Guardian:
Jonathan Bernstein/Bloomberg:
WaPo:
Guardian:
WaPo:
Ronald Brownstein/Atlantic:
WaPo:
Wajahat Ali/Daily Beast:
Capitol attack panel faces pivotal moment as Trump allies stonewall
The select committee’s struggle to enforce orders against the Trump aides shows the lack of teeth carried by congressional subpoenas, with its power systematically eroded by a Trump administration that has found, since 2016, that defiance carries scant penalties.
But the difficulty in obtaining any formal Trump White House materials – either through the former president’s aides or even through the National Archives – also underscores how what could be the most consequential lines of inquiry appear to be dangling by a thread...
But without knowing what Trump’s top aides know of the former president’s connections to the Capitol attack, the sources said, it could mean that Congress is left unable to write legislation to avert a different effort to stop the certification in 2024.
Assuming all goes well (which is more likely by the day) it’s kind of insane that this was accomplished with a 50 seat majority https://t.co/Ga1RFMKaIq
— Adam Bass (@AdamBassOfMass) October 29, 2021
Jonathan Bernstein/Bloomberg:
Congress Is Doing Better Than You Think
Yes, the current wrangling is complex and unseemly. But democracy is messy.
Oh, sorry: A lot of you may have been lost there because I didn’t stop to explain several steps, and so unless you’ve been following all of this more closely than anyone needs to, it probably seems very confusing. Which is one reason people really dislike Congress. Why can’t they just cut the deal that, at this point, they are extremely likely to conclude? Why can’t Manchin say that he’s going to vote for a bill that he’s presumably going to vote for? Why is it okay for the Progressive Caucus to hold the infrastructure bill hostage? Can’t they just get on with it? Can’t Biden tell them to get it done?
Nope. No one can tell a member of Congress to do anything. It’s all bargaining, and once people are empowered to bargain they’re going to use leverage where they can, even if it seems messy, takes more time and achieves results that no rational expert would’ve ever produced. I understand why people want to put politics aside and just do what’s best
Some health provisions in Dems’ framework that have gone under radar: - permanently reauthorizes the Children’s Health Insurance Program - permanent funding for Medicaid in U.S. territories - long-sought investments to improve maternal health care https://t.co/YX67wUJuMT
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) October 28, 2021
WaPo:
New budget deal marks the biggest climate investment in U.S. history
The $555 billion focused on cutting carbon emissions includes tax credits for businesses and consumers, but omits a key plan targeting the U.S. power sector.
Although Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) forced Democrats to drop a key provision targeting the electric power sector, the final bill includes an array of tax credits for companies and consumers that will make it easier to buy electric vehicles, install solar panels, retrofit buildings and manufacture wind turbines and other clean-energy equipment in the United States.
The climate package comes at a time when President Biden is hoping to demonstrate at a high-profile United Nations summit next week that the United States can meet its international climate commitments. The legislation, coupled with executive actions, could help Biden halve U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in less than nine years compared with 2005 levels.
Try reading this headline and substituting literally any other vaccine.It’s harder to justify polio vaccine for children if pandemic’s end is near
— Alissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) October 29, 2021
Guardian:
Hungary: anti-Orbán alliance leads ruling party in 2022 election poll
Six-party grouping ahead by four points after choosing Péter Márki-Zay as prime ministerial candidate
The poll, published late on Wednesday, 10 days after the alliance chose a small-town mayor, Péter Márki-Zay, as its prime ministerial candidate, showed support for the united opposition at 39%, compared with 35% for Fidesz and 23% who were unsure.
Orbán, whose combative brand of national conservatism has transformed Hungary’s political and institutional landscape since 2010, will face a united front of normally squabbling opposition parties for the first time since he came to power.
Even by DeSantis' own standards--protecting the elderly--Florida did a remarkably poor job, notching the highest per capita death rate among adults 65+ during the Delta wave. https://t.co/H9tib2GHYO pic.twitter.com/zIAZeyzFNr
— Christian Vanderbrouk (@UrbanAchievr) October 29, 2021
WaPo:
Biden says Pope Francis called him a good Catholic and said he should keep receiving Communion
● Biden’s account of the meeting provides potential insight on Francis’s thinking about an issue that has divided the U.S. Catholic Church.
