;)
The Commentariat -- October 7, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Caitlin Emma & Marianne Levine of Politico: "Senate leaders clinched a deal on Thursday to avoid an economic nightmare in less than two weeks, pushing their debt ceiling stalemate into December and creating a fiscal pileup around the holidays. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the agreement on Thursday morning after the Senate adjourned just after midnight. The plan, which the upper chamber could pass later Thursday, would raise the nation's credit limit by $480 billion through Dec. 3, when government funding is also set to expire.... Democrats may need help from at least 10 GOP senators to pass the deal on Thursday. Some Republicans, concerned about letting Democrats off easy, don't want to allow Democrats to pass the measure with a simple 51-vote majority on the floor. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) acknowledged there were Republican objections, but he predicted any holdups would be resolved after the GOP conference meets for lunch Thursday afternoon." The New York Times report is here.
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A Senate report on ... Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election offers new details about an Oval Office confrontation between Trump and the Justice Department, revealing the extent to which government lawyers threatened to resign en masse if the president removed his attorney general. The interim report by the Senate Judiciary Committee was issued Thursday. While Republicans on the panel offered their counter-findings, arguing that Trump did not subvert the justice system to remain in power, the majority report by the Democrats offers the most detailed account to date of the struggle inside the administration's final, desperate days." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Since previous news report revealed at least the outlines of most of the report's finding, perhaps the most shocking part is that Republican Senators dared to write a counter-report with subheadings like, "THE AVAILABLE EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP DID NOT USE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO OVERTURN THE ELECTION" and "PRESIDENT TRUMP DID NOT EXERT IMPROPER INFLUENCE ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT...." Right.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "Moderna said on Thursday that it planned to build a vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa, news that was welcomed for the long-term but that does not address the continent's immediate need for Covid-19 vaccines. The company said that a new 'state of the art' facility would eventually produce up to 500 million doses a year of Moderna' mRNA vaccine, which has shown an efficacy rate of more than 90 percent in preventing Covid-19. The plant will, in time, also produce other Moderna vaccines, the company said."
Sharon LaFraniere & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "Pfizer and BioNTech asked federal regulators on Thursday to authorize emergency use of their coronavirus vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, a move that could help protect more than 28 million people in the United States. The companies say they are submitting data supporting the change to the Food and Drug Administration. The agency has promised to move quickly on the request and has tentatively scheduled a meeting on Oct. 26 to consider it. A ruling is expected between Halloween and Thanksgiving."
~~~~~~~~~~
David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Biden will meet President Xi Jinping of China for their first summit by the end of this year -- but virtually, not in person, a concession to a pandemic era and a recognition of the dangers of going an entire year into a new presidential term without a formal meeting between the leaders of the world's largest and second-largest economies. The announcement on Wednesday from American officials came after a six-hour meeting between Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, and his closest Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, Beijing's top diplomat."
"Build Back Better" Means Not Destroying the Environment. Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "The White House proposed restoring parts of one of the nation's bedrock environmental laws Wednesday, requiring agencies to conduct a climate analysis of major projects and give affected communities greater input into the process. If finalized, the move to change how the government reviews pipelines, highways and other projects under the National Environmental Policy Act would reverse a significant rollback by the Donald Trump administration. While the proposal won praise from environmentalists, it came under criticism from developers and could make it harder to upgrade the aging bridges and roads President Biden has pledged to rebuild. Brenda Mallory, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement that the changes would not delay major projects because they would make it easier to forge a consensus on how they would be built."
The Turtle Blinks. A Little. Jonathan Weisman & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, bowing to the immediate threat of a federal default, said Republicans would allow Democrats to raise the debt ceiling into December, but he refused to lift his blockade of a long-term increase in the government's borrowing limit. The offer appeared to reflect some nervousness on the part of Republicans in an escalating standoff over the government's borrowing limit, as a first-ever default on federal debt looms in as few as 12 days.... The proposal ... confronted Democrats with the prospect of a politically uncomfortable vote that some of them had wanted to avoid, embracing a set dollar amount by which they would raise the debt cap.... Shortly after [McConnell] floated his offer, Democrats put off a planned vote on a bill to lift the debt limit -- which Republicans had vowed to block for the second time in two weeks -- and arranged a closed-door gathering in the Capitol." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ ** New Lede: "Senate Democrats and Republicans neared agreement as they met into the early morning hours Thursday to temporarily pull the nation from the brink of a debt default. The deal would punt their showdown on raising the federal borrowing limit to December after Republicans bowed to pressure to stave off immediate fiscal calamity."~~~
~~~ Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "Democrats are planning to accept an offer from Mitch McConnell to let them raise the debt ceiling into December without a GOP filibuster, multiple senators said after a closed-door caucus meeting on Wednesday.... But ... Democrats ... pledged to reject his demands that the majority party use the laborious process of budget reconciliation to pass a longer debt ceiling increase."
