April 27, 2023

Thursday, April 27, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

To read an article excerpted in this Roundup, click on its blue title. Each “blue” article is hyperlinked so you can read the whole article.

Please feel free to share.

Invite at least one other person to subscribe today! buttondown.email/AnnettesNewsRoundup

___________________________

Joe is always busy.

___________________________

Who is Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden's new 2024 campaign manager?

When he became president, Joe Biden placed a bust of Cesar Chavez, the legendary labor rights organizer, in the Oval Office. Now Chavez’s granddaughter Julie Chavez Rodriguez, already the highest-ranking Latina in the White House, has been named the manager of his 2024 campaign, which Biden formally announced in a video released on Tuesday morning.

Her rise from the Central Valley of California to the halls of power in Washington is a personal triumph as well as a symbol of Latinos’ growing prominence within the Democratic Party and in national politics.

And in a city where every political star-in-the-making can expect unflattering rumors from former colleagues or jealous rivals, Chavez Rodriguez appears to have engendered an unusual amount of genuine goodwill.

“She’s great as a leader, and she’s great as a manager,” Ron Klain, the former White House chief of staff and one of Biden’s closest aides, told Yahoo News, pronouncing himself a “huge fan” of Chavez Rodriguez.

Young staffers relatively new to Team Biden were similarly effusive.

“There aren’t enough good things to say about Julie,” a former White House colleague, Kevin Munoz, who is now also working on the Biden campaign, wrote on Twitter. “She works harder than anyone, gets the job done, zero ego — all while being an excellent colleague and friend. Knows how to build coalitions — critical to expanding our winning 2020 coalition.”

A storied legacy

Cesar Chavez, a native of Arizona with roots in Mexico, became a champion of California’s farmworkers throughout the 1950s and ’60s, helping them organize into unions that pushed for better pay and conditions. With his wife, Dolores Huerta, he helped found the National Farm Workers Association, now known as United Farm Workers, which became a powerhouse in both state and national politics.

Chavez Rodriguez grew up in Tehachapi, near the southern terminus of California’s immensely fertile Central Valley. “I spent my childhood in meetings, at rallies, walking picket lines, and handing out leaflets in front of supermarkets,” she has written. “I knew the names of the top five most harmful pesticides at the age of 12 and could recite some of my grandfather’s most widely known quotes.”

Many of the same concerns her grandfather faced and fought — exploitation, discrimination, low pay — continue to plague both the agricultural sector and other portions of the American economy.

Biden has vowed to restore “the dignity of work” by empowering unions and implementing trade policies that favor American companies. Chavez Rodriguez is thus an apt symbol of those aspirations, which progressive critics say the president has not always met.

Allies, however, say Chavez Rodriguez is far more than a living symbol of her grandfather’s towering legacy. “Being a Chavez is part of who she is,” Cecilia Muñoz, who worked with Chavez Rodriguez in the Obama administration, told the Associated Press. But she added that Chavez Rodríguez has earned her increasingly prominent positions based on her political acumen, not family connections.

“My family legacy is something I am deeply proud of; I stand on huge shoulders,” Chavez Rodriguez told NBC News in a 2015 interview. “But it is also not something I lead with when I meet people.”

From California to Washington, D.C.

Now 45, Chavez Rodriguez attended the University of California at Berkeley and later worked for the Cesar Chavez Foundation, which advocates for causes important to Latinos.

In 2008 she volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. She stayed on for both of his terms in the White House, rising to the position of deputy in the public engagement office.

“It takes consistent, sustained organizing and pressure to be able to see great progress in our country,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2014, as her profile in the Democratic establishment was rising.

She later went to work for Kamala Harris, who was elected to the Senate in 2016 and decided to seek the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2019. Harris earned the endorsement of the United Farm Workers, in what was widely seen as a major boost to her campaign.

A senior staffer on the Harris campaign praised Chavez Rodriguez as “unflappable and constantly focused on the task at hand,” telling Yahoo News that she “always had the trust and support of colleagues and, most importantly, the candidate.” The campaign faltered, but after Biden chose Harris as his vice presidential nominee, Chavez Rodriguez worked on the general election as a deputy campaign manager.

After the Biden-Harris ticket prevailed, Chavez Rodriguez joined the White House to lead the office of intergovernmental affairs.

Last summer, Biden promoted her to a senior adviser, a move that drew praise from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which said it was “proud that a Latina will advise President Biden as he makes critical decisions that impact our Latino communities across the country.”

Kevin Munoz, who is now in charge of media relations for the Biden campaign, says that coordinating natural disaster response and other relief efforts across jurisdictions as the intergovernmental affairs office director will serve as apt preparation for the fast-paced, sometimes chaotic nature of running a presidential campaign.

“There’s really no time to hold,” he said of her White House work. “It’s really about executing and operationalizing plans as quickly as possible, which is exactly what you need on a campaign.”

The coming campaign

Chavez Rodriguez will lead a campaign that has to contend with low enthusiasm for a second Biden term — or for a Biden-Trump rematch. Her top deputy will be Quentin Fulks, who helped Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., prevail over Herschel Walker, a former professional football star who had the support of Trump.

“Julie and Quentin are trusted, effective leaders that know the stakes of this election,” Biden said in a statement about their appointments that accompanied Tuesday’s reelection announcement.

She will likely have to compete for influence with the president, who will also be advised by longtime aides including Anita Dunn, Bruce Reed, Steve Ricchetti and Ron Klain, all of whom have also been top White House advisers.

Munoz predicted that those dynamics would not challenge the much younger Chavez Rodriguez, a relative newcomer to Biden’s inner circle. “Julie has deep connections in the White House,” he said.

Biden “has a great deal of confidence in her,” Klain told Yahoo News. (Yahoo News).

One more thing. Vice President Harris, keep those interviews going on Telemundo. Touch 👇 to watch one plus minute of her recent Telemundo interview.

___________________________

Ahead of the First ERA Senate Vote in 40 Years, a Nationwide Petition Launches.

Senate vote on the ERA is today. Call your Senators. You may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) just announced the first vote on the Equal Rights Amendment in the Senate in 40 years.

“The founding document has never been interpreted to guarantee that the rights of women and the rights of men as a class are simply equal,” said Schumer on Monday at a press conference at Hunter College in New York City. “That’s why I am calling for a vote on the Equal Rights Amendment.” The senator said the vote will happen “this week,” with floor debate on Wednesday and a vote on Thursday. (Ms. Magazine)

___________________________

Smart answer for those who doubt.

___________________________

Julie Su’s nomination as Labor Secretary advances.

Senate committee advances Biden labor secretary nominee - ABC News.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s nomination for the next labor secretary, Julie Su, advanced through a Senate committee Wednesday, but a handful of Democrats are withholding support, creating uncertainty ahead of a vote in the full chamber.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced Su's nomination on a party-line vote. Every Democrat on the committee voted in favor of Su, but a number of their Democratic colleagues have declined to publicly support Su.

“My hope is that ultimately we’ll be able to find the votes for her to be successful coming out of this committee and then on the Senate floor,” said Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. “But there’s no question in my mind that no one has ever been nominated to be secretary of labor who is better qualified.”

Su would be the first Asian American in the Biden administration to serve in the Cabinet at the secretary level. She was previously confirmed as the deputy labor secretary, but has faced a campaign from business groups critical of her record leading California’s labor department. They have run billboard and digital ads against Su in West Virginia, Montana and Arizona.

Unions and some business organizations, including the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, have spoken up to support Su’s nomination.

Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin, Jon Tester and Mark Kelly and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent, have all declined to say whether they would vote for her confirmation. The White House has worked to win over those holdouts and Su has met with several senators in recent days, but top Democrats have acknowledged her nomination remains in doubt.

The Biden administration cannot afford to lose more than a couple of Democratic votes in the closely-divided Senate. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is also recovering from shingles in California, with no firm return. (ABC).

___________________________

Smart, Senator Wyden.

Shouldn’t Clarence Thomas pay taxes on those gifts? Shouldn’t Harlan Crow pay gift taxes? (Oh, Crow doesn’t pay taxes?).

Were billionaire's gifts to Thomas taxable? Sen. Wyden wants to know.

Sen. Ron Wyden, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, is wielding his gavel like a powerful senator should. The Oregon Democrat penned a letter demanding that Texas billionaire Harlan Crow provide a detailed accounting of the gifts and travel Crow has provided to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as details of the real estate purchases Crow made from Thomas. The letter could serve as an opening salvo into an investigation of the transactions via tax records, because federal taxes are something Wyden’s committee has jurisdiction over. The “unprecedented arrangement between a wealthy benefactor and a Supreme Court justice raises serious concerns related to federal tax and ethics laws,” Wyden wrote. “The secrecy surrounding your dealings with Justice Thomas is simply unacceptable.”

Wyden notes in the letter that Thomas didn’t disclose the gifts because he was advised they were “not reportable,” potentially violating federal disclosure laws. While there might be questions about whether all those trips and dinners and gifts fall under the “personal hospitality” exceptions in the rules, Wyden wrote, ”the Internal Revenue Code provides no such exceptions for transfers of a gratuitous or personal nature.” (Daily Kos).

The Mouse roars!

Disney Sues DeSantis Over Control of Its Florida Resort.

The company claimed “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” which it said stemmed from its criticism of a contentious state education law.

The fight between Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and the Walt Disney Company is headed to court.

On Wednesday, a board appointed by Mr. DeSantis to oversee government services at Disney World voted to nullify two agreements that gave Disney vast control over expansion at the 25,000-acre resort complex. Within minutes, Disney sued Mr. DeSantis, the five-member board and other state officials in federal court, claiming “a targeted campaign of government retaliation.” (New York Times).

___________________________

E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump. A civil case about rape.

‘Donald Trump Raped Me": E. Jean Carroll on Donald Trump.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and shattered my reputation. I’m here to try to get my life back.”

That was during the first few moments of E. Jean Carroll’s testimony today in her civil rape trial against Donald Trump. She took the stand shortly after 11 a.m. and was poised as she described the alleged assault, at times, imperfectly. This appeared to be a strategic move on her lawyers’ part: By grilling Carroll on why she couldn’t remember the exact date of the event, whether she screamed and said “no,” and repeatedly eliciting testimony in which she blamed herself, they were preemptively addressing Team Trump’s presumptive legal strategy.

This question — the when, the when, the date — has just been something I’m constantly trying to pin down,” Carroll said.

The courtroom playbook for accused rapists almost always includes attacks on an accuser’s memory, on her motivation for coming forward (or for staying silent — you can’t win!), and on her overall mental state. Carroll attorney Michael Ferrara’s questions tackled this right away. Maybe Carroll didn’t remember every little thing that transpired, but the important points — how Trump allegedly goaded her into the dressing room, slammed her against the wall, tugged down her tights, and forced himself inside her — those details were clear. Those were the things that most certainly stuck with her.

The civil trial, in which Trump is accused of rape and defamation, began with jury selection yesterday. This morning, Trump described the case against him as a “made up SCAM.” Today, that jury of six men and three women looked on attentively, some scribbling notes, while Carroll described the fateful day when she said Trump sexually assaulted her.

She dropped by Bergdorf Goodman after she had wrapped filming her show for the day: “I was leaving the store. I was exiting.” He “put up his hand,” Carroll recalled, holding up her own: “It’s a universal sign for stop.”

“What did you do?” Ferrara asked. “I stopped,” she said.

“He said, ‘Hey, you’re that advice lady.’ I said ‘Hey, you’re that real-estate tycoon.’” Trump said he needed to buy something for a girl, she said, and “I was delighted. Here was Donald Trump asking me for advice to buy a present.” It was a “wonderful” prospect for a funny story.

They walked around the store, and Carroll suggested several things — a purse, a hat. “He had picked up a hat that was a fur hat, and he was petting it like a little cat or dog,” Carroll said. “And as he was petting it, he said, ‘I know — lingerie.’”

They traveled to the sixth floor. A lace bodysuit was on the counter of a display case. “He snatched it up and said, ‘Go put this on,’” Carroll said, lowering her voice to mimic the ex-president’s sometimes apish tone. Did she try it on? “No, I had no intention of putting this on.”

I said, ‘You put it on,’” Carroll testified. “He held it up. He held it against me. ‘You’re in shape, you put it on.’” Carroll, who said their banter was jovial, wasn’t worried; the whole thing seemed light, fun. “He was having a good time, and so was I.”

“I sort of saw it as a Saturday Night Live sketch,” she recalled, saying that she had actually written a similar plot during her time as a writer on the show. “I was flirting the whole time, probably.” Trump led her to the dressing room, which was open; Carroll made it clear that Trump did not force her there. They went into the dressing room.

