14 failures will taint Kevin McCarthy’s reign as Speaker of the House. The concessions that he appears to have given to conservatives in the House will make it harder for him to get his Uniparty Swamp agenda to play.
Nevertheless, he was finally voted in as Speaker after enough of the final holdouts voted “present.” Matt Gaetz had upended the 14th vote that was supposed to be McCarthy’s anointing, but caved for the 15th.
It even looked like it might turn violent when Congressman Mike Rogers had to be restrained as he headed toward Gaetz after the 14th failure.
Rep. Richard Hudson pulls Rep. Mike Rogers back as they talk with Rep. Matt Gaetz amid a 14th failed vote for House speaker late Friday night.
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— ABC News (@ABC) January 7, 2023
After Andy Biggs and Lauren Boebert both voted “present,” it turned to Gaetz as the next holdout. He voted “present” again, which pretty much sealed the deal for McCarthy. The remain three members of the final six opposition Republicans all voted present. That left McCarthy with 216 votes. With the six votes of “present” and one member not voting, McCarthy needed 215.
Now we will see how the rules vote goes. If the holdouts negotiated well enough and the Republican caucus doesn’t turn on them, we should see more power for the Freedom Caucus.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
