A small detail in the context of the latest mass shooting, this time in Allen, Texas. Eight people dead, including children. (The gunman was also shot to death by a police officer who happened to be at the mall for reasons unrelated to the shooting.) That detail is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, just the worst kind of racist degenerate who somehow has managed to become the de facto leader of House Republicans in the new Congress.

This morning Greene went on Twitter to note that the shooter “appears Hispanic” and had what she decided “looks like a gang tattoo on his hand.” And then added “Title 42 ends on Thursday and CBP says 700,000+ migrants are going to rush the border.”

Over the last day or so, the D.C. insider sheets have had some interesting details about the GOP’s positioning and doubts about the debt-limit hostage-taking standoff. Senate Republicans especially are pushing to punt on the crisis for 30 days or so. Publicly, they’re siding with McCarthy and only a few have vaguely floated the idea. But for a lot of non-die-hards there’s clearly a mood of Can we take a time out? or Can we get a little more time to plan our hostage-crisis so you get blamed?

The White House obviously has little incentive to help Republicans out with their self-created crisis planning, though OMB Director Shalanda Young didn’t categorically rule it out.

But other Republicans have come up with a different way of extending the deadline: simply say the deadline is later. Two nights ago, Axios reported that many Republicans simply don’t believe the government will run out of money in early June.

“Nobody believes her. I don’t believe her,” said Sen. Kennedy, referring to Janet Yellen’s June estimate.

Many GOP lawmakers think they have until July or August.

The jury in the civil trial in which author E. Jean Carroll is accusing Donald Trump of rape was finally shown video of Trump’s taped deposition Thursday where he mixes up a photo of Carroll with one of his ex-wives, Marla Maples.

A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss the debt ceiling crisis, Senate efforts to address judicial system rot and Ted Cruz’s shiny new 2024 challenger.

You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.

Did you see the latest Clarence Thomas bombshell? To head off any misunderstanding, let me state that I know with a perfect certainty that Thomas will never be removed from the Court. And while it is theoretically possible he could resign, the odds of that happening are roughly equivalent of finding sentient life on Mars. But that doesn’t take any of the punch away from the news that Thomas had a child (a grandnephew for whom the Thomases became legal guardians) at private school and Harlan Crow picked up the tab for the tuition.

I want to take a moment to chart the trajectory of these revelations.

Yesterday, the Times published an article reporting that Biden administration officials have an active discussion about whether the debt-ceiling law is unconstitutional and thus whether President Biden has the right and the duty to disregard it rather than default on the government’s debt and spending obligations. That along with Secretary Yellen’s June 1 announcement hit like a thunderclap against D.C.’s conventional wisdom about how this drama plays out. On a dime the insider newsletters decided that this probably isn’t going to be settled by a simple negotiation, or maybe any negotiation. The extraordinary measures a lot of us have been talking about for some time suddenly started to seem real to them too. The addition of the June 1 quasi-deadline signaled to still others that there probably isn’t time for a negotiated settlement even if the administration decided to negotiate.

Put that together and we seem to be in a new place on this just in the last day or so.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is crying, and pressing charges, over spilled milk.

Or wine, in this case.

As we hurtle toward the entirely House-GOP-created debt ceiling crisis, I wanted to address some issues which are technical but also really important to understanding how this story can play out and what’s involved.

What exactly happens when the debt limit is hit?

Good question. Indeed, that’s the question. The U.S. government brings in a ton of money every month. Just not enough to pay all the obligations that it is bound to pay by statute law. So really there’s no reason that the U.S. government can’t continue to cover the principal and interest on its debt obligations from now until the end of time without ever having to borrow more money. There’s plenty of money. But other things will have to go unpaid.

The fact that one or more of the Supreme Court Justices appear to be venally corrupt in a rather fulsome fashion is a new addition to the story of the early 21st century. But the heart of it remains this: The current corrupt majority wants to wholly remake American law with little attention to precedent or any coherent jurisprudence or theory of interpreting the constitution. They’ve got the power and they’re going to use it. If you don’t like it, too bad. Yet they also want the deference and respect accorded to thoroughly apolitical players guided by restraint and an approach to the work that is more than dressing up their own policy aims with whatever theory serves the needs of the moment.

We’ve been covering the Florida state legislature from this perspective for some time now, as the degree to which Florida Republicans are beholden to DeSantis’ political objectives became increasingly clear. Each and every one of bills introduced in the state legislature attacking “wokeness,” diversity initiatives in schools, voting rights and the LGBT community in the past year have appeared hand-made to capture the attention of the furthest-right members of the MAGA base on a national level as DeSantis weighs a 2024 bid.

As DeSantis gears up to finally announce he’s running at the end of his state’s legislative session this month, his Republican friends in the state house gave him one final treat: the legislature passed several sweeping new restrictions on voting rights, and a change to election law that allows DeSantis to run for president and remain governor.