The Week in News
Obamacare is saved (for now), Biden triumphs on the world stage (he's no Trump!), and is Manchin finally coming around on the filibuster? This was the week in news.
It was a busy week, with Biden attending three summits — G-7, NATO, and Putin — the Supreme Court saving Obamacare (kinda), and Joe Manchin maybe/maybe not finding it in his heart to amend the filibuster so that we can pass meaningful voting rights reform before we lose our democracy.
The Biden summits went well. If you’re like me, you were overjoyed to see a mature, sane, ally-loving, non-treasonous American president back on the world stage. It begins to wipe away the shame and embarrassment of the last four years. Unfortunately, the damage Trump’s done will be with us forever. Countries will always know that America is one election away from a madman. Our word no longer means anything beyond the next election. Still, it was nice to see a sense of normalcy returning to foreign affairs.
As for Russia, Putin is being nicer to Biden, oddly. Putin said yesterday that he found Biden to be quite competent and alert, in contrast to the press reports he’d seen about Biden being old and tired. Of course, those press reports mostly came from Putin’s own propaganda networks, with the assistance of Fox News and the rest of the American America-haters. Still, it was interesting that Putin is now feeling the need to schmooze Biden. That seems like good news. (As an side, Putin polls higher than Biden with Trump voters. Can we finally call them deplorable now?)
Obamacare. Yeah! I still have insurance! This one was a bit of a surprise. A lot of us thought the Supreme Court would, in some way, strike down at least part, if not all, of the Affordable Care Act. But they didn’t! Even many of the conservative justices on the court — including, oddly, Clarence Thomas, who seems to have awoken from a 30-year coma — agreed to throw out the Republican-sponsored lawsuit. Basically, the court said that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing — i.e., they couldn’t prove they were hurt by the ACA. Why? Because, back in 2017, the Republican Congress and Donald Trump zeroed out the individual mandate, the portion of the law that says everyone must buy insurance, or pay a penalty come tax time. The GOP lowered the penalty to zero dollars, and the court said zero dollars means zero harm. That doesn’t mean that the Republican justices won’t try to throw out the ACA the next time the Republicans try to gut it in court, but this is still very good news. You can read more about the court’s decision, and listen to our podcast with ACA expert Charles Gaba, here.
Then there’s Joe Manchin, who might, or might not, be finagling a way to support a change in the filibuster in order to get voting rights legislation passed. As I argue in yesterday’s CyberDisobedience, I’m not naive — it’s entirely possible that Manchin will continue to stiff Democrats until the cows come home. But it’s also possible that all this talk of “bipartisanship” is Manchin’s way of telling the folks back home: “Look, I tried to get the Republicans on board, but they refused, so we had no choice but to change the filibuster in order to pass voting rights protections and save our democracy.” But will Manchin actually say and do that? Many people think that West Virginia has gone so red, so Trumpy, that even Manchin won’t win when he’s up for reelection in 2024. So there’s really no reason for him to try to placate the right-wingers back home. But then, why is Manchin being such a pain? Mitch McConnell’s obstructionism in the Senate gives Manchin the perfect excuse to do the right thing. But will he?
I was going to write about the decision by the Catholic bishops to maybe, maybe not, rebuke Democratic politicians like Biden who support a woman’s right to choose, but honestly, I’m just tired of them. This is part of the Catholic church’s ongoing intervention in US politics as an arm of the Republican party, often at odds with its own flock. If the Catholic church in America wants to lose even more young people, when the church is already facing a membership crisis, more power to them.
And remember that Bonnie & Clyde wannabe couple pointing their guns at the BLM protesters in St. Louis? Well, a local judge just ordered that their guns be destroyed. Heh.
That’s it for this week. Enjoy another beautiful weekend, at least out here on the east coast. My garden is in full bloom, and the bumblebees are back (while the cicadas, who never quite made it fully into DC proper, now seem to be gone altogether). See you all next week.
JOHN
A few more things before we go
The treason wing of American politics is at it again
Tell that to all the Russian journalists Putin murdered:
How to Person Woman Man Camera TV
Watching it again is equal parts hilarious and horrifying.
And finally, I simply love this dog’s ears
Bye all. JOHN
All the Catholic bishops who want to weaponize the Eucharist and deny Biden Holy Communion may be the final straw that breaks my Catholic back. Of course Biden hasn't performed an abortion or forced a single woman to have an abortion. But the Catholic Attorney General William Barr those same bishops LOVE personally and aggressively worked with Trump to execute as many people as possible in their waning days in office. He all but pulled the switch and killed people, a far more direct contravention of Catholic teaching than anything Biden ever did. But of course they'd never deny Barr communion.