A debt ceiling fight ending with a whimper not a bang It’s not over yet, because Kevin McCarthy still has to round up enough votes to get past the Hastert Rule (GOP can’t bring a bill to floor with a majority of Democratic votes) and he might still face a motion to vacate the chair when all is said and done (which is his problem, not ours) it appears that creaky old Joe got the best deal we could have expected, most importantly an agreement to extend the debt limit until after the next election. Donald Trump hasn’t said a word yet. Whether he whips against voting for it is unknown. But you can bet he is not happy about it. Here’s Dave Dayen at the American Prospect with the view from the progressives: With one potentially major exception, the relative harm and help was kept to a minimum in the final agreement. It will only be a little bit easier to commit wage theft, or to sell defective or poisoned products. It’ll only be a little harder to get rental assistance or tuition support. Only a few people will be freer to pollute the environment; only a few will find it more difficult to get food. The Internal Revenue Service will only be a little worse.
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Here’s an interesting view on some dynamics underlying the debt ceiling negotiations I’ve never seen before from Talking Points Memo. I can’t vouch for whether all these details are correct, but if they are it makes you wonder why nobody has been discussing it. Anyway, just throwing it out there as food for thought: You were wondering how Biden was able to get such a good deal; in the end all this drama just amounted to getting the budget-negotiation process started early, with the GOP’s main takeaway being something (spending freeze) that their control of the House already guaranteed them via the tool of passing continuing resolutions.
Trump Jr is actually more juvenile than his father. He’s also an idiot: On his online show “Triggered With Don Jr.” earlier this week, Trump’s son had a slip of the tongue during an extensive takedown of DeSantis, who he also referred to as a “failure to launch” with “the policies of a DC swamp rat” and a “nasal and effeminate voice.” “Trump has the charisma of a mortician, and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look an Olympian,” Trump Jr. said in the gaffe.
sto·chas·tic (stə-ˈka-stik) stō- “[T]he actual threat to American freedom is coming from the states,” begins Jamelle Bouie’s NYT op-ed: It is states that have stripped tens of millions of American women of their right to bodily autonomy, with disastrous consequences for their lives and health. It is states that have limited the right to travel freely if it means trying to obtain an abortion. It is states that have begun a crusade against the right to express one’s gender and sexuality, under the pretext of “protecting children.” It is states that are threatening to seize the children of parents who believe their kids need gender-affirming care. And it is states that have begun to renege on the promise of free and fair elections. That it is states, and specifically state legislatures, that are the vanguard of a repressive turn in American life shouldn’t be a surprise.
(But not without struggle, it seems) Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, addressed the 2023 graduates of Johns Hopkins University: The time is of the essence, and it is that essence that I would like to talk about today. One of the most common truisms on Earth is the advice to value or at least not waste time. Why has it become so widespread? Every person eventually realizes that time is the most valuable resource on the planet, not oil or uranium, not lithium or anything else, but time. Time. The very flow of time convinces us of this. Some people realize this sooner, and these are the lucky ones. Others realize it too late when they lose someone or something. People cannot avoid it. This is just a matter of time. Now, you can look back at the time you have spent here at the university studying—did you get everything you needed from it? You have even more time ahead of you, a whole lifetime. These are the careers you will build. This is your parents’ pride, which they have every right to, if they raised the children who graduate from Johns Hopkins. These are your families who, I wish you this, will bring you love.
Fergawdsakes: “Murderers.” “Criminals.” “We are watching you.” These are just a handful of the threats and abuse sent to meteorologists at AEMET, Spain’s national weather agency, in recent months. They come via social media, its website, letters, phone calls – even in the form of graffiti sprayed across one of its buildings. Abuse and harassment “have always happened” against the agency’s scientists, Estrella Gutiérrez-Marco, spokesperson for AEMET, told CNN. But there has been a rapid rise recently, coinciding with extreme weather in Spain. A severe drought has shrunk water levels to alarming lows, exacerbated by record-breaking April temperatures. The abuse got so bad that in April, AEMET posted a video on Twitter calling for an end to the harassment, and asking for respect. Even the government intervened.
If you haven’t been following the story of the most corrupt, immoral wingnut AG in the country, here’s a rundown. Let’s see if Republicans can summon the will to do something about him: The Republican-dominated Texas House has scheduled a vote on the impeachment of the state’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, for Saturday at 1 p.m. The vote was set to take place just two days after a bipartisan but Republican-led committee of representatives recommended that Mr. Paxton should be impeached for a range of abuses that may have been crimes. The attorney general has been handling various legal challenges for years, weathering multiple investigations with few political repercussions. On Friday, Mr. Paxton again denied any wrongdoing and invited supporters to “peacefully” make their voices heard during the impeachment vote at the State Capitol. Here’s what to know. Who is Ken Paxton? Before he become the attorney general in 2015, Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. worked as a lawyer and state legislator, serving in both the State House and Senate.
I’m sure you’ll recall that Elon Musk recently held a little event with Ron Desantis. It didn’t go well. But that doesn’t mean Ron isn’t grateful: FLORIDA GOV. RON DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill regarding spaceflight on Thursday just one day after he announced his presidential run in a glitch-filled interview with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces. DeSantis signed into law CS/SB 1318 – Spaceflight Entity Liability along with 27 other bills. The law exempts “spaceflight entity from liability for injury to or death of a crew resulting from spaceflight activities under certain circumstances.” The measure also requires “a spaceflight entity to have a crew sign a specified warning statement.” Florida is a known launching point for SpaceX aircrafts, and the new law could potentially shield Musk and other space flight companies from being sued for accidents that injure or kill crew members.
DeSantis comes out for de-funding the IRS It makes my head hurt when I think of how the wingnuts capitalized on a few left wing activists saying “defund the police” whenever I hear these calls to “defund” everything from the FBI to DHS to the IRS. You’d think they’d at least be a tiny bit embarrassed by the raging hypocrisy: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would be “welcoming” of a measure from Congress to defund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) if he’s elected president next year. The comments from DeSantis, who officially announced this week that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, came during a conversation with radio host and Second Amendment advocate Dana Loesch on The Dana Show. During the interview, DeSantis was asked whether he would sign a measure from Congress to abolish the IRS through funding means, as well as what he would replace the system with. “Are you for a far tax, a flat tax, where do you stand on that?” Loesch asked DeSantis. “So, the answer’s yes.
It doesn’t get any more twisted than this: Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, appears to be launching an online community for anti-vaxxers called 4thePURE. For a lifetime founding membership of $2,500, users will be free to connect with unvaccinated singles and also gain access to a directory of “COVID-19 unvaccinated patriot businesses,” according to Insider. In a video promoting the site, which first made the rounds on Twitter on May 9, Flynn delivers a pitch saying, “I’m honored to announce an opportunity to support a new freedom movement sweeping across the nation. 4thePURE is an online community meant to connect likeminded individuals who courageously stood against the COVID-19 jab campaign.” I hope most of them are under 60 (which I doubt) because otherwise a few of them are probably be going to be dating in the ICU.