I don't eat popcorn, but...

GOP Rep Victoria Spartz says she won't caucus with the GOP. Subtract Gaetz who resigned and couple of GOP Reps Trump is tapping for his cabinet and...presto! A temporary Democratic Majority in the House!

Now, I don't think Hakeem Jeffries will be the next Speaker but I DO think Mike Johnson will have to speak for the WHOLE House if anything at all is to get done.

By the way, is it just me or does President-elect Trump look kind of ill these days? Like him or not, he used to exude vitality. He doesn't anymore, at least, not to me. I wish him health. President Vance is a horror beyond easy comprehension.

 

But he's the whole point of all these billionaires getting involved with presidential politics. Trump was the gateway to the mob of voters, but Vance was the target all along. I believe that's why you're hearing absolutely nothing from or about him now.

Those people maneuvered Trump into selecting Vance--easily the least qualified VP in modern history--to set up their long game. Vance is their long-range plan for running the kleptocracy.

If Trump resigns right after January 20th, 2026, you'll get 10 years of the Vance presidency. Plenty of time to get a SCOTUS ruling that the 22nd Amendment doesn't say what it obviously says.

 

Victoria Spartz says she won't accept any committee assignments or caucus with the Republicans. She will still vote on the House floor, I assume?

 

I would assume so.

 

2027.

 

Musk is rapidly proving to be insufferable. He and Trump should remember that there will be special elections in the next few months that the GOP cannot afford to lose.

 

Imagine if George Soros had been constantly hanging around Obama or Biden as a warm-up speaker and LARPing quasi-cabinet member.

 

Jeffries is refusing to play ball with any new efforts to forestall a shutdown. I agree with him. The House had worked out a bi-partisan solution and then, suddenly, Elon Musk torpedoed it. Elon Musk is the REPUBLICAN'S problem. The Democrats owe Musk and Trump nothing at this point.

 

Some might say that Jeffries should go along for the good of the country. But that just encourages more hostage-taking the next time.

 

Neither Musk nor Trump has any actual authority yet. The House is responsible for what it does. What it did was function as designed until Musk sent his tweet. In very short order, Trump will be in the White House. Jeffries and the Democrats are sending the correct message now.

This is especially the case because there is a non-zero possibility that control of the House will shift before the 2026 election cycle.

 

And Plan B failed because the Democrats and 37 or so Republicans refused to support it. If Donald Trump were capable of learning anything, he would now see that everything isn't going to go his way in January.

Chuck Schumer says the House should just pass the bipartisan bill and go home. Yes, they should, but the Republicans won't out of fear of the whip.

What happens when you crack the whip but the tigers don't go into their cages?

 

You retire your act after the attack.

"That tiger ain't go crazy; that tiger went tiger! You know when he was really crazy? When he was riding around on a unicycle with a Hitler helmet on!" -- Chris Rock

 

All sides have their flaws and moments of misjudgment.
Criticizing others while ignoring one’s own shortcomings is hardly productive.
As a wise teacher once said, "First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

CNN’s Scott Jennings recently criticized the White House for allegedly concealing President health and age-related issues.
During a segment on Thursday, Jennings called it "the biggest scandal in America."
He expressed astonishment at what he described as a concerted effort by the administration to mislead the public.
"The level and volume of people who dedicated themselves to lying to everyone at home about this man’s condition for four straight years up through this summer is breathtaking," Jennings stated. He argued that the president's team had consistently downplayed or denied concerns about his health throughout his presidency.

Jennings - "If you‘re worried about Trump advisors having influence — for the last four years, apparently, this president, duly elected, this president was not capable of fulfilling the duties of the office. And his staff and the White House lied about it and kept it from the American people," Jennings said. "It‘s an absolute scandal."

This sentiment was further echoed in a Wall Street Journal report published Thursday.
Based on interviews with nearly 50 individuals, including current and former White House staffers who directly interacted with the president, the report revealed that the president's stamina issues were apparent even during his first few months in office.

Unsurprisingly, questions have begun to circulate: Who really runs the country?

 

Speaker Johnson promises that there will be no shutdown. Minority Leader Jeffries says the Democrats will honor their half of the bipartisan agreement. The way forward is obvious. Neither Trump nor Musk is a member of the House.

 

We're fine. We have one of the best economies in the world, and we had one of the fastest recoveries from the pandemic economic downturn. Don't know how our next senile president will do. Did he ever release a health report this go around?

 

As if that immunizes them from Trump's (and Musk's) attacks.

Musk might not be a House Member, but he is already de facto Speaker, with some calling to make it official. And the term hasn't even started yet.

 

He did not release any medical records, of course, he lied about it though.

quote:
In August, Trump said he would “gladly” share his medical records, but he has yet to do so. However, in October, when approached by reporters and asked about his medical records, Trump reportedly said the public already has enough information on his health.

“Yeah, my health records—I’ve done five exams over the last four years. You’ve got them all,” he said. “I’ve given my health exams, I’ve also done cognitive tests twice and I’ve aced them.”
https://time.com/7099183/donald-trump-medical-records-absent-controversy-presidential-election-2024/

But he's fully qualified and medically able to post lies on the Internet. That's all he did as President his last term. This term he has Elon Musk running the show so that he'll have even more time to post lies on the Internet. So all is going as expected.

 

Interesting! The House passed a short-term funding CR with Democratic support that doesn't touch the debt limit despite Trump's demand that it do so. "Trusk" suffers its first defeat and it's not even in office yet!