Over the past year, DeSantis has emerged as one of the most articulate political spokesmen for the anti–critical race theory movement. His new policy agenda builds on successful anti-CRT legislation in other states but goes two steps further. First, it provides parents with a “private right of action,” which allows them to sue offending institutions for violations, gain information through legal discovery, and, if they win in the courts, collect attorney’s fees. Second, it tackles critical race theory in corporate “diversity, equity, and inclusion” training programs, which, DeSantis says, sometimes promote racial stereotyping, scapegoating, and harassment, in violation of state civil rights laws.
At heart, the battle against critical race theory is a fight against entrenched bureaucracies that have used public institutions to promote their own racialist ideology. “This is an elite-driven phenomenon being driven by bureaucratic elites, elites in universities, and elites in corporate America, and they’re trying to shove it down the throats of the American people,” DeSantis said. “You’re not doing that in the state of Florida.”
Following his speech, DeSantis invited me to address the crowd. I explained that the reason critical race theory has upset so many Americans is that it speaks to two deep reservoirs of human sentiment: citizens’ desire for self-government and parents’ desire to shape the moral and educational development of their children. Elite institutions have attempted to step between parent and child.
DeSantis has deftly positioned himself as a protector of middle-American families. One of the guest speakers, Lacaysha Howell, a biracial mother from Sarasota, said that left-wing teachers tried to persuade her daughter that the white side of their family was oppressive. Another speaker, Eulalia Jimenez, a Cuban-American mother from the Miami area, said that left-wing indoctrination in schools reminded her of her father’s warnings about Communism in his native Cuba. Both believed that critical race theory was poison to the American Dream.
As they begin their next session in January, Florida legislators have the opportunity to craft the gold standard for “culture war” policy. The governor’s team has worked with a range of interested parties, including the Manhattan Institute, which has crafted model language for prohibiting racialist indoctrination and providing curriculum transparency to parents. The battle is ultimately about shaping public policy in accord with public values. “I think we have an ability [to] just draw a line in the sand and say, ‘That’s not the type of society that we want here in the state of Florida,’” said DeSantis yesterday. The stakes are high—and all eyes are on Florida to deliver.
How the Democratic Media Complex managed to destroy what was left in the public’s trust in it:
That episode single-handedly destroyed trust in public health officials, proving they'd politicize their expertise when convenient.
Corporate media celebrated a douchebag-lawyer shaming families at deserted beaches, then — overnight! — cheered densely packed street protests. pic.twitter.com/DvOzIr5JX8
As usual, elite institutions — media, government, public health authorities — love to whine about the refusal of the public to trust their pronouncements, complaining people turn to other less credentialed and worthy sources.
Earlier this month, a federal grand jury in Houston indicted four men on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering in a scheme to rip off the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by submitting over 80 false applications for forgivable loans and writing checks to relatives and fictional employees, among other fraudulent activities.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a press release on December 15 that 29-year-old Hamza Abbas of Richmond, 55-year-old Khalid Abbas of Richmond, 55-year-old Abdul Fatani of Richmond, and 53-year-old Syed Ali of Sugar Land could be sentenced to up to 20 years on each count of wire fraud.
The indictments against them are the most recent in an apparent scheme that prosecutors say involved 15 defendants from Texas and Illinois, all of whom are accused of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The DOJ stated that Khalid Abbas, Fatani, Ali, and another defendant, Houston resident Amir Aqeel, 53, have been charged with money laundering in the superseding indictment. The money laundering counts carry potential sentences of up to 10 years.
Last year, a grand jury also indicted Aqeel on a charge of aggravated identity theft. The government accuses Aqeel of using stolen identities to apply for the PPP loans.
According to the DOJ, several of the accused have already pleaded guilty for their involvement, including Siddiq Azeemuddin, 42, of Naperville, Illinois, Richard Reuth, 58, of Spring, and Raheel Malik, 41, of Sugar Land, all of whom entered their pleas in October. Houston residents Abdul Farahshah, 70, Jesus Perez, 31, and Bijan Rajabi, 68, pleaded guilty in late November.
