America’s DEM GOPers MAKE THEIR MOVE!

Who are the 14 Republicans who voted to advance the Senate gun bill last night?

by ALLAHPUNDIT at HotAir; Jun 22, 2022

They’re an interesting bunch, with a couple of (minor) surprises mixed in. What nearly all of them have in common is that they’re not on the ballot this fall. Of the 14, only two will face voters in November. And as I’ll explain in a moment, the circumstances those two are facing are special.

Republicans voting to advance the bipartisan gun package:
BLUNT
BURR
CAPITO
CASSIDY
COLLINS
CORNYN
ERNST
GRAHAM
MCCONNELL
MURKOWSKI
PORTMAN
ROMNEY
TILLIS
YOUNG

— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) June 22, 2022

Two are the chief negotiators on the bill, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, neither of whom will face voters again until 2026. Three of the gang are retiring and have nothing to fear from voters — — Blunt, Burr, and Portman. Several others are either centrists or have shown flashes of centrism before, making their support less surprising — Capito, Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, Romney, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Lindsey Graham. Five of those six aren’t up for reelection either.

The surprises are the senators who represent rural red states and typically vote the conservative line — Joni Ernst of Iowa and Todd Young of Indiana. Ernst is a member of leadership, though, and may have felt pulled to give Cornyn a vote of confidence. She won’t face voters for another four years. Young is a wild card since he’s one of the two members of the group who are up for reelection in November. But the timing of this vote is important: He already won this year’s Senate primary, which was held on May 3. For Indiana voters, it’s now a choice between Young and a Democrat. And in a national environment as pro-GOP as this one, they won’t be choosing the Democrat.

So Young had a “free” vote, essentially, knowing he won’t realistically have to answer for supporting the bill until 2028 at the earliest. The other pro-deal senator on the ballot is Murkowski, who’s facing a tough challenge from a Trump-backed Republican on her right flank. But Murkowski’s situation is unique thanks to Alaska’s unusual ranked-choice system; even if she gets fewer first-place votes than her Trumpy opponent, she may yet prevail by being ranked higher on the ballots of Alaska’s Democratic voters than Trump’s candidate is. In other words, Murkowski shored up her left flank by voting yes. That may benefit her this fall.

And then there’s Mitch McConnell, a mini-caucus of one.

“I support the bill text that Senator Cornyn and our colleagues have produced. For years, the far left falsely claimed that Congress could only address the terrible issue of mass murders by trampling on law-abiding Americans’ constitutional rights. This bill proves that false. Our colleagues have put together a commonsense package of popular steps that will help make these horrifying incidents less likely while fully upholding the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”

McConnell said last week that he’d support the deal if the legislative text reflected the agreed-upon framework and he kept his word. He too won’t face voters again until 2026 and might be quietly planning to retire, as he’s now in his 80s. But I think McConnell’s logic boils down to this: On balance, passing the bill will help rather than hurt Republicans electorally. Which sounds crazy if you’ve been following the reaction today among conservatives and assorted gun-rights supporters. They’re furious!

They are, it’s true. But no matter how much they bluster about staying home this fall, they won’t. They haven’t spent the last 16 months ranting about President Inflation only to sit on their hands in November to protest a bill that does virtually nothing — nothing at all — to limit law-abiding adults’ access to guns. Jazz called the bill “largely empty” in a post this morning, which I think is right. As I said last night, the provisions that most alarmed righties, like encouraging states to pass red-flag laws or imposing waiting periods on young adults, ended up being diluted in the final text. And Democrats won’t be in a position in Congress anytime soon to amend that text.

In fact, Stephen Gutowski points out that the bill doesn’t even penalize young adults with juvenile records who own guns. It penalizes dealers who sell new guns to those young adults if a background check returns evidence that that person has a juvenile record. But the purported buyer remains free to try to buy a gun, and he’s allowed to keep the guns he already owns lawfully.

