Chet Collins

White House lights up Manchin after he crushes Biden’s megabill - POLITICO

With an evenly split Senate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer needs every Democrat to go along with the legislation, which only requires a simple majority vote. That dynamic gives Manchin enormous leverage over Biden’s agenda, allowing him to single-handedly sink a priority that Democrats have spent much of the year working on.

If by “single-handedly” you mean Manchin’s single vote plus 50 other senators’ votes.

The White House Art of Furious Persuasion - WSJ Opinion

The progressive whiz kids who run President Biden’s White House don’t have much sense of self-restraint—or common political sense. Their response on Sunday to Sen. Joe Manchin’s opposition to Build Back Better was to accuse him of bad faith while saying they’ll beat him up until he changes his mind.

How to win friends and influence people?

Joe Manchin Rescues the Democrats - WSJ Opinion

We have to admit that Mr. Manchin’s defection also vindicates Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s strategy to support an infrastructure bill that showed bipartisan Senate deal-making is possible. We don’t apologize for opposing that bill on the merits; it contains hundreds of billions of dollars in wasted spending. But Mr. McConnell calculated that sometimes you have to sacrifice a piece to win the chess match, and the GOP leader read the West Virginian well.

Agree.

Biden’s Climate Plans Thrown Into Doubt by Manchin’s Rejection of ‘Build Back Better’ Bill - WSJ

Without action from Congress, Mr. Biden could still meet the target, analysts said. But doing so would require more-ambitious state and executive-branch actions such as tighter federal rules on power plants, vehicles and industrial emissions

Now where have I heard this story before…

“Without the cost-reduction assistance of congressional actions, federal and state leaders will face higher technical and political hurdles as they pursue the ambitious policies required to get to the 50-52% target,” the report says.

Cost-reduction assistance, now that’s funny! Excellent writing. Code for forcing taxpayers to pay for terrible projects that the Market won’t support on its own.

And by “political hurdles” do they mean a discontented electorate that disagrees with reorganizing the entire society based on a contested scientific theory?

The Santa Clause

🍿

First fire of the season.

Manchin Says He Won’t Vote for ‘Build Back Better’ Bill - WSJ

Thank goodness!

Tech-Savvy Kids Defeat Apple’s and Others’ Parental-Control Features - WSJ

Parents say the controls aren’t simple enough and there are too many loopholes.

This is the essential problem. Software design has the absolute ability to create a master/slave dynamic, but the manufacturers and app developers are incentivized to help kids circumvent parental controls and increase engagement with a key demographic. So instead, they give these convoluted and easily breakable “tools” that are just a veneer.

Maybe parents should just stop giving kids these devices.

“I’ve been in tech for a long time, and I understand products pretty well, and I was incredibly confused,” said Tim Kendall, former president of Pinterest

Same.

Decorated and ready to share.

Taiwan Voters Back Ruling Party in Referendum, Removing Obstacle to U.S. Trade Deal - WSJ

Beijing claims democratically governed Taiwan as part of its territory.

A claim that has never been factual in the 76 years since Taiwan was established.