorly served by this man and the residents of Ohio's 4th are especially poorly served, with perhaps an exception for those yearning for an authoritarian republic like Turkey or Poland or Hungary.
"'He's not the speaker [Patrick McHenry], he's just the speaker pro tem,' Brian Kalt, a professor of law at Michigan State University told Insider, 'and the whole point of having a speaker in line is that they were elected as speaker, not just appointed by someone to preside temporarily. So, as I read the statute, section 19 of title 3, Patty Murray is next in line.'
"As a result, House Republicans for the time being would be skipped over entirely. If President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were unable to serve as President of the United States, the power would then fall to Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, President Pro Tempore (not to be confused with McHenry's temporary title) and then Secretary of State Antony Blinken following her."
Whoever ends up being "elected" Speaker, I'd feel much better knowing that the Biden-Harris team has upped their security details. Just my two cents.
The whole "border thing" is confusing and messy. But the vast majority of Americans are worried about immigration. For multiple reasons. Some legit. Some manufactured.
What's missing here is a comprehensive plan from the Biden administration to be presented to Congress over and over and over. Even if it doesn't get passed until we retake the House, it will lay down a clear policy of the US trying to help - but admitting that we can only do so much for this wave of humanity.
I am not qualified to layout the details. But the two guiding principles must be to exercise more control over illegal border crossings and to allow a lot more people in legally. A lot more. The truth is we desperately need the workers. But we can't just feed them to overcrowded cities. Every region of the country must participate.
As for a wall, it seems to me that more personnel and more technology could do more to make the border less porous. And there is more we could do to combat the gangs of thugs that are getting paid to shepherd people across the line. Asking Congress for more money to do these things might not succeed right away, but it sure would be good politics. And eventually the funds would be approved.
The wave of people escaping South and Central America has only begun. What looks like a flood of humans now will look like a trickle in a few short years. Same in Europe. Failed nation states and the Climate Crisis are combining to relocate hundreds of millions of desperate souls. We demonize them at our own moral peril.
So much going on today! Fake 45 pulling his continual delay tactics. He pulled his lawsuit against Michael Cohen out too. He should be responsible for Cohen’s attorney fees for filing it in the first place. When I think of this maniac, I can’t help but think about “The Lord of the Flies”. It is his head that should be on a stick. He has Jordan now, running around like a crazed animal begging R’s to vote him in as Speaker. Can you imagine having this schmuck at the helm of this dilapidated ship??
Qevin was a joke. A horrible one, at that. After 15 tries, the guy gets the speakership for a minute and a half. He needs to go back to Bakersfield to scoop ice cream into cones.
I understand there’s a hearing on October 16th about the gag order Chutkin could issue against Big Mouth. He is planning to strut right into the Capitol building next week. What should happen is that the Capitol police should refuse his admission to get inside.
As usual, Robert, your Concluding Thoughts today are among the most important in your incredible newsletter. I agree 1000%! We can expect turmoil to continue, and more damage to be done, but McCarthy had to go. I have the utmost confidence in Hakeem Jeffries to navigate the Democratic leader-ship through the troubled waters ahead. I don't plan to worry about it. I'd prefer to expend my efforts on ensuring that Democrats and Independents send Republicans (and everyone else) an undeniable message - "Don't mess with our democracy!"
Re contacting Ohio schools...I have no contacts but have looked up high schools in the first five districts listed. I'm short on time this morning but will try to add the last five later. Here is a sample email plus email addresses for this principals. I've emailed the ones I've printed below--it takes minutes!
Dear Mr. Cates,
I’m a retired educator, and in my retirement I am volunteering as a voter registrar, and in particular trying to increase registration among previously underrepresented eligible voters, including youth voters.
Please see the article below and share with your students. Registration for the upcoming election is October 10. I will paste the nuts and bolt paragraph below.
With best regards,
Cathy Murphree
Those with a driver’s license or state ID can register online here. If you live in Ohio and don’t have a state ID, you can still register by printing out this form and mailing it in. Note that you’ll need an ID to vote, so check out this recent post from VoteRiders, and get your ID as well, today.
