I Wish You the Joys of the Season

 

Welcome back to the Scuttlebutt, grab some eggnog and pull up a chair.

 

I promised myself that, in the spirit of the season, and considering that you will see this on the 23rd (or as my family calls it, Christmas eve eve) I would keep this positive, and so, I will.  I’m also writing next weeks article today, I will be out of town next week, so rather than try to write a post while traveling I’ll get it in the can today, and my publisher can put it up when it’s due… 

 

Gods know I have enough stuff for two (OK probably four or five) articles right now, but I just don’t have the time to write that many and still meet my other commitments.

 

So, let’s talk about some GOOD things for once.  First off, I’ve mentioned him before, but I’m really liking Joe Manchin.  In point of fact, if the Democrats decided to run him for president, he just might get my vote. (Depending of course on who was running on the Republican side, and who else was in the race, I’m also a fan of DeSantis, and would love to see him run.)

 

The man (Manchin) is doing what he was sent to DC by his people to do!  West Virginia IS coal.  Oh, it’s other things too, but as much as Idaho and Iowa are farming, so WV is coal.  WV is also Gun Rights, and finally, WV is poor and taxed enough already. Manchin is taking HUGE amounts of flack from the President’s staff, and from the loony left of his own party for doing what his people asked him to do, and yet is unbowed.  

 

His statement reads in part: “My Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face, I cannot take that risk with a staggering debt of more than $29 trillion and inflation taxes that are real and harmful to every hard-working American at the gasoline pumps, grocery stores and utility bills with no end in sight.” Adding also his concerns about the Covid 19 response, the increasing possibility of war with China and Russia, the reduction in reliability to the electrical grid, and our increasing dependence on foreign supply chains, all of which would be worsened under this so-called “Build Back Better” plan.”

 

He criticized the White House staff for its handling of negotiations over the legislation, saying officials had pushed him to his “wit’s end.”  Biden (or his handlers) issued a scathing rebuke of his press release, after trying to stop him from doing it. (He refused to take a call from the White House according to a report by Jack Davis  https://www.westernjournal.com/power-move-manchin-refused-1-frantic-phone-call-right-killed-bidens-bill-live-tv/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=AE&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=2021-12-21 and a report in Politico)

 

The White House (through Biden’s mouthpiece Paski) immediately claimed that Manchin had dealt in bad faith, lied, cheated, and probably steals candy from babies (OK I made that last bit up for dramatic effect) Some staffer at the WH then told Politico that they think they can pressure him into a second reversal, saying that Manchin had agreed to it before coming out with a NO, and they’re sure they can bully reason with him, and convince him to change his mind…

Psaki’s words: “Senator Manchin’s comments this morning on FOX are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances. Weeks ago, Senator Manchin committed to the President, at his home in Wilmington, to support the Build Back Better framework that the President then subsequently announced. Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework ‘in good faith.’

 

“On Tuesday of this week, Senator Manchin came to the White House and submitted—to the President, in person, directly—a written outline for a Build Back Better bill that was the same size and scope as the President’s framework, and covered many of the same priorities. While that framework was missing key priorities, we believed it could lead to a compromise acceptable to all. Senator Manchin promised to continue conversations in the days ahead, and to work with us to reach that common ground. If his comments on FOX and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate.” 

 

She went on to mention: “In the meantime, Senator Manchin will have to explain to those families paying $1,000 a month for insulin why they need to keep paying that, instead of $35 for that vital medicine. He will have to explain to the nearly two million women who would get the affordable daycare they need to return to work, why he opposes a plan to get them the help they need. Maybe Senator Manchin can explain to the millions of children who have been lifted out of poverty, in part due to the Child Tax Credit, why he wants to end a program that is helping achieve this milestone—we cannot.” Of course, this little tirade completely ignores the fact that Trump tried to get a bill through to fix the insulin issue,  along with several other things on that hit list, and the Democrats killed it deader than last week’s fish.  But Manchin responded brilliantly.  

 

His response: “I knew where [Democrat negotiators] were and I knew what they could and could not do. They just never realized it because they figured, ‘Surely to God we can move one person, surely we can badger and beat one person up, surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough.’ Well, guess what? I’m from West Virginia. I’m not from where they’re from, and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they’ll be submissive, period.” —Joe Manchin

 

Well, it wasn’t enough that the WH was screaming at him, the entire radical left jumped in with both feet. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D MN) you remember her? One of the four senior members of “the squad,” previously married to her brother, huge antisemite? Her words: 

 

“I mean, we all knew that Senator Manchin couldn’t be trusted. The excuses that he just made, I think, are complete bullshit,” Omar continued. “It is really disheartening to hear him say that he has been trying to get there for the people of West Virginia because that’s a complete lie. The people of West Virginia would greatly benefit from their families having access to long-term elderly care and care for folks with disabilities. They would benefit from the expansion of the child tax credits; they will benefit from having access to pre-k. There are just so many things that, you know, the people of West Virginia desperately need. And we know that he is not working on behalf of their interests, and I really am just completely disappointed and disgusted by his reasoning.”

