WHAT MAY HAPPEN LATER TODAY

This past Wednesday, Attorney General Garland made a public announcement regarding the then-coming second anniversary of the Republican Insurrection and Assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

It ended: “ We remain committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for the January 6 assault on our democracy. And we remain committed to doing everything in our power to prevent this from ever happening again.”

This is important, given the stated goals of the insurrectionist “Republican” Party that took control of the House of Representatives with the election of the seditionist Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.

Today, Monday, January 9, the full House will vote to adopt the rules that will control how the 118th Congress operates by majority vote on the Rules Resolution. This will be when the Southernist Treason Party - er, I mean the House Freedom Caucus - expects to proclaim their victory.

If the rules are adopted.

“If” is actually the biggest, most important word in the English language.

Most importantly, among the provisions included in the rules resolution is one sponsored by Jim Jordan, to seat a “Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Weaponization of the Federal Government” with a similar budget to the Special January 6 Committe and fully resourced and empowered to investigate the investigators. As the estimable Joyce Vance (you should read her Substack if you aren’t already) pointed out, the idea of “reviewing” criminal cases in progress is really about interfering with them and violates the separation of powers.

The result will be that Attorney General Garland will refuse to provide the information they subpeona, which will be the excuse Jordan and his fellow J6 conspirator Scott Perry - who is already under formal criminal investigation for his role in the fake electors conspiracy by Special Prosecutor Smith - who aspires to lead this special subversion committee with Jordan, will use as grounds for their attempt to impeach Garland.

This is why Attorney General Garland concluded his commemoration of the January 6 event with the words he used.

“President Trump” as his toadies continue to address the former president, spent the weekend raging at the FBI on his Truth Social knockoff for searching his Mar-a-Lago resort, which he claimed was a “break in” and an “ABUSE,” while charging the documents recovered might have been a “plant.” He is obviously becoming more and more desperate as he sees the investigations moving toward the inevitable indictments and prosecutions he fears.

He was joined in this continuing bullshit by many Republicans, who widely denounced the search as a “witch hunt” or “political persecution.” Rumors of Trump’s political death have been greatly exaggerated. The Congress critters may believe he doesn’t have majority support, but that solid 30% he does control is their margin of victory. Since power is their sole raison d’etre, they’ll stick with him so long as the 30% of the base does.

This demonstrates that the war between the Department of Justice and the House Freedom Caucus is now on.

It’s why among other “reforms” to the House rules, the Republicans are proposing to bring back the so-called Holman rule, which allows them to use spending bills to try to slash the salary of specific federal officials or eliminate blocks of federal employees, and thus specific programs, such as the Special Prosecutor’s Office in the Department of Justice, to sabotage or investigations or prosecutions of Trump.

Using this rule, attempts could be made to defund any investigations into Trump, or even defund probes and prosecutions relating to the January 6, 2021, attack. This could be accomplished without them defunding the entire FBI, which Marjorie Traitor Goon wants to do. While such acts, if passed in the House, would be blocked in the Senate, they could also be used by the Seditionists as cause to shut down the government and the threat of breaching the debt to get this.

Of course, the war will involve more than this particular battle, but for both sides, this one is crucial, because it will determine if the United States remains a constitutional democratic republic or whether it is left vulnerable to more Southernist Treason.

Fortunately, the House Seditionists can’t work their will without agreement by the Senate, which is highly unlikely. However, because the House of Representatives is constitutionally responsible for the initiation of all funding bills, the rules they adopt can prevent action being taken on key measures, including the budget, unless they pass the House in a majority vote.

So, what happens today is Very Important.

As the minority party, the Democrats have little say in the adoption of the rules. At the end of the debate over the rules resolution, traditionally the majority manager “moves the previous question.”A majority vote in favor ends further debate, preventing the minority party from offering any alternative proposals as the House then moves to an immediate vote on approval of the rules, which become the rules for the 118th Congress.

That is the way it normally works.

But it only works that way if the majority party votes in a united manner.

There is a question as to whether the Republicans will vote to “move the previous question” in unity.

While the seditionists appear to have won the day, this is not completely certain. There are 18 Republicans who won their seats in districts that voted in majority for President Biden in 2020. As “conservative” as they are, these 18 represent what passes for the “moderate” wing of the House Republican Caucus. None of them are interested in being voted out of office in 2024, and each of them knows that Democrats will paint a bright target on their backs for every egregious act committed by the Southernist Seditionists between now and the next election. They know that if the Seditionists achieve their goal of destroying the financial position of the United States by defaulting on the public debt that they will be “toast” in the next election.

There are already two of these members who have either expressed outright opposition to the McCarthy Surrender Rules or “doubt” about several of the proposed rules changes. The others are saying nothing over the weekend publicly. But it is as certain as one can be without a public confession that these members are talking among themselves about what they will do tomorrow.

In addition to the formal vote to implement the new rules, following that vote the Speaker usually announces the policies that will be implement regarding floor practices during the term of the speakers term in office (however long that may or may not be). These are policies that result from the speaker’s authority or discretion to set practices. These can include how a bill or resolution can be introduced, rules of debate decorum, and other technical or administrative matters. Additionally, the majority leader - who we can reasonably expect will be Steve Scalise in reward of his loyalty - can issue written protocols regarding how legislation will be scheduled and considered during the next two years. These administrative decisions by Speaker and Majority Leader are important for the day-to-day operation of the House of Representatives.

Significantly, these announcements come AFTER the vote on the rules.

Should that vote not go as expected - and with the 118th Congress one can reasonably expect that no issues or actions will “go as expected” from previous congresses, as has already been demonstrated - the Speaker or the Majority Leader may “trim their sails” as a result of what the final outcome of that vote is - whenever it finally happens; which one should not be surprised to discover might not happen later today. This is the party that was supposed to elect their leader on one ballot.

Everything that is supposed to happen today, which likely will stretch longer, is potentially much more fluid than the purveyors of “everybody says” think it will be.

As with everything else that’s going to go on in this Fakakte Circus over the next two years, nothing here is going to go as it “should.” These particular magicians have no idea where the rabbit is and they left home without the hat.

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