Rifat Bajwa, 53, of Richmond, Pardeep Basra, 52, of Houston, Mayer Misak, 41, of Cypress, and Mauricio Navia, 42, of Katy were also indicted last year on charges of participating in the conspiracy and committing wire fraud.
Why, it’s almost like just about all the defendants share some characteristic in common. If only I could put my finger on it…
Speaking of criminals, did mentioned that a second CNN employee was being investigated for child sex allegations? “The allegations against Rick Saleeby, a former senior producer for Jake Tapper’s “The Lead,” appear to be connected to reporting by Project Veritas. Saleeby resigned from CNN this month.” It’s hard to keep the media pedophiles straight without a scorecard…
The City of Austin’s director of the Office of Police Oversight (OPO), Farah Muscadin, abused her authority, a third-party arbitrator decided this week.
In a 31-page decision, Lynn Gomez, the arbitrator, ruled that Muscadin and the OPO violated Article 16 of the Austin Police Department’s employment contract that was negotiated in 2018. Article 16 governs the parameters of civilian oversight of the department, which progressive groups lobbied hard for during the labor standoff.
“Contrary to the city’s claim, Director Muscadin was not acting within the scope of her authority…[she] clearly was seeking to dictate some future outcome rather than simply making a recommendation as Art. 16 permits,” Gomez ruled.
“[T]he evidence and arguments raise[d] by the city indicate that the city does not consider itself or OPO bound by Article 16’s provisions.”
Has the Biden Amdenistration tipped its hand that considers Taiwan too strategically important to not defend it in the case of a Chinese attack?
Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told a Senate hearing three weeks ago that Taiwan was “critical to the region’s security and critical to the defence of vital US interests”. In words strikingly similar to MacArthur’s, he emphasised the island’s location “at a critical node within the first island chain, anchoring a network of US allies and partners”.
This may well be remembered as the moment Washington came clean on its intentions regarding Taiwan. In Beijing at least, the statement is being read as dropping all pretence that the US could acquiesce to a unification of Taiwan with China.
Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in China, believes that US strategic thinking regarding Taiwan has always followed the lines laid out by MacArthur.
Even after establishing diplomatic relations with China, the US “worked to ensure the continuation of a state of separation across the Taiwan Strait”, Wu said. “When we ask the US if they do not hope to see the unification of China, they deny that. But judging from the US’s concrete actions, it is clear that they indeed do not hope to see China unify. Ely Ratner has now said this out loud.”
In Washington, too, some observers think the testimony allows little conclusion other than that the US should not allow Taiwan to become part of China under any circumstances.
Hopefully true, but betting on Joe Biden’s stalwart fortitude is putting your hopes on an extremely weak horse…
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez spotted in Miami Beach while New York City Flu Manchu cases hit alltime highs. As always, Covid Theater rules are for the little people.
I really should have bought this for Dwight for Christmas.
The Critical Drinker is not thrilled at the latest Matrix film:
Ultimately The Matrix Regenerations fails on just about every level possible. It fails to properly honor the past by leaving it well enough alone. It fails to tell a compelling new story, or add new ideas to the world it created. It fails to establish interesting new characters, or take old ones in a new direction. It fails to surpass the spectacle, energy and originality of a 20 year old film. And most of all it fails to deliver a compelling reason for its own existence. The Matrix Retaliations is a film that never should have been made in the first place.
Left-wing sponsors vs. right-wing sponsors:
This satirical video is based on an undeniable truth: the bulk of mainstream corporate and billionaire money resides in and supports liberal-left, not right-wing, media. As the Dem Party became the preferred vehicle of oligarchs, their largesse goes to those urging votes for it. https://t.co/UpuF2ZuGxr
What does it tell you about the Democratic Media Complex’s “Official Covid Narrative” that mRNA technology inventor Dr. Robert Malone has been banned from Twitter?
After months of providing valuable Covid-19 information that runs counter to the official narrative, Twitter has finally banned Dr. Robert Malone, inventor of mRNA technology.
