News Alert: Manchin Isn't Running For President!

By Rich Kozlovich

I know, I know, you're shocked and surprised...right? Ya know, it's really amazing isn't it.  Joe Manchin was so bad on energy issues, budgets, etc, that when he read the tea leaves he realized W. Va. didn't really like him, or any Democrat for that matter, and decided not to run for his Senate seat.  Good thinking, but, never fail to understand the size of a politicians ego can be so massive there's little room left in their brains for intelligence.  As a result he said he might run for President.  Imagine that!   And the media thought that was actually meaningful.  Imagine that!  

The ego/intelligence argument doesn't apply to the media.  They're just stupid.  After all they seemed to think Liz Chaney could run, and she actually said she was undecided.....chuckling....a lot.

And guess who he thought would be a great VP?  Mitt Romney!  Another loser who also read the tea leaves and discovered the people of his state thought they really could get along without him, and seemingly, can't wait to do so.  

 

But, this gets better.   He had a back up choice for VP if Mitt decided to stay home.  He thought Ohio's former Senator Rob Portman, who also read the tea leaves, would be a good VP.   Both "Republicans".  Imagine that.

 

Well, those two or three people who were concerned over this potential Presidential run can stop worrying, Manchin has decided he isn't going to run.  Shocked, shocked I tell you!  Well, not really.   Those darn tea leaves just won't go along with the program!  But, as my mother, a full blooded FDR Democrat used to say, "That falls under the category of who gives a crap", only she didn't say crap.

 

Okay, I have to admit, I found this Manchin for President a big chuckle from the git go.  So, why bother posting this non-decision, as this was as obvious as night follows day?  

 

I posted this because I thought everyone might appreciate the Romney/Portman component of this story.  Why?  He thought Mitt Romney or Rob Portman, two Republicans, had views compatible with his own.  Did he actually discuss this with them?  I'm guessing no, and this was merely a speculatory response to a question, but I did see this as an insight into his view of the Republican leadership, and I think it's a valid one, and not a pretty one. 

Bill Gates Lobbied Manchin for Inflation Bill That Benefits His Green Investment Fund

Daniel Greenfield August 31, 2022 @ Sultan Knish Blog  

As reported exclusively by Frontpage Magazine, Americans can expect to see their chances of an IRS audit increase fourfold under the Biden-Manchin ‘Inflation Increase Act’. The massive upsurge in IRS enforcement was justified as a way to pay for the massive spending in the bill. Much of that spending consists of green pork for Democrat donors and special interests.

The media had spent the past month persuading Americans that they will see economic benefits from the green pork, but once the bill was passed through lies and dirty tricks, we know that it offers as much as $350 billion in loans, subsidies and guarantees to green companies.

Overseeing the Department of Energy’s loan program is Jigar Shah: the founder of SunEdison.

SunEdison was one of the biggest of Obama's subsidized green energy bankruptcies, receiving $1.5 billion in government grants and subsidies. While Solyndra's bankruptcy, after receiving a $535 million loan from the Obama administration, is infamous, there were quite a few disasters.

The $350 billion that the ‘Inflation Increase Act’ is playing with will be far worse.

While Americans have little to cheer about a government program handing out money to its allies and donors, not to mention Tesla owners and the Bay Area elite, Bill Gates is happy.

“Everybody wants to be part of this,” Carmichael Roberts, the head of Bill Gates's green energy investment fund, gushed. “The calls that I’m getting now — tremendous, already."

Gates was described as having personally lobbied Senator Manchin and Schumer in "anticipation of a rare moment in which significant federal dollars might be secured for the clean-energy transition." Billions of those dollars, ripped out of the hands of truck drivers, veterans and small businessmen, will have been “secured” for Gates and his ventures.

A wave of middle class IRS tax audits will be unleashed to pay for those “federal dollars”.

“I bet you there’s somewhere between 300 to 1,000 companies that will exist now because of this bill that would not have existed,” Gates’ venture fund boss boasted.

The question is how many of those will the Gates fund be invested in?

Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund backed by Bill Gates, announced earlier that it raised over $2 billion to invest in green companies and that it plans to raise that to $15 billion. It currently has a public portfolio of 70 companies, many of which have government connections.

Ventures led a $20 million investment round into Blue Frontier which had obtained the rights to technology developed at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Sustaera, which claims to remove carbon dioxide, received seed R&D funding from the Department of Energy followed by a $10 million round of financing from Ventures. Quidnet describes the DOE as "among the public and private investors in Quidnet Energy’s innovative energy storage system" and Bill Gates led a $10 million round of investment in the company.

As a Bloomberg article described, “This is no hypothetical for Gates. His investments through Breakthrough Energy, the Gates organization that does climate work, has sunk at least tens of millions into green cement startups such as Ecocem, Chement and Brimstone. None have yet reached commercial scale. He saw the bankruptcy filing of a battery startup he backed, Aquion, that might have had a fighting chance if energy-storage tax credits were available.”

Now most Americans will be forced to back these disastrous green startups and lose their shirts.

But when Bill Gates and his allied billionaires speak, politicians obey and Americans suffer.

Ventures is part of the larger Breakthrough Energy group which also includes Breakthrough Energy Action. The action arm spent over $1 million lobbying on green energy last year.

The firm which saw the most Action lobbying cash was KDCR Partners which that year had hired Patrick Hayes. Hayes was Senator Joe Manchin's outgoing chief of staff and his former legislative director. Bill Gates' Action lists Hayes as one of its lobbyists.

Forget Silicon Valley. Where else can you invest a few hundred thousand in lobbying cash and come away with a few hundred billion in subsidies while the middle class pays for it?

The board members and investors of Breakthrough Energy Ventures include Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Virgin's Richard Branson, Facebook billionaire Dustin Moskowitz, Walmart heir Ben Walton, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, along with Chinese Communist tycoon Jack Ma of Alibaba and Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

One of the things that many of the investors and board members have in common is that they, hopefully with the exception of the Chinese Communist billionaire, Branson, and the Saudi prince, are Democrat donors. Moskowitz has spent tens of millions on Democrats in presidential elections, Reid Hoffman has been spending $100 million, Bloomberg spent $100 million in an effort to help Biden win three states, while the Gates Foundation poured $70 million into the dark money machine of the Democrats alongside Moskowitz and George Soros.

The formal lobbying of Breakthrough Energy Action may just be a way of conveying the will of its megadonor bosses whose wallets are capable of making and breaking the Democrats.

It’s no secret that Bill Gates played a key role in getting the ‘Inflation Increase Act’ passed.

Bloomberg, the eponymous publication owned by his fellow Breakthrough Energy board member, credited Gates with lobbying Manchin and pressuring Schumer to cut a deal.

The Microsoft founder was described as having “tapped into a relationship with Manchin that he’d cultivated for at least three years”.

“My dialogue with Joe has been going on for quite a while,” the billionaire, whose marriage allegedly broke up over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, bragged. “Almost everyone on the energy committee came over and spent a few hours with me over dinner.”

What followed was a story in which one of the richest men in the world convinced elected officials to ignore their constituencies and spend a fortune on green pork. The ‘Inflation Increase Act’ proved once again that in Washington D.C., voters don’t matter, only power brokers do.

Given a choice between obeying his voters or Bill Gates, Senator Manchin picked him.

“You know, people say Joe likes coal or something like that,” Gates said. “That’s really not fair. Joe wanted a climate bill.”

Or at least Bill Gates did. And so he got one.

“I will say that it's one of the happier moments of my climate work,” Bill Gates said of the passage of the 'Inflation Increase Act'.

Happiness for Bill Gates and his allies means misery, poverty and IRS audits for the country.

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine. Click here to subscribe to my articles.   Thank you for reading.

New York Times Threatens Senator Manchin With Witchcraft If He Obstructs Democrat "Climate" Agenda

October 19, 2021/ Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

It’s always been just a little odd that the guy the Democrats most need to get on board to get their big transformational plans enacted is Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, while at the same time the centerpiece of those plans is to put the most important industry of West Virginia, coal mining, completely out of business. That sounds like it’s going to be a tough sell. Is there any argument that might convince this guy to get with the program?

In one of the funniest articles I have read anywhere recently, the New York Times thinks that it has come up with the argument that will carry the day: threaten Manchin with witchcraft! The article, covering about half of the front page of yesterday’s print edition, tells Manchin that if he continues to “block” the Democrats’ plans to destroy the coal industry, a spell will be cast over his state and it will be inundated with floods. The headline is “Blocking Climate Plan With Hometown at Risk.”

The Times characterizes Mr. Manchin’s stance thusly:

Mr. Manchin, a Democrat whose vote is crucial to passing his party’s climate legislation, is opposed to its most important provision that would compel utilities to stop burning oil, coal and gas and instead use solar, wind and nuclear energy, which do not emit the carbon dioxide that is heating the planet. Last week, the senator made his opposition clear to the Biden administration, which is now scrambling to come up with alternatives he would accept. Mr. Manchin has rejected any plan to move the country away from fossil fuels because he said it would harm West Virginia, a top producer of coal and gas.

Seems reasonable. Better threaten the guy:

Others say that by blocking efforts to reduce coal and gas use, Mr. Manchin risks hurting his state.

And how exactly would that work? Simple: if Manchin remains intransigent, West Virginia will be destroyed by epic floods.

First Street [Foundation] calculated the portion of all kinds of infrastructure at risk of becoming inoperable because of a so-called 100-year flood — a flood that statistically has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year. The group compared the results for every state except Alaska and Hawaii. In many cases, West Virginia topped the list. Sixty-one percent of West Virginia’s power stations are at risk, the highest nationwide and more than twice the average. West Virginia also leads in the share of its roads at risk of inundation, at 46 percent. The state also ranks highest for the share of fire stations (57 percent) and police stations (50 percent) exposed to a 100-year flood. And West Virginia ties with Louisiana for the greatest share of schools (38 percent) and commercial properties (37 percent) at risk.

But what, if anything, does any of this have to do with Mr. Manchin’s opposition to the destruction of West Virginia’s coal industry? The Times article does not say, other than repeatedly invoking the phrase “climate change,” as if that has something to do with flood risk from rivers in West Virginia. The article makes no attempt to demonstrate any relationship between climate change and river flood risk.

Perhaps we should look to see what we can find about trends in flooding and/or extreme wet conditions in the United States over the last century or so. That is the period when human “greenhouse gas” emissions have supposedly been warming the atmosphere. Here is, for example, this NOAA chart of what they call “very wet/dry” conditions in the U.S. from 1895 through September 2021:

Can you detect the trend of increasing “extreme wet conditions” in that chart as the atmosphere has warmed (by maybe 1 deg C) over the time in question? Neither can I. How about U.S. flood damage as a percentage of GDP? Here is a chart presented to Congress by Roger Pielke, Jr. in testimony in 2015:

That trend looks to be significantly down rather than up. Mr. Pielke’s comment:

The good news is U.S. flood damage is sharply down over 70 years.

How about the IPCC. Surely they can come up with something to scare us? Here is a 2018 IPCC document with the title “Changes in Climate Extremes and their Impacts on the Natural Physical Environment.” On the subject of floods, from page 175:

The AR4 and the IPCC Technical Paper VI based on the AR4 concluded that no gauge-based evidence had been found for a climate-driven globally widespread change in the magnitude/frequency of floods during the last decades (Rosenzweig et al., 2007; Bates et al., 2008).

In short, the evidence to date gives no reason to believe that there is any reason that floods have increased, or are about to increase, due to “climate change.” In other words, the threat against Mr. Manchin to destroy West Virginia with floods can’t really be based on that. It must be witchcraft!

 

Sinema Unloads on Activists Who Chased Her Into a Bathroom

Leah Barkoukis | @LeahBarkoukis | Oct 05, 2021

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema blasted far-left activists who harassed her at Arizona State University and chased her into a bathroom, calling their actions “illegitimate protest.”  While she said she supports the First Amendment rights of those who criticize her policy decisions and will engage with Arizonans who have different points of view, what happened when the activists confronted her at ASU on Build Back Better and immigration policy was “unacceptable,” she said............Both Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin have been harassed in recent days over their opposition to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. The Arizona Democrat also faced activists at the airport Monday and during her flight.........To Read More.....

 

As the Left Declares War on Sinema, Her People Say She Has a Nuclear Option of Her Own

Matt Vespa | @mvespa1 | Oct 04, 2021 

 

An armada of kayakers besieged Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) houseboat. We have lefty activists following Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) trying to get a pee tape. Okay, they’re not really doing that—but they are trying to pressure her on the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that’s nothing more than a left-wing goodie bag. Joe and Sinema are “no” votes. Manchin called it fiscal insanity. He’s not wrong and so far, they’re holding firm. And it’s driving the Left insane. Maybe they wouldn’t get into these legislative pickles if they pushed policies that—you know—weren’t garbage. The Democratic Congress is at war with itself over these spending bills that come amid a looming debt ceiling increase deadline this month and a spike in inflation. The economy is stalling. Now, is not the time to spend trillions of more dollars on liberal pet projects.........To Read More....

Reconciliation Bill, as We Know It, Is Dead, Thanks To Senators Manchin, McConnell — and Schumer

By Lawrence Kudlow, Special to the Sun| September 30, 2021 

The so-called reconciliation bill, as we know it, from the House Budget and Ways and Means committees — the Senate never did produce a tax bill, but no matter — the reconciliation bill as we know it is dead. It died with a brilliant statement from Senator Joe Manchin. And with the cleverness of the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell.

If there is a vote, the outcome is still up in the air. Left-wing progressives might boycott the bill. Moderate Republicans might support it. At this point, no one knows. The big issue, though, is the $4 trillion-plus reconciliation budget, which Senator Manchin killed.

Now, there may be a new budget resolution that would contain Mr. Manchin’s conditions. It might also include Senator Sinema's concerns about taxes and spending. I think that would require months of re-negotiation and might never get done. Were the version right now brought to the Senate, it would fail 52 to 48.

