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As I’ve written before, my job is to find you the news; your job is to figure out how to get over, around, by and through the paywalls.
Every essential read in this news cycle is from the Washington Post or New York Times, both of which charge for their content.
The lawyer for the Wide World of News, Mr. Lionel Hutz, informs me that I cannot give you advice on how to beat the paywalls.
So you are on your own.
1. Wow. Team Biden takes a rare head-on, on-the-record swipe at the left, a reflection of the true feelings at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue regarding its base.
From a vital Washington Post look at how the White House has handled the Supreme Court abortion decision, take a look at this unusual Sister Soulja-ing (emphasis added):
White House officials defend the urgency of Biden’s response and the actions he has taken on abortion, which they argue are in step with mainstream opinion. “The president has been showing his deep outrage as an American and executing his bold plan — which is the product of months of hard work — ever since this decision was handed down,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement Saturday.
“Joe Biden’s goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party. It’s to deliver help to women who are in danger and assemble a broad-based coalition to defend a woman’s right to choose now, just as he assembled such a coalition to win during the 2020 campaign,” she said.
Start of something new or a one-time reactive/defensive blip?
Only time will tell.
2. But there might be a clue or three in Dan Balz’s essential look at the state of play generally between the left and the “moderate/mainstream” president.
3. Peter Baker’s clever New York Times look at Mr. Biden’s age and capacities goes right up to the line, saying of the president’s team:
[T[hey acknowledged Mr. Biden looks older than just a few years ago, a political liability that cannot be solved by traditional White House stratagems like staff shake-ups or new communications plans. His energy level, while impressive for a man of his age, is not what it was, and some aides quietly watch out for him. He often shuffles when he walks, and aides worry he will trip on a wire. He stumbles over words during public events, and they hold their breath to see if he makes it to the end without a gaffe.
Although White House officials insist they make no special accommodations the way Reagan’s team did, privately they try to guard Mr. Biden’s weekends in Delaware as much as possible. He is generally a five- or five-and-a-half-day-a-week president, although he is called at any hour regardless of the day as needed. He stays out of public view at night and has taken part in fewer than half as many news conferences or interviews as recent predecessors….
Mr. Biden’s public appearances have fueled that perception. His speeches can be flat and listless. He sometimes loses his train of thought, has trouble summoning names or appears momentarily confused. More than once, he has promoted Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her “President Harris.” Mr. Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, stumbles over words like “kleptocracy.” He has said Iranian when he meant Ukrainian and several times called Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, “John,” confusing him with the late Republican senator of that name from Virginia….
During his European trip last month, foreign leaders followed his lead while protectively treating him like a distinguished elderly relative. At a photo opportunity, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany gently pointed Mr. Biden in the direction of the cameras. Just before a meeting, a reporter twice shouted a question about getting grain out of Ukraine. When Mr. Biden could not hear the question, Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, rescued him. “We’re working on it,” Mr. Johnson responded.
What is glaringly omitted from this roundup is a single account of anyone who has spent private time with Joe Biden in the last two years and has seen the loss of a step or two (or three).
Is it possible that Peter Baker could not find such a person?
Or is there something else going on here?
Perhaps there is a clue to be found in the part of the story about Donald Trump’s apparent decline….
4. Baker also has a powerhouse double byline with David Sanger updating where things stand with the West and the War:
U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy deliberations, are urging the Ukrainians to consolidate their forces at the front. But Ukraine’s leaders want to go further and mass enough personnel to mount a counteroffensive to retake territory, a goal that American officials support in theory even if they are dubious about the Ukrainians’ capacity to dislodge the Russians. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told Group of 7 leaders last week that he wanted the war over by the end of the year. But there are serious doubts in Washington about whether that is possible militarily.
The Biden administration does not want to be seen pressuring Mr. Zelensky to negotiate a deal with the Kremlin at the risk of rewarding armed aggression, but officials and analysts said it would be hard to sustain the same level of material support as war fatigue grows on both sides of the Atlantic. Military aid passed by Congress is expected to last into the second quarter of next year, by some estimates, but the question is how long current supplies of weapons and ammunition can last without degrading the military readiness of the United States.
American officials have encouraged other countries to provide leftover stores of Soviet-made weaponry that Ukrainians are more familiar with — an item on Mr. Biden’s agenda for a trip to the Middle East next week, when he is scheduled to meet with leaders of Arab states that were once clients of Moscow.
5. The president himself has a Washington Post op-ed piece under his name in which he simultaneously curtain raises this week’s trip to the Middle East and brags on his administration’s record in the region, with a heavy contrast to that of his “predecessor.”
6. The New York Times has the details (such as they are) on the latest plan of Team Biden to lower gas prices
U.S. officials have latched on to a never-before-tried plan aimed at depressing global oil prices — one that would complement European sanctions and allow critical flows of Russian crude onto global markets to continue but at a steeply discounted price….
The potential for another oil shock to puncture the global economy, and perhaps Mr. Biden’s re-election prospects, has driven the administration’s attempts to persuade government and business leaders around the world to sign on to a global price cap on Russian oil.
It is a novel and untested effort to force Russia to sell its oil to the world at a steep discount. Administration officials and Mr. Biden say the goal is twofold: to starve Moscow’s oil-rich war machine of funding and to relieve pressure on energy consumers around the world who are facing rising fuel prices.
7. Finally, the New York Times has the fullest look yet at what happened with Friday’s Pat Cipollone 1/6 testimony, and/but even this story doesn’t really give us enough information to know the complete implications of what was (and wasn’t) said.
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What does it take to unite Meghan McCain and Donald Trump?
MUSK!!
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