According to multiple media reports, Rep. (R-OH) John Boehner will resign the speakership on October 30th.
The move comes as the government braces for another potential government shutdown next week- this time surrounding the issue of funding of Planned Parenthood.
This is a developing story, Rise News will update this story throughout the day.Â
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The First Rule of Parliament Fight Club
The first rule of Parliament Fight Club is that you don’t talk about Parliament Fight Club.
There are parliaments all over the world and whilst they might be different in structure, language or composition it seems as though they are all bat-shit crazy.
Remember, parliament is where the ruling party or governing coalition meets with the opposition in order to discuss and draft laws as well as oversee the executive (government).
The presence of a functioning parliament is also a vital sign of a healthy and participating electorate, even North Korea held its first Congress in 36 years three weeks ago.
So if parliament is where citizens are represented by elected officials in order to make laws and ensure that government is not overstepping its boundaries, then why are the people there acting like toddlers?
In Turkey, Members of Parliament who belong to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) clashed over a proposed bill that would strip MPs of their immunity from prosecution. It was a literal clash:
The bill has now been passed by 376 deputies in the 550-seat assembly in Ankara.
It came after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused the HDP of being an instrument of outlawed Kurdish militants.
The bill thus clears the way for the prosecution of HDP pro-Kurdish MPs on terrorism related charges. It seems then that tensions boiled over and the fight itself was just two sides tired of doing what politicians do; talking.
Meanwhile in Kosovo, Prime Minister Isa Mustafa had to have his bodyguards swoop in with an umbrella, like a really strong Mary Poppins to protect him from a torrent of eggs.
He had just begun his speech when the torrent of eggs came pouring down from the opposition, who were protesting an EU deal that would give more legislative and financial rights to the Serb minority in the majority Albanian country.
The United Kingdom’s House of Commons resembles a high school classroom where the loudest one gets the most attention.
An MP in an arm-brace even, was not enough to quiet the House and show some courtesy to their fellow law-makers.
Another MP decided to treat the House like children and take their shiny toys away.
Even the Prime Minister gets into the banter from time to time.
Considering how important the job parliament is doing, precious time is being wasted when parliament is not working efficiently.
In the United States, The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was opposed by pro-segregation Democrat senator Strom Thurmond who conducted the longest filibuster ever.
The Senator spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes to try and stall the bill, although it was unsuccessful.
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It was reported that Thurmond recited the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and his grandmother’s biscuit recipe.
Thus politicians wasting time in parliament is not a new thing.
However as more parliaments and congresses across the world become televised for the public, we are starting to see it for ourselves.
I am not sure anybody likes what they see.
Most of the fights in Parliaments across the world end up just being fisticuffs and throwing water bottles.
However there have been serious incidents which resulted in injuries to really old men who should only close a fist when they’re sneaking butterscotch hard candies.
There was even a Jordanian MP who fired an AK-47 in the hallway of Parliament.
These are the things that happen when politicians are left to their own devices and those devices are the same ones we trust to create and debate serious laws.
Should we really trust politicians or should we feed them a bottle and send them to bed.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit:Â Ă–zgĂĽr GĂĽn TVÂ /Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Dan Piraro, The “Bizarro” Cartoonist Who Wants Us To Stop Shitting Where We Sleep
Cartoonist Dan Piraro looks up from his drawing monitor: “You mind if I keep working a little bit on the side here while we talk?”
Piraro is a busy man.
His one-panel comic series Bizarro is featured in more than 350 daily and Sunday newspapers, which requires him to churn out a hand-cramping seven cartoons a week.
He maintains a strict routine to keep up with this level of demand so he alternates his attention between his work station and his webcam where he chats with me via Skype.
Piraro is absolutely absorbed by his literal task at hand.
He responds to each of my questions with a laid-back gusto- not dissimilar to the feel of his daily strip, although there are some topics that get him going. Take the environment for example.
“Virtually all animals know not to shit where they sleep,” Piraro said. “They try to defecate as far away from where they live and raise their families. In a local sense we do that but in a larger sense we’re poisoning the one planet that’s inhabitable to us.”
That’s one of the few riffs Piraro goes on during our 28-minute conversation.
He is a man of passion when he feels drawn to a topic.
It was the way he was raised.
His parents were Kennedy Democrats.
Public service was a big deal in their home and they wanted their children, Dan and his sisters, to show the same sense of responsibility their beloved president had.
