Let's be clear: President Biden has the legal authority to cancel student debt.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 14, 2022
Republican officials need to get out of the way so Americans can get this much-needed relief.
By promising young people massive debt relief (that he knew the courts would strike down), Biden likely helped save countless Democrats in the midterms.Look at the numbers: 27% of eligible voters aged 18 to 29 cast ballots; 63% percent of those votes, per exit polls, went for Democrats. John Fetterman claimed 70% of the youth vote in his Pennsylvania Senate race; Arizona’s Mark Kelly claimed 76%.Yet these whippersnappers are now likely to get nothing for their trouble.
This particular suit had to do with the Administrative Procedure Act. As the Post noted, “the suit alleges the administration violated federal procedures by denying borrowers the opportunity to provide public comment before unveiling the program.” But that’s just one small part of the order’s extraordinary illegality. From the start, it has been entirely obvious that if the question ever reached the merits of this case, it would be nixed by the courts. And so it has.
"In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone. Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government…The Court is not blind to the current political division in our country. But it is fundamental to the survival of our Republic that the separation of powers as outlined in our Constitution be preserved. And having interpreted the HEROES Act, the Court holds that it does not provide ‘clear congressional authorization’ for the Program proposed by the Secretary."
There's no way to sugarcoat it — Republicans got bamboozled in the midterms. All the polls that we reported showing Republican candidates surging in the final weeks of their campaigns, the race ratings from the Cook Political Report, and the overconfident statements from GOP leaders were all significantly overly optimistic about what we all watched play out on Tuesday night.
Spanberger and Wexton re-elections in Virginia, combined with RI-2, suggest some real limits to the red wave in the House. Remains to be seen how that plays out in statewide races. - @baseballcrank https://t.co/nNwPq4eZgO
— National Review (@NRO) November 9, 2022
USA Today: "Why Biden's closing argument worries some Democrats and could miss the mark with midterm voters."
Tell me more about the threat to democracy, Joe, while gas prices are heading up again.
The White House sought to reframe comments by President Joe Biden on closing coal plants as part of a US “energy transition,” responding to harsh criticism by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin days before midterm elections with Democratic congressional majorities at stake.Biden’s comments while campaigning in California “have been twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended” and the president “regrets it if anyone hearing these remarks took offense,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Saturday.
Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman, who was campaigning with Biden in the final days leading up to the midterm elections, did not respond to a request for comment on whether he shares Biden’s goals for the coal industry. However, during his failed 2016 Senate campaign, Fetterman signed the “Leave It In the Ground” pledge, promising to support a moratorium on any federal leases for energy development, including coal.
Yes, they are every bit this stupid. https://t.co/36sBrKhlUZ
— Gregarious Much (@gregarious_much) November 5, 2022
And I find that, you know, most of the debate that occurs in the places I visit — I know you don’t think it, but I think we have pretty good crowds. They’re fairly enthusiastic. You don’t write it that way, but they are.
So, the economy is up. The price of inflation is down. Real incomes are up. Gas prices are down and need to come down further.....And, folks, look, the American people are beginning to see the benefit of the economy that works for them. Families have more net worth than before the pandemic. Fewer families are behind on their mortgages, their credit card bills than before the pandemic.
So it’s not just one poll — there is a trend of polls showing that the race has shifted toward Bolduc since late September, and this picture of increasing GOP momentum is a nationwide phenomenon.
Let’s just call this what it was. It was a staged event. It was a hoax designed to try to profit off of the liberal wave of accusations about violent attacks by “MAGA extremists.” But it wasn’t even a good hoax.
Are staffers covering up for President Joe Biden the way they did for Senate candidate John Fetterman?Tuesday night’s debate revealed Fetterman’s debilitated post-stroke condition — and thus also exposed both the campaign staff who’d hidden the truth and the Dem-loving members of the media who for months covered for the progressive politico, even stomping on any reporters who raised doubts.Like Fetterman, Biden keeps the media at arm’s length — vastly more so than any recent prez. He did only nine formal press conferences in all of 2021, and eight so far this year. He’s done just 20 sit-down interviews (many of them softball) through the first year-and-a-half of his presidency.
Fox News: "Biden spends little time talking about Fetterman during Pennsylvania rally."
That's because Dementia Joe only has one speech to give. He gives it over and over and over and over and over again. The only thing that ever changes is the random interjection of "not a joke" or "that's not hyperbole."
Dementia Joe has done exactly one solo press conference in all of 2022, back in January. When he does sit down with a friendly interviewer, he inevitably commits a gaffe.
