Self-Sabotage: Democratic leaders have bowed to the Republicans, agreeing to a short-term hike in the debt ceiling and allowing government to operate into December.

  Mike Lofgren, a Republican staff member for the House and Senate Budget Committees for 28 years, writes in The NY Times decrying his party’s blockage of raising the debt limit saying, “No free, constitutional government should provide legal means for its own sabotage.”

  The Republicans generally vote to raise the debt limit when a Republican president holds office, but not for a Democrat. It’s a political game that endangers both the national and world economies.

  They are trying to force the Democrats to pass their $3.5 social spending bill by the process known as “reconciliation,” a painstaking and piecemeal procedure in which something can pass by just 50 votes in the Senate plus the vice president. It’s clearly a desire on the part of Republicans to just cause pain rather than talk and compromise. 

   Lofgren says that “Republicans like Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, no longer invoke high principle.” He advises Joe Biden to deploy the 14^th Amendment, the “life, liberty, or property” clause that also says, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

The Prize for Truth: In an age in which truth is under assault and misinformation is an industry, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to two journalists who have stood up to the authorities in their respective countries. 

  Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia were recognized for “their courageous fight for freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” Their citation issued from Oslo says, “They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.” 

  Ressa has been an irritant  to her country’s authoritarian President Rodrigo Duterte. Her digital media company Rappler has exposed government corruption and in particular pointed out the high number of deaths resulting from the country’s severe anti-drug program.

  Muratov is a co-founder of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 1993 and has been the paper’s editor-in-chief since 1995. Six of the newspaper’s journalists have been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote revealing articles about the war in Chechnya, the Nobel Committee noted.

Hoop Schemes: Eighteen former NBA players have been charged with defrauding the league’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of $4 million dollars, Manhattan federal prosecutors announced.

  The defendants are accused of submitting “false and fraudulent claims for reimbursement of expenses for medical and dental services that were not actually rendered.”  Authorities say the scheme was orchestrated by ex-New Jersey Net shooting guard Terrence Williams, who set up other retired athletes with the materials for false claims and took at least $230,000 in kickbacks. 

The Fire This Time: As the West burns this year, cases of arson are on the rise. Most wildland fires, particularly in California, are intentionally set.

  The NY Times reports on Gary Maynard, a criminology professor who has taught at three state universities, who’s accused of setting a fire outside of Susanville, California. 

  Maynard is said to have had a professional fascination with the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana. But he fell into mental illness, unemployment, and was living in his car, subsisting on food stamps.

  Other criminologists say not all arsonists are firebugs, they’re just angry people.

The Spin Rack: The Tesla electric car company is moving its headquarters from California to Texas where they are building a new factory. — President Biden is restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah and a marine monument off the New England coast, all national monuments reduced in size by former President Donald Trump. Trump had opened portions of all three to mining, drilling and development. — Abortions have resumed in at least six Texas clinics after a federal judge blocked the state’s restrictive abortion law, but some providers have stayed closed, afraid of legal consequences.

White Men Talking: During a hearing on the nomination of a woman named Lucy Koh for a federal judgeship, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said his daughter-in-law told him that Koreans have “a hard work ethic” and “can make a lot out of nothing.” He said, “So I congratulate you and your people.'”

  Koh was born in the United States. Grassley, under a rock.

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