Tag: #Republicancivilwar

When Americans are divided and fight one another, who wins?  It is not America for sure, but rather a lot of regimes who want to set a divergent world standard.

 

Are we running towards a new American Civil War?

If you have been familiar with the pages of world history – to include American history, then you would not be surprised to realize that indicators leading to a civil war tend to be very consistent.  I cannot begin to explain how disturbing and dangerous this situation is at this very moment (as I type these words) for American history – and by extension the world.

There is a lot to say and praise about American exceptionalism.  Agree or disagree, like it or not, the United States of America is still the most influential country in the world.  Why is that?  The answer is complex, but it can be summarized in the fact that we are a conglomeration of every culture and heritage spanning the entire world.  There are American citizens who were literally born, or have ancestry linked to every corner on this planet.

Our diversity is our strength as a Nation.  Of course, being an influential nation that sets the standard for equal treatment to all people is inconvenient to a large slew of regimes.  In fact, it is a lot more insidious than that, but we’ll talk more about it in in a little bit – let’s put this thought in context first.  When you have a lot of diversity, it is a lot harder for “group-thinking” and “bubble mentality” to blind people from reality.  In other words, the dialog (or sometimes disagreements) will pose a different point of view – and spark a larger [actual] conversation.  That does not imply that an agreement might be reached, but it will show empirical evidence that there is more than one way of thinking.  That is inconvenient to regimes who require unilateral obedience.

In a civil war there are many factors that play crucial roles in the process leading to conflict.  I call them factors because they are multipliers.  Unrest does not tend to start suddenly, it tends to brew for a long time, and once there is enough dehumanization from one another, the new perceived foe becomes a target, while also forgetting their own humanity.  It is this group thinking that keeps adding to this “us against them” mentality.  Once the communication breakdown is inevitable, then being reasonable becomes a moot point.  The anger and visceral response take full control of each individual person, and it just goes downhill from there.

This is happening in America right now.  And I cannot begin to tell you how painful it is to realize it.  And what makes it even more dangerous – is that there are plenty of people who are blissfully unaware of this danger, and likely won’t realize it until it is too late.  That is unless we can wake up people and diffuse this whole catastrophe from occurring in the first place.  But even if this gets diffused, the less informed segment of the population would remain unaware or even annoyed about “what was the fuzz all about,” or “what people were talking about.”  Sometimes being lucky is not a blessing, it can be a curse of apathy and ignorance.

The lack of dialog in the political discourse, the current cult of personalities for particular people in office is a very disturbing trend many people ignore.  However, for a segment of the population, what was one a solemn institution – regardless of whether you disagree about policy – has become a circus where there is a non-insignificant number of “elected officials” who are constantly spewing divisive points which also happen to be propaganda points from other regimes, specifically designed to divide Americans.  This is a problem, because we are instigated and therefore getting attacked from the inside out.

The difference between the catalyst for this potential new American Civil War and the last is that those who are been enticed to start fighting are not even aware of what they are fighting for.  For the American Civil war in the 1800s it was fought because many people were perfectly ok with slavery.  Many states severed themselves from the United States in order for these “states’ rights” to have people keep other human beings as property.  The mere thought of condoning owning other human beings as property is despicable, and it was a terrible part in world-history, to include American history.  We can’t change the past, but we [collectively] can certainly be responsible for our futures.

And hence, that is what the crux of the matter gets muddied up.  There are countless people who are perfectly fine with trying to destroy other people’s lives – Americans killing other Americans.  Some have not even realized it yet.  But the divisive rhetoric is making it more and more incendiary with every passing day.  I’ve been seeing this situation deteriorate more and more in real time.  And while some are speaking up about it, the solution seems ever so elusive.  Talking with no viable action can perpetuate a problem.  And no, the action I’m speaking about does not imply getting violent against the dissenting group.

 

 

What are the actions needed to diffuse a civil war?

Let’s start with some context.  Civil wars have something in common.  Somebody wants to keep or raise to power.  They achieve this by dividing people under the specific regime, and have them kill each other to keep only loyalists alive so they can pander towards the dear leader for as long as it is convenient to this dear leader.

