memeorandum: Kathleen Rice's Questionable Rationale for Voting Down Drug Pricing Reform (David Dayen/American Prospect)

10:00 AM ET, September 20, 2021

Top Items:

Hans Nichols / Axios:

Scoop - Manchin: Delay Biden plan to '22 — Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is privately saying he thinks Congress should take a “strategic pause” until 2022 before voting on President Biden's $3.5 trillion social-spending package, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

Discussion: NBC News, Politico, HotAir, Outside the Beltway, National Review, Mediaite, Townhall, CNN, Breitbart, The Hill and Common Dreams

Laura Barrón-López / Politico:

Sinema tells White House she's opposed to current prescription drug plan — The White House has a new headache as it struggles to get its multitrillion-dollar party-line spending bill passed: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's objections to drug pricing reforms that are already struggling to make it through the House.

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Magazine, CNN, The Guardian, UPI, NBC News, Townhall, One America News Network, New Republic, Bloomberg, The Hill and Fox News

Alan Fram / Associated Press:

Senate parliamentarian deals blow to Dems' immigration push — WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats can't use their $3.5 trillion package bolstering social and climate programs for their plan to give millions of immigrants a chance to become citizens, the Senate's parliamentarian said late Sunday …

Coral Davenport / New York Times:
This Powerful Democrat Linked to Fossil Fuels Will Craft the U.S. Climate Plan

Discussion: HotAir

Politico:
Dems vow to go the distance as September problems pile up

Discussion: The Bulwark, Real Clear Politics, Bloomberg and CNN

Washington Post:
Biden seeks a phone call with France's Macron to calm the waters

Discussion: Associated Press, Zandar Versus The Stupid, CBS News, NPR, Politico, Wall Street Journal, HillReporter.com, New York Post, Fox News, Bloomberg and UPI

New York Times:

Biden to Push Global Plan to Battle Covid as National Gaps Widen — The U.N.-backed vaccine program is so far behind schedule that not even 10 percent of the population in poor countries is fully vaccinated, experts say. — WASHINGTON — Already grappling with divisions in his own country …

Discussion: CNN and UPI

Heath Druzin / The Daily Beast:
This Doc Stoked the COVID Crisis. These Women Are Paying the Price

Discussion: Raw Story

Karol Markowicz / New York Post:
Masking 2-year-olds is proof positive we've gone way too far

Discussion: Louder With Crowder

Jason Gale / Bloomberg: Bats in Laos Caves Harbor Closest Relatives to Covid-19 Virus

Susannah George / Washington Post:

After 20 years of waging religious guerrilla warfare, Taliban fighters in Kabul say they miss the battle — KABUL — Since celebrating the fall of Kabul a month ago, after years of waging a holy war to overthrow the U.S.-backed government, the 250 Taliban fighters under Abdulrahman Nifiz's command …

Discussion: Insider and New York Post

Ben Smith / New York Times:
How the U.S. Helped, and Hampered, the Escape of Afghan Journalists

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, more at Mediagazer »

Ben Westcott / CNN: Angry and afraid, Afghanistan's LGBTQ community say they're being hunted down after Taliban takeover

Praveen Swami / Firstpost:
Kabul Airport suicide attacker was freed by Taliban after four years in CIA custody for New Delhi terror plot

Discussion: BizPac Review and The Gateway Pundit

Kiran Stacey / Financial Times:

US to relax EU and UK travel restrictions for vaccinated passengers — Biden administration to announce new travel policy effective from November — Vaccinated passengers will be able to travel to the US from the EU and UK from November onwards, the Biden administration will announce on Monday …

Discussion: Variety

David R. Lurie / The Daily Beast:

Bill Barr's Still Making a Mockery of Justice. Merrick Garland's Letting Him. — WHAT A MESS … Letting Durham's weak case continue sets a bad, potentially dangerous, precedent for future abuses of prosecutorial power. — The investigation that former Attorney General William Barr ordered …

Discussion: Raw Story

Glenn Greenwald: The Indictment of Hillary Clinton's Lawyer is an Indictment of the Russiagate Wing of U.S. Media

Max Chafkin / New York Magazine:

Peter Thiel's Origin Story His ideology dominates Silicon Valley. It began to form when he was an angry young man. — Sometime around the spring of 1988, several members of the Stanford University chess team traveled to a tournament in Monterey, California, in an old Volkswagen Rabbit.

Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:

Lindsey Graham and Mike Lee personally vetted Trump's fraud claims, new book says. They were unpersuaded. — “Peril,” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, reveals the lengths the two Republicans went to in examining the president's baseless claims. — Sen. Lindsey O. Graham agreed to hear Rudolph W. Giuliani out.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Hill, ABC News, Raw Story and Power Line

James Downie / Washington Post:

Tate Reeves and the high cost of covid incompetence — When naming the poster child for irresponsible leadership on covid-19, there are plenty of governors to choose from. You could make a strong case for South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, CNN, HuffPost, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, RedState, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast, Raw Story, The Hill and USA Today

Apoorva Mandavilli / New York Times:

Covid Vaccine Prompts Strong Immune Response in Younger Children, Pfizer Says — Vaccinated kids aged 5 to 11 showed evidence of protection against the virus, the company said. The data must be reviewed by the F.D.A. before children can be inoculated. — The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine …

Discussion: Bloomberg, NPR, Pfizer, HotAir, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, The Daily Beast, Al Jazeera, Townhall, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Forbes, abc7NY, UPI, Mediaite, East Bay Times, ABC11 and NBC10 Philadelphia

Charles C. W. Cooke / National Review:

My Going Maskless Is Different, Says San Francisco Mayor, Because ‘I Was Feeling the Spirit’ — The Mayor of San Francisco says that she shouldn't be criticized for breaking her own COVID rules, because, and I quote, “I was feeling the spirit and I wasn't thinking about a mask.” CBS reports:

Discussion: HotAir, CBS San Francisco, The Daily Caller and IJR

Roger Sollenberger / The Daily Beast:

This $100,000 Donation by Matt Gaetz Raises All the Eyebrows — Rep. Matt Gaetz' largest political donation ever went to a Chris Christie group for a very strange reason that's caught the attention of election law experts. — On the day Donald Trump's second impeachment trial began in the Senate …

Discussion: Raw Story

THE CITY:

Eric Adams' Townhouse Trouble: Tax Filing ‘Mistake’ and Blown-Off Buildings Inspector — Campaign says mayoral nominee will amend tax returns for a second time after THE CITY pointed out irregularities concerning filings on his Bed-Stuy residence. Adams also overlooked …

Adam Gurri / Liberal Currents:

The Case Not Made: A Response to Anne Applebaum's “The New Puritans” — All social relations create vulnerabilities and dependencies that are subject to abuse. This is a fundamental fact about the social nature of humanity, a baseline from which all specific arrangements need to be judged.

Politico:

'It's spreading': Phony election fraud conspiracies infect midterms — It started as one big, false claim — that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. — But nearly a year later, the Big Lie is metastasizing, with Republicans throughout the country raising the specter of rigged elections …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill and Raw Story

Sarah D. Wire / Los Angeles Times:

Threats against members of Congress are skyrocketing. It's changing the job — A few months ago Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) received an anonymous video of someone following her car. The camera pans down to a 9mm handgun on the seat as a male voice says: “I see you. I got something for you.”

Andrea Bernstein / NPR:

The Trump Organization Is Back In Court To Fight Tax Fraud Charges In New York … With multiple investigations still underway, attorneys involved with the tax fraud case against former President Donald Trump's family business and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Law & Crime and Raw Story

Allan Smith / NBC News:

Trump won these counties big. His supporters question the results there, too. — Former President Donald Trump won Mesa County, Colorado, by 28 points in last fall's election. — In Barry County, Michigan, he won by more than 32 points. And in Lander County, Nevada, his victory was in excess of 61 points.

David Dayen / American Prospect:

Kathleen Rice's Questionable Rationale for Voting Down Drug Pricing Reform — She says she voted against the measure because the reconciliation bill won't become law. — Dem Election Meeting — Rep. Kathleen Rice in 2018 — In a constituent letter, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) …

Discussion: The Guardian

New York Times:

In the Heart of Nashville, Rolling Parties Rage at Every Stoplight — As Nashville's popularity has grown, so has the “transportainment” business — a motley assortment including old buses, farm tractors and a truck with a hot tub. Many think it has gotten out of hand.

Matthew Walther / New York Times:

Norm Macdonald's Comedy Was Quite Christian — Mr. Walther is the editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal, and a contributing editor at The American Conservative. — The relationship between Christianity and stand-up comedy has been going steadily downhill for half a century.