24 Republicans voted for $280 billion fascist Chips and Science Act in July 2022 even though they didn't need to, latest award goes to Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co.

 The July 2022 roll call vote is here.

TSMC’s Arizona subsidiary is set to receive up to $6.6 billion in U.S. government funding under a preliminary agreement announced by the Biden administration on Monday. 

The funding, under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, will support Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s more than $65 billion investment in three cutting-edge fabrication plants in Phoenix, according to the nonbinding agreement.

More.

Dunderheads Peter Meijer and Fred Upton from Michigan voted for the bill, in addition to other has-beens like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.

 

 

Michigan's Republican US House members Jack Bergman, Peter Meijer, and Fred Upton vote to turn on immigration magnet, give citizenship to the adult children of H-1B visa holders, the 1.5 million foreigners who already take jobs from Americans

The Roll Call vote is here.

The story is here.

AmodeiRepublicanNevadaYEA

BairdRepublicanIndianaYEA

BaldersonRepublicanOhioYEA

BarrRepublicanKentuckyYEA

BergmanRepublicanMichiganYEA

BradyRepublicanTexasYEA

BucshonRepublicanIndianaYEA

CammackRepublicanFloridaYEA

Carter (TX)RepublicanTexasYEA

CawthornRepublicanNorth CarolinaYEA

CheneyRepublicanWyomingYEA

ColeRepublicanOklahomaYEA

Davis, RodneyRepublicanIllinoisYEA

Diaz-BalartRepublicanFloridaYEA

DunnRepublicanFloridaYEA

EmmerRepublicanMinnesotaYEA

FallonRepublicanTexasYEA

FitzpatrickRepublicanPennsylvaniaYEA

FloresRepublicanTexasYEA

FoxxRepublicanNorth CarolinaYEA

Garcia (CA)RepublicanCaliforniaYEA

GibbsRepublicanOhioYEA

GimenezRepublicanFloridaYEA

Gonzales, TonyRepublicanTexasYEA

Gonzalez (OH)RepublicanOhioYEA

Gooden (TX)RepublicanTexasYEA

GrangerRepublicanTexasYEA

Graves (LA)RepublicanLouisianaYEA

GuthrieRepublicanKentuckyYEA

Herrera BeutlerRepublicanWashingtonYEA

IssaRepublicanCaliforniaYEA

Jacobs (NY)RepublicanNew YorkYEA

Johnson (OH)RepublicanOhioYEA

Joyce (OH)RepublicanOhioYEA

KatkoRepublicanNew YorkYEA

KellerRepublicanPennsylvaniaYEA

Kim (CA)RepublicanCaliforniaYEA

KinzingerRepublicanIllinoisYEA

LongRepublicanMissouriYEA

MaceRepublicanSouth CarolinaYEA

MalliotakisRepublicanNew YorkYEA

McCaulRepublicanTexasYEA

McHenryRepublicanNorth CarolinaYEA

MeijerRepublicanMichiganYEA

Miller-MeeksRepublicanIowaYEA

Moore (AL)RepublicanAlabamaYEA

NewhouseRepublicanWashingtonYEA

ReschenthalerRepublicanPennsylvaniaYEA

Rice (SC)RepublicanSouth CarolinaYEA

Rogers (AL)RepublicanAlabamaYEA

RouzerRepublicanNorth CarolinaYEA

SalazarRepublicanFloridaYEA

SimpsonRepublicanIdahoYEA

SteelRepublicanCaliforniaYEA

TaylorRepublicanTexasYEA

TenneyRepublicanNew YorkYEA

Thompson (PA)RepublicanPennsylvaniaYEA

TurnerRepublicanOhioYEA

UptonRepublicanMichiganYEA

ValadaoRepublicanCaliforniaYEA

WagnerRepublicanMissouriYEA

Wilson (SC)RepublicanSouth CarolinaYEA

We won't have Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan to kick around anymore

It's amazing how the new Democrat redistricting law was able to bump off a Republican who has been in Congress since 1986 when beating him fair and square in an election never worked.

