Tues- See Ye Later. The Neville Chamberlain Caucus.

I Am Sure Someone Was Upset When Their Package Didn't Arrive.

A delivery driver for Amazon was found dead after an apparent animal attack Monday in Missouri, and deputies shot and killed two aggressive dogs, the Ray County sheriff said.

Deputies were called to a home in Excelsior Springs, a town of around 10,000, around 7 p.m. after neighbors reported that an Amazon van had been parked there for several hours, Sheriff Ray Childers said.

A man's body was found in a yard, as were two highly aggressive dogs, he said. Deputies shot and killed the animals.

The man’s identity was not immediately disclosed.

While Jews Don't Do the Kind of Things the Neo-Nazis Talk About, Some of them are Crooks

“The largest private Hasidic Jewish school in New York State stole millions of dollars from a variety of government programs in a yearslong fraud, the school admitted in federal court documents filed on Monday.

The operators of the school, the Central United Talmudical Academy, which serves more than 2,000 boys in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, acknowledged that they illegally diverted money from government programs for school lunches, technology, and child care. They also admitted to setting up no-show jobs for some employees while paying others in cash and coupons so the employees could qualify for welfare, according to a deferred prosecution agreement filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.

In all, the school agreed to pay $5 million in fines in addition to the more than $3 million it had already paid in restitution as part of the deal to avoid prosecution.”

Whatever the official numbers are, it is obvious that the Hassidim are sitting on a mountain of cash showered on them by cynical politicians, some of whom are Democrats. Although the Hasidim have tended to support Republicans. Mainly because they prefer the GOP's laissez-faire medical policies and support of religious freedom. Unsurprisingly, this led to the Hassidim having the state’s highest COVID rate. And their religious objection to vaccination (not a common position in the Jewish diaspora) has also led to a reoccurrence of polio.

It is not just the city schools that have managed to rake it in. The Village of Kiryas Joel school district’s finances bears no relationship to the other districts in the state. The average expenditure on schools in the US averages around $14,000 per student. In New York State, it is c.$25,000. And in Kiryas Joel, the amount spent per student is $330,923.



When in 2019, CUTA agreed to give state standardized tests in reading and math to more than 1,000 students — every one of them failed.

More Stupid Democrats

Last week, a reporter asked President Biden if he would support a repeal of the debt ceiling. “A permanent repeal of the debt ceiling? … Just say we don’t have a debt limit?” he asked with a laugh, as if the notion were fantastical. “No. That’d be irresponsible.”

The reality is in fact just the opposite. Repealing the debt ceiling, or raising it to a level at which it is practically repealed, is the responsible course of action. Leaving the debt ceiling in place invites political chaos and creates the risk of a global economic meltdown with absolutely no benefit whatsoever. Biden’s dismissive comment was the most irresponsible act of his entire presidency.

The Washington Post reports that Biden uttered this response extemporaneously, “surprising some of his own aides, according to two people who have been in communication with senior administration officials and spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations.” In so doing, he blundered into a crisis that he has a short period of time to resolve, and if he fails, it could very well destroy his administration.

A brief refresher: The debt ceiling is not an instrument that limits the government’s ability to borrow money. The amount of debt is determined by Congress, which sets levels of taxes and spending and borrows the difference between the two. The debt ceiling is a separate vote to authorize the Treasury Department to actually pay its lenders what it owes them. Because of the dollar’s unique role underpinning world markets, a failure to repay would trigger an unpredictable and potentially catastrophic meltdown of global currency markets.

For many decades, it barely mattered that the U.S. government had an extraneous self-destruct button installed. But then the Republican Party was taken over by maniacs. The first generation of maniacs, led by Newt Gingrich, only toyed with the idea of using the debt ceiling as a threat to compel a Democratic president to adopt their proposals before settling on the less crazy (but still deeply self-destructive) mechanism of shutting down the government.

The next generation of maniacs to confront a Democratic president came around in 2011, when the tea-party Congress threatened to default on the debt to force President Obama to sign some combination of spending cuts. Obama disastrously took this as an opportunity for serious negotiations, not realizing he was simply being extorted. He gave Republicans spending cuts he believed would set the stage for real mutual compromise before wising up.

Biden somehow unlearned the lesson. Meanwhile, the current generation of Republicans has continued the party’s long descent into ever-deeper levels of madness. Its members are broadcasting their intention to use the debt ceiling as a hostage. Even the “sane” Republicans have given up on steering them away from this course of action.

“There’s a genuine desire and strategic imperative to get something out of this — that may be stupid and may be reckless, but they have to play this game out,” one party strategis tells the Post. “If you don’t try it, you’ll just get beat up on by figures on the right, including the former president — who will say you’re weak and stupid and you gave them this vulnerable thing for nothing.” If you have watched Republicans capitulate to Donald Trump’s various fantasies, this logic sounds depressingly familiar. Once the movement has started down the track of extorting Biden, simple self-interest will make it impossible for Republicans to defect.

It may be possible for Biden to escape the hostage scenario by paying a small ransom — say, some cuts to the programs he just devoted a year to passing through Congress — but even that would be extremely risky. Any negotiation invites both sides to engage in brinkmanship. Both parties to the talks have an incentive to stake out a firm line and threaten to walk away. Even if they strike a deal, the agreement could break down if the Republicans fail to deliver 218 votes, a failure that happens all the time. And even if a negotiation succeeds, it invites more hostage-taking the next time around.

It would be nice if House Republicans could be persuaded to lift the debt ceiling without being paid off with a policy concession. But they have already decided to hold it hostage. Now there is no way out other than eliminating the debt ceiling while Democrats still have the time to do so. Democrats can do this with one vote in Congress. (The backup plan — announcing the Treasury Department will mint a coin to cover the cost of its debt — is available but riskier.)

Democrats had years to devote a small amount of political capital to defusing this weapon. Simple myopia has prevented them from doing it. Now the clock is ticking down toward doomsday. Biden’s loose talk has made the task all the more difficult but also all the more necessary.