Chaos in Congress

[N.E. Brigand]

So what do we think the big Russian space secret is? Something like the Three-Body Problem? Has Vladimir Putin invited an alien civilization to invade the earth?

Wait, is it Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk who have partnered with alien invaders?

Darn. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (Democrat of Florida) says it's not about aliens.

[N.E. Brigand]

Surely there would have been less alarming ways for Republican Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio to inform his colleagues in the House that the U.S. now assesses that Russia is making concrete plans to put nuclear weapons in orbit (with the capability of destroying satellites) than to send them all a cryptic message warning about a "national security threat" pertaining to a "destabilizing foreign military capability".

I don't know Turner's position on funding for Ukraine. I could see someone using this news either to argue that Russia is so dangerous that Ukraine must be funded to defend against them or to argue that funding Ukraine's defense of Russia may have become too risky because of what Russia might do to our satellites in response.

[N.E. Brigand]

And the stupidest impeachment ever just happened: by a vote of 214-213, Republicans have voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, for nothing. All 214 yes votes were cast by Republicans. The same three Republicans as last week joined 210 Democrats in voting no. Two Democrats and two Republicans each didn't vote, and there are currently four vacancies. Mayorkas will easily be acquitted in the Senate.

Huh. The guy who was in charge of this effort was Rep. Mark Green, Republican of Tennessee and Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. Just yesterday, Green was asked: if Sec. Mayorkas were to be removed from office (which isn't going to happen), was Green concerned that President Biden would appoint a successor who was no more to Republicans' liking? Green replied, "Of course I am, but if that person doesn't do his job well, we will impeach his ass too."

Which makes this news broken by Jake Sherman and Mica Soellner of Punchbowl all the more amusing:

"Mark Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will retire at the end of this Congress. Green is in his first term atop the committee. He is the fourth Republican committee chair to forgo reelection in 2024."

Green says, "I promised my constituents to pass legislation to secure our borders and to hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable," and he says he's now done those things. But the legislation to which he refers (H.R. 2, the "Secure the Border Act of 2023") is never going to become law, and Sec. Mayorkas is going to be acquitted in the Senate and keep his job!

[Frelga]

I dunno, but Tucker was last seen wearing a traditional Buryat costume, and managing to look like a right pillock despite the costume being objectively gorgeous.

Buryats are an ethnic group native to Siberia that saw so many men conscripted to fight in Ukraine that some called this an attempt at genocide (a word that gets thrown around far too easily these days, I feel).

[N.E. Brigand]

Surely there would have been less alarming ways for Republican Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio to inform his colleagues in the House that the U.S. now assesses that Russia is making concrete plans to put nuclear weapons in orbit (with the capability of destroying satellites) than to send them all a cryptic message warning about a "national security threat" pertaining to a "destabilizing foreign military capability".

I don't know Turner's position on funding for Ukraine. I could see someone using this news either to argue that Russia is so dangerous that Ukraine must be funded to defend against them or to argue that funding Ukraine's defense of Russia may have become too risky because of what Russia might do to our satellites in response.

If this is indeed what Russia intends, it would violate a 1967 treaty.

[Dave_LF]

“House Republicans warn of national security threat related to Russia” is a heck of a headline

[N.E. Brigand]

"Who Is Konstantin Nikolaev? Putin Ally Behind Mike Johnson Campaign Donation."

That's in Newsweek, whose reliability over the past ten years has been very hit-and-miss. I've seen it shared by several generally trustworthy online commentators. But it's worth emphasizing that the article says Johnson's campaign returned this 2018 donation once Nikolaev's role was clear.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the Senate Minority Leader, will announce today that he will step down from the leadership position in November, although he will remain in the Senate through the expiration of his current term in January 2027. He became a Senator in 1985 and has led Senate Republicans since 2007.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Wow, I had not seen that. That is big news.

[N.E. Brigand]

It's just amazing to read all the comments on various platforms from Trump supporters who loathe McConnell. They are clueless about the fact that if not for two things that Mitch McConnell did in 2016, Donald Trump probably wouldn't have been elected president:

1. McConnell refused to allow President Obama to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

2. McConnell not only refused to sign on to a joint statement noting that U.S. intelligence had determined that Russia was interfering in the 2016 election, but he said that if it were released as written, he would denounce it as an attempt to help Hillary Clinton. So it got watered down when it was released on Oct. 7th. (And it was quickly buried by two other pieces of news: the Access Hollywood tape was published a half-hour later, and Wikileaks started releasing John Podesta's emails a few hours after that.)

