Clash of Titans: President Biden is scheduled to meet today with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and is expected to ask what budget cuts the Republicans want to win their vote for raising the debt ceiling and avoiding default. 

  The White House released a memo of demands yesterday to which McCarthy replied via Twitter: “Mr. President: I received your staff’s memo. I’m not interested in political games. I’m coming to negotiate for the American people.”

 Cutting spending and pushing for a balanced budget is always on the Republican agenda when they are not in the White House. The Republicans have yet to propose a budget or outline their demands. 

  The White House memo asks to know how the Republicans would make their economies, “whether through Social Security cuts; cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act health coverage; and/or cuts to research, education and public safety — as well as how much their budget will add to the deficit with tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.”

The War Room: Russian forces are  stepping up attacks on the eastern front, suggesting that they might be preparing for a major offensive. They’ve been pounding the Ukrainian lines with artillery and sending in waves of troops to get mowed down. 

Liar, Liar: New York’s pathological liar of a congressman George Santos told Republican bosses that he’s recusing himself  from committee assignments until his “issues” are resolved. He was assigned to small business and science, space and technology.

  Speaker McCarthy told reporters it was an “appropriate decision” for now, “until he could clear everything up.”

  But there’s no clearing up everything Santos has done. The representative who’s become fodder for Saturday Night Live invented a life and work history to run for Congress and now there are serious questions about his campaign financing.  He’s at risk for an ethics committee investigation and even criminal indictment.

  McCarthy had summoned Santos to his office Monday for what’s described as a “check-in,” asking Santos when he plans to publicly address his controversies, which Santos has already done by downplaying or denying everything as he runs through Congressional hallways dodging reporters.

Trump World: The New York Attorney General has released a video of Donald Trump’s deposition in which he repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a civil investigation of his business practices.

  Trump opened saying, “Anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool – an absolute fool.” He pled the Fifth 400 times in four hours. 

  He also delivered a diatribe calling the investigation by AG Letitia James “the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.” He said, “We cannot permit a renegade and out of control prosecutor to use this investigation as a means of advancing her political career.”

  The Trump organization has already been found guilty of criminal tax fraud and was fined a mere $1.6 million. James is now seeking a $250 million fraud judgment and a ruling  that would bar any of the Trumps from serving as an officer or director of a company in New York State.

Civilization 101: Trump’s most likely opponent for the Republican nomination, Ron DeSantis, yesterday proposed overhauling the state’s higher education system to require courses in Western civilization, eliminate diversity and equity programs, and reduce the protections of teacher tenure. He said his program would eliminate “ideological conformity.” 

  By doing so, DeSantis is putting education at the forefront of the culture wars. He has already banned instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade, limited what schools and employers can teach about racism, and rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement courses in African American studies for high school students.

  Up north, the State University of New York is doing exactly what DeSantis is complaining about. SUNY will require students at all 64 campuses to pass a course in “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice” to graduate.

Big Oil: After taking advantage of the Ukraine war, the oil companies are reporting record profits. ExxonMobil made nearly $56 billion in profit in 2022, setting an annual record for any US or European oil behemoth. Chevron made a mere  $35 billion in profits.

  These profits will undoubtedly spark the usual political debates about how much profit is too much, but the oil companies are also capable of going in the red. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Exxon lost $22 billion. 

The Spin Rack: Actor Alec Baldwin and the weapons handler on his movie “Rust” were both formally charged with involuntary manslaughter yesterday in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. — Litigious Donald Trump is suing journalist Bob Woodward for releasing recordings of interviews in 2019 and 2020, claiming he never agreed to those tapes going public. — The California radiologist who intentionally drove off a Northern California cliff with his wife and two children in the car has been charged with attempted murder. All four survived. Dr.Dharmesh Patel’s wife, who is still in a hospital, is reported to have been screaming when reached by rescuers that her husband did it intentionally. — Police in Huntington Park, California are under question after they shot and killed a double amputee who was trying to get away hopping on his stumps while holding a knife.

Department of Corrections: We sent out a correction yesterday but for those who missed it, hockey legend Bobby Hull died, not Bobby Orr, who is still with us.

Below the Fold: Impressionistic artists Claude Monet and JMW Turner of the 18^th and 19^th centuries are known for their hazy paintings of cityscapes, bridges, and rivers. A recent study of 100 of their paintings came to the conclusion that their paintings may have been more literal that impressionist. What they are now believed to have been painting was a view of the world through the industrial air pollution of the coal age. 

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