#spartz

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Two disillusioned House Republicans unloaded on their vengeful leadership for inadvertently making a hero out of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar by publicly stripping her of a high-profile committee assignment in what one deemed the "stupidest vote in the world."

The not-so-private condemnation of Speaker Kevin McCarthy's campaign to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs panel happened after Republicans clinched the retaliatory strike on a party-line vote of 218-211.

As they rode the elevator away from the House floor, congressional newspaper Roll Call reported that Foreign Affairs Committee GOP member Ken Buck and Republican Rep. Mike Simpson reflected on what had just transpired and decided it was a boneheaded move.

After Buck decreed it the "stupidest" political move, Simpson said the expulsion would probably make the Minnesota Democrat into a "martyr."

After airing their grievances, the pair reportedly asked those around them "not to let leadership know their thoughts."

Buck and Simpson's offices did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The polarizing ouster only fell into place after McCarthy won over a handful of Republicans who had voiced objections to the effort — including Republican Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — by promising to reform internal punishment procedures moving forward.

Incensed Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York denounced the entire process as hypocrisy writ large.

"Don't tell me that this is about a condemnation of anti-Semitic remarks, when you have a member of the Republican caucus who has talked about Jewish space lasers, and also elevated her to some of the highest committee assignments in this body," Ocasio-Cortez said on the floor, referring to Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. "This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America."

[tomorrowusa]

Several months late, the aid package for Ukraine passed in the House of Representatives. All voting Democrats voted YEA while a majority of Republicans voted NAY.

You can see how your Representative voted here.

The most unseemly vote came from Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05). She is the only House member born in Ukraine yet she voted against saving her native land from genocidal Russian invaders. She is trying to out-MAGA a primary opponent by showing GOP voters in Indiana's 5th district how irrationally pro-Trump she is. She's an example of how many Republicans office holders have put pleasing Trump ahead of personal beliefs and morality.

This vote is clearly a loss for Donald Trump and is a bigger loss for his boss Vladimir Putin.

HR 8035 now heads back to the Senate to reconcile minor differences and should be approved Tuesday. President Biden will expeditiously sign it into law and aid can then immediately flow to Ukraine.

US House approves major military aid package for Ukraine

[worldofwardcraft]

This woman needs professional help.

June 13, 2024

Mental illness appears to be a growing problem in the Republican caucus of the House of Representatives. Members like Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar and others like them spout insane absurdities on a near-daily basis, while the media ignore the fact that anyone else doing so would be institutionalized for their own good.

Boebert, for example, is a devotee of the Q-anon conspiracy that believes in a secret army of cannibal pedophiles connected to the movie industry and Democrats. While a deranged Greene compared Donald Trump to Jesus at a rally on Sunday: "Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon, and he was murdered on a Roman cross."

But no one more exemplifies the psychological impairment throughout the House GOP than Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana (pictured above listening to the voices in her head). Born in Ukraine, Spartz is well known for her impassioned opposition to Russia's invasion of her native country. In 2022, she called it “genocide." Yet, when a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine came up for a vote in April, she irrationally voted against it.

But it seems Spartz also has a darker, even more unhinged side. According to a new report by The Daily Mail, there are credible accusations the congresswoman treats her staff in ways that are described as "manic" and "verbally abrasive, if not downright abusive." Notes the report,

Two former aides said Spartz was known to "throw furniture" at her staff and she was known to blow up at them at both public or private events.

Sources told the Mail that one screaming match between Spartz and her 2021 chief of staff sent others fleeing the room. Unsurprisingly, the House Ethics Committee has made preliminary inquiries into Spartz’s conduct toward her staff in response to multiple complaints filed alleging “abuse,” “general toxicity,” and “rage.”

Interviews with half a dozen employees revealed that she "avoided firing staff and instead bullied them until they left.” One current staffer quoted by Politico said, “That’s a weekly thing. It’s not rare. All my interactions with her have been filled with complete and total rage.” No wonder both her chief of staff and her communications director resigned the same day.

Sadly, Spartz isn't the only Republican member of Congress who can't control their aberrant behavior. Between November 2023 and the following February, every member of South Carolina representative Nancy Mace's staff quit due to her "toxic" and "abusive" work culture. Maybe it's time for the House to establish a mental health unit.

[simply-ivanka]

U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz, the first and only Ukrainian-born member of Congress, emerged early on as a natural advocate for supporting her native country in its war with Russia. But when $61 billion in additional support for the war effort came up for a vote in the House recently, she voted against it.

Instead she has called for better oversight of U.S. funds and opposed giving “blank checks” to the Ukrainian cause. She says U.S. border security should be a bigger priority.

[missriyochuchi]

Ungentle reminder that House Speaker is elected by 50% + 1 of those who vote by name. That’s why when Spartz, a Republican, voted “present” on the fourth ballot, the threshold fell from 218 to 217. That means that theoretically and mathematically, 10 more Republicans could vacate or vote “present” to lower the number further to Jeffries’s 212.

It’s a total pipe dream, I know, but given that neither McCarthy nor the 20 hardliners don’t seem to have budged at all and we’re potentially looking at more days without a functioning branch of government who aren’t getting paid btw, then it’s not impossible to imagine the intraparty hate and resentment deepen to a point where some Republicans are willing to vote simply to keep the other Republicans out of power.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

As someone who has been in the Harry Potter fandom since the 2000s, it becomes obvious that what really made the power go to J.K. Rowling's head wasn't her new fame and fortune - but rather, how the Harry Potter fandom practically worshipped her as a god when the books were still coming out. If you look at old interviews with J.K. Rowling and Emerson Spartz of MuggleNet, and Melissa Anelli of "The Leaky Cauldron" website, Rowling and her PR team specifically curated these interviews - much like with "The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling" - to only see and praise her in a good light. (Spartz was a fanatical JKR supporter in particular, even going as far as to mock and attack Harry/Hermione, or Harmony, shippers "on her behalf". Rowling laughed at it.)

The Harry Potter fandom and their militant support for J.K. Rowling as a deity-like figure in the 2000s, simply because she wrote the Harry Potter books, really went to Rowling's head. It's also probably where she gets this idea of, "I read my most recent royalty cheques, and find the pain goes away pretty quickly." She genuinely still believes that the Harry Potter fandom still supports her, and still has her back, because she still thinks that fans are putting her on a pedestal. However, in the 2000s, most of these fans were teenagers and young adults who didn't know any better, and weren't mature enough to see how this was unhealthy, for both them and Rowling.

However, I've encountered this issue before in the realm of YA authors and the book community in general, and what J.K. Rowling doesn't realize is that the only reason why Harry Potter fans supported her at the time was simply because she wrote the Harry Potter books - and was continuing to write the series at that time. They didn't care about J.K. Rowling, the person - they cared about J.K. Rowling, the content provider, who kept providing them new Harry Potter content. They only cared about her because she was writing new Harry Potter books.

Once Rowling finished the Harry Potter series, and started writing her adult mystery books, readers' interest in Rowling as a content provider dropped off sharply, and they lost interest, to the point where she had to publicly reveal that she was "Robert Galbraith" in order to boost flagging book sales. It became clear that people only cared about her Harry Potter series.

I feel this is also why J.K. Rowling's slide in to TERFdom is not only performative and self-seeking, but that the people who claim to support her only do so solely because she's anti-transgender. Much like with the Harry Potter fandom - which only cared about J.K. Rowling, in the sense that she was providing them new Harry Potter books and content - TERFs only care about J.K. Rowling because she supports being a TERF. Most TERFs don't actually seem to care about her as a person, and as such, I think J.K. Rowling is seeing them as a misplaced source of support.

It's also worth noting that J.K. Rowling seems to have sought out the TERF community to fill in the gap left by Harry Potter fans, and the fandom at-large, increasingly distancing themselves - or growing and maturing beyond - their single-minded support of J.K. Rowling. For years, Rowling had her ego constantly stroked and fed by Harry Potter fans, to the point that she internalized her entire sense of self-worth on "being the author of Harry Potter" and providing content to people. Or, in the mind of J.K. Rowling: "Without Harry Potter, who am I? What is my purpose?"

Unfortunately, Rowling decided that her new "purpose" was fighting "trans rights activists".

