#mccarthy hearings

[citizenscreen]

“Have you no sense of decency?”

Joseph Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, asked that question of Sen. Joseph McCarthy marking the end of McCarthy’s power during the anticommunist hysteria of the Red Scare in America. #OnThisDay

[thenewdemocratus]

Arpa Keun: McCarthyism in America

. Source:The New Democrat  McCarthyism in America deserves at least one long blog and probably several of them. But to give you a summary of McCarthyism. It was about one U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Joe McCarthy who was anti-communist to the point that he didn’t believe democracy or liberal democracy could survive in the United States with any link to it. Especially inside the United States…

[shitpostroundhouse]

[dorykinny]

It’s so annoying that Ghostbusters 2016 flopped because it’s such a good movie, and the only reason it flopped is because “4 female ghostbusters? The feminists are taking over!”

Like there are only 2 significant men in that movie, one is the villain, and one is sexualised like a female character in that position would be.

The effects are amazing, the acting and writing is great, and the cast is *chefs kiss* like who hired Kate KcKinnon to be the iconic lesbian Holtzman? Because they need a raise.

People are just mad that this movie is for the girls and the gays. The lead characters are all women, and the one guy who isn’t a villain is Chris Hemsworth acting as a stupid bimbo.

[pomeraniandancer]

Every time someone mentions McCarthy I'm always like "Wait, which McCarthy are we talking about?" And saying "the one who was in Congress" doesn't narrow it down, because all the ones I'm thinking of *were in Congress*. "Stupid Republican" or "that lying bastard" doesn't narrow it down much either. It's like, yeah, okay, that knocks one possibility down, but there are still at least two possibilities left, y'know?

Now that he's gone, it's clear that what was wrong with Kevin McCarthy was that he didn't believe pretty much anything he said.

Now that he's here, it's clear that what is wrong with Mike Johnson is that he *does* believe pretty much everything he says.

[appropriatelystupid]

what would you do if they never found us out? what would you do if we never made a sound?

[xdevilrushx]

Progress.

[3584-tropical-fish]

Yeah man I’m sure that’s a great story to tell this guy. Certainly it won’t have any future consequences

[baronetcoins]

So. The US has a speaker of the house(*). If you've seen the memes floating around for the past few days, you might find yourself wondering: how did that happen? Buckle in folks, this was a bit of a ride.

(*) for now

When we last left our... main characters, Kevin McCarthy had failed an 11th ballot to be elected speaker, down 20 Republican votes when he could afford a maximum of five defectors. The house then voted to adjourn until 12 eastern time on January 6th. Overnight, some deals happened, because for the first time since day 1 there was a significant movement in votes. Round 12 saw 14 of the representatives who had previously been defectors voted for McCarthy—not enough to give him the speakership (lmao, imagine?), but enough to prove his chances of victory weren't entirely dead. Important for later, three representatives were absent—Ken Buck (R-Colorado), Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), and David Trone (D-Maryland).

Round 13 went much the same in actual voter count, with one more of the never-Kevins peeling off to vote for McCarthy, though it was the first round in which there was not another republican candidate formally nominated. Trone came out of his voluntary surgery to vote for Hakeem Jeffries, and there was a motion to adjourn so the republican caucus could continue haggling, which passed. Setting the house up to reconvene at 10 pm eastern time, and some of the most dramatic hours we've seen in this whole glorious train wreck.

Signs suggested Kevin was feeling good—when asked why he felt confident he had the votes to clinch this, he responded "because I count." Two of the more notorious never-Kevins (Boebert and Gaetz) seemed open to negotiating. The press reported Buck and Hunt would be returning for the evening vote. A cart loaded with giant boxes of Five Guys burgers rolled into the speaker's office.

The hours pass. 10 pm rolls around, and the air is thick with anticipation. The house chaplain offers a prayer in which she suggests the gridlock may finally be over. Patrick McHenry (R-North Carolina) gives a nominating speech for McCarthy with not one but two jokes that fell extraordinarily flat, all the while wearing a bow tie.

Now, the votes for speaker are conducted as roll call votes. The poor, probably underpaid, long-suffering house clerk reads off the name of each representative in alphabetical order, then goes through a second time calling the name of any representative who didn't vote the first time. This takes... a while, but what it means is that when you know who's vote to watch, you spend a while in anticipation of that person's name being called, listening to the alphabet.

The other thing to understand, as this gets deep into the weeds, is a little more of the nuts and bolts of how the count works. The speaker of the house is elected by a majority of the votes cast—that is to say, the number of representatives-elect who vote for a name instead of not voting or voting present, divided by half, plus one.