Bottom line: If I’ve understood the bill correctly, it won’t affect your access to guns in any way so long as you’re over 21 and aren’t in the habit of physically abusing your girlfriend. The only way it might is if some states which currently lack red-flag laws decide to pass them in order to access the federal grant money in the bill. But that provision has also been diluted, allowing states to access the funds by implementing alternate forms of “crisis intervention” instead. The push for red-flag laws has, as a result, been de-incentivized. Given the cultural pressure on red-state Republicans to resist all forms of gun control, I’d bet decent money that not a single red state will pass any RFLs in the aftermath of the Cornyn/Murphy bill passing. Which means, apart from those who were juvenile criminals or are currently domestic abusers, the bill is a nothingburger for gun owners.

https://869cb53f7d6b14cd94571f2b5ce92bf4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

I’ll even make a prediction. Once liberals realize that red states aren’t going to use the money being appropriated here to set up red-flag systems, as they had hoped, the push for a federal red-flag law (and many more federal magistrates to administer it) will begin. In light of Dems’ likely near-term electoral fortunes, I figure we have a decade or two before there’ll be a serious effort in Congress to do it.

Oh, one more thing. This exchange is raising eyebrows today:

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MAGA stars and hangers-on are indignant:

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There’s no way, no how, no chance Republicans are going to do an immigration deal four months out from a midterm in which they’re on track to obliterate the ruling party. Or at least, not unless they’re allowed to write the bill in its entirety and Dems agree for some reason to support whatever’s in there. (Build the wall!) Cornyn was obviously joking about a deal, a wink at how hard it is to find bipartisan consensus on hot-buttons like guns and the border. Check back next year, though, when a new congressional Republican majority that’s just earned a surprising share of the Hispanic vote in the midterms might be willing to listen to offers.

Update: Gutowski corrects me on an error above. It’s almost true that the bill won’t affect you if you’re a law-abiding adult. But if you were less than law-abiding as a kid, you have a problem even if you’re over 21 and a solid citizen now.

Even Dems Recognize Biden’s A SCREW LOOSE!

Why the Left Will Cut Biden Loose

Democrats will soon find no further reason to cover for Joe Biden’s own serial abhorrent personal behavior on matters of financial probity, sex, race, and truthfulness.

By Victor Davis Hanson at American Greatness:

June 22, 2022

Republican pundits and conservative activists are debating whether they can win in 2024 with the successful Trump agenda, but without the controversial Donald Trump as their nominee.  

The Democrats have a similar, but far more serious dilemma with Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2024.  

Unlike the Trump Administration’s successful four years, Biden’s tenure has been an utter disaster. There are no policy offsets to the personal liabilities and unpopularity of Biden himself. 

Biden’s liabilities transcend his physical infirmities, his advanced age, and his seeming geometric rather than arithmetic rate of mental decline. 

Biden, moreover, proves daily that he is not a nice guy. His excesses, past and present, are precisely those the Left considers mortal sins. 

Walking back Biden’s absurdities has become the nonstop, tiresome task of many on the Left. As they face a midterm disaster in November, many no longer see any compensating reasons not to drop Biden.  

When the Republicans take the House of Representatives in 2022 there will be nonstop investigations of Hunter Biden’s alleged tax avoidances, his possibly illegal work as an unregistered foreign agent, and Joe Biden’s untaxed compensation he received from the Biden lobbying consortium. 

Consider also Biden’s nastiness.

During the 2020 campaign he personally attacked a young co-ed as a “lying dog-faced pony soldier” and a stocky questioner was reduced to “fat.” 

Unlike Trump’s art of the deal, exaggerations, and distortions, Biden says things that are not simply untrue, but abjectly preposterous—such as the United States currently has a lower inflation rate than major European industrial powers. 

In Biden world, there were no COVID vaccinations until he took the oath of office. Vladimir Putin, or the oil companies, or the refiners, or Donald Trump are responsible for the historic crippling gasoline price hikes he caused by canceling drilling and pipeline projects. 

Biden claims his negative-growth, hyperinflating economy is not disastrous but strong. 

