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Thursday, October 21, 2021

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Senator Manchin Considering Leaving Democratic Party

The report confirms a question many have had about West Virginia’s senator. From the story: Sen. Joe Manchin is reportedly considering leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an Independent if President Biden and his party colleagues don’t agree to cut the massive social spending bill to at least $1.75 trillion (New York Post). Mother Jones: He told associates that he has a two-step plan for exiting the party. First, he would send a letter to Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, removing himself from the Democratic leadership of the Senate. (He is vice chair of the Senate Democrats’ policy and communications committee.) Manchin hopes that would send a signal. He would then wait and see if that move had any impact on the negotiations. After about a week, he said, he would change his voter registration from Democrat to independent (MotherJones).

President Biden Uses Scranton Visit to Push Massive Spending Package

From the Washington Examiner: President Joe Biden did not shy away from pitching the virtues of clean energy on his trip home to Scranton, Pennsylvania, while claiming his trillion-dollar cradle-to-grave social welfare and climate spending package would not add to the federal deficit. Biden, who irked Pennsylvanians during the 2020 campaign with his fracking positions, told a crowd at Scranton’s Electric City Trolley Museum coal may have “built this town, but we’ve got to provide other avenues to make the same kind of living” (The Washington Examiner). From the GOP: Joe Biden is headed to Scranton today to try and convince Pennsylvanians to trust his plan. The people of PA don’t trust him or his Build Back Broke agenda (Twitter). Fox Business: “When you talk about the number, we shouldn’t even talk about the numbers, because it’s all paid for, written in the same piece of legislation,” Biden told the audience as he attempted to pitch the bill. “The cost of the Build Back Better bill in terms of adding to the deficit is zero, zero, zero. Because we’re going to pay for it all” (Fox Business).

GOP Use Filibuster to Derail Democrat Attempt at Federal Takeover of Elections

From the story: Senate Democrats’ most forceful and perhaps last push for major voting rights legislation this year was blocked by a Republican filibuster on Wednesday afternoon. The procedural vote to move forward with the Freedom to Vote Act failed despite Democrats’ effort to craft a compromise bill led in part by Sen. Joe Manchin. The West Virginia Democrat had hoped to get enough GOP votes to overcome a filibuster, but in the end no Republicans voted to advance the legislation (NPR). From Townhall: As the Senate voted on Wednesday, President Biden released a statement calling the Freedom to Vote Act an “urgent” matter because “Democracy — the very soul of America — is at stake.” He added that Republican opposition to the bill is “unconscionable,” a strange thing to say since Republicans had already blocked Democrat attempts to take control of elections away from states (Townhall). From Jason Snead, Former Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation: The bill eliminates popular voter ID requirements. Just like previous bills, it forces states to accept a wide range of documents as ID, and provides odd carveouts so voters without ID can still vote (Twitter). Illhan Omar: The filibuster—and the Democratic Senators who continue to uphold it—are killing our democracy (Twitter).

Majority Whip Dick Durbin Expresses Concern for Overselling Biden Plan and Midterm Elections

Did the Democrats mismanage expectations? From the story: “I don’t doubt that one bit, and I think [it’s] our fault,” Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin said. “We oversold it and underperformed for too long. Now, we get a chance to close it the right way, hopefully.” House Republicans only need to flip five seats to regain control of that chamber. The Senate is currently split 50-50, with the Democrats in the majority only because Vice President Kamala Harris can serve as the tie-breaking vote. Durbin noted that with the 2022 elections on the horizon, there is a real reason to be squeamish. He said he was “always worried about off-year elections in the president’s party. History tells you it’s a real challenge” (WesternJournal). David Davenport: President Joe Biden’s mantra has been “go big or go home.” Biden has proposed spending trillions of dollars on COVID relief, infrastructure, and new social programs. On the heels of the pandemic, it appeared that Biden and his fellow Democrats had a window of opportunity to dramatically expand the size and role of the federal government. They saw a chance to cut a 21st century New Deal (WashEx).

If Democrats Really Want a Smaller Spending Bill, They’ve Got a Lot of Cutting to Do

Upshot: As Democrats in Congress debate how to pare back their big social spending bill — to a total budget increase of less than $2 trillion over a decade — they have even further to go than it may appear…. All the new spending and new tax cuts and credits in the bill add up to closer to $4.7 trillion over a decade, the result of an ambitious agenda and some optimistic thinking about the pricetag (NYT).

What’s Motivating Facebook’s Potential Name Change? A Tarnished Brand

Zuckerberg points to the “metaverse” and a fast-evolving company, but Facebook’s recent history points to another motive. Economist: the Facebook brand has become tarnished. The social network is blamed for stoking everything from teenage anorexia to insurrection at the US Capitol…. Facebook investors seem untroubled. But its social apps’ growing toxicity threaten to poison its other projects (Economist). The Verge reports: The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner (Verge).

Chicago and Denver Sheriffs Quitting Over Vaccine Mandates

From the story: Multiple sheriffs in jurisdictions near Chicago said they will not respond to fill the potential gap in police manpower created by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain and DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick said they have historically had no problem sending deputies to help the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in cases where officers were in emergency distress or under duress, but that the situation Lightfoot has created does not fit those parameters (PoliceTribune). From WGN9: The Cook County Sheriff’s department already works with Chicago police in some targeted high crime neighborhoods. Cook County only has 300 sworn officers so their presence wouldn’t come close to filling the void that could be created if Mayor Lightfoot follows through on her threat to suspend the thousands of Chicago officers who had still not reported their vaccination status as of Monday afternoon (WGN9). Chicago is not the only city to face turmoil due to vaccine mandates. Fox31: More than two dozen of Denver’s first responders have quit over the city and county’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees (Fox31). From The Daily Wire: A 911 caller in Denver described the experience as “terrifying” when her emergency call was left on hold. (The Daily Wire).

Biden’s Hard-Left Agenda: Maybe America Is Just Not on Board

That’s the lesson that some on the left are starting to recognize. The shift in opinion polling away from the notion that they want government “to do more” is dramatic. Henry Olsen: While there were small shifts against bigger government among both Republicans and Democrats in the new Gallup data, the biggest change occurred with independents. In 2020, independents favored more government by a 56-38 margin. Today, they oppose bigger government by a 57-38 margin. That’s a massive 37-point swing in one year (WPost).

Democrats in 2020 “Underperformed in Every Significant Category”

From the razor-thin victory for Biden, to the “House fiasco” to the poor performance of Dems in state legislatures, 2020 is a fleeting victory. Ed Kilgore for New York Magazine: The search for scapegoats—from President Joe Biden to Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and their fellow “centrists” in the House—is understandably intense. But the underlying problem is a 2020 election that fell short of expectations, and fell even shorter of what the party needed to govern effectively. Initial relief over finally ejecting Donald Trump from the White House and excitement over winning control of the Senate should not obscure the fact that Democrats emerged from the last election with the stage set for their present troubles (NewYork).

10.

Trans Employee Group at Netflix Releases List of Demands

… Ahead of yesterday’s walkout over the Dave Chapelle special. Verge: “We want the company to adopt measures in the areas of content investment, employee relations and safety, and harm reduction, all of which are necessary to avoid future instances of platforming transphobia and hate speech,” employees wrote in a press release…. The news comes after weeks of controversy due to Netflix executives continuing to support Dave Chappelle and his comedy special The Closer, which many LGBTQ people and allies have criticized as transphobic (Verge). CBS reports that hundreds protested on Wednesday at the company’s facility on Sunset Boulevard (CBS).