That said, Bill Huizenga better represents West Michigan conservatism than Upton ever did, but the redrawn district may mean he'll have a tougher time of it in country club Republican Berrien County.

GOP Rep. Fred Upton to retire :

... redistricting put Upton on a collision course with Huizenga for the newly drawn district.

Fred Upton, Republican chucklehead, MI-6, waits until the very last hours of the Trump administration to declare: "But it is time to say: Enough is enough”

What courage! What principle! What restraint!

Upton joined nine other Republicans in the US House, including my own freshman congressman Peter Meijer, Republican chucklehead, MI-3, and all the Democrats, 222 of them, to impeach Trump a second time 232-197. Four Republicans did not vote.

The roll call is here. Upton is quoted here.

Upton, 67, has spent his life as a useless heir to a Whirlpool fortune estimated under $10 million. Once an aspiring journalist with a B.A. in journalism, instead he became a staffer to the libertarian Republican Representative David Stockman in the late 1970s and followed him to OMB under Reagan in the early 1980s. He first ran for Congress in 1986, eleven years after graduating from the U of M. He has been a congressional pest ever since, aren't they all?, who has inflicted on the American people such things as lightbulb bans, eventually styling himself as a moderate.

Meijer, now 33, is embarking on a similar trajectory, but with a gappy resume. Reportedly worth $50 million from the Meijer grocery store chain, Meijer has landed in Congress also after a decade of searching for himself.

Meijer got in to West Point but ignominiously dropped out after one year, became an Army Reservist, and went to Columbia in 2008 where he salvaged himself with a B.A. in anthropology by 2012. He interrupted this period at Columbia with service in Iraq in 2010-2011 as a sergeant. Post graduation in 2012 he served with an NGO 2013-2015. He took a wife in 2016, and an MBA from NYU, apparently 2016-2017. Then there was a brief stint in 2018 with Ilitch Holdings of billionaire family fame as an "analyst" which ended in January 2019. When Justin Amash left the Republican Party in July 2019, Meijer announced his candidacy.

Just as Upton took up the occasion of the Capitol attack as a moment of historic gravitas which inspired him to rise to impeach Trump, Meijer similarly has over-dramatized it by relating it to the drama of his "combat" experience as an intelligence advisor in Iraq (insert smirk here). He also laughably pondered out loud the danger those in the order of presidential succession were in from the trespassers on January 6. He reminds one of no one so much as the ex-bartender become US Representative, AOC, who has similarly made it a point to appear distraught and blow everything completely out of proportion to the reality in keeping with her modus operandi everywhere. Think of red-lipsticked Alexandria at the border fence a while ago, clad in white, head in her hands, weeping, sporting her $600 wristwatch.

The lefty Michael Tracey has framed such over-the-top demonstrativeness as "unhinged threat inflation" in recent days, which is exactly what we're being subjected to for demagogic purposes. The manipulation of the American people is nothing new, it's just that these young people are probably less aware of it as a technique than they are themselves victims and mimickers of the technique.

No so with Upton. He is the old hand who is too grown up and knowing for this, who knows just when to say just enough in order to receive huzzahs as a statesman instead of the harangues for the seat-warmer he is in reality. 

Somehow the American people are content to let such people put us $28 trillion in debt. We chuckleheads have the chuckleheads we deserve.

Elise Stefanik joins 33 other Republican traitors to help Democrats pass Farm Workforce Modernization Act

The roll call is here.

Among the others joining her in the infamy were Fred Upton and Devin Nunes.

The fact is no Republican had to vote for it for it to pass, so this is most definitely on them.

The bill would give green cards to undocumented farm workers, which is amnesty.

Whirlpool deletes offensive, bigoted ad contrasting successful POC with loser whites

The company that once gave lots of blacks decent middle class jobs in Benton Harbor, Michigan, but ended all that in favor of cheaper POC labor abroad.

