House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's global economic suicide mission continues.

Monday, May 22, 2023
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- Laura Ingraham ([link removed]) deflecting the fact that Fox News aired the hell out of a fake story in which undocumented immigrants were “displacing homeless people in hotels.”

[Sweating] At what point is it appropriate for us to start panicking about the debt limit?

* President Biden will meet today with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—the king of making us say “Is this guy fucking serious?”— as misbegotten negotiations to stop Republicans from plunging the country into a recession remain at an impasse. With as few as 10(!) days left until the nation runs out of borrowing authority—the money it needs to honor its debts—McCarthy is running out the clock, prolonging his extortion scheme, which could send the United States into default for the first time in history. At the end of the Monday meeting, the two camps had still reported that no deal had been struck, but McCarthy and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) expressed positivity about the meeting ([link removed]) , which we have to be honest, does not make us feel good about the trajectory of negotiations.

* McCarthy has repeatedly stated that default is not an option, but he always follows up that assertion with the word, “but…” The speaker and president spoke on Sunday while Biden was on Air Force One making his way back early from a trip to Asia ([link removed]) that included a stop at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. Biden reported that the phone call “went well,” and that the two men would speak again on Monday, but members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are skeptical that these discussions will go anywhere useful.

* This stalemate (driven by GOP avarice and the party’s ideological commitment to hurting the most vulnerable Americans as much and as often as possible) has already begun to harm financial markets and the economy. The Dow Jones fell by about 140 points by the end of trading on Monday ([link removed]) . So yes, even if we don’t default, the mere threat of default could cost the economy wealth and jobs. Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service have already indicated that they could place the country’s credit under review if the GOP brings us too close to default, just as they did when Republicans held the economy hostage like this in 2011.

So the question remains: Is Kevin McCarthy going to cut the bullshit, or unleash a global economic collapse for no reason?

* The Treasury Department issued its latest warning Monday morning, employing its most urgent language yet, saying that the U.S. is “highly likely” to run out of money and other options in early June. It bears repeating that if the debt-limit crisis leads us to a first-ever default on our national debt and/or a recession, the effects would be felt the world over. According to chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi ([link removed]) , “No corner of the global economy will be spared.” Now, I’m not much of a numbers guy, but that sounds bad!

* It also bears repeating that the GOP is holding the government hostage over spending cuts to certain government programs, namely the ones that help the most disadvantaged Americans. The $857 billion annual defense budget seems like it would be a reasonable place to look for fat to trim. A new 60 Minutes investigation reveals that defense contractors are overcharging the Pentagon for almost everything ([link removed]) . But for congressional Republicans, defense cuts and tax increases (i.e. Things Republicans Don’t Like) are completely off the table ([link removed]) . That’s how you know it’s extortion and not a legitimate negotiation.

Wow! Pretty infuriating stuff! We have to lay blame at the feet of Kevin McCarthy, and all of the bad actors in his orbit telling him that’s a good idea. (Hi, Donald Trump!) And Biden and congressional Democratic leaders should explain to their supporters why they didn’t eliminate the debt limit when they had the chance, and how they got hoodwinked into a negotiation they insisted they’d never tolerate again. But I propose we also take a moment of silence to be mad at the New York State Democratic Party, which fumbled the 2022 midterms so badly that even Rep. George Santos (R-NY) ([link removed]) —who now stands indicted on 13 felony counts—managed to win, while the GOP flipped three other House seats in a state where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans two-to-one. Isn’t it nice that there’s enough blame to go around?

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Remember Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman with a long history of racist behavior behind one of the biggest leaks of classified documents in modern history? Well, an early initiative by the Biden administration seeking to root out ideological extremism in the military was designed specifically to identify people like Teixeira ([link removed]) , but the effort never got off the ground, because our institutions are addicted to cowering in fear of Republicans when they pretend to be mad about stuff. The kind of anti-government, White-supremacist views espoused by Teixeira would have put him squarely in the crosshairs of the Pentagon’s Countering Extremism Working Group, but senior officials folded under pressure from Republican members of Congress, who labeled the initiative “wokeism in the military.” Wokeism. In. The. Military. Do we live in the dumbest possible
timeline? Perhaps.

