November 21, 2021
Late Morning Update:
** Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Experts say that even as gerrymanders become ever more egregious, the legal avenues to overturn them are becoming narrower.... More and more states -- mostly Republican like Ohio and Texas, but now Democratic ones like Illinois -- are drawing maps that effectively guarantee that the party in power stays in power.... The racial impact of the maps is sweeping. The government accountability watchdog group Common Cause said a quarter of the 36 state legislative seats held by African Americans, all Democrats, would be likely to flip Republican.... The Supreme Court in 2019 ended a decades-long debate over the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering, saying it was up to Congress, not the courts, to fix politically skewed maps. The court also has made it harder to prove that political districts were drawn to reduce minority voters' clout...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Okay then, just as our good friends the Supremes say, Congress alone can fix it! Oh, wait, ~~~
~~~ Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: Kyrsten Sinema (D-ish-Az.) "said this week she remains firmly opposed to changing federal election laws on a partisan basis, signaling that a planned last-ditch voting rights push that party leaders and activists are planning for the closely divided Senate in the coming months is likely to fail." MB: If she's so smart, why is she playing dumb?
Joshua Zitser of the Insider, republished in Yahoo! News: "Kyle Rittenhouse's criminal defense attorney [Mark Richards] told Insider that he thinks it is 'disgusting' that some prominent Republicans have tried to cash in on his client's acquittal." Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz & Madison Cawthorn all claim they are bidding to hire Rittenhouse as an intern. "Richards also spoke negatively of Donald Trump Jr. tweeting that a gun rights organization would "award" Rittenhouse with an AR-15." According to Ali Veshi of MSNBC, Gosar said Rittenhouse should get the Congressional Medal of Freedom.
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Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden and members of his inner circle have reassured allies in recent days that he plans to run for reelection in 2024, as they take steps to deflect concern about the 79-year-old president's commitment to another campaign and growing Democratic fears of a coming Republican return to power. The efforts come as the broader Democratic community has become increasingly anxious after a bruising six-month stretch that has seen Biden's national approval rating plummet more than a dozen points, into the low 40s, amid growing concerns about inflation, Democratic infighting in Washington and faltering public health efforts to move beyond the covid-19 pandemic. The message is aimed in part at tamping down the assumption among many Democrats that Biden may not seek reelection...."
Jasmine Wright of CNN: "Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff achieved another first in their historic roles when they affixed a white mezuzah to the right-hand side of the doorway of the vice presidential residence. The moment the sacred object was affixed to the Naval Observatory's wooden entryway marked the first time an executive home has carried the abiding sign of sanctity of a Jewish home, according to Rabbi Peter Berg of Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (The Temple) in Atlanta, which loaned the mezuzah. Berg led the private ceremony at the Naval Observatory in October. Emhoff is the first Jewish spouse of a president or a vice president, and Harris is the first woman and first woman of color to hold her title." MB: Probably just nailed up the mezuzah to make all the white-Christian-nation people even crazier. MichaelFlynnskin just rent himself in half.
Michael Laris & Ian Duncan of the Washington Post: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's "role overseeing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investments puts Buttigieg at the center of one of the Biden administration's chief accomplishments, with implications for his boss's future and his own. He was handed the resources to uncork ambitious projects across the country, elevating local ideas and reshaping federal transportation priorities. About $1 billion in grants the department awarded Friday offers a taste of the administration goals as it eyes much bigger spending through the infrastructure package. Buttigieg prioritized equity and environmental criteria in making the awards and shifted emphasis away from road-building efforts the Trump administration favored." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So if Republicans take over at least one House of Congress, I predict with 100 percent certainty that Republicans will expend a helluva lot of energy drumming up & "investigating" fake scandals about how Pete has mismanaged something or the other. If Democrats manage to hold onto both Houses -- unlikely -- Republicans will still make up scandals about Pete, but they won't be able to do much fake "investigating." With great power comes a great target on your back.
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: Speaker Nancy Pelosi's efforts to shepherd the Build Back Better bill through the House "-- fraught with challenges and littered with near-death experiences for the bill -- finally paid off on Friday with House passage of the $2.2 trillion social policy and climate change package. Along the way, Ms. Pelosi, who is known for delivering legislative victories in tough circumstances, was forced repeatedly to pull back from a floor showdown on the bill as she labored to unite the feuding liberal and moderate factions in her caucus. A crucial but less-seen part of her task was sounding out and cajoling a pair of Democratic holdouts in the Senate, [Joe] Manchin [W. Va.] and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who were opposed to major elements of [President] Biden's plan and had the power to upend whatever delicate deal Ms. Pelosi was able to strike."
Abigail Hauslohner of the Washington Post: "More than two months after the United States' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the federal government is still in the process of resettling roughly 45,000 Afghans housed in temporary camps on U.S. military bases after they were airlifted from their home country. Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico is among eight facilities that became hubs for one of the largest humanitarian resettlement operations in U.S. history. Biden administration officials say about 73,000 Afghans have arrived in the United States since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Holloman received 7,100, half of them children, between late August and early October. They include Afghans who risked their lives to aid the U.S. government during its two-decade war effort in their country, officials say. Others are relatives of those who served or of U.S. citizens, as well as many others who felt at risk in Taliban-held Afghanistan."
Aya Elamroussi of CNN: "Authorities are searching for the man who escaped an Atlanta airport security checkpoint after a weapon was discharged Saturday, frightening travelers and temporarily grounding flights at one of world's busiest airports the weekend before Thanksgiving. Officials believe the weapon that was discharged at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was in a bag belonging to Kenny Wells, a passenger who, police say, ran away with the weapon in hand. Wells, 42, is wanted on warrants accusing him of carrying a concealed a weapon at a commercial airport, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, discharging a firearm and reckless conduct, Atlanta Police Department Airport Precinct Commander Reginald L. Moorman said.... Saturday's incident unfolded around 1:30 p.m., when the passenger's property was flagged for a 'secondary search' after the X-ray screening at the security checkpoint detected a 'prohibited item,' Robert Spinden, the TSA's federal security director for Georgia, said during a news conference. 'During that secondary search, the passenger lunged into his property, grabbing a firearm that was located inside, which ultimately discharged,' Spinden said. 'The passenger then fled the security checkpoint through an adjacent exit lane with his firearm.'"
Brakkton Booker of Politico: Kyle "Rittenhouse's acquittal, scholars say, sends a signal to those who want to take up arms to defend property or attend politically or racially charged events: There is legal ground for you to use your weapon. Just claim fear. Those protections though likely will not extend to everyone. 'I don't have to tell you this, there is no set of circumstances, no reading of the law, no rendering of the imagination, in which a Black person could get away with this,' said Cornell William Brooks, former president and CEO of the NAACP, who now teaches at Harvard University. 'What this case says legally may be good for Kyle Rittenhouse. What it says culturally is dangerous in terms of racialized violence.'... [Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor,] says there’s a throughline from the armed vigilante presence in Kenosha unrest to the Jan. 6 attack by supporters of ... Donald Trump, who at his urging, sought to stop the certification of now-President Joe Biden's electoral college victory."
Beyond the Beltway
Ohio. AP: Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law a map of new congressional districts on Saturday that will be in effect for the next four years, despite objections from Democrats and voting rights groups. DeWine said in a statement that, compared with other proposals from House and Senate lawmakers from both parties, the Senate legislation he signed 'makes the most progress to produce a fair, compact, and competitive map.'... Democrats blasted the Republican-led mapmaking process as unfair, partisan and cloaked in secrecy.... The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the map an F grade. The new law creates at most three safe Democratic districts out of 15 new U.S. House seats in a state where voters are split roughly 54% Republican, 46% Democratic."
Texas. AP: "U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a trailblazing Black Democrat in Texas who has served in Congress for nearly 30 years, announced Saturday that she will not seek reelection next year. Johnson, 85, is a political fixture in her hometown of Dallas, where early in her career she became the first Black woman to serve the city in the state Senate since Reconstruction. She grew up in the segregated South and was elected in 1992 to Congress, where she became the first Black woman to chair the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. 'There is a good reason I should stay: I am a personal friend to the president, I have gained some respect and influence,' Johnson said during her announcement. But she said plans to keep a promise she made after winning the Democratic primary in March that her current term would be her last."
Way Beyond
Russia. Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: Marina Butina, former Russian spy (or something), is now a member of the Russian Duma representing the Kirov region. She got her job either as a reward for her U.S. shenanigans or because of her ambush interview of Russian political prisoner Aleksei Navalny, which was very favorable to the state.' MB: In recent photos, she looks very smart. You won't come across a more ambitious person than Butina.
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SUNDAY STING:
God with his right, bright, blue eye–-the left closed by a bad sting from one of those nasty scorpions that swarmed into villages in southern Egypt stinging at least 503 people–-God making it 504–- because of all that flash flooding going on, is once again on the move. If God would stay put in his heavenly haven this mishegoss would not be a concern. But our God can't help himself, finger in all those pies–- sigh. Now he's off to take a gander at the Harris/Emhoff Mezuzah–-as a Jew, this tickles his fancy. From there he's paying a visit to a certain judge in Wisconsin. If I heard him correctly, I think he mentioned something about bringing scorpions. Guy whips!
Happy Birthday to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The 46th President of the USA
Let us not forget deny or diminish how fortunate we are that it's his aged carcass in the White House--
Maureen Dowd's column today is worth a read. She gives us some history, shows off her French and concentrates on the "divorce" of the Brits and the French and she does it with "savoir vivre." She begins by telling us she is studying for a masters at Columbia U. and had to read "Henry V." and watch the wonderful old film* starring Olivier.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/opinion/uk-france-submarine.html
* My 8th grade Social Studies teacher had us watch that film and I still feel the impact of that experience. I can see the darkened room with a peek of sun coming through one of the windows and me being thoroughly engaged in the drama of that film while Charmaine Martin and I took turns tickling each other's arms.
Oh WTF it was yesterday.
But the message is timeless, eh?
@NJC: Someplace I saw a headline something like, "Biden First President to Celebrate 79th Birthday in White House." I guess we're going to be treated to headlines like that every year with only the number changed.
Looking at the photo at the top of yesterday's edition, I got the impression that the turkey President Biden pardoned was a bit smaller and trimmer than usual. Often they are so obese that you wonder how they get around. And ... they don't much get around.
It also reminded me of another good thing the USG did, developing the Beltsville White Turkey to meet a consumer demand for relatively small, clean, deep-breasted turkeys. From that USDA program, breeders found that restaurants and commercial meat processors didn't really like the family-friendly White (too little meat per bird), so the BW eventually went away as a breeder mass product. We now have the Broad Breasted White, which is the kind that shows up at the White House every year for pardons, and they are designed to grow fast, cheap and heavy (40-50 lb), for restaurant and food processing preferences. The ones we (consumers) buy are generally smaller because they are killed younger.
Many people decry the white bird as an industrial product. And there are certainly big social problems that go with our love of meat. But I've always looked forward to that bird in the holiday period, and especially to the leftovers. There is something about slices of leftover white meat between two slices of white bread (yes - white bread!), a little salt and pepper and some mayo, that makes me feel ten years old again. Which is a pretty good age to feel.
Thank you USDA for all the research, on all kinds of food. It may not be the best in the world, but it is abundant and affordable. That is one of the primary goals of any good government (no famine, ready calories) and we take it for granted.
Patrick: I'm uplifted by your aficionado's lore about turkeys. I got the lore of working in turkey barns when I was younger. I lost the aficionado stuff at that time. Enjoy!