Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

They actually added rights that had been removed by the previous speaker.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California won his job by bowing to the demands of a group of far-right Republican dissidents to overhaul how the House operates, effectively diluting his own power while increasing theirs.

The protracted floor fight that finally led to his election early on Saturday morning made for a historic and tumultuous start to the 118th Congress, but it was easy to lose sight of why any of it really mattered, beyond the captivating personal and political drama of the week.

Democrats, after all, still control the Senate and the White House. The hard-right group that resisted Mr. McCarthy’s ascent only makes up about 10 percent of the House Republican conference. How big of a problem could the G.O.P. disarray in one chamber of Congress be?

In fact, some of the concessions Mr. McCarthy agreed to would make the practical business of running the House next to impossible. It could be left unable to do basic things like fund the government or finance the federal debt. For the dissidents, that was the point. For the country, it could lead to some grim consequences.

Here is a look at how the House works, and how things could break down.

Who controls the House floor?

The speaker, on behalf of the majority, controls the House floor. The main tool for doing so is the Rules Committee, which sets the terms of legislative debate, including which bills can be considered, for how long and — crucially — what amendments may be offered and by whom.

As part of Mr. McCarthy’s compromise with the dissidents, he agreed to allow the ultraconservative wing of the party approval power over a third of the Republican members of the panel. In effect, that would give the faction the ability to block any legislation it did not like from the floor, by banding together with Democrats on the panel who are all but certain to oppose most Republican bills.

They could also insist on amendments to gut or otherwise stymie legislation they do not like, effectively rigging the process to make it more difficult to pass. That could be particularly dangerous for spending bills and any legislation to raise the federal debt limit.

Mr. McCarthy insisted his caucus would still be able to get things done.

“Don’t judge us on how we start, watch how we finish, and I think by having the disruption now really built the trust with one another and learned how to work together,” he told reporters, adding that he was “1,000 percent” confident that he would hold the speaker job for a two-year term.

What does Congress absolutely have to do?

Republicans, like every new House majority in divided government, have outlined an ambitious legislative agenda that is unlikely to become law while Democrats control the Senate and the White House.

But Congress has a handful of particularly vital tasks to perform: passing a dozen spending bills that keep the government fully funded and raising the statutory borrowing limit that allows the Treasury Department to finance the federal debt. If it cannot pass the funding legislation, the government will shut down. If it cannot increase the debt ceiling, the government could reach its first-ever debt default.

Those tasks were already going to be difficult with a slim Republican majority and an intransigent right-wing faction bent on slashing spending and debt. Mr. McCarthy’s concessions only made them harder — and potentially impossible.

Dissidents won his commitment to open spending bills to unlimited amendments, effectively allowing them unfettered chances to gut or filibuster such legislation with proposed changes. That could make it exceedingly difficult to pass any appropriations measures, which need the approval of both chambers before they can go to the president’s desk.

Republicans also extracted a promise from Mr. McCarthy that any measure to raise the cap on borrowing to finance the federal debt would be accompanied by fiscal reforms, including deep spending cuts, possibly including Social Security and Medicare. The Biden administration and Democrats have said they would never accept such proposals, making a debt showdown highly likely.

Why couldn’t Democrats join with more moderate Republicans to get things done?

There are at least some Republicans who might be inclined to vote for spending bills and a debt ceiling increase, not wanting to see a government shutdown or a debt default, Mr. McCarthy potentially among them. They would have an incentive to work with Democrats on bipartisan deals that could make it through the Senate and to President Biden’s desk.

But in the past couple of decades, Republican speakers have followed an unofficial but hard-and-fast rule — known as the Hastert rule for the former G.O.P. speaker who established it, J. Dennis Hastert — to not put forward any legislation that does not have the support of a majority of the majority.

That means if conservatives are not on board, a bipartisan deal can never see the light of day on the floor.

Still, more pragmatic Republicans — like Representatives Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — have acknowledged the realities of needing to negotiate spending bills with Democratic senators, and suggested they would work to help ensure compromise bills become law.

Can someone overrule the speaker?

As the presiding officer in the House, the speaker has broad power over the floor, including a large degree of control over what motions can be considered and which members are recognized. But the right-wing faction that resisted Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy only dropped its opposition after he agreed to reinstate a rule that gives him almost no room to maneuver.

The provision, known as a “motion to vacate the chair,” allows a single lawmaker to force a vote that would oust the speaker. Its existence helped earlier generations of the House Freedom Caucus pressure former Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio to leave his office in 2015, under threat of removal. It also hung ominously over the head of Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, his successor as speaker. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California eliminated the procedural threat when she reclaimed the gavel in 2019.

Its resurrection now means that Mr. McCarthy could be removed instantly if he ever angered his hard-right faction.

let me state that my family came from Ireland

Clearly, the less power in the hands of one person, the more Democratic the process is.

“This is the great part…. Because it took this long, now we learned how to govern.”

