Top O’ the Briefing
Happy Friday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Andelbo felt that a regimen of graham crackers and Kahlúa was what propelled him to the heights of the Tri-County Sudoku League.
Regarding the headline, I don’t usually mind being weirded out. Lately, however, weird has gotten weird.
There have been a lot of interesting things coming out of Republican Bizarro World lately. It gets rather entertaining after a while if you simply reject the idea of “normal,” which appears to have been killed by COVID.
I’ve written on many occasions that I truly believe that the Donald Trump running for president now is not the same guy I enthusiastically voted for just three years ago. Well, dear readers, I now have definitive proof.
This is from something that Matt wrote about the possibility of Trump becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives:
There is no requirement that the House speaker be a member of the House of Representatives, and some are floating the idea of nominating President Trump.
Originally, Trump said he wasn’t interested. “No, I think that it’s not something I wanted. A lot of people bring it up. It’s brought up all the time. No, it’s not something I want to do. I want to look at what’s happening, and then we’re going to be doing something else. No, it’s not something I would be interested in,” Trump said last year.
Now, however, Trump says he’d actually do it. There’s just a small catch.
Trump told Fox News Digital that he’d accept the position temporarily with the goal of uniting the party while they deliberate on the selection of a permanent House speaker.
“I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress,” Trump explained. “If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking the speakership until they get somebody longer-term, because I am running for president.”
If only we could explain this away with drunkenness, but Trump is a legendary teetotaler.
The idea of Trump as the calming figure and a “unifier” of the angry bag of cats known as the House Republicans sounds like a pitch for a “Saturday Night Live” skit. Does this mean that he’s mellowing? Nobody wants that. America definitely doesn’t need that.
Trump’s combativeness is his biggest selling point to me. I’m not ready for him to put on a cardigan and relax into fireside chat mode. As I wrote at the beginning of the year, I want him to go full scorched earth if he gets another shot at the White House. That’s not going to happen if he trades in his Big Macs for a pipe and starts dispensing soothing wisdom.
I will admit, though, that the thought of Trump taking the gig and actually bringing the House Republicans together because his mere presence makes the Democrats apoplectic is something I would dearly like to see. Granny Boxwine’s reaction alone would be worth the price of admission.
Leave it to the man who blew up American politics in 2016 to come up with something as outlandish as the idea that he could be a party unifier after spending ten months siccing his rabid Truth Social fanboy hordes on anyone who wouldn’t take a blood oath to support him.
There is a lot that I think Trump can still pull off in politics. Bringing this group together isn’t on that list.
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Book of the Month Recommendation
“You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back“—Carol Roth
The Mailbag of Magnificence
We will kick this week’s Mailbag off with this quick one from Wyman:
Dear Mr Kruiser I just want to say I love those second lines. Today’s, for example, adding a mention of Jasmine Guy was wonderful. I wanted to send this to give my opinion and to attach a photo that seems to fit in:
Thank you, Wyman. I’ve had the Jasmine Guy reference in my back pocket for a long time now. A friend and I used to throw out random Jasmine Guy references on Twitter back when we all hung around there more. (I didn’t include the photo because rights and laws and stuff.)
There were a lot of great responses to the Briefing about Matt Gaetz/Kevin McCarthy drama this week, far too many to share all of the emails. I’ll take some excerpts from a few and offer some quick responses. Thanks in advance to everyone who is mentioned here.
This is from Arnold:
Rep. Gaetz has been clear on what needs to be done, and Speaker McCarthy has not been getting the job done. Specifically, the debt limit “negotiation” travesty, the 60 day August recess, the lack of subpoenas for Mayorkis, Garland, Hunter Biden, Neuland, and others, this latest continuing resolution and apparent secret deal with the Democrats over Ukraine funding, and only 4 appropriation bills done. Gaetz also pointed out that the purported successes of this session have been rather ineffectual.
We’re all clear on what needs to be done, Arnold. What Gaetz has not been clear on is how to achieve any of it with a four-seat majority in the House and a Democrat-controlled Senate. As things presently stand, anything meaningful done by House Republicans is just going to get dumped on by Chucky & Co. (probably with an assist from McConnell) in the Senate. Wishes can’t be magically turned into realities.
Michael writes:
I have no idea what the outcome of
McCarthy’s ouster will be, but several points are clear. Some are willing quite literally to destroy Gaetz for challenging them, and reducing the size and power of government will not happen without considerable resistance from those holding power. Does anyone believe power will be relinquished through compromise between Democrats and Republicans? What department would either be willing to cut? Part of Trump’s appeal is his alleged willingness to take a wrecking ball to some of them. Witness the horror he represents to many, characterized as THE major threat to our “democracy”.
Gaetz’s detractors in the House aren’t all motivated by politics. There’s a reason that a guy with an ego like his didn’t throw his hat in the ring for the speaker gig once he got McCarthy kicked out. He hasn’t gotten a lot of people to warm up to him. I would love to see the GOP get serious about spending — I’ve been fighting for that through all my years of activism. I’m not going to hold my breath. As for Trump, you’re correct about his “alleged willingness” to fight D.C. In the end, however, he didn’t do much swamp draining. He’s now being persecuted by an FBI director he should have fired long before he left office.
Jay weighs in with this:
Here’s the good that could come out of this. Because McCarthy is gone AND McCarthy isn’t going to run again, it opens up the possibility of Scalise or Jordan becoming speaker. THAT is what Gaetz and his cohorts did.
The presumption that Gaetz planned it out that far is a bit much for me. I don’t believe that he’s driven by principles. No one knew McCarthy wouldn’t run. If he had, and the Dems knew that Jordan was looming on the horizon, he probably would have won again.
Wanda will wrap up the Gaetz/McCarthy stuff:
Once again, I don’t think most media writing about Gaetz vs. McCarthy have a clue how furious American conservative voters are with slick, deal-making, underhanded politicians. And that is our view of Kevin McCarthy. We don’t want to fund this endless war in Ukraine, but Kevin apparently made a “side deal” with the Democrats to fund it later, so he could pass the Continuing Resolution. Which, by the way, Americans didn’t want, either.
When Matt Gaetz is railing on about the fact that there is no actual budget in D.C., and hasn’t been for years, he is preaching to the choir out here in the hinterlands. Most of us don’t care if the government is shut down until it gets straightened out. If the government’s open, it’s most likely doing something horrible to Americans, anyway.
I’m not sure if the “media” you’re referring to is the leftist MSM or conservative media. A good many of us in conservative media are or were activists. I co-founded the Los Angeles Tea Party, which came to be because we were sick of profligate spending in Washington. Oh, most of us are in the hinterlands as well. We not only have a clue, but we have also been fighting the power for a long time. It is possible to like what Gaetz wants but not like how he goes about it. It’s also possible to dislike both Gaetz and McCarthy at the same time, which I do.
Before everyone rushes to their keyboards to argue with any of my responses here, please read my latest column, which explains why I think all that went on in the House this week is a good thing.
We’ll finish on a lighter note with this from Brice:
This from another article of yours and why I love (almost) everything you write…
“I can prove that I’m not a racist because the effort it takes just trying to kill grandma and making the children ignorant leaves me no energy for anything else.” In addition to being creativity challenged I’m too busy thinking about the Roman Empire to come up with that kind of an observation. Thank you for the laugh.
You’re welcome, Brice. I try. The best way to deal with the tired accusations from the left is to embrace the nonsense and make it even more ridiculous. I can go into great detail about just how arduous all of the grandma killing is.
Thanks everyone for keeping in touch!
Everything Isn’t Awful
Timelapse of a bird building a nest and raising its young.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/13YM1qnMW6
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) October 5, 2023
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Bee Me
FBI Raids Home Of Man Who Made It Too Far In Area 51 Arcade Game https://t.co/1iPJKwisKo pic.twitter.com/CcT7dHMq6y
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The Kruiser Kabana
Kabana Gallery
Russian Easter #symbolism #nicholasroerich https://t.co/OKDvlByk5b pic.twitter.com/5UaoNWkf5N
— Nicholas Roerich (@artistroerich) April 3, 2023
Kabana Comedy
WARNING: Cleese drops an F-bomb near the end.
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