We are witnessing what the Bokononists call a Pool-pah

According to the scripture found in the Books of Bokonon, a Pool-pah is defined as a "shit storm" or "the wrath of God." Either will do as far as I am concerned as we witness the latest round of House GOP incompetence (with a significant assist from Trump and shadow president Musk). As of now, we are staring down yet another government shutdown, and I will have to double check the calendar for the last day that the debt ceiling needs to be raised, but also the debt ceiling being breached, thus tanking the global economy. We have some real stable geniuses running this circus. 

Here's the sitch: The US House of Representatives has a GOP majority this session that is wafer thin (currently 221 GOP - 214 Dem). It will be an even thinner majority come January when the new Congressional Session starts (220 GOP - 215 Dem, with some seats already vacated thus further narrowing the majority). Any House Speaker, regardless of who he or she is, will have to accept that most must-pass legislation will require Democratic Party votes. Unfortunately, behaving in a way that shows acceptance of that reality can get a Speaker fired. We saw that once earlier on in the session when Kevin McCarthy was ousted. I honestly don't know if the current Speaker, Johnson, will fare any better once all is said and done. In many respects, I tend to view the fate of a GOP House Speaker as something of little interest. The numbers are going to remain about the same no matter what, and any Speaker will have to make a deal with the Democratic majority. This is especially important when there is a significant extremist flank in the GOP that will vote no on just about any bill that might be even remotely acceptable to their Democratic colleagues. In its current iteration, the GOP is not exactly a disciplined political party, and it shows. 

Bottom line is that those budget bills will need the blessing of enough Democratic Congress members in order to pass and go on to the Senate. The same basic calculus will hold next session. The Senate may be a bit friendlier to whomever is Speaker, but the math will still be grim for Johnson or his successor(s). Trump and Musk decided to demonstrate that both are dumber than a bag of hammers and leaned into their supposed "mandate" without the votes to make that happen, blew up a continuing resolution that was negotiated in a bipartisan fashion, and for what? A government shutdown will be more expensive than simply passing the continuing resolution at this point. We have learned yet again this evening that a political party with very narrow margins cannot simply negotiate with itself and win the day. For a little while longer, they still have to deal with a Democratically controlled White House and Senate. Even the GOP begins to take over the Senate at the start of January and the White House a few weeks thereafter, the House will still have to negotiate in a bipartisan manner. Else nothing gets done, including the must-pass budget bills that we all rely on, whether we want to acknowledge that fact or not. The bill that went down in flames tonight was a real dud. We'll be glad it didn't pass. In all likelihood, any ensuing government shutdown will be blamed on the GOP, meaning Trump and what I guess is co-president Musk will also receive some much-deserved blowback. 

In the meantime, I guess we continue to witness this particular pool-pah unfold. We live in interesting times, folks.

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