ICYMI

The Problem

The Cause

The Infection Vector ?

RFK Jr. claims a doctor told him a worm ate part of his brain, reports New York Times

The claim comes from a 2012 deposition during divorce proceedings.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed numerous health problems, including that a parasite possibly ate part of his brain, during a deposition made during a contentious divorce from his second wife about a decade ago, according to the New York Times.

The Times reported that Kennedy told attorneys in 2012 that a surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital reviewed his brain scans after suffering from memory loss and fogginess. The surgeon, he said, believed the issue “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” POLITICO has not independently reviewed the deposition.

The 70-year-old independent candidate has made health, fitness and wellness a cornerstone of his campaign. Kennedy often claims that a top priority, if elected, would be to fight “the chronic disease” epidemic in the country, which include “autoimmune disease, diabetes, ADD and ADHD, autism, obesity, asthma [and] food allergies,” according to his campaign website. He has also posted himself on social media hiking, skiing, surfing as well as a viral video of himself doing shirtless push-ups to show his own health.

But in the 2012 divorce proceedings, the Times reported that he claimed numerous health ailments that affected his brain function and consequently his earning potential.

RFK Jr says Biden is 'worse' for democracy than Trump

“I have cognitive problems, clearly … I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me,” Kennedy said in the deposition.

“Mr. Kennedy traveled extensively in Africa, South America, and Asia in his work as an environmental advocate, and in one of those locations contracted a parasite,” said Stefanie Spear, the Kennedy campaign press secretary. “The issue was resolved more than 10 years ago, and he is in robust physical and mental health. Questioning Mr. Kennedy’s health is a hilarious suggestion, given his competition.”

His divorce from Mary Richardson Kennedy, the mother of Kennedy’s four youngest children, was a drawn-out legal process, according to a 2015 unauthorized biography of the political scion by Jeffrey Oppenheimer. The divorce wasn’t finalized because Richardson Kennedy died by suicide in 2012.

Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, allegedly visited Richardson Kennedy three days before her death, according to the book, to address finances in the divorce.

“Kerry was said to have been putting intense pressure on Mary that night and in the weeks before to sign Bobby’s divorce settlement agreement, described as a ‘very bitter, harsh, and Draconian proposal,’ limiting Mary’s custody of her children and slashing her financial support,” Oppenheimer wrote.

A friend of Mary’s told Oppenheimer that “Kerry had ‘hammered constantly’ at Mary to sign Bobby’s settlement and told her, ‘There’s not an endless pool of money; you’re making everybody broke.”

Robert Kennedy also argued in the deposition that his earning potential was diminished by his health struggles, according to the Times, which he said were, in part, caused by mercury poison from a diet heavy on fish.

The independent candidate recently told the Times that the physical symptoms of fogginess and memory loss that Kennedy claimed in the deposition had subsided.

Joe Manchin Did That?

No, prob'ly not - not really. Manchin balked because he said the bill cost too much and he was worried it would be inflationary, which is a crock and everybody knew it. But Dems carved it back a little anyway, and suddenly, Manchin's on board? I'm thinking he either got something else he wanted in return - or he knows someone else will do the dirty work for a change - or maybe he made some kinda deal, and Charlie Koch is going to let him off the leash this one time.

These guys don't just suddenly change and get all humanitarian all of a sudden. Once a hemorrhoid always a hemorrhoid. 

So Manchin suddenly sees the light, and he'll get the credit, while Biden and Schumer and whoever else has been working their asses off to get him to stop being such a dick will be ignored by the Press Poodles.

Now we get to wait and see what Kyrsten Sinema decides to do.

HuffPo:

Joe Manchin Agrees To Sweeping Legislation To Raise Taxes On Wealthy, Invest In Climate

The proposed legislation, called the "Inflation Reduction Act,” will raise taxes on the wealthy to fund investments in climate and health care.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Wednesday he’s reached a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on a sweeping $740 billion package to increase taxes on the wealthy and invest in climate and health care while also reducing the deficit.

The agreement, now dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, has the blessing of the White House and rescues much of the Democratic domestic policy agenda from the trash heap Manchin seemed to put it in just two weeks ago.

“Rather than risking more inflation with trillions in new spending, this bill will cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in the energy security and climate change solutions we need to remain a global superpower through innovation rather than elimination,” Manchin said in a lengthy statement.

