Franklin Graham’s Hangouts with Sanctioned Putin Pal
Casey Michel on how Russia continues to cultivate relationships with American conservatives.
Leading The Bulwark…
Franklin Graham’s Hangouts with Sanctioned Putin Pal
CASEY MICHEL: Russia continues to cultivate relations with American conservative Christians.
🎧 On the Pods… 🎧
Charlie Warzel: I Should Have Warned You
Can our media rise to meet the dangerous moment we are in? Journalist Charlie Warzel joins Charlie Sykes on today's podcast.
For Bulwark+ Members… 🔐
MORNING SHOTS: The GOP Is Unembarrassed 🔐
CHARLIE SYKES: Contempt for Bannon.
THE TRIAD: If Democrats Aren't Paying Attention to Virginia, They're Crazy. 🔐
JVL: Youngkin is the favorite. Democrats are in big trouble.
From The Bulwark Aggregator…
Inside a Trump-Backed Candidate’s Leaky Audit Fiasco - Kelly Weill, The Daily Beast
Kyrsten Sinema Isn’t Hitting the Panic Button - Elaine Godfrey, The Atlantic
Southwest drops plan to put unvaccinated staff on unpaid leave starting in December - Leslie Josephs, CNBC
Cheney: Bannon's actions suggest Trump was involved in Capitol riot 'planning and execution' - Lexi Lonas, The Hill
It’s not just McAuliffe vs. Youngkin. The fight is on for control of Virginia’s House. - Liz Crampton, Politico
America isn't running out of everything just because of a supply-chain crisis. America is running out of everything because Americans are buying so much stuff. - Emma Cosgrove, Insider
In Today’s Bulwark...
Robert E. Lee Doesn’t Deserve a Statue, But Thomas Jefferson Does
MONA CHAREN: Lee was no hero.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Being a fugitive lookalike. While there might be news on the fate of Brian Laundrie, people who look like him are getting the cops called and the U.S. Marshals breaking down their door.
Virginia Democrats are worried. They should be. Our friend David Byler in the Post, has published the article he previewed for TNB viewers last week.
Will Manchin pull a Specter? Politicos were talking about this item from Mother Jones’s David Corn a lot today on social media that Manchin will leave the party if he doesn’t get what he wants in the BBB bill.
Meanwhile, Manchin was denying the story.
On the day his voting rights compromise was filibustered successfully by Republicans. The measure needed 60 votes, but got 50/49. Technically, 49, but really 50, as the majority leader typically flips their vote to “no” for procedural reasons when it’s a party line vote. Some are optimistic that this failed vote is part of a grand plan to sway Manchin on the filibuster. This seems unlikely.
Elsewhere, the chaos continues over BBB.
And weeks away before a crucial Virginia election, the biggest Biden agenda item is still not close to passage. And even if some version does pass, it will have been so messy that wounded pride and bruised egos will have left a fallout on the Democratic side of the aisle that will be hard to repair going into the midterms.
The old trope about disarray yielded one of the better headlines I’ve seen recently: Dems edge closer to ditching disarray. Sometimes victory doesn’t heal old wounds and that’s likely to be the case here.
Speaking of make believe… Perhaps I watch too much Mister Rogers with my kids, but my first instinct wouldn’t have been to go with trolleys. Then again, I don’t love trains as much as President Biden does.
More Bad Policies Contributing to the “Supply Chain Crisis”… At CATO, Scott Lincicome on some of the policies that are contributing to supply chain issues we’re seeing going into the holidays. Among them:
[M]assive U.S. visa backlogs are contributing to our current domestic labor shortage, which many port officials, importers, and logistics experts — echoing Appel above — blame for bottlenecks at various points in the supply chain. Adding insult to injury are the NAFTA/USMCA trucking restrictions (detailed in this 2013 Cato paper), which have long been supported by the Teamsters union despite Mexican trucks posing little risk — per the U.S. government itself — on American highways.
These Mexican trucking restrictions have been a sore topic since the early days of NAFTA. Especially when Canadian truckers are given preferential treatment by comparison to Mexican truckers. But the Democrats would never tell the unions to take a hike, would they? Perhaps they should consider changing them.
Until then, Mexico is going to continue to fight us and punish American producers of products. President Trump couldn’t have been more wrong when he said: 'Trade wars are good, and easy to win'. Perhaps President Biden and the Democrats can learn from the past and maybe do a little good in the process.
But I’m not optimistic.
That’s it for me for today. We’ll see you back here tomorrow. Tech support questions? Email support@substack.com. Questions for me? Drop me a line: swift@thebulwark.com
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