Malone, who will appear on the Joe Rogan show Thursday according to associate Ed Dowd (one of four contributors to the Malone doctrine), had more than 520,000 followers. He has been an outspoken critic of both mRNA vaccines, as well as the abysmal failures of policymakers worldwide in responding to the pandemic.
He was not warned or provided an opportunity to delete any offending tweets – instead he was “just suspended,” Dowd continued.
Here’s Malone’s last tweet – sharing an article which claims that the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine does ‘more harm than good.’
This is what got him banned. There wasn't even any misinformation – the video verbatim went line through line on the data. This is nothing short of gross censhorship at the behest corporate interests. pic.twitter.com/62c4D4AWAj
Boy, sure seems like criticizing Pfizer or The Holy Coronavirus Narrative is one of the fastest ways to get banned these days, despite the fact that same narrative is visibly falling apart before our eyes. Also might suspicious how they banned him right before he went on Rogan. Makes you wonder what they’re trying to hide.
Maybe this:
Not including the risks of myocarditis, blood clots, or sudden death, Dr. Robert Malone estimates that 1 in 3000 children could be neurologically damaged by the COVID-19 vaccine. pic.twitter.com/avfz2hB4sa
Twitter permanently banning Dr. Robert Malone the day before appearing on @joerogan’s podcast may end up being the greatest Streisand Effect on record pic.twitter.com/RgbninWATF
(And yes, I’m still working on that giant “Lots of the official Flu Manchu Narrative seems to be wrong” roundup post. There’s just so many links to wrangle…)
“What can be said about him that hasn’t already been said about bubonic plague?”
Strike that.
Man, I’m really having trouble staying on the high road for this Harry Reid obit.
It’s pretty much the job of the Senate Majority Leader to be the Bad Cop and hated by the opposition, but there was just something repugnant and unpleasant about late Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who just died at age 82. Certainly Chuck Schumer is no improvement, but still…
Democrats probably love him for ramming through ObamaCare and the initial 2009 Porkulus. Reid (like all Democrats) supported lots of horrible legislation (remember SOPA/PIPA, possibly the first and last time the Internet as a whole rose up to slap down bad legislation?), but that’s not it. Nor is it his hatred of the Tea Party or gun owners. Or his proud manifest lies about Mitt Romney’s tax return. Or even his reported Mafia ties.
Speaking of Harry Reid and the Mafia, did anyone ever determine exactly who beat the crap out of Reid and way?
There simply seemed something sinister and unpleasant about the man. Harry Reid made Kamala Harris look likeable and genuine by comparison. And his drive to change the rules to help Democrats changed the tenor of the senate and paved the way for the current political moment.
Harry Reid fundamentally & permanently altered the Senate, created America's current political landscape, paved the way for Donald Trump, & made it possible to put Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, & Barrett on the Supreme Court. https://t.co/Lfk3nLk4A8
I get a lot of fundraising emails from Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s reelection campaign, sometimes three or more a day, a lot of which tout his support for Texas building a border wall, which he announced back in June. From an email June 19:
The Biden Administration has abandoned its responsibilities to secure the border and Texans are suffering as a result.
If the federal government won’t do its job, Texas will.
Through this comprehensive public safety effort, we will secure the border, slow the influx of unlawful immigrants, and restore order in our border communities.
Since then, Abbott seemed to talk a lot more about building the border wall than actually getting it done (Texas state bureaucracy may be more efficient than the feds, but it’s still a bureaucracy), but that may finally be changing.
Gov. Greg Abbott recently held a press conference debuting the construction of the Texas border wall in Rio Grande City — just six months [!] after he announced Texas would build its own border wall. The press conference took place in front of the first phase of the wall being built on state land managed by the Texas General Land Office (GLO).
The governor was joined by GLO Commissioner George P. Bush and Texas Facilities Commission (TFC) Chairman Steven Alvis, who spoke of the progress made to secure the southern border by building the Texas border wall. Sen. Kelly Hancock, Rep. James White, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw, Texas Military Department Adjutant General Tracy Norris and Deputy Adjutant General Monie Ulis also were in attendance.
