March 3, 2023

Friday,Friday, March 3, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup

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Joe is always busy.

Biden team enlists top Democrats in early bid for campaign unity.

President Biden’s team is moving quickly to build a “national advisory board” stocked with Democratic governors, senators and other political stars who will travel and speak on Biden’s behalf during his expected reelection campaign, an early effort to unify party leaders and minimize the chance of dissent.


The group, which will be housed at the Democratic National Committee and formally announced this month, is among steps Biden aides are taking to prepare for the president’s likely reelection bid, which he is expected to announce in April. In joining the operation, the political leaders will be asked to travel, attend events, appear on television and perform other duties as high-level surrogates for the Democratic Party, at first, and then Biden once he launches his campaign.


Biden aides said some Democrats are still being asked to join the effort, but they have already enlisted more than 20 national figures. They include such influential governors as Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Wes Moore of Maryland, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Phil Murphy of New Jersey.

Some of the recruits represent the party’s left flank, with which Biden has had a mostly friendly but sometimes uneasy relationship, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.).

Rounding out the advisory board are longtime Biden allies, including Sen Christopher A. Coons (Del.) and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.), as well as Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Rep. Veronica Escobar (Tex.). New York Mayor Eric Adams and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are also part of the group. (Washington Post).
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Kamala is always busy.

The Excellence of Kamala Harris Is Hiding in Plain Sight by Donna Brazile.

Vice President Kamala Harris occupies an office that can be the butt of jokes and criticism. The only duties of the vice president spelled out in the Constitution are to cast tiebreaking votes in the Senate and to become president if the office becomes vacant.

I have watched politicians up close for decades. And‌ I have known Vice President Harris for years and urged Joe Biden to make her his running mate in 2020. I ‌believe that the criticism of her is unrelated to her performance as vice president and fails to account for the role she plays in the White House.

As a consequential and successful vice president himself for eight years under Barack Obama, President Biden has a keen understanding of the job he once held and he has tasked Vice President Harris with major responsibilities. She has done an outstanding job and her record in two years stands up to that of her predecessors. Has she solved every problem? No, but name me one vice president who has.

We should think about our expectations for the vice presidency. It was only starting with the presidency of Jimmy Carter, and the role Vice President Walter Mondale played in foreign and domestic policy, that the job became more than a ceremonial position. Vice President Harris ranks third in breaking Senate ties (and first in the first two years in office), after John C. Calhoun and John Adams. While some claim that her duties breaking ties in the Senate have limited her scope of influence, the reality is that Ms. Harris regularly traveled the country to meet with Americans even as she cast the tiebreaking vote on key legislation to better the lives of the American people, including the Inflation Reduction Act.

To advance President Biden’s objective to strengthen America’s foreign alliances, Ms. Harris has met (mostly in person) with more than 100 world leaders to repair damage to our international relationships caused by Donald Trump.

At the Munich Security Conference in February she announced that the Biden administration has formally concluded that Russia is guilty of “crimes against humanity” in its war against Ukraine and warned China not to assist Russia in its invasion. Through public-private partnerships, she helped raise over $4.2 billion to address the root cause of migration from Central America.

Ms. Harris has pushed for federal legislation to secure voting rights, worked to expand access to the child tax and earned-income tax credits, is co-leader of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, was an integral part of the White House’s push to get Americans vaccinated against Covid, and is the chair of the National Space Council.

Questions have been raised about the fitness of just about every vice president to move into the Oval Office should the president die or is unable to continue serving for another reason. Mr. Biden knew what he was doing when he selected Ms. Harris to be his vice president and had confidence that she would be up to the task of succeeding him if necessary. I hope that never happens, but if tragedy strikes, Mr. Biden’s judgment will be proven correct.

Ms. Harris has been derided by some as an affirmative-action hire, perhaps because Mr. Biden pledged to select a female running mate when he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Ms. Harris has more experience in elected office than several past presidents and vice presidents — a successful record beginning in 2004 as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general and including four years as U.S. senator.

It shouldn’t be so hard for a leader like Ms. Harris, so visible in the office she holds, to get some credit where credit is due. (New York Times).

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Maybe we should stop calling it “Fox News.”

Finally, Democrats appear ready to wage war on Fox News.

[It’s ] becoming clear that interacting with Fox News as a news outlet in any sense is no longer an option for Democrats.

In light of the news that network personalities knowingly deceived viewers about the 2020 election for cynical pecuniary purposes, Democrats plainly have to take on Fox News in a new way.

And some of them know it.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a moment like this, where a major news network has been exposed as deliberately deluding its viewers or readers,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told me. “This is a seminal moment in the history of mass media. And we need to treat it that way.”

But what should that look like?


This week, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled an aggressive posture in a letter to Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch.

The two New York Democrats demanded that the network get star anchor Tucker Carlson and others to recant their lies about the 2020 election on the air.

The letter said:


Though you have acknowledged your regret in allowing this grave propaganda to take place, your network hosts continue to promote, spew, and perpetuate election conspiracy theories to this day.


This might be the first time that the Democratic congressional leadership has formally labeled Fox News content “propaganda.”

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Ole Donald had opinions on Fox too.

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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack: How the USDA plans to protect families losing SNAP pandemic benefits.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards ...previously referred to as “food stamps.” At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Congress boosted SNAP payments, keeping as many as 4.2 million people out of poverty. Congress ended those extra benefits late last year through the Consolidated Appropriations Act that funded the government. About 42 million Americans receive SNAP benefits, and the end of that boost will cut those benefits by $90 a month on average. (Sources include Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American).

