This is normal

Extra - This is also normal: "Sidelined: Biden's odd position in the "family photo" says it all about his time at the G20."  

This doesn't pass the smell test

Fox News: "Southwest under fire after video surfaces purportedly showing pilot saying 'Let's go Brandon'."

The TikTok video in question is not of a cabin of passengers listening to the captain over the intercom.  It's a straight-on video of a man, apparently in a cockpit but with his face blocked, saying "Let's go Brandon."  So did the pilot record himself and then post this video?

The article says an Associated Press reporter was on the offending flight but is there anybody else who can corroborate this story?  It's got the "my best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl that was on the Southwest flight" vibe.

Gosh, I wonder how this could have happened

Washington Examiner: "Trust of US media in ‘free fall,’ lowest in world." - "According to a recent survey conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford, among 92,000 news consumers in 46 countries, the United States ranked last in terms of media trust at 29%."

Cue the "Am I out of touch?" Principal Skinner meme.

What does the economy have against Mayor Pete's paternity leave?

Ace: "Crash: Economy Slows to Meager 2% Growth, the Worst Since the Start of Covid Recovery."

Watch for the covid excuse to promulgate, the one Zombie Joe bragged he was going to "shut down", the one that didn't affect the supply chain until a couple months ago.

Democracy for Dummies

The Corner: "Bernie Sanders Can’t Count to 52."

Taking the rings off your fingers

Reason: "Democrats' Proposed 'Billionaire Tax' Is Definitely a Wealth Tax, and It May Be Unconstitutional."

In addition to being unconstitutional, it's stupid and unworkable.

Friday's going to be lit, y'all

Hot Air: "Feeling Berned: Sanders insists on Medicare expansion, drug pricing for reconciliation."

Nancy Pelosi stated on one of the Sunday shows that there will be a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and/or the reconciliation bill.  At this point, it's impossible to see that happening considering that everybody is drawing red lines.

Bernie insists on his $3.5 trillion "floor" while Manchin is on record insisting on less than half of that.  Taxes will have to go up but Sinema says that's not going to happen.  For every public statement, there are a handful of others in Congress who are avoiding criticism when a single vote in the Senate and three in the House will sink any legislation.

The best-worst choice for the Democrats would be to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill alone but it's altogether possible some peevish progressives will sink the whole thing without Bernie's socialist agenda.

Lower your expectations, America

Federalist: "Media Demand You Stop Shopping To Shield Biden From Blame For Supply-Chain Nightmare."  

Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Pete wants you to know that it's all covid's fault.  

$190 billion buys a lot of chalk

Reason: "What Did Public Schools Do With COVID Relief Money? Whatever They Wanted. = "Track and field equipment and salaries for custodians are among the goods and services school districts purchased with COVID-19 relief money. Figuring out what they did with the rest of it remains difficult." 

How many abandoned in Afghanistan?

Red State: "Confirmed: The Biden Administration Has Been Lying About Americans Trapped in Afghanistan."

The State Department initially said the number was "around 100" and, after all the evacuations, it's down to 400. 

Extra - The Corner: "State Department: Whoops, We Just Found a Lot More Americans Who Want to Leave Afghanistan."  

Manchin channels Judge Smails

Axios: "Scoop: “How about zero?” Manchin, Sanders get heated behind closed doors."

It's amazing that Democrats and old Socialists like Bernie still think they can somehow jawbone or threaten Manchin into supporting this multi-trillion-dollar pork train they're calling the reconciliation bill.  I feel like I read a variation of this same update every day.

Americans unappreciative of Afghan evacuation

Hot Air: "Cratering: New poll puts Biden approval below 40%." 

How to tell a Democrat is President, a continuing series

Fox News: "Washington Post crushed for piece calling on American consumers to lower expectations: 'Joe Biden's America' - "'Why breadlines are the new buffets'"

Expectations have been lowered:

The adults are back in charge. The stupid adults.

Spectator World: "Who knew that governing was so ‘complicated’?" - "Not the Biden administration, apparently."

We all know that Dementia Joe is a dimwit but what's the excuse of everybody else?  Mayor Pete is proving to be a disaster and Kamala Harris can't find the border or the Space Force.  Then there's this clown from Massachusetts:

There are no shortage of floundering amateurs in this administration. Former Boston mayor Marty Walsh was caught off guard in an embarrassing interview this week with Axios reporter Dan Primack. To be fair though, Dan did ambush him. Asking the Labor Secretary about jobs…how could Marty have ever seen that one coming?

Primack asked Walsh questions about why people aren’t returning back to work and how long can people afford to stay home before they have to start paying their bills. Walsh responded nervously, ‘These questions are asked every month.’ Primack pushed back and asked, ‘What’s the answer?’ Walsh replied, ‘I don’t think there is an answer.’

Doesn't anybody here know how to play this game?

Extra - Power Line: "Nine months into Biden's presidency, faith in government has plummeted."