This is normal:
You can read most WaPo articles by copying the url into https://t.co/xxXkhQYzpa
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) October 28, 2022
That will get you around their paywall so you won't be giving them any ad revenue or feeding their tracking software with your data https://t.co/9fCPC5pr0G
Allow me to offer a controversial theory: A lot of Democratic Party candidates and strategists have bad judgment because they’ve grown used to a usually friendly media bailing them out of the consequences of their bad decisions....I don’t know that Democratic candidates or campaign strategists consciously think, “Oh, we’ll be fine, the media is on our side and will cover for us.” I think they just get used to having the consequences of every mistake and dumb decision mitigated by generous media coverage. They walk around with the wind constantly at their backs, convinced that they are wiser and better at their jobs than they really are. And when that wind at their backs stops blowing, they’re stunned — suddenly everything is much harder.
John Fetterman was a monumental disaster at this evening’s debate. I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s badly incapacitated, and those who are pretending otherwise must stop immediately. A lot of people — including Fetterman’s wife — owe public apologies to NBC’s Dasha Burns, who reported a couple of weeks ago that Fetterman could not understand her small talk, and was smeared and lambasted for her troubles.
The debate between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz is in the book, and I’m going to make the most non-hyperbolic statement ever made on this site. That debate was the worst, most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen in politics.
What just happened? #PASen pic.twitter.com/aJRDZVFU2x
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2022
The lies are just getting lazier and lazier. I mean, I know that Karine Jean-Pierre is the worst press secretary in modern history, but you’d think she could get a few people around here with some sense of creativity. If you are going to tell a falsehood, at least make it somewhat believable, otherwise, it just mimics parody.
"So it’s okay for Democrats to question elections but it’s not okay for Republicans? It’s crock of BS, everyone knows it, we have our freedom of speech and we’re not going relinquish it to a bunch of fake news propagandists. If you want a copy of these I’m sure Anthony will help you get a copy and help you learn how to journalist but look it up. It has been happening for a long time."
Americans' distrust in the media is at a record high, as for the first time ever, the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage of those with a great deal or fair amount combined, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Literally this meme brought to life https://t.co/0INisSEOM4 pic.twitter.com/s7JFRX2Pif
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 16, 2022
Look, in 1922, the price for one blood pressure drug that millions of Medicare patients — beneficiaries rely on went up one — went up by 500 percent.
“Incorrectly said”
— Gibbsville Man (@GibbsvilleMan) October 12, 2022
As he’s been “incorrectly saying” for decades that his first wife was killed by a drunk driver.
He’s always been a fraud.
Firefighters have saved my life and the life of my family. I want to just tell you for a moment — I know a lot of you know from — if anyone is from Delaware there knows — you know, way back in 1972, before I got sworn in, my family — my wife was Christmas shopping with my three children and — and a tractor trailer — they got in an accident — broadsided, and killed my wife, killed my daughter. And my two boys, who were then almost three and almost four, were on top of their dead sister and mother. And it took the Jaws of Life from my local fire department volunteers to get them out and get them to the hospital. And it saved their lives.
Joe's calling card is decency, an affable man without a malicious bone in his body. Yet he allowed Dunn, who died in 1999, to go to his grave having been falsely shamed by Biden as a drunk driver responsible for the death of Biden's wife and newborn daughter. What "decent" man does that.
For example, it’s one thing to have inflation go up because of the price of gasoline — even now, it’s still coming down — but, you know, beyond the basic things, what are the things that really matter to people?
Some of us are old enough to remember 1973 and 1979. If it has taken half a century to realize that our “partners” in the Gulf are not reliable, well . . .
The reality, however, is that we have long understood that neither these countries nor their associates are reliable suppliers, which is why the U.S.’s reestablishing its energy independence in the last decade was widely understood to be such a big deal. Thanks to ill-timed and reckless climate policies (which are unlikely to have much of an impact on the climate), that advantage is now being thrown away, with consequences that we are already beginning to see.
The President delivers remarks on creating jobs in the Hudson Valley, lowering costs, and ensuring the future is made in America
Biden: “Saudis will pump more oil”
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) October 4, 2022
Saudis: “Biden doesn’t speak for OPEC”
OPEC: “We’re pumping less oil now” pic.twitter.com/pYW5UIy92p
Red State: "Kari Lake Takes 'Unhinged' Katie Hobbs Apart, Gives Masterclass in Handling the Press."
Look at her go. She asks why her opponent refuses to debate, just like John Fetterman in PA. You go, girl!