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Leading Senate Democrats increasingly see the Republican blockade against raising the federal debt limit as clear justification for changing the chamber's filibuster rule, a long-shot effort that so far has lacked the unanimous support within their ranks it would need to succeed. President Biden, who has sent mixed signals for months about whether he supports scrapping the filibuster, gave fresh momentum to the idea on Tuesday when he told reporters at the White House that it was a 'real possibility' that Democrats could create an exception to the rules and allow the debt ceiling to be raised with a simple majority.... Any weakening of the filibuster would significantly reduce [Mitch] McConnell's power to block the Democratic agenda."
Debbie Cenziper, et al., of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of lawmakers plans to introduce legislation this week that for the first time would require trust companies, lawyers, art dealers and others to investigate foreign clients seeking to move money and assets into the American financial system. The bill's sponsors cited the findings of the Pandora Papers investigation, the result of a sweeping international collaboration published this week that exposed how the global elite conceal their wealth in tax havens that increasingly include the United States. Stories by The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) showed that little-known trust companies in Sioux Falls, S.D., established nearly 30 trusts holding assets connected to people or companies accused of corruption, human rights abuses or other wrongdoing in some of the world's poorest communities.... The proposed law, known as the Enablers Act, would amend the 51-year-old Bank Secrecy Act, by requiring the Treasury Department to create basic due-diligence rules for American gatekeepers who facilitate the flow of foreign assets into the United States."
Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: "The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction told a congressional subcommittee Wednesday that his office would probe allegations that former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani took millions of dollars with him when he fled the country in mid-August.... In August, the Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan told reporters that Ghani 'stole $169 million from the state coffers,' according to the Associated Press. The diplomat, who said he would file an arrest request with Interpol, did not provide evidence for the claim."
Bernie Has Had Enough of Manchinema. Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: During a 15-minute news conference Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), "chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and leader of the progressive movement, took direct aim at [Sen. Joe] Manchin's [D-W.Va.] statements and positions on the wide-ranging legislation that would invest in climate change, expand and shore up health-care programs, and overhaul the nation's social safety net.... Clearly irritating Sanders was the opaqueness of Manchin's various demands related to the spending package.... 'Senator Manchin has been extremely critical of the $3.5 trillion proposal that many of us support,' Sanders said. 'The time is long overdue for him to tell us with specificity -- not generalities, but beyond generalities, with specificity -- what he wants and what he does not want, and to explain that to the people of West Virginia and America.' He later added that ... a few outliers in the Democratic caucus should not have such power to sway what most Democratic lawmakers and what [President] Biden want. 'I could ... go to Chuck Schumer ... and say, "Chuck, I can't support this bill unless you have a Medicare-for-all provision." But I'm not going to do that,' Sanders said. 'It is wrong and it is really not playing fair that one or two people think that they should be able to stop what 48 members of the Democratic caucus want, what the American people want, what the president of the United States wants.'" ~~~
~~~ Alayna Treene of Axios: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) withheld support for a joint statement condemning last weekend's protests against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) because it also wouldn't include a rebuke of her political views, Axios has learned." MB: Check out the photo that accompanies the post. I'm sorry, but you cannot convince me that a green wig & fake leopard skin halter top is appropriate Senate attire. And, no, I'm not talking about Bernie here.
The Party of Violence. Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "Republicans in Congress have seen the threat of mob violence, and they are going to ... defend the mob, and make sure law enforcement doesn't crack down too hard on it. That's the clear message being sent from up and down the right -- politicians, pundits, and conservative media -- in response to a memorandum from the Department of Justice laying out an effort to address the rising tide of angry threats directed at school boards and education officials. The memorandum ... presented a perfect opportunity for Republicans to reemphasize to their supporters that 1) the Biden administration is tyrannical; 2) conservatives are oppressed and afflicted; and 3) mob intimidation is an appropriate response to any public policy they disagree with.... Fox News promptly sent a wave of histrionic, dishonest rants to its viewers.... Threats of violence against public officials are now simply part of the Republican repertoire." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "A Trump-endorsed candidate for Congress in Ohio is facing allegations that he was physically abusive to former White House press secretary during Stephanie Grisham during his time serving in the Trump administration. Now, Max Miller's request to ban Grisham from talking about their relationship during her tour to promote her book ... has been denied by a judge,
~~~ Felicia Sonmez & Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "More than a dozen high-profile Republicans are co-hosting a fundraiser next week for Max Miller, an Ohio congressional candidate and former Trump White House aide who faces allegations of domestic violence."
Uh, Thanks, Chuck. Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday congratulated a Korean American judicial nominee for the 'hard work ethic' of 'you and your people,' invoking a stereotype about Asian Americans. The 88-year-old senator, who is seeking reelection to another six-year term, praised Lucy Koh, a judge nominated by President Biden to the federal appeals court, during her confirmation hearing.... A spokesman for Grassley said the senator's 'intent was to be complimentary, not to insult anyone....'" MB: Later Chuck asked a Black nominee how much affirmative action had helped her unbelievable level of achievement & queried a Puerto Rican nominee on how a Mexican like him could rule fairly on cases involving immigrants.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Twenty years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Supreme Court on Wednesday found itself struggling to address two issues stemming from that period: torture and government secrecy. Before the justices were done for the day, the proceedings had taken a surprising turn. The basic question for the justices was whether the government could invoke national security to block testimony by two C.I.A. contractors who were instrumental in the brutal interrogations of the detainee known as Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded more than 60 times and is being held without charge at Guantánamo Bay.... Three justices [-- Breyer, Gorsuch & Sotomayor --] proposed a novel solution: Why not let Abu Zubaydah himself testify in connection with the Polish inquiry? By allowing him to describe what he had endured, the justices suggested, the court could sidestep the question of whether the government had to allow the C.I.A. contractors to appear." Brian Fletcher, the acting U.S. Solicitor General, said he hadn't thought about that, which irritated Justice Gorsuch. ~~~
~~~ An NPR story, by Nina Totenberg, is here. ~~~
~~~ When a State Secret Is Not a Secret. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "At the Supreme Court, the justices asked [acting SJ Brian] Fletcher how the government could invoke the state secrets privilege, which the court first recognized in the 1950s, on information already known.... [BUT] 'As you've put it, it's no secret at all,' [CJ John] Roberts said to [Abu Zubaydah's attorney]. 'But you don't have the United States government acknowledging that. And the United States government says this is critically important because our friends, allies, intelligence sources around the world have to believe that we keep our word, and our word was, this is secret.'"
Katie Benner of the New York Times: When Donald Trump led a nearly three-hour meeting on January 3, the purpose of which was to threaten to remove the acting Attorney General and replace him with election conspiracy theorist Jeffrey Clark, White House Counsel Pat Cipolline said that he and his principal deputy would resign in protest if Trump carried out his plan to get the DOJ to pretend there was mass voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. "Mr. Cipollone's stand that night is among the new details contained in a lengthy interim report prepared by the Senate Judiciary Committee about Mr. Trump's efforts to pressure the Justice Department to do his bidding in the chaotic final weeks of his presidency.... It provides the most complete account yet of Mr. Trump's efforts to push the department to validate election fraud claims that had been disproved by the F.B.I. and state investigators.... Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement ... that he believes the former president, who remains a front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024, would have 'shredded the Constitution to stay in power.'"
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A social media influencer who spoke at a pro-Donald Trump rally in Washington on Jan. 5 pleaded guilty Wednesday to disorderly conduct [-- a misdemeanor --] during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Brandon Straka, 44, a former New York City hairstylist, admitted in plea papers to recording himself during the Capitol breach in front of a mobbed entrance, urging a crowd to wrest away a riot shield from a police officer and shouting: 'Take it! Take it!' At another point, according to plea papers, Straka stood behind a crowd of people trying to push their way in, yelling, 'Go! Go!'... In a plea agreement, Straka promised to cooperate by turning over social media and other evidence and to participate in a law enforcement interview."
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "A new investigation into the drowning of nine U.S. service members last year says that senior commanders responsible for ensuring troops' safety failed to keep up with mounting demands imposed on them due to the coronavirus pandemic, the prospect of war with Iran and ... Donald Trump's militarization of the southern border. Released Wednesday, the report does not excuse those Marine Corps officials whose lack of oversight was faulted previously in the sinking of a 26-ton amphibious assault vehicle during predeployment training off the California coast. Rather, it scrutinizes what a senior military leader determined were other contributing factors. Lt. Gen. Carl Mundy III said it would be 'a mistake to discount or overlook' the demands on commanders, their staffs and rank-and-file troops ahead of the disaster on July 30, 2020."
David Byler & Yan Wu, in a Washington Post op-ed, test your belief in popular American political conspiracy theories. Marie: The test is easy for an old codger like me, who has lived through the events and read about most of the theories as they arose. However, if you're someone who wasn't even born when some of these theories first circulated, don't be troubled if you don't know they're false (or at least generally believed to be false).
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The White House on Wednesday announced a billion-dollar investment in at-home rapid coronavirus tests that it said would help quadruple their availability by later this year. By December, 200 million rapid tests will be available to Americans each month, with tens of millions more arriving on the market in the coming weeks, Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House's Covid-19 coordinator, said at a news conference." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Maryland. Katherine Huggins of Mediaite: "A Maryland man allegedly killed his brother and sister-in-law last week because his brother, a pharmacist, had administered Covid-19 vaccines. Court documents revealed that Jeffrey Burnham, 46, told his mother he needed to confront his older brother, Brian Robinette, 'about the government poisoning people with COVID vaccines.' He repeatedly insisted that 'Brian knows something.'"
Mississippi. Brittany Shammas of the Washington Post: Meggan Gray, who co-anchored Biloxi's WLOX morning news show for 14 years, wrote on Facebook the day after she signed off the show that "she lost her job after refusing to be vaccinated for the coronavirus as required by her station's parent company, Gray Television.... It was not clear whether she left the station or was fired." Meggan says that isn't fair. Marie: I can imagine what Meggan thought was newsy. Might be best, WLOX, to hire a co-anchor who elevates facts over conspiracy theories.
New Hampshire. Adam Sexton of WMUR (Manchester): "The New Hampshire Republican representative who shared a document with his colleagues that was riddled with conspiracy theories and anti-Catholic bigotry has resigned his position as chairman of the House Finance Committee. Rep. Ken Weyler's resignation from the committee also means he is no longer chair of the Fiscal Committee.... Weyler came under fire this week for sharing a document with committee members referred to as a 'vaccine death report.' The document contains conspiracy theories but also features blatant anti-Catholicism, including an allegation that top church leaders worship Satan. The 'report' alleges that multiple popes have answered to a hidden leader known as 'The Grey Pope.' The document also claims COVID-19 vaccines contain tentacled creatures and 5G technology intended for mind control." MB: The report is at least partially true. Subversive control mechanisms flowing to my brain tell me that Weyler is in-sane.
Texas. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "On April 5, 2020, Christopher Charles Perez posted a message on Facebook about an H-E-B grocery store in San Antonio, federal prosecutors said. 'My homeboys cousin has covid19 and has licked everything for past two days cause we paid him too,' Mr. Perez wrote. 'YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.' The claim was not true, and the post came down after 16 minutes, according to court documents. But someone anonymously submitted a screenshot of the post to the Southwest Texas Fusion Center, a group of law enforcement agencies that investigates possible criminal and terrorist activity. When the F.B.I. confronted Mr. Perez, he said he had been trying to scare people from going to public places 'to stop them from spreading the virus,' according to a federal affidavit. This past June, Mr. Perez, 40, of San Antonio, was found guilty of disseminating false information and hoaxes related to biological weapons. On Monday, a federal judge sentenced him to 15 months in federal prison."
Beyond the Beltway
Texas. Sabrina Tavernise & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday granted the Justice Department's request to halt enforcement of the recently passed Texas law that bans nearly all abortions in the state while the legal battle over the statute makes its way through the federal courts. In his 113-page ruling, Robert L. Pitman, a Federal District Court judge in Austin, sided with the Biden administration, which had sued to halt a law that has changed the landscape of the abortion fight and further fueled the national debate over whether abortion will remain legal across the country. Judge Pitman used sharp language to criticize the law, known as Senate Bill 8, which was drafted to make it difficult to challenge in court by delegating enforcement to private individuals, who can sue anyone who performs abortions or 'aids and abets' them. 'From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their own lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,' he wrote in his opinion." The AP's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Gosh, how is it possible that a relatively-lowly district court judge is more observant of Constitutional guarantees than the majority of the Supremes? Oh, he's an Obama appointee.
Way Beyond
Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "Malaria kills about half a million people each year, nearly all of them in sub-Saharan Africa -- including 260,000 children under 5. The new vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline, rouses a child's immune system to thwart Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest of five malaria pathogens and the most prevalent in Africa. The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the vaccine, the first step in a process that should lead to wide distribution in poor countries. To have a malaria vaccine that is safe, moderately effective and ready for distribution is 'a historic event,' said Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of the W.H.O.'s global malaria program.” A CBS News story is here.
News Ledes
Military Times: "Eleven sailors were injured Oct. 2 when the deployed fast-attack submarine Connecticut 'struck an object' while submerged in the Indo-Pacific region, a Navy official confirmed to Navy Times Thursday. None of the injuries were [was!] life-threatening and the vessel is arriving in Guam today, according to the sea service."
New York Times: "The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursday to Abdulrazak Gurnah for 'his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.' Gurnah was born in Zanzibar, which is now part of Tanzania, in 1948, but he currently lives in Britain. He left Zanzibar at age 18 as a refugee after a violent 1964 uprising in which soldiers overthrew the country's government. He is the first African to win the award -- considered the most prestigious in world literature -- in more than a decade."
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Reader Comments (15)
I'd bet my last dime that trump is going to sue Forbes after not
being included in the richest 400 crooks list. After all, they didn't
count his rubles stored in Russia. Recount! Recount!
When Instagram went down I thought that just myself had been
cut off after making some comments to one particular blogger who
raves about 45 being the "best president ever". I comment with like
"you left off the dum before best". All these trumpbots on social media dislike the truth or especially, facts.
truth or especially, facts.
This morning's paranoid, don't trust 'em thought:
Anyone know if/think that McConnell's suggestion that the D's use reconciliation to raise the debt limit is a ploy to have them use up the rest of their reconciliation ammo on something other than a Build Back Better (or Build Back a Little Bit) bill?
@Ken: That was my first thought when I heard the turtle blathering a week ago. I haven’t heard a single news outlet mentioning the limited number of Reconciliation events allowed.
Marie wrote: “Gosh, how is it possible that a relatively-lowly district court judge is more observant of Constitutional guarantees than the majority of the Supremes? Oh, he's an Obama appointee.”
Yes, but more importantly, he is fair, just, temperate, respectful of the rule of law, and not intent on allowing a tiny minority of religious extremists to impose their beliefs on the rest of the country using a sleazy, pseudo-legal jiu-jitsu move in direct contravention of the Constitution. Also, not a flaming asshole.
Ken and NiskyGuy,
McConnell is incapable of doing anything with decency and honor, or out of a sense of duty to his oath of office and what’s best for the American people. There’s always something in it for little Mitchy. If he doesn’t benefit somehow, the rest of the nation can go up in flames for all he cares. Were he to stop you from falling into an open manhole, it would only be because it would make it easier for him to pick your pocket at the same time.
A malaria vaccine? Ohhh…wait til TuKKKer hears about this! What’s a giant company like Glaxo doing trying to help black babies in shithole countries? Plus….VACCIIIIINE!!! Aieeee! Sound the conspiracy alarm! Call out the wingnut militias! They’re setting the stage for secretly importing these kids and their families to live in luxury condos in the US, paid for with tax dollars, so’s they can all be taught to vote against Republicans! Aieeeee!
Sounds psycho? Just wait.
The microcosm reflecting the macrocosm: that "a dozen prominent Trump allies to host"....I bet every one supported the Big Lie of T**** rally Jan 6 against American democracy. I bet Stephanie is wondering how a girl from Wenatchee got caught up in all this. It is to be remembered by Democrats that these folks have a pretty small quiver: authority, violence, and tribal identity. They can be beaten and put into their rightful place with Cosby, Weinstein, ad nauseum. Facts provide the instruments to measure and manage that's why the violent, authoritarians fear facts - most citizens will succumb to the proof of arithmetic to guide their voting. The fact is Stephanie said it; Max's shit just got much more difficult. To paraphrase AK above, there is no honor for any of the prominent Rs these days. Democrats best remember that characteristic in their decision making when dealing with Moscow Mitch and his personality deviants. I may not pray much, but Joe B's ticker and constitution get my best wishes most days. The power of Right I hope gives him strength.
Kudos to Robert Pitman for issuing the kibosh on the Texas "I hate women mandate"––-best news ever!
When Jane Roe, whose real name is Norma McCorvey, became the plaintiff, she was a broke, divorced, twenty-two year old Texan with a ninth grade education–––"a street person, drug addict, drunk." as she described herself decades later. Most of her lovers were women, but in 1970, she was unintentionally pregnant for the third time, by a flaky married man who was already out of the picture.She wasn't looking for a crusade when she connected with a lawyer, she was just looking for a way to end her pregnancy. And the rest is history as we like to say. But, what we are seeing today has that same scent of a Catholic-led minority and Republicans stoking opposition to abortion as part of a strategy to lure working class Catholic voters and Southerners who are
alienated by the Democratic Party's outreach to minorities, by the counterculture and by the women's movement.
McCorvey'obit in the Wash-po included something she said in 1994:
"I don't require much in my life. I just never had the privilege to go into an abortion clinic, lay down, and have an abortion. That's the only thing I never had."
I think I read somewhere that the Dems could use a third reconciliation bill on the debt ceiling, but there would still be many hoops to jump through and would set another bad precedent. The Republicans would end up playing this game of chicken every time the Democrats are in control.
THE LITTLE FOXES FARRAGO:
I am deeply shocked that the Foxes are bad splaining the Covid mandates when the network they work for has strict Covid mandates. How does that work, I wonder, in their teeny tiny brains of insufficient cognitive abilities?
As for Bernie's "I've about had it with these naysayers"–-perhaps he could sing a Rolling Stone reminder:
"You can't always get what you want but sometimes you can get what you ( and in this case your constituents) need."
Maybe Ms. Gray can send her resume to Fox News, oh wait they also have vaccine mandates. Perhaps OAN?
Turns out that OAN was inspired and funded by the corporate giant AT&T. Their execs didn't think there was enough right wing crazy on tv. One of the people they complained to set up OAN and then AT&T gave him a sweetheart heart deal with Direct TV which they owned. The rest is insurrection history.
https://digbysblog.net/2021/10/06/more-corporate-media-corruption/
@Ken Winkes & @RAS: According to this NPR report, and some other reports I read, "Reconciliation can usually be used just once each year."
There is a quasi-exception, according to this 2016 Vox report: "Basically, it’s limited to one spending/revenue bill per year, or per budget resolution. 'Under Senate interpretations of the Congressional Budget Act, the Senate can consider the three basic subjects of reconciliation — spending, revenues, and debt limit — in a single bill or multiple bills, but it can consider each of these three in only one bill per year,' the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ David Reich and Richard Kogan write. 'This rule is most significant if the first reconciliation bill that the Senate takes up affects both spending and revenues. Even if that bill is overwhelmingly devoted to only one of those subjects, no subsequent reconciliation bill can affect either revenues or spending because the first bill already addressed them.'”
So, yeah, Mitch wants Democrats to "use up" their one reconciliation bill on raising the debt ceiling -- which of course falls on the "spending" side of the equation.
Frankly, I think the Senate's insistence on these arcane rules (which change all the time, so who knows if what Matthews wrote in 2016 is true in 2021?) is part of an attempt to appear both more "serious" and more "elite." If I were running the Senate for a day (God forbid!), I'd start the session by announcing, "Okay, girls & boys, we are going to cut down Senate rules so they can be typed on one 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper with 12-point typeface. AND no to filibusters, no to single-senator holds, no to bury-the-bill in committee. And since I'm outta here in 23 hours & 14 minutes, you'll have to get your New Rules nailed down today. And with any luck, you'll be rid of Sens. Paul & Cruz tomorrow, too, as they'll probably quit when they find out they can't filibuster & put holds on nominees out of spite."
Threading a rusty old needle that I'd not use:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/07/doj-shields-ex-trump-officials-515594
As Marie emphasized:
THE AVAILABLE EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP DID NOT USE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO OVERTURN THE ELECTION" and "PRESIDENT TRUMP DID NOT EXERT IMPROPER INFLUENCE ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Yup. What they leave out is “Did not because certain members of the Justice Department wouldn’t let him”. This is like saying “That guy is innocent of armed robbery at the bank because the tellers wouldn’t give him the money”. Or…well, you can’t convict him of murder because he was handed a gun with blanks.” Think either of those excuses would fly in a real court (as opposed to a Trump controlled kangaroo court, like the Supreme Court)?
The second part about not exerting improper influence is pure confederate jiggery-pokery, to quote a master of the same. Influence is always “proper” in their eyes as long as it gets them what they want.
PD,
Congrats on the use of farrago. A great word. It shares a connection with farina, a mealy breakfast cereal, and both come from the Latin word “far”, a kind of messy mixture of grains, basically, cattle fodder.
That about explains the mishmash of bollixed bullshit one finds with quotidian regularity on Faux.
Cows eat it, and so do Faux viewers. Mooooo…
Well done!