When the Fantastic Beasts film franchise - which J.K. Rowling co-wrote the scripts for - crashed and burned, and her attempt to win back Harry Potter fans and the fandom with new Harry Potter-based content failed, she turned to a new echo chamber for self-validation instead: TERFdom. The TERFdom provided easy and lazy source of validation for Rowling, as instead of putting in actual work to create new Harry Potter books and scripts, she can just rest on her laurels, and occasionally post low-effort tweets that she can post instead, and which garner her a lot of attention. Rowling tunes out all of the negative attention, and only focuses on those praising her, or even worshipping her as their own "Personal Jesus" - the same as she did back in the 2000s with her Harry Potter interviews, and then later on, with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

The Harry Potter TV show reboot on HBO Max is now Rowling's third attempt - if not fourth, counting the travesty that was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - to either try and win back the Harry Potter fandom, or to create a new Harry Potter fandom by exposing Gen Z and Gen Alpha to the series. However, things have changed a lot since the 2000s, and that includes far more support for LGBT rights, so I feel like this third attempt is going to backfire horribly on her.

quoted (but not formatted as a quote because it's too long for the new tumblr engine) from the comments to the r/Contrapoints thread on her 2023 JK Rowling video, a striking takedown/analysis of why it seems the author of Harry Potter has gone so far and so fast off the deep end away from the core principles that initially made her work so popular with a western millennial and down YA audience

[reality-detective]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟯𝟵 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗜𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 (𝗧𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘀)

1. Ruben Gallego

2. Debbie Lesko

3. Tony Cardenas

4. Anna Eshoo

5. Barbara Lee

6. Grace F. Napolitano

7. Katie Porter

8. Adam Schiff

9. Ken Buck

10. Lisa Blunt Rochester

11. Jim Banks

12. Victoria Spartz

13. John Sarbanes

14. David Trone

15. Dan Kildee

16. Elissa Slotkin

17. Dean Phillips

18. Andy Kim

19. Brian Higgins

20. George Santos

21. Dan Bishop

22. Jeff Jackson

23. Bill Johnson

24. Brad Wenstrup

25. Earl Blumenauer

26. Colin Allred

27. Michael C. Burgess

28. Kay Granger

29. Sheila Jackson Lee

30. Abigail Spanberger

31. Jennifer Wexton

32. Derek Kilmer

33. Alex Mooney

34. Joe Manchin

35. Tom Carper

36. Mike Braun

37. Ben Cardin

38. Mitt Romney

39. Debbie Stabenow

- Ezra A. Cohen

[grumpycakes]

So as the house gets warmed up to go let me give a few updates I found out!

Voting Present LOWERS the number necessary to win, so it SHOULD be 219 with the full house but because Spartz votes Present it's 218

ARGUABLY if more Republicans vote Present but the 20 stick to their guns, the Democrats COULD win with 212 but Republicans don't want that

Buck who left for a non emergency medical procedure yesterday may not be back

We're starting up with only 275 reps present cause it's more than half but YIKES. Though I would assume more are showing up

a Californian Republican just got up to nominate McCarthy just to see how fast he loses. He's saying it's NOT ABOUT McCARTHY. FRIENDO YEAH IT IS. Lolll he's talking about serving the country with "Pure and Selfless intent~" and like idfk if any human can do taht.

ughghg the Republicans also keep bringing up fentinol overdoses and immigration and how it's going UnChEcKeD while we vote.

oh interesting, he thanked the national police (happily everyone got up and clapped for them) to pretend like Republicans care AT ALL about them.

... Sir why we talking about China, I don't think this is gonna move anybody you wanna move???

Jesus, he's trying to scare ppl into voting together cause the world is in DANGERRRR but like, THESE ARE THE PPL THAT REFUSED TO WEAR A MASK CAUSE IT MADE THEM UNCOMFY while people DIED. So loll ur talking for nothing sir. Hahahaha he's like, I agree w you shits but I WOrk w OtHeRsss and that's how you gotta WoRk!!! lolll

Oh here we go, telling the Dems they're on the EDGE of a VERY IMPORTANT VICTORY. Loll sure you lil dipshit. OH OH RUDE he just said, looking to the Dems I realize i haven't met many of you cause you're not here, voting by proxy. WOW, rumbles in the crowd and then the Clerk had to bang the gavel and be like HEY, UR SUPPOSED TO DIRECT COMMENTS TO THE BENCH.

Ur useless dude, this is too long of a speech. And stupidly blaming all of it on the Dems

South Carolina Rep is up for the Democrats

Awww he thanked the Clerk who's been running this circus and all the Dems rose and the Clerk smiled and mouthed thank you.

He's talking about learning lessons and working to be a better govt but flowery-er. Ah okay he's bringing up Jan 6. Resiliency. USA was made for liberty, justice, and freedom. Pointing out that it's the first time in over 100 years that they can't figure out who to vote for. The goodness of the american people is at stake??? Jeffries is a good dude i guess lol.

Oh lord almighty Gaetz is up and saying HE TAKES EXCEPTION TO THE CALIFORNIA REPS STATEMENTSSS. LOLL oh shit and he's saying that McCarthy is only speaker if he GETS THE VOTES and he DON'T HAVE THE VOTES. And he's saying it's vanity making McCarthy keep going. LOLL AND I THINK THE DEMS CLAPPED FOR THAT. hahaha ppl are yelling at him and order had to be called. HAHAH Gaetz just called him LaBron James but that would mean that McCarthy was a WINNER AT SOME POINT.

Oh dude don't fucking bring up PURITY you lily white fuck. Damn he's just calling out his own party. He's saying their intentions when trying to negotiate w him weren't PUUUREEE. Again humans, nothings gonna be pure my dude.

Mr SQUINTS IS BACK!!!

Bottom line, they don't trust McCarthy, saying it's for the ppl

WOAH WAIT HE JUST NOMINATED JIM JORDAN AGAIN, NO

Boebert is up to nominate Hern. She keeps pointing out that he was unanimously voted as chairman for something and that he's gonna be united. Blahblahblah inflation, republican talking points. Oh yay quickly ended

OH SHIT AND WE'RE VOTING ROUND 12!!!

[antidrumpfs]

Who voted to keep Santos in the House?

REPUBLICONS:

Alford, Missouri

Arrington, Texas

Babin, Texas

Baird, Indiana

Banks, Indiana

Bean, Florida

Biggs, Arizona

Bilirakis, Florida

Bishop, North Carolina

Boebert, Colorado

Bost, Illinois

Brecheen, Oklahoma

Buchanan, Florida

Burchett, Tennessee

Burlison, Missouri

Cammack, Florida

Carl, Alabama

Carter, Texas

Cline, Virginia

Cloud, Texas

Clyde, Georgia

Collins, Georgia

Crane, Arizona

Davidson, Ohio

DesJarlais, Tennessee

Donalds, Florida

Duncan, South Carolina

Emmer, Minnesota

Ezell, Mississippi

Fallon, Texas

Finstad, Minnesota

Fischbach, Minnesota

Fitzgerald, Wisconsin

Fleischmann, Tennessee

Fry, South Carolina

Fulcher, Idaho

Gaetz, Florida

Gallagher, Wisconsin

Good, Virginia

Gooden, Texas

Gosar, Arizona

Graves, Missouri

Greene, Georgia

Griffith, Virginia

Hageman, Wyoming

Harris, Maryland

Harshbarger, Tennessee

Hern, Oklahoma

Higgins, Louisiana

Hill, Arkansas

Huizenga, Michigan

Hunt, Texas

Issa, California

Jackson, Texas

Johnson, Louisiana

Jordan, Ohio

Kelly, Mississippi

Kustoff, Tennessee

LaMalfa, California

Lamborn, Colorado

Lee, Florida

Lesko, Arizona

Loudermilk, Georgia

Luetkemeyer, Missouri

Luna, Florida

Luttrell, Texas

Mace, South Carolina

Massie, Kentucky

Mast, Florida

McCaul, Texas

McClintock, California

McCormick, Georgia

McHenry, North Carolina

Miller, Illinois

Miller, West Virginia

Mills, Florida

Moolenaar, Michigan

Mooney, West Virginia

Moore, Alabama

Nehls, Texas

Norman, South Carolina

Ogles, Tennessee

Palmer, Alabama

Perry, Pennsylvania

Posey, Florida

Reschenthaler, Pennsylvania

Rogers, Alabama

Rosendale, Montana

Roy, Texas

Salazar, Florida

Santos, New York

Scalise, Louisiana

Self, Texas

Sessions, Texas

Smith, Missouri

Smith, Nebraska

Spartz, Indiana

Stefanik, New York

Steube, Florida

Strong, Alabama

Tenney, New York

Tiffany, Wisconsin

Timmons, South Carolina

Turner, Ohio

Van Duyne, Texas

Van Orden, Wisconsin

Walberg, Michigan

Waltz, Florida

Weber, Texas

Williams, Texas

Wilson, South Carolina

Wittman, Virginia

DEMOCRATS:

Scott, Virginia

Williams, Georgia

Who voted "present"?

DEMOCRATS:

Al Green, Texas

Jackson, Illinois

Who didn't vote?

DEMOCRATS:

Jackson Lee, Texas

Ocasio-Cortez, New York

Phillips, Minnesota

REPUBLICONS:

Crawford, Arkansas

Johnson, Ohio

Kelly, Pennsylvania

McCarthy, California

Rodgers, Washington

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Update: Kevin McCarthy has, for a sixth time, lost his bid to become Speaker of the House, with the votes in the sixth round of voting unchanged from the fourth and fifth.

After three rounds of voting Tuesday, Kevin McCarthy was still more than a dozen votes short in his quest to become Speaker of the House. After three more ballots on Wednesday, only one person’s mind had changed, a previous McCarthy supporter who switched her vote to “present.”

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida accepted a nomination to be the Republican alternative and picked up 20 votes in the fourth round, while Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted “present” on the fourth ballot. As a result, the House went to a fifth round of voting, where the outcome was exactly the same, down to Spartz’s “present” vote. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries won the support of all 212 Democrats and a plurality of all votes cast, but no candidate achieved the necessary majority to win.

And for McCarthy, his chances of winning what is sure to be the worst job in America appear to be slipping even further away.

Supporters and opponents of McCarthy traded personal barbs as the stalemate continued. Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, a House Freedom Caucus member, nominated McCarthy for the fifth speaker vote. He then rattled off a list of demands that McCarthy had met from conservative House rebels seeking to sink his bid to become Speaker, and said support from him and other Republicans, such as Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, was proof McCarthy was conservative enough for the job.

“As I’ve listened to my friends, 20 of whom have opposed Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, the root issue is this—they do not trust Kevin McCarthy,” said Davidson, who last year compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. “Right now, there are a lot of my colleagues that don’t trust 20 or more of my fellow Republicans.”

Following a brief speech in support of Jeffries from Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado rose to once again nominate Donalds. Boebert conceded that McCarthy had met the holdouts on some demands, but questioned if McCarthy was the right person for the job if he hadn’t suggested those reforms himself.

Boebert also confirmed that former President Donald Trump had encouraged her to capitulate and vote for McCarthy.

“Let’s stop with the campaign smears and tactics to get people to turn against us, even having my favorite president call us and tell us we need to knock this off,” Boebert said.

“I think it actually needs to be reversed,” she continued. “The President needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that sir, you do not have the votes, and it’s time to withdraw.”

After the fifth round, Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida rose to speak and nominated McCarthy yet again, for a sixth time. “It’s Groundhog’s day,” Cammack said.

Still, it’s not getting any better for McCarthy. Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, another House conservative, voted for McCarthy five straight times. But in an interview with CNN, however, Buck suggested McCarthy should consider stepping away in favor of Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the #2 House Republican. He also said he wasn’t committed to continuing to vote for McCarthy after five rounds of voting. 

“Stay tuned and I’ll let you know what I’m doing in the future,” Buck said.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

HERE ARE THE OFFICE NUMBERS OF THE 20 REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED AGAINST JIM JORDAN ON FIRST BALLOT -

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON:

Bacon - (202) 225-4155, (402) 938-0300

Buck - (202) 225-4676, (720) 639-9165

Chavez - (202) 225-5711, (503) 387-8651

D'Esposito -(202) 225-5516, (516) 739-3008

Diaz-Balter - (202) 225-8576, (305) 470-8555

Ellzy - (202) 225-2002, (903) 602-7860

Garbino - (202) 225-7896, (631) 541-4225

Gimenez - (202) 225-2778, (305) 222-0160

Gonzalez - (202) 225-2531, (956) 682-5545

Granger - (202) 225-5071, (817) 338-0909 

James - (202) 225-4961, (586) 498-7122

Kelly - (202) 225-5406, (724) 342-7170 

Kiggans - (202) 225-4215, (757) 364-7650 

LaLota - (202) 225-3826, (631) 289-1097 

LaMalfa - (202) 225-3076, (530) 223-5898 

Lawler - (202) 225-6506, (845) 743-7130 

Rutherford - (202) 225-2501, (904) 831-5205 

Simpson - (202) 225-5531, (208) 334-1953 

Spartz - (202) 225-2276, (317) 848-0201 

Womack - (202) 225-4301, (479) 464-0446

[mariacallous]

I’m fascinated by what’s being discussed with Spartz

[nonyayo2]

It's Bullsh*t! Based Rep. Spartz DESTROYS Biden following the State of t...

[merrymorningofmay]

god please take all of timothy snyder's suffering and give it to victoria spartz

[nostalgebraist]

Spartz left before dessert, which he called “a low return on investment, calorically.”