SAY ANYTHING: Biden Accuses Republicans Of Sabotaging Debt Limit To Get Him Out Of Office. “If the economy does default, Biden argued he would be ‘blameless,’ and called for Republicans to move their positions.”
The GOP-controlled House already has voted to raise the debt limit. This is all on the White House.
KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Three Years of COVID Democrat Tyranny That We Should Never Forget.
Behind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.
Countries in AP’s analysis had as much as 50% of their foreign loans from China and most were devoting more than a third of government revenue to paying off foreign debt. Two of them, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing the construction of ports, mines and power plants.
In Pakistan, millions of textile workers have been laid off because the country has too much foreign debt and can’t afford to keep the electricity on and machines running.
In Kenya, the government has held back paychecks to thousands of civil service workers to save cash to pay foreign loans. The president’s chief economic adviser tweeted last month, “Salaries or default? Take your pick.”
Since Sri Lanka defaulted a year ago, a half-million industrial jobs have vanished, inflation has pierced 50% and more than half the population in many parts of the country has fallen into poverty.
Experts predict that unless China begins to soften its stance on its loans to poor countries, there could be a wave of more defaults and political upheavals.
Never get in bed with mobsters.
AND SO MUCH ELSE: We Were Lied to About Dianne Feinstein’s Health.
SCIENCE! DC Bar Exam Will Require All Test-Takers To Wear Masks For 12-Hour Exam.
UPDATE (From Ed):
NEW: DC bar officials say they will "likely" lift the mask requirement for the city’s upcoming bar exam after my story yesterday.
But, judging from emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, they aren’t happy about it.🧵https://t.co/3KsBtyceGR
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 19, 2023
(Updated and bumped.)
FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Watch Him Flee in a Stolen Fire Truck.
OOPS: Democrats race to avoid a Biden embarrassment in New Hampshire. “Democrats are searching for ways to get the president on the New Hampshire ballot after he pushed for changes to the nominating calendar.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Witness Says Daniel Penny Is a Hero: ‘We Were Scared for Our Lives.’
MEGAN FOX IS ON FIRE AGAIN WITH THIS ONE: The New Trans Patriarchy: Washington Official Screams at Female Victim of Sexual Battery.
FALLOUT: U.S. won’t block Europe’s exports of F-16s to Kyiv. “Washington’s decision not to block allies from sending F-16s to Ukraine comes after Zelensky’s repeated requests for fighter jets, including from the Netherlands, which has the aircraft. In February, Ukrainian officials said they had made significant progress in persuading Dutch officials to send F-16s, but Washington’s approval is necessary because of third-party transfer agreements associated with the purchase of the U.S.-made jets. The transfer would also require the sign-off of the chairs and ranking minority-party members of relevant U.S. congressional committees.”
I’LL WRITE HER A CHECK: Cori Bush Wants $14 Trillion in Federal Reparations.
BLUE CITY BLUES: Uber will lease out entire office building in San Francisco. “Rumors that Uber was abandoning one of its new office buildings in Mission Bay have been circulating since 2021. This week, CoStar News finally confirmed it was true and that the entire building at 1725 Third Street is for lease.”
Just last month: You Won’t Believe the Fire Sale Price on This San Francisco High Rise.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: More Americans are struggling to make ends meet NOW than in the aftermath of the pandemic – new survey shows nearly 40% of US households can’t pay expenses.
Roughly two in five Americans are still struggling to make ends meet, new federal data has shown – more than the amount seen in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The revelation comes from the Census Bureau’s latest household survey, released Wednesday, which shows some 38.5 percent of adults – or 89.1 million people – experienced difficulty paying their bills between April 26 and May 8.
The number is up from a year ago, when 34.4 percent of Americans reported they were undergoing budget crunches and comes as a near-50 percent increase from the 26.7 percent recorded in 2021.
That means the Biden cabal’s economic plan is working.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Dumb Joe Club — Biden Is Chatting Up Scarborough Late at Night. “There was a time when this would have been hush-hush. Now, the MSM hacks don’t care that we know they’re biased, even though they continue to deny it. They’re just rubbing our noses it in now.”
FALLOUT: Disney Scraps Plan for $900 Million Florida Campus, Closes ‘Star Wars’ Adventure Hotel.
Walt Disney Co. increase; green up pointing triangle has canceled two major investments in Florida, including reversing course on a potential $900 million office park, amid a high-profile dispute with state lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The company is halting plans for a new corporate campus in Florida that would have relocated more than 2,000 employees, mostly from its theme parks division, to the community of Lake Nona in Orlando.
Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Products division since 2020, said the Lake Nona project is dead. In an email to staff Thursday, he announced that employees will no longer be asked to relocate from Southern California.
The move to Orlando was supposed to be a cost-cutting move, now given up out of political spite. Given how badly Disney shares have performed over the last two years, you have to wonder when shareholders will revolt against the company’s petty and self-destructive decision-making.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Leftist Hero Noam Chomsky’s Financial Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Exposed.
HMM: The Kremlin reportedly accused three hypersonic missile scientists of treason.
Employees of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science published an open letter on May 15 in defense of three of their scientists — Anatoly Maslov, Alexander Shiplyuk, and Valery Zvegintsev — whom Russian authorities reportedly arrested in the past year under suspicion of committing “high treason.”[10] The open letter also noted that these arrests deter the younger generation from pursuing careers in science, which contributes to a decrease in the quality of scientific research. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that the Kremlin was aware of the open letter and that Russian security services are involved.
Russia’s “unstoppable” hypersonic Kinzhal missiles — which aren’t even hypersonic as properly understood — have underperformed so far.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Hey Dove! Fat Kids Need Treadmills, Not Representation!
QUIZ: How Weird Was the ‘Wired’ Interview With Pete Buttigieg?
What do you get when you cross a cheap Soviet propaganda piece with a spot-on Babylon Bee parody of America’s mainstream media? You get Wired’s interview with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Headlined “Pete Buttigieg Loves God, Beer, and His Electric Mustang,” Virginia Heffernan’s airier-than-a-puff-piece reads like Marianne Williamson on shrooms interviewing Marianne Williamson on edibles.
Whatever you want to call it, Heffernan’s creation has been making the rounds on social media for all the wrong reasons, so I thought you, gentle reader, and I might play a game with it together.
I’ll show you several pairs of sentences. In each pair, one will be an actual line from Wired and the other is something I made up. You try to guess which is which, and there will be a key at the end revealing the correct answers.
The quiz is for entertainment purposes only. Please, no wagering.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX Reveals Starship Flight Test 2 Launch Timeline . “Along with the narrative, SpaceX also provides a timeline for its operations and seeks authorization for six months starting from the 15th of June. This suggests that the firm aims to be back on its feet in just two months after the shocking visuals of its launch pad ‘captivated’ attention. Footage from the launch site has also suggested that repairs are moving quickly, and unverified reports have claimed that SpaceX is testing its flight termination system.”
But: “Even if it receives the FCC’s approval, SpaceX must convince the FAA to allow it to conduct another test launch. SpaceX’s launch license for Starship limited it to one flight only, and the agency had explicitly stated that any further attempts would require pre-approval.”
MEGAN FOX WITH A SCORCHER: The Weird Lies Harry and Meghan Tell.
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