“That open door has plagued me for years because I just walked into it,” she said.

“He immediately shut the door and shoved me up on the wall,” Carroll said. He shoved her so roughly that her head hit the wall. She didn’t quite understand what was unfolding. “For a minute, I thought maybe it was a mistake,” she said.

“I pushed him back, and he threw me back against the wall again, banging my head again,” Carroll said. Did she scream? Yell for help? “I didn’t want to make a scene. I know that sounds strange. I didn’t want to make him angry at me.”

Trump put his shoulder against Carroll, pinning her to the wall. He leaned down and tugged down her tights. She was pushing him, and “it was quite clear” she didn’t want what he was doing. “His fingers went into my vagina, which was extremely painful — extremely painful. It was a horrible feeling because he curved — he put his hand inside of me and curved his fingers,” Carroll said.

“As I’m sitting here today, I can still feel it,” she said. He then forced himself inside her. Carroll described trying to break away.

“What did you do at that moment?”

“I,” Carroll began with a few false starts, taking a long pause. She lowered her voice and started to choke up. “You asked me what I did,” Carroll said. “I always think back to why I walked in there, to get myself into the situation. But I’m proud to say I did get out.”

But did she say “no”? “I had so much adrenaline pouring through me at the time. I can’t tell you if I said ‘no,’” she said.

Carroll, whose testimony continues this afternoon, also succinctly described the aftermath of Trump’s alleged attack. “I know people who have been through a lot worse than this,” she said. In her case, “it left me unable to ever have a romantic life again.” (New York Mag).

Judge chides Trump for calling rape trial 'made up SCAM' on social media.

NEW YORK — The federal judge overseeing the civil trial in which Donald Trump is accused of rape admonished the former president for a social media post in which he called the lawsuit “a made up SCAM.”

Trump could be “tampering with a new source of potential liability,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told one of Trump’s lawyers in court on Wednesday.

Before the jury entered the courtroom on Wednesday, a lawyer for Carroll notified Kaplan of Trump’s comments. In response, Kaplan warned Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina that Trump’s statement was “entirely inappropriate.”

“What seems to be the case is that your client is basically endeavoring, certainly, to speak to his quote unquote public, but more troublesome, to the jury in this case,” Kaplan said.

Before the trial began, Kaplan barred both sides from “any testimony, argument, commentary or reference concerning DNA evidence.”

“Here’s all I can tell you: I will speak to my client and ask him to refrain from any further posts regarding this case,” Tacopina told the judge. Seemingly acknowledging the difficulty of restraining the former president, Tacopina added: “I will do the best I can do, your honor. That’s all I can say.”

Trump, who isn’t required to attend the trial, hasn’t appeared in the courtroom.

The judge then warned Tacopina that Trump could expose himself to greater culpability if he continued to make statements related to the case.

“We’re getting into an area, conceivably, where your client may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability,” Kaplan said, adding: “and I think you know what I mean.” (Politico).

___________________________

Pope Francis continues reforms.

Pope Francis allows women to vote at bishops' meetings, a historic shift.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, an historic reform that reflects his hopes to give women greater decision-making responsibilities and laypeople more say in the life of the Catholic Church.

Francis approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world's bishops together for periodic meetings, following years of demands by women to have the right to vote.

Until now, the only people who could vote were men. But under the new changes, five religious sisters will join five priests as voting representatives for religious orders. In addition, Francis has decided to appoint 70 non-bishop members of the synod and has asked that half of them be women. They too will have a vote.

The Vatican on Wednesday published the modifications he approved, which emphasize his vision for the lay faithful taking on a greater role in church affairs that have long been left to clerics, bishops and cardinals.

Catholic women's groups that have long criticized the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately praised the move as historic in the 2,000-year life of the church.

The next meeting, scheduled for Oct. 4-29, is focused on the very topic of making the church more reflective of, and responsive to, the laity, a process known as "synodality" that Francis has championed for years. (NPR).

___________________________

The world grows more beautiful. One building, one museum at a time.

New York City Natural History Museum, architect, Jeanne Gang and her team.

Wonder and Awe in Natural History’s New Wing. Butterflies, Too.

When plans for it first surfaced, I wondered if the new Gilder Center at the Natural History museum might