On June 16, Abbott announced the state of Texas’ plan for the border wall and authorized the transfer of $250 million as a down payment to launch construction. He also directed the TFC to hire a program manager to oversee its construction.
In September, a program manager was selected to lead the process of planning and executing the border wall. Gov. Abbott also signed House Bill 9 into law that month, providing an additional $1.8 billion in state funding for border security, including border wall construction.
The border wall is not a panacea, and it’s no substitute for the Biden Administration actually enforcing federal border control laws, something it has steadfastly refused to do. Democrats would rather try to sneak illegal alien amnesty in while no one is looking. Though now the Biden Administration has said (no doubt reluctantly) that it will close “a few gaps” in the wall, mainly in Arizona.
A border wall will help, but ranks third among strategies that would actually secure the border, behind enforcing existing laws and passing universal E-Verify, which would dry up a lot of illegal alien migration by cutting off employment opportunities.
Funny how you don’t hear much about E-Verify these days, almost as if Republican business interests have killed it off behind the scenes to keep an endless supply of illegal alien labor coming…
The 2021 Military Bowl has been canceled for the second year in a row. Boston College was forced to pull out of its matchup against East Carolina, scheduled for Monday, due to a combination of COVID-19 cases and injuries, according to 247Sports’ Stephen Igoe. Additionally, the Fenway Bowl, featuring SMU and Virginia, has been canceled after positive cases on the Cavaliers’ roster. The game was set to be the final one for coach Bronco Mendenhall at UVA after he resigned from the program earlier this month
The bowls are the second and third outright cancellations of bowl season, joining Hawaii pulling out of the Hawaii Bowl against Memphis on Christmas Eve. Additionally, Texas A&M was forced to pull out of the Gator Bowl due to COVID issues, but Rutgers stepped up to take the Aggies’ place as a 5-7 squad. Last season, 18 bowls were canceled by the pandemic.
The matchup is the second straight bowl game canceled for SMU, though the Mustangs would have been without a bulk of the coaching staff after former coach Sonny Dykes left for TCU. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, were searching for their third winning season in the last four years under Mendenhall before new coach Tony Elliott takes over the program.
For East Carolina, the cancellation is especially disappointing. The Pirates have not played in a bowl game since 2014 but earned a 7-5 record in Mike Houston’s third season. Boston College has not won a bowl game since 2016.
Also, Miami is out of the Sun Bowl, so that might not happen either.
Honestly, I don’t give a rat’s ass about college bowl games, and it’s probably been well over a decade since I watched one. (When did the Longhorns last have a good team?) But Flu Manchu doesn’t provide much of a threat to healthy college football players, and Omicron is so mild that it’s probably safer to contract and exhibits less side effects than the vaccination for it. Banning football games because of exposure in nannyism gone mad.
We’re cancelling bowl games over grossly antiquated COVID protocols. Almost everyone in the room knows how stupid it is and we’re doing it anyway.
No bowl game should be getting canceled over covid. Period. It’s embarrassing that any college kid is being held out of playing over an asymptomatic virus infection that poses zero risk to them.
77 year ago today, General George S. Patton’s 4th armored division relieved the siege of Bastogne.
Everyone who knows anything about The Battle of the Bulge knows about Bastogne, but here Nicholas Moran offers up five lesser known facts about the battle.
Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! For some reason, corrupt scumbags seem to be a theme of this LinkSwarm.
This week marks the 30th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, an evil empire who’s passing made the world a better place. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II and even George H. W. Bush all had key roles in bringing the Cold War to a successful close.
Biden’s vaccine mandates go before the Supreme Court. There’s a good chance they lose there on federalism grounds, even as the Supremes have avoided overturning state vaccine mandates. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Tom Cotton has a modest proposal: “Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor.”
Last year, our nation experienced the largest increase in murder in American history and the largest number of drug overdose deaths ever recorded. This carnage continues today and is not distributed equally. Instead, it is concentrated in cities and localities where radical, left-wing, George Soros progressives have captured state and district attorney offices. These legal arsonists condemn our rule of law as “systemically racist” and have not simply abused prosecutorial discretion, they have embraced prosecutorial nullification. As a result, a contagion of crime has infected virtually every neighborhood under their charge.
