Cassandra, Congress, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks

I’m Worried About This

In no particular order:

I am worried about who George Santos is working for. On Monday The Washington Post reported that he has ties to the cousin of a Russian oligarch. My personal hunch has been that he is a Russian plant and so this makes sense to me. The other weird thing is how he started off in Congress hiding alone in the back of the House chamber looking miserable and ended up being BFFs with the Insurrection Caucus. As it turns out, he has an extensive MAGA past so maybe it’s not so weird that he found new friends right away.

I am worried about what’s going to happen when the country bumps up against the debt ceiling, which is going to happen some time this week.  I know that there are things that can be done to stave off catastrophe for a few months, but what happens in June when all of that stalling is expected to reach the end of its effectiveness? Even if Kevin McCarthy wanted to raise the debt ceiling limit he can’t because he’s given all of his leverage away in his stupid quest to become the most toothless Speaker ever.

I know that there is a way for the rational House members to get a debt ceiling bill onto the House floor—via a discharge petition—but that is a process that takes a long time to complete and if it were executed perfectly it would culminate at the same time the economic cratering is projected to begin. I worry less about the execution of the paperwork than I do about the cooperation of the fabled moderate House Republicans. Remember a bunch of them were very blabby about how they didn’t want McCarthy as Speaker, but then they all fell in line for the vote.

Oh and if you need a 1 minute explainer to share with people who don’t understand what’s going on, this is great:

Lastly, Kari Lake frightens me. Her unyielding devotion to The Big Lie and her refusal to break character creep me out. And the character she is playing is a weird cross between a TV evangelist and Jambi, the resident genie at Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Jambi would grant Pee Wee’s wishes, but sometimes at a cost. In Lake’s case, she wants there to be a cost to the wishes she grants, as we saw on Tuesday with the arrest of Solomon Pena who not only refused to acknowledge the absolute drubbing he got in his election for the New Mexico statehouse, but hired hit men to target 4 Democratic state officials.

I’ve been writing off and on about my fears of a large outbreak of domestic terrorism in the US, and this story didn’t do anything to lessen it. The fact that Lake is still out there even after this violence with her lies can’t be a good thing.

If case you don’t know who Jambi is, I’ll let him have the last word: