In Between Times 11-10-2023
Manchin to leave Senate - Maybe pres bid, Next debate on NewsNation, Credit card debt at record levels, Carbon emissions by country
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Centrist Politics Rising? - Joe Manchin will not run for Senate again, Might for White House
With this move Manchin certainly makes a Republican controlled Senate more likely. If he runs for president, perhaps under No Labels, he will garner the scorn of his current party. He already has. The Democratic Party establishment is in quiet disaster mode today. This on the heals of a pretty successful 2023 election cycle for Dems.
(From CNBC)
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Thursday he will not run for reelection in 2024 — but signaled he was not leaving politics entirely.
“I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for reelection to the United States Senate,” Manchin said in a video posted on X.
“But what I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together,” he said.
The announcement strikes a major blow to Democrats who saw Manchin, a centrist incumbent in a deep-red state, as crucial to their hopes of keeping their narrow Senate majority past the 2024 election cycle.
One point that has been made in this space by our founder Bill Shireman is that the 2024 election isn’t going to play out like “everyone” thinks (thought). There are a million variables at play in the coming year and anticipating the unanticipated is probably a wise disposition for the duration.
Click here for the article.
“Centrist” NewsNation will host the next GOP debate
NewsNation, a relatively new face to broadcast news that has explicitly aimed for the middle cohort (politically speaking) of America, will host the fourth GOP presidential debate. As with the previous debates, former president and current GOP front runner Donald Trump and will not be in attendance.
The announcement of NewsNation’s hosting of the next debate comes after candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took NBC, the host of the last debate, to task for its longstanding left bias.
The moderation panel for the upcoming debate appears more centrist than past panels with the inclusion even of Editor-in-Chief of The Washington Free Beacon, generally considered a right-of-center publication, Eliana Johnson. With her will be Elizabeth Vargas and Megan Kelly.
(From News Nation)
The live debate will air on NewsNation, at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 6. It will be broadcast simultaneously in the eastern and central time zones on the company’s broadcast television network, The CW.
“NewsNation’s mission is to provide fair and unbiased news coverage, and that’s the way we will approach this important debate. We take this responsibility very seriously and are proud to help inform and educate voters and to contribute to the democratic process,” Michael Corn, president of news at NewsNation, said.
The debate will also be livestreamed on NewsNation’s website.
Click here for the article.
More Centrism: Green(ish) Republican former Congressman entering the race for Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabbinow’s seat
Your editor has talked with former Congressman Meijer at least once as he recalls. Generally our impression was that he was a pretty solidly moderate voice. He was primaried in 2022 by John Gibbs (largely because Meijer was one of the few Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach then President Trump) who ultimately lost the seat to a Democrat. (The seat had been previously held by a Democrat.)
Meijer faces another uphill battle given his history, and the current mood of Republican voters, and the fact that even with his (local) name recognition (or perhaps in spite of it) he enters the Senate primary race in second place.
(From The Daily Caller)
Among the crowded GOP primary field is another former congressman Mike Rogers, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig and several other lesser-known Republicans. Rep. Elissa Slotkin is the frontrunner in the also crowded Democratic primary field.
An early August Emerson College survey found that Rogers is the current frontrunner at 12% support, followed by Meijer with 9%. Slotkin beat Meijer, Rogers and Craig by 6 points, 7 points and 7 points, respectively, in hypothetical head-to-head matchups.
Click here for the article.
US credit card debt hits record high as families struggle
Been to a grocery store lately? Or a car lot? Or a fast food joint? It’s way more expensive than it was a couple of years ago.
We won’t go into why this is, but part of it is a recent embrace by some economists of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which has helped to spark the current global inflation. (It may go down as the fastest rise and fall of an economic school in history.)
Theory and economics aside, the pain out in America is real, and many people are surviving with debt.
Yesterday we were watching a video produced by a large used car dealer who explained that after having no cars to sell during Covid and after charging massive markups for cars once they did get on the lot, dealers across the country are now seeing a wave of repossessions.
Many people bought cars with markups of $15,000 or $25,000 post Covid. Heck, we were just in a Chrysler dealership for work on our van and we saw a Grand Wagoneer, basically a glorified station wagon, selling for $107,000. With these markups buyers of new vehicles started out way underwater. Now dealers are seeing people just walk away from the notes.
Cars are cars however. Enter the cost of rent which has lept skyward all over along with the cost of financing a home. Bread, beer, beef, pretty much everything except big screen TVs has gotten significantly more expensive in recent years.
Many people have been plugging the budgetary holes with credit cards. But that is a band-aid that one way or another soon falls off.
(From ABC)
Credit card debt climbed to a record high in the third quarter of 2023, surging nearly 5% from the previous quarter and leaving a growing share of borrowers late on payments, a Federal Reserve report this week showed.
The report demonstrates the dwindling savings held by some consumers who amassed a financial buffer during the pandemic but later burned through it under the strain of rapid price increases, economists told ABC News.
The financial hardship, they added, has fallen primarily on low-income people squeezed between elevated prices and high interest rates who borrowed money to cover the rising expenses.
Click here for the article.
Say hello to the first plant that can suck 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air annually
To make even a dent in the global carbon challenge there are going to have to be plants, many more plants, with a much higher capacity. But one must crawl before running, and direct air carbon capture is on its way.
(From Fortune)
The plant near San Francisco, built by Bay Area startup Heirloom Carbon Technologies, puts California at the forefront of the emerging carbon removal industry as a handful of so-called direct air capture (DAC) hubs are also slated to get underway. Heirloom’s facility, unveiled Thursday, will be capable of removing and storing as much as 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
That’s a pittance compared with bigger plants poised to come online in Texas and Louisiana, but it’s enough to serve as a milestone for a technology that’s likely to spawn a significant business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. are among the companies that have pledged hundreds of millions to buy carbon removal services...
Click here for the article.
Event
November 16 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am PST
Introduction to Living Room Conversations
Location: Online
Join us for an interactive introduction to Living Room Conversations, our model, and upcoming programs. This is a great first step to help you understand what we do, meet some of our staff, and decide how to get involved– whether as a host, participant, volunteer, or all of the above. This special edition will focus on talking with family and friends — Just in time for the holiday season! There will be time for Q&A.