It's come to this

Newsweek: "Photo Shows Dunkin' Store Out of Donuts as Food Shortages Hit U.S."  A Dunkin' Donuts in Baltimore, for the record.

At least no beloved American holidays will be ruined.

Some food producers have already issued warnings. For example, Butterball, which is one of the leading turkey producers in the U.S., has warned of a shortage of turkeys ahead of Thanksgiving in late November.

Great.

#BuildBackBetter pic.twitter.com/phdBnEBoGo

— Anna James Zeigler (@ajzeigler) October 14, 2021

Nine has been fine since 1869

National Review: "Nobody Cared About Biden’s Commission on the Supreme Court Because It Was Pointless" - "Thing is, though: Democrats being a little sad does not a crisis make. Hell, it does not even a problem make. A few years ago, Joe Biden understood this. Today, like the rest of his party, he does not. Happily, though, the total lack of response to the Commission suggests that a majority of Americans still do."  

Joe got zinged!

Here's the single bit of satire aimed at Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live last night:

Weekend Update managed to squeeze in one Biden joke this Saturday, with co-host Michael Che saying a new report found Biden is, on average, 22 minutes late to events. 

"Worse, he only does it to appeal to Black voters," Che said.

Ah, yes, that's the issue that has driven criticism of Joe Biden: his lack of punctuality.

Apropos of nothing: "Dozens of American Children Remain Trapped in Afghanistan, and Biden Moves On." 

Biden plays the Grinch

NY Post: "Welcome back to ‘70s-style stagflation misery, thanks to Uncle Joe."

It looks like Dementia Joe is finally going to succeed where others have failed in cancelling Christmas.

Backfire

Politico, yesterday: "‘We’re going to make her life unpleasant’: Activists aren’t finished with Kyrsten Sinema."

Kyrsten Sinema, today: "Senator Sinema rejects vote on big Biden package before infrastructure."

U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a key moderate, told fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives this week that she will not vote for a multitrillion-dollar package that is a top priority for President Joe Biden before Congress approves a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, according to a source briefed on the meeting.

In fact, Sinema and Manchin told the Democrats they would not abide by any deadlines linking together the Infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Bloat.  These two haven't moved an inch since this invented crisis started and yet people like Bernie keep thinking they have some kind of leverage.

Spoiler alert: they don't.

"Another victory like that and we are done for"

Twitchy: "Jen Psaki explains that everything’s going the way it is because ‘we’ve made progress in the economy’."

Can we have a little less "progress" and bring back gas prices from a year ago?  

(Reference for title).  

Extra - Hot Air: "AP: Heating costs to soar as Biden begs fossil-fuel companies for rescue."

Funemployment all over again

Shot: "Inflation Rises To Highest Level In Over 13 Years."

How to tell a Democrat is in the White House chaser: "Brace for hot take! Biden will appreciate this assist explaining why rising inflation is a ‘net positive’." 

* - funemployment reference from 2009.

The narrative wins

Instapundit: "KATIE COURIC COVERED UP RBG’S DISLIKE FOR TAKING THE KNEE: Anchor says she edited 2016 interview to ‘protect’ the justice after she said people who kneel are showing ‘contempt for a government that made a decent life possible:’

In new memoir, Going There, Couric writes that she edited out a part where Ginsburg said that those who kneel during the national anthem are showing ‘contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.’

The published story, which Couric wrote for Yahoo! News in 2016, did include quotes from Ginsburg saying refusing to stand for the anthem was ‘dumb and disrespectful’, but omitted more problematic remarks.

Can you imagine allowing the hoi polloi making up their own minds based on facts?  Crazy!

Sure, why not?

Politicians never tire of giving you "free" stuff.  Reason: "New York City Considers Requiring Landlords to Provide Free Internet to Tenants" - "A new bill introduced by Council Member Ben Kallos would require landlords to provide broadband internet. It would also forbid them from passing on the costs of internet service to tenants." 

The deuce you say, the New York Times?

I've been told they're the paragon of professionalism, according to the NY Times.  Reason: "The New York Times Spreads Misinformation About COVID-19." - "In general, her pandemic reporting has manifested a paranoid slant. But the Thursday article wasn't just slanted; it was wrong, wrong, wrong." 

Chuck roast

PJ Media: "McConnell Tells Biden, 'You're On Your Own' When It Comes to the Debt Limit."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has never been known as one of the brightest bulbs in the room. He proved it once again on Thursday night when he took off on an epic partisan rant against Republicans who had just thrown him a lifeline on extending the debt limit by agreeing to a short-term increase.

This would be the speech that Joe Manchin called "f-n stupid" and Mitt Romney complained was unhelpful partisan slander.  Even after announcing the debt increase deal, McConnell had to whip for 10 Republican votes to overcome the filibuster rules.  Now that Schumer's bad faith has been established, there is a slim chance Republican senators will fall for this a second time.

The good news is that Chuck has two months to assemble a debt increase through the reconciliation process.  Better get busy.