Congratulations Senator Schumer. The New Yorker ignored Mr. Manchin in July. The Mountain State mensch, as the Sun calls Mr. Manchin, wouldn’t go away with his opposition. That was Mr. Schumer’s mistake, and President Biden’s same mistake, doomed the bill. Nor, let it be remembered for all time, was Mr. Manchin prepared to vote for a bill that fails to restore the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortions. Good for him.............To Read More.....

My Take - None of this changes my views on Manchin, McConnell or Schumer.  McConnell may be a master legislator, but he's not a real conservative, he can't be trusted and is a leaky vessel when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.  Not to mention there are issues surrounding his actions that need to be investigated.  

Schumer is a corrupt leftist to the core and treasonous, or he's insane, which being a leftist of his ilk means being certifiable, otherwise they couldn't believe, say or promote their insane policies.  

As for Manchin, I never expected him to be the rock in the current, it's not in his character.  If he had an ounce of respectability and integrity, and had honest concerns about where the Democrats were going, he'd have abandoned the Democrat party and become a Republican, and he didn't. Then again, if he did the Republicans would just have had another pain in the butt backstabbing RINO to deal with.  

Having said that, if the Republicans take over the Senate I could see him making a change for the 2024 election in order to avoid being defeated.  West Virginia has become far more Republican during his tenure.  In 2010 he won his Senate seat with 54% of the vote in a special election.  In 2012 he won with 61%, but in 2018 his margin dropped to under 50%. He will see the handwriting on the wall and in my view will either retire or change parties. 

Bernie Sanders calls Manchin's refusal to back $3.5 trillion spending plan 'absolutely not acceptable'

by Kaelan Deese, Breaking News Reporter  | September 12, 2021

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin reiterated Sunday that he will not vote for President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion infrastructure and social spending package, prompting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to call his decision "absolutely not acceptable."

The West Virginia Democrat suggested the price tag of the legislation should be lowered to around $1.5 trillion, raising concerns that "eight million people are still unemployed" and citing the national debt ceiling..........To Read More......

•  Joe Manchin Calls for Indefinite Delay of Democrats’ Domestic Spending Agenda By Eric Lendrum

The Democrats’ Leviathan Is on the Loose

By Lawrence Kudlow September 9, 2021

 

The reckless budget reconciliation plan under discussion in Congress gets more newsworthy with every day that passes. Passage of this $5 trillion monstrosity — it makes Hobbes’ “Leviathan” look like a church mouse — would inflict great damage on the economy through massive spending.

It lacks workfare, it levies across the board tax penalties on productive workers, puts up huge, new regulatory obstacles. It includes a Green New Deal that would jack up the price of power and severely curtail the supply of it. It sneakily attempts to avoid reconciliation rules by inserting amnesty for illegals, unionization, and the Pro Act to make it easier to organize labor.

It would federalize elections, and who knows what in a 10,000 page bill that no human being will read for months and months after it’s passed.  Now it turns out that I may not be alone in my objections.......

Oh, and by the way, what about the debt limit and a continuing resolution that’s coming at month’s end. The Leviathan is on the loose. So heck, yeah, I’m for the pause. A shredder is better but a pause suits me as a start................To Read More.....

Can Manchin Be Trusted on Voter Integrity? How are the voters expected to tell?

By David Catron June 7, 2021

A lot of Republicans breathed a sigh of relief when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) reiterated his support for the filibuster and pledged to vote against the For the People Act (S 1). His decision, which he explained in a Sunday op-ed written for the Charleston Gazette-Mail, is certainly good news. But, before celebrating the death of the pernicious “voting rights” bill, it would be useful to read paragraph 12 of Manchin’s column, wherein he declares his support for the equally dangerous John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (S 4263). This bill, like S 1, would effectively gut voter-ID laws and usurp state sovereignty over elections.

In his op-ed, Manchin makes the following claim about S 4263:

“The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would update the formula states and localities must use to ensure proposed voting laws do not restrict the rights of any particular group or population.” 

The senator fails to mention that it would also exhume an obsolete section of the Civil Rights Act (CRA) that violated a key principle of federalism and was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder. Hans A. von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation explains why the Democrats so desperately want to reinstate this provision of the CRA:............

Not for the first time, Sen. Manchin is attempting to have it both ways...........He knows West Virginia voters won’t forgive him if he flip-flops on the filibuster, and he knows S 1 won’t pass as long as that parliamentary device remains in place. The Democratic push for “democracy reform” presents Manchin with an opportunity to continue his bipartisan masquerade.............Manchin supports imposing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on every state in the union........To Read More....