Did that happen during the American Civil war?  Yes, it did.  There were many poor Southerners who were convinced that anybody with a darker skin tone was inferior to them, and should remain subservient to those with a non-dark complexion.  However, there were very rich plantation owners and other people who actually owned human beings – not every southerner was a slave owner.  In fact, the great majority didn’t.  But those who did own slaves derived their incredible wealth out of the literal exploitation of human beings, who were originally captured overseas and sold as property in the United States.

Slavery, unfortunately, was not only relegated to the South, there were many people in other states who were perfectly ok about owning slaves too.  The American Civil War started because when slavery was to be abolished, many states – who happened to be in the South, wanted to keep human beings as property, then created the Confederacy and severed themselves from the United States.  Which is technically treason, and brought four years of bitter fighting among Americans.  The Union defeated the Confederacy, but this division among Americans has never really healed up.

Link to Buy the book “WOKE & PROUD The Charlatans’ Inconvenience” by J. Marcelo Baqueroalvarez

The reason is because many of them have been lied to, and even though most non-wealthy Southerners fought, they were lied too as well.  I’m not sure they would have been super wired up to fight if they would have been told the truth – which would be akin to the following: “hey you’re fighting and likely dying for these very rich people who want to keep slaves to get richer, and by the way are not fighting themselves in the front lines against the USA, they will mostly be giving orders to you – but YOU, will be doing the fighting and likely dying, while their wealth is being protected by YOU.”

Some southerners did figure that out in the middle of the battle, and the Confederacy had a lot of attrition and desertion.  They realized that the rich folks wanted to have the poor-white folks fighting on behalf of keeping their wealth.  For example, owning slaves was also expensive.  Therefore, there was no shortage of white people who made a meager living doing manual labor.  And because slaves were giving housing and food – however squalid the conditions, the non-wealthy southerners probably perceived that the slaves had it “easy” – which is of course cognitive dissidence.

Considering this, several scholars have come to the agreement that only ~1% of southerners actually owned slaves.  And it was THIS 1% who set America on a bloody four-years’ war – which they ended up losing anyway.  How where they able to make the 99% additional group of people to fight to the death for this 1% of super rich folks’ economic interests?  Sadly, lies and racism.  They convince them that folks with dark skin were inferior.  By dehumanizing a group, and dehumanizing those who accurately considered people with darker skin human beings.  And of course, feed a narrative that the union was being aggressive.  Hence, still many southerners call the civil war, a “war of northern aggression” – despite the fact that most of the Confederate soldiers were fighting against their own best interests.

In any battle mobilizing people on lies, there has to be a foe.  This foe has to be formidable – yet inferior (in any way they can consider it as such – even the despicable ways).  Once it becomes an “us against them” issue – it is very easy to fall in the trap of cognitive dissidence.  People tend to galvanize against what they consider a common threat.  And those who want to manipulate people vulnerable to exploitable biases are very much aware that those obedient fools are disposable, but that they would break their backs or fight and gladly die for a cause that was manufactured.  However, those fighting and dying are very much convinced it was for a worthwhile cause.  That is why it is so dangerous.

We’ve seen this happen in other countries.  For example, suicide bombers, they are lied about heavenly rewards and other perks. This narrative is indoctrinated for a long time… it is not like they tell today to join a group and tomorrow they will be asked to be a martyr.  The ones in the higher echelons never do the suicide-bombing themselves, bizarre, huh?  However, these martyrs are very much enamored with the idea that they are doing something bigger than themselves – despite the fact they are just disposable fools who are convinced that ending their lives and the lives of others is an honorable cause.  Well, when it comes to civil war rhetoric, although a bit different in semantics, has very similar mechanics – and produces similar results.

What are those mechanics?  Let me summarize them this way:

1. Find a foe, whatever or whoever it might be.

2. Disparage this foe until they become dehumanized (if people)

3. Ramp up violent ways to eliminate said foe, and convince that eliminating this foe (even through violence) is not only the right thing to do – but it is an honorable cause.

4. Send the most disposable fool to the front line to do the hard work (even if it is a suicide mission), by promising them some sort of reward for them or anybody they leave behind.  It is not like they can come from the afterlife if the reward never indeed happens.

5. Repeat the process until there are no more disposable fools to send to do errands for them.  Which might happen sooner or later – that is why authoritarian regimes tend to end at some point.  Or are big in indoctrinating new generations, so they can be those next disposable fools.

