RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/can-electoral-count-act-reform-happen-in-this-congress/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=next-article&utm_term=first

In an election year, Congress basically shuts down by the beginning of the fall. Given summer recess schedules in both houses, that means the next few weeks offer pretty much the final stretch of real legislative days. Looking at the plausible to-do list for that period, there are three significant items that stand some chance of passage: a much-trimmed reconciliation bill advancing some Democratic priorities, a bicameral compromise version of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (different forms of which have passed both houses), and reforms of the Electoral Count Act.

The first two are on a collision course with one another at this point. Chuck Schumer and Joe Machin have been working toward a reconciliation bill to salvage something of the Build Back Better package that went nowhere this year. It would let Medicare “negotiate” drug prices, and then would include some modest energy and climate provisions and some kind of tax increase. There is broad support among Democrats for the Medicare provisions, but the rest is still up in the air. Many Republicans seem dismissive of the prospects for this measure, and it certainly makes sense to be skeptical about Schumer’s ability to pull it off. He has done an awful job managing intra-Democratic legislative negotiations in this Congress. But my sense, alas, is that this one has real legs, and the Democrats may well come together on a measure they can pass.

Meanwhile, the two parties continue to try to work out differences over the USICA — a bill that began as a series of major investments in federal support for strategically significant scientific R&D but is gradually devolving into a set of subsidies for the American semiconductor industry. The House and Senate have passed different versions of the bill (with the Senate version getting a fair bit of bipartisan support), and have been negotiating toward a stripped-down version that might pass in both houses.

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-weekend-jolt/as-the-left-turns/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=second

Democrats haven’t abandoned someone this quickly since Donald Trump decided to run for president as a Republican.

Persistently paltry poll numbers combining with a string of defeats at the Supreme Court, economic pressures that refuse to bend to the will of tweets, and the associated gloomy prospects for Democrats in the midterms are cracking the coalition that helped get President Biden elected.

Politico warned back in November 2020 that this coalition was “broad but unstable,” comprising minorities, young people, women, independents, and some Republicans. He’s now underwater with all of them (save for minorities, who are evenly split on the job-approval question) in the latest Monmouth University poll. As progressives and others bolt the Wilmington zeppelin, the tableau conjures the spectacular evacuation scene from Spaceballs in which, as troopers scramble for safety, Mel Brooks’s President Skroob grabs his subordinate’s shirt and barks, “You gotta help me, I don’t know what to do, I can’t make decisions — I’m a president!”

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/07/08/justice-kavanaugh-went-out-for-dinner-and-progressives-were-outraged-now-offering-200-for-the-location-of-any-conservative-justice-n481537

On the morning we all learned that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been assassinated during a public speech, it’s getting harder to avoid the conclusion that the left would very much like to see something similar happen to Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Wednesday night Kavanaugh went out to dinner at Morton’s steakhouse. One of the people who has been attending Ruth Sent Us’ weekly protests at Kavanaugh’s house apparently works at the Morton’s in Washington, DC and sent the group a tip.

Within minutes a group called ShutDownDC was calling for people to protest outside the restaurant.

According to Politico, some protesters did show up but didn’t really make much of an impact except maybe to disrupt other people trying to have dinner.

…the court had no official comment on Kavanaugh’s behalf and a person familiar with the situation said he did not hear or see the protesters and ate a full meal but left before dessert, Morton’s was outraged about the incident. A rep for the chain steakhouse sent Lippman this statement:

“Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton’s restaurant. Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner. There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency.”

As for Kavanaugh, he reportedly left through the back door to avoid the protesters.