Weekend thread: What's going on?

Yellen warned Dems to raise debt ceiling last fall. DeSantis and Trump fire at each other. Texas AG Ken Paxton, facing impeachment, rails against "overturning election."

photo: Noclip, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I think you probably agree with me when I say I am sick of talking about the debt ceiling and tired of seeing the GOP taking Democrats hostage and even admitting it, as the odious Matt Gaetz did. What’s also increasingly angering is that Democrats could have raised the debt ceiling last fall when they had control of both chambers of Congress. And that’s exactly what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned them—including President Biden—to do. Why didn’t they listen?

Since jumping into the presidential race, Ron DeSantis has suddenly been attacking Trump, after pulling his punches for months. And Trump of course is hitting back. The biggest flashpoint: Who was worse in the COVID crisis? But in the inverted, conspiracy-driven MAGA world, who was "worse?" means who was actually following public health officials’ guidelines on masks, restrictions, and vaccines, as "Fauci-friendly" becomes a slur.

And the supreme irony of rabidly conservative and extremely corrupt Texas Attorney Ken Paxton now saying impeaching him would overturn an election—when he helped spearhead attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election—isn’t lost on any of us.