(Exactly the opposite of what he said earlier)

The deal took official Washington by surprise ― Manchin has been at home in West Virginia this week recovering from COVID-19, and Democrats seemed set to accept a smaller health-care focused offer from Manchin. On Wednesday night, Republicans were seething over the deal’s timing while Democrats scrambled to figure out its contents.

Democrats are racing to pass the measure before the Senate leaves town for its annual monthlong recess in order to stave off health insurance premium increases that are scheduled to kick in that month. House Democrats have indicated they’re prepared to come back from their own August recess to pass a reconciliation bill.

Final details or text of the legislation were not yet available, but Schumer and Manchin outlined the broad strokes of the agreement.

The proposal would raise $740 billion by instituting a 15% minimum corporate tax rate; beefing up the Internal Revenue Service’s enforcement of tax laws on the ultra-wealthy; narrowing the carried interest loophole, which allows hedge fund managers and other wealthy investors to pay lower taxes; and requiring Medicare to negotiate the prices of some drugs directly with manufacturers, leveraging the social insurance program’s massive buying power to wring savings from drugmakers.

It then spends a historic $369 billion on “energy security and climate change,” which Democrats say will be enough to cut carbon emissions in the United States by 40% before 2030, and puts $64 billion toward extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act for three years. The remaining $300 billion will go toward reducing the deficit, a priority for Manchin.

The new proposal would also cap a Medicare patient’s out-of-pocket expenses at $2,000 per year.

The bill’s passage is not yet a sure thing. Senate Democrats’ other moderate standout, Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), has indicated she needs to review legislative text before making a decision. And a group of House Democrats from New York and New Jersey have said they’ll refuse to support any deal that doesn’t restore the federal tax deduction for paying state and local income taxes.

Manchin explicitly rules out restoring the deduction in his statement: “Our tax code should not favor red state or blue state elites with loopholes like SALT,” he said, referring to it by the acronym for “state and local tax.”

Business-friendly Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who is leading the group demanding the restoration of SALT, was noncommittal Wednesday night.

“I’ve got to understand the impact it has on families in my district,” he told Politico. “Until I see specifics, it’s hard to know.”

Republicans are expected to line up against the legislation, so Democrats will use a legislative maneuver called reconciliation to pass the bill through the Senate with only 50 votes. In the House, Democrats will only be able to lose support from four members of the 220-member caucus.

“Senate Democrats can change the name of Build Back Broke as many times as they want, it won’t be any less devastating to American families and small businesses,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), referring to Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan.

The plan is also expected to generate fierce opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbyists.

The legislation remains far smaller than the $4 trillion Build Back Better plan that President Joe Biden initially unveiled in the spring of 2021, and many of its potentially game-changing proposals ― tuition-free community college, subsidies for child care and an expanded monthly child tax credit ― have been thrown aside.

But Democrats, facing a midterm election this fall shaped by Biden’s low approval ratings and high inflation, are likely to jump at the deal.

“This is the action the American people have been waiting for. This addresses the problems of today ― high health care costs and overall inflation ― as well as investments in our energy security for the future,” Biden said in a statement endorsing the proposal.

The agreement is also a win for the United States on the global stage. The 15% minimum corporate tax rate means companies like Amazon will pay 15% in taxes regardless of what tax credits and deductions they get ― a priority for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who negotiated a global deal to implement a minimum rate and limit the power of international tax havens.

And the climate investments should help the United States gain credibility as it negotiates global deals to limit carbon emissions.

Environmental groups, which have long been suspicious of Manchin because of his extensive ties to the coal industry, were cautiously optimistic about the deal.

“We look forward to reviewing the bill in detail to assess whether it lives up to President Biden’s commitments on climate and environmental justice,” said Jamal Raad, the executive director of Evergreen Action, which was founded by alumni of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s climate-focused Democratic presidential campaign. “We know we cannot meet our international climate commitments nor the president’s environmental justice commitments without significant federal clean energy investments.”

Schumer briefed climate-focused members of the Democratic caucus on Wednesday night, and both Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) quickly backed the agreement.

“I am pleased to report that this will be, by far, the biggest climate action in human history,” Schatz said in a statement. “Nearly $370 billion in tax incentives, grants, and other investments in clean energy, clean transportation, energy storage, home electrification, climate-smart agriculture, and clean manufacturing makes this a real climate bill. The planet is on fire. Emissions reductions are the main thing. This is enormous progress. Let’s get it done.”

In his statement, Manchin did not directly explain his seeming about-face, and he took credit for killing parts of the broader Democratic agenda.