Liberal Republican Fred "Light Bulb" Upton is their golden cuck, grandson of the founder of the company and member of Congress continuously since first elected in 1986.

 

Department of Energy reverses Obama administration overreach on lightbulb rules

Fred Upton's damn lightbulb law remains on the books, of course, but at least the Trump administration is calling a halt to making all lightbulbs even more expensive than they already are because of it.

My wasteful, liberal neighbors, but I repeat myself, here in Michigan routinely leave all their outdoor lights on all day as well as all night, but I have to pay more and more for energy efficiency. They also leave their garage doors wide open most days in winter.

Freedom which wastes cents makes no sense.

Energy Department Moves to Roll Back Light-Bulb Restriction:

A final rule set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday allows the continued sale of four types of incandescent and halogen light bulbs: three-way lights, recessed can lights, candle-shaped lights used in chandeliers and round bulbs often found above bathroom mirrors. The rule is expected to be challenged in court.

The Obama administration, just as it was winding down, published a rule that eliminated exemptions that were part of the 2007 law. Under the Obama rule, the four types of light bulbs would be subject to the efficiency standards set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

The Trump administration’s rule restores exemptions granted to the four products. The Energy Department said the Obama administration’s decision was “not consistent with the best reading of the statute.”

The department also said it doesn’t intend to move forward with new standards to improve the efficiency of the pear-shaped light bulbs called general service incandescent lamps. The tighter standards are “not economically justified,” according to the proposal, which is open for a 60-day comment period.

Wow, pro-amnesty Zuckerberg funded fwd dot us is running an ad on Rush Limbaugh's show asking me to thank Fred Upton for protecting the dreamers

They're taking the battle to the enemy, folks.

Republican turncoat Fred "lightbulb" Upton represents MI-6.

Public Opinion Research is polling this morning by telephone about possible primary challengers to Justin Amash (MI-03)

Names mentioned were:

Terri Lynn Land, age 60, the shy loser to Gary Peters for US Senate in 2014;

*James Lower, represents Michigan's 70th House District, once worked for Brian Calley, Gov. Snyder's lieutenant;

*Tom Norton, Afghan War vet, sounds a little too eager for war with Iran, seems like a nice guy but can't spell too well, is "pro-Isreal";

Matt Hall, represents Michigan's 63rd House District, endorsed by Fred Upton who seems to hate Trump as much as Amash does, also worked for Terri Lynn Land when she was Michigan Secretary of State, was a "bound delegate" for Trump in 2016;

Bill Hardiman, age 72, Vietnam vet, former black mayor of Kentwood, Michigan for a decade who went on to defeat 2012 Amash challenger Steve Pestka to serve in the Michigan state senate for two terms 2003-2011, was one of five candidates who had sought the seat from MI-03 in the 2010 Republican primary, losing to Amash.

*have already announced runs against Amash

13 Republicans vote with Democrats against National Emergency

Two in Michigan, two in Wisconsin, two in Washington.

The wall will stop the cheap illegal agricultural migrant labor used to pick the apples, grapes, etc. and pour profits into the hands of greedy Republican farmers, who are the real problem.

Campaign finance reform for the people

Under an expanded US House of Representatives, wouldn't current campaign finance laws still be a problem?

Well, duh.

But there is a simple solution.

Your man or woman in Congress should represent YOU, not Freedom Works, The Club for Growth, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood or any other national organization, including his or her own political party. It is not right that the RNC collects contributions for Kevin Yoder in Kansas-3 and spends them on the US House race of Maria Elvira Salazar in Florida-27.

Your representative should represent YOU, and the money that elects him or her should represent you, too, and therefore all campaign contributions must come from his or her congressional district, from people and businesses actually domiciled within district boundaries. That's it. No other limits.

Nancy Pelosi can raise all the money she wants from tuna companies domiciled in her district who exploit workers on Pacific islands. Let the actual residents of her (much reduced in size) district decide if they're still OK with that. And Fred Upton of Whirlpool fortune fame in Michigan can find out for himself if his much reduced number of constituents are OK with making their lightbulbs more expensive or unobtainable.

Power to the people.

Eight House Republicans who voted against funding The Wall include Amash and Upton in Michigan, eleven others didn't even bother to vote

Funding passed the US House 217-185 with 31 not voting.

Eight House Republicans voted against funding The Wall (the question involved in this piece of sausage, Child Protection Improvements Act of 2017, is humorously described as "On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment to the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment with Amendment", part of politicians' perennially deliberate efforts to obscure what the hell they are doing so that we tire of tracking it):

Justin Amash, MI-3

Ken Buck, CO-4

Carlos Curbelo, FL-26 (defeated in 2018)

Will Hurd, TX-23

Erik Paulsen, MN-3 (defeated in 2018)

Ros-Lehtinen, FL-27 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

Fred Upton, MI-6

David Valadao, CA-21 (defeated in 2018)

Eleven House Republicans didn't bother to vote at all on funding The Wall:

Diane Lynn Black, TN-6 (didn't run in 2018, ran for governor and lost in primary)

Barbara Comstock, VA-10 (defeated in 2018)

Jeff Duncan, SC-3

Randy Hultgren, IL-14 (defeated in 2018)

Darrell Issa, CA-49 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

Lynn Jenkins, KS-2 (didn't run in 2018)

Walter Jones, NC-3

Mia Love, UT-4 (defeated in 2018)

Kristi Noem, SD (didn't run in 2018, ran for governor and won)

Peter Roskam, IL-6 (defeated in 2018)

Dave Trott, MI-11 (didn't run in 2018, seat flipped)

[Red indicates they'll be back in the US House in January 2019, to torment us.]

US Chamber of Commerce strategist predicts Republicans keep US House 222-213

The current US House is controlled by Republicans 236-193.

Blue wave hope ebbs as GOP rebounds:

To galvanize their voters, Republicans are airing attack ads that argue Democrats would target Trump and Kavanaugh, unleash mob rule and threaten cultural values. "Closing with a little fear," said Scott Reed, senior political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, describing the GOP approach. Reed predicted that Republicans would keep their losses to 20 House seats, just under the 23 Democrats need to return to power. Republicans are favored to hold their majority in the Senate, which stands at 51-49. 

The WaPo typist of this article for the Democrat Party leads off with some amusing fantasies:

Underscoring the fast-changing political fortunes are the cold calculations by both parties in the final days.

 

The GOP is redirecting $1 million from a suburban district in Colorado to Florida, bailing on incumbent Rep. Mike Coffman to try to hold an open seat in Miami. Democrat Donna Shalala, a former Health and Human Services secretary in the Clinton administration, is struggling to break away from Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban American and former television anchor, in a district Hillary Clinton won by nearly 20 points.

Republicans have also pulled back in a Democratic-held open seat in Nevada that includes some of the suburbs of Las Vegas. Clinton won there, as well.

Democrats, meanwhile, are cutting funds in a GOP-held district in Nebraska and a Democratic-held district in northern Minnesota, two places Trump won. The latter represents one of the GOP's best chances to flip a seat from blue to red.

Start with Coffman's Republican seat in CO-6.

It was slated to go Democrat already over a month ago at Real Clear Politics when I checked on September 17th. And it had been a toss-up on September 10th. Whatever's happening with the money there, CO-6's shift toward the Democrat is not part of "fast-changing political fortunes . . . in the final days". The shift occurred much earlier.

As for Donna Shalala in FL-27 (Clinton retread!), she isn't "struggling to break away from Maria Elvira Salazar". Her support there has been ERODING, from likely Democrat in early September to leans Democrat in mid-September to toss-up in mid-October. The Republican Salazar is actually ahead there in the only poll available. The recent movement is all toward the Republican.

