Weekend at Bernie's III 🌻 🌻 🌻

Crunch Time:  On Monday Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin announced that the debt ceiling could be reached as early as June 1 which is sooner than had been expected. With no resolution of the differences between Republicans and Biden and his Democratic caucus in sight, that’s a problem of mammoth proportions because just the idea that the US would default on any of its payments is alarming, an actual default would sink the world economy.  It’s also ridiculous as the whole concept of a debt ceiling, something that only the US and Denmark have, is stupid and anachronistic. Stupid or not it’s looming because Republicans who raised the limit three times while Trump was president are doing what they did to Obama back when he was president, using it as a cudgel to force budget cuts and not just run of the mill cuts, huge ones that would decimate Biden’s climate agenda while also taking health care benefits away veterans and the poor and food out of the mouths of the hungry among other things that Republicans hate to spend money on. Sadly, we’ve seen this dance before, the problem is that this time House Republicans are led by Kevin McCarthy an exceptionally weak leader with no wiggle room who sold his soul to become Speaker and appears to care more about keeping his position than anything else.  In a rational world before the music stops, Kevin should grudgingly agree to raise the limit, budget negotiations would begin after the ceiling was lifted, some concessions would be made by Biden and company, and we’d move on.  However, if we’ve learned anything over the past few years it’s that the current Republican party isn’t rational so expecting them to do the right thing is foolish at best and caving into their demands, particularly ones this extreme isn’t really a viable option.  Biden has finally invited McCarthy and his Senate counterpart Mitch McConnell to the White House for a sit down with him, Senate Leader Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries but time is running out which also explains why Jeffries is also proceeding with an alternative plan, one that would involve forcing a clean debt ceiling vote through a discharge petition, but this “plan b” is unproven so it’s success is far from a sure thing.  It would require help from a five House Republicans as well as the support of every House Democrat and that’s just what it would need in the House. The doomsday clock is ticking.

Grab’em and Run: Trump arrived in Scotland yesterday to inspect his golf courses, not what a normal person who is being sued for defamation and assault would do but then again, nothing about him ever even approaches normalcy.  The Scotsman newspaper pointed out that ordinarily a former US president would be greeted with celebration but added not so this time since this is the former guy who “engaged in a shocking attack on democracy.”  Back at home, Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina, who tried but failed to get the judge overseeing the defamation/assault case to declare a mistrial, finally admitted that Trump will not be testifying on his own behalf for reasons obvious to everyone.  That said, the jurors may hear a tape of Trump’s deposition, the one where he confused plaintiff E Jean Carroll with his second Marla Maples, which makes his earlier claim that he never would have assaulted Carroll because she “wasn’t his type” that much harder to believe. Yesterday, the jury heard from Preppy Handbook author Lisa Birnbach who Carroll contemporaneously freaked out to right after the “alleged” rape and from another one of his victims, Jessica Leeds, who testified that Trump “grabbed her chest and ran his hand up her skirt” as they sat next to each other on a flight in the 1970s.  Gross and somewhat shocking, but not so much when you consider Trump’s Access Hollywood “grab’em by the pussy” braggadocio.  Juries are hard to predict but all of this is sadly credible because what screenwriter, not that any of them are working right now, could get away with making this kind of sh-t up?  Another wrinkle in this case, that no one could make up involves George Conway, the estranged husband of Trump’s once and possible future advisor, Kellyanne. George met E Jean at a soiree hosted by liberal podcaster/commentator Molly Jong Fast, daughter of Erica Jong the author of 1970’s bestselling, sexual awakening   book Fear of Flying.  E Jean testified that George who has become one of the most outspoken Republican anti-Trumpers encouraged her to take legal action against Trump. Although that might sound odd, it’s actually totally in character for George, who in his past life was so outraged about Bill Clinton’s alleged harassment of Arkansas state employee Paula Jones that he helped drive the events that led to his impeachment. Again, you can’t make this stuff up.

People and Politics:  If Chuck Schumer is to be believed Senator Dianne Feinstein will be returning to the Senate next week. At least that’s what she told him so either someone is pulling a weekend at Bernie’s or she’s really coming back or a little of both.  Democrat Ben Cardin, Maryland’s 79-year- old Senator is throwing in the towel, he announced that he will not be running for reelection in 2024.  The good news is that former Governor Larry Hogan, the one Republican with a chance of winning in mostly Democrat Maryland says he has no interest in seeking the now open seat.  Also not running, is Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin who says that he is not seeking the presidency, at least not now.  Youngkin’s name had been bandied about by the so-called “normies” in the Republican party which isn’t to say that Youngkin is all that normal, he’s just normal when compared to Trump. His name will probably come up again as a possible VP candidate.  Washington State Governor Jay Inslee who briefly ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 2020, has announced that he’s not seeking reelection for a fourth term. He’s probably not going to disappear anytime soon, a strong advocate for fighting climate change, he’d be a good choice to serve as a cabinet member in Biden’s next administration assuming that is that Biden has another administration. Nikki Haley wants us all to believe that should he win Biden will die almost immediately, leaving us with Kamala Harris because though calling Haley past her prime contributed to CNN’s Don Lemon his job, it’s okay for her to predict Biden’s imminent death while snidely taking a dig at Harris, horror of horrors a “Black” woman who could be president. Then there’s Tucker Carlson, the fired Fox host who some would like to see run for president. Don’t get nervous, as of now he’s not running but we’re now learning more about why he was fired.  According to both the NY Times and Washington Post, some still redacted texts and emails that were uncovered during the Dominion Voting Machine discovery include one in which Tucker “found himself for a moment” wanting a group of three white men to kill a person he described as an Antifa kid during the January 6 “demonstrations.”  Though Fox’s lawyers were aware of the Tucker email, Fox Board members and maybe even some of the company’s executives weren’t up to speed until right before the Dominion case was scheduled to go to trial though the part about the executives not knowing is hard to believe.  Fox panicked that Carlson’s emails would become public during Tucker’s testimony and that panic advanced both the settlement and his firing. It’s also reported that Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch had calls with Ukraine President Zelensky in the weeks before the settlement and that during those calls Zelensky expressed his frustration with Carlson’s frequently expressed love for all things Putin as well as his unrelenting hatred of all things Ukraine and Zelensky. It’s probably not a coincidence that with Tucker Carlson gone from the Fox airwaves, Kevin McCarthy who has wavered on Ukraine aid, made his most pro-Ukraine comments ever when asked about support for Ukraine during a press conference in Israel.  At least for now McCarthy doesn’t have to worry about being called out by Tucker, though he still has to deal with Margie Q and Panhandle Putz Matt and the rest of the pro-Vlad wing of his caucus. And Trump, who remains fully in Vlad’s camp. 

And:  Regarding Trump CNN has decided that now is the time to normalize him because who cares about democracy so they will be hosting him for a town hall on May 10.  Their “it girl” Kaitlin Collins who started her career at the Tucker Carlson founded The Daily Caller rather than a more experienced host like Jake Tapper or Dana Bash will serve as moderator.  What could possibly go wrong?