On the subject of Dems voting out McCarthy, the single most critical fact was his reneging on the debt limit deal with Biden. The power of the speaker, or any politician, is that when they agree to something, they do it. The debt limit deal was a big deal. Dropping that in days meant he was completely untrustworthy and no commitment of his was believable. I suspect, but have no proof, that the Dems had already gotten indications that McCarthy was not going to bring up Ukraine funding in a separate bill. Since that was the basis of the CR being voted through by the Senate, that meant that he had lied about about a major deal again.
I'll be interested in seeing if either Scalise or Jordan can actually get 217 votes in the Rep caucus. If either does, a shutdown in Nov is assured. Plan ahead for those who can.
Very thorough report, Robert. My retired faculty friends and I are applying some of your psychological insights into the GOP and your philosophy on winning and losing (eg, if you lose, you keep on living and eventually you win) to our local university financial crisis. This kind of manufactured crisis seems to occur every ten or fifteen years with predictable loss of jobs, courses, and instructors. The long range view that you encourage enable us to look for recurring cycles, financial indicators with analysis thereof, and a dose of hope and common sense, and to avoid the traps that administrators lay. Thank you. Follow the money: It is in the administrators’ pockets—surprise, surprise!
RE: “Mr. Biden said on Thursday that he had no choice but to use the money for the wall.” Here’s a novel idea: Just don’t spend the money. That would send a message that the Dems are not (at least not always) a party of spendthrifts. If the money needs to be spent, why not use it to study Israel’s smart border system, rather than pursue a centuries-old failed solution? There is so much the U.S. could learn from the rest of the world, if only it were willing.
Two points. First, it is refreshing to read that a mere $20,000 Republican scandal in Arkansas is a scandal. Who would have thought that in this age of major lies and fraud anyone would bother caring and reporting this?
Second, it is a mistake to assume that Republicans want a Speaker so they can govern. The plan is not to govern and stop Congress from working. The Republicans want economic and border crises to campaign on and will manufacture them.
If they knew how to increase crime they would do that too.
The challenge we face is making it clear to those who don’t follow the political news as the readers here do, who is to blame. It will be very difficult, especially when Trump will claim that he can fix government instantly just as he will end the war in Ukraine immediately. What do we have to lose when we are stuck in quicksand and a monster throws us a lifeline?
It is imperative that all citizens understand that the only good way out is to vote the Republicans out of power.
Every crisis needs to be clearly called the Trump Republican crisis. The next shutdown threat needs to already be labeled Republican. They own the crisises and the way out is to fire them. BTW, they are each getting paid $174,000 plus benefits and office funds by the taxpayers and do nothing useful.
It seems like everywhere we turn there are examples of Republican political corruption almost to a point of making it seem like it’s a normal everyday occurrence and no big deal. We are all numbed by these transactions. I have read about all of the various filings by Trump attorneys either to delay the trials or to have them dismissed and have come to the conclusion that instead of worrying and fretting about them we just need to focus on making sure Trump does not get elected by focusing on voter registration especially with young people. More posts by people like Taylor Swift help but it’s up to us to hit the ground and make it happen. We need to connect to young people how different their lives would be with Trump in office instead of Biden. Biden may be old but this is what he will do for your generation. The big question for the younger voter turnouts is “ what are Republicans going to do for you and the future of your lives and the health of the country. What specific programs and platforms can you count on to improve and maintain your quality of life? We all know the answer to these questions but young voters need to find the answers themselves.
Shouldn’t Trump be tried for treason for divulging information about our nuclear submarines to a friend of his who passed it along to multiple people? This is a disgrace. I wonder what all he told his pals Putin and Kim Jung Un?
Kevin McCarthy was totally unfit to be Speaker of the House. His tenure was littered with betrayals, and I was proud that Democrats unanimously voted "yay" on the motion to vacate.
As you say, Robert, the way forward is a bipartisan coalition, as we've been advocating for months at www.FeathersOfHope.net
It's hard to see how any Republican gets 217 votes without Democrats' help. Swing district R's will never vote for MAGA extremists.
.