He serially lies that he drove a semi-truck. He has not been to the Middle East 38 times. He never received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. Nor was he a full professor at the University of Pennsylvania. 

The MAGA movement is not the “most extreme political organization in American history.” 

In other words, Joe Biden reveals the same fantasies and plagiarism that ended his 1988 and 2008 presidential campaigns. 

On matters of race and sexuality, Biden is the epitome of that for which the Left, supposedly, has zero tolerance. Biden was infamous for damning with praise candidate Barack Obama as the first “clean” and “articulate” African American presidential candidate. 

In a fake patois, Biden once warned an audience of black professionals that Mitt Romney would “put y’all back in chains.” 

During the 2020 campaign, candidate Biden derided a black journalist as a “junkie” and lambasted a radio host and his audience with the claim “you ain’t black” if they didn’t support his candidacy. 

Spinning racialist fables like Biden’s “Corn Pop” stories would brand any conservative politician as a racist. As president, Biden still uses the term “negro,” and he called an African American advisor “boy.” 

On disturbing matters of sexuality, Biden is even more coarse. 

After the Justice Brett Kavanaugh hearings, the nation was lectured that “women must be believed.” But it was the Left who attacked former Biden aide Tara Reade who surfaced in 2016 to accuse then Senator Biden, her former boss, of sexually assaulting her. 

Biden himself had a creepy history of invading the private space of young women—inappropriately kissing them, hugging and squeezing them, and smelling and blowing into their hair and ears. 

Finally, Biden was forced to apologize—sort of—by claiming he belonged to an earlier generation when such aggression was simply normal behavior. It was not then or now. 

The latest controversies whirl around the British tabloid Daily Mail’s publication of the diary of Biden’s own daughter. 

From the Mail’s lurid reporting, Ashley Biden seems to suggest that she showered with her father at an age when “showers w/ my dad (probably [were] not appropriate).” And she seemed to connect Biden familial inappropriateness with her regret over being “hyper-sexualized [at] a young age.”  

When Donald Trump was accused by porn star Stormy Daniels of a consensual tryst or was caught on old Access Hollywood tape crudely boasting about touching inappropriately female admirers, the resulting uproar nearly derailed the Trump 2016 campaign. 

The point is not just the asymmetrical treatment that has shielded Biden’s cognitive decline, his rude outbursts, his outrageous racialist slurs, and bizarre sexual aggressiveness. 

Instead, the Left now fears Biden’s terrible polls and a worse record—and the resulting damage he is doing to the Democratic Party. 

In such a losing political context, Democrats will soon find no further reason to cover for Biden’s own serial abhorrent personal behavior on matters of financial probity, sex, race, and truthfulness. 

No wonder they are growing desperate to find ways to cut him loose—without making Kamala Harris his successor.

About Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is an American military historian, columnist, a former classics professor, and scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush. Hanson is also a farmer (growing raisin grapes on a family farm in Selma, California) and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism. He is the author most recently of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, The Case for Trump and the newly released The Dying Citizen.

BEYOND GIFTED PRESIDENT TRUMP, WHERE ARE AMERICA’S CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS? WHY DON’T THEY THINK, MEET, SPEAK?

June 23, 2022

Tucker Carlson savages Republican politicians’ disrespect for Americans

By Andrea Widburg at American Thinker:

Tucker Carlson’s puckishness is a bit brittle lately.  Rather than having fun poking at political foibles while still making interesting points, he often seems genuinely angry lately.  I can’t blame him because I’m angry, too, at what Biden and his cohorts have done to America.  What makes me even angrier is that congressional Republicans and many Republican governors seem happy to go along with this.  Sure, they’ll sometimes make the right noises (Lindsey Graham’s a master at this), but at the end of the day, they side with Democrats — and last night, Tucker lit up the Republicans for their disconnect with the American people.

Tucker opened his monologue by pointing out that the American people have come to despise Biden and his policies.  Despite the media’s covering for Biden, people have noticed raging inflation, a recession, lawlessness, broken borders, a tenderness for Ukraine denied to America, cultivated race-hatred, efforts to disarm law-abiding citizens, and the arrogance of the LGBTQ+++ crowd — and they don’t like any of it.  It turns out that mean tweets aren’t so bad when compared to a government that’s hostile to its own citizens.

The Democrats’ intentional mismanagement is so extreme that the party is losing Hispanics and blacks in droves.  In theory, this should be a golden age for Republicans.  It’s not, though, and that’s the fault of the Republican political class, few of whom seem to embrace conservatism or Americans.  Rather, as Tucker exposes in his hard-hitting monologue, their principles are aligned with Biden and his Democrat politicians and media flaks, and they share the Democrat political class’s disdain for Americans.

There’s no distance between what Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer want, on the one hand, and what Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, and all the other extremely powerful RINOs want:

• A monetary policy that gives the government more money to play with.
• An open border providing cheap labor for the monied Democrats and Republicans and possible decades of votes.
• A military-industrial complex that floods politicians with money as long as the politicians divert taxpayer money to Ukraine.
• A total bow-down to the Critical Race Theorists, which the Democrats do because it gives them political power and the Republicans do because they’re milquetoasts who are embarrassed about America.
• Same goes for the LGBTQ+++ tyranny that’s spreading across America.
• And, of course, an endless spigot of Chinese money; never mind that accepting it means selling out their own country.

Pay special attention to the last minute or so of Tucker’s speech.  It’s a warning I sincerely hope Republican politicians, from Mitch McConnell on down, heed, lest America become ungovernable and the whole American experiment devolves into a welter of violence, blood, and famine.

As for the video, for reasons that elude me, as of this writing, Fox has chosen not to upload the video of Tucker’s stunning monologue.  However, it has posted the transcript.  Also, although it may soon be pulled, here’s an unofficial recording of Tucker’s show, including the monologue:

Supreme Court Fascists Loose Their Lefty Weaponry Drive…..for now!

JUNE 23, 2022 BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN GUN CONTROL, SECOND AMENDMENT, SUPREME COURT

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS GUN RIGHTS

Today the Supreme Court decided New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a challenge to a New York State law that barred residents from obtaining a carry permit unless they could show “proper cause.” Proper cause, in turn, required the applicant to “demonstrate a special need for self-protection distinguishable from that of the general community.”

Under the Court’s controlling precedents, Heller and McDonald, I think the New York law was obviously unconstitutional. The Court has held that self-defense is the core purpose of the Second Amendment, which means that members of the “general community”–not just those who “demonstrate a special need”–are entitled to keep and bear arms. So, contrary to many news accounts, today’s holding did not “expand” gun rights. It re-confirmed what the Court has already held more than once, and it rejected balancing tests that some courts have used to try to evade Heller and McDonald.

Today’s decision was 6-3, with Justice Thomas writing the majority opinion and the Court’s arch-liberal wing holding out. No surprise there. If anything is surprising about the Bruen case, it is that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals voted to uphold the New York law. I find it hard to see how that ruling represented a good faith attempt to apply Heller and McDonald.

On Twitter, I noticed a blue-check liberal noting the outrageous contradiction that the Court today held that the Constitution limits the states’ ability to regulate firearms, while it is widely expected that the Court soon will hold that the Constitution does not limit the states’ ability to regulate abortions. I couldn’t resist responding that a subtle distinction is at work here: the Constitution explicitly protects the right to keep and bear arms, while it says nothing about abortion. But what can you expect from a liberal?

THE INVASION!

UNE 23, 2022 BY SCOTT JOHNSON at Power Line:

REDISTRIBUTION, ILLEGAL ALIEN EDITION

The Biden administration has worked a new twist in the Democrats’ mania for redistribution. However, this scheme is to be conducted in private. Attention is not to be paid. It is a big secret.