“I was raised to believe that certain things in life are more important than your job or social standing,” Piraro said. “We were sort of raised with that notion that it’s up to everyone to build and maintain a society worth living in.”
Piraro doesn’t hide his liberal political views in his strip but he said that he doesn’t consider himself much of a political cartoonist either.
He’s different. Hard to pin down. So is his work.
In the world of syndicated cartoons, there are humorous comic strips featuring cute kids or sarcastic animals and then there are political strips that maybe feature cute kids or sarcastic animals who have a bone to pick with a specific politician or political party.
Piraro tries to keep himself within the lines but sometimes his sensibilities get the best of him.
This happened in 2005 when he drew a panel relating to gay marriage and changed it due to concerns that it would not be received well.
Piraro said that sometimes he worries that his panel will be received differently to a general audience that he wants it to be.
“My editor will call me saying that a certain cartoon might upset people in more conservative markets,” Piraro said. “It could result in losing a newspaper client and getting my strip replaced with something that doesn’t make pointed political statements.”
Piraro will sometimes side with his editor.
It’s not worth losing a client over a panel he isn’t 100% invested in.
But most of the time, Piraro said that he will take the risk of getting his point across.
Public service, remember?
“I’m not a balls-to-the-walls political activist but with my strip I have a growing audience and a sense of obligation to address some issues that seemed to me to be social injustices that could be repaired with changes in attitude,” Piraro said.
Despite the reluctance of syndicated strips to go political, Piraro says there’s one figure everyone’s making an exception for.
“When I started doing cartoons on Donald Trump I expected a similar response as to when I was doing George W. Bush cartoons,” Piraro said. “Lose a paper here or there but nothing happened. They didn’t mind I was taking these pot shots at Trump even though I’m technically not allowed to delve into politics.”
Readers don’t seem to mind either.
Dan claims his readership has actually gone up since Trump took office but he’s not allowing for “anti-president” material to dominate his strip any time soon.
He limits himself to one Trump cartoon for every seven panels he produces.
For now, Bizarro is more focused on the patented absurdism that makes it unlike anything else in the funnies.
Whether it’s a crossdresser lamenting the pointlessness of cross dressing in the Middle East or God creating mankind when he was piss drunk over a wild weekend, Bizaroo is the product of Dan Piraro’s hypernormal imagination.
It’s not die-hard political satire but it’s not exactly a cat who for some reason enjoys lasagna.
“My cartoons are an artistic representation of the way I think and imagine things,” Piraro said. “That’s one of the reasons I’m not a millionaire.”
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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Adapt or Die: The GOP Should Embrace Gay Marriage So They Can Stay Politically Relevant To Young People
In June, same sex marriage advocates won a major victory when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had a right to marry in all 50 states. The ruling was a major step forward for the LGBT community and has become a massive political powder keg for the Republican Party.
As the GOPÂ primaries continue, many conservative leaders and presidential hopefuls have come out strongly against the Supreme Court decision in the hope of striking a chord with the religious right.
Mike Huckabee has repeatedly denounced the Supreme Court decision, going as far as to compare the Supreme Court to King George III. Huckabee was also present when Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk imprisoned for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, was released from prison and has vowed to protect Davis’ constitutional rights.
Although Huckabee has been one of the most vocal in his outrage against the Supreme Court’s decision, he is far from the only opponent.
Gov. Bobby Jindal has said that the ruling “tramples states rights” and that “no earthly court” can alter God’s will. Sen. Ted Cruz also came out against the ruling, going as far as proposing a constitutional amendment that would make justices subject to “periodic judicial retention elections”.
Although statements such as these may prove to resonate amongst the conservative base of the party, the statistics prove that they are out of touch with the viewpoint held by the majority of Americans. According to research done by the Pew Research Center, 57% of Americans now favor making same-sex marriage legal. Among millennials this number increases to nearly 73%.
So why do so many Republicans still come out so staunchly against or apathetical to same sex marriage? To understand this political paradox, one need only remember that we are in the middle of the Republican primaries.
The party finds itself at the same crossroad that the Democrats were at during the 1960’s. The party was torn between the traditional Southern Democrats who stood opposed to Civil Rights, and New Deal Progressives who were adapting to meet the demands of the American people.
In politics as in nature, the side that most often wins is the side that is most capable of adapting to the new political environment. The more inclusive any political movement is and the more receptive it is to change, the more likely that political movement is to grow in size and strength. Those who oppose this change in favor of exclusive and absolutist politics more often than not will find themselves facing extinction, and relegation to the waste bin of history.
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