Received this message from a friend, “You can vote for the 82 year-old Democrat in 2024, and then vote for the next generation Democrat in 2028...or you can vote for the 79 year-old Republican in 2024 and never vote again.”
Take it from somebody who gets his airplane porn published on the covers of leading airplane porn magazines, Robert - that's some excellent airplane porn. :-)
The thought that Gym Jordan might be the next Speaker sends shivers up and down my spine. Can anyone name a Representative more likely to be demonically partisans in his/her cover-up and support of all things Trump? He won't work with Democrats on anything. Anything. But he'll go all-in on any and all efforts to smear the Bidens. Ohioans are poorly served by this man and the residents of Ohio's 4th are especially poorly served, with perhaps an exception for those yearning for an authoritarian republic like Turkey or Poland or Hungary.
Per this Yahoo article - https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-temporarily-played-themselves-presidential-231659928.html
"'He's not the speaker [Patrick McHenry], he's just the speaker pro tem,' Brian Kalt, a professor of law at Michigan State University told Insider, 'and the whole point of having a speaker in line is that they were elected as speaker, not just appointed by someone to preside temporarily. So, as I read the statute, section 19 of title 3, Patty Murray is next in line.'
"As a result, House Republicans for the time being would be skipped over entirely. If President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were unable to serve as President of the United States, the power would then fall to Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, President Pro Tempore (not to be confused with McHenry's temporary title) and then Secretary of State Antony Blinken following her."
Whoever ends up being "elected" Speaker, I'd feel much better knowing that the Biden-Harris team has upped their security details. Just my two cents.
The whole "border thing" is confusing and messy. But the vast majority of Americans are worried about immigration. For multiple reasons. Some legit. Some manufactured.
What's missing here is a comprehensive plan from the Biden administration to be presented to Congress over and over and over. Even if it doesn't get passed until we retake the House, it will lay down a clear policy of the US trying to help - but admitting that we can only do so much for this wave of humanity.
I am not qualified to layout the details. But the two guiding principles must be to exercise more control over illegal border crossings and to allow a lot more people in legally. A lot more. The truth is we desperately need the workers. But we can't just feed them to overcrowded cities. Every region of the country must participate.
As for a wall, it seems to me that more personnel and more technology could do more to make the border less porous. And there is more we could do to combat the gangs of thugs that are getting paid to shepherd people across the line. Asking Congress for more money to do these things might not succeed right away, but it sure would be good politics. And eventually the funds would be approved.
The wave of people escaping South and Central America has only begun. What looks like a flood of humans now will look like a trickle in a few short years. Same in Europe. Failed nation states and the Climate Crisis are combining to relocate hundreds of millions of desperate souls. We demonize them at our own moral peril.
So much going on today! Fake 45 pulling his continual delay tactics. He pulled his lawsuit against Michael Cohen out too. He should be responsible for Cohen’s attorney fees for filing it in the first place. When I think of this maniac, I can’t help but think about “The Lord of the Flies”. It is his head that should be on a stick. He has Jordan now, running around like a crazed animal begging R’s to vote him in as Speaker. Can you imagine having this schmuck at the helm of this dilapidated ship??
Qevin was a joke. A horrible one, at that. After 15 tries, the guy gets the speakership for a minute and a half. He needs to go back to Bakersfield to scoop ice cream into cones.
I understand there’s a hearing on October 16th about the gag order Chutkin could issue against Big Mouth. He is planning to strut right into the Capitol building next week. What should happen is that the Capitol police should refuse his admission to get inside.
As usual, Robert, your Concluding Thoughts today are among the most important in your incredible newsletter. I agree 1000%! We can expect turmoil to continue, and more damage to be done, but McCarthy had to go. I have the utmost confidence in Hakeem Jeffries to navigate the Democratic leader-ship through the troubled waters ahead. I don't plan to worry about it. I'd prefer to expend my efforts on ensuring that Democrats and Independents send Republicans (and everyone else) an undeniable message - "Don't mess with our democracy!"
Re contacting Ohio schools...I have no contacts but have looked up high schools in the first five districts listed. I'm short on time this morning but will try to add the last five later. Here is a sample email plus email addresses for this principals. I've emailed the ones I've printed below--it takes minutes!
Dear Mr. Cates,
I’m a retired educator, and in my retirement I am volunteering as a voter registrar, and in particular trying to increase registration among previously underrepresented eligible voters, including youth voters.
Please see the article below and share with your students. Registration for the upcoming election is October 10. I will paste the nuts and bolt paragraph below.
With best regards,
Cathy Murphree
Those with a driver’s license or state ID can register online here. If you live in Ohio and don’t have a state ID, you can still register by printing out this form and mailing it in. Note that you’ll need an ID to vote, so check out this recent post from VoteRiders, and get your ID as well, today.
Entire article:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thecivicscenter/p/calling-ohio-100000-18-year-olds?r=8vyqy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Schools:
1. Lorain High School
Melissa Cheers, Principal, mcheers@loraincsd.org <mcheers@loraincsd.org>;
2. Cuyahoga Falls High School
Jason Smith, Principal, cf_smithja@cftigers.org
3. Warren G. Harding High School, Dr. Janis Ulicny, Principal could not find email address
4. Butler Schools – Arcanum High School Ty Cates, Principal ty_cates@arcanum-butler.k12.oh.us
5. Hamilton Schools, Hamilton High School Main Campus, Jonathan Szary, Principal
jszary@hcsdoh.org
On the subject of Dems voting out McCarthy, the single most critical fact was his reneging on the debt limit deal with Biden. The power of the speaker, or any politician, is that when they agree to something, they do it. The debt limit deal was a big deal. Dropping that in days meant he was completely untrustworthy and no commitment of his was believable. I suspect, but have no proof, that the Dems had already gotten indications that McCarthy was not going to bring up Ukraine funding in a separate bill. Since that was the basis of the CR being voted through by the Senate, that meant that he had lied about about a major deal again.
I'll be interested in seeing if either Scalise or Jordan can actually get 217 votes in the Rep caucus. If either does, a shutdown in Nov is assured. Plan ahead for those who can.
Very thorough report, Robert. My retired faculty friends and I are applying some of your psychological insights into the GOP and your philosophy on winning and losing (eg, if you lose, you keep on living and eventually you win) to our local university financial crisis. This kind of manufactured crisis seems to occur every ten or fifteen years with predictable loss of jobs, courses, and instructors. The long range view that you encourage enable us to look for recurring cycles, financial indicators with analysis thereof, and a dose of hope and common sense, and to avoid the traps that administrators lay. Thank you. Follow the money: It is in the administrators’ pockets—surprise, surprise!
RE: “Mr. Biden said on Thursday that he had no choice but to use the money for the wall.” Here’s a novel idea: Just don’t spend the money. That would send a message that the Dems are not (at least not always) a party of spendthrifts. If the money needs to be spent, why not use it to study Israel’s smart border system, rather than pursue a centuries-old failed solution? There is so much the U.S. could learn from the rest of the world, if only it were willing.
Please consider donating to https://www.turnup.us/initiatives to get young people voting.
Two points. First, it is refreshing to read that a mere $20,000 Republican scandal in Arkansas is a scandal. Who would have thought that in this age of major lies and fraud anyone would bother caring and reporting this?
Second, it is a mistake to assume that Republicans want a Speaker so they can govern. The plan is not to govern and stop Congress from working. The Republicans want economic and border crises to campaign on and will manufacture them.
If they knew how to increase crime they would do that too.
The challenge we face is making it clear to those who don’t follow the political news as the readers here do, who is to blame. It will be very difficult, especially when Trump will claim that he can fix government instantly just as he will end the war in Ukraine immediately. What do we have to lose when we are stuck in quicksand and a monster throws us a lifeline?
It is imperative that all citizens understand that the only good way out is to vote the Republicans out of power.
Every crisis needs to be clearly called the Trump Republican crisis. The next shutdown threat needs to already be labeled Republican. They own the crisises and the way out is to fire them. BTW, they are each getting paid $174,000 plus benefits and office funds by the taxpayers and do nothing useful.