US Politics: Don't Manchin the war...

[A Horse Named Stranger]

...or the reconciliation bill.

Old thread is once again past the 20 page mark, and since nobody bothered with a new one, you have to live with my titles. And yes, it's a Fawlty Towers reference

 

[Zorral]

We really can't do anything that isn't cruel and just crazy cruel.

"They" are proposing the Guantánamo complex should be holding camp for the Haitians seeking refuge in the US, who are being deported from the border.

 

 

[Martell Spy]

Here’s what Nancy Pelosi told a private meeting of Democrats this morning. 

https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/09-23-2021/schumers-bizarre-announcement/

Quote

 

The speaker speaks: Pelosi had a new message for her caucus after huddling with Biden at the White House: Focus on coming to an agreement about what’s in their social spending plan and touting that — and not so much the topline number. “If you have a cap, you can’t do everything everyone wants,” Pelosi told her caucus in private comments Thursday.

“We should talk about what’s in the bill. ... Let’s not have a conversation about topline,” Pelosi continued, according to Democrats listening to the meeting.

Eyes on the prize: The “most important thing right now is to show what’s in the bill,” Pelosi said Thursday. That hasn't quite been what's consumed her party lately. Progressives and centrists remain dug in as negotiations stall over the social spending bill and when to pass a separate, bipartisan infrastructure package. Progressives have insisted the spending bill not dip below $3.5 trillion. But influential moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have said they aren’t comfortable with that number.

What’s next: Pelosi and her team hope to show significant progress on the spending bill in the coming days in a bid to coax progressives back from their threat to tank a planned vote on the infrastructure bill Monday. Pelosi told her caucus Thursday they will pass both bills but they “will have the votes” for both too.

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Tick tock, tick tock the clock is edging ever closer to govt shutdown.

Moody's rating has given fair warning of the potential calamity (Great Recession redux) we face if we refuse to repay our creditors. They are not impressed with our politicking showmanship at Russian roulette and must be questioning whether the U.S. Treasuries need to be degraded to junk bond status?

[DMC]

Schumer and Yellen say agreement reached on paying for economic bill but it's unclear if moderates are on board:

Quote

"The White House, the House and the Senate have reached an agreement on a framework that will pay for any final negotiated agreement," said Schumer, alongside Yellen and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at her weekly press conference Thursday. "So, the revenue side of this, we have an agreement on."

A senior Democratic aide says there's an agreement between House and Senate Democratic leaders, the chairs of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, and White House officials are meeting with key House and Senate moderates today to talk about financing options.

Schumer later expanded on his announcement, telling reporters that "it's a menu of options" that will pay for whatever the final agreement is on the Democrats' sweeping social, economic package, which has a price tag of $3.5 trillion, though the exact cost remains up for debate between progressives who see that as a floor and moderates who want the price tag lowered.

 

[Fez]

16 minutes ago, DMC said:

Schumer and Yellen say agreement reached on paying for economic bill but it's unclear if moderates are on board:

 

This isn't the first time this year that's been an announced agreement that's worthless. If Biden/Pelosi/Schumer could rule by fiat, so long as the 3 of them approved it, I'm sure there's tons of things they'd agree to do.

[DMC]

Just now, Fez said:

This isn't the first time this year that's been an announced agreement that's worthless. If Biden/Pelosi/Schumer could rule by fiat, so long as the 3 of them approved it, I'm sure there's tons of things they'd agree to do.

Yeah it sounds like the agreement was just with just Neal and Wyden and virtually no other members know anything about it.  Durbin said he didn't know any of the details.

[Fez]

Well, whether or not the US government gets funding remains an open question, but Israel sure is. House just approved by voice vote a separate supplemental bill for the $1 billion in Iron Dome funding that had been taken out of the CR.

As to US funding, we're now at 5 House Rs that have explicitly said they will vote for the infrastructure bill. No idea how many might needed, if any, to get the bill passed:

 

[TrackerNeil]

I'm a fan of Pelosi, who is IMO what a leader must be: focused mostly on what good can realistically be done. That's probably the same quality that makes progressives dislike her.

[DMC]

Approval of U.S. Supreme Court Down to 40%, a New Low:

Quote

Americans' opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court have worsened, with 40%, down from 49% in July, saying they approve of the job the high court is doing. This represents, by two percentage points, a new low in Gallup's trend, which dates back to 2000. The poll was conducted shortly after the Supreme Court declined to block a controversial Texas abortion law. In August, the court similarly allowed college vaccine mandates to proceed and rejected a Biden administration attempt to extend a federal moratorium on evictions during the pandemic.

These latest findings, from Gallup's annual Governance survey conducted Sept. 1-17, come little more than a year after 58% of Americans approved of the Supreme Court, among the highest readings in the trend.

The previous lows in Gallup's trend include 42% approval in 2005 after the court expanded government's eminent domain power, and again in 2016, after the Supreme Court ruled colleges could continue to consider using race as a factor in admissions, a decision most Americans opposed. In 2013, 43% approved of the Supreme Court after it issued rulings that expanded the rights of same-sex couples and weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Interestingly, while support since July tanked among Democrats - 51 to 36 - it also dropped among Republicans - 51 to 45.  As the article speculates, I wonder if the recent rulings on college vaccine mandates has to do with the latter drop.

