Picking a Straw(man) Game

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Attribution: Picking a Speaker by Jeff Koterba, patreon.com/jeffreykoterba

Trump talks to GOP Speaker candidates ahead of third nomination election | The Hill

But speaking to reporters from New Hampshire on Monday, Trump did not appear poised to make an endorsement in the race as nine candidates seek to be the party’s nominee.

“We’re looking at a lot of people. And you know, I’m sort of trying to stay out of that as much as possible,” Trump said.

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41 thoughts on “Picking a Straw(man) Game”

  1. Republicans fail to find consensus for US House speaker at candidate forum | House of Representatives | The Guardian

    Republicans, whose party infighting has stymied the US House of Representatives for three weeks, tried on Monday to find consensus on a new speaker to lead the chamber and address funding needs for Israel, Ukraine and the federal government.

    Nine speaker candidates, including No 3 House Republican Tom Emmer, made their pitches to fellow Republicans at a closed-door forum, and answered questions about how they would handle the job, which has become a flashpoint for factional strife between rightwing hardliners and more mainstream Republicans.

    The field quickly dropped to eight when one of the candidates, Dan Meuser, used his presentation to announce he was withdrawing. He told reporters it was time for the party to get its act together.

    “People are angry, people are frustrated, people are blaming us for the dysfunction, and they are kind of right. So we need to respond. We need to get this done,” Meuser said.

    […]

    After Monday’s candidate forum, Republicans are due to meet at 9am ET on Tuesday to begin choosing a nominee behind closed-doors through a series of secret ballots.

    [continues]

  2. Stephen Colbert is back, and the House of Representatives still doesn’t have a speaker, and the former president is watching his co-defendants cut plea deals in Georgia.

  3. “We’re looking at a lot of people. And you know, I’m sort of trying to stay out of that as much as possible,” Trump said.
    Right. Ask Tom Emmer if his minions are trying to stay out of that. 

    But the threat of Trump’s opposition remains. Behind the scenes, he personally directed his allies to hammer front-runner candidate, Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), according to two people familiar with the  directive who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

    Reported by WaPo. Staying out of it? Right. 

  4. Perhaps nine is too many for the addled brain idiot to comprehend.  Too many names to memorize.  Yesterday the orange moron was able to mix up two names and two countries ending up with the head of Hungry becoming the head of Turkey.  Yup, real stable genius at work.

  5. I’ll say it again: Speaker Jeffries! This is going to end up with a deal between him and the relatively sane Republicans left. If not putting him in the driver’s seat, he’ll have a firm hand on the wheel until 2024 makes it official.

  7. Will they ever get disgusted by his stubby, chubby fingers all over every move they try to make? It’s nauseating. 

  8. This Salon piece makes a lot of sense to me. The “ignore him and he goes away” theory doesn’t work. Also, there’s more danger in people NOT seeing just how frighteningly crazy he has become…

    SALON: The press has barely covered Trump’s increasingly unhinged and violent rhetoric. The result is that many Americans have simply forgotten how bad Trump is. GOP propagandists push the narrative that he’s not so bad and that it’s just liberals being “hysterical” to claim otherwise. Especially for swing voters under significant pressure from Trump-loving relatives and neighbors, pushing Trump’s grossness down the memory hole long enough to vote for him is quite alluring. 

    I have long watched Trump rally speeches, interviews, online posts etc. because I want to know what he’s up to. And over recent months he has become more unhinged than ever, veering into truly fascist rhetoric and promises. But with dwindling coverage, even on FOX, a lot of voters buy into the notion that he’s harmless.

  9. ivy, yeah ick and ugh just visualizing it.

    am sure once the speaker pick is made, he’ll be boasting about “grabbing them by the party” to have gotten it done.

  10. They were long ago disgusted with him but their level of fear of the base rises like a skyscraper over the trees.  They’re mainly a bunch of peckerwood cowards, and not fit to be out in public.

  13. The core of the Republican insanity is fear.  The GOP Congress Critters are mainly white men desperately trying to hang on to power while being afraid of other cultures, colors, sexes, ages and public opinions.  They know that they can no longer count on a majority of any sector without cheating.  

