Thursday News & Notes
NOVEMBER 18, 2021 -- PEOPLES TEMPLE FOUNDER JIM JONES LEADS JONESTOWN, GUYANA MASS SUICIDE, 'DRINKING THE KOOL-AID', 1978
•President Biden will host the first “Three Amigos” summit since 2016 at the White House today, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
•Biden has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether retail gas and natural gas prices are being manipulated by Big Oil. ‘Unfinished’ gas costs are decreasing while gasoline prices at the pump are up 60% from a year ago (Marketplace).
•Not political, thankfully, but worth noting: The longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years may be viewed anywhere in North America, beginning 1:02 a.m. EST Friday/10:02 PST tonight and runs three hours, 28 minutes and 24 seconds.
House Censures Gosar – That Rep. Paul Gosar, R-AZ, was censured by the House of Representatives 223 for and 207 against (with one being “present”) should come as no surprise. As there were only two Republican members — Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — who joined the Democrats in punishing Gosar for posting a video showing an anime video of him killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and threatening the president is also not surprising.
What is surprising is how the GOP — once the party that was arguably the “grown-up” party, standing for things like morality and responsibility -- has become the Party Without Shame.
Here’s a simple metric: remember the book that came out some years ago titled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Let’s apply author Robert Fulghum’s metric to the behavior of the Republicans in this instance.
First, there is Gosar. Unrepentant for that video. Is this behavior that should be supported in children: “Here’s a picture of me killing Johnny: Whaddaya think, Mom?”
There is the claim that his staff posted it and he didn’t. Where is the taking of responsibility? “I didn’t make Sally do, it, Dad, she just did it herself. Yes, I gave her some money. But I didn’t do it.”
There is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowing revenge. “You just wait, Billy. I’m gonna get you real bad.” How is that laudable?
Being a grown-up is hard.
Clearly the Republicans are no longer interested in doing hard things. Like taking responsibility and holding a higher moral standard.
It has become the party that would flunk kindergarten.
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Meanwhile, Democrats Fail Math – Latest on President Biden’s Build Back Better social infrastructure program is that the House could take up a vote as early as today or Friday (believe it when you see it). “If there’s any chance of preserving their majority,” Punchbowl News says, referring to the midterms now less than a year away, “House Democrats will have to get BBB passed and on to the Senate. They will deal with whatever is sent back their way.”
Note: Remember when progressive House Democrats, backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, held bipartisan infrastructure hostage, saying they wouldn’t vote for the bill until BBB was passed along with it, which of course requires backing from Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, and, oh by the way, we should nearly double that to $6 trillion? If the House had passed bipartisan infrastructure in September, the progs would have had these last two months, and potentially some goodwill from bipartisan infrastructure, to sort out the social programs bill.
Prediction: “Whatever is sent back” will be a reduction from $1.75 trillion to Manchin’s ceiling of $1.5 trillion, if it’s sent back to the House at all.
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January 6 Tourist Sentenced to 41 Months – Jacob Hensley, the spear-carrying January 6 Capitol insurrectionist seen all over cable news with a horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint, was sentenced to 41 months in prison Wednesday after pleading “guilty” to felony charges of obstructing an official proceeding, the AP reports. Hensley, of Arizona, was one of the first to enter the Capitol and has received the longest sentence so far among 38 rioters prosecuted.
“I have no excuse, no excuse whatsoever,” Hensley told the judge. “My behavior is indefensible.” (So was his attire on January 6.) His attorney had tried to get Hensley credit for the 10 months he has spent in jail over the case.
Note: Meanwhile, former Trump campaign advisor Steve Bannon has pleaded not guilty to criminal contempt of Congress charges and is free (though he had to give up his passport to federal authorities) to continue posting his fiery pro-MAGA podcasts (CNN).
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One More from the House of Kindergarten – Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, “would probably make a good congressional intern,” Rep. Max Gaetz, R-FL, told Newsmax Wednesday, according to The Washington Post, which has apparently found a reporter willing to stomach the pro-Trump cable “news” outlet. Yes, that Kyle Rittenhouse, who faces potential life in prison if he’s found guilty of homicide in the fatal shooting of two people in last year’s Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests. Of course, upon his arrest (when he was still 17), Rittenhouse quickly became a hero on extremist outlets. The jury in his trial began their third day of deliberations today.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash