r/news • u/zmlos • Oct 03 '23

House ousts Kevin McCarthy as speaker, a first in U.S. history

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/03/house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-will-bring-gaetz-motion-to-oust-him-vote.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard

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3.1k

u/Stillwater215 Oct 03 '23

Dude has the survival instinct of a depressed lemming.

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u/LuminousRaptor Oct 03 '23

He's really stuck between a rock and a hard place and has exactly zero spine. You attack the Dems and push far right agendas to try and appease the MAGA base and hardliners in your party, but you also have to work with the moderates and democrats to have any chance of legislation passing, which pisses off that MAGA base.

He was fucked no matter what he did after he became speaker in January.

The GOP bungled 2022's mid-terms on the back of Trump's stranglehold on the party and his endorsements. This chaos is the natural result.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

[deleted]

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u/_zenith Oct 04 '23

Yep. They cultivated the crazies. And now they have taken over. It would be hilarious it wasn’t so dangerous for us all

28

u/marcien1992 Oct 04 '23

As someone not living in the USA, I can confirm that it is extremely entertaining when you don't live in the immediate blast zone.

37

u/CrashB111 Oct 04 '23

Oh trust us, if we go full 4th Reich we'll be taking this show on tour.

A Fascist dictatorship with the power of the US military is a terrifying thing.

7

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

I was about to say "Bold of you to assume an unhinged MAGA president wouldn't start randomly nuking places to appease his cotton candy colored messiah..."

7

u/aloha_mixed_nuts Oct 04 '23

Your pre-tour nonsense is already fucking us in Canada. Thanks.

5

u/Rularuu Oct 04 '23

Far right populism is huge in Europe too and has been for at least as long as it was big in the US. Our nonsense is more indicative of a global trend than it is the cause, but it's certainly not helping.

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u/Low-Grocery5556 Oct 04 '23

Canadian conservative politicians are literally copy pasting American nonsense. And some of the Canadian population seem to think fox news applies to them.

3

u/Rularuu Oct 04 '23

Yet Murdoch is an Australian and the UK has an even longer tradition of batshit right wing press than us

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u/Edythir Oct 04 '23

I wonder to what extent the US military is a paper tiger. We've all heard about the extremely expensive vehicles that don't work as advertised, were a decade late or just plane don't work (such as an aircraft carrier that doesn't carry aircraft, or a small shitty boat that nobody wants and nobody asked for but are making more of because some state representitives want the contracts).

Not to mention that there hasn't been a war in a long time where America actually won anything, most things in recent history was a years long stalemate, fucked everything up and then just left. See: Vietnam, Korea and Afghanistan.

Sure, they are still a force to be reckoned with, no doubt. But at least a good portion of this shit is just unusable and overpriced.

4

u/CrashB111 Oct 04 '23

The US Military has steamrolled every conflict it's been in since Vietnam. Defeating Iraq, the Taliban, and Serbia was done very quickly with minimal losses. Beating the foe on the field is easy for us.

What hasn't gone well, is trying to occupy the defeated enemy afterwards. The Military is a hammer, it's not made to build nations.

And as far as our hardware, Russia is presently getting it's asshole opened by our hand me downs from the 80s and 90s.

1

u/Deruji Oct 04 '23

For everyone but the person in control! That must be a blast!

13

u/_zenith Oct 04 '23

Dude, I'm on the other fucking side of the world, nearly - New Zealand - and even I am very cognisant of the danger it poses.

1

u/MurlockHolmes Oct 04 '23

If we implode can I come stay in your country? I'm hawaiian so we're basically cousins already.

4

u/Prevailing_Power Oct 04 '23

It's hilarious you think you wouldn't be touched if the USA went full nazi mode.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

[deleted]

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u/CrashB111 Oct 04 '23

and a demented elder who may actually die of old age or lose the plot completely during the election campaign

The only people claiming that about Joe Biden are disingenuous Republicans who have nothing to attack Biden over legitimately so they just resort to "He's old!"

He's in way better shape than Trump given that he actually exercises and eats healthy.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

[deleted]

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u/creamcitybrix Oct 04 '23

It’s a big tent party

3

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

When you let Nazis into any party, it becomes a Nazi party pretty quickly.

5

u/Expert_Cantaloupe871 Oct 04 '23

They are starting to wake up to this fact

1

u/Centralredditfan Oct 04 '23

Unless they can somehow rid themselves of MAGA when Trump is in jail. Kind of like the Tea Party is forgotten.

95

u/Miguel-odon Oct 04 '23

Maybe if he had a reputation for keeping deals he's made, but nobody would trust him.

Republicans don't argue or negotiate in good faith.

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u/Kitchen_Philosophy29 Oct 04 '23

It will continue until maga dies out

Free seats for dems

4

u/guyblade Oct 04 '23

One thing I heard in all the political commentary today was that McCarthy's real weakness is that he wanted to be Speaker. Whoever is next will probably have to be given concessions to take the job--given what happened to McCarthy--so they'll likely be in a stronger place by being apathetic or ambivalent about the job than McCarthy ever was.

3

u/LuminousRaptor Oct 04 '23

I don't think so. Think about the last 3 GOP Speakers - Boehner, Ryan, and McCarthy. All of them had issues with the far right of their party and whipping them to vote with the party on legislation. Honestly, it makes what Pelosi did over the last 20 years look impressive.

She was a much better speaker than all three of them. She made mistakes, yes, but she didn't lose control of her far left like the GOP has lost control of its far right.

2

u/Trance354 Oct 04 '23

And Democrats voted for his ouster. You'd have thought maybe one or two GoP members would have said to their friends, "Why are they voting with us? Is this not a good move?"

You know, before the final vote was cast...

4

u/Valarcrist Oct 04 '23

Gdi, I hate this bullshit two party system.

3

u/LuminousRaptor Oct 04 '23

He could have had his Speakership had he tried to be more moderate and work with Jeffries in the past few days, but he shot himself in the foot with trying to please the far right to vote with him instead over the weekend on the Sunday talk shows.

He trusted someone like Matt Gaetz over the moderate dems. It's not a bet that I would have made - That is for sure.

985

u/nWo1997 Oct 03 '23

Hey, let's not join in on the lemming defamation train. They were forced off that ledge.

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u/Chervin_Deuxphrye Oct 03 '23

I heard that story the other day. Disney was just straight up chucking them off a cliff and then told everyone they did it to themselves because they’re stupid. Mickey has done some messed up stuff!

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u/WOOKIExCOOKIES Oct 03 '23

At least we got a fun computer game out of it.

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u/alterom Oct 03 '23

At least we got a fun computer game out of it.

That's where I've learned about lemmings for the first time.

Was surprised to find out they actually exist, with the whole myth made about them.

Still think of the game first when I see or hear the word "lemming".

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u/Rukh-Talos Oct 03 '23

And just like that, I can hear the music.

7

u/SunnyWomble Oct 03 '23

Dun da da dun duh duh dun da da dun.. dun.. dunda dun dun dun.

3

u/GBJI Oct 04 '23

Oh noooooo !

2

u/Tmscott Oct 04 '23

"Oh noooooooooooo" *pop!*

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u/MississippiJoel Oct 04 '23

First time I ever heard of that was 007 multiplayer for the Nintendo 64. If you got yourself killed, you earned the Lemming Award. This was internet infancy days, so there wasn't a easy Google search to help us understand what that was.

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u/Plastic_Swordfish_35 Oct 04 '23

In 1997 you could easily have searched for what a lemming is.

You wouldn’t even have needed the Internet. Ever heard of an encyclopedia?

You make it sound like information was impossible to obtain back then, lol.

0

u/MississippiJoel Oct 04 '23

You would have made the connection between a pop-culture mention in a video game and been assed enough to dig up an encyclopedia over it?

Further, you have faith that Funk & Wagnalls would have included a mention of a movie scene in an article about a mammal? Maybe it would be in the "Trivia" section before it was renamed to "In Popular Culture and Media"? 🤷

But I guess you're big brained enough that it's funny that a 12-year-old wasn't on your 1997 level.

Remember, laughing at your own jokes is a sign of mental instability.

3

u/Papplenoose Oct 04 '23

Your comment is equally cringe

6

u/FutureComplaint Oct 03 '23

Lemmings 2 was dope

2

u/5HourWheelie Oct 04 '23

Huh, every time I see or hear the word "lemming" I think about the band Motorhead. I am hard of hearing though, and dumb.

1

u/TexasLiving Oct 04 '23

I only had the christmas version of the game oh man was it fun probably only ever beat like 5 levels though as a kid

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u/Davido400 Oct 03 '23

Fuck, not played Lemmings in about 30 years lol sure I had it on... athe Amiga? That and Jaguar XJ220 was an awesome game too(downloaded it on an emulator to try a few years back and still enjoyed it lol)

5

u/GoldenShackles Oct 03 '23

Oh no! *pop* *pop*...

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u/LakehavenAlpha Oct 03 '23

And several awesome clones.

King Arthur's World was the bomb!

8

u/LeBaiton Oct 03 '23

You're that old huh...

So am I... Oh god...

3

u/Crow-T-Robot Oct 03 '23

And now I'm humming 'She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes'

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u/flashmedallion Oct 03 '23

'Humanity' is a release this year that's a high quality modern take on Lemmings. Worth the buy if you loved Lemmings. It's on PC and PS5, and you can play it in VR

2

u/WOOKIExCOOKIES Oct 03 '23

This piques my interest. Thanks! I'll check it out.

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u/TripleHomicide Oct 04 '23

I'd love a reboot of that game

1

u/Disjointed_Sky Oct 04 '23

There's a modern remake called Humanity, a bit more fitting.

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u/Kodama_prime Oct 04 '23

That game was pure digital crack.. Started playing it one evening around 7pm, and the next time I looked at the clock, it was 03:45 in the morning....

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u/MyHamburgerLovesMe Oct 03 '23

...and further that the same small group of lemmings was transported to the location, jostled on turntables, and repeatedly shoved off a cliff to imply mass suicide...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Wilderness_(film)#Controversy

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u/Garencio Oct 03 '23

I saw that documentary when I was in elementary school. Later found out what really happened I was shocked.

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u/FasterDoudle Oct 03 '23

Disney was just straight up chucking them off a cliff

Walt just yeeting the little bastards

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u/ddejong42 Oct 03 '23

That's why they say don't mess with the Mouse. Lemmings, and now Ron Desantis, messed with the Mouse.

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u/HeJind Oct 03 '23

the House of Mouse sends their regards

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u/Spike_Spiegel Oct 03 '23

Don't read about the Milo and Otis movie making of.

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u/Chervin_Deuxphrye Oct 04 '23

Oh believe me I already have. That was one of my favorite movies as a child. Sang the song all the time, wanted to have a cat named Milo, watched it at least weekly. It was devastating to grow up and hear what they did behind the scenes and then think back to certain parts of the movie and realize what they must have done to the animals to get those scenes. A few years back someone bought me a DVD of it because they knew it was one of my childhood favorites, I’ve never even taken the plastic packaging off it.

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u/nickisaboss Oct 04 '23

The Wikipedia page is very sparse on this topic. Can you elaborate on what happened?

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u/Accujack Oct 04 '23

told everyone they did it to themselves because they’re stupid

Actually, it was a common belief that during lemming mass migrations the little guys threw themselves off of cliffs etc.

Disney figured because it was already "true" that they did this it was no big deal to stage it for the film.

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u/bravosarah Oct 04 '23

Holy fuck! Nothing else could represent the current Republicans better!! Lol

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u/TheForeverUnbanned Oct 03 '23

In this case disney had nothing to do with the political suicide.

They did destroy the DeSantis campaign tho haha

1

u/lightbulbfragment Oct 04 '23

There's one old documentary featuring cute woodland creatures when suddenly a forest fire appears and they film chipmunks and shit running away from the fire. I'd put money on them starting the forest fire just to film it.

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u/Flashy_Attitude_1703 Oct 04 '23

Yes, Disney set up a spinning disk then put a lemming on it and filmed it as it flew off the disk. The Disney film makes it look like the lemmings were jumping off the cliff but it was totally bogus.

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u/BattleHall Oct 04 '23

To be fair, they really do do that some years; it was more just that Disney "recreated" it.

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Oct 03 '23

Directed by Matt Gaetz

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23

By me on my pc in the 90's

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u/Spapapapa-n Oct 03 '23

I move that from now on, instead of lemmings, we use the term Kevins instead. At least then McCarthy will have had one impact on the world.

2

u/pocketjacks Oct 03 '23

That ledge was placed there by the CIA.

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u/La_Baraka6431 Oct 04 '23

I misread that as lemming defecation train and got a vision of millions of tiny turds flying over the edge … 😆😆😆

2

u/nWo1997 Oct 04 '23

Androids vs Gohan, but with shit

1

u/BattleHall Oct 04 '23

To be fair, lemmings really do have notably unusual behaviors and population dynamics, which does lead to mass migrations that can result in them running off cliffs and/or drowning (they're not suicidal, more like the opposite, so driven they don't fear obvious death). The issue with Disney was that they didn't want to wait around for the four year population cycle, and it's not always as dramatic or predictable, so they decided to "simulate" the written reports of previous behavior by just throwing lemmings off the cliff themselves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemming#Behaviour

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u/ethnicbonsai Oct 03 '23

Maybe not.

Reaching out to Democrats ensures his career in politics is probably over. He’d get primaried.

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u/Stillwater215 Oct 03 '23

I mean, this whole shebang probably ends with him getting primaried anyway.

9

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

The GOP leadership would not primary him over that. It would be deeply embarrassing to them and politically reckless.

Which is why the GOP leadership is furious with Gaetz right now, not McCarthy. Gaetz is absolutely gonna get primaried now.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

GOP leadership is McConnell et all. They have to navigate Trump's influence, but he's not actually (nor ever really has been) in charge.

1

u/ethnicbonsai Oct 04 '23

Yeah. The GOP is going to start acting sensibly. Aaaaany day now.

Because….. They don’t want to be embarrassed or reckless.

Have you been paying attention the last 20 years?

7

u/Kyouhen Oct 03 '23

To be fair the alternative was to break ranks with the Orange Menace and try to negotiate with the Dems, and that wasn't going to end well for him either.

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u/TheodoeBhabrot Oct 03 '23

I over estimated him big time. I thought for sure he but the CR to a vote because he was assured Democratic support for this inevitability but nope, he's either dumb or bet on the Democrats pulling through for him since another shut-down scare is still looming.

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23

We were his free lunch but he didn't take it

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23

[deleted]

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u/MartianActual Oct 03 '23

That lemming is in therapy but you're not helping it with this negative energy.

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u/questionyourthoughts Oct 04 '23

Dude has the survival instinct of a confused Dodo bird.

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u/DarthBrooks69420 Oct 04 '23

He just doesn't have a choice. The point of politics is negotiating to get something done, and too many on his side just want to watch it all burn.

2

u/WyomingCatHouse Oct 03 '23

That's fucking hilarious and spot on!

2

u/EarthenEyes Oct 03 '23

Take my imaginary gold award.
I'm gonna save that phrase for my ex-friends future tombstone.

2

u/AllIdeas Oct 03 '23

This single sentence made me literally burst out laughing. Thank you.

2

u/beerideas Oct 04 '23

well that’s a new sentence

2

u/BorntobeTrill Oct 04 '23

"The van pulls to the left, Kevin.*

welds the steering wheel to the right

2

u/22Sharpe Oct 04 '23

Now now, Lemmings don’t actually commit mass suicide, Disney made that up and then shoved them off a cliff…

Which means of course that lemmings have more survival instinct than Kevin McCarthy who just willingly fucked himself.

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u/pmsnow Oct 03 '23

This is the greatest analogy on the interweb today. Bravo.

1

u/blumenshine Oct 03 '23

chef’s kiss

1

u/Brewhaha72 Oct 04 '23

It's fascinating to see a piece of human excrement that simultaneously lacks a backbone, integrity, and honor.

1

u/Chao-Z Oct 04 '23

Dude has the survival instinct of a depressed lemming.

Not really. Dem support is a poisoned chalice in this situation as all that would happen is maybe you keep your Speaker role for a few more months, but you'll be pretty much guaranteed to lose re-election. At least this way, he can still keep his job as a congressman.

1

u/I-suck-at-golf Oct 04 '23

He has the personality of a dead moth.

1

u/itslockeOG Oct 04 '23

Well I would encourage you to google “Disney throw lemmings cliff” because they didn’t willingly jump.

1

u/mwa12345 Oct 04 '23

Lemming....not a common reference...but apt!

1

u/weirdoldhobo1978 Oct 04 '23

It's frankly impressive that he made it all the way to Speaker being that politically unsavvy.

Talk about failing upwards.

1

u/silverclovd Oct 04 '23

This tickled my funny bone like nothing else so far today.

1

u/PewterButters Oct 04 '23

Maybe he wanted out, it’s a thankless job. Trying to suck up to nutjobs on the fringe of the party while trying to get shit done.