Just One Thing
There was really only one fascinating result of Wednesday’s House of Representatives chaos as Kevin McCarthy seeks to become Speaker of the House: Early Wednesday, President Donald Trump sent out a strong exhortation on social media calling on House Republicans who’ve been opposing McCarthy to vote for him. Trump said that the rebellious House members risked turning the party’s November victory, such as it was, into a defeat. He’s not wrong. Not one Republican changed to McCarthy. Lauren Boebert later said that Trump had called her group and her response was that Trump should tell McCarthy to withdraw. When Boebert ignores Trump, that’s not just a bad sign for McCarthy; it’s a HUGE nail in Trump’s political coffin.
Just for fun, later in the day Boebert was a guest on Sean Hannity's Fox News show. He absolutely grilled her; she gave as good as she got, as usual. And conservative/MAGA Twitter exploded with hatred against Hannity, calling him "establishment", "the enemy", and more.
MAGA is eating their own.
Lauren has gone from "Maybe Kevin" to "Never Kevin." The best explanation seems to be that she believes McCarthy lied to the public about what Boebert's group was asking for, making it sound like they were asking for things like plum committee assignments in return for their votes. The way Lauren talks now is VERY different from just a few days ago, and the tone of her rhetoric is now clearly personal, not just about policy or even politics.
That said, I do still think McCarthy is better than 50% to win. And if he does, Trump will still claim victory even though it was clear today that he had no influence at all over a group of Republicans with whom he should be particularly influential.
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Today's Guests
Mike Burg is a founding shareholder of the Burg Simpson law firm. We'll discuss his firm's civil case against the Montrose, CO funeral home where two women who ran the place (not sure if they are also owners) were just handed long sentences in federal prison for illegally selling body parts.
Funeral home operators sentenced after illegally selling body parts | CNN
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Doomberg is actually a team of anonymous folks who come primarily from the energy consulting business and whose online scribblings are maybe my single favorite source of news and analysis about many key issues (or just interesting issues) facing the world including particularly energy policy but also trade, crypto currency and more. Doomberg is well worth the price of a subscription (and I do in fact pay for a subscription.)
Crossing the Rubicoin - Doomberg (substack.com)
No Assembly Required - Doomberg (substack.com)
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Steven Sund was the Chief of the US Capitol Police on January 6, 2021. His new book is Courage Under Fire: Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6
More info: Courage under Fire | Blackstone Publishing
In it, he tells what it was like to be in the middle of that event, as well as the days leading up to it. He tells his side of the story, as to what went wrong, and where the blame should lie. He corrects false reports and outright lies concerning the conduct of his force. Sund was forced to take the fall and resign. This book is his response.
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Some excellent commentary on the spectacle in the House of Representatives
Andy McCarthy on the current Republican fight over the Speaker of the House election.
GOP Speaker Battle: Opposition to McCarthy, an Analysis | National Review (may require subscription)
I believe the changes they are pushing for would, by and large, be overwhelmingly popular with Republicans and conservatives outside the Washington establishment. John’s aforementioned report captures a good deal of this. The dissenters want, for example, to end the omnibus madness; to reestablish the practice of enacting single-subject bills and of debating and amending bills, including amendments to cut spending; to force votes on raising the debt ceiling and balancing the budget; and to restore the rule that permits a single lawmaker to move for a no-confidence vote that would vacate the speaker’s chair (a change that would induce a speaker to honor his commitments; currently, only leadership can make such a motion, and while McCarthy has offered to reduce it to five members, he hasn’t agreed to shrink it to one member). The dissenters argue that because the House is on a form of cruise control, it abandons its capacity to check the Senate and the executive, and this is perilous for the nation; they therefore owe it to the people they represent to use what leverage they have to restore order.
On this, I agree with them. If I have a criticism, it is that I believe they should be much more explicit in what they are, and have been, demanding. I’m all for the principle that the most fruitful negotiations are those that take place privately, where people can be more frank about what they require and where compromise is possible. But there comes a point when, if you believe you are being misunderstood or misrepresented, clear public statements of your position are essential.
Jonah Goldberg on similar stuff:
What Democracy Looks Like - The Dispatch (may require subscription)
So let’s talk about the spectacle in Congress. The more I think about it, the more I like it. All day I’ve heard people say it’s “embarrassing.” Yeah, sure, it’s embarrassing for Kevin McCarthy, but so what? His reading of Green Eggs and Ham was far more embarrassing. His toadying to Trump—after blaming him for a violent assault on the institution he wants to lead—was infinitely more embarrassing. It’s embarrassing for the GOP, sure. But such embarrassment is not simply warranted—it’s overdue. Some of the most important lessons in life are learned through embarrassment. (Heck, I might not be a columnist today were it not for the fact that my now-friend George Will embarrassed me.)
But Chip Roy was right when he said (I’m paraphrasing), “This is what Congress is supposed to look like.” Congress doesn’t debate anything anymore. But here everyone showed up to debate and vote on who should be speaker.
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Other Stuff
Slightly more people moving out of Colorado than in: Cost of Living: Why more people left Colorado in 2022 than moved in | FOX31 Denver (kdvr.com)
The actual study: 2022 National Movers Study | United Van Lines®
We talked a bit yesterday about why people were leaving but didn't get into the incomes of who's coming and who's going...and that's VERY interesting: There's a large outflow of people earning under $75,000 per year and a large inflow of people earning $150,000 a year or more.
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Maybe this is right but it's a tougher call than many: Denver police Officer Brandon Ramos indicted in LoDo shooting (denverpost.com)
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