This process, as despicable as it sounds – it is all too real, and it happens around the world.  It has certainly occurred in America.  There are larger geopolitical intricacies.  Why? Because although the American Civil War in the 1800’s was very much domestic in the sense that some rich American folks wanted to get richer.  This new [potential] Civil War is a lot more complex.  This time is about entities outside our borders who want to destroy the USA from the inside out.  And they have been achieving this with spectacular results.

Even people with good intentions are falling victims of this sick game.  And yes, it is designed to be that way.  Therefore, for any reader who has a realization they have been lied to, don’t worry – DO something about it!  DOING means stop perpetuating the falsehoods of those who lied to you, and use this new found knowledge to tell the [actual] truth to others who were also lied to.  Just remember that you might find pushback – just like you were pushing back before the epiphany.  Again, this was designed to be that way.

It is very easy for lies to gain traction because they are designed to be easily digestible – and have just enough “accurate” information in order to pass a shallow fact-checking level of scrutiny.  But of course, this is not going to last if a higher level of scrutiny is ensued to seek the truth.  A lot of people who are not inside the bubble when this information is being pushed onto unsuspected victims won’t fall for this trick.  However, for those inside this bubble, the actual reality of being bamboozled will seem counterintuitive.  As I keep saying it, it is designed to be that way.  And it has been working for a long time.

Case in point.  Social media – especially Tweeter (X) in the last several months.  At some point there was some fact checking or at least some sort of deterrent from cyberbullying, hate speech, and other types of harassment to users.  Nowadays, it is a lot harder to report to a person than to endure the extremely offensive and divisive things many anonymous keyboard warriors spew all over the platform.  We see something similar in other platforms, but they tend to be regulated in a different manner, not only by the actual people running the platform, but by the users themselves.

A good example of accountability as described is Threads, the vibe is a lot better than Tweeter, according to the consensus of most Threads users.  I happen to agree with the Thread users.  But of course, even social media sites are being used as a polarization of who is subscribing to what world view.  Particularly, people on Tweeter (X) tend to be a lot more aggressive.  And that includes people from either side of the political spectrum, and religion.

Surprisingly (and heartbreaking enough), I’ve also seen many people who claim (claim being the key word) to be atheists who also happen to be extreme right-wing, LGBT, Ultra MAGAs, but also tend to spew all kinds of hate speech against LGBT, and repeat ultra-conservative talking points.  Of course, anybody who has been familiar with and studying sociological factors would also find it surprising as I did, because that is very much out of character for those groups.  And of course, unsurprisingly, most of these accounts spewing divisive rhetoric have avatars that are not an actual person – and there are no links to any actual social presence.  In other words, they are cowards hiding anonymous accounts, giving them the opportunity to harass others while hiding in the obscurity of the internet.  I’ll be writing additional articles about that, and I have talked about that in my blog as well.

I’ve challenged many of those, with this very line.  I point to them that it is cowardice to attack people online.  And further, they would not be doing the same thing if this was face to face with them showing their real name and identity.  They claim that those who they harass would go after them -claiming the other [users] to be somebody like the gestapo during Hitler’s times.  Which is interesting because these anonymous accounts cowards are doing the same level of harassment, only in a virtual scenario – yet in their sophomoric minds they feel justified; it seems they are lost in the irony.

Trying to reason with many of these minds who are clearly compromised can not only be challenging but incredibly frustrating.  I have to admit that although it can be tragically amusing and entertaining, it is also exceedingly sad.  And by sad, I mean it is sad to see how deep propaganda has made it almost impossible for them to see how deluded their arguments really are.  And of course, there is a non-zero chance that many of these trolls are perhaps high as a kite when they are spewing nonsense in social media.

But the most important point I want to put across with this article is that good people (not just in the USA but around the world) fortunately are the majority.  I keep seeing more and more people talking about a potential civil war in the United States – although I’ve been talking about these indicators for a lot longer than they have.  But the point remains, what are we going to do to stop this from happening?  The simple – yet complex answer is: EDUCATION!  And by that I don’t’ mean schools – I mean turning propaganda on its head.  The same tools being utilized to divide us can be reversed engineered.

