Mother Jones:  “In recent days, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) has told associates that he is considering leaving the Democratic Party if President Joe Biden and Democrats on Capitol Hill do not agree to his demand to cut the size of the social infrastructure bill from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion, according to people who have heard Manchin discuss this. Manchin has said that if this were to happen, he would declare himself an “American Independent.” And he has devised a detailed exit strategy for his departure.

“Manchin has been in the center of a wild rush of negotiations with his fellow Democrats and the White House over a possible compromise regarding Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better package, and Manchin’s opposition to key provisions—including Medicare and Medicaid expansion, an expanded child tax credit, and measures to address climate change—has been an obstacle that the Democrats have yet to overcome. As these talks have proceeded, Manchin has discussed bolting from the Democratic Party—perhaps to place pressure on Biden and Democrats in these negotiations.

“He told associates that he has a two-step plan for exiting the party. First, he would send a letter to Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, removing himself from the Democratic leadership of the Senate. (He is vice chairman of the Senate Democrats’ policy and communications committee.) Manchin hopes that would send a signal. He would then wait and see if that move had any impact on the negotiations. After about a week, he said, he would change his voter registration from Democrat to independent.”

This Senate will vote today on moving forward on the Freedom to Vote Act.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 20, 2021

The Biden Administration released preliminary plans to provide coronavirus vaccines to 28 million American children ages 5-11 as soon as the Food and Drug Administration grants authorization for the children to get inoculated, the Associated Press reports.

Children will be able to get vaccines at their doctors’ offices, local pharmacies and even in their schools.  The Administration’s plans are being made to prevent delays in the distribution of the vaccines like those experienced when vaccines were first approved in late 2020.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to give final authorization for children’s vaccinations as early as next week.  To prepare for this, the federal government is preparing to ship out millions of doses of the vaccines along with small-gauge injection needles to accommodate children. 

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is on lockdown reportedly after receiving a bomb threat saying an explosive was in the hospital’s lobby, WTOP Radio in Washington, DC reports.  Initial reports of an active shooter on the military base proved false.

Officials at Walter Reed, located in Bethesda, Maryland, just north of Washington, DC,  announced all patient appointments have been canceled for the day as police and explosive-detecting dogs searched the campus for signs of a bomb.

The bomb threat caused extensive traffic back-ups around the sprawling 110-acre campus that contains more than 50 buildings.  Workers and patients were ordered to shelter in place until an all-clear is given.

“House GOP leaders are recommending a ‘no’ vote on the criminal contempt referral for Bannon, Scalise announced in conference this morning, per a source in the room. Not the same as a formal whip against the resolution, but it still shows GOP leaders leaning in hard against it.”  —Melanie Zanona of CNN

Associated Press:  “Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murder on Wednesday in the 2018 high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.

“Cruz, 23, entered his pleas in a courtroom attended by a dozen relatives of victims after answering a long list of questions from Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer aimed at confirming his mental competency. He was charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder for those wounded in the Feb. 14, 2018, attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, located just outside Fort Lauderdale.

“A penalty trial will determine if Cruz will receive a sentence of death or life in prison without parole. Scherer plans to begin screening jurors next month in hopes testimony can begin in January.”

“Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to President Trump, said that during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asked the Department of Defense what time Congress members could get their lunch. Meadows told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday that while he wasn’t in the room at the time of the call, Pelosi contacted Department of Defense officials later on during the riot and ‘made an inquiry about what time, you know, our members could actually get their lunch.’ ‘I find it amazing that she was more interested in their culinary position than they are in anything else,” he added. Trump ‘had asked for up to 10,000 National Guard troops to be available to Nancy Pelosi and to [Washington, D.C.] Mayor [Muriel] Bowser,’ Meadows said. ‘And, unfortunately, they did not take him up on that. But he did put them on the ready, and that’s why they were able to respond as quickly as they did.'”

“Meadows explained that Trump had made the National Guard available two days before the Capitol riot because he knew a lot of people would attend the rally on Jan. 6 and remembered Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and others had been previously accosted leaving the Republican National Convention. ‘And what he didn’t want is this whole chaos to erupt with counterprotesters and the like,’ but that was ‘largely … ignored’ leading up to and on Jan. 6 ‘by those that should be making the decision,’ Meadows recounted, referring to Pelosi” John Solomon’s website reports.

Solomon leaves out the part of Meadows’s book detailing when he and Trump suited up in their latex costumes and domino masks – as their superhero identities Captain MAGA and his trusty sidekick Obedience Boy – jumped in the MAGA mobile, sped to the Capitol, and defeated the horde of Antifa terrorists attacking Congress with their super strength and courage, which convinced Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence to realize the evil of their ways and declare Trump the President for life, winner of every Nobel Prize for the next infinity years plus 500 Medals of Honor each, and Mark Meadows is Trump’s best friend forever and even gets a special best friend ticker-tape parade until SOROS used his evil mind control powers to erase everyone’s memory of how it REALLY happened except for Mark Meadows who remembers it 100% and it’s in his book so buy it now.

