In Deep: The federal government will reach its debt limit on January 19^th, risking default on the nation’s debt unless Congress raises the bar, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin. Treasury’s ability to skirt default on the national debt would run out by early June, leaving plenty of time for fighting about debt in the Republican majority House.

  Economists have always said that failure to raise the debt limit would be like dropping a bomb, wiping out faith in US debt securities. Yellin wrote in a letter to Congress, “Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans and global financial stability.” Some immediate measures would include suspension of investments in some government health and retirement plans.

  The Republicans have warned that any increase to the debt limit must be accompanied by a reduction in the debt as well as significant spending cuts on the military and domestic matters.

  The national debt was $31 trillion last year. The House Republicans have already prepared a plan for prioritizing payments without raising the debt limit. The trouble with not  raising the limit is that they would be refusing to pay debts already incurred, money already spent.

Liar Liar: Some well-connected Republicans knew about the lies and deceptions of Rep. George Santos before he was elected, but stayed silent, The NY Times reports.

  Santos created a life history about his personal background, education, and work history, all of it lies. This was revealed to his campaign staff  in a routine background check referred to in politics as a “vulnerability study.” People around him urged him to drop out and some of his campaign team quit.

  It has just recently been revealed that Santos received payments from a financial services company accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of  engaging in a “classic Ponzi scheme,” a form of fraud.

  The Times said they don’t know how high up in the party the information went about Santos’s biography fraud. In response to a list of questions for their story, a lawyer for Santos said “it would be inappropriate to respond due to ongoing investigations.” 

Just Drop It: When Lisa Marie Presley died Thursday the news had barely hit the internet before conspiracy theories about the Covid vaccine followed.

  The internet has been rife with claims about athletes “suddenly dropping” because of the Covid vaccine and now the theory has spread to any sudden death.

  Nate Woodard, for example, who lists himself on Twitter as a “storm chaser,” said, “Sad. Lisa Marie Presley the latest covid vaccine death. Keep lying to yourselves sheep. The frequency of sudden heart failures isn’t just a coincidence dumbasses.”

  Georgie Donovan —“@georgielovesgod”  — said, “When people have been PERMANENTLY DISABLED and DIED from the TOXIC Covid-19 Gene Therapies YOU CANNOT STOP THE TRUTH FROM BEING SHARED one way or another!! STOP THE SHOTS!!” 

  Marjorie Taylor Greene, arguably the dumbest member of Congress, tweeted, “We need an immediate investigation into why people are dying suddenly from strokes and cardiac arrest all across the world. Especially while people are continued to be forced to take #COVID19 vaccines through mandates.” Maybe there is a link between the vaccine and vacuity.

  Even the once respected television doctor Drew Pinsky has signed on to the “dropping” theory. But there is no sudden surge of deaths around the world. People die suddenly every day, and always have.

  LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik demolished the “suddenly dropping”  theory with a January 6^thcolumn tracing it to a non-scientific compilation of deaths  from a blog called “Good Sciencing,” citing “mainly young athletes who had major medical issues in 2021/2022 after receiving one or more COVID vaccines.” There is no scientific link between medical issues and the vaccine other than that many if not all of these people were vaccinated. All of them also wore shoes, but the anti-vaxxers have not drawn a link between sudden death and shoes. 

The Obit Page: Constantine II, the last king of Greece who stepped down after only three years in office after meddling in politics, has died of a respiratory infection at age 83. His exit helped collapse the government of Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou and led to abolition of the monarchy.

  Constantine ascended the throne at age 23 after the death of his father, King Paul, in 1964. Four years earlier at the 1960 Games in Rome he had won Greece an Olympic gold medal in sailing. 

The Spin Rack: The Pentagon’s new office for investigating UFO sightings received hundreds of new reports in 2022, about half of them unexplained. What they call the “All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office” – you gotta love the Pentagon —  and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, say they’re examining 171 cases in which objects “appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis.” — A single ticket holder in Maine won the $1.35 billion  Mega Millions lottery last night.

Below the Fold: The Missouri legislature voted to tighten its dress code … for women members, not the men.

  The  existing dress code defined proper attire for women as “dresses or skirts or slacks worn with a blazer or sweater and appropriate dress shoes or boots.” 

  The Republicans amended that to require women to wear jackets — either a blazer or knit blazer — because “it is essential to always maintain a formal and professional atmosphere.” Some Democrats pointed out the irony that Republicans who objected to wearing a mask for the sake of public health during the pandemic  are now telling people what to wear.