I will be writing a series of articles in the coming weeks about this particular topic, because it is complex.  Meanwhile, I have been talking about that in any platform I can get a hold of.  For example, in the Festival of Story Tellers, I spoke about propaganda and how to defeat it.  You can view that video at the following link

Link to Video About Turning Propaganda on Its Head.

But the fact is that I may be idealistic all I want – but I cannot do this alone.  I’ll keep doing my part to spread awareness and provide solutions through my writing – and any other platform I can find.  I just hope that my message won’t resonate when it is too late.  HLC

 

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Link to Buy the book “AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGANDA The Puppet Master Tools” by J. Marcelo Baqueroalvarez

 

It is rare in today’s political climate int eh USA.  Usually, the votes are strictly divided over party lines, on THIS rare occasion we have bipartisanship!

 

Political parties can work together!

Yes, you read that right!  Bipartisan agreements in Congress did happen yesterday December 1, 2023.  Yesterday was a historical day as the Republican U.S. Representative from New York’s 3rd congressional district, George Antony Devolder Santos was expelled from Congress in a Bipartisan vote.

As much as I agree that it was right to expel Santos from this exulted position, this is not necessarily a happy day in America.  The real question is: How was he able to hold on to that seat for such a long time?  (Or at all for that matter) Santos entered congress after falsifying – essentially pretty much everything.  His education, his credentials, his income, his affiliations, and I can go on for hours on that.  Seriously, this young man had quite the affinity for stretching the bounds of truth.  Some of his lies were pretty petty too.

And despite the superficial perception, I am not trying to bash George Santos (although he also was not forthcoming with his name among many other things – and he did a stellar job at discrediting himself without any help).  But rather I am trying to show how important it is for us to take politics seriously.  At least seriously enough to ensure that whoever gains an exulted position is actually the person they are claiming to be.  Later in this article I will list many of his red flags before, during, and after – and we’ll talk about what he is likely going to do next.  He did leave Congress spewing a lot of choice words against his own party and of course against the democrats (in office and throughout the country).

I really want to discuss the situation on the merits, but unfortunately, Santos did become the face of this very case study.  And I am sure scholars from decades to come will look at this time in our American history and talk about it – because it deserves the attention is getting.  Of course, for a great block of voters (both Democrats & Republicans) this situation is possibly an oblivious fact.  I know this for a fact, because I like to ask these types of things.  And much like I said in my last article, the answers I tend to get are pretty frustrating.

 

Partisan politics galore.

In yesterday’s article I spoke about how there is political theater in the United States of America.  And no, it is not the only country suffering from these types of performances – this is a systematic world-expanding problem.  And to be honest, depending on the proclivity of different segments of the population, this political theater can range from non-existent to very enticing in the minds and hearts of actual voters.

Well, that is another problem, a lot of voters do not really want to learn about what is affecting their lives.  And I can imagine this can be incredibly frustrating to many of us who in one way or the other depend on people voting in a well-informed manner.  Why, because it affects all of us.  But the fact is that for a long time, voting has become a visceral situation – it is about the feeling rather than the actual policy.  This has been normalized, and many might be voting “their conscience” without actually scrutinizing the validity for that decision.

I also mentioned in yesterday’s article, as I have in the past, that the politician’s voting record is what ultimately matters.  Because that ground truth is what will tell you if what they say is true or not.  Sure, some will vote for terrible legislation and won’t be shy about it.  Others will prefer not voting on better legislation because that becomes politically inconvenient at the time.  There is actually an artform when it comes to that voting record.  I don’t mean that it is good art, per say – but it is not (unfortunately) a straight forward process.  And that is also very frustrating.

Why frustrating?  Well, when you see it pragmatically – if a person is voting one way or the other just because they are required to follow a certain crowd, then they are [not] actually doing what is best.  And of course, this has been very evident, especially in the last few years when voting on any legislation ends up split by party lines.  Hence, whomever controls the majority – no matter how slim, will win by default.  That is a problem, because that means that either the policies set forth to the floor are crap, or (and) that this partisanship is not sustainable.

 

You can see this yourself.