UPDATE 10/20/2021 10:09 AM EDT: In related news, Politico reports Meadows has retained GOP lawyer Sideshow George Terwilliger to represent him in the Capitol riot investigation.

Missouri Independent: “When Gov. Mike Parson last week angrily called for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to be prosecuted for uncovering security flaws on a state agency website he said the newspaper’s actions could ‘cost Missouri taxpayers up to $50 million.’ That amount, two Democrats on the House Budget Committee said Tuesday, is an estimate for providing credit monitoring to protect against misuse of personal data and a call center to answer questions from educators whose private data may have been exposed. And, state Rep. Peter Merideth said, the estimate is not a very good one. ‘He pulled it straight out of his ass,’ Merideth said in an interview Tuesday.”

“Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday backed the Cabinet’s proposal to declare a non-working week and keep Russian workers away from their offices as coronavirus deaths surged to another daily record. The government task force on Wednesday reported 1,028 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. That brought Russia’s total death toll to 226,353 which is by far the highest in Europe” the AP reports.

“Putin said Wednesday he supports the Cabinet’s proposal to introduce a nonworking period starting Oct. 30 and extending through the following week, when four of seven days already are state holidays. He added in some regions where the situation is the most threatening, the non-working period could start as early as Saturday. In some regions, mounting infections forced authorities to suspend medical assistance to the population as health care facilities were forced to focus on treating coronavirus patients. Russia’s daily coronavirus mortality numbers have been surging for weeks and topped 1,000 for the first time over the weekend amid sluggish vaccination rates, lax public attitudes toward precautions and government reluctance to toughen restrictions.”

Happy #FilipinoAmericanHistory Month!

Hear from @FalconiforOhio what it means to be a Filipino Republican. pic.twitter.com/oR4r8J40Qt

— GOP (@GOP) October 20, 2021

Charlie Sykes: “Yes, it could get worse. The Claremont Institute – the home of John Eastman, author of the blueprint for overthrowing the presidential election – has a new initiative for undermining the rule of law. And if you are not alarmed, you ought to be. The Trumpian institute is launching a program to weaponize ‘patriotic law enforcement officers’ to counter ‘the perversion of the justice system by which the revolutionary left seeks to advance its totalitarian agenda.'”

“In announcing its new ‘Sheriff’s Fellowship’ the institute tied together last year’s urban disorders, Covid-19 lockdowns, and ‘the electoral disaster of 2020,’ and declared that ‘our nation’s conservative movement needs a countervailing network of uncorrupted law enforcement officials.’ Specifically, Claremont envisions a cadre of sheriffs ‘not beholden to bureaucratic masters, and whose geographic boundaries, jurisdictional latitude, and – most important – direct connection and responsibility to citizens, places them on the frontlines of the defense of civilization.’ Think of it as militias with badges, guns, and law enforcement powers. Or, if you like, secession-by-sheriff.”

“Puerto Rico leads all states and U.S. territories in Covid-19 prevention and vaccination rates, the White House said. The White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday showing that Puerto Rico has the highest rate of total Covid-19 vaccine doses administered, with 151,828 doses having been administered per 100,000 people of the total population. In total, Puerto Rico has administered more than 4.8 million vaccine doses, according to the CDC. As of Tuesday, 72 percent of Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million residents were fully vaccinated, according to NBC News’ vaccination tracker. The percentage surpasses those of Vermont and Guam, where 70 percent and 71 percent of the respective populations have been immunized. People living in Puerto Rico avoided overwhelming their already fragile health care system during the pandemic, mainly because of extraordinary measures the government put in place early on – and people’s willingness to comply with them” – NBC News.

WCBS: “Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a vaccine mandate for all New York City municipal workers, including first responders. This comes as the FDA is set to authorize booster shots, as well as the mixing and matching of vaccine brands. As CBS2’s John Dias reports, the mayor announced the mandate Wednesday. As part of the announcement, the city offering a $500 bonus to each city employee who receives their first shot at a city-run vaccination site by 5 p.m. on Oct. 29.”

“All city employees will be required to have proof of at least dose after that, or they will be placed on unpaid leave until they can show proof of vaccination. ‘There is no greater privilege than serving the people of New York City, and that privilege comes with a responsibility to keep yourself and your community safe,’ de Blasio said. ‘As we continue our recovery for all of us, city workers have been a daily inspiration. Now is the time for them to show their city the path out of this pandemic once and for all.’ The city will begin negotiating with impacted unions immediately. It’s a bombshell announcement that could shake up the city’s workforce, de Blasio is requiring all municipal employees to get the COVID vaccine, including firefighters and police officers.”

