The House speaker doesn’t want Republicans to be around when the deadline comes.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is conveniently sending Congress home the day before the Justice Department is supposed to release the Epstein files in full. The announcement came Wednesday night.

This looks like yet another instance of Johnson doing every little thing he can either to delay the release of the files or to make it so that his fellow GOPers don’t have to be in town to answer to their complicity in this monthslong campaign to avoid their release—as he did by egregiously delaying the swearing-in of Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva for weeks.

“Like I said: view all political developments for the rest of the week in light of the fact that the Epstein Files are supposed to be released on Friday,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote Wednesday evening on X. “House Republicans just suddenly canceled Congressional session Friday and are sending everyone home Thursday evening.”

  • the_q@lemmy.zip
    4·
    4 months ago

    I think it’s hilarious that we have a system of government built on the false idea that we the people have any real power. We keep paying our taxes though. We keep buying the 7 versions of Taylor Swift’s albums. We keep “treating ourselves” because we “deserve” a treat for making it through another day. There’s a theme to these examples and it is at the core of every issue we face.

    We actually have the power; all of it. We lack the will.

    • JayleneSlide@lemmy.world
      1·
      4 months ago

      We lack the will.

      Kinda, although I fully agree with everything else you said. Collective action is really difficult even when the government isn’t running COINTELPRO-like operations on anyone who tries to organize anything like a mass protest. For an example of the challenge of collective action, think about how hard it is to get your group of close friends to agree on which restaurant to go to and when. And that’s when everyone wants to hang out together, with nobody intentionally mucking up the works.

      If we can overcome the “internal” hurdles to collective action, we can take back the country.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          1·
          4 months ago

          Pension for them is like 5 years or something absurd like that.

          A pension is available to members 62 years of age with 5 years of service; 50 years or older with 20 years of service; or 25 years of service at any age. A reduced pension is available depending upon which of several different age/service options is chosen. If Members leave Congress before reaching retirement age, they may leave their contributions behind and receive a deferred pension later.[1]

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    This guy is a one-trick pony.

    Have to oath in a Democrat who will trigger a vote his master doesn’t like? Send everyone home!

    Files that incriminates his master are being released? Send everyone home!

    This tactic is getting old already.

  • BarbedDentalFloss@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    4 months ago

    I think this is so there can be no council sessions that might be discussing the obviously over-censored and incomplete dataset released tomorrow before the GOP can sit their butts on billionaire owned media networks (hint: all of them are billionaire owned now) and give the idiots who listen to them their opinions.

  • Lucky_777@lemmy.world
    1·
    4 months ago

    He sent everyone home because of the discharge petition for ACA. Epstein was coming anyway, this is about ripping healthcare away from millions. Which in Mike’s own words…“It’s only 7% of the country”