SUBSCRIBING
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WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Only suckers support Halperin’s work.
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PRESIDING
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President Biden will address the nation on Thursday, the White House said, laying out a “six-pronged strategy” to combat the coronavirus pandemic throughout the fall. The speech will likely mark a stark departure from the upbeat announcements of last spring, as vaccination rates rose and infection rates declined. (Yahoo)
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The U.S. economy is facing a slowdown in September, rather than the takeoff once hoped for.
Earlier this summer, many economists saw the week of Labor Day as the moment when the economic recovery would kick into high gear. Their expectation was that widespread vaccination would ease labor shortages. Schools and offices would reopen, which would mean a comeback for local businesses reliant on office workers. Travel would rebound. Stevie Nicks would be back on tour.
Instead, the rise of Covid’s Delta variant has the nation tapping the brakes. (Wall Street Journal)
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: You need to read Bret Stephens’ column suggesting Joe Biden is Jimmy Carter without the swagger or competence.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Team Biden has a lot to turn the page on, with a full plate, and ticking clock (and no shortage of hackneyed metaphors). When you’ve (almost) lost David Ignatius….The Postie’s column, based on high level White House conversations, is essential reading (even/especially as you guess his sourcing!):
“This administration is about covid and competence, and we’ve got to show strength on both,” says a senior White House official. He argues that the administration overperformed on expectations in the first half of the year. “In August, maybe we underperformed,” he concedes.
Biden knows he needs to restore confidence at home and abroad this fall to revive his presidency from the August doldrums…
Biden’s inner team sometimes seems more like a Senate staff than a typical elbows-out administration. Congeniality has its advantages. But when mistakes happen, as they did in August, problems need to get fixed. Otherwise, the boss — and perhaps dozens of Democratic legislators — will pay the price.
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ALARMING
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President Biden on Tuesday warned of a "code red" moment on climate change as he toured two northeastern states ravaged by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, while his administration prepared to ask Congress for billions in federal aid to respond to last week's storm and other natural disasters. (Washington Post)
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: There goes Biden again, blah blah blah.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: If you are president and you declare “code red,” failure is not an option. Addressing climate change for real requires trillions and a leader who can consistently and effectively use the bully pulpit to make a compelling case to even the skeptical. For some, it is hard to see Joe Biden in that role on a sustained basis.
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TRIPLING
Item: Team Biden-Harris-Klain-Pelosi-Schumer considers merging into one legislative package (1) emergency Afghanistan/storm spending, (2) a continuing resolution (to avoid a government shutdown), and (3) a debt ceiling increase, in a bid to lure enough Republicans into voting in the affirmative for the whole shooting match.
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Mitch McConnell is not impressed.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: “Too big to fail” has not typically worked all that well in DC since 2008.
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WALKING
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WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Speaker Pelosi has clearly lost a step or two.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: That lady moves fast!
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MANEUVERING
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Attorney General Merrick Garland’s vow to protect women’s right to choose abortion while officials explore challenging a Texas law that severely restricts the procedure offers more bark than bite, legal analysts say, with abortion rights proponents pressing for more aggressive steps. (Washington Post)
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Republicans know they have lost this one politically.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Since no one can possibly take this out of the realm of the political, assume there are at least six unexpected twists headed this way, before the Supreme Court adjudicates the ultimate questions.
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RE-RUNNING
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Former President Donald Trump will hold two more campaign-style rallies in the coming weeks — one in Georgia and one in Iowa — as speculation continues to grow that he will make yet another run for the White House in 2024.
Trump’s Save America PAC announced Tuesday night that the 45th president will hold a rally in Perry, Ga., approximately 100 miles south of Atlanta, on Sept. 25. A few minutes later, the organization announced that Trump would speak in Des Moines, Iowa on Oct. 9. (New York Post)
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Holman Jenkins’ Wall Street Journal column:
Democrats are lucky Mr. Trump has no long game. He goes from contretemps to contretemps, playing tit for tat. Yet luck is working for him here too. America doesn’t feel noticeably less chaotic with him out of the picture. A cynic might also notice that, for all his bluster, Mr. Trump generally refrained from letting himself be pinned down on any specific allegation of voter fraud. It was always “people tell me” or “what I hear.” So Mr. Trump perhaps did not completely throw away the possibility of digging out from under his post-election behavior, with some typically brazen piece of Trump revisionism.
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Pay more attention to this:
DeSantis is scheduled to appear this Sunday at Gov. Pete Ricketts' 5th annual Nebraska Steak-Fry along with former Vice President Mike Pence and Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. (Politico’s nearly essential read on all things DeSantis ‘24)
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: The Republican establishment would like to believe otherwise, but it is at an all-time low in terms of being able to control what Donald Trump does – and at an all-time high in terms of being existentially threatened by what Trump chooses to do next.
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FREEING
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It ain’t over until the judicial lady brings down her ruling, but the 13-year old conservatorship of Britney Spears could be soon coming to an end — if the father of the former Princess of Pop gets his way.
“Ms. Spears has told this Court that she wants control of her life back without the safety rails of a conservatorship,” said Jamie Spears’ primary attorney Vivian Thoreen today in a petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. “As Mr. Spears has said, again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter,” the Holland & Knight LLP lawyer added. (Deadline)
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Free at last!
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: This is no more over than the Red Sox season.
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PROCREATING
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WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Inevitable.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Clearly, not being done just to provide more material.
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HUGGING
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WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Clearly staged.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Awwwwwww!!
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