US House Of Representatives

The 80th Congress (1947-1949) Vs. The 118th Congress (2023- )

admin Leave a comment

It has often been claimed that the 80th Congress (1947-1949) under President Harry Truman was unproductive, or as Truman claimed it in his 1948 Presidential campaign, a “Do Nothing” Congress.

While it is true that the Republican dominated 80th Congress worked against Democratic President Truman and his “Fair Deal” proposals, most notably passing the anti Labor Taft-Hartley Act over the President’s veto, in reality a lot was accomplished in that Congress.

The following actions were accomplished:

The Truman Doctrine
The Taft-Hartley Act
The Presidential Succession Act
The National Security Act–including the Defense Department at the Pentagon in Virginia, the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, separate Department of the Air Force, and the Central Intelligence Agency
The Marshall Plan
22nd Amendment to the US Constitution

At the same time, NOTHING significant has been passed into law in the present first session of the 118th Congress, making it the least productive in modern times since the Great Depression 1931-1933 72nd Congress, split between a Democratic House of Representatives and Republican Senate under President Herbert Hoover!

Republican Speakers Of The House: From Bad To Disastrous!

admin Leave a comment

The Republican Party has gone from bad to disastrous in their choosing of Speakers of the House in the past thirty years.

Dennis Hastert, the longest serving Republican Speaker in American history, eight years, from 1999-2007, seemed reasonable, but later was tried and convicted as a sex offender of teenage boys, and served time in prison, becoming the highest ranked elected official in American history to serve a prison sentence.

From 2011-2015, John Boehner served as Speaker, and got mixed reviews, as a major decline in reputation as compared to Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who served from 2007-2011, and later from 2019-2023. Boehner made it his mission to do everything possible to block President Barack Obama in any way imaginable.

Paul Ryan succeeded Boehner from late 2015-2019, and is considered to have been worse than Boehner.

Then, Kevin McCarthy became Speaker in 2023 after 15 ballots, and ended up serving only nine plus months, as he was voted out by his Republican caucus, and is considered to have been worse than any of his Republican predecessors.

And now, we have Mike Johnson, who is a religious extremist, rejects science and facts, and has proved to be a Donald Trump lackey, after having refused to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the Presidential Election of 2020.

The idea that these men were and are two heartbeats away from the Presidency is terrifying, and they make Nancy Pelosi stand out as one of the top few Speakers of the House in all of American history!

Disillusionment Over “Centrist Republicans” Who Voted To Promote Impeachment Inquiry Of Joe Biden Without A Scintilla Of Evidence!

admin Leave a comment

We have been told that there are “moderate” or “centrist” Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This includes Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and the 17 members from Biden won districts in 2020 in New York, California, New Jersey, and elsewhere, who are members of the “Problem Solvers Caucus”, and supposedly have an “open mind”!

This group supposedly represented bipartisanship, and yet they went ahead and, unanimously, voted to start an impeachment inquiry on President Joe Biden without a scintilla of evidence of any impeachment offenses, doing this to please the corrupt, twice impeached, four times indicted for 91 counts, former President Donald Trump!

If only eight or more of this group had done the right thing, refuse to support a phony resolution, Joe Biden would not be facing an impeachment inquiry! He is a good and decent man who has done nothing to deserve this action!

So the idea that one can “trust” the fairness of these Republicans has been blown up, and it means total “war” on the Republicans in Congress is essential, as they have all become cult followers of an authoritarian Fascist who is declaring his intention openly to establish a dictatorship if he is reelected to the Oval Office next November!

Joe Biden and the Democrats must now drop the idea of cooperation and follow the strategy of Harry Truman in 1948–GIVE THEM HELL–against the Republican Party in Congress and its Presidential nominee!

118th Congress Least Productive Since Great Depression 72nd Congress!

admin Leave a comment

The 118th Congress (2023-2025) is fast becoming the least productive since the 72nd Congress (1931-1933) under President Herbert Hoover at the worst times of the Great Depression.

Both the House of Representatives and US Senate are responsible for such poor performance, but clearly, if the House of Representatives is poorly organized and operated, the Senate cannot make up for it.

Both Congresses had one house Democratic, and one Republican, which also caused stalemate and gridlock.

The fact that the House of Representatives Republican majority has just voted an Impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, with zero evidence of such abuse of power, is a sign of how incompetent and hopeless the 118th Congress is, even with a small Democratic majority in the US Senate.

Clearly, the most productive Congresses have been when one party, in all modern times Democrats, has had a vast advantage in the number of seats in both houses of Congress.

So those most productive Congresses were, chronologically:

63rd Congress (1913-1915) under Woodrow Wilson
73rd Congress (1933-1935) under Franklin D. Roosevelt
74th Congress (1935-1937) under Franklin D. Roosevelt
89th Congress (1965-1967) under Lyndon B. Johnson
111th Congress (2009-2011) under Barack Obama

The most productive of all were the 73rd Congress under FDR, and the 89th Congress under LBJ.

Antisemitism On University Campuses, Elise Stefanik, And Donald Trump

admin Leave a comment

The weak response of University Presidents toward antisemitism on their campuses (as at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania) is reprehensible, and it is essential that all universities and colleges take this expression of hatred seriously.

However, the fact that New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who went from being a moderate to being a full scale MAGA Republican in support of Donald Trump, gained attention for being the member of Congress to confront university Presidents, should not be dramatized, and she should not be praised and applauded for her hypocritical stunt!

Stefanik is all but willing to accept all of the criminal acts and statements of Donald Trump, and she has nothing to say about Trump consorting with antisemites on a regular basis!

One must not forget that Trump hosted Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, well known and notorious antisemites, at Mar a Lago, and has himself embraced many other rightwing hatemongers of all stripes.

Stefanik refused to accept the Electoral College results in 2020, and is only too willing to accept any lies and deception of Donald Trump, so consider her “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, not to be trusted or applauded!

Goodbye And Good Riddance To Kevin McCarthy!

admin Leave a comment

Former briefly Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is quitting Congress at the end of this year, not fulfilling the commitment to finish his 9th term in the lower chamber.

This is not surprising, as Kevin McCarthy has spent his House career seeking power, and being aggressive and nasty toward critics in both parties.

His Speakership was brief and disastrous, and he leaves with a chip on his shoulder, and planning to work to defeat his Republican critics.

His 17 years in the House showed no principle, no decency, no concern about those in his California district or nationally, who had difficult lives.

He was an example of the worst elements of selfishness and greed imaginable, and will not be missed!

His leaving, and the expulsion of George Santos, leaves only a two seat margin for the Republicans, so the party could, in theory, lose their majority sometime in 2024 before the next elections!

The Horrible Potential Candidates For Trump Vice Presidential Choice!

admin 1 Comment

Speculation has begun for potential Vice Presidential running mates for Donald Trump, if he goes on to be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2024.

The emphasis is on race and gender, which is odd for Republicans who wish to deemphasize such factors, but a list has been drawn up that has individuals who would be, despite their race or gender, horrendous, and a danger to the nation if any of them were a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

They include:

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott
New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Florida Congressman Byron Donalds
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene

Also mentioned are former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is fast becoming the major alternative to Trump; and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Those two and Kristi Noem and Tim Scott are the “best’ of a horrible lot, with the other five truly nightmare choices!

Trump has degraded the Presidency, and now seems likely to be ready to degrade the office of the Vice Presidency!

George Santos Becomes 6th House Member In History To Be Expelled!

admin 2 Comments

In a surprise, nearly half of the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives joined with Democrats to expel George Santos of New York, only the 6th case in American history, and without a conviction in a criminal case as of yet.

No defense of Santos, who was a disgrace from Day One, but one wonders if this opens up the idea of future expulsions without legal convictions as a factor.

In any case, it makes the Republican majority in the House of Representatives one less than before, and with a strong likelihood of the Democrats picking up what had been a Democratic seat before the midterm Congressional elections of 2022!

Congressman George Santos Likely To Be Expelled From NY House Seat

Ronald 2 Comments

Republican Congressman George Santos is in danger of being expelled from his New York House seat.

This would be a very rare result, as only 20 members of Congress in all of American history, 15 in the Senate and 5 in the House of Representatives, have been voted out by two thirds of their colleagues.

All but three were expelled due to their support of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

A few who have been threatened with explusion have resigned instead.

The proper thing would be for Santos to resign, but it looks as if he is not about to do so, despite having brought disgrace on the House of Representatives.

We shall see very soon whether Santos joins a very short list of expelled members!

Threat Presented By Third Party And Independent Presidential Candidates In 2024

Ronald 1 Comment

The possibility of third party or independent Presidential candidates affecting the election results in the Presidential Election of 2024 is real.

While no such candidate could win the Presidency, they could determine whether President Joe Biden or Donald Trump or any alternative Republican Presidential nominee wins the White House.

Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips is challenging Joe Biden in Democratic primaries, as is Marianne Williamson, but they are highly unlikely to have any impact, other than as an annoyance.

But Independent candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr; Cornel West; Jill Stein on the Green Party line; and the No Labels Movement, with a potential nominee in Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, could derail election results and lead to major election issues.