(CNN) — Our country was founded to support the prosperity and potential of Americans in every corner of the nation. Under President Joe Biden’s administration, we’re making good on this promise.

The price of gas is down, employment is up and we’ve seen record exports for American goods. But for those who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, federal benefits to help put food on the tables for their families, March will bring new challenges as temporary benefit increases brought on by the pandemic come to an end.

Among the many lessons learned during the past few years was just how vital SNAP is. During the health crisis, this bump in benefits – known as emergency allotments – was a lifeline for the over 41 million Americans receiving SNAP. It helped many Americans consistently feed themselves and their loved ones amid the strain of unemployment, illness and an uncertain future. As a result of this benefit increase and other pandemic assistance, hunger and hardship – though still profound – were not as widespread as they could have been.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recognizes the value of SNAP to the American people. Not only for the program’s participants – parents, people with disabilities, our seniors and those meeting work and training requirements – but also to the broader economy. When participants use their SNAP benefits to buy food at their local businesses, those purchases also support the grocery store employees, truck drivers delivering foods and the farmers and producers who make the food.

In 18 states, governors have ended the SNAP emergency allotments. In March, the remainder will end under a provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, a large government funding package passed by Congress, that Biden signed into law late last year. As this happens, USDA is committed to doing everything we can to strengthen the underlying SNAP program and leverage all of our programs to increase food and nutrition security for American families.

We’ve already taken a big step to do just that by re-evaluating the Thrifty Food Plan – which forms the basis of SNAP benefits – to better reflect the cost of a practical, nutritious diet. This work resulted in the first permanent increase to the purchasing power of SNAP benefits since the Thrifty Food Plan was introduced 45 years ago, which means that SNAP benefits will stretch further and healthy food is more in reach. In October, USDA adjusted benefits to keep pace with rising food costs. These actions mean that even though benefits next month will be lower than they’ve been in recent years due to the expiration of emergency allotments, SNAP will still go further than it did at the start of the pandemic.

We’re also working to expand access to healthy school meals, connect more pregnant women, moms and young children to our Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program and deliver additional food-buying benefits over the summer to low-income families with children.

One of USDA’s top priorities in the National Strategy for Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, released as part of the historic White House Conference held last September, is advancing a pathway to free healthy school meals for all. And we know hunger doesn’t take a break when school is out for the summer. We are working with states again this summer to provide families with children extra benefits for groceries when their kids aren’t receiving meals from school, and we will be able to make that program permanent starting in the summer of 2024.

Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, USDA is also investing in modernizing the WIC program and expanding community outreach, so we can reach more eligible mothers and young children and improve the service they receive, setting them up for healthy outcomes. And as part of his agenda to build the economy from the bottom up and middle out, Biden has called on Congress to invest in child care, restore the full Child Tax Credit and cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for everyone, building on the cap that we’ve added for seniors on Medicare. (CNN. op-ed).

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Department of Justice rejects Trump claim of ‘categorical’ immunity from Jan. 6 lawsuits.

The Justice Department urged a federal appeals court Thursday to reject former President Donald Trump’s sweeping claim of immunity from a slew of civil suits stemming from his actions and statements on Jan. 6, 2021.

“The United States respectfully submits that the Court should reject that categorical argument,” DOJ lawyers wrote in a 32-page brief submitted by acting Civil Division chief Brian Boynton.

The department’s brief is a notable benchmark in the long-running lawsuits that arose from the Capitol attack. Several members of Congress and Capitol Police officers sued Trump and his allies for damages, contending that they helped incite Trump’s rally crowd to violence that day.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled last year that they had made a plausible case, permitting the suit to move forward. He noted that while presidents typically enjoy sweeping immunity from lawsuits for their public remarks, Trump’s speech arguably crossed a line into incitement of violence that would not be protected. (Politico).

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Dobbs Verdict on Abortion puts America in an embarrassing spotlight in the world.

Human rights groups urge U.N. to protect abortion rights in the U.S.

Almost 200 human rights organizations from across the world have issued an “urgent appeal” to the United Nations to intervene to ensure the United States protects reproductive rights — after a Supreme Court ruling last year overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.

In a letter issued Thursday, nonprofits and civil society groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Global Justice Center, as well as dozens of smaller U.S.-based charities have written to the U.N. warning that “people residing in the US who can become pregnant are facing a human rights crisis.” (Washington Post).

Click here to read the letter sent.
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Women's History Month grew out of a weeklong commemoration by Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Before it was a full month, there was Women's History Week.

In 1978, Sonoma County, Calif., held the first known Women's History Week to align with International Women's Day.

At the time, women's history was "virtually an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum or in general public consciousness," according to the National Women's History Alliance.

The idea quickly spread to other counties and organizations across the country that held their own events about women's history, and a group of advocates began lobbying for a national Women's History Week.

By 1980, their goal was realized. In February, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamationdeclaring the week of March 2-8, 1980, as Women's History Week.

In his proclamation, Carter noted that men and women have worked together to help build the United States since the country's founding.

"Too often, the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed," he wrote. "But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength, and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well."

Carter also used the moment to call for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which has been approvedby 38 states but still remains in legal limbo. (NPR).

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A sight to behold. Northern lights in NYS.

See northern lights put on a dazzling display across Upstate NY skies (photos) - newyorkupstate.com

Photographers across the state captured the aurora skies on Sunday and Monday night.