For the U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives – Votes

For the U.S. Senate https://www.senate.gov/legislative/votes_new.htm

 

I invite you to look at these.  You can spend some time on those – because there is plenty to see.  But the fact is that I want to show you that what I am speaking of does not come out of thin air.  I am not a pundit – I am just a dude with a website who likes to state facts that are affecting us all.  Division solely on party lines is not good.  It creates gridlock and the actual substance of conversations that need to occur are pre-determined even before the vote comes to the house.  Everything else is just lip service and sound bites.  The decision was largely already made up before it had a chance to be properly heard.

And that brings us back to the fact that George Santos was kept in office despite the fact he had a rap sheet longer than the Pacific coast in the continent.  But Santos had an ace under the sleeve, the House of Representatives was hurting for members.  The “red wave” they predicted did not happen.  The Republicans lost the Senate majority and gained only a very slim majority in the House of Representatives.

Santos, although he was drenched in controversy – kept a low profile as far as voting.  He would show up, do his partisan game when it came to voting.  And of course, bash Democrats any moment he could get a camera in front of him.  That was convenient for the slim majority when pushing (or what many would rather call “stalling”) legislation.  That is why he was voted to stay in as a sitting member the first time he was supposed to be expelled.  However, he did become a political liability as the ethics committee validated the character most people (not politicians) both Republicans & Democrats had already assessed – not fit for duty as an elected leader.

 

Bipartisan Support to expel Santos out of Congress.

This is the first time in the history of the United States of America that a sitting legislator is expelled out of office – without being actually convicted of a crime.  You can read the report in the link provided below.  Court trials are forthcoming though.

Ethics Report on Rep. George Santos 2023

However, Santos did not have a clear-cut vote to oust him.  The troubled ex-legislator did get votes from several Republicans and even a few Democrats to prevent his ousting.  However, mathematically it was already evident that Santos was not going to win this round.  I will not focus on what each Democrat of Republican colleague said about him. Especially the more unflattering language.  But I will point out that Santos was in the scorching end of the statements given by many of his fellow Republicans.  And in today’s political climate that is very significant.

In the link about the voting record, you can see how each legislator voted. However, I will highlight that some of those you could expect to support Santos did vote to hold him in Congress, despite the fact of this scathing report and prelude.  Among those are Gaetz, Boebert, Greene, Johnson (Speaker of the House) … and yes those are some I mentioned in the previous article.  I will let you have your own reasoning about their decision.  My intent is not to disparage anybody, but rather to show the connection points to spark deeper conversations.

To that end, let me just add a list of the things that have been deemed problematic by most people who had been aware of Santo’s antics; and why this has been problematic for the ousted member of the House of Representatives.

George Santos Lies & Controversies (short list until I get bored of talking about this gentleman’s controversies). But I figure this would make you understand why it is significant that 114 people voted to keep him as a member of the House of Representatives.  Fortunately, 311 voted to oust him.  Let’s see why I say fortunately.

Batch #1 Santos was charged with 23 counts.

– One (1) count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States
– Two (2) counts of wire fraud.
– Two (2) counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission
– Two (2) counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC.
– Two (2) counts of aggravated identity theft.
– One (1) count of access device fraud.
– Seven (7) counts of wire fraud,
– Three (3) counts of money laundering
– One (1) count of theft of public funds
– Two (2) counts of making materially false statements to the United States House of Representatives

In the second indictment Santos was accused of stealing his campaign donor’s identities!  Using it for all kinds of selfish expenses to include clothes, sessions at Only Fans, and money back to his own bank account.  This is donors’ money who did not authorize additional expenses – but he had their credit card numbers.

Adding to the list, in a superseding indictment, Santos was accused of loaning his campaign half a million dollars, as an effort to pad his campaign.  This falsifying of finance reports is of course criminal in nature.

Even before these latest accusations, he had quite a few others.  I wrote an entire article about him back then.  But let’s do a quick recap of some of the many simply bizarre stories we had to deal with.  I’ll just add some teasers about it, you are welcome to look more into it.  You might find it entertaining and/or frustrating.

– Claimed to be a model for Vogue.
– Impersonated (Former Speaker of the House) Kevin McCarthy’s Chief of Staff to try to raise money from rich donors.
– Claimed to have lost four employees in the mass shooting at the Pulse night club.
– Made national news for alleged swindling a disabled veteran out of money to save his pet – the pet tragically died.
– Lied to his landlord about being robbed on the way to pay his rent.
– Accused by former roommates of stealing their belongings to include an expensive scarf.
– Being charged in Brazil for writing bad checks.
– Claimed to be connected to working with Goldman Sachs and/or Citigroup to use as leverage for a Ponzi scheme.
– Claimed to be a volleyball start champion in a college he never attended – or was even enrolled at for that matter.
– Claimed to have been victim of an assassination attempt in 5th Avenue in New York City.
– Claimed his mother died in 9/11.
– Claimed his niece was kidnapped by Chinese Communists as retribution.
– Claimed his Grandparents Fled the Holocaust.
– Claimed he was Jewish, and when he was confronted, he said he was Jew-ish – I know, cringe alert.
– Stole donors credit card numbers and made personal charges with them.

I can go on, but I got bored to be recounting these crazy antics – but there are plenty more.  Sure, some of these stories are allegations – but the fact that he has actually been so prone to lying (and admitted himself he was a liar)– his credibility is not quite helping him with the benefit of the doubt.

 

This is a link to my previous article about him in case you want to see what I was already talking about earlier this year when we were introduced to this gentleman.

         Rep. George Santos – Why Should you Care Jan 12, 2023.

 

This was meant to be a relatively short article, because I figured my readers would like to review the information I enclosed.  Case in point the Congressional voting record and the ethics report.  And those can take a while to go through, but please feel free to bookmark this site as a quick reference point.  Whatever time you invest reviewing the information provided in this article (to include the links) it will be time well invested.  In future articles I will delve more in-depth into these political intricacies.

To close, you might be surprised to learn that I am not actually all that much of a fan of politics.  Much like I am not a fan of getting a kick to the kidneys with soccer cleats.  But in order to prevent that I have to have situation awareness to avoid that proverbial kick.  The difference is that legislators make decisions that will affect our lives for generations to come.  And if we don’t understand if they are up to the job, then we are actually at fault for not paying attention when the house is burning down.  We are all in this together – like it or not.  That is why this has been taking so much bandwidth in my attention span.

Please let me know in the comments (down in this site’s comment section) or any of our social media outlets about what other topics you would like me to talk about.  Thank you for being with me through this journey!  HLC

 

In an unprecedented event, the Speaker of the House was ousted by members of his OWN PARTY!  Let’s talk about it before this gets forgotten in the news cycle.

 

For the first time in U.S. History the Speaker of the House seat has been voted out of office.  That was a couple of days ago.

On Tuesday, October 3, 2023 Republican Representative and Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy was voted out of his post. This is the first time in the history of the United States of America that a Speaker of the House has been essentially fired, and the majority vote included his own party no less.  Yes, the fragmented Republican voted out his own leader.

Granted that this historical moment occurred on Tuesday, but the following Wednesday and Thursday have not been any less bizarre.  In fact, I have been trying to start this article more than a few times since Tuesday.  But just as I am starting to write something, there are other breaking news and additional news that add to the context.  If you are familiar with my writing style, I will never sacrifice exactitude for the sake of brevity.  Afterall, these articles are meant to be a chronical portrait – an instant in our American history.  I will aways choose to add important [and relevant] data points to the discussion if it provides a better understanding.

 

So what is going on?

Today all these news will seem bizarre, and in years from now when we revisit this time frame – it will likely remain bizarre.  Dare I say, exceedingly frustrating.  I have to admit, it is actually frustrating even right now.  Why?   There are very important situations in the crux of our world history, and with America being front and center of all this massive paradigm.  And when we see something that most pundits would characterize as political theater the whole situation is distracting.  Most importantly it is a win for other regimes who do not particularly like America, and they point at our political discourse as a win for their own governing style.

And to be clear this situation with Kevin McCarthy being ousted has been telegraphed for a long time.  How long might some would ask?  Well, for some of us who saw the writing on the wall, pretty much from the time he ran for the position as Speaker of the House.  McCarthy also made history back then when it took 15 ballots for him to be elected in January 2023.  And that was only after a handful of Republicans voted “present” to lower the vote threshold.  Not a promising start… a bit ominous, perhaps?