Soros prosecutors refuse to enforce laws against shoplifting, drug trafficking, and entire categories of felonies and misdemeanors. In Chicago, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx allows theft under $1,000 to go unpunished. In Manhattan, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. refuses to enforce laws against prostitution. In Baltimore, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has unilaterally declared the war on drugs “over” and is refusing to criminally charge drug users in the middle of the worst drug crisis in American history. For a time, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon even stopped enforcing laws against disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, and making criminal threats.
All of these cities have paid a terrible price for these insane policies. Last year, the number of homicides in Chicago rose by 56%, and more than 1,000 Cook County residents have been murdered in 2021. In New York City, murder increased 47% and shootings soared 97%. In 2020, the murder rate in Baltimore was higher than El Salvador’s or Guatemala’s — nations from which citizens often attempt to claim asylum purely based on gang violence and murder—and this year murder in Baltimore is on track to be even higher. Murder in Los Angeles rose 36% last year and is on track to rise another 17% this year.
Soon after taking office in Boston, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachel Rollins published a list of 15 crimes that she would refuse to prosecute except under special circumstances. Among the charges on her “do not prosecute” list was drug trafficking, malicious destruction of property, trespassing, driving with a revoked license, and resisting arrest. Rollins also declared that she was “going to battle” against the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts and has slandered Boston police officers as “murderers” before accusing the department of “white fragility.”
Unsurprisingly, Boston’s violent crime rate surged shortly after Rollins took over, as the number of murders in Boston skyrocketed by 38% in 2020. As Rollins implemented leniency for drug trafficking, opioid overdose deaths increased by 32% in Suffolk County. As a reward for her ineptitude and extremism, President Biden nominated her to run the U.S. Attorney’s office in Massachusetts, the very office she had gone “to battle” against only months before. Every Democrat in the Senate voted to confirm her.
Another Soros prosecutor, Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner, came to office after suing the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times as a private citizen. He began his tenure by purging dozens of veteran prosecutors in his office and then slashed his jurisdiction’s prison population by over 30%. In most cases, Krasner also refuses to seek bail for accused criminals and has maintained a highly antagonistic relationship with the police, once accusing the Fraternal Order of Police lodge president of being “with the Proud Boys.”
The number of homicides in Philadelphia has increased every year that Krasner has been DA. Last year, the murder rate rose 40% and this year it reached an all-time high.
In San Francisco, the voters elected the son of two cop-killing terrorists as their district attorney. Chesa Boudin (pictured) has since unleashed chaos on the streets of a once-great city and inaugurated what the San Francisco mayor labelled the “reign of criminals.” San Francisco’s homelessness crisis has spiraled out of control, smash-and-grab looters are such a menace that the city had to close its downtown during Black Friday, and shoplifters have closed down retailers throughout the city. Since Boudin took over, car theft has increased by 27%, murder by 29%, arson by 36%, and burglary soared 38%.
The liberal mayor of San Francisco, as if struck by amnesia of her own tenure and complicity in the crime wave, recently emerged to condemn her city’s appalling rise in crime. Speaker Nancy Pelosi also condemned the disorder and “attitude of lawlessness” in her city. However, in one of the great examples of “see no evil, hear no evil,” Speaker Pelosi pretended to be baffled by what could have caused the crime wave. The answer is obvious: Liberal extremists like Nancy Pelosi and Chesa Boudin caused this crisis.
Conclusion: “The Republican Party must then join with independents and common-sense Democrats to wage an unrelenting war on crime. That war must begin with a campaign to recall, remove, and replace every last Soros prosecutor. Throw the bums out.”
One rule for you, another for them. “California Dems Sip Champagne, Violate State Mask Mandate While Celebrating Successful Gerrymander.”