“For too long, the reconciliation debate in Washington has been defined by how it can help advance Democrats’ political agenda called Build Back Better,” he said. “Build Back Better is dead, and instead we have the opportunity to make our country stronger by bringing Americans together.”

A top Manchin aide noted the West Virginian had said he would continue to negotiate on a broader package.

Manchin “repeatedly said he wasn’t walking away from the table and he understood the importance of these negotiations,” Sam Runyon, Manchin’s communications director, wrote on Twitter. “Today’s announcement is not a reversal of anything,”

Notably, the announcement of the deal came just hours after the Senate passed a bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips, a bipartisan win for the White House.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had threatened to withhold GOP votes for the previously bipartisan semiconductor bill unless Democrats promised not to go forward with a party-line tax and climate package.

But McConnell’s threat seemed moot after Manchin indicated earlier this month he would only accept a smaller package. So this afternoon, the Senate voted 64-33 to pass the legislation.

Only a few hours later, Manchin announced he was on board with a reconciliation package.

Seems like this is good stuff everybody bitches about the Dems never getting done.

WTF is wrong with you, America?

Danica Roem

First time an out Trans Woman got elected to any state legislature - here's a tweet thread from Danica Roem:

Since the election, I've repeatedly heard these Republican talking points about why they lost, basically making Democratic voters out to be too dumb to vote Republican and caring too much about identity politics. At risk of giving them good ideas, let me break this down.

I spent 10 months detailing my plan to fix #Route28: how much it would cost ($300M), how to pay for it (reallocating 28-66 funds), what it would look like (replace traffic lights with overpasses) & how I would get it done (local+state). Y'all hit me on "transgenderism."

At the state level, y'all made a pediatrician who volunteers at a children's hospice out to be a member of MS-13 and campaigned throughout the state on Confederate statues and fiscally reckless tax cuts your own state senators called BS. And you wonder why you lost?

Here in Manassas, @carterforva and I talked relentlessly about jobs. Roads. Schools. Health care. Equality. I know this because Lee and I saw each other on the stump constantly. And y'all went after us for and "teaching transgenderism to kindergartners" and "socialism."

When you spend an entire year just trying to make people afraid of people in their community and you apply this asinine labels as if you're trying to make people afraid of an ideology or an idea, then you're neglecting the very basics of governing to divide our communities.

Look at the BS the Democrats in PWC had to put up with from y'all this year. Racism. Xenophobia. Transphobia. When I went on offense in my TV ad, I had a first-person testimonial from someone in PWC who your policies left uninsured. You hit me for my band and my gender.

Bottom line: Knock off the divisive BS and actually campaign on boring stuff like infrastructure because it's the boring stuff that the people pay you with their tax dollars to work on so they don't have to focus on it. That's literally your job. Try doing it.

One more thing: Stop believing your own headlines. I knew beyond a shred of doubt we would win this race when y'all actually, sincerely thought based on a POS robo poll that 27% of Dems wouldn't vote for me if they knew I'm trans. 1) Wrong. 2) Stop attacking trans people.

And I understand how so many people could get pretty confused as to what leadership looks like and sounds like - in case you were at all unclear on that, you just read a pretty good little primer.

Words

St George of Carlin, in a prophetic address to The Press Club.

hat tip = FB Friend D Rapier

It Gets Worse

Independent

Hire Better

I think I understand. You don't like politicians because politicians have fucked it all up and so it's time to try somebody else. 

OK, but here's my hangup - it sounds like you're saying that you got kinda sick, and your regular doctor prescribed the wrong treatment, and it made things worse.

But instead of finding a better doctor, you've decided what you really need is a plumber?

OMFuckingG

We CANNOT let this lowdown shit-speckled pile of moldy skunk weed become our president.

Can't wait to hear the post-game.

The I's Have It

I'm not contending that this says more than it says; or that it's indicative of any deeper meaning.

But it does line up pretty well with what we're always being told about leaders and leadership.

hat tip = (#1 Son) NN

Pic O' The Day

Every time a candidate does the Food Pander, some joker snaps a pic that casts the poor schmuck in the most unflattering light possible, and then we all get to point and laugh.  As it should be.  But day-um, bubba - you'd think they'd learn a little something after a while.

Saul Alinsky

And BTW: when somebody sneers about "Obama's just a community organizer", I've taken to asking a couple of clarifying questions.

Does it mean you're against communities in general, or just the ones that are organized? 

--or--

When you say "community organizer" like that, do you really mean "uppity nigger"?