Congressional Republicans have taken the U.S. dollar hostage, and, characteristically, don’t seem to have a plan on the other side of it. 
 

• The Republican Party’s failson House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced today that he would pass legislation to raise the national debt ceiling (or “agree to pay what the country already owes,” if you prefer) but only if the legislation also caps future federal spending increases at 1 percent. In a speech at the New York Stock Exchange, McCarthy lashed out at president Biden, whom he falsely claimed was “missing in action” from this debt limit negotiation. In fact, it was McCarthy who went silent for weeks because Republicans did not have a fucking economic plan other than “take government assistance away from everyone except the rich.” (Also on McCarthy’s Christmas list: means testing!)
   

• Since there’s no way the Senate will pass the conditions McCarthy is proposing, the package doesn’t seem like much more than a way to shift blame to the Democrats once the clock runs out on negotiations. McCarthy really wanted to go after Medicare and Social Security, but that blew up in his face in the first weeks of his speakership after President Biden backed him into a corner during his State of the Union address, spotlighting how wildly unpopular such measures would be with both parties’ constituents. 
   

• Washington is hurtling towards a massive potential crisis. Republicans have threatened to tank the economy for decades, but in recent years they’ve become crazy enough to get way too close to the real thing. The Treasury has already taken emergency measures to continue paying the government’s bills, but the money is expected to run dry this summer. McCarthy is playing with fire, but he’s not even smart enough to make a good arsonist. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was exacting in his criticism of McCarthy, saying: “President Biden and I are happy to meet with the speaker when he has something to talk about…He went all the way to Wall Street and gave us no more detail. No more facts, no new information at all.” Hell yeah, get his ass, Chuck.

Outside of the halls of Congress, the Fed is ramping up for more expected interest rate hikes. 
 

• The gauge of global stocks ticked up on Monday as investors saw another round of huge corporate earnings. Major U.S. stock indexes showed the same, and everyone is waiting with bated breath to hear from the Federal Reserve about possible new interest rate hikes. The U.S. dollar and Treasuries yields rose as well. Confidence among builders of single-family homes improved for a fourth straight month, but the cost of materials remains high and many of the factors that have contributed to the global housing crisis remain unresolved. Corporate profits remain at all-time highs, even though they had been projected to drop. 

• Just as the stock market is not actually a good stalking horse for “the economy” as a whole, or for the financial prospects of everyday Americans, a dip in corporate profits isn’t necessarily bad, even if TK are calling it an “earnings recession.” Despite all the complaining from executives that labor “costs too much” now, the federal minimum wage has remained $7.25 for fourteen years, which depresses wages far above the seven-and-a-quarter level. When inflation ran wild in 2021-2022, corporations had no problem jacking up the prices of their products—remember the egg crisis?—which led to these historic profit margins. Corporations continue to announce massive stock buybacks to line shareholder pockets while paying workers insufficiently, or even laying them off en masse. 

Between the Fed and Congressional Republicans, an unintentional joint narrative has emerged: In order to help the economy get back on track, working Americans will have to put up their quality of life as collateral. This is a false choice: Reduced inflation doesn’t have to come at the price of low wages and unemployment. We don’t have to make a deal to pay what we owe on our debt instruments by trading away social programs. Conservatives have a vested interest in selling the American people these false narratives, but we don’t have to let them get away with it.

Get ready to be transported back to 1973 New York City with Stiffed, the new podcast from Crooked Media and iHeartRadio. In this eight-part series, host Jennifer Romolini takes you on a wild ride through the rise and fall of Viva, the erotic magazine for women  started by porn king publisher Bob Guccione  that rocked the publishing world. With a team of feminist writers and editors behind it, Viva in its original form had full frontal male nudity, a fashion section run by Anna Wintor, and cover stars like Bianca Jagger, but were they doomed to fail from the beginning? Check out the first 4 episodes of Stiffed right now. 
 

Listen for free on your favorite podcast platform!

Last week in Kansas City, MO, An 85-year-old White man named Andrew Lester shot and critically injured a Black teenager named Ralph Yarl, after Yarl had simply gone to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers. The Clay County Prosecutor said Monday that there was a racial component to the case, and charged Lester with armed assault. Missouri is one of at least 28 states with barbaric “Stand Your Ground” laws, which give homeowners more leeway to shoot people on their property with legal impunity. Cool country. Love this. An arrest warrant has been issued, but Lester is not yet in custody. In a horrifyingly similar story, a 20-year old woman was shot and killed in upstate New York over the weekend after she and her friends turned down the wrong driveway in a rural area. The homeowner, 65-year-old Kevin Monahan, fired two bullets at the vehicle as they were trying to leave, one of which struck Kaylin Gillis, who died shortly thereafter. Monahan surrendered after initiating a standoff with police, and is now charged with second-degree murder.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is back to his hard work of ruining American lives for profit after a head injury. Too bad!

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a Texas inmate convicted of robbery who argues, (rightly!) that the 27 years he was forced to spend in solitary confinement violated the constitution’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual” punishment. 

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee held a sham hearing on Monday in a federal building two blocks away from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s offices to embarrass him for daring to bring charges against disgraced former president Donald Trump. 

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has announced his bid for reelection. 

The new math of carbon emissions offsets Weyerhaeuser Co. has allowed the logging company to greenwash its reputation despite cutting down more trees than ever. 

The architects of the 1998 Good Friday Accords Celebrated the 25th anniversary of the agreement, which ended most sectarian violence in Northern Ireland after 30 years. Former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and former U.S. Senator George Mitchell urged Irish leaders to break through the stalemate that has resulted from Brexit. 

The trial of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News will begin on Tuesday after a one-day delay, sparking assumptions that the network is pushing to settle out of court. 

“Stop the Steal” founder, right-wing extremist loon, and vocal “anti-groomer” Ali Alexander apologized after being accused of making unwanted sexual advances and soliciting nude photos from young men and teenage boys. Every. Single. Time.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) continues to neither retire nor give any indication of when (or if) she will be back to work. She has asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to replace her on the Judiciary Committee so that the Biden administration can confirm judicial appointments, but any replacement would require unanimous approval from the entire Senate. Naturally, a number of Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) are already threatening to block it. In other words, after an influential and storied career, Dianne Feinstein should resign for the good of the country.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has returned to the Senate. 
 

The Writers Guild of America has voted to strike with a staggering 97.85 percent of members voting to authorize the action. The guild set a new record for both voter turnout and percentage of support. 

Conservative school board candidates in battleground states who ran culture-war issues posted a bunch of L’s in recent elections.