“According to data from Nielsen/MRI Fusion, Fox News is watched by more Democrats than CNN and by more Independents than both MSNBC and CNN.” Average network news viewers want truth, not a force-fed Narrative at odds with reality. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Two defund the police state Democratic congresscritters carjacked. “In late December, two Democratic politicians were carjacked just hours apart in Philadelphia and Chicago. Ironically, both women – Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon and Illinois State Senator Kimberly Lightford – supported slashing police budgets and other reform measures, which many Republicans have blamed as the cause of the rapid increase in crime.” It would take a heart of stone not to laugh…
In the now three and a half years since I have decamped with my family from Los Angeles to Nashville—some have called us “early adopters”—I have spent considerable time on phone, email and texts with old friends and acquaintances in New York and California who are asking me what it’s like. Am I happy? Should they move? What’s best—Florida, Tennessee, Texas or someplace else?
Although answering the question “should they move?” for someone else is rather like answering for them should they marry or divorce—it’s too big a decision and really none of your business—that doesn’t stop me from almost universally saying yes.
I do this because I have been in L.A. and NY lately and know them to have turned into the ghosts of their former selves—basically hellholes.
I haven’t been to Chicago for a few years, but it seems to be, if anything, worse. And when I was in L.A., covering the late, lamented Larry Elder campaign, I didn’t even want to go to San Francisco. That was a Golden Gate Bridge too far.
It’s not just the pervasive homelessness and the escalating Clockwork Orange-like ultra-violence, the actual souls of the cities that I knew very well—born in NY and lived decades in LA—seem to have vanished.
Who wants to sing “New York, New York” or “I Love L.A.” anymore? And can you imagine leaving your heart in San Francisco? What has happened is a true American tragedy—and it’s not just because of COVID, although that helped. The cancer has been growing for a long time.
It could be said you should stay to help resuscitate these cities although I would argue you do more for them by leaving, making those governing the cities—universally Democrats, as everybody knows—and even more those dopey enough to have voted for that governance, wake up.
But even in red states, the culture war continues…
Hundred of holiday flights have been cancelled due to “staffing shortages.” How’s that vaccine mandate working out for you, Biden voters?
How bad did New York Corrections screw up for the courts to free someone on 8th Amendment grounds? This bad. Holy crap!
8th Amendment claims are almost impossible to win, and the picture that this case paints is GRIM: inmates being kept in intake without a bed for days at a time, days without food or water, no access to medical treatment, forced fighting for entertainment bc there's no rec time pic.twitter.com/xJ085nFNGE
News broke on Tuesday that A&M’s football team had not practiced since last Saturday as a number of athletes had tested positive prior to the Aggies hitting the practice field on Sunday and then again during the next two days. The team was supposed to be released to go home on Tuesday until Dec. 26 when players were to make their way to Jacksonville for final bowl preparations. People both within the program and the highest levels of the administration were pessimistic as early as Tuesday night due to practical considerations arising from numbers via NCAA protocols that the game would take place.
The Aggies were already down quite a few players going into bowl game workouts last week given their status due to injuries and opt outs even before news of possible problems with COVID tests had emerged. There are as many as ten upperclassmen who are draft eligible who could or already have opted out of the game. In addition, two more (Zach Calzada and Dreyden Norwood) have entered the NCAA transfer portal since the regular season ended. Finally, by our count, there are as many as 12 players who are done for the season and won’t play in the game due to injury. Those items push the Aggies down towards approximately 60 scholarship players being available for the game including just one quarterback in Haynes King (who missed most of the season himself due to a broken ankle and has just returned to workouts).
Wait, 60 players? That’s seven more than an NFL roster. You need 11 players each side, for a total of 22. (And prior to 1941, the same players played both offense and defense.) You’ve got enough to play, even if a few players have to learn new positions in a hurry. It’s the postseason, the only postseason your team gets this year, and you’re wimping out.
Also note: “Scholarship” players. Whatever happened to the much-vaunted “12th Man” tradition at A&M, about to turn a century old? One of the features of the 12th Man was a willingness to play walk-ons. A bet dozens (if not hundreds) of ex-high school football playing Aggies would be happy to volunteer to join the football team in their hour of need. And I bet the NCAA would approve it.
But no, we can’t have that. Better to cancel it because someone might get an ouchie.
Evidently the Aggies of 2021 just aren’t made of the stern stuff of the Aggies of 1922. Or even 1983.
