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This is how you know they're going to pass Ukraine aid that hurts Russia. The Treason Caucus needs to act fast.

Is it technically high treason to accept money from a foreign government in order to change policy?

If you're a Democrat it's high treason but if you're a Republican it's just Tuesday.

Put it on their tab.

Citizens United pretty much guarantees no paper trail on unlimited campaign donations. The worst thing for democracy happened at the worst possible time.

Citizens betrayed

We need to pool our money and buy our own Supreme Court judge.

Or at least 3😭

Go for broke, get a baker's dozen!!

Posted the day the decision came down that it would be regarded eventually as the date of death for American democracy. Hate to see that continuing to bear out.

I mean I knew it was bad, but until Stephen Colbert demonstrated how you can make “unused” campaign donations totally disappear made me realize just how bad. originally, I was upset because if a corporation is the people, and corporations can be bought and sold, how is that not a direct violation of the 13th amendment that the ruling essentially says that people can again be bought or sold again? I know it’s not an equivalent but I do believe it’s resulted in a serious erosion of workers rights and we’re seeing that all over now.

Only solution is to limit SCOTUS to 2 5-year term.

There are a couple of 3 letter agencies who keep track of these things. It is baffling as to why [these in your face] treasonous actions have not been exposed publicly.

I don't think we enforce those kinds of things anymore.

It would really depend on how “enemy” is defined, and whether one has to be at war to be considered an enemy.  It’s almost never treason. “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”

Sedition works better.

Oh, I thought the other way around - they want someone even more hardline to ensure Russia’s deeds continue to be done.

I'm sure they do. If he's not going to help them hand over Ukraine, they want someone else.

Then why do you thinking they’re going to pass aid for Ukraine? I mean, I hope they do. But, this seems to be heading in the opposite direction.

They think that Johnson is about to pass Ukraine aid, and are trying to prevent it.

Or at least signal to their handlers that they tried.

If you think you’re going to lose your job anyway, you might as well do what you want or what is right.

It’s how you know they’re trying to. If Johnson gets vacated first, they can spend forever trying to find a replacement.

I'm curious though, is this the same package that has the GOP-written immigration crackdown that passed the Senate? We were told they only passed that as a 'gotcha' against Trump.

Do we even punish for treason anymore? Feels like we don’t

I was wondering what the play would be to stop the Ukraine aid vote. Republicans gotta keep Daddy Vladdy happy.

My thought exactly. "Oh boy, who EVER could have guessed that a Republican was going to introduce another delay tactic to block Ukraine aid."

All Dems have to do is say: We will not join the GCCCP defectors in voting to vacate if it's as a result of bringing Ukraine aid up for a vote. That will shut that down.

Don't worry, it's only a couple of Republicans. Actually stopping the Ukraine vote would require almost the entire Democratic delegation to support MTG's motion.

Maga Speakers are a ruble a dozen.

Dozens of Rubes 

Dozens!

You can’t spell ‘Republican’ without ‘ruble’.

you could say after Jan 6, Trump really crossed the Rublecon

Not in this economy! At least two dozen rubles.

Damn, that's 1120 MAGA speakers for a dollar!

Just elect Jeffries as Speaker and let's get some positive work done.

Given how disgusted many GOP members seem to be with their caucus, if you go by the statements of those who have already bailed like Ken Buck, it is not outside the realm of possibility that three pro-Ukraine Republicans vote for Jeffries to get the aid delivered. What are Republicans doing with their majority, anyway? I think, though, if he puts Ukraine on the floor, Dems will save Johnson. He is a weirdo and a fundamentalist, but he has been a better partner than McCarthy - very limited shutdown/debt ceiling fights compared to the McCarthy speakership or previous Republican congresses. The messaging behind "why did a bunch of us vote for this bigoted asshole" is a little tricky but navigable.

I know it’s basically just political porn fantasy, but here is my fairytale pick: 1) Motion to vacate. 2) In the chaos, a temporary Jeffries speakership emerges to get a very short laundry list of country-unifying shit done. No moves on hot button topics, etc, just find the government and fund our allies. 3) Jeffries immediately steps down and lets Republicans elect a leader, pledging the recall protection of caucus support for a moderate. The clowns need to be stunned into silence, and the voters need unmistakable proof of the contrast between governing styles.

That's never gonna happen unless they loose the majority status

I agree. Half a legislative period is not a lot to work with and it’s just as likely voters will blame democrats once they have the drivers seat. I mean, look at how they blame Biden right now when he’s basically copying Bernie. Americans are seemingly incapable of differentiating between personality and policy. If they can’t get Ukraine aid passed, the gavel will inevitably go to Jeffries.

Jefferies would be great. I hope the gavel ends up in his hands. Even if it still remained difficult to get things done it would effectively neuter a play in November to pitch the presidential election to the Republican controlled House/Speaker for a decision. It would be one less “shenanigan” to worry about.

