Tag: US Congress

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

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Joe Biden Quits the Race and Endorses Kamala Harris

In January I’d written about how I found myself “violently disinterested” in this year’s upcoming presidential election.

I’m still cynical about the idea that it matters who’s president when it seems obvious that the country is like a terminal patient waiting to die. In fact, I’m cynical about the idea that it ever mattered who’s president, when it seems obvious that bankers have always run the country. (more…)

Congressman Francis Case (R-South Dakota), 1937-51. Later a US Senator. (Official portrait from Wikipedia)

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One of the most fascinating documents I’ve read in recent months is the proudly-titled “Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives. Eighteenth Congress. First session on the Urgent Deficiency Appropriation Bill for 1947.”

The so-called Subcommittee on Deficiencies consisted of Chairman John Taber (New York), Clarence Cannon (Missouri), Francis Case (South Dakota), Albert J. Engel (Michigan), Frank B. Keefe (Wisconsin), John H. Kerr (North Carolina), George H. Mahon (Texas), Karl Stefan (Nebraska), and Richard B. Wigglesworth (Massachusetts), and it was tasked with the eternal job of governments everywhere: Finding out where the money went and how to get some more. (more…)

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House Passes New “Antisemitism Awareness Act” to Protect America’s Most Underprivileged Group

With the planet ramping up for what may become yet another World War designed to answer the Jewish Question, last week the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved of H. R. 6090, aka the “Antisemitism Awareness Act.” (more…)

Oliver North

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

Iran and the Contras

Ronald Reagan cruised to reelection in 1984 on a good economy and his sunny disposition. (more…)

President Franklin Roosevelt declares war on Japan on December 8, 1941. The Second World War was the last time the United States formally declared war in any conflict.

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Joe Biden ordered a strike on Houthi-controlled northern Yemen in retaliation for Houthi piracy in the Red Sea on January 12, which in turn was Houthi retaliation for United States support for Israel in the ongoing Gaza conflict. This strike consisted of 150 precision-guided munitions and missiles. Five people were killed. (more…)

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A recent poll by the Homeland Institute of white American voters found that support for a national divorce was still relatively low. Only 25.4% of all respondents and 32.2% of Republican respondents agreed at least a little with the concept of a national divorce. (more…)

Claudine Gay

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It would appear that the saga of black female Harvard President Claudine Gay has come to an end with her resignation on January 2. The tale ended as it began: as a farce.

One of the reasons that I find myself incapable of getting too emotionally invested in the matter is the sneaking suspicion that if the President of Harvard is all that important, they never would have appointed a black woman to the position. (more…)

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Oh-oh, yes, I’m the great pretender
Pretending that I’m doing well
My need is such, I pretend too much . . .
— The Platters, “The Great Pretender” (more…)

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After several weeks of not having a Speaker of the House, the GOP have finally settled on a replacement for the deposed Kevin McCarthy. The lucky winner is Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Johnson was first elected to Congress in 2016, which makes him the least experienced Speaker since John G. Carlisle in 1883. (more…)

The US House Select Committee on China meeting earlier this year. The members of the Committee all have one trait in common: none is an expert on China.

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I confess that I am a bad American. Yes, I pay little attention to Congress. Why? Because it seems to me little more than a storefront operation for the powers that count in America: Big Pharma, the military industry, Wall Street, and so on. They make policy. Congress just announces it. Nor do I much read the Constitution, a document in tatters that has little obvious connection to American life. (more…)

You may not be smart or cultured enough to see that this is a statue depicting Martin Luther King and his wife.

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First They Called You a White Supremacist, Then They Came for Your Social-Media Posts

Despite the fact that she has both the face and the intellect of a hippopotamus, Sheila Jackson-Lee has represented the same Congressional district of Texas since the mid-1990s. (more…)

Lawmakers announcing their spending bill for 2023, which determines how $1.7 trillion in US taxpayer dollars will be spent.

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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)

The GOP is furious, apoplectic, red like salmon! Countless Republicans, such as Dan Bishop, have over the past week squirreled away countless hours posting quotes and screenshots of the text from the recently proposed omnibus spending bill, worth some $1.7 trillion. (more…)

At last Congress is stepping up to deal with the real problem plaguing America: the need to protect black people who keep their hair in dreadlocks.

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There’s been a lot going on in the world. The last few years have been a very bumpy ride, and with no signs of abating. Lately, the illegitimate occupant of the White House rapidly undid three and a half decades of progress toward détente with Russia and reignited the Cold War. We have lots of other fine messes, of course: inflation the highest since the Carter Quarters days, turbulence in the stock market, soaring fuel prices, and so forth. A food shortage may possibly be the next engineered crisis. None of that is going to matter much if the mentally incompetent Resident Bidet gets the bright idea to push the Big Red Button, however. (more…)