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It seems like only yesterday He’s still here … oy.

That should be the headline. But it isn’t: There is also no reason that the following piece does not explain that Democrats have never held the debt ceiling hostage and voted to extend it without any drama in the Bush and Trump years. This kind of coverage without the context to understand the dynamic means those Independents who blame both parties probably don’t understand what really going on. A Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Americans divided on who they would blame if the nation’s debt ceiling is not raised and the government goes into default, a potentially devastating outcome that could happen as soon as June 1. The poll finds 39 percent of Americans say they would blame Republicans in Congress if the government goes into default, while 36 percent say they would blame President Biden and 16 percent volunteer that they would blame both equally. (That dynamic is similar to the 2011 debt limit showdown, when 42 percent said they would blame congressional Republicans and 36 percent said they would blame President Obama.

Here it is: During the October deposition, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan showed Trump a late-1980s photo of him with his then-wife Ivana, Carroll and her then-husband John Johnson. Referring to Carroll, Trump said, “It’s Marla,” referring to his second wife, Marla Maples. “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife,” he said, before being corrected, and told it was Carroll. The writer sued Trump for defamation and battery after he said she “made up” allegations that he raped her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s. Trump has adamantly denied the allegations and claimed Carroll “is not my type.” The picture is not blurry: The court released his deposition today and there will be more excerpts released throughout the day. That one is a doozy. So are these: We all know he’s a disgusting pig. But it still has the power to shock to see just how much of a pig he is.

I wonder if they will serve them coronation chicken on the day? It was invented for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation and apparently she liked it very much. It’s quite good. If you haven’t ever had it you should try it. With a crisp G&T or a nice (American style) cold beer:

The Home Office sent campaign group Republic a letter setting out new powers to crush “disruptive” protests ahead of planned peaceful protests against King Charles, Josiah Mortimer reports

Now they’re just letting Republican officials throw out elections whenever they want — in Democratic counties. Texas of course: The Texas Legislature is advancing a bill that would allow the secretary of state to redo elections in Harris County, where a number of Democratic candidates posted strong midterm election results and which has been dogged by GOP claims of election mismanagement. The Republican-controlled Senate passed the bill Tuesday and sent it to the state House. If it is enacted, it would allow the secretary of state to toss out election results in the state’s largest county and call a new vote if there is “good cause” to believe that at least 2% of polling places ran out of usable ballots during voting hours. The bill would apply only to counties with populations greater than 2.7 million, effectively singling out Harris County, which is home to Houston and has by far the largest population in the state, at nearly 5 million. In recent decades, Harris County has become more Democratic.

Paranoia strikes deep The strangulation homicide of Jordan Neely, Michael Jackson impersonator, on a New York City subway has prompted a flurry of commentary. Neely’s race and that of his killer is familiar. What’s out of the ordinary is that his assailant was not a cop and did not use a gun. Also familiar is the judgment by law enforcement officials (for now) that a homicide of a black man is not necessarily a murder. The assailant has not been charged. “Barack freaking Obama would not be allowed to walk away after choking a homeless white man to death on the subway,” rages Elie Mystal at The Nation. Poverty, homelessness and mental illness in the richest nation on earth are all accomplices, as are the bystanders who remained bystanders as they watched (reportedly) a former Marine choke the life out of Neely for behaving erratically. There is a forest here, not just trees. The string of Americans killed lately over mundane, nonthreatening actions, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, should unsettle us all. But it is the outgrowth of paranoia that’s been cultivated.

RW Eeyores will downplay this They’re ba-ack. Jobs, that is. I know, the Market is not the average American’s lived experience. But damned if Republicans don’t treat it that way when it’s going their way. Except under a Democratic president. Investor’s Business Daily: Dow Jones Surges 450 Points On Strong Jobs Report. AAPL Stock Jumps On Earnings. Barron’s: The Jobs Data Were Hotter Than Expected. Why the Stock Market Is Celebrating. Washington Post: In March 2021, more than 4 million workers were “missing” from the job market as a result of early retirements, a lack of child care, covid illness and death, and slowdowns in immigration. More than 75 percent of that shortfall has been filled, according to a Washington Post analysis, as new and returning workers help boost labor-force participation back to pre-pandemic levels. The share of adults who have a job or are looking for one is back to where it was in March 2020. Watch for the negative spin from the right’s Eeyores. And from “labor participation truthers,” cautions Carolina Forward. “They won’t care” is right.

Not bloody likely. But it’s probably all we’ve got. The Court has gone rogues and the entire GOP supports it. It seems as though the press is dropping a new Clarence Thomas corruption scandal every day. Yesterday we got two. First, Pro-Publica published yet another story about Thomas’ wealthy benefactor Harlan Crow passing on a lavish gift to his pal which Thomas once again failed to report. This time, it was private school tuition for the grand-nephew Thomas and his wife Ginni have said they raised like he was their own son since he was 6 years old. By evening, we found out that Federalist Society guru Leonard Leo instructed longtime GOP operative Kellyanne Conway back in 2012 to have her polling firm bill his nonprofit group “another $25,000” but give the money to Ginni Thomas — adding, with “no mention of Ginni, of course.” What the hell is going on here? It’s bad enough that Ginni Thomas is a hardcore far-right Republican activist who even participated in the coup attempt of 2020 and spouted QAnon conspiracy theories.

Florida lives down to its image It was a tad disorienting the first time I entered a public men’s room in Europe and there was a woman attendant standing inside keeping the place clean and neat. But what the hell. When in Rome, right? (Was it Rome?) So it’s hard to understand the parochial freakout on the American right over trans people using bathrooms. Well, not that hard. They react to anyone outside their black-and-white categories as they might at encountering a snake or a spider the size of a Buick. With a visceral shudder. Count on Florida to model how to overreact for the rest of MAGAstan (Washington Post): Florida’s legislature Wednesday passed a bill that bans transgender people from using many bathrooms and changing areas that match their gender identity, on penalty of criminal trespass charges, in the latest spate of anti-LGBTQ legislation that has been taken up by state lawmakers. A small number of Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in opposing House Bill 1521, which applies to schools, government buildings, prisons and detention centers. It now heads to the desk of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is expected to sign it into law.