The New York Post’s Miranda Devine has been on the case for a while. In her New York Post column today she adds a dose of media criticism. A subhead in the column aptly describes the media as “Joe’s propaganda arm.” Her column is “The mainstream media’s lies on secret migrant flights.”

On the subject of redistribution, Devine has retweeted Luke Rosiak’s mapping of the secret flights (below). See Rosiak’s Daily Wire story on the flights here. Devine and Rosiak are doing the job “Joe’s propaganda arm” refuses to do.

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Devine’s column also draws back to give us the (unbelievably grim) big picture. The tweet below offers one current view.

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“The Biden energy crisis is self-made”!

Biden: Hey, that Chevron guy sure is sensitive, isn’t he?

by KAREN TOWNSEND ….Jun 22, 2022 at HotAir:

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The Biden energy crisis is self-made. Oil and gas executives are well aware of how we got here and they are beginning to push back on Biden’s finger-pointing. Biden has called a meeting for Thursday for top oil and gas executives at the White House.

We can gauge the seriousness of Biden’s intent to do what he can to bring down the price of gas at the pump and encourage more oil production by the fact that he isn’t even going to meet with the oil and gas executives. He’s sending Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and other administration members instead of taking the meeting himself. Imagine being called to the White House on the premise that the president wants you to do more to help with the situation he has gotten us into but he can’t be bothered to talk to the executives himself.

Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth is the latest to respond to Biden’s continued vilification of the oil and gas industry. Wirth sent a letter to Biden addressing Biden’s demands that gas prices be lowered, fuel supplies be increased, and more oil be refined. Wirth said there is little that the industry can do to lower prices immediately. The meeting at the White House will not provide relief for drivers. “There are no easy fixes nor any short-term answers to the global supply and demand imbalances aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” Wirth gave a nod to Biden’s favorite excuse for all of his administration’s failures on energy policy and inflation now – it’s Putin’s fault.

There are no quick fixes or easy answers. Biden refuses to utilize an all-of-the-above approach to energy production, the only approach that produces successful American energy independence, as we experienced during the previous administration. Biden has taken the opposite approach, shutting down drilling, canceling lease sales, and increasing regulations and red tape to slow the process. Then, when the market reflects the results of Biden’s poor energy policies, all he can do is complain that oil and gas companies are making too much money and point a finger at everyone but himself.

Wirth told Biden that an new approach is needed, including incorporating his “whole of government” philosophy in addressing major issues to the energy crisis. He defended his employees and the company. He also mentioned that it is not helpful that “your Administration has largely sought to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry. These actions are not beneficial to meeting the challenges we face and are not what the American people deserve.” And, whether Biden wants to acknowledge it or not, Chevron, like other companies, is using and developing green energy techniques and solutions.

In 2021, Chevron produced the highest volume of oil and gas in our 143-year history. In the first quarter of 2022, our U.S. production was 1.2 million barrels per day, up 109,000 barrels per day from the same quarter a year earlier. In the Permian Basin alone, we expect production to approach 750,000 barrels per day by the end of the year, an increase of more than 15 percent from 2021. And Chevron’s U.S. refinery input grew to 915,000 barrels per day on average in the first quarter of this year from 881,000 in the same quarter last year.

In addition to increasing American oil and gas production, Chevron is also investing $10 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and scale new advanced energy technologies, like carbon capture and hydrogen, along with growing our renewable liquid fuels production capacity to 100,000 barrels/day by 2030. America will lead in these critical new industries, creating jobs at home and exporting them to the world to meet energy and climate objectives.

American oil and gas supplies are among the most efficient, responsibly produced, and lowest carbon intensity supplies in the world. At roughly 15 kg of CO2-equivalent per barrel, Chevron’s Permian Basin carbon intensity is some two-thirds lower than the global industry average. U.S. Gulf of Mexico production has carbon intensity just a fraction of the global industry average. Increasing American production will offset barrels produced in other parts of the world that may not support America’s energy security, economic competitiveness, or environmental goals.