I support the power of decision-making coming up through a larger number of people—-rather than being made by one unaccountable king, queen, president, or speaker at the top. That’s a dictatorship.

Lash wrote:

I support the power of decision-making coming up through a larger number of people—-rather than being made by one unaccountable king, queen, president, or speaker at the top. That’s a dictatorship.

And again I learn a new definition you made yourself.

However, the English term for "power of decision-making coming up through a larger number of people" is Soviet republic (in German it's Räterepublik, which is more correct in my opinion).

That’s a dictatorship.

Quote:

That’s a dictatorship.

Nope. Excluding monarchies, it's called "representational democracy". The elected representatives and office holders do not wield unlimited power and can be defeated in elections or constitutionally removed from office. The idea that 168 million registered voters – or 250 million citizens of voting age – can govern effectively via direct democracy is not just impractical – it's totally unrealistic.

Excluding monarchies, it's called "representational democracy"....

Today, in Brazil, supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro attacked the presidential palace, congress, and supreme court, insisting that the country’s October election, in which voters replaced Bolsonaro with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was fraudulent. For months, Bolsonaro supporters have called for the military to stop Lula, as he is known, from taking office. Today, they attacked the government and called for military intervention to remove Lula from office. Many of them wrapped themselves in the Brazilian flag.

Lula was visiting flood victims 500 miles from the capital, Brasilia, when the attack occurred.

Bolsonaro is a far-right leader who launched attacks on LGBTQ people, women, and democracy. He said he was “proud to be homophobic” and “in favor of torture,” and that “[t]he Congress today is useless…let’s do the coup already. Let’s go straight to the dictatorship.” In July 2022, when polls showed him running significantly behind union leader Lula, he threatened to cancel the election altogether. 

At first, Bolsonaro refused to concede the election, and then when Lula took office on January 1, he refused to attend and perform the rituals signaling a peaceful transition of power. Instead, he took off for Florida. At the time, reporters suggested he left to get out of reach as Lula’s prosecutors decided whether to pursue the many investigations of him that were underway, but now it seems reasonable to wonder if he was giving himself plausible deniability for today’s violence.

On Twitter tonight, Bolsonaro distanced himself from the attacks but compared them to “those practiced by the left.” He rejected the idea he had anything to do with today’s events.

The scenes of far-right insurrectionists, radicalized by leaders who refuse to accept the outcome of elections, were eerily reminiscent of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol almost exactly two years ago that was a last-ditch attempt to keep then-president Trump in office. Indeed, Bolsonaro was Trump’s protégé in Brazil, and Trump supported Bolsonaro in his quest for reelection. 

“‘Tropical Trump’ as he is affectionately called, has done a GREAT job for the wonderful people of Brazil,” Trump said on his social media outlet. “When I was President of the U.S., there was no other country leader who called me more than Jair.”

The far right in the U.S. saw the Brazil elections as crucially important to advancing the power of the global right. On his webcast War Room, for example, Steve Bannon, a key ally of former president Trump, insisted the election was stolen and urged Bolsonaro’s supporters to resist Lula’s inauguration. Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo is part of Bannon’s right-wing organization, “The Movement.” In a statement, the younger Bolsonaro promised to “work with him to reclaim sovereignty from progressive globalist elitist forces and expand common sense nationalism for all citizens of Latin America.” Eduardo has also been seen in Florida with Trump aide Jason Miller.  

Political scientist Brian Klass observed that “[p]olitical scientists have a name for what’s happening in Brazil: ‘authoritarian learning.’ It’s when autocratic playbooks spread across borders. Trump taught the world how to do January 6th. Brazil won’t be the last one.” 

President Joe Biden said: “I condemn the assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil. Brazil’s democratic institutions have our full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined. I look forward to continuing to work with [Lula].”

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said: “Everyone must stand up and condemn the attack on Brazil’s Congress, Presidency, and Supreme Court. We stand with democracy and with the people of Brazil and against the demagogues who deny election results.”

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said: “The violent attack on the heart of the Brazilian government by right-wing extremists is a sad but familiar sight. We stand with the people of Brazil and democracy.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We condemn the attacks on Brazil's Presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court today. Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable.” 

International democratic leaders, including Secretary-General of the U.N. António Guterres and President Emmanuel Macron of France, condemned the rioters in Brazil. Macron said: “The will of the Brazilian people and democratic institutions must be respected! President Lula da Silva can count on the unconditional support of France.”

As of 11:00 tonight, neither House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) nor Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had any comment on the events in Brazil. 

By Sunday night, Brazilian police had retaken control of the vandalized buildings and arrested 170 rioters.

Governments need to feel popular anger. If governments are insulated from accountability, they become more like…(wait for it)…dictatorships.

Governments need to feel popular anger.

If governments are insulated from accountability, they become more like…(wait for it)…dictatorships.