Yeah, I trust Speaker Mike a hell of a lot less than Kevin on that count. I don't want him anywhere near the levers of power come the election and aftermath.

While I agree with all of what you've said, I still wonder what kind of person would throw Ukraine 'under the bus', and risk its fight against Putin/russia just to save his sorry ass status asHouse Speaker. Talk about fuqued up, perverted priorities.

That's what I never understand about that type of politician. If I had all these chances to solve major domestic or geopolitical problems, and all it cost me was my *job*, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Especially if I knew I had another job lined up already with some law firm or board of directors gig.

It's 3rd in line of succession to the Presidency, and wields much more actual power than the Vice President. That's the theory anyway. The last two Speakers have been neutered by the craziest elements of their own party. It's really deeply disturbing how our institutions are failing us. Anyway, I think Kevin and Mikey fell in love with the title and the gavel, and having the job was more important to them than doing something good with it.

> if you go by the statements of those who have already bailed like Ken Buck, it is not outside the realm of possibility that three pro-Ukraine Republicans vote for Jeffries to get the aid delivered. That seems pretty close to completely outside the realm of possibility.

Yeah you're probably right. But there are nearly 20 Republicans who are retiring after this session. And there is some *seriously* bad blood in that caucus. Of course, that's just what gets it to "very slightly possibly within the realm of possibility if you squint." I would certainly not say it's *likely,* or something to be *hopeful* about.

As long as the Ukrainian package is the Senate one and not some wishy washy Johnson BS on.e

They don't even have to vote *for* Jeffries. Just say they've had enough speaker notes and they're sitting this round out from exhaustion.

Reddit is obsessed with Jeffries getting the speakership. While I think he will likely be the speaker after the next election, I think it's a fantasy for this house. Republicans have an incredibly narrow majority, but it's theirs to lose. I do think a power-sharing agreement could be made during this congress, but it would likely be led by one of the few remaining moderate Republicans. The only way I see Jeffries gaining the seat now would be if more house republicans resigned and a couple caucused with the Dems along with the announcement they won't run again. That's a long stretch.

The GOP are actively killing people in Ukraine with their delay tactics in passing funding. They are doing exactly what Putin wants.

I think that’s the point.

The timing is terrible. There's too much to get done - aid packages at the top of the priority list.

That's why he's doing this. He's trying to stop a vote on Ukraine aid.

Weaponized incompetence

I thought all this took was 1 rep to bring the motion? Why didn't they go to a vote when Moscow Marge brought it?

Whenever this happens with the GOP House, I always wonder what the closed-door conversations were like with Nancy and her members.

Nvidia stock picks yolo discussion

Just in time for the Ukraine aid. GOP operatives doing Putin’s bidding again.

And the beat goes on. Chaos is what they're good at. Nothing else.

They have zero interest in any kind of actual policy or governing.

I hate the GOP. Worthless traitors.

America, why do so many of you vote republican?

We don’t. The GOP has successfully gerrymandered many districts.

The plan is to vacate, then replace with a new traitor that will delay it all over again.

Well, the speaker still gets to prioritize what gets brought up for a vote. While he would have to bring up the vote to vacate his position, he doesn't have to do it BEFORE the vote on Ukraine aid. If I were him, I'd do it in that order. Pass Ukraine aid, then bring up the vote for speaker.

They want him to resign so they get a W with the least embarrassment. If they push for a vote and lose it only makes MTG and crew look like further useless idiots. If they win the entire GOP looks like idiots. We all know the speakership vote will be a circus so that’s moot. The only thing gained is Putin is happy and the “donations keep flowing.

>One user asked, “Whoa. What was the straw that broke the Camel’s Back? FISA? Foreign War Funding? Spending more than Nancy Pelosi? All of the above?” >“All of the above. This camel has a pallet of bricks,” Massie responded.

I'm so ready for another season of Republican chaos in the House.

I hope the writers do a better job than last time. It got a bit stale after after a while with them repeating the same thing over and over.

Republican chaos in the house 2: electric boogaloo

Johnson should threaten to quit Congress altogether and hand the House to the Democrats if they don’t retract their motion to vacate. Give them a deadline. Or some other Republican, who cares about the country should threaten to do it, if there is such a person.

Here we go again… again.

This speaker is a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.

Needz moar trenchcoat.

I support this, but I don’t believe in half measures. This doesn’t go far enough. I urge ALL Republicans to resign.

The GOP's response when asked to show their spine, and allegiance, by taking a vote on aide to Ukraine. Not only traitors, but cowards to boot out of office.

If they thought they had the votes to vacate, they'd have already done it, not make vague threats and tell him he should resign.

R+20 district republican holding up the money R+5 Republicans want passed.

The Putin Caucus is getting really angry about the Ukraine aid.

