Crooked Media - What A Day: Biden of Arabia

Looks like ole’ Black Lung Manchin is up to his ole' tricks again!
 

• Late Thursday Democrats leaked word that Manchin had yoinked his support for broad economic legislation, that he’d no longer support any tax increases on the wealthy or climate spending, citing vague concerns about inflation. Okay babe, sure. Let us know how you vote on the upcoming almost-trillion-dollar defense-authorization bill since you’re so concerned about inflation! Nothing says “representative of the common man” and “opposed to inflation” like opposing taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
   

• His Majesty of Fossil Fuels left the impression with Democratic leadership that he would only support a measure to cut prescription drug prices, and use the savings to further-subsidize ACA premiums for two more years. This is a *major* setback for Senate Dems and the Biden Administration, who had hoped to advance the climate provisions of Build Back Better before midterms this fall.
   

• This is economic gobbledigook, as both deficit-reducing taxes on the rich, and spending on clean energy would reduce inflation. But Manchin’s been under the sway of lobbyists all along, perhaps increasingly so since Mitch McConnell threatened to kill a lobbyist-beloved China-competition bill if Dems pass another economic reform package with only 50 votes.

BUT WAIT! There’s more! (And it’s also not great.)
 

• Because it couldn’t be any other way with Manchin, he reversed course on Friday, insisting he only meant to suggest waiting for July inflation numbers (which, again, doesn’t make any sense) before moving ahead with the whole deal. Democrats technically have until the end of the budget cycle in September to pass Biden’s agenda, and Manchin’s approach of stringing Democrats along will do maximum damage to the party if he keeps it up all the way until the fall and then kills the bill once and for all.
   

• That probably explains why Biden cut bait. “If the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment,” he promised, while urging the Senate to “move forward [and] pass” the health-care measures Manchin supports “before the August recess.”
   

Dems are rightly furious about this and supported the blitz of executive actions on the climate that Biden has promised. Everything from the Democrats’ claim to be a governing party, to the present and future habitability of the planet depends on him following through.

This week on Positively Dreadful, Crooked's Editor-in-Chief/host Brian Beutler is joined by legendary film critic for The Chicago Reader and foreign-film aficionado Jonathan Rosenbaum to talk about the most culturally important film of the year? decade? ever made? Top Gun: Maverick, and its implicit commentary on how movies and moviegoing have changed over the years.

New episodes of Positively Dreadful premiere each Friday. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Last month, police in the city of Akron, OH, killed Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man. Today, a preliminary autopsy report from the Summit County medical examiner’s office confirmed that Walker was shot more than 40 times. The medical examiner tallied 41 entry wounds and five graze wounds. This report largely confirms, as the lawyer representing his family stated, that Walker “came to a brutal, senseless death.” He was unarmed, and no drugs or alcohol were detected in his system. Yesterday, the NAACP made a direct plea to Attorney General Merrick Garland for the Justice Department to open a federal civil-rights investigation into Walker’s death. There have been daily protests in downtown Akron since city officials released body-camera footage from the eight officers (seven of whom are White, one of whom is Black), none of which shows the “threatening gesture” that they claim prompted them to open fire. The city has since been under curfew from 11pm-5am. Walker’s funeral was held on Wednesday.

Georgia’s second-largest school district has approved a policy allowing school officials who are not certified police officers to carry guns in schools, with the exception of teachers. No other way to say it: really bad stuff!

A proposed state ballot initiative to tax California’s wealthiest millionaires and billionaires to fund public health is dead for the year, though proponents continue to negotiate with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). 

According to a new study conducted by the U.N., about 25 million children worldwide missed routine immunizations because of the pandemic’s disruption to regular health services. 

Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) has agreed to delay depositions from former president Trump and several of his children following the death of Trump’s first wife, Ivana Trump. 

The U.K. has issued its first-ever Red warning for extreme heat as Europe remains in the grips of a record-breaking heatwave. 

An arrest warrant was issued last night for indicted Colorado clerk Tina Peters, who is accused of tampering with voting equipment from the 2020 election, after she violated her order and crossed state lines. 

Co-executive producer of the hit 2000s comedy show Scrubs was arrested yesterday, accused of multiple sexual assaults, including rape, between 2012 and 2019. 

Recent sustained increases in COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths in L.A. County will likely lead to another citywide indoor mask mandate in the weeks to come. 

President Biden continued his politically-hazardous tour of the Middle East today, saving his most delicate meeting for last. But first, the president and his delegation traveled to Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem early Friday, the leading advanced-care facility available to residents of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, most of whom need Israeli permission to travel there. He briefly met with Palestinian patients whose families are unable to visit them due to those travel restrictions. A top-of-mind goal for his visit with Palestinian officials was to rebuild ties severed by the Trump administration. The Biden administration approved $316 million in new aid for Palestinians, including $100 million for a hospital network that serves patients from the West Bank and Gaza, and another $200 million to the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees, which was largely eliminated under Trump. Biden again stressed his support for the ever-elusive two-state solution after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, though noted that he was “realistic” that the political climate needed to support such a deal doesn’t currently exist. He also addressed the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh for the first time in his visit, stating that the U.S. will continue to “insist on a full and transparent accounting,” of her murder. 

Still, many Palestinians see Biden’s events in the West Bank as a footnote to his real priority: deepening Israel’s ties with other Arab nations in the region. Enter: Saudi Arabia. Biden closed his Middle East trip with a historic direct flight from Israel to the kingdom, touching down in Jeddah, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bi, Salman. According to former and current U.S. officials, Biden’s trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the result of almost two years of intense lobbying and behind-the-scenes negotiations, as Biden was opposed to it at first, having vowed on the campaign trail to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah.” But according to those same sources, he was successfully convinced that the meeting of the two countries would be strategically “unavoidable.” So now we have this stomach-churning photo of Biden and MBS fist-bumping. 

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America’s first nationwide three-digit hotline for mental health emergencies will go live on Saturday. 9-8-8 is designed to be as easy to remember as 911, but connects callers with trained mental health counselors instead of police and fire. 

A New York Libertarian gubernatorial nominee who promoted false claims of election fraud was found to have submitted 11,000 fraudulent signatures to the board of elections. 

A small but growing number of cities are building affordable housing for teachers during both a national teacher shortage and a nationwide housing crisis. 

Panasonic Energy plans on building a new $4 billion factory for electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Kansas, one of the largest investments in the Kansas economy in the state’s history that could lead to 4,000 plant jobs and as many 16,500 construction jobs. Someone tell Joe Manchin that it turns out, investing in environmentally sound products and practices is actually good for the economy?