“Former President Donald J. Trump’s family business, which is already under indictment in Manhattan, is facing a criminal investigation by another prosecutor’s office that has begun to examine financial dealings at a golf course the company owns, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In recent months, the district attorney’s office in suburban Westchester County, N.Y., has subpoenaed records from the course, Trump National Golf Club Westchester, and the town of Ossining, which sets property taxes on the course, a sprawling private club that is perched on a hill north of New York City and boasts a 101-foot waterfall. The full scope of the investigation could not be determined, but the district attorney, Mimi E. Rocah, appears to be focused at least in part on whether Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, misled local officials about the property’s value to reduce its taxes, one of the people said” – New York Times.

Politico: “British ministers are facing growing calls to clamp down on online anonymity after the shocking killing of an MP. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. In the aftermath of the fatal stabbing of Tory MP David Amess last Friday as he met constituents, there’s been a renewed push from some of his colleagues to bring an end to abusive account holders keeping their identity a secret.”

“It comes amid a wider call for civility in politics. People inside government, however, say the issue’s far from settled. Facebook and Twitter chiefs Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey should be ‘dragged’ to the bar of the House of Commons – ‘if necessary kicking and screaming so they can look us all in the eye and account for their actions or rather their inactions that make them even richer than they already are,’ Conservative MP Mark Francois said in an emotional House of Commons speech Monday. The former minister called for the Online Safety Bill – currently in draft form and aimed at policing harmful content – to be toughened up ‘to ensure that our colleague didn’t die in vain.’ While some argue there does not appear to be a direct link between online abuse and the murder of Amess, whose suspected killer is currently being investigated on terrorism charges, others want to use the MP’s death as an opportunity for wider change. Damian Collins, chairing one of the parliamentary committees looking at the new law, told the Telegraph he believes there’s a ‘strong case’ for technology firms to be required to have enough personal information so an online abuser can be identified as part of any investigation into them.”

“I’ve seen Third World countries,” Republican Tennessee Congressman Mark Green says earnestly.  “The shelves in our grocery stores are being to look like Third World countries.”

Green has a point.  Our local grocery only had sharp white cheddar, extra-sharp white cheddar, mild white cheddar, mild yellow cheddar, extra-sharp yellow cheddar, sharp yellow cheddar, medium yellow cheddar, a goat’s mild cheddar and a Wisconsin extra-sharp. I mean… c’mon.  How can a man live on just that.

Associated Press:  “Scientists temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a human body and watched it begin to work, a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants.  Pigs have been the most recent research focus to address the organ shortage, but among the hurdles: A sugar in pig cells, foreign to the human body, causes immediate organ rejection. The kidney for this experiment came from a gene-edited animal, engineered to eliminate that sugar and avoid an immune system attack.

“Surgeons attached the pig kidney to a pair of large blood vessels outside the body of a deceased recipient so they could observe it for two days. The kidney did what it was supposed to do — filter waste and produce urine — and didn’t trigger rejection.  ‘It had absolutely normal function,’ said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the surgical team last month at NYU Langone Health. ‘It didn’t have this immediate rejection that we have worried about.’

“This research is ‘a significant step,’ said Dr. Andrew Adams of the University of Minnesota Medical School, who was not part of the work. It will reassure patients, researchers and regulators ‘that we’re moving in the right direction.’  The dream of animal-to-human transplants — or xenotransplantation — goes back to the 17th century with stumbling attempts to use animal blood for transfusions. By the 20th century, surgeons were attempting transplants of organs from baboons into humans, notably Baby Fae, a dying infant, who lived 21 days with a baboon heart.”

“I got vaccinated.  I can’t wait to get the booster,” NBA Hall of Famer, TNT basketball commentator and one-time potential GOP Senate candidate Charles Barkley said.  “You don’t get vaccinated just for yourself.  Like Adam said, you get vaccinated for your family first.  You get vaccinated for your teammates second, things like that.  That’s what bother me about this whole thing.  I think everybody should get vaccinated.”

Barkley then discussed the Brooklyn Nets suspending star Kyrie Irving for refusing to get vaccinated.  “Let me tell you somethin’, I’m really proud of the Nets for putting their foot down, for saying, ‘No, we’re not going to deal with this half on, half off.  The only thing that bug me is he still gonna make $17 million sittin’ at home.”

Look at this line-up for the upcoming AmericaFest, produced by Turning Point USA!  Is includes a former NFL punter!  A bow hunter!  Even the founder of Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shop!  The website calls it the “Largest Event in the Movement,” which must not count the times Trump has to flush his toilet ten or eleven times!

An adult ticket is $300, with a VIP ticket coming in at $750.  (If you’re a parent of a minor attending, your ticket is just $175… which is kinda creepy.)

Today I called for an immediate investigation into the Loudoun County School Board for endangering our students and violating the Virginia Constitution. When I’m governor, we’re going to take immediate action in regards to our kids’ safety. Our kids cannot wait. pic.twitter.com/972w2CvqlJ

— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 20, 2021

Someone in his Virginia gubernatorial campaign should remind Glenn Youngkin that 69% of Virginians favor mask mandates in schools.  It’s not a good plan to vow to overturn something that resoundingly popular.