It’s unfortunate that he made the mistake. At the same time, it demonstrated a generosity and professionalism that was also present in Biden’s Tuesday conversation with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a frequent and harsh Biden critic, as Hurricane Ian bore down on his state.
“I consider this to be a constitutional crisis,” he said. “I think that from start to finish, we are witnessing a president test the established legal order of the United States. . . . His broader party know that he’s not allowed to. But he went ahead and willfully did it anyway.”
All of this also leads to even bigger questions, such as if Biden’s mental health really is on the decline, just who is actually running this country right now?It’s no laughing matter; it’s a very serious one, especially considering the very powerful position Biden holds. Serious enough that not even the Democrat apologists in the White House press corps can ignore it anymore.
Our propaganda press is doing everything in its power to cover up an important story the American public has a right to know about Joe Biden's demonstrated mental decline. https://t.co/7u1l0A0ahg
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) September 29, 2022
UPDATE 3: Since I wrote the above post, the White House has said there will be an opt out from loan forgiveness for any otherwise eligible borrowers who want it. However, the administration has not actually put forward any opt-out plan for the 8 million , or explained how it will work. When and if the administration puts out an actual opt out plan, we will know more about whether it can defeat standing in this case, or not.
Here's former secretary of labor Robert Reich with his weekly submission to the Guardian: "Corporate greed, not wages, is behind inflation. It’s time for price controls."
Every Reich article reads like an economics major sophomore who has just smoked a bowl. The solution to every problem is authoritarian restrictions, regardless of the law, history, or common sense. Absolute clown show.
But, folks, in addition to inheriting a failed MAGA Republican economy, we also confronted a global pandemic and Putin’s war in Ukraine, and that’s driven the global inflation we see today.
Common Sense: "Two Bombings in One Night? That’s Normal Now in Sweden." - "My country just voted in a right-wing government. The almost 500 bombings since 2018 may have something to do with it."
This article is wild. I had no idea that shootings and bombings had gotten so out of control in Sweden:
Sweden, which has a population of around 10 million, has the highest per-capita number of deadly shootings of 22 European countries. Forty-seven people have been shot dead so far this year, which, while far from American levels of gun homicide, is extreme for Europe. Other European countries have come to look at Sweden with horror.
I forget who said it but there's a quote about: when you paint people against illegal immigration as fascists then - guess what - people will vote for the fascists. That's just what happened in Sweden.
Update - Found it: David Frum of the Atlantic?!? Wow. "If liberals insist that enforcing borders is a job only fascists will do, then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals won't."
All this confusion points to that simple question: do Biden’s words matter or not? Does his administration respect his governing authority or not? If the answer is no, then who is in charge? Is it Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff? Is it domestic policy adviser Susan Rice (who doesn’t get enough attention for her role)? Is is the White House communications team? Is it the Easter Bunny, who was called in to corral his boss during an event last Easter?
As you can see, this then forced the White House to once again rush out a statement contradicting the president it supposedly serves, announcing that whatever the Figurehead Puddingbrain claims on TV when he wants to sound like Magnum, P.I., he spoke without authorization and his words are null and void.This is f------ embarrassing.
And when I saw the headline that Gov. Ron De Santis had flown two planeloads of illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, and that Gov. Abbott had dropped off two busloads of illegal immigrants out front of Kamala “The-Border-Is-Secure” Harris’s residence, I thought sure this had to be another madcap satire of the Babylon Bee. But no, this actually happened.Finally—Republicans are learning how to fight, and we’ve seen the sanctimony of “sanctuary cities” revealed for what it is. More of this please. I’ve been saying for years that southern border states should send busloads of illegal immigrants to Marin County, Evanston, Westchester, Montgomery County, Bucks County, Malibu, Boulder, Cambridge, etc. Hopefully this is only the beginning, and the pace of these resettlements to affluent blue enclaves will increase.
Nevertheless, given today’s inflation data, it’s perhaps a little unfortunate that the administration will be celebrating the Act later today in Washington, D.C.
So unfortunate that it would take a heart of stone not to laugh, however bitterly.
The campaign’s response to questions about Mr. Fetterman’s health is to point to a doctor’s note, released more than 14 weeks ago, which said “he should be able to campaign and serve in the U.S. Senate without a problem” if he takes his medications and exercises.That’s not good enough. Mr. Fetterman is asking voters for a six-year contract without giving them enough information to make sound judgments about whether he’s up for such a demanding job. We have called for full disclosure of health records from candidates for federal office in both parties, including Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and we believe Mr. Fetterman should release his medical records for independent review.
