Crooked Media - What A Day: Soft Target

With a little over a week left until the government runs out of money, defaults on its debts, and sends the global economy into a tailspin, Republicans in Congress have seemingly unified to ensure that happens. 
 

• Well, folks, we’ve happened upon the most destructive version of “Same shit, different day.” After it looked like negotiations between the White House and Republican leaders were getting somewhere (anywhere?) the latter have once again dug in their heels with demands to reduce spending only in ways that would hurt the most vulnerable Americans. As Rep. AOC (D-NY) said in a press conference today, Republicans, led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, “are engaged in hostage-taking, not negotiation.”
   

• Republicans, it turns out, agree with AOC. Several of them have done the whole “say the quiet part loud” thing in the past 24 hours. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said wants to hold out for the entire GOP wish list, and that he doesn’t “feel like we should negotiate with our hostage.” It isn’t just Gaetz, though. When McCarthy, along with Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Garret Graves (R-LA), have been asked what concessions Republicans have offered in these negotiations, they all said the GOP concession is “raise the debt ceiling.” In other words, they get what they want, and in exchange they agree not to wreck the economy.  
   

• McCarthy said on Wednesday that his team of little cretin negotiators would return to the White House to continue debt limit talks, but that the two sides were “still far apart.” McCarthy repeated that defaulting was not an option, but also offered no concessions to his insane list of demands. In a press conference, he said “it’s not my fault” that the nation is careening towards a crisis that will reverberate throughout the whole world, which is, of course, a lie. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries offered a shrewd synopsis of the problem in a press conference of his own, saying, “House Republicans are determined to crash the economy, because they believe it will benefit them politically.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen them pull this shit. 
 

• Republicans have played this dangerous game before. They executed this strategy 12 years  ago and ended up hurting the U.S. economy and getting the country’s credit rating downgraded, because they wanted to extort spending cuts out of Obama-era Democrats. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at a Wall Street Journal event that Treasury markets “are seeing some stress already.” Yellen also reiterated her belief on Wednesday that “it seems almost certain” that the United States will default by early June if this deadlock holds. 
   

• Negotiations have dragged into their third week, and that’s unambiguously because of Republican obstinance. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said that according to White House officials, GOP negotiators rejected $3 trillion in proposed deficit reduction. Why? Because the cuts would be made by closing tax loopholes, a minimum tax for billionaires, and ending tax subsidies for oil companies. McCarthy is now also coming back to the table demanding 10 years of spending caps, when he had initially demanded six years. As predicted, GOP demands are becoming more hard-line, even further to the right, not less. They are not interested in negotiating.

President Biden has built his entire career on “reaching across the aisle” to compromise and “get things done.” But, with all due respect to our guy, what good can come of compromise when one side is saying “Raise the debt ceiling” and the other side is saying, “We’re gonna shoot you in the head,”?

What happens when a mysterious stranger comes to town, with a wild idea that weed can solve all of the city's problems?  That's the question of Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto  - Crooked’s newest podcast and an official Selection at this year's Tribeca festival. Dreamtown is the zany but true story of one down on its luck city in the Southern California desert, and the scrappy - sometimes morally dubious - cast of characters determined to reinvent it. 
 

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It has been one year since the devastating mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, and many of the victims’ families are still searching for answers. A Washington Post investigation found that law enforcement’s deadly decision to wait more than an hour to confront the gunman was not solely the fault of the former chief of the school district’s police force. It was also caused by the inaction of an array of senior and supervising law-enforcement officers who had direct knowledge that the shooting was taking place inside the classrooms, but did not intervene. Those officers remain on the job in the area to this day. The Post reviewed dozens of hours of police body-camera video footage, as well as post-shooting interviews with officers and other resources, and found at least seven officers who stalled even as the evidence that children were still in danger became incontrovertible. Top state law-enforcement and government officials promised to hold all those responsible for the 77-minute delay accountable, but all of the officers in question remain employed by the same agencies they worked for last year. The Texas Department of Public Safety cleared almost all investigations into six officers for wrongdoing, and the department’s chief, Col. Steven McCraw, who said he would personally resign if his agency had failed Uvalde, still insists it did not. Only four of the almost 200 officers who responded from state and local law-enforcement agencies were fired in the wake of the tragedy. Nineteenchildren and two teachers were murdered one year ago today, and they deserve closure they have not yet received.

