The Show Notes: Pelosi Visits Taiwan, Manchin's Tax Hike, & The Visa/Pornhub Case
Welcome! 61% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck including 36% of those earning $200k or more.
🚨 Disturbing: Visa ‘Intended to Help’ Pornhub and Its Parent Company Monetize Child Porn, Judge Finds in Allowing Case to Move Forward - Variety
Must read: Inside TikTok's army of lobbyists of ex-senators, congressmen, and staffers - Washington Examiner
BREAKING: Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson suspended 6 games for violating NFL's personal conduct policy - ESPN
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Clip of the day: Ouch
A worst-case scenario for Democrats:
China Threatens Pelosi
Chinese officials again vowed the Chinese military "won't sit by idly" if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan as part of her Asian tour later this week. Pelosi would be the highest-ranking US official to visit the island since Newt Gingrich in 1997. News broke this morning that Pelosi will land in Taiwan on Tuesday night and meet with Taiwanese officials on Wednesday. Go deeper with CNN.
Raising Your Taxes To Fight Inflation
Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer’s bold plan to fight inflation hinges on an under-reported element: Raising your taxes. The last two paragraphs from The Editorial Board at The Wall Street Journal explain it well.
Taxes will rise by $16.7 billion in 2023 on Americans earning less than $200,000 a year. Taxpayers earning between $200,000 and $500,000 will pay $14.1 billion more. This gives the lie to Democratic claims that no one earning under $400,000 will pay more taxes under the bill, a promise Mr. Biden also made in his campaign. The reality is that the Schumer-Manchin bill is a tax increase on nearly every American.
If Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and other Democrats want to sign up for this tax ball-and-chain barely three months before an election, they will be responsible for the economic consequences. Their new tax on workers is unlikely to be a political or economic winner.
Just last year, Joe Biden promised he would not raise taxes on those making less than $400K/year.
The Kamala Conundrum
The deeply progressive New York Magazine has a piece highlighting Biden’s unpopularity and the Harris team’s inability to capitalize on it. If nothing else, just read the first paragraph.
Political news rarely gets much grimmer than it did for Joe Biden on July 26, when he was greeted by a surprise poll showing that, were he to run again in a contested primary in New Hampshire, he might command less than one-fifth of the vote. It was a far-fetched hypothetical — the likes of Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren won’t challenge him if he runs for reelection — but the dearth of support for a sitting president was still galling. And yet, improbably, the news was even worse for his presumptive heir: Kamala Harris was all the way down in the single digits.
The rest of the news:
🚨 Why the Democrats Are Funding My Far-Right Opponent - Peter Meijer
Democrats split on Biden one-term pledge despite souring economy and polls - Washington Examiner
🚨 All eyes turn to Kyrsten Sinema - CNN
Ex-Putin adviser Anatoly Chubais suddenly sick from rare neurological disorder - NY Post
Trump slams Pelosi’s planned Taiwan visit: ‘She will only make it worse’ - The Hill
🚨 Manchin refuses to endorse Biden on Sunday shows. - CNBC
🚨 Texas Now Produces More Oil Than Every Country in the World Besides Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq - FEE
Iran says it will ‘build nuclear warheads’ and turn NY into ‘hellish ruins’ - JPost
First ship carrying Ukrainian grain leaves the port of Odesa - NY Post
🚨 Home prices cooled at a record pace in June, according to housing data firm - CNBC
Inflation begins to strain finances of young, low-income Americans - Yahoo
🚨 Peak of Atlantic hurricane season begins in August - NY Post
🚨 LIV Golf’s Big Tournament at Trump’s Bedminster Golf Course Totally Bombs: $1 StubHub Tickets and Anemic Viewership - Mediaite
Economic Gloom Fuels Broader Personal Finance Concerns - Tipp Insights
Nichelle Nichols, Uhura in ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 89 - Variety
Trans cheerleader chokes out teammate. - Dailymail
The Schumer-Manchin Tax Increase on Everyone - WSJ (paywall)
We Are Living in Richard Nixon’s America. Escaping It Won’t Be Easy. - NYT (paywall)
How Some Parents Changed Their Politics in the Pandemic - NYT (paywall)