I want to be clear that Chevron shares your concerns over the higher prices that Americans are experiencing. And I assure you that Chevron is doing its part to help address these challenges by increasing capital expenditures to $18 billion in 2022, more than 50% higher than last year.

We need clarity and consistency on policy matters ranging from leases and permits on federal lands, to the ability to permit and build critical infrastructure, to the proper role of regulation that considers both costs and benefits. Many of these elements are described in our industry’s recently released 10-point plan. Most importantly, we need an honest dialogue on how to best balance energy, economic, and environmental objectives – one that recognizes our industry is a vital sector of the U.S. economy and is essential to our national security.

We can only meet these challenges by working together. Chevron will engage in this week’s meeting with Secretary Granholm. I encourage you to also send your senior advisors to this meeting, so they too can engage in a robust conversation. Your “whole of government” philosophy in addressing major issues should apply here too, as a comprehensive approach is best to address the energy needs of our nation and of our allies.

Chevron is increasing capital expenditures, producing oil and gas at the company’s highest level, and using techniques like carbon capture in the field. What more can they do? Well, Joe Biden decided to ridicule Wirth yesterday instead of noting that Chevron is willing to be a partner in good faith with this White House. He referred to Wirth as “sensitive” and said he had no idea his feelings would be hurt. Really?

Asked about the letter during a White House event, Biden called Wirth “mildly sensitive”, saying he “didn’t know they would get their feelings hurt so quickly”. He called on the industry to increase fuel supply.

Wirth’s feelings aren’t hurt. Oil and gas executives are finally pushing back on being scapegoated by this incompetent boob in the White House. They are angry, as they should be. Last week, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods responded.

While at an event last week, Biden took aim specifically at Exxon Mobil, accusing it of hoarding cash while making “more than God last year,” referring to the $23 billion in profits the oil supermajor posted last year.

“The reason they’re not drilling is they’re buying back their own stock, which should be taxed quite frankly, buying back their own stock and making no new investments,” Biden said. “So I always thought Republicans are for investment. Exxon: start investing and start paying your taxes, thanks.”

In Exxon Mobil’s response the company said it’s invested more than $50 billion and increased U.S. oil production nearly 50 percent over the past five years. The company also pointed to its efforts to boost refining capacity.

“Specific to refining capacity in the U.S., we’ve been investing through the downturn to increase refining capacity to process U.S. light crude by about 250,000 barrels per day – the equivalent of adding a new medium-sized refinery,” the letter said. “We kept investing even during the pandemic, when we lost more than $20 billion and had to borrow more than $30 billion to maintain investment to increase capacity to be ready for post-pandemic demand.”

It is painfully clear that Biden is clueless on how the private sector works, especially the oil and gas industry. Is it a surprise that investors don’t want to put their money into things like new refineries while the far left and their rubes like Biden shut them down or deny permits to build new ones? Both CEOs ask for consistency. The Biden administration asks for more energy production and more refining now but also insists that they will work to shut it all down in the coming years. Who wants to gamble capital on that kind of logic?

Biden is being led around by the nose by the far left who only want to talk about green energy. He appointed Jennifer Granholm of all people to be energy secretary. Biden began his term in office by shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline on his very first day in office. It’s been downhill since then. Oil and gas executives deserve credit for even traveling to D.C. and taking the meeting at the White House. They know they’ll be stabbed in the back as soon as they leave.

Remember THE GREATEST CON-ARTIST RACIST EVER TO DICTATE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE?

Did Spotify let the Obamas go? Former first couple strikes multi-million dollar deal with Audible

KAREN TOWNSEND Jun 22, 2022 8:01 PM ET

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Democratic National Convention via AP

Barack and Michelle Obama have left Spotify for Amazon-owned Audible. The former first couple began podcasting for Spotify with a series of shows from their production company, Higher Ground. The production company was co-founded by the Obamas who have inked an exclusive, multiyear first-look deal with Audible. Audible is on a winning streak by signing high-profile celebrities and public figures in Hollywood.