Extra - NBC News: "After McConnell's blink, Democrats hold a weaker hand - Analysis: Democratic sources say there is no plan for avoiding a messier debt limit fight in December — and the Senate minority leader insists he won't help again."

Throwing cold water

Twitchy: "A #NeverTrump conservative lawyer throws ice-cold water on the idea that the January 6 Committee was ever going to enforce subpoenas."

Stagflation is here

Hot Air: "Expectation deflation: US adds fewer than 200K jobs in September."

Yeesh.

Extra - Wall Street Journal: "U.S. Job Growth Falls to Slowest Pace of the Year." 

Related - NY Post: "Real cost of inflation to average American household: An extra $175 a month."

The still-failing media

Gallup: "Americans' Trust in Media Dips to Second Lowest on Record."

I like this subheading: "Democrats' Trust in Media Dwarfs Republicans' and Independents'."  Yes, I imagine it does.

How's that "language" coming along?

Federalist: "Joe Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Doesn’t Exist. It’s Just A Press Release - Americans are no longer living under representative government. We are living under government by the screen people, of the screen people, for the screen people." 

All kinds of time

Bluff called.  National Review: "Schumer v. McConnell on the Debt Ceiling."

Raising the debt ceiling through reconciliation would not affect Democrats’ ability to pass their social-spending reconciliation bill: “According to the parliamentarian’s office, Democrats could [raise the debt ceiling through reconciliation] without impacting the existing reconciliation package. That legislation would stay on its own separate track and not lose its privilege in the Senate, meaning it can’t be filibustered and would only require a majority vote for approval,” Punchbowl News reported on Monday.

But, as Phil notes, McConnell has now made Schumer an offer that makes it plain to absolutely everyone that Senate Democrats have the time and the power to raise the debt limit through reconciliation.

The Democrats are so used to favorable coverage from the press, I wonder if they think they can still press on with default and blame the Republicans.  I have my doubts if only because, driving home today, I heard NPR describe this as a kind of lifeline to Chuck Schumer and a way to avoid fiscal catastrophe.  NPR!

Burn the heretic!

Jim Geraghty: "The Piranhas Come for Kyrsten Sinema." - "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."

I forget where I saw it but somebody quipped that Sinema is going to get so fed up with this relentless harassment that, by next week, she'll be wearing a MAGA hat.

Extra - Wall Street Journal: "Kyrsten Sinema, the Bad Maverick - While John McCain was cheered as a hero, the Arizona Democrat is treated as a traitor."

Restoring the norms of decency

Charles C.W. Cooke: "Chasing Kyrsten Sinema into a Bathroom Is Not Normal."

One imagines that this might be more obvious if the politics were slightly different. If, instead of a left-winger berating a moderate Democrat in the loo, a right-winger had berated a moderate Republican, it would have been the biggest news of the year. Within minutes, the occurrence would have had a name — the “Arizona Attack,” perhaps. Within a day, it would have been deemed to be representative of everything that was wrong with the American Right — and with the United States itself. Within a week, we would have been drowning in breathless TV segments, tendentious op-eds, and mawkish lectures about the sanctity of democracy in America.

I can hear the rhetoric now. Change a handful of inconvenient details, and this incident would be cast as an attack on “women,” on “the LGBT community,” and on “our democracy itself.” Put the motivating criticisms in the mouth of Tucker Carlson, instead of Chris Hayes, and the episode would be widely held as “the logical endpoint of the climate of hatred that has been whipped up.” Attribute the passion to a MAGA type instead of a progressive, and it would be said to “evoke the painful memories of January 6.”

This was such an easy lay-up for Biden who could have condemned the bathroom incident with a simple "that's not who we are"-type of statement.  But that demented fool forgot everything he learned from his days of Senatorial decorum and, of course, the media was ready to defend him.  

It is without fail that whenever President Joe Biden finds himself on the receiving end of legitimate criticisms from his political opposition (which is quite literally every day, almost every hour), there will be an array of Democrat apologists in the mainstream media who rush to his defense in order to suggest that whatever he said or did was either taken out of context or was really not the shocking moment people make it out to be.

Today was no exception.

Democrats never think their actions will boomerang on them (e.g. Joe Biden voting against debt limit increases, the nuclear option for judicial nominees) so they'll be shocked when people start following Chuck Schumer into the commode.

pic.twitter.com/Tqy9hRndlD

— The Right To Bear Memes (@grandoldmemes) October 4, 2021

Civil War

Hot Air: ""Inexcusable": Did Biden's infrastructure meeting with House Dems backfire?"  It sure looks that way and now Kirsten Sinema has a new statement out strongly suggesting she's washing her hands of the entire deal.

Extra - Politico: "The fact that the president came to the Hill and whipped against his own bill is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.” 

"Be a maverick!" they said

Twitchy: "NY Times put a very different spin on 2 Arizona senators standing in the way of their party’s agenda."