M = [ (# reps elect - # of reps elect not voting - # of reps elect voting present)/2 ] + 1

The US House, while normally filled with 435 reps, currently has 434, due to one death. 212 of those are democrats, the remainder are republicans. If all 434 vote, the threshold for a majority is 218 (434/2, +1). If, say, two members vote present and everyone else votes, the threshold is 217.

The remaining detractors were Biggs, Boebert, Crane, Gaetz, Good, and Rosendale. Biggs, first on the list, voted for a non-Kevin guy, Jordan. Boebert, second in line, voted present. This was a difference that got audible applause from the chamber. For one brief, beautiful, shining moment, it seemed like we might have a resolution. And then Crane votes for Biggs, which. Fine. Kevin can spare a few losses. And then, Gaetz doesn't. vote. Not voting present, which is a different thing. He just lets the first round skip him. Good votes for Jordan. Rosendale votes for Biggs. At which point, the math is as follows. 434 congresspeople, 432 votes, 217 to win. McCarthy has 216 votes. It all comes down to Gaetz: if he votes for McCarthy, Kevin wins. Anything else, and we're doing this again.

Gaetz. Votes. Present.

At first, this gets cheers and claps. And I look at my mom, who's watching the vote with me, and wonder "what the fuck?" The reaction makes me doubt my math. The floor is in chaos. Pretty quickly, it seems people realize that McCarthy is not, in fact, speaker of the house. Kevin runs back towards Gaetz and starts "negotiating" (fig 1)

Fig. 1: things get heated

A democrat heckles from the distance, yelling "On your knees!" To Kevin as he approached Gaetz. There are calls for order. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, has to be physically dragged away from Gaetz (fig 2)

Fig. 2: lol, and furthermore, lmao

All this, followed by a motion to adjourn until Monday that at first appears to be successful, until Kevin runs to the front to tell members to change their votes. It appears a deal has been struck—and ballot 15 proves it. All the remaining holdouts vote present, lowering the threshold to 215, and allowing Kevin's 216 votes to take him over the line. Truly, our long national nightmare has come to a middle.

What does this mean? Probably bad things. The rules package and committee assignments are yet to be formalized (that'll come on Monday), but expect the house ""freedom"" caucus to be more or less running the show (*) (*pending a long and bloody battle over the rules, which is, IMO, still on the table).

I could go through the speeches, but it's 2:30 am and I've got a flight tomorrow so I would literally Rather Perish so instead, to conclude, i'll leave you with this.

(3: source)

[mourntomidnight]

I’m begging the Anton Chigurh girlies to watch Fargo produced by the Coen brothers has a great cast great representation of women poc and just indigenous ppl in general but most of all a lot of the shows hit men are literally fifty shades of Anton Chigurh.

Like we have:

Fruitloop Anton

Native Anton

And Non-binary Anton who has the most precious most wholesome ending with the pro tags of season 5 like fuck what the fuck

[foreverknightalways]

Flashback: Chicago, Illinois, 1954:

Nicholas declares, Accusations totally without merit. The committee member says, Are you implying that the other members of the faculty were lying, Mr. Girard? Perhaps the committee should have their names. Nicholas answers, No, I never said anything about lying. All I'm saying is that there has clearly been a misinterpretation of the facts. The committee member says, Then, Mr. Girard, just answer the question.

[minecrussy]

‘It’s against company policy to discount baby food for any reason’ suck my shit hard from the back you cop ass cunt

[writingwhilecaffeinated]

So I just saw live-action The Little Mermaid, and I actually loved it???!!!

First off, truly, Halle Bailey as Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula were PERFECTION!! And Daveed Diggs as Sebastian had all the best lines, he stole the show.

I like the bits they added and rounded to talk about Mermaid powers and specifically what a siren song means to them and how it works. I thought that was a nice touch.

I also thought they did succeed in rounding out Eric’s character a little bit, it was a nice touch that gave him more character. It helps that Jonah Hauer-King is very expressive, and I couldn’t help but root for the love story. They had nice chemistry, it was super sweet and built on similar interests.

The songs were still amazing. While not like the animated feature in terms of being bombastic, I think for the tone they were going for it was lovely. Yes, I’m pretty easy to please. But I think they made just enough subtle changes and additions that this live action adaptation worked a lot better than the others.

And if I’m being honest, I want some peeps to write some fanfic for this Little Mermaid universe! There’s a lot to explore! And I’m being selfish…

[essektheylyss]

Really hilarious that we're gonna now see takes like, "Finally, a functioning government!" because oh fucking boy, does THAT remain to be seen.

[whitestnoise]

(x)

[slutdge]

God i cant stop thinking abt my dilfy high school english teacher whomst i would hang out with to talk abt books and movies on my lunch period bc i had no friends and after i very dramatically explained to him one time that i was upset i couldnt see the melvins live that upcoming weekend he sarcastically told me i should join the school's shakespeare society *dreamy sigh*