neatly to a final theory on russian influence, that it is used as a negotiating tool by the serbian government. if the west are scared of russia, and the local legal ship convinces and the local leadership convinces the west that they are the only one who can keep the russian presence in the country at a level that can be tolerated, then they can get political acquiescence from the west for their own regime s survival here. is there a point, though, that by using russian interference and the threat of russian interference, and the popularity of russia amongst the population, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, that russia genuinely does become popular and does get influence because it has been played up? there is of course this logic of a double edged sword, whereby playing the russian card can be useful for the local leads, but at the same time it can become a potential impediment and a potential source of vulnerability. this region is, as some
ceiling. clean debt lift. if republicans want to negotiate on spending, guess what? we do it every year. that s called writing the budget. the house will write their version. senate will write our version. they ll be very different. then we sit at a table, hash it out. so speaker mccarthy and his republican majority, they ve got the negotiating tool in their hand, which is the budget that they re writing for fy- 24, that we re working on right now. we shouldn t flirt with our credit worthiness. the amendment says we can t. the simplest solution is, confine it to the budget exercise. however, we get into this brinksmanship. we have a proposal based on something senator mcconnell did when president obama was president. we came up against a cliff. for one time, senator mcconnell wrote a rule that allowed the president to raise the debt ceiling to cover congress
resolved. jen, until a decade ago, this was a pro forma vote, raise the debt ceiling, now it s become a negotiating tool, and it raises all the questions about what kevin mccarthy promised this group of 20 members of his caucus to get himself the speakership. deep spending cuts. the white house has said, we re not bargaining with you. we shouldn t use this as a moment to sort of push the boundaries of our economy because you want some spending cuts. and i work for president obama, you know, with steve and in 2011, there was a lot of wreckage. it wasn t just it wasn t like it didn t just go up to the deadline, the united states credit rating was downgraded just because of how tenuous it seemed, and this time, like a number of things have changed since 2011 where they eventually got it together. but you have a speaker, boehner was trying to get to. he had the house freedom caucus that was pushing him to take
trecomes next person wants a pay rise, and it becomes very hard to get a handle on. becomes very hard to get a handle on if becomes very hard to get a handle on if you becomes very hard to get a handle on. if you can kick the can down the road on. if you can kick the can down the road try on. if you can kick the can down the road by saying they can do something next year. road by saying they can do something next year. i road by saying they can do something next year, i think that s smart in two ways next year, i think that s smart in two ways. it s a negotiating tool. he can two ways. it s a negotiating tool. he can hope that the unions will accept he can hope that the unions will accept that and bring an end to this strike~ accept that and bring an end to this strike~ but accept that and bring an end to this strike. but also, if that doesn t happen. strike. but also, if that doesn t happen, then he can at least say, i tried happen, then he can at least say,
brittney griner back in the u.s. this weekend after being released from a russian prison. this in exchange for a russian arms dealer. earlier today, former cia director john brennan told msnbc what he feels it took nearly ten months to bring her home. when it s pretty clear that brittney griner s team as well as the national focus on her case made her, then russia s eyes, a very valuable negotiating tool. that s why they held out for exchange for someone like viktor bout. on capitol hill, arizona senator kyrsten sinema taking up the senate, announcing she is leaving the democratic party and switching to independent. seminal defending the move saying she will not defend her approach. my stands today is about joining the many americans, and lots of arizonans, in fact, the majority of voters, who don t believe any political party fits them perfectly. i don t think about issues