A way-autumn late-afternoon Thursday here in California’s Central Valley — sunshine and cool temperatures — as most-likely heavy heat of summer has finally left our weather and now it’s a fall into winter. A routine of the normal.

Not so in DC where the Republican-led House is in utter, idiotic chaos due to the shit-for-brains assholes who can’t get their act together for anything. In a circumstance of pretty-much as serious as it gets, worldwide, from the horror in Israel and Ukraine to a possible US government shutdown looming again within a month or so, the House GOPers aren’t worth a shit, not only in being assholes unable to govern, but just hating on one another.
And just a bit ago more lunacy: ‘“There’s still work to be done,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Thursday after announcing he had withdrawn from the speaker’s race. “Our conference still has to come together and it is not there. There are still some people that have their own agendas.”‘

Just as an aside:

We’ve been waiting for House Republicans to choose a House Speaker for 8 days now. The fastest way for Congress to open up again is for 5 people to vote for ?Hakeem Jeffries. Ready to go! ?@RepJeffries? pic.twitter.com/L8umt6zJ0j

— Grace Meng (@Grace4NY) October 12, 2023

And on Scalise’s run-away, there’s even more need — a nutshell of Republican shit via The New York Times this evening:

After being narrowly nominated for speaker during a Tuesday closed-door secret-ballot contest among House Republicans, Mr. Scalise, their No. 2 leader, found himself far from the 217 votes needed to be elected on the House floor. Many supporters of his challenger, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the right-wing Republican endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, refused to switch their allegiance.

With no clear end in sight to the G.O.P. infighting that has left one chamber of Congress paralyzed at a time of challenges at home and abroad, Mr. Scalise said he would step aside in hopes that someone else could unite the fractious party.

His abrupt exit left Republicans back at Square One, as fractured as ever over who should lead them and trading recriminations about the disarray in which they found themselves.

Further per the Guardian:

Scalise told his fellow Republican colleagues at a closed-door meeting late on Thursday of his decision.

Next steps are uncertain as the House is now essentially closed, while the Republican majority tries to elect a speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy from the job.

The move followed a day of closed-door meetings that moved Scalise no closer to overcoming the entrenched divisions imperiling his quest for the speakership.

House Republicans had raised a number of concerns with Scalise’s candidacy, among them, that, as the number-two House Republican, he doesn’t represent institutional change, that he lacks a unifying vision for the conference or that his ?battle with blood cancer would make it difficult for him to lead the chamber.

And this bit from Vox:

When the GOP conference met again Thursday evening, Scalise had evidently concluded he couldn’t get there — and announced he was withdrawing from contention.

Jordan will now likely make another attempt at getting the top job, and he’ll have hardliners’ backing. But his main difficulty might be winning swing district Republicans who may view him as too controversial.

Because of all this chaos, some frustrated House GOP establishment figures are now floating the unthinkable: asking Democrats for help. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has said he’d be open to finding “a bipartisan path forward” to “reopen the House,” but most Republicans would be deeply reluctant to go there unless they conclude there’s no other choice.

The utter sense of uselessness is predominant across the scene this evening. Why would anyone in their somewhat right mind ever, even ever want to vote Republican, or in any way lean anywhere near Republican? WTF?

Useless as admitting fault — toning us out this evening, Enigma wonders:

Chaos crap, or not, yet here we are once again…

(Image out front by illustrator and portrait painter, Tim O’Brien, and can be found here.)