#pat fallon

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Republicans fear Speaker battle means they "can't certify the election"

Some Republicans are urging President-elect Donald Trump to reaffirm his support for Speaker Mike Johnson.

Some Republican allies of House Speaker Mike Johnson are urging President-elect Donald Trump to publicly reaffirm support for him to avoid a lengthy battle to replace him that could delay the certification of Trump's election victory in January.

Newsweek has contacted spokespeople for Trump and Johnson for comment via email outside usual business hours.

WHY IT MATTERS

The first vote of the new House, when lawmakers are sworn in on January 3, is on electing a speaker. Then, on January 6, the House will meet to certify the results of the 2024 election.

Republicans elected Johnson as House Speaker in October 2023 after they were unable to agree on a replacement for three weeks after ousting the last speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

But Johnson is now facing a rebellion from House Republicans over his handling of government funding. The GOP's slim majority in the lower chamber means Johnson can afford few defections if he wants to keep his hold on the gavel.

WHAT TO KNOW

It is not clear whether Trump is still backing Johnson after a stopgap spending bill passed Congress last week without the president-elect's core debt demands in the package.

A bipartisan bill pushed by Johnson had failed on Wednesday after criticism from Trump and Elon Musk.

The president-elect demanded that a provision raising the nation's debt limit be included in the legislation. Republicans complied, but the Trump-backed bill failed overwhelmingly in a House vote on Thursday evening.

Trump told Fox News Digital on Thursday that Johnson would "easily remain speaker" for the next Congress if he "acts decisively and tough" to eliminate "all of the traps being set by Democrats" in the spending package.

An amended bill without the debt provision passed the House on Friday, and was passed by the Senate early on Saturday, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown before Christmas.

Johnson told reporters after Friday's vote that Trump was "certainly happy" with the final deal, though the president-elect has not indicated as much.

And he told ABC News last Tuesday that he is "not worried about the speaker's vote."

"These are the hard choices that lawmakers have to make, but we will get the job done, as we always do. We will. We will keep moving forward, and in January, we have a new lease on all this," Trump said.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Representative Carlos Gimenez, a Florida Republican, told Fox News Digital: "If we have some kind of protracted fight where we can't elect a speaker—the speaker's not elected; we're not sworn in. And if we're not sworn in, we can't certify the election."

Representative Claudia Tenney, a New York Republican, told the outlet: "To ensure President Trump can take office and hit the ground running on January 20, we must be able to certify the 2024 election on January 6. However, without a speaker, we cannot complete this process."

Representative Pat Fallon, a Republican from Texas, told the outlet: "Any time would be great, but right after Christmas if President Trump said, 'You know, listen'—it would even be really cool if somehow Mike Johnson ended up at Mar-a-Lago for Christmas … wherever the president is."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on MSNBC's Inside With Jen Psaki on Sunday that there's a "real risk" that Johnson will fail to win reelection on January 3. "There will be no Democrats available to save him or the extreme MAGA Republicans from themselves based on the breaching of a bipartisan agreement that reflected priorities that were good for the American people."

Trump wrote on Truth Social early Friday: "Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President."

WHAT'S NEXT

While Johnson is facing opposition from some, he remains the favorite to continue as House speaker in January.

Representative Thomas Massie has said he will vote against Johnson's reelection on January, and several other Republicans say they are undecided, Axios reported.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Republicans threaten to punish colleges that allow pro-Palestinian protests

Exclusive: in video, House majority leader outlines plan of attack on universities that fail to quash criticism of Israel

Ed Pilkington at The Guardian:

Top Republicans are threatening to pull billions of dollars of federal funding from some of the most prestigious universities in the US, stripping them of official accreditation to punish them for allowing pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses. The Guardian has reviewed a video recording of a meeting in Washington last week between House majority leader Steve Scalise and the powerful pro-Israel lobby group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). In it, Scalise outlined how he planned to unleash a massive attack against universities that fail to squash criticism of Israel. The offensive, which would be coordinated with the White House should Donald Trump win the presidential race in November, could even threaten the existence of universities, Scalise warned. He talked about revoking accreditation, the system by which higher education institutions are approved and to which the bulk of federal funds are tied. “Your accreditation is on the line,” Scalise said. “You’re not playing games any more, or else you’re not a school any more.”

The Aipac meeting was held on 1 October, and was attended by Scalise and his fellow Republican congressman, Pat Fallon from Texas. The event was ostensibly billed as a discussion on the spread of antisemitism in the US since the start of the Gaza conflict on 7 October last year, when Hamas killed 1,200 people inside Israel and took 250 hostage.

The attack sparked the Israeli offensive, which has destroyed much of the Palestinian territory and killed almost 42,000 people, according to local health authorities. The fall-out continues to roil campuses and cities throughout the US. Latest FBI figures show that the monthly rate of hate crimes against Jewish people in the US spiked in the aftermath of 7 October from 103 offenses in September 2023 to 389 in November. Anti-Muslim incidents have also surged. Despite the Aipac-Scalise meeting’s framing on antisemitism, most of the talk was about how to crush criticism of Israel’s military operation in Gaza. There was no attempt during the hour-long conversation to distinguish hatred of Jews from pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli government sentiments. Aipac is the most influential pro-Israel lobby group in the US. It has a $100m war chest to spend on the election this year, and is using that muscle to support political candidates that back the actions of the Israeli government and oppose those who are critical.

This summer Aipac invested $23m in unseating in primary contests two core members of the progressive Democratic group the “squad”, Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri. The pair had called for a ceasefire in Gaza and have highlighted the death toll of civilians there. Fallon praised Aipac for intervening in the races. “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for firing Jamaal Bowman, and even more so, Miss Cori Bush. Great work,” he said. “That’s accountability, by the way,” Scalise added. He further commended Aipac for having “tentacles throughout the Republican and Democrat circles in 435 districts. You can see how people are voting – just put the pressure on those who are voting the wrong way.” Scalise reserved his most potent threats for universities that in his view have failed to quash anti-Israel protests. He told Aipac that a second Trump administration would wield federal purse strings to punish the schools.

“We’re looking at federal money, the federal grants that go through the science committee, student loans. You have a lot of jurisdiction as president, with all of these different agencies that are involving billions of dollars, some cases a billion alone going to one school,” Scalise said. The congressman from Louisiana is the second highest-ranking Republican in the House. He has travelled to Israel several times on trips paid for by the American Israel Education Fund, a group created by Aipac. Scalise singled out Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, which have been rattled by the controversy over student protests around the Gaza war. Penn’s president Elizabeth Magill resigned last December and Harvard’s Claudine Gay a month later after they were accused of being evasive under Republican questioning about how they would respond to calls for the genocide of Jews. Columbia’s president Minouche Shafik stepped down in August after also facing criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protest encampments.

The Guardian has a exclusive report that Republicans plan to punish universities that allow pro-Palestinian protests by defunding such universities under the guise of "stopping antisemitism” but in reality serve as an attack on pro-Palestinian speech.

[nodynasty4us]

Yet Another House Republican Now Under Ethics Committee Investigation

He wants to strip the right to vote from residents of Washington, D.C. and thinks the undocumented should have no path to citizenship. He wants a constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance the budget every year but opposes taxing the rich more. He thinks Americans should have an absolute right to gun ownership, …

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), investigated for unreported stock trades.

[thecapitolradar]

Watch "House Republicans downplay Jan. 6 Capitol attack" on YouTube

Proof that Pat Fallon, Andrew Clyde, Ralph Norman, Jody Hice, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Clay Higgins are January 6 apologists.

[bighermie]

House Build Back Better Bill Includes $600 IRS Reporting Provision

The Build Back Better Act includes a provision requiring banks to turn information over to the IRS on accounts with $600 annual transactions.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Republican Rep. Pat Fallon failed to properly disclose more than 90 stock transactions worth as much as $17.53 million in apparent violation

Fallon, who sits on the House Armed Services panel, bought and sold shares of 14 companies in the first four months of 2021.

[scottwellsmagic]

822: Pat Fallon - Magically Delicious

From Dublin, Ireland, Pat Fallon joins us as we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day a little early this week. Pat is a performer of the highest rank, Member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star. He is a stage performer as well as performing close-up and his venues are weddings, corporate trade shows, children’s parties, and grand theaters across Great Britain. Pat usually stays within the borders of the U.K. but is known outside his country for his lectures and creativity and good sense of humor.

In this episode, Pat tells us how Ireland celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, also he chats about working at weddings in Ireland and why he doesn’t like performing aboard cruise ships.

Download this podcast in an MP3 file by Clicking Here and then right click to save the file. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed by Clicking Here. You can download or listen to the podcast through Pandora and SiriusXM (formerly Stitcher) by Clicking Here or through FeedPress by Clicking Here or through Tunein.com by Clicking Here or through iHeart Radio by Clicking Here. If you have a Spotify account, then you can also hear us through that app, too. You can also listen through your Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. Remember, you can download it through the iTunes store, too. See the preview page by Clicking Here.

[wwwdotideasnmoredotnet]

Kick Start Your Creativity

Some times we all need a kick in the pants to get our creative juices to start flowing. Perhaps the attachments in this post will help in that regard. I wrote these years ago in preparation for some speaking engagements. Given their nature, I’d bet they’re still valid today. Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time! Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal…

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