Hot Mess:  Congress needs to take some kind of action today to prevent a government shutdown at midnight when the authorization to spend money runs out. 

  And in a fascinating exercise of politics, the Presidency of Joe Biden may be on the line today as the House moves toward a vote on his $1 trillion infrastructure bill that the Democrats are in danger of losing.

  The money would go to investments in aging roads, bridges, pipes, ports, and internet service.

  One of the biggest threats to the Democratic plan is Democrats themselves. The progressives say they won’t vote for the bill unless the House passes the $3.5 trillion economic stimulus bill linked at the hip with the infrastructure bill .

  Some of the Democratic moderates — almost conservatives — are also threatening to hold up the infrastructure bill to force the leadership to cut down the $3.5 trillion. Leading that effort to dial back the spending are Senators Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. 

  Sinema was negotiating with aids to the President, but Manchin told reporters he didn’t think a deal could be struck in time for today’s vote. “No, it’s not possible,” he told reporters.

  Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is faced with gambling on the possibility of huge defeat, or pulling back the bill to await further negotiation.

  Of course, on the other side is Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who tweeted that, “The Democrats are launching a communist takeover of our country with their so-called ‘infrastructure’ bill and Biden’s budget. I’m fighting to stop it.”

Free Britney: A judge in Los Angeles yesterday suspended Jamie Spears, father of singer Britney Spears, from his position in control of  her conservatorship. 

  A crowd broke into cheers outside the courthouse on hearing the news.

  John Zabel, a certified public accountant picked by Britney Spears’ team, will temporarily succeed Jamie Spears as conservator.

  Jamie Spears has controlled his daughter’s finances and life since 2008. The judge is also being asked to consider whether the arrangement should be ended entirely. Britney’s lawyer described her father as a “cruel, toxic and abusive man.” 

  Britney’s representatives have accused her father of attempting to bilk her estate for millions. But the final nail in James Spears may have been the revelation by The NY Times that the security team he hired installed bugs in her bedroom and made hundreds of hours of recordings of whatever happened in there.

Gone: The ivory-billed woodpecker, once native to the bayous of Arkansas, is extinct according to federal officials. The woodpecker had a long yellow bill, and a black head with a red crest rising from the back of the neck. It was magnificent.

  Gone as well from the US and Earth itself are a total of at least 23 species of plants and animals, including the Bachman’s warbler, a yellow-breasted songbird that bounced between the Southeastern United States and Cuba, the Kauai O’o, a Hawaiian forest bird. Even some freshwater mussels that once filtered streams and rivers from Georgia to Illinois have disappeared.

  The announcement is a harbinger of shrinking diversity of plant and animal life in the world.

There’s a Riot Going On: At least 116 inmates have been killed in a riot in one of Ecuador’s largest prisons. Five of the dead were beheaded. Another 80 were injured.

  Criminal gangs have been fighting for control of the prison.

  “It is unfortunate that criminal groups are attempting to convert prisons into a battleground for power disputes,” President Guillermo Lasso told reporters in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. “I ask God to bless Ecuador and that we can avoid more loss of human life.”

  This is a thing in Ecuador’s prisons. At least 79 people died in a February riot, and 22 in July. 

The Spin Rack: Three-time Olympic swimmer Klete Keller, 39, pleaded guilty to one charge of felony obstruction of an official proceeding for breaking into the Capitol during the January 6th insurrection. He wore a “Team USA” jacket during the assault. Sentencing guidelines call for 21 to 27 months in prison. — Former television anchor and talker Katie Couric has written a “tell all” book about her time in the news business and no one should care. — James Austin Johnson, who was described by Vanity Fair as the best impersonator of Donald Trump, has joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to a year in jail for illegal campaign financing. He says he’ll appeal. — YouTube is banning videos spouting misinformation about the Covid vaccine. — Devoted Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski has been fired from running a super PAC supporting the former president after a donor accused him of making unwanted sexual advances. Sex with Corey Lewandowski would give sex a bad name. 

-30-