The Onion’s customary accuracy

WASHINGTON?Digging in for what could become a weeks-long battle, Democratics and Republicans in Congress reportedly began sparring Thursday over whether Judge Unnamed Black Woman was qualified for the Supreme Court. ?I?m shocked that President Biden, who was elected to office with the promise that he would bridge?

The Real Courts, Rule of Law Act of 2022

The law’s title imples that the current immigration courts aren’t real courts. Quite so. I do have one quibble. The proposed bill calls for the Appellate Division to be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate and for the trial level judges to appointed by the Appellate Division. It would be better (and less likely to lead to future conflict) to have all of the judges appointed by the Courts Of Appeal (as is the case with bankruptcy judges). In any case, independent immigration courts are a much needed reform.

A game of chicken

Who will blink first? The cynic in me suspects that neither party wants a default unless, of course, the blame falls squarely and unequivocally on the other party (in which case, let the bad times roll!). One fact that Republicans conveniently overlook is that every time we approach the debt limit, it’s because of past spending, not current borrowing. So the Trump tax cuts are at least part of the reason we’re approaching the brink. Here‘s one fanciful solution to the crisis.

Without the support of 10 Republican senators, Democrats will either have to remove the debt ceiling from the bill or risk a government shutdown.

The trouble with Fox News (from John Boehner)

“The reality that Boehner exposes is that following the 2008 election of Obama, something fundamentally changed at Fox News. It was no longer about pushing conservative policy solutions and young stars of the movement. Instead, the network became a fever swamp for internet trolls pushing every sort of conspiracy theory — from Benghazi to Obama’s citizenship.

“To Boehner’s critical point about how Fox skewed incentives within the GOP: No longer was the goal for most members of Congress (or those aspiring Republicans hoping to join their ranks) to accrue seniority and rise in the ranks of their preferred committee or even into House GOP leadership. Now the goal was to become a conservative pundit on Fox News — that was where the real power (and money if you decided to leave Congress) was.

“And the best way to get on Fox News as much as possible? Say the most outlandish and outrageous things possible. Fox viewers were ready to believe whatever the worst thing you could say about Obama or any of the Clintons. There was no bridge too far. And with ratings as the only goal, Ailes (with a major assist from Fox owner Rupert Murdoch) leaned in hard — vacating any sort of journalistic mission to tell people the truth about their government and politicians in favor of pandering to an audience that wanted to believe that any and every Democratic politician was evil.”

In an explosive excerpt from his forthcoming memoir, former House Speaker John Boehner calls Texas Sen. Ted Cruz a nasty name, refers to lots of Republicans elected in 2010 as “morons” and admits that President Barack Obama had little reason to find “common cause with people who think you are a secret Kenyan Muslim traitor to America.”

Two dysfunctional systems

Since the start of the year, much of the world?s attention was focused on two trials on opposite sides of the world. In one, a brave truth-teller was persecuted by a vengeful administration after stirring up his patriotic followers in protest against tyranny. In the other, Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate.