Between passing both pieces of President Biden’s infrastructure plan, a government spending bill, a debt limit hike that Republicans have vowed to obstruct, and perhaps some sort of bill to stave off the GOP’s quiet strangling of American democracy (no pressure), Democrats have a busy September ahead of them.
 

• Thankfully, their to-do list does not seem to include caving to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). Both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have brushed off Manchin’s demand for a “strategic pause” on Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. “We’re moving full speed ahead,” Schumer said on Wednesday. As far as the bill’s price tag, Manchin has reportedly said he won’t support more than $1.5 trillion, while Birthday Boy Bernie Sanders (I-VT) suggested he’s gonna have to: “That $3.5 trillion is already the result of a major, major compromise.”
   
• Manchin might have an easier time arguing to hold off on major climate spending if more Americans weren’t presently waist-deep in basement water. While touring damage from Hurricane Ida in the northeast on Tuesday, Biden pitched his Build Back Better agenda as an urgent answer to the climate crisis that’s already here: “We've got to listen to the scientists and the economists, and the national security experts: They all tell us this is code red. The nation and the world are in peril.”
   
• An adequate response might require an unprecedented investment in The Sun.™ On Wednesday, the Energy Department released a blueprint for producing 45 percent of the nation’s electricity from solar energy by 2050—an effort that would require the rapid installation of solar power systems at homes and businesses, and a complete transformation of the electric grid. Biden has proposed new tax incentives and clean energy payments to encourage individuals, businesses, and utility companies to switch over, but most of the details will be up to Congress in the reconciliation bill.

At least there aren’t any other pressing deadlines to, say, keep the government running, or avoid tanking the national and global economy.
 

• Haha, sike! Congress needs to fund the government by September 30 to avoid a shutdown, and it looks like Democrats still plan to include a debt limit increase in that measure, in spite of Republicans’ pledges to oppose it. “It won’t be in reconciliation,” Pelosi said of the debt limit hike on Wednesday. There’s not a ton of wiggle room here: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in a letter to Pelosi that the U.S. is on track to default on the national debt in October, which could send the economy into what financial experts call “the toilet.”
   
• Democrats may not be able to persuade ten Republicans to support the debt limit increase with partisan arguments like “it’s literally the only responsible thing to do and you fuckers know it,” but they can make opposing it look as unappealing as possible. The White House has asked Congress for tens of billions in natural disaster relief and Afghan resettlement funding, to be included in the same government funding bill. If Republicans from states that were hit by Hurricane Ida want to vote against raising the debt limit, they’ll have to explain to their constituents why blocking urgently-needed aid was totally worth it. 

For all the flak that progressive Democrats get for putting their priorities above party unity, this time it’s inarguably the moderates who are threatening to torpedo Biden’s agenda and complicating the fight against a united and dangerous GOP. The midterms could ride on what Democrats are able to accomplish this month, and a whole lot of it will depend on not letting Joe Manchin stand in the way.

Introducing Crooked Media's brand new video series, Crooked History. Narrated by familiar voices like Pod Save the World’s Ben Rhodes, Hysteria’s Erin Ryan, and Pod Save the People’s Kaya Henderson, this series will take you through pivotal moments in history that changed our politics forever–from the launch of the Sputnik satellite to the election of Richard Nixon.

To catch new episodes of Crooked History, subscribe to the Crooked Media YouTube channel today: youtube.com/CrookedMedia.

Republicans may not be able to pull off a power grab in California, but they’re hoping to at least sow more doubt about election integrity as a consolation prize. As new polls suggest the likely failure of the GOP effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and replace him with a human Facebook meme, Donald Trump & Friends have begun preemptively trotting out the old voter fraud lies. “It’s probably rigged,” Trump said on Newsmax on Tuesday, about an election in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2-to-1. “The only thing that will save Gavin Newsom is voter fraud,” Tomi Lahren said on Fox News. “Pay attention to the voter fraud going on in California because it’s going to have big consequences not only for that state, but for upcoming elections.” Meanwhile, wild misinformation about the election has gone viral in right-wing social media circles, and QAnon followers have woven the recall into their mythology about Trump’s return to power. Reassuring polls and MAGA freakouts aside, this thing is over in a week and it could very much still go either way. Vote no and return your ballot now if you’re in California, remind your California friends to do the same, and share this link for easy reference: votesaveamerica.com/california. 

• Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to prosecute Texas vigilantes who file lawsuits under the new abortion ban.
   
• Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) argued that enacting an abortion ban with no rape exception is fine because Texas will simply “eliminate all rapists.” Take it away, Jen Psaki: “If Governor Abbott has a means of eliminating all rapists or all rape from the U.S. then there’d be bipartisan support for that.”
   
• A Florida judge ruled that the state can’t enforce its ban on school mask mandates while a higher court considers Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) appeal, ending sanctions against several school districts. Meanwhile, 13 school employees from Miami-Dade County Public Schools have died of COVID since August 16.
   
• Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger will brief congressional leadership on security for the September 18 rally in support of jailed insurrectionists. Violent online chatter about the event increased after the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt identified himself in an NBC interview, according to a Capitol Police memo.
   
• The trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes kicked off with opening statements on Wednesday, with multiple Elizabeth Holmes cosplayers in attendance.
   
• Howard University has partially reopened after a ransomware attack shut down classes on Tuesday.
   
• John Pierce, the lawyer representing a small herd of January 6 defendants who mysteriously disappeared for weeks, resurfaced in a virtual hearing on Wednesday. Pierce said he was released from the hospital on Sunday after a 12-day stay, but didn’t say whether he had the ‘rona.
   
• Former Sen. Adlai Stevenson III (D-IL), who served a decade in the Senate, died on Monday. He was 90.
   
• Banana trees are infrastructure.

As the House redistricting process gets underway, Black leaders say it’s time to stop packing Black voters into concentrated districts. A decade ago, the prevailing wisdom among Black lawmakers was to draw maps with majority-Black districts in order to help Black candidates get elected. Their GOP counterparts were usually perfectly happy with that approach, since it meant that the adjacent districts were overwhelmingly white and more likely to elect Republicans. This time around, more Black leaders are calling for a change in strategy that could make Democrats (and Black candidates specifically) competitive in more places. Recent elections have shown that “you can have the election of a Black candidate without having super-Black districts,” Joe Grant, deputy director of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, told the Wall Street Journal. Because Republicans control the map-drawing process in states like Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina, the new consensus on unpacking majority-Black districts could be most important in the lawsuits that Democrats eventually file to challenge GOP gerrymanders. 

In 2021 mental health is finally a thing, especially as people are not feeling like their normal selves. Let’s support one another and talk openly. Whether or not therapy is your thing, knowing it’s available and affordable is important, for you or perhaps a loved one.  

Millions of people are trying and loving online therapy. It doesn’t have to be sitting around just talking about your feelings.

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You can privately talk to someone if your stress is too much to manage, you’re battling a temper, having relationship issues, anxiety, depression, etc… Whatever you need, there’s no more shame in these normal human struggles. We take care of our bodies, why not our minds, too? Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is HARD.

BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. It’s much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours.

It’s always a good time to invest in yourself, because you are your greatest asset. See if online therapy is for you by heading to BetterHelp.com/crooked for 10% off your first month.

Federal coronavirus aid successfully prevented a rise in food insecurity in 2020.

President Biden has announced another diverse slate of judicial nominees, including Lucy Koh for the 9th Circuit, who would become the first Korean-American woman to serve as an appellate judge.

Virginia has taken down Richmond’s Robert E. Lee statue. 

The judicial advocacy group Demand Justice has launched a $1.5 million grassroots program aimed at pressuring Democrats to expand the Supreme Court.