The working group was initially headed by combat veteran Bishop Garrison, before he came under GOP fire for having criticized disgraced former president Donald Trump in a tweet before taking his role. The fact that Garrison is Black also made Republicans suspicious that he would be too mean to White supremacists. The idea that Garrison was too “biased” against MAGA chuds led to the erosion of his support within the Department of Defense. Adding to Garrison’s issues was the fact that the U.S. military is still in denial over the issue. For instance, in an April 2021 congressional hearing, two four-star military commanders testified that the military simply does not have an extremism problem. When conservative officials demonstrate that they’re too afraid of being accused of “wokeism” to root out actual White supremacists serving in the military, maybe we should stop listening to them on this matter!

One of disgraced former president Donald Trump’s recently-departed lawyers, Timothy Parlatore, told CNN that he quit last week because another member of Trump’s gargantuan legal team, Boris Epshteyn, was blocking necessary access to Trump ([link removed]) and his properties necessary for him to conduct a proper legal defense.


The federal prosecutors overseeing the investigation into disgraced former president Trump [DEL: stealing :DEL] mishandling classified White House documents issued a subpoena for records of his foreign business dealings since he took office in 2017 ([link removed]) . Now we’re talkin’!


The NAACP issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida on Saturday ([link removed]) , saying “Beware that your life is not valued,” citing the state’s legalized permitless concealed carry, and its Don’t Say Gay law, as well as “Desantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”


A fake image of an explosion near the Pentagon in Washington, DC, caused a real-world dip in the stock market after it spread across social media ([link removed]) , and it appears to have been created by artificial intelligence. Seems bad!


Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) announced he will not seek reelection ([link removed]) , opening up the seat in 2024.


Two of Marianne Williamson’s top 2024 advisors have quit her campaign ([link removed]) . Recharge those crystals, Marianne!

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) officially announced his long-shot candidacy for president ([link removed]) .

Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, Europe’s lead privacy regulator, slapped Facebook parent company Meta with a record $1.3 billion fine over its handling of user information ([link removed]) . The DPC has given the company a deadline of five months to stop transferring users’ data to the United States, after Meta continued to violate a 2020 E.U. court ruling. Meta’s Facebook data has been the subject of controversy and legal challenges for over a decade, and was a big part of the disclosures made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. In a statement, Meta announced that it will appeal the ruling and the “unjustified and unnecessary fine,” which the company says “sets a dangerous precedent for countless other companies.” Meta will also seek a legal stay of the suspension orders. This is the latest development in a long legal battle to reconcile American
consumer-data laws with more privacy-minded European laws.

According to Crooked Media political contributor, resident Big Tech expert, and author of The Chaos Machine, Max Fisher, in the past, these fines have rolled off Meta’s back because it could easily absorb the financial hit as a cost of doing business. But the tightening economy for big tech means that’s no longer true. Plummeting share price value, massive layoffs, and rising interest rates means investors are pushing Meta to deliver on every penny, and it’s unclear if they will be able to under these conditions. Couldn’t have happened to a more ethically dubious corporation!
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New York columnist E. Jean Caroll is seeking additional damages from disgraced former president Donald Trump after he, once again, defamed her ([link removed]) during his town hall after she won her initial $5 million defamation lawsuit against him.


States along the Colorado River have just reached an historic agreement with the White House to conserve an unprecedented amount of the water supply ([link removed]) in exchange for $1.2 billion in federal funding.


A new voter focus group shows that people’s fears of disgraced former president Donald Trump eclipse discomfort about Biden’s re-election in swing states ([link removed]) . Okay, we’ll take it!

Vermont lawmakers just approved a $125 million annual investment in the state’s underfunded child care system ([link removed]) .
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