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Wednesday, October 6, 2021

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White House Looks to Fire Those Seeking Religious Exemptions from Vaccine Mandate

Jazz Shaw notes “‘The rules are what we say they are’ has been replaced with ‘the rules are what we say they are today.’”

Hot Air

Left Hypocrisy in Overdrive with Bullying of Kyrsten Sinema

As they gleefully become the bullies they claim to despise. From Jim Geraghty: The progressive Left — represented not just by Democratic politicians but by activists, aligned groups, institutions, cultural figures, and certain journalists — operates on the mentality that anyone who stands in the way of it getting what it wants must be destroyed. Joe the Plumber. Brett Kavanaugh. The Little Sisters of the Poor. Brendan Eich. And right now, Kyrsten Sinema — who has never voted against the Biden administration’s position in the Senate — is the target of the progressive Left’s wrath (National Review). From David Harsanyi: When is a protester “angry and justified” and when are they a “domestic terrorist”? It all depends on how far left they are (NY Post). From William McGurn: In the end, Joe Manchin may well reconsider something north of his $1.5 trillion top line. Maybe Kyrsten Sinema will also go along with whatever emerges from the October renegotiations. But in the same way that John McCain was hailed as a principled independent for voting against key Republican priorities—including providing the decisive vote against repeal of ObamaCare—if Ms. Sinema ends up tanking the reconciliation bill, those covering the story ought at least to have the grace to recognize there really is a new maverick in town (WSJ). Meanwhile, congressman Dan Crenshaw slammed Twitter for allowing blue-check leftists to encourage the harassing of Sinema (Daily Wire).

Biden, Senate Democrats Float Changing Filibuster Rule to Raise Debt Ceiling

From the story: Lawmakers propose a change in the Senate rules specifying that the filibuster, a 60-vote threshold needed to cut off debate on a piece of legislation, does not apply to the debt ceiling. Instead, Democrats say, any rise in the debt ceiling should require a simple majority of 51 votes. For such a carve out to be enacted all 50 Senate Democrats would need to back the change. At the moment, the proposal has only garnered the backing of a handful of lawmakers (Washington Times). From the Wall Street Journal editorial board: The parliamentarian has already said that Democrats can use reconciliation to raise the debt limit, so why won’t they do it? As it happens, Mr. Biden gave that game away when he was asked Monday why Democrats aren’t using reconciliation. “There is a process” that “would require literally up to hundreds of votes,” Mr. Biden explained. “It’s unlimited number of votes having nothing directly to do with the debt limit; it could be everything from Ethiopia to anything else that has nothing to do with the debt limit. And it’s fraught with all kinds of potential danger for a miscalculation, and it would have to happen twice.” In other words, Mr. Biden admits that Democrats could raise the limit via reconciliation, but then they’d also have to take difficult votes on many issues on the Senate floor. Some of those votes might be unpopular. Mr. Biden is admitting that the reason is political—that Democrats want Republicans to spare them from having to take those tough votes (WSJ).

NBA Player Upset He Was “Forced to” Get Vaccine

Andrew Wiggins gave in at the risk of losing millions of dollars (Daily Caller). Kyrie Irving is still holding out (ESPN).

In Banned Books Week, Libraries See Parents as the Enemy

From Dr. Albert Mohler:… the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, so many different groups have come together to say, “Look, there are efforts to try to censure what Americans read.” There are people, evil agents, who are trying to prevent children and teenagers from reading certain books. Those evil agents are otherwise known, by the way, as parents. Later: There are books no parent listening to the program today would possibly want their children or teenagers to read much less to be assigned. And you’re not wrong to have that concern, you’re absolutely right. But as you’re looking at the list of the books that they claim have been banned, it turns out not a single one of them has actually been banned. Some of them had been complained about there have been challenges to them in curriculum and in public libraries.

Briefing

Republicans Jump to the Lead in Generic Congressional Poll

From the story: In 2018, by the time the election rolled around, Democrats led by an average of 7.3 points on the generic ballot. In the Republican wave election in 2014, the GOP led by an average of 2.4 points in the final polling. Today’s Quinnipiac poll has Republicans up three. Clearly it looks a lot more like 2014 than 2018.

Hot Air

Florida Governor Blasts AG Decision to Use FBI to Intimidate Parents

From the story on Governor Ron DeSantis: “Attorney General Garland is weaponizing the DOJ by using the FBI to pursue concerned parents and silence them through intimidation,” the Republican governor tweeted. “Florida will defend the free speech rights of its citizens and will not allow federal agents to squelch dissent” (Fox News). From Kelley Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul: On May 28, a Republican-hating woman called Rand’s DC Senate office threatening to “shoot you all” to our staff member. She was never charged. Yet if you dare express indignation at a school board meeting about CRT or forced masks, the Biden DOJ and FBI say you’re a criminal (Twitter). From congressman Kevin McCarthy: We should encourage family participation in our schools, not baselessly attack opposing views because leftist groups want control over curriculums (Twitter).

Webster's Dictionary Changes Definition of Anti-Vaxxer to Fit Biden Narrative

To the words “a person who opposes the use of vaccines” they added “or regulations mandating vaccination” (Webster). PolitiFact claims the addition, which was done in May and has since been altered a bit more, is not at all a change of definition. Which is quite entertaining because PolitiFact is now changing the definition of changing the definition (PolitiFact).

Restaurants Still Hit Hard as Democrat Use Them as Pawns in Politics of COVID

Not how this story would put it, but it remains the bottom line as it explains “restaurant closures, changing rules and regulations, worker shortages, supply chain issues that lead to price hikes and more, during the COVID-19 crisis restaurants in the U.S. have faced challenges at every turn. The latest hurdle has been dealing with rising tensions over masks and vaccine mandates during the pandemic.” Where Republicans have control, this is not an issue.

Good Morning America

10.

NPR: Seinfeld Too White to Resonate with Younger Viewers

NPR, which itself does not resonate with much of an audience, claims the hit 1990’s sitcom won’t work on Netflix.

Washington Times