February 5th, 2021
My Dear America:
Some days it just feels good to be a Democrat. Yesterday was one of those days. After four years of Continuous Trump Madness it feels good to see Joe Biden once again attending to his Presidential Duties looking and sounding Presidential and actually being Presidential as he visited his newly minted Secretary of State, Tony Blinkin, at the State Department along with his Vice President, Kamala Harris. Biden gave a great speech today. It was a great speech not because Biden is the Greatest Orator in the world. It was a great speech because Biden had some very relevant things to say at the State Department.
Joe Biden made it clear in his speech that America is getting back to normal on the world stage after spending four years in a Mental Institution with a terribly Narcissistic Mental Patient running the Asylum.
Biden made it very clear in todays speech that we are returning to the START Nuclear Treaty with Vladimir Putin's Russia which Trump abandoned seemingly because Putin wanted him to. Biden, unlike Trump, made it clear also that he was not at all happy with Russia's messing with our Elections and our Cyberspace, paying bounties for killed American Servicemen and Women and that he was also not happy with Putin's treatment of Russian Political critic, Alexie Navalny and other Russian citizens. Although Biden did not specify what actions could be taken by the United States to remedy the civil rights of Russians and the poisoning of Russian citizens, Biden made it clear that Putin was not going to walk all over Biden the way he did with Trump.
Biden also stated that the United States will no longer be participating in genocide in Yemen that has been perpetrated for years by Saudi Arabia. Biden also had some double edged statements about China as well. Biden clearly wants to have diplomatic relations around the world but is not willing to sacrifice Democratic Principles in the process.
For all of the time that Donald Trump was President the Republicans controlled the Senate. Through the First Two years of his term they also controlled the House, as well. Now times have changed. Democrats are in charge of the Presidency, The House and The Senate and although there are still plenty of Lunatics at large in Congress the Democrats are functioning very well in the White House. Things are a little more difficult for Democrats in the halls of Congress but they are still in charge and exercising their political muscles.
Senate Democratic Leader, Chuck Schumer is making it clear that he hopes that the Covid Relief Bill will have Bipartisan support but he is not counting on this. Schumer is readying the bill at the cost level desired by the Biden Administration and he will not be counting on Republican support to get the bill passed. That looks as though it is a good idea not to wait for Republicans who have a history of watering down Democratic legislation and in the end not voting for the bills that they watered down. Case in Point - The Affordable Health Care Act- Better known as Obamacare which was passed by the Senate with no Republican support after the Public option was done away with to gain Republican Support which never came.
While Covid Relief is a Priority for the Democrats in the Senate they are also gearing up for next week's Senate Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump. It was revealed by Trump's Lawyers that they will not be referring to their client as "Former President Trump" because the Former President has not conceded the election and is still claiming that he really won the 2020 election by a landslide. Good luck to Republicans in dealing with that bit of insanity on Trump's part. House Impeachment Manager, Jamie Raskin has put out an invitation to Donald Trump to plead his case in person at the Senate next week. Surprise, Surprise, "45" as he demands to be called in the Impeachment Trial has refused to testify.
While the Democrats seem to be just revving up their Political engines in the White House and the Senate the members of the House of Representatives have been having their own serious problems.
House Republican Leader, Kevin McCarthy seems to have been playing both sides against the middle with regard to Former President Trump and with regard to Georgia House Member, Marjorie Taylor Greene, House Leader, Liz Cheney and many other Republican House Members.
Although McCarthy testified in the House Chamber on January 6th that President Trump bore some responsibility for the Invasion of the Capitol by a Trump Inspired mob he soon after made a pilgrimage to Mar A Lago and was photographed with Trump both men smiling broadly. Since then McCarthy seems to have forgotten about Trump's responsibility for the violent incident at the Capitol.
McCarthy met with his Republican House members this week and his members discussed the fate of two members of the House, Liz Cheney and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Liz Cheney was in the Republican Hot seat because she was the third ranking Republican in the House and she had the nerve to do the right thing and vote to support the Impeachment of Donald Trump. Prior to this vote Cheney had been a pretty reliable vote for almost anything that Donald Trump wanted. Following her impeachment vote, however, despite the Trump Mob's raid on the Capitol the day of her vote Liz Cheney was widely criticized by Republicans. One member of the Trump Insane Clown Posse, Florida Representative, Mat Gaetz, even traveled to Cheney's Home State of Wyoming to rail against her to her constituents. In the end a secret ballot showed that overall Republican Congress Members still had faith in Cheney and refused to pull her from her Republican leadership Position.
Freshman Georgia Congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene also sort of faced the music this week. After proclaiming numerous very Weird Qanon Conspiracies for a very long time Greene met with House Leader McCarthy after having Donald Trump supporting her for some time. McCarthy refused to respond to calls from Democrats, some of whom Greene had threatened should be killed, that Greene should be stripped of Committee Assignments on the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Budget Committee.
Democrats were incensed because Greene had posted videos online of herself harassing Gun Control Advocate, David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland High School Shooting. Greene had posted videos and E Mails stating that the Parkland and Sandy Hook shootings were "False Flag" incidents or in fact false staged incidents. Greene's posts and videos stated, among other things, that No plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, JFK Junior had been killed by the Clintons, That Maxine Waters, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi should be killed, Trump had won the 2020 Election and that she supported some of the Militias involved in the storming of the Capitol, along with many other weird and untruthful allegations.
McCarthy refused to take responsibility for stripping Greene of her Committee Assignments so it was put to a vote after Greene walked back many of the Conspiracies that she had definitely advocated in something that looked kind of like an apology but definitely was not an apology. The Republican Caucus voted and they also refused to take responsibility for stripping Greene of her Committee Assignments and after her addressing the Republican group the Republican Legislators gave her a Standing Ovation.
So it was left to the entire Democrat led House of Representatives to vote on whether or not the Parkland and Sandy Hook Shooting Denier should be sitting on the Education and Labor and the House Budget Committee. The Democratically controlled full House of Representatives stripped her of her Committee Assignments with 11 Republicans voting to strip Greene of her Committee Assignments. Oddly enough, Liz Cheney was not among those Republicans doing the right thing this time around. I guess Liz had learned her lesson about the consequences of doing the right thing in the Republican Party. There was no Standing Ovation for Greene this time around either.
It seems to me outrageous that Liz Cheney had to fight for her Republican Leadership Position because she did the right and sensible thing when called upon to vote for Impeachment. House Republicans were concerned about Liz doing the right thing although they all seemed to have no qualms regarding all of the wrong things that Marjorie Taylor Greene did.
It is and continues to be a weird state of affairs in the United States Congress.
Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher
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