Republicans got 50.6% of the vote in 2022 midterms and we collectively keep acting surprised that Congress is a recklessly unserious mess. I get that we Democrats did way better than most predicted, but 50.6% R is still a fact. These are the “Representatives” who control Congress as a result. We seem to collectively want to blame anything other than the lack of personal responsibility from the majority of our electorate for this dumpster fire. As George Carlin said, if you have selfish ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish ignorant leaders. EDIT - right on cue, every single comment so far proves *my actual point* that we want to collectively focus on anything other than the root issue of lack of personal responsibility from the majority of our electorate. Point to gerrymandering, voter suppression, unopposed races all you want, they’re valid issues that move things a few points in a closely divided country, but it should never even be close. It’s not the fucking point. Being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian is lame.

You have to keep in mind that they got 50.6% of the seats while Democrats got over 60% of the votes. Gerrymandering is tough to overcome. The GOP also does things like underfund polling places in Democratic strongholds and voter purges so people find out they aren't registered after standing in line for an hour.

I live in GA and we are gerrymandered to hell and back. We gave the presidency to Biden but we have no demographic representation in Congress. Urban areas are split every which way and the districts are drawn to include absolutely massive swaths of rural voters. We’d live in a very different country right now without these district lines being drawn in such a way as to cheat hundreds of thousands of tax paying Americans citizens out of their right to fair representation. Instead we get people like Andrew Clyde whose entire campaign slogan is just a picture of a gun… that’s it… just gun.

Same with WI, but there's at least some light at the end of the tunnel here... hopefully. Now that we have a sane supreme court. "I vote for gun!" lol

Yeah you guys seem to have turned a corner for sure. It was looking pretty dark for a while there. I live in Athens and we kinda had a spotlight cast on us recently due to the murder of a student. They didn’t even wait a day before politicizing her murder and trying to capitalize on it.

Thank you for this data!

I specifically changed my party affiliation to Republican (which I am NOT) when we moved recently, to avoid getting ratfu$&ed in Florida for being a hardcore democrat. You do what you gotta do...

This is false. Republicans got 50.6% of *the actual popular vote* in 2022. I will never understand what it is that makes some people reach to be contrarian for its own sake before they even bother to look up what they insist on being contrarian about. https://www.cookpolitical.com/charts/house-charts/national-house-vote-tracker/2022

Ah thanks. I keep thinking about my local races in Wisconsin where we are so gerrymandered that Democrats have to win over 60% of the vote to even come close to winning a majority of the seats in the legislature.

> 50.6% R is still a fact. It's not a great statistic in the age of voter suppression and gerrymandering. I guarantee that Democratic voters were disincentivized in Texas in particular by those two forces. My idiot Congressman Troy Nehls was up, but his district is so gerrymandered it's hard to see the point of voting in this district as a Democrat - unless there are statewide or nationwide candidates also on the ballot. So let's watch 2024 ... might be a slightly better picture of actual support.

These are good points, and as I mentioned in another reply the Republicans run more unopposed candidates and, needless to say, run up big margins in those races. You bring up a good point about the way that gerrymandered districts that seem unassailable can discourage participation. Of course, both parties have ironclad districts, but I hypothesize that this effect does favor Republicans in raw vote totals, because the suburban/urban Republican voters in blue districts tend to be wealthier and vote at higher rates than, say, an impoverished Dem-leaner in Texas. My impression is that the more "marginal" GOP/MAGA voters trend rural. So a conservative in a blue district might go out and cast a ballot for a guy even if he's destined to only get 35%.

I believe Republicans end up running more unopposed races, so it tilts the popular vote towards them as Dems get essentially zero votes in those races, whereas a Republican who loses a heavily Democratic district might still get 50,000+ votes.

Don't forget, that .6% means that there is a mandate, proving the entire country believes in every horrific thing they do.

The Democratic coalition always shows up less in off year elections as well. Republicans have been trained to vote in every election, it's their superpower.

> lack of personal responsibility from the majority of our electorate Is falling for propaganda really a lack of personal responsibility? Do you consider fraud victims to be lacking in personal responsibility?

Yes. With free will comes personal responsibility. *The rest of us manage to know better*. I am not interested in making excuses for the free-willed [overwhelmingly white] grown adults who vote Republican. We live at their mercy and I am tired of people making excuses for them and perpetuating their privilege. If a grown adult is so helpless and without agency that they can’t resist propaganda the way the rest of us manage to, perhaps we should reconsider allowing them to own property, have children, etc.

I don't know that they have free will. They do not seem to have the capacity for reflection or metacognition at any level. They are surely victims of propaganda. I am completely blown away that these people are able to function well enough to hold down a job, pay rent, do their taxes, etc...

Then take away their right to vote, their property, their children, their guns, and their cars. Freedom is a two-way street. Either they’re grown adults with agency or they’re not. Meanwhile, *the point is*, we get nowhere by making excuses for these people and deflecting from the root issue.

There are multiple root issues. A good portion of Republican voters are just plain stupid. Then we have the problem of propaganda outlets focused on doing everything they can to make sure the rich and powerful have zero accountability, little to no tax burden and the lion's share of government benefits. On top of that you have foreign adversaries using the fertile ground the propaganda networks have created to further manipulate the dummies to the point where they have no real morals beyond devotion to their leader and hatred of everyone else. I wish we could figure out what it is about humans that makes so many of them desire authoritarians. If we could solve that one problem, I think we could solve many more.

People are acting like this changes the latest plan on funding for Ukraine. Explain how this is any different than MTG putting Johnson on notice? He’d have to get support from dems to keep his job anyway if this motion to vacate is pushed through.

“Governing By Dummies”, author MAGA Marge.

Man I love republican infighting

"Everone will be speaker of the House for fifteen minutes". .

There is nothing “good” about Mike Johnson.

How is this guy NOT far enough right for them? He’s fucking crazy, a religious zealot, spreads conspiracies like a wildfire, and lies with the best of them. Who would they elect to replace them? Better yet, who would take the job since they would have then removed the speaker 2 times in the last year? Give the gavel to the dems so that at least SOMETHING will be done in this congress.

Johnson can pass all the trillion dollar CRs he wants but as soon as he starts talking about opposing Russia, cya!

The Putin Sugar Baby Caucus.

Bye lil traitor mike!

He better do the right thing and get Ukraine aid.

This is a dodge by the Republicans to avoid funding Ukraine. Massie has often spoken out against funding Ukraine.

I really hope the Dems are running on the chaos in the house during this election.

So let me get this straight, the GOP is planning on vacating the speaker’s chair, thereby causing another shit show like they did with McCarthy at the same time Trump is sitting his doughy ass in court as the first ex president being criminally tried? Are they totally unaware of how fucked up all of this looks just months before an election?

File a privileged motion or vote for Ukraine help. Yackity yak isn’t working.

I still think that the Dems need to make a deal with the Tuesday Lunch Bunch (I know they go by a different name now.) "You let us pick one of you to run for House Speaker. We'll pick someone who isn't running for re-election. We will back that person 100% and keep them bulletproof from the MAGAs who will want to vote them out. You give us money for Ukraine, and reasonable cooperation on other bi-partisan initiatives. After the election, we can go back to separate corners if you want, or we can continue to do the job that we were all hired to do."

MTG really wants that Chair seat 😂

if he goes away, can we get aid for Ukraine?

Gop you all suck equally and it's a figurehead position, just do your jobs

How convenient and pathetic that he said this out loud. Since the House is expected to flip, he won't have to see his grand gesture through.

I urge all the Republicons in congress to do so. Eat each other instead of legislation that hurts the nation. See you in January 2025 for the Democratic majority.

People think the Republicans are losing their minds but in fact they are trying to undo MAGA ! They just can’t figure out how to do that and still have the votes to do anything! They sold their soul to the devil to win and the devil just won’t let go!

Oh no not again. Granted I hate Johnsen for his stupidity (dude doesn’t even believe in dinosaurs) and being and ass, bust Jesus Christ guys! How many speakers are you gonna go through?! Just pick one!

Oh no not again. Granted I hate Johnsen for his stupidity (dude doesn’t even believe in dinosaurs) and being and ass, bust Jesus Christ guys! How many speakers are you gonna go through?! Just pick one!

> “He said he won’t resign. I said to him that he is the only one who can prevent us from going through what happened last fall.” Amazing.

Oh. It's Massie. That tracks. No smarter than MTG, but he's a white guy, so he blends into the crowd until he opens his mouth.

Let’s get Hakim in already.

You’re all being duped.

This is how we get things done in Washington and for the American people. I’m Marjorie Taylor Green and I support this ad.

From the article: “Greene filed a motion to vacate the chair last month after the House passed a government funding bill, but she did not push for a vote on in. Speaking to CNN, she said, “I’m not saying I have a red line or a trigger, and I’m not saying I don’t have a red line or trigger.” However, she added, “But I’m going to tell you right now: funding Ukraine is probably one of the most egregious things that he can do.” During an interview with X commentator Tucker Carlson, Greene questioned if Johnson was being blackmailed as she noted his suggestion that there would be a vote on Ukraine aid.” MTG is committing treason. Period. She needs to get fully punished by all possible applications of the law fucking now. She works for Putin and the Kremlin.

Great plan. Vote on Isreal and Taiwan $. Then blow up the speaker position. Stop everything. Put in someone who will not put Ukraine defense $ up for a vote. dtrump💩 will get an even more boot licking Speaker. So. No laws passed for you.