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- Self-professed “Alpha Male” Nick Adams. Nothing says tough-guy masculinity like fury over fictional cartoon candy mascots.
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Editor's note: We will be off on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but back in your inboxes on Tuesday.
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The GOP is in control of the House of Representatives so you know what that means: right-wing lunatics threatening to do grave damage to the whole country unless they get the insane things they want.
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So we’re doing this again, huh? Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen notified Congress today that the United States is projected to reach its statutory debt limit on Thursday and will then be forced to resort to “extraordinary measures” to avoid default. Yellen warned, “Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability.” Even the threat of letting the U.S. government default on its obligations (a favored tactic of these nihilistic psychos) has sent global markets into free-fall in the past.
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House Republicans, for their part, are preparing a plan to tell the Treasury Department what to do if they push us into default, underscoring their general hostage-taking ethos. The plan was part of the back-room deal to get the ultra-conservative flank of the GOP caucus to finally elect Kevin McCarthy speaker. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), one of the proto-fascists who brokered the deal with McCarthy, told the press that McCarthy agreed to pass a “payment prioritization plan” by the end of the first fiscal quarter. The Senate would never agree to such a plan, and President Biden would never sign one, so we’re back to: just doing as much damage as possible out of spite.
- As in the Obama years, Republicans say they’ll only lift the debt limit if and when Biden agrees to sign major spending cuts that he doesn’t actually support. And when they say cuts, Republicans don’t mean maybe taking a hammer to the bloated Defense Department budget. Specifically, they want to take aim at their old adversaries: Social Security, Medicare, and other social safety net programs. Things that actually help the majority of Americans. We also saw them recently try to gut the IRS, (which would balloon the national debt by tens of billions each year) because the super-rich need to evade their taxes in peace!
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If Republicans shoot their hostage, the United States would default on its interest payments, which would cause international markets to panic, and inevitably lead to a recession (probably a global one) that costs millions of people their jobs. “Party of the working American,” baby!!
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We’re less than two weeks into the 118th Congress, and already, a tiny group of insurgents, with the backing of GOP leadership, have ignited a huge, psychotic crisis. Treasury Department aides declined to comment on the GOP plan, and naturally, McCarthy’s people have not returned requests for comment. In her remarks, Yellen referenced the 2011 debt-limit standoff during the Obama administration. We’re in that situation again, except the Republicans this time around are significantly more fascist and dishonest than last time.
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Speaker McCarthy said he hoped to sit down with President Biden early to work through these fiscal issues and must-pass legislation, but the White House is taking a “We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” approach. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stressed to the press that the debt ceiling “is one of the basic items congress has to deal with, and it should be done without conditions.” (I’d have gone with “must,” but good enough!) House Republicans are using their razor-thin majority to extract concessions which are incredibly unpopular with the majority of Americans and opposed by economists on both sides of the aisle.
Much has been said about the “new” GOP, but these are their true colors, this is who they have always been: willing to burn down the whole economy as revenge for losing an election, so long as their pockets remain lined.
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This week, Work Appropriate’s host Anne Helen Petersen is looking for questions around how to handle your coworkers’ cringiest behavior. If you can beat “What do I do about the women in my office who keep telling me I should have a baby?” submit your questions here!
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Less than two weeks into the new year, the Los Angeles Police Department already faces multiple accusations of using deadly excessive force. Body-camera footage released yesterday shows a January 3 incident in which police responded to a traffic accident and repeatedly Tased 31 year-old Keenan Anderson, a high school teacher and father, who had initially flagged officers down for help. Police approached Anderson as if he was a criminal suspect, not someone who needed help, despite him saying, “please help me,” multiple times. Anderson complied with officer demands, and then became increasingly uncomfortable with the way the officers were treating him, and began to flee. LAPD then tased him repeatedly while another officer had his elbow on Anderson’s neck. He was begging for his life. Paramedics later arrived at the scene and took him to a hospital, where he went into cardiac arrest and then died. LAPD Chief Michel Moore said in a news conference that Anderson’s behavior was “erratic” and he suffered a “medical emergency,” neither of which are just cause for the use of lethal force. The LAPD’s fiscal year 2022-2023 budget is $3.2 billion (including pension costs), an $87 million increase from the year before.
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The Kremlin claimed today that its forces had taken control of Soledar, a town in eastern Ukraine near the crucial city of Bakhmut, after some battlefield advances earlier this week. However, Ukrainian officials said that its troops were still fighting in the town, and that they had not surrendered. Reuters could not immediately verify whose account is correct, as violence in the small salt-mining town continues, but if the Kremlin’s assertions are true, Russia would be able to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to Bakhmut and trap remaining Ukrainian forces there, as it has been trying to do for four months. Soledar has already proven to be the bloodiest campaign that Russian forces have waged since the war began.
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