In an award acceptance speech at the American Law Institute, Chief Justice John Roberts said on Tuesday night that he is “confident” the Supreme Court will resolve its ethics issues and regain public trust that it “adheres to the highest standards of conduct.” Lol, sure. 

The House voted to overturn president Biden’s student debt relief plan, with Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Glusenkamp Pérez (D-WA) joining all Republicans in supporting the GOP resolution. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) launched his presidential campaign in disastrous fashion on Twitter Spaces with his pal Elon Musk. Like anvilles-falling-out-of-the-sky-level calamity. 

Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been—once again—referred to the police by government officials to assess accusations that he may have further violated coronavirus regulations. Johnson was fined last year while still in office for breaking a bunch of Covid rules in 2020 as part of a series of scandals that brought down his administration. 

Following a report about Iran’s new underground tunnel system near a nuclear enrichment facility, the head of the country’s nuclear program insisted that the government would cooperate with international inspectors on any “new activities.” 

Meta executed the last round of a three-part series of layoffs today. Since March, the company has eliminated 10,000 roles after laying off 11,000 employees last fall. 

A United Nations migration agency announced on Wednesday that fighting between Sudan’s military and paramilitary forces has displaced over 1.3 million people. 

Special counsel Jack Smith is wrapping up his criminal investigation into whether or not disgraced former president Donald Trump stole classified White House documents and then took them to his Mar-a-Lago home. Real mystery there!

Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) declared a state of emergency for North Carolina’s public education system due to “extreme legislation” being pushed by the state’s GOP lawmakers who plan to “starve public education” through further tax cuts and funding increases for private school vouchers. 

The United States has announced nearly $524 million in additional humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa in an effort to address some of the extreme effects of climate change and the region’s worst drought in 40 years. 

Queen of Rock and Roll Tina Turner passed away today at age 83.

After rolling out its Pride Collection at the beginning of May, retail giant Target has decided to kowtow to a bigoted right-wing mob by removing some of its products from stores. The company said in a statement that since introducing the collection, “we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work.” In other words, increasingly violent right-wing bigots  have been throwing the merchandise on the floor, vandalizing stores, and harassing or even physically assaulting Target employees. The merchandise Target pulled from its shelves and website included items with slogans like “cure transphobia not trans people.” Target has been celebrating Pride Month with dedicated collections for over a decade. Framing the issue as the Pride merchandise putting Target employees in danger, rather than bigoted psychopaths putting everyone in danger, is a dangerous (and cowardly!) precedent to set. The problem is violent, hateful (let’s be honest) Trump supporters, not a tote bag that says “too queer for here.” Historically, giving in to violent extremists has [checks notes] not worked out.

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A man who has been paralyzed for 12 years is reportedly able to walk naturally again after receiving brain and spine implants, with technology that creates a “digital bridge” between his brain and his spinal cord. 

With a slim majority in the state Senate and a trifecta in the state government, Minnesota Democrats have been racking up huge Ws and passing a slew of progressive bills like enshrining abortion access into state law, legalizing recreational marijuana, requiring universal background checks for gun purchases, paid family and medical leave, free breakfast and lunch for all schoolchildren, and a new child tax credit, along with the biggest transportation bill in 15 years. 

The Louisiana Senate Health and Welfare Committee blocked a ban on gender-affirming health care for trans minors from advancing, a rare such victory in the deep south.  

After more than two years of contentious negotiations, including the first newsroom walkout since the 1970’s, the New York Times reached a deal for a new contract with the union representing the majority of its employees.