I ask if Spotify let them go and that spurred on the change for the Obamas because of a statement made by Spotify on the Obama’s new deal. I highlighted the words in bold print. The Obamas are coming at it as an opportunity to reach a larger audience. And Audible is focusing on establishing long-term deals with big names.

“We are incredibly proud of our partnership with Higher Ground and while we declined to extend our deal we are excited about the series we made together and those still to come in the months ahead,” a Spotify spokesperson told THR.

The move to Audible follows Higher Ground’s exit from Spotify, where the production company — founded by Barack and Michelle Obama — previously had a multiyear deal to create podcasts exclusively for the Stockholm-based audio giant. Though Audible’s original content, known as Audible Originals, is typically made available only for subscribers, the Amazon-owned company does offer some of its original content on all major audio platforms, providing the Obamas with the opportunity to reach a broader audience in comparison to shows that have previously launched exclusively on Spotify.

In an interview with THR earlier this year, Rachel Ghiazza, Audible’s executive vp and head of U.S. content, and Zola Mashariki, head of Audible Studios, said the company seeks to create long-lasting partnerships with talent by offering a wide berth of creative freedom as well as support from Audible’s in-house audio teams. “We’re not trying to do, necessarily, a one-and-done situation,” Ghiazza said in April of the company’s dealmaking process. “We’re signing up to be partners for a really long time.”

With its first-look deal with Audible, Higher Ground will now be joining a roster that includes stars like Kerry Washington, Issa Rae, George Clooney, Lena Waithe, Laura Dern, Queen Latifah, LeBron James, Kevin Hart and Charlamagne tha God — all of whom have also inked multiyear deals with Audible through their various production arms.

It sounds like the Obama deal was a short-term one. Take the cash and go. I wonder if Harry and Meghan will follow suit, since they have patterned their media exposure like that of the Obamas, including a Spotify deal of their own. Are they the next to sign on with Audible? Well, Spotify always has Joe Rogan, so that’s not too shabby. Spotify may just be making room to keep some podcasts and move to other genres. Everyone and their brother has a podcast these days, no doubt the market is getting saturated.

The end of Higher Ground’s contract with Spotify also marks a turning point for Spotify’s $1 billion podcast expansion, where some of those funds have gone toward exclusive deals with high-profile talent like the Obamas and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as well as major podcast creators like Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper. But amid a reorganization of the company’s podcast leadership team, acquisitions of major audio tech companies and expectations of turning its podcast business profitable in the next few years, Spotify may turn more of its focus toward growing its existing stable of podcasts and making headways into narrative fiction, especially given the recent success of Batman Unburied, the Spotify original series created with Warner Bros. and DC.

Barack Obama put a happy face on the announcement. Why not? He’s making millions at either outlet.

“At Higher Ground, we have always sought to lift up voices that deserve to be heard — and Audible is invested in realizing that vision alongside us,” President Obama said. “I’m looking forward to partnering with them to tell stories that not only entertain, but also inspire.”

Michelle Obama’s message was the same as Barack’s – Let us inspire you with our wonderful selves. Or something. However, Michelle has an odd way of inspiring people to get out and vote. She chose to use a doom and gloom message that democracy in our country is “fading” during a democracy summit.

“We are so proud of the stories we have been able to tell at Higher Ground, and there’s no one we’d rather write our next chapter with than Audible,” said Michelle Obama in the Audible press release. “Together, we will keep striving to tell compelling, provocative, and soulful stories—while doing everything we can to make sure they reach the folks who need to hear them.”

Michelle Obama spoke at the Culture of Democracy Summit this month, where she claimed that democracy in the U.S. is “fading.”

When We All Vote is a voting registration campaign started in 2018 with the help of Obama, who made the remarks as part of the summit’s keynote speech.

“No one has the luxury to sit out or stay at home just because you’re not feeling excited enough. If you don’t vote, other people will,” Obama said.

Get out and vote or someone else will. Hmm. Pretty sure whether or not someone votes, someone else always will, too. Good heavens. Who writes these messages for them?