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Planning for the next insurrection

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/03/planning-for-the-next-insurrection/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 12:00
This time the insurrection will be coming from inside the House — and they’ll be armed: The incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives removed metal detectors outside of the chamber floor on Tuesday, just three days before the second anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6 riot. Why it matters: The magnetometers were installed outside the House chamber in January 2021 to beef up security after the attack, but some Republicans have vocally opposed the increased security checks. Eight Republicans and one Democrat were fined thousands of dollars for not passing through magnetometers required to enter the House chamber, the New York Times reported in 2021. Driving the news: A rules package for the new Congress removes “Democrat fines for failure of Members to comply with unscientific mask mandates and security screenings before entering the House floor,” Republicans on the House Rules Committee said. “Members should not face unnecessary disruptions as they carry out their constitutional duties,” they added.

Currencies And Geopolitics — Brian Romanchuk

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/01/currencies-and-geopolitics-bria…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 11:08
Zoltan Pozsar is back with his stories about “Bretton Woods III” and the petro-yuan. (The original report is presumably for bank clients, but I found this summary by ER Valasco.) Although developing countries trading with China might take these developments seriously, from the perspective of the developed economies, how third parties arrange their affairs has limited domestic impact.

I initially had a longer response, but once I looked it over, I decided it was too weak. I will instead offer a relatively brief response....
Bond Economics
Currencies And Geopolitics
Brian Romanchuk

Summer Series – The Integrity Election [Webinar]

https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/summer-series-the-integrity-election-web…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 10:46

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2022. The Federal Election earlier this year was considered by many to be the Integrity Election, with many including the Teal independents campaigning on integrity issues, including a federal anti-corruption commission. In retrospect, these issues won many new seats, and

The post Summer Series – The Integrity Election [Webinar] appeared first on The Australia Institute.

Summer Series – Uluru Statement from the Heart: Sydney Peace Prize winner [Webinar]

https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/summer-series-uluru-statement-from-the-h…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 10:42

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2022. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is an invitation to the Australian people to walk with First Nations people to create a better future. It is a gift: a strategic roadmap to peace, where all Australians can come together

The post Summer Series – Uluru Statement from the Heart: Sydney Peace Prize winner [Webinar] appeared first on The Australia Institute.

Lol. Did Kev really think Democrats would help him?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/03/lol-did-kev-really-think-democrats-would-help…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 10:30
Not bloody likely This strikes me as hilarious: OPPONENTS OF Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the House speakership are digging in after a tense discussion on the House floor between Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The pair’s conspicuous exchange in the back of the chamber on the first day of the 118th Congress was caught on C-SPAN — and noted by many members in the building. Thanks to Gaetz and his far-right allies, McCarthy, a California Republican, failed to win the speakership on the first round of voting. Gaetz told Ocasio-Cortez that McCarthy has been telling Republicans that he’ll be able to cut a deal with Democrats to vote present, enabling him to win a majority of those present and voting, according to Ocasio-Cortez. She told Gaetz that wasn’t happening, and also double-checked with Democratic party leadership, confirming there’d be no side deal. “McCarthy was suggesting he could get Dems to walk away to lower his threshold,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept of her conversation with Gaetz on McCarthy’s failed ploy.

Jim Jordan, revolutionary

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/03/jim-jordan-revolutionary/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 09:30
I thought I would share this piece about Jim Jordan from 2016 just in case anyone forgets that this House circus started long before they invited their superstar clown Donald Trump into the tent: Jordan won his House seat in 2006, the year Democrats took the majority, but he didn’t emerge as a force until five years later. Republicans reclaimed the House and elected him to lead the Republican Study Committee, a powerful faction within the GOP Conference focused on crafting policy. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) remembers turning to Ryan at the time and asking who he should vote for. “Jim Jordan, of course!” Ryan responded, according to Gowdy. Jordan that year also befriended a bunch of firebrand freshmen who rode the 2010 tea party wave to Washington but didn’t quite fit in with their establishment colleagues. They admired Jordan for his conservative purity and they quickly formed an alliance. Within six months atop the study committee, Jordan began to divide the Republican Conference.

Losing by winning

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/03/losing-by-winning/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 08:00
The descent of MAGA into chaos continues Charlie Sykes: By the end of what promises to be a very long day Kevin McCarthy will either (1) be narrowly elected with the votes of fabulist and accused felon George Santos, conspiracist MTG, and a handful of dissidents who hate his guts, or (2) he’s going to have to move his stuff out of the Speaker’s Office a day after prematurely moving it in. Time after time, the man who would be speaker tried to shrink himself into the office, and is ending his bid by offering multiple concessions to the bomb-throwers in the caucus who will hold him hostage if he survives. Even Newt Gingrich is alarmed by the shambles. “The precedent that sets is … any five people can get up and say, ‘Well, I’m now going to screw up the conference, too.’ The choice is Kevin McCarthy or chaos.” But it’s chaos either way, isn’t it? McCarthy is a hollow man and a weak leader, and his caucus is now in the process of testing just how weak he is. One of the most powerful speakers in House history is about to be replaced by one of the puniest.