President Joe Biden held a town hall last night on CNN. Now, there are two minds when it comes to Biden and the corporate media. If you’re conservative, of course, you’re convinced they think the sun shines out of his ass because that’s what the “liberal media” does. I’m not here to argue about it or explain why it ain’t necessarily so, but we all know how that goes.
And if you support Biden, you’re starting to get a little miffed at the way they seem to be looking for something to piss and moan about instead of actually telling people what’s in his $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan. It’s somewhat understandable, as Trump was entertaining and easy copy for journalists, who can be just as lazy as the rest of us. When you point that out to them, they get snippy. He’s starting a new social media app, so that should keep them busy for a while.
But the fact of the matter is far too many people don’t know what’s in Build Back Better but when they find out, they’re generally in favor of whatever it is. Last night’s town hall was supposed to rectify that and it… well, it really didn’t help and a lot of that’s on Biden. He’s never been a persuasive speaker like Obama nor does he have the uncut buttholery that attracts so many, for whatever reason, to Trump.
He has, however, cut the shit. Getting this bill passed is going to take compromise, he says, because that’s how politics work. He did call out Smokin’ Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Sweetheart Kyrsten Sinema for being absolute pills about getting this shit done. Some things don’t budge, though, like the child tax credit, which Manchin hates. We did lose two years of free community college and twelve weeks of parental leave (now down to four) and he indicated some more would have to squeeze down to shut Manchin up.
Another thing that won’t fly is any raise on corporate taxes, and that’s mostly due to Sinema’s courage in championing rich businesses continued ability to not have to pay all that much in taxes, relatively speaking. Still avoiding the press or her constituents so as to at least confirm what everyone knows, Sinema has been particularly fervent about keeping the Trump tax cuts, which cost the country about $5.5 trillion. Interestingly, this might push Democrats towards a more liberal form of taxing extremely rich individuals more, so we’ll see how that plays out.
Manchin and Sinema’s petulance has also caused Biden to reassess getting rid of the filibuster. He’s old-school Senate, remember, and is not inclined to get rid of the practice. However, shit’s getting irritating and who knows what may come. Everyone’s getting somewhat burned out and we should see some voting on all this go down next week.
Moving on, the U.S. Supreme Court had a chance to enforce a block of Texas’ draconian six-week “heartbeat” abortion ban. Sonia Sotomayor said she would have, which gives a little hope, and the court will hear a case on November 1 that could shut it down. I wouldn’t get too excited as the court still has a 6-3 conservative bias and the main reason Amy Coney Barrett was put on the court was to ban abortion.
Finally, a revised draft of the medical marijuana bill has come up to Gov. Tate Reeves. Recall, the state overwhelmingly voted for a medical marijuana initiative, the state supreme court shut it down, and the legislature was told to get one done before Reeves would call a special session. He keeps moving the goalposts, though, and the latest push is on him thinking an eighth of an ounce was too much despite it being the industry standard. There are some other tweaks worth reading about, so check it out.
However, don’t hold your breath on that special session. Have a nice weekend.
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