- MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace asking the question we’ve had on our minds about Donald Trump since 2016

Well, the next two years are certainly going to be interesting!
 

• The White House has taken aim at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who appears hellbent on lighting a fire to the entire Biden agenda, if not the whole global economy. A spokesman for the president said: “An unprecedented hike on the middle class and a national abortion ban are just a glimpse of the secret, backroom deals Speaker McCarthy made with extreme MAGA members to end this month’s chaotic elections and claim the gavel.” Although we’re aware of some of the concessions McCarthy made (like allowing for his own ouster by one single member of his caucus calling a vote), the negotiations were secretive, and McCarthy has already been caught lying about them. 
   

• Half of House Republicans have refused to say if they’re vaccinated and a sizable portion of their freshmen members ran as anti-vaxxers, and part of the deal McCarthy struck was an end to proxy voting, meaning that all members have to be physically present for their votes to count. This is a double-edged sword for Republicans, though, as if just six of their members are not present in the House chambers, Democrats will have the majority. However, it doesn’t seem like they’ve thought that far ahead, and like all of their other “legislative priorities” are actually meant to waste time and provide red meat to their rabid base. Think Mitch McConnell’s infamous 2010 statement about how his sole legislative goal was to make Obama “a one-term president” except somehow much, much stupider. 
   

• To that end: McCarthy has begun the unpleasant (for us) task of assigning the noxious psychos in his caucus to important House committees. Remember how Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) were booted from their committees after making bigoted and violent comments? Not only have the two been reinstated, they’ve both been appointed to the coveted House Oversight Committee. I’m struggling to come up with a smarter analysis for that sentence than just “We live in hell!” but that’s all I’ve got right now. Greene also got a seat on the Homeland Security Committee, which doesn’t make our homeland feel very secure!

One thing is clear: McCarthy and his cronies are going to make must-pass legislation as difficult to pass as possible. 
 

• Even before the far-right wing held McCarthy hostage, we knew they intended to do the same to the debt limit This same bullshit House Republican pulled in 2011, when they brought the country to within hours of defaulting on its debt, and successfully extorted trillions of dollars in social spending cuts from President Obama. Democrats seemingly learned from that experience never to negotiate with GOP debt-limit hostage takers again. But one of the central arguments for abolishing the debt ceiling is so that Republicans can’t keep holding a gun to the country’s head. Oh well, next time?
   

• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed Congressional leaders that the federal government will likely hit the national debt limit on Thursday, which is probably music to McCarthy’s fucked-up little ears. Through specialized accounting processes, Yellen can stave off default for several months. But the extortion game has already begun. One of the concessions the MAGA fascist brigade demanded of McCarthy before giving him their vote was that major spending cuts (to essential social services like Social Security and Medicare) accompany any debt limit increase. The new Republican-written House rules also require an explicit vote to increase the government’s borrowing authority, eliminating a procedure previously used to expedite it. Even more “moderate” House Republicans who rightly recognize that defaulting is unthinkable do not support the typical simple increase used in past terms, because there is no place for sanity in the modern Republican Party.

As time elapses and the deadline draws near, we’re hoping some shred of common sense prevails among House Republicans, but we also know better than to count on it.

The U.S. began its expanded training of Ukrainian forces focusing on preparing them for large-scale combat.

In a news item that somehow gets more nauseating with every word, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) high-fived onstage at Davos when discussing their continued opposition to killing the filibuster. 

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested alongside other protesters in Germany during a protest against the demolition of a coal village used to expand the mine there. 

Ukraine may soon secure German battle tanks that could help them turn the tide of the war against Russia. 

A new report shows that China’s population fell last year for the first time in 60 years, signaling profound implications for its economy and the world. 

A new report shows that Brazil’s military blocked arrests of Bolsonaro supporters during the attempted coup last Sunday in Brasília.

The Taliban have started using Twitter’s paid-for verification feature launched by CEO Elon Musk. And they won’t even be the worst guys with blue checks on Twitter.

In a forthcoming election receiving relatively little national attention, control of the Wisconsin state Supreme Court is on the ballot this spring, and it could have major ramifications beyond the Badger State. If a more liberal-leaning judge is elected in April, it will flip the balance of the court for at least two years. In the next few years, the court is likely to hear a case challenging a 19th-century state law banning almost all abortions, and will continue to make significant decisions on election laws and voting rights leading up to the 2022 and 2024 elections, which will be of even greater importance due to Wisconsin’s history as a swing state. As with many off-year elections, the majority of voters are not aware of the stakes. The liberal-leaning candidates are Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell and Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, and the conservative candidates are former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, and Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow. While less is known about Dorow, like Kelly she was appointed by former governor and Republican nut-job Scott Walker, so it’s likely that her anti-choice bona fides are strong. Anti-choice groups are pouring money into her campaign and Kelly’s, and if we learned anything from 2016, it’s that anti-choice voters show up for judges, so when we say that Democrats need to have a “no off years” mentality, we mean it.

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A new study conducted at Harvard Medical School has unlocked a key to the understanding of aging and how it may be able to be reversed. Paul Rudd already figured that out but good for you guys. 

Italian authorities arrested Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro (scary-guy name, you got us there) after Denaro was on the run for 30 years, a huge blow to the Cosa Nostra who have controlled the Italian island region for decades.