The votes were of course divided through party lines. Since the House of Representatives had a slim Republican Majority, all Democrats voted against McCarty and in favor of Representative (D) Hakeem Jeffries of NY, who was serving also as the Minority Leader.  Representative (R) Kevin McCarthy of California who was the Majority Leader was still short even within his own party.  There was also a group of so called MAGA Republicans, which includes Representative (R) Matt Gaetz of Florida.  The latter is the Representative who started the process to outs McCarthy out of his post.

So just to recap, these are the six Republicans who were blocking McCarthy from being elected in the first place.  Yes, you will see some familiar names in this article:

– Rep. (R) Andy Biggs – AZ
– Rep. (R) Lauren Boebert – CO
– Rep. (R) Eli Crane – AZ
– Rep. (R) Matt Gaetz – FL
– Rep. (R) Bob Good – VA
– Rep. (R) Matt Rosendale – MT

So, is this surprising?  Not at all, in fact I wrote previous articles on how this rocky relationship unsustainability seemed not as a matter of if but when.  Unsurprisingly, many Republicans are not happy with Gaetz at all because of this move.  And the more I learn how this came to be, the more discombobulated this entire situation has been evolving, it is actually mind-bending.  Many of Gaetz fellow Republicans had some very poignant words to describe him.  These include but not limited to “pathetic, charlatan, creepy.”  Hey, their words, not mine.  It did not help that each time Gaetz would do a political stunt like this he would use it as a fund-raiser.  And yes, he has been called out to his face on that – by other Republicans, no less.  And yes, in the House floor.

So how did he get this much “love” from his cadre?  Well, for instance Republican Representative Matt Gaetz put a Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy in a precarious situation as Gaetz spearheaded a cadre of 21 Republicans who were pretty much onboard with shutting the government just a few days ago.  To keep the government open, McCarthy had no choice but to team up with the Democrats in order to get enough votes in order to secure the decision for the Government not be shut down at the 11^th hour.  Gaetz complained in front of the entire world that McCarthy did wrong by teaming up with the Democrats; yet Gaetz will immediately move to push for a motion to vacate the Speaker of the house position, and was able to do so by getting the Democrats to vote to vacate the Republican Speaker of the House in addition to the eight Republicans who also voted against McCarthy.

Yes, that happened… it would be funny if it wasn’t so weird.  Eight Republicans joined the Democrats to vote Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House.  The final tally was 216 to 210.   In the meantime Republican Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is serving as the “Speaker in the Interim.”

In case you are wondering who are the Republicans who voted to take the seat away from McCarthy, these are the names (you’ll see some familiar names from the government shutdown vote):

– Rep. (R) Matt Gaetz – FL (no surprise there, he started all this)
– Rep. (R) Andy Biggs – AZ
– Rep. (R) Tim Burchett – TN
– Rep. (R) Eli Crane – AZ
– Rep. (R) Bob Good – VA
– Rep. (R) Nancy Mace – SC
– Rep. (R) Matt Rosendale – MT

And in case you were wondering if the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives are upset at Matt Gaetz, then your assertions are spot on.  McCarthy himself during his rather sad “farewell from the House Speaker” seat speech had a few choice words against Gaetz.  Among other epithets, it seems that “charlatan” is one of those that fellow Republicans seem have it trending.  There has been some chatter about trying to outs Gaetz as well.  To be honest, I would not be surprised.  Seeing the political discourse devolve from afar seems like a bizarre new normal.  I have to admit I am looking forward to a time when the prestige of what the House of Representatives is supposed to be returns to that point of proper decorum.

McCarthy also had a few choice words against the other Republicans who ousted him, and of course he had no love for the Democrats.  No surprise on the latter.

But back to the House of Representatives decorum, even if they disagree in policy, that is why debates in the House floor are part of the process.  However, political theater is not conducive to address all the other important factors our country needs to resolve.  And I say factors, because these issues are multipliers.  However, this bizarre political theater, to include this civil-war among republicans in their own party remain very divisive.  I am concerned that the reason why more people seem to be paying attention to politics is because it is resembling a reality show.  That is not good news for the prestige of our country at a macro geopolitical stance.  The good news is that another election is around the corner and hopefully this political theater will also serve to drive more positive change support to the polls.

