Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is one of the primary voices against Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for the House speaker role. Gaetz appeared on Fox News to discuss the background issues with Kevin McCarthy and the lack of trust held by the group opposing him.
Additionally, Gaetz refuses to accept the criticism from former House republicans who created the crisis of confidence within the American electorate. When challenged about the specific criticism, Gaetz does a good job putting context to the failed republican efforts over the past 15 years. The video is a good encapsulation of the current status. WATCH (prompted to 02:29):
.
The House will reconvene at Noon Thursday to continue the process of trying to nominate a speaker.
The previously insufferable Hannitus Interruptus has been on a downward spiral ever since his wife caught him in an affair with Ainsley Earhardt and divorced him. Immediately thereafter, with Fox News holding leverage over his ability to pay the support needed, he has been unwatchable in the extreme. However, that said, even at the lowest possible threshold of credibility, Hannity finds a way to go even deeper into the hole of irrelevance with this interview.
Sean Hannity invites Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert onto his television show so that she can listen to him tell her what her position is regarding his good friend Kevin McCarthy. This is peak moonbattery from the ridiculous pundit. {Direct Rumble Link} – WATCH (if possible):
During a floor speech earlier today, Pennsylvania Republican Representative Scott Perry nominates Florida Republican Representative Byron Donalds to become Speaker of the House. WATCH:
.
Meanwhile, Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) mounted his one-eyed high horse to slam the 20 House Republicans who oppose Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the speakership.
“I’m tired of your stupid platitudes that some consultant told you to say on the campaign trail, alright. Behind closed doors tell us what you actually want, or shut the f*** up,” he said of the holdouts, according to the Washington Post’s Dylan Wells. (link)
Crenshaw’s comments come after McCarthy failed to win the House speakership in a fourth, fifth and sixth vote. Representative Victoria Spartz (R-Indiana) voted “present,” moving her support of McCarthy away from her position in prior ballots.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election House democrats led by Nancy Pelosi directed a national pantomime from Washington DC that extremists were running amok and terrorizing congress. The January 6 Committee was intended to further establish that narrative.
Pelosi called up the national guard, put fences and barbed wire around congress then installed metal detectors, all as part of the theater for manufacturing the domestic violent extremist narrative. The media engineered the supportive narrative and the ridiculous pantomime continued throughout the past two years. However, as congress now changes hands and republicans take control, the fences are taken down and the metal detectors are being removed.
Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert highlights the return of normalcy. {Direct Rumble Link} WATCH:
However, against the backdrop of revelations from the Twitter Files where the intelligence apparatus, Dept of Homeland Security and FBI were part of the government operation to influence public opinion, the possibility of an FBI inspired and coordinated attack against the Capitol is now more likely than previous.
The House of Representatives failed to elect a House Speaker through three rounds of voting. Approximately 20 members of the Republican conference will not vote for Kevin McCarthy, as a result there is a stalemate. The Republican caucus requested adjournment until noon tomorrow, Wednesday January 4th.
Essentially Kevin McCarthy needs to: (1) step aside and accept he will not be Speaker, or (2) continue the House voting in futility, or (3) find a way to convince the Republican holdouts to support him.
“They’re just not into you Kevin”…
This has happened before, just not in the modern political era. The holdouts want Jim Jordan to accept the Speaker position.
Don’t get defrosted, worried or overly attached to any outcome. This is simply the way our system was designed.
The House of Representatives continues efforts to elect a Speaker of the House. Republican candidate Kevin McCarthy failed in his first-round effort on the floor in dramatic fashion. A group of conservatives blocked his path amid one of the smallest GOP House majorities in history. Democrat Hakeem Jeffries had the highest overall number of votes, but still not enough to become speaker.
As noted by Politico, “In a stunning moment of chaos on the first day of the new Congress, McCarthy and his allies will now attempt to quell the revolt, preparing members to take repeated votes as pressure mounts from their colleagues. It will mark only the second time since the Civil War that a party will need multiple attempts to choose its leader on the House floor — with all business in the chamber, even the swearing-in of members, halted until a speaker is chosen.”
Voting continues, video below. UPDATE After Three Failed Votes, the House is adjourned until noon tomorrow:
Republican house member Matt Gaetz delivered a fiery speech in opposition to Republican candidate for Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.
Florida Representative Matt Gaetz nominates Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, and then gives a blistering critique of California Representative Kevin McCarthy as a selfish, self-centered political sellout who will do anything to gain power and then undermine the Republican caucus he claims to represent. WATCH:
.