Same thing with the open Democrat seat in NV-3. Whatever the parties are doing with their money, the seat has been in the Democrat column for well over a month, since September 10th. But today it's a toss-up. The movement has been toward the Republican, but you would never know that from this propaganda piece.

And why mention Democrats shifting money out of Nebraska? Oooh Mable, look at that! Nebraska doesn't even have a seat on anybody's radar because there isn't one, but saying so makes it seem like there is, deep in the heart of Republican flyover country. The mission is to demoralize Republicans with this stuff, made up out of whole cloth. The Republican Bacon in NE-2 is ahead by nine points.

MN-8 is also instructive. It's not just that Republicans have there "a chance to flip a seat". The Democrat candidate there was +1 to begin September in the NYTimes poll. By mid-October the same poll has the Republican +15. Again, the direction is (massively in this instance) toward the Republican.

Of ten specific races identified in the story, I put six in the Republican column (NE-2, FL-27, MN-8, MI-6 [the Democrats' own latest poll there has Upton up by three], MN-1 and TX-23), one in the Democrat column (CO-6), and three in the toss-ups (NV-3, KY-6, PA-1).

60-40.

Looks more like a Republican wave, not an ebbing Democrat wave.

The vehicle for the obscene $1.1 trillion House omnibus spending bill was the HIRE Vets Act

They can't even tell the truth about the name of the bill.

The $1.1 trillion bill passed with support from both parties in a 309-118 vote. Fifteen Democrats and 103 Republicans voted against it. ... House Democrats have repeatedly been needed to help pass spending bills since Republicans took over the majority in 2011.

The roll call vote is here.

131 Republicans united with 178 Democrats to pass the bill, which once again defies regular order for appropriations.

Spineless Michigan Republicans Upton, Trott, Bergman, Walberg, Mike Bishop, Huizenga, Moolenaar and Mitchell all voted for the included Christmas tree of goodies for Democrats in order to get the increased defense spending in the bill.

Only Justin Amash of the Michigan Republican US House caucus voted against the damn thing.

Just 79 Republicans voted for new budget, blowing sequestration caps, lifting the debt ceiling to March 2017, and attempting to decide all spending for two years, a complete rout of the conservatives

The Roll Call vote is here, taken at 5:21 PM yesterday, before today's activities electing Ryan.

Boehner voted for it after engineering it. So did Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, Fred Upton, Steve Scalise, Peter King, and Kevin Brady among others.

I note Peter Roskam voted No.

The story is discussed here.

A complete travesty abdicating spending responsibility just like Cromnibus, but worse. 

Nine Michigan Congressmen vote for Cromnibus, five against

For Cromnibus:

Benishek

Huizenga

Camp

Upton

Walberg

Rogers

Miller (D)

Dingell (D)

Peters (D)

Against Cromnibus:

Amash

Kildee (D)

Levin (D)

Bentivolio

Conyers (D)

The roll call vote is here.

In 1944, Christian Men Made The Best Soldiers

Dear Friend:

Pvt. V. L. Meyer was with us in our Field Service last Sunday afternoon. The men of his Battalion and attached units are on maneuvers in the Wichita Mountains near Fort Sill for two weeks. Since the men cannot come to the Chapel on Sunday, we take the service out to them.

We take our Field Organ and small books with familiar hymns in them. The men are usually brought by truck to a place set for the service. It is entirely up to the men whether they attend.

We meet them at the appointed place and have an informal outdoor service. The men choose the hymns and we have a short message, scripture readings and prayers.

The outstanding leaders of our armed forces are convinced that Christian men make the best soldiers, sailors and marines. With their fine cooperation, we do our best to help the men be real Christians.

Sincerely yours, 

Lawrence C. Upton

Chaplain (Capt.)


Jan. 3, 1944