● Later Friday, Biden is scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, their first in-person encounter since the U.S. role in a thwarted submarine deal incensed the French government.
● On Saturday, Biden will join leaders of the Group of 20 nations for a summit focused on the coronavirus and climate change.
Clark is described by a Senate committee report as being at the center of former President Donald Trump's efforts to push department officials to press bogus claims of voter fraud and overturn the 2020 election results.
— Billy House (@HouseInSession) October 29, 2021
Ronald Brownstein/Atlantic:
Democrats Need to Count Up, Not Down
President Biden’s infrastructure “framework” can be seen one of two ways.
To the extent that the public has heard of the budget bill at all, the message for the past two months has been dominated by this brutal game of legislative Survivor, with sponsors and advocates of each doomed program loudly bemoaning its demise and the outsize influence of the two senators forcing the cuts. But as painful as the process has been, Democrats generally remain optimistic that they can come together soon around Biden’s framework agreement. If and when they do, they will have the opportunity to begin highlighting the key elements that survived—including universal pre-K, expanded health-care subsidies, and massive investments in green energy. That is, if they can avoid replicating the bitter postmortems that occurred after similar resistance from a handful of center-right Democratic senators forced the removal of some progressive priorities from the Affordable Care Act in 2010, particularly a public option to compete with private insurance companies.
Headline PCE inflation has decelerated for four months in a row now -- and core PCE inflation has decelerated for five month in a row. https://t.co/ij9MEONN1o
— Mike Gwin (@MGwin46) October 29, 2021
WaPo:
Biden privately questions whether major emitters will deliver on their climate pledges
In an Oval Office meeting last month, President Biden questioned his top aides on whether the world’s top polluters would actually follow through on their commitments to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.
The president expressed his skepticism in characteristically blunt terms, said two senior administration officials familiar with the exchange.
“He basically said, ‘This is bulls---,’ ” one official said. “ ‘They’re not going to get there from here.’ ”
Biden’s frank assessment captured a vexing challenge for an administration that has made promoting ambitious emissions targets a centerpiece of its foreign policy: Climate scientists agree setting firm targets is critical to staving off the worst impacts of global warming, but they acknowledge that enforcing them is maddeningly difficult.
Facilitated a virtual press conference with Texas OB/GYNs about what's at stake with the #SCOTUS hearing on SB 8 on Monday. Now that it's over, I'm letting myself feel the gravity of what they said, the stories of their pregnant patients whose lives are at risk. Holy shit.
— Annika Doner (@AnnikaDoner) October 29, 2021
Wajahat Ali/Daily Beast:
58,000 Dead, and Depraved DeSantis Is Just Getting Started
FLorida’s Governor Ron DeSantis gave us a sneak preview of how Republican leaders will challenge the Biden Administration’s proposed mandate that would require private sector employers with 100 or more employees to either vaccinate their staff or impose weekly COVID tests. The mandate would affect nearly two-thirds of the private sector workforce, and judging from the success of other recent mandates, it would be a major step towards trying to flatten the COVID-19 curve and “reopen” America by 2022...
DeSantis tweeted that “no one should lose their job over a COVID shot,” but he seems less concerned with Floridians losing their lives over COVID. His state had more deaths than any other during the Delta variant spike this summer, and altogether over 58,000 people in his state have died so far from the virus. Unfortunately, it seems DeSantis, who is allegedly “pro-life,” cares more about his political future, softball interviews on Fox News, and the supposed rights of selfish and reckless pro-death GOP voters to spread the virus and kill the elderly and immunocompromised before Christmas.
DeSantis, who is vaccinated, is also apparently fine with anti-vax disinformation. Florida’s dangerous new surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, whom the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board described as a “well educated COVID crank,” joined DeSantis at his press conference where he questioned the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. He also denounced all workplace mandates. Instead, the governor now urges that people simply “stick with ther intuition and their sensibilities.” Those “intuition” and “sensibilities” have led to a shortage of ivermectin, a deworming drug that hasn’t been proven to help cure COVID but has now poisoned many Republicans.