[N.E. Brigand]

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Indiana) says that Mitch McConnell should close his eyes and think of Kentucky.

[N.E. Brigand]

Yesterday it emerged that one of the gifts that Nadine Arslanian (then Sen. Menendez's fiancee) received in 2018 was a $60,000 Mercedes...

...to replace the car that Arslanian had been driving when she struck and killed a man.

Jose Uribe today pleaded guilty to bribing Sen. Bob Menendez by, in part, giving Menendez's wife a free Melan--uh, I mean, Mercedes. Uribe has agreed to testify.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

bribing Sen. Bob Menendez by, in part, giving Menendez's wife a free Melan--uh, I mean, Mercedes. Uribe has agreed to testify.

Good one.

[N.E. Brigand]

Yesterday it emerged that one of the gifts that Nadine Arslanian (then Sen. Menendez's fiancee) received in 2018 was a $60,000 Mercedes ... to replace the car that Arslanian had been driving when she struck and killed a man.

Jose Uribe today pleaded guilty to bribing Sen. Bob Menendez by, in part, giving Menendez's wife a free Mercedes. Uribe has agreed to testify.

CNN: "Sen. Bob Menendez hit with new conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges. Among the twelve new charges in the superseding indictment are conspiracy, obstruction of justice, public official acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud. Menendez had faced four counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, and conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent. The new charges add the underlying so-called substantive crimes to the conspiracy charges."

[N.E. Brigand]

There are nominally twelve federal budgets that must be passed each year, each covering a different portion of the government. These are often passed together as an omnibus bill. The House of Representatives yesterday passed a "minibus," a partial omnibus bill that would fund six of the twelve through the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30th: Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Transportation, and Veterans' Affairs. (Yes, that's more than six; some of these are lumped together.) It's $450 billion and moves to the Senate, who needs to approve it and have President Biden sign by Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The successful vote means the House is halfway done with the appropriations process for fiscal 2024, an undertaking that has fractured the GOP conference, thrown Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) into hot water with his right flank, and required four short-term extensions to arrive at the current juncture.

The tougher spending fight, however, lies ahead.

The remaining six government funding bills — which fund thornier areas such as the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services — are due on March 22, and top appropriators say those measures will be more difficult to get over the finish line.

Yesterday's bill is the one about which Speaker Johnson boasted that Republicans had cut funding to the Dept. of Justice, FBI, ATF, and Environmental Protection Agency. Despite those cuts meant to please conservatives, the bill would not have passed without Democratic support: the vote was 339-85, with almost all Democrats (207) but only a little more than half of Republicans (132) voting yes. (It needed 213 votes to pass.)

The bill includes $12 billion in "earmarks," which is funding not required for those departments but added by members in support of their districts or pet projects. And among the members who voted against the bill, there are 40 Republicans (like Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado) who nonetheless got their earmarks into it and will be boasting to their constituents about how they brought home funding they didn't vote for.

- - - - - - - - - -
Edited to note another Republican claiming undue credit: Rep. Mike Garcia of California boasting about a "cancer-screening mobile van [as] a perfect example that can be done when Congress and community partners find real solutions to real problems." Yep, he voted against that.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The bizarre process of passing short-term budgets for the government in two steps began last year after the craziness of the ousting of Speaker McCarthy and the eventual elevation of Speaker Johnson. I still don't understand what Johnson or the Republicans think they accomplished by simply making the process that much more convoluted. Hopefully, when the rest is funded it will be funded to the same date (9/30) so that particularly craziness can be put to bed. But I wouldn't bet on it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

You really can't make this shit up. (Just to be clear, this link is to an article in the NY Times, not the Onion)

George Santos Says He’s Running for Congress Again

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile the House has been contemplating a bill that would require TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese company or no longer operate in the U.S.

Some Representatives on the large relevant committee were on the fence.

Then TikTok users bombarded House members with phone calls saying that TikTok was their whole life. One person said he'd kill himself if TikTok were shut down.

That was a bad strategy by the company, which of course was behind the push. The concern in Congress is that a Chinese company has too much influence on American users. Having desperate users tell you they can't live without the company won't dispel that concern!

The committee voted 50-0 today to advance the bill to the House floor.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I was surprised to learn that the Energy and Commerce Committee has 50 members!

[Dave_LF]

If they're truly concerned about Chinese companies having too much influence over Americans' lives, maybe they should start with manufacturing instead of social media.