[Zorral]

"Dem Congressman reveals some GOP lawmakers expressed 'glee' and 'were having a good time' during Capitol riot"

https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-gleeful-violence-capitol-atack/

Quote

 

..."Let's just get the facts," Maloney began. "I was there on the House floor, at that location with a bunch of Republicans who were -- one in particular who was gleeful of the events transpiring outside. It took me a minute to understand why she was having such a good time. But I saw it. I saw it with her staff who caught up with her. They were excited about what was going on. They had been at the White House, I believe, the day before talking about what was going to happen."

He noted that it wasn't exactly a mystery when Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) was at the rally "whipping up the crowd and pointing them to the Capitol, I believe with a bullet-proof vest on."

Malone explained that the important facts are about deciding what Trump knew and when he knew it and how he was coordinating with Republicans on the ground in the Capitol.

"Congressman, who was the gleeful Republican?" Wallace asked.

"Well, I don't want to say but her initials were Marjorie Taylor Greene," he said.

Maloney went on to recall what it was like being in the undisclosed location with Republicans mocking Democrats trying to give them masks.

"It took me a minute to notice why they were having a good time," he said. "Look, I am reading into their behavior but it seemed to me like they were enjoying what was happening and when they united with some of their staff and some of the people they had been separated from, it was clear to me that they were happy in a way that made no sense given the tragedy that was unfolding.

 

 

[Zorral]

Well.  The new headline on the WaPo sends shivers of the ominous down my spine.

[The Anti-Targ]

Got a heads up letter from the USDA today. Puerto Rico and US Virgin Island piggies are in African Swine Fever lockdown because there are no cases reported for either territories. And people criticised us for going into lockdown for 1 COVID case .

To be fair there is an ASF outbreak happening in the Dominican Republic, and it is prudent to do some comprehensive surveillance in PR and USVI if there has been movement of people, equipment or animals / meat. I expect the lockdown to be pretty short so long as no disease is detected. I wonder how much the PR economy depends on being able to send pork to the mainland?

[Martell Spy]

House committee on Capitol attack subpoenas Trump’s ex-chief of staff and other top aides
Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over president’s connection to 6 January events

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/23/us-capitol-attack-subpoena-mark-meadows-steve-bannon

Quote

 

The House select committee scrutinizing the Capitol attack on Thursday sent subpoenas to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a cadre of top Trump aides, demanding their testimony to shed light on the former president’s connection to the 6 January riot.

The subpoenas and demands for depositions marked the most aggressive investigative actions the select committee has taken since it made records demands and records preservation requests that formed the groundwork of the inquiry into potential White House involvement.

House select committee investigators targeted four of the closest aides to the former president: deputy White House chief of staff Dan Scavino, former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon, and the former acting defense secretary’s chief of staff Kash Patel as well as Meadows.

“The select committee has reason to believe that you have information relevant to understanding important activities that led to and informed events at the Capitol on January 6,” the chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, said in the subpoena letters.

 

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

54 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

House committee on Capitol attack subpoenas Trump’s ex-chief of staff and other top aides
Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over president’s connection to 6 January events

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/23/us-capitol-attack-subpoena-mark-meadows-steve-bannon

 

This will go to the courts. Curious to see how they'll rule (probably not on the pro-democracy side).

[Martell Spy]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

This will go to the courts. Curious to see how they'll rule (probably not on the pro-democracy side).

Delay 2 years, the find in favor. (On the side of democracy!)

[Wilbur]

Remember the Cyber Ninjas, the embodiment of the "Stop the Steal" movement hired by the Arizona Senate Republicans?

Not only did their audit not find that Trump won re-election in Arizona or that the Maricopa County results favored Trump, their report states that Trump lost by more votes than the official count of the Maricopa County Elections Commission.

Good job spending millions of tax dollars to tell us something we already knew, Karen Fann.  What a bunch of raging dipshits.  I hope that Republican voters in Arizona can finally come to their senses and punt these halfwits who have somehow infested the State Senate out of office.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/09/23/arizona-audit-draft-report-confirms-biden-beat-trump-2020/5835521001/

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

7 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Remember the Cyber Ninjas, the embodiment of the "Stop the Steal" movement hired by the Arizona Senate Republicans?

Not only did their audit not find that Trump won re-election in Arizona or that the Maricopa County results favored Trump, their report states that Trump lost by more votes than the official count of the Maricopa County Elections Commission.

Good job spending millions of tax dollars to tell us something we already knew, Karen Fann.  What a bunch of raging dipshits.  I hope that Republican voters in Arizona can finally come to their senses and punt these halfwits who have somehow infested the State Senate out of office.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/09/23/arizona-audit-draft-report-confirms-biden-beat-trump-2020/5835521001/

I was coming to drop the NPR story on this “Audit”.

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/24/1040327483/the-controversial-election-review-in-arizona-confirms-bidens-win?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&fbclid=IwAR3cUMCQXjV_D33X8TMl_wuIPMtM4my9TX24r9kPCOIZdwu22l36qapXXvE

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

14 hours ago, Zorral said:

Well.  The new headline on the WaPo sends shivers of the ominous down my spine.

What was it?

[sologdin]

we laughed and laughed this morning about the NYT story on the arizona audit.  more sober reflection reveals however that far right conspiracism only doubles down in the face of empirical failure. there will accordingly be deeper rabbit holes for their irrationalism to burrow.