 

The senior communist and taker (Bernie Sanders, or as I like to refer to him: BS) in the Senate also weighed in: “If Mr. Manchin doesn’t want to support us, look we’ve been dealing with Mr. Manchin month after month after month,” Sanders told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday. “But if he doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world.”

 

Nancy Pelosi stated that she was convinced that they could turn Manchin’s no into a yes as well, indicating that a vote against this was a vote against the party, the nation, and the President.  Several other representatives sang the chorus “Manchin is obstructing the President’s agenda!” including Ayanna Pressley (D MA) (If you can’t place her she’s the bald black member of the Squad)

 

Chuckie Schumer states that he will bring it to a vote to try to “shame” Manchin into supporting the BBB bill, and through it all, Joe Manchin is doing the “Captain America” thing, saying “NO, YOU MOVE!”  

 

His most recent comments, in an interview with West Virginia MetroNews, indicated that the only circumstances he could see himself backing the bill were if it were rewritten, and instead focused on revoking President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. “I won’t continue to go down everything you want to do, major policy changes and reconciliation. It needs to go through a process,” Manchin said. “Please put it on the floor. Maybe it will sink in that we have to look in a different direction than this far-reaching social agenda.” Referring to his party’s leaders, he said that “you all are approaching legislation as if you have 55 or 60 senators that are Democrats, and you can do whatever you want.”

 

Then that vapid twat has-been actress Bette Midler doubled down on the insult train with a tweet: “What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America, who wants to move forward, not backward, like his state, is horrible.

“He sold us out. He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia. Poor, illiterate and strung out.”

 

About the only thing they haven’t done is threaten to throw Manchin out of their party… Which would be fun, since he won as a Democrat in a state that voted for Trump 3:1, and leans mostly Republican.  There was a lot more infighting and back biting involved, if you really want to do a deep dive, https://poiticaldiplomacy.com/biden-tries-to-salvage-domestic-policy-bill-after-rift-with-manchin/ has more details.  The short form is that the infighting in the Democratic party may just break it… (oh shoot, that would just break my heart… maybe we would see one party for the loony left and another party more like JFK, Glenn, and Truman?)

 

Now I want to emphasize that Manchin is NOT alone in being against this bill, every single republican in both houses is also against it. And in fact, it didn’t get support from every democrat in the house.  But it MUST get support from every Democrat in the senate unless they can get a Republican to turncoat, because the senate is split 50/50 with Kneepads Harris as the tiebreaker.  Mitch McConnell has said that he would welcome Manchin to the GOP…

 

In other good news, the Special Prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case, Dan Webb, with the assistance of the Judge in the case (Michael Toomin) has forwarded a 60-page report on Illinois’ Cook County Chief Prosecutor Kim Foxx (Chicago) to the Illinois Attorney registration office moving for her disbarment for covering up the shit that Jussie pulled. 

 

“Breaking: former judge Sheila O’Brien says Kim Foxx is a liar and should resign. You may recall O’Brien successfully filed the motion for the special prosecutor. O’Brien can be credited in part with Smollett’s conviction.”

 

— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) December 20, 2021

 

Kimmy claims that “this is Bullshit, it was a transparency problem” whatever that means.  She’s up for reelection next week so I suspect she’s gone, prior to disbarment. 

 

Next, we have young Nicholas Sandmann.  You may remember him; he was the Catholic Highschool kid who got accosted by a “Native American elder” in 2019.

 

Said elder; Nathan Phillips, who is a Stolen Valor type who claimed to Vogue magazine to be a “Marine Recon Ranger” in Nam (Hint, there ain’t no such thing.  The USMC says he was a 4-year private in the USMC Reserve as a refrigerator technician who never deployed and had multiple Article 13s.) Was painted by the press, Wikipedia (the bullshit on this case is still up there as of 1125PST 12/21/2021), and “Heavy.com” among many other sources as the hero of this exchange, because Nicholas was wearing a MAGA hat, and smirking at Mr. Phillips.

 

Well, Nick is doing more than Smirking now. NBC-Universal is the latest to settle with him out of court, following on the heels of the Washington Post and CNN. Part of the agreement is that Nick won’t share what the settlement amounts were, but he was asking for 275 mil from NBC alone… I suspect his college is paid for, and if he wants to open a company that’s paid for too, or if he wants to start his own media firm…  

 

Hey Nick, wanna hire an old washed-up Squid to do your Op-Ed pieces???  In short, the boy’s set for life, and still has a couple more suits pending. Including PBS, which I would love to see shut down over this.  As a “Public utility” getting public moneys, they’re supposed to be above the fray… This part of their mission seems to have escaped them.

 

Finally, Liz Warren and Cory Booker, both of which have been fully vaccinated, and boostered, (totally a word, shut up spell check) have now come down with Rona… It being the holiday season I will reserve comments on my desired outcome of this.

 

Merry Christmas, Got Jule, Happy Solstice, Blessed Hanukkah, may whatever faith or belief system you have give you the joys of the day.

 

Until next time I remain,

Yours in service.

William Lehman.