  14. She was my pick for next flipper:

    Breaking news: Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegally conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia, according to a court document.

  16. Gary Palmer down for the count. Good. As his constituent for 7 years, I never counted on anything from him. 

    Not even sure why he was in there.

  17. Yep, a few brave Republicans who actually care about saving our democracy are going to need to vote for Hakeem Jeffries as SOTH.  

    Maybe they are Republicans who don’t want to run for another term.   Maybe they are Republicans whose districts are are starting to skew blue or purple.   Maybe they are Republicans who don’t want a SOTH who will be on a short chain to tRUMPsky/Putin.  Whoever they are, history will remember them as the reps who helped to save the US democracy.     

    2024 is coming. Maybe Republicans need to remember that, too.

  18. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/24/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump/index.html

    “Tuesday, Trump and Cohen are expected to be face to face in a New York courtroom as Cohen delivers testimony as part of the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case against the former president.”

    “When Cohen takes the stand, he will face down a very angry Donald Trump. It’s the first time the two have been in the same room or even spoken in five years, according to multiple sources.”

  19. I saw on one of the local news channels that there were many protesters to greet trump at his rally yesterday in my state of NH that were chanting… “Lock Him Up”!

  27. https://apnews.com/article/iceland-women-strike-equal-pay-970669466116a2b1a5673a8737089d46

    “Schools, shops, banks and Iceland’s famous swimming pools shut on Tuesday as women in the volcanic island nation — including the prime minister — went on strike to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence.”

    “Icelanders awoke to all-male news teams announcing shutdowns across the country, with public transport delayed, hospitals understaffed and hotel rooms uncleaned. Trade unions, the strike’s main organizers, called on women and nonbinary people to refuse paid and unpaid work, including chores. About 90% of the country’s workers belong to a union.”

    “Tuesday’s walkout, running from midnight to midnight, was billed as the biggest since Iceland’s first such event on Oct. 24, 1975, when 90% of women refused to work, clean or look after children, to voice anger at discrimination in the workplace. In 1976, Iceland passed a law guaranteeing equal rights irrespective of gender.”

  28.  
    tRUMPsky said he was never indicted, then said he was indicted, said the boxes were secure (no and not the point), said not to worry about voting but watch those who are, and compared himself to Nelson Mandela. 

    He’s a loon, but 27 years in jail – OK.

  32. WaPo:

    Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the House majority whip, and the third Republican speaker pick since the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), had been elected as the GOP nominee on an internal ballot earlier Tuesday. However, it became clear that he could not attract a majority vote on the full House floor because of Republican holdouts in the narrowly divided chamber. Former president Donald Trump took direct aim at Emmer as he was trying to convert holdouts. In a social media post, Trump called Emmer a RINO — Republican in name only — and “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters.”

    I guess Dumbass forgot …

    “We’re looking at a lot of people. And you know, I’m sort of trying to stay out of that as much as possible,” Trump said.

     
    That didn’t take long.  (Monkeys, footballs)

  34. “…never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement…”
     
    wow…..sounds just like Cartman talking about his “Respect my AUTHORITAH!”

  35. No power since about 4/4:30 & they keep pushing back the repair time.  Now it’s 11pm.  It’s out for blocks. Heavy rain this afternoon? 

  36. Craig – I fear you’re right.  We need some Republicans to lie on the next secret ballot, so it looks like they have enough votes for whatever shlub they put up.  Then, they need to vote for Hakeem Jeffries when it comes time to vote.  SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY!

  38. Gee, with all these guilty pleas and flipped witnesses, i’m starting to think there was a criminal conspiracy to overturn a legitimate election 🤔 

  39. Ta-da! The power is back on.  Six hours with no electricity and it was pouring outside; too dark to paint paint or draw or read.  Halloween candy for supper.  And I’m one of the luckier humans in this planet.  No wonder folks didn’t live as long a century ago.  They were bored. 

  40. New front runner – Johnson of Louisiana. Former Dumbass lawyer in his 2nd impeachment trial. Monkeys, footballs. 

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