Ohio Representative Jim Jordan’s speech to the House of Representatives is below:
The Republican battle for Speaker of the House of Representatives continues with multiple factions competing for influence. The sausage making inside the GOPe conference is doing what that sausage makers in the GOPe conference always do. There’s a lot of opposition to Kevin McCarthy and the vast majority of it is well deserved.
Yes, the swamp is doing swampy things, and yes, it’s a hot mess. But that’s also what happens in a two-party congress within a constitutional republic where members from very different states end up arguing for position based on an ideology that varies wildly. Notice that if you get rid of the two-party system, all of this stuff seemingly evaporates. Funny how the people who construct the two-party system don’t want us to notice that.
In this video, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a representative who supports the MAGA agenda and Kevin McCarthy for speaker, calls out some of the well-known voices in the GOPe apparatus who are doing swampy things. WATCH:
.
I would suggest not getting emotionally invested in any of this internecine arguing. If you have let your congressional representative know your expectation, the only thing we can do is watch it play out.
It’s almost painful to go to the grocery store today, not just because the prices for everything are so high, but also because seeing the stress amid the working-class shopping is palpable. Unfortunately, while we may have a momentary plateau on current pricing, there’s a strong possibility another wave of higher prices is yet to come.
At the core of the issue are energy prices which continue to rise. The immediate cycle of energy price hikes, a direct consequence of political policy, has lessened somewhat and we are now in that slow tick upward as the pressure on oil, gas, heating and electricity prices continues.
Michael Burry, famous for his predictions in/around the U.S. housing market, is noticing the same thing as CTH. “Inflation peaked. But it is not the last peak of this cycle,”he said. “We are likely to see CPI lower, possibly negative in 2H 2023, and the US in recession by any definition. Fed will cut and government will stimulate. And we will have another inflation spike. It’s not hard.”
Peak demand side inflation is long in the rearview mirror, but the peak of supply side inflation is questionable at best – I would say it’s a plateau, not a peak.
The price of goods, including industrialized and processed raw materials from China are going to increase again – and simultaneously become less consistent in availability. This is going to make prices extremely volatile in 2023.
Essentially, everything around price is tenuous as the western economies absorb the full impact of this Build Back Better energy policy, and into this foray comes China with production and processing challenges as a result of COVID bubbles being removed. We are seeing this problem right now in the pharmaceutical industry and with ordinary medicines becoming scarcer on store shelves.
The New Year brings a look of forward-looking economic perspectives from major financial institutions. Unfortunately, if the perspective of Bank of America Chief Economist Michael Gapen is reflective of the larger institutional analysis, the financial pretending is anticipated to continue.
[Side Note: Notice how they will all start talking about ‘deglobalization’ in 2023. There’s a reason for that that I will touch on in the IMF interview to follow]
Appearing on Face the Nation Gapen accurately indicates the U.S. housing market is already in a steep economic recession, housing prices falling rapidly with a considerable amount of distance to go (-30% range), and the overall housing market will likely be in this situation for around two years. On a macro level the Bank of America indicators line up with the general housing trajectory. From a lending standpoint, Gapen would have specific insight.
Beyond the housing sector, Mr. Gapen starts to get sketchy. He anticipates inflation taking 24 to 36 months to lower to the norm 2% range. That is generally in line with CTH expectations; however, nowhere in the analysis does Gapen even mention energy costs and the overall impact to the economy from energy policy. You will note this absence will be present in almost all financial punditries. Mentioning “energy policy’ as a cause of economic pain is a third rail amid his peer group; it is simply not permitted.
Astute readers will note the great financial and economic pretending that surrounds the Build Back Better and Green New Deal climate change agenda will not be discussed by anyone, ever. The massive price impacts, the supply side inflation pressures, are baked into the western global economic outlooks. It is strictly verboten to talk about climate change policy being stopped, modified, reversed or even, well, gasp, removed. WATCH:
[TRANSCRIPT] – […] BANK OF AMERICA CHIEF ECONOMIST MICHAEL GAPEN: Happy New Year as well. Thank you for having me on.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, a majority of voters polled by The Wall Street Journal say that the economy is going to look and feel worse in 2023. What is your forecast?
GAPEN: So I think that’s probably true. I think we’re in a situation where the risk of recession is high, may not be a deep and prolonged one. But we’re in a situation where the economy has recovered very rapidly from- from COVID, and it’s come with a lot of inflation. And the Federal Reserve is trying to slow down the economy, to bring inflation down. And in the past, more often than not, that’s coincided with some sort of recession in the US economy and the U.S. labor market. It’s not baked in. It’s not for certain. We may be able to avoid it, but I would agree that the outlook by most people who sit in the position that I do think 2023 could be a difficult year for the U.S..
MARGARET BRENNAN: So we may be able to avoid recession?