“They figured surely to God we can move one person. We surely can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough that they’ll just say, ‘OK I’ll vote for anything,'” Manchin continued. “Well, guess what? I’m from West Virginia. I’m not from where they’re from and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they’ll be submissive, period.”
• Spends nearly $5 trillion more on a path to big-government socialism over 10 years
• Gives tax breaks for the wealthy political donor class in mostly Democrat-run states at the expense of other Americans
• Imposes new mandatory programs that create dependency on government and cycles of poverty
• Expands existing inefficient welfare programs
• Adds $24,000 in debt on every American taxpayer, increases each taxpayer’s national debt burden to $111,000
• Wastes billions of dollars on unreliable “green energy” boondoggles
• Empowers new IRS agents to spy on Americans’ bank accounts
• Raises childcare costs for families by more than twice
• Adds more marriage penalties to the tax code, especially
hurting married, small-business owners
• Imposes new taxes on tobacco and nicotine
• Limits how much you can save for retirement
• Wastes even more money on failed ObamaCare programs
• Provides healthcare subsidies for wealthy Americans who don’t need assistance
• Increases taxes on petroleum that will further increase the price of gasoline
• Raises taxes on business that will lower wages, increase prices, and reduce return on investment
And that’s just the topline.
Of course, the things that made Build Back Better such an odious dumpster fire are what made it holy to Democratic Party grandees and the hard left, who are fuming that they have nothing to show for negotiations, and imploring Biden to somehow “get tough” with Manchin, as though a President can have a Senator arrested and put on a rack for disobeying his will.
Democrats are also worried that it will result in an electoral disaster in 2022. With Slow Joe’s horrendous first year, including record inflation and record Flu Manchu deaths from a virus he said he was going to eradicate, they were always going to have a disasterous midterm, but now they have a handy scapegoat.
Lots of Democrats have said that Manchin should be ejected from the party for his apostasy. Manchin says make his day.
Twenty groups have helped lead the “Save America” Coalition, including Americans for Prosperity, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans for Tax Reform, Center for Renewing America, Committee to Unleash Prosperity, Freedom Works, Heritage Action, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Goldwater Institute, Independent Women’s Forum and Job Creators Network.
[America First Policy Institute head Brooke] Rollins said she first realized while working as president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based free-market think tank, that if conservative groups put differences aside and worked together for a common cause they could make a powerful change.
The very first call the coalition held, Rollins remembers saying, “If we do this right and if we put all the egos aside and we don’t worry about who gets the credit, it’s a new day for our entire movement.”
Knowing what was at stake and what the other side was capable of — Democrats are estimated to have spent between $50 to 100 million building public support for the bill — Rollins told the group it was “time to really come together.”
The coalition did polling nearly everyday with Scott Rasmussen to find the “weak underbelly of the bill,” Moore said, and joined together to run millions of dollars worth of advertising to “pound the airwaves” in West Virginia and Arizona where the two senators who were most likely to oppose the bill — Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) — are from.
Althouse thinks it’s all theater. “Whatever they say publicly I will test against the hypothesis that making it all about Manchin is political theater, designed to concentrate the blame where it will not hurt other Democrats, moderate Democrats, while they gain the opportunity to edit the excessively left-wing material out of the bill.”
On the surface this makes a lot of sense, as the Corrupt Wing letting the Insane Wing get so far out in front of their skis that Manchin is the only one who gets blamed when their insane ambitions get chopped down to size. On the other hand, little about the Biden Administration suggests Machiavellian geniuses steering the ship of state through subtle stratagems, and their manifest failures are far more likely to pink-slip remaining moderate Democrats in 2022 rather than dethroning the hard left.
The competing theory is that Democrats know they’re going to be wiped out in 2022, and all of them (even most of the so-called “moderates”) are hellbent on shoving radical change down America’s throat because they’re never going to get the chance again.
And that’s why they’re so furious with Manchin. He’s not only keeping their snouts out of that giant trough of taxpayer money, he’s keeping them from rigging the game and insuring they never get a chance to again, because they’ll be out of office and out of power.