What do I mean?  You might or might not be surprised to learn that a lot of Americans decide to stay home instead of going to the polls and vote.  And sadly, a pretty sizable group of people who actually goes to the polls and vote are misinformed about actual policies and the candidate’s platform and doctrines.  It is not unusual for a lot of people to vote on political affiliation rather than actual grasp on policy.  And by policy, I mean truly understanding their candidate of choice, and their opposition platforms (as in plural).

The intricacies of the political process are indeed complex, but that does not mean that we can all participate with knowledge in the process.  I envision an opportunity for our country to stop this bizarre political theater in this sacred chamber that is meant to represent our country.  The rest of the world is paying attention.  They use these spectacles as exhibit “A” to try to frame the mighty U.S. of A. as a dysfunctional and failing governing system.  Yes, our political discourse travels a lot farther than our domestic policy.  The world pays attention to what the Leading nation in the world does – and how they conduct business.  The good, the bad and the bizarre.

Do you know who is happy when we fight with political theater?  Well, I said it already but it is worth repeating.  The Regimes who do not want America to remain the leader of the world.  The process is arduous, but it has been in motion for quite a while.  And it started with eroding our trust in our government and institutions.  If these are errored beyond repair, then any other dysfunctional type movement system will seem “justified” to act with impunity.  In other words, a new normal will percolate.  I’m oversimplifying for the sake of succinctness, but we have to understand that is the responsibilities we hold as the leading nation in the world stage.

What is next?

Who knows?  Seriously, I think I will have to continue writing updates on this case.  I was even seeing reports that there is a group of Republicans who want to nominate former President Donald Trump as a Speaker of the House.  And guess what?  Despite all the criminal and civil cases against Trump, that situation is not that far from possible.  Yes, I am serious.

And by the way, Trump did have a bad day on his civil court for fraud in New York.  I’ll write another article about that at some point, I am sure there will be plenty to dissect.  But the trail is ongoing so you can look forward to that once we know how it will end.  But the point is that McCarthy ousting even overshadowed the fact that the former President of these United States was sitting in civil court today and the fact he was issued a gag order by the judge.  Yeah, that is pretty unique too.  Regardless, Trump did state that he would be willing to assume the position of Speaker of the house if drafted.

But he (Trump) is not the only one eye-balling the Speaker of the House seat.  Republican Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio is perhaps the most news-acquainted of all potential contenders.  Which is interesting, because Jordan was asked if he would support Trump as the Speaker of the House.  I have not been able to confirm this, but his answer was perhaps before he (Jordan) announced his bid to Speaker of the House.  Jordan’s answer was a nervous laughter and defection saying something to the effect that he wants Trump to be President again.  At the time I saw that I was no aware Jordan was a Speaker of the House hopeful.  But in hindsight his response demeanor makes perfect sense.

I saw a few other names of people hoping to run for Speaker of the House.  I am sure that the names will change – either add or decrease.  An interesting up-side with McCarty being ousted, then the “implied succession” of who should or should not be Speaker of the House has evolved.  In other words, it used to be a sort of a non-spoken rule that either the minority or majority Republican would be the candidate to compete for that coveted position.  After all the Speaker of the House position is the third person in line to the U.S. Presidency.

But just in case you are wondering who is planning on running for Speaker of the House, already as a person in office, here is the list:

– REP. (R) Steven Scalise – from Louisiana and current House Majority Leader
– REP. (R) Jim Jordan – from Ohio
– REP. (R) Tom Emmer – from Minnesota and current House Majority Whip
– REP. (R) Kevin Hern – from Oklahoma

And by the way – as a reminder, if you feel so inclined to run for that position, our system of government allows an American Citizen person who is not already a sitting Representative to run for Speaker of the House.  I do have a feeling that the most aggressive campaign will be pushed by Jim Jordan.  In case you are unfamiliar with him, he’s normally the one politician in Congress who tends to wear a yellow tie, light blue shirt and no jacket.  Oh, and he is a fast talker.

I am sure a lot of us will continue keeping our eyes peeled as these events continue to evolve; quite fast if I might add.  In either case, it seems that the civil war inside the Republican-wing of Congress won’t end anytime soon.  I am not naïve enough to ascertain that the political theater will end any time soon either.  But I will say that while this is happening, the clock is ticking toward the possibility that the government will in-fact shut down coming November 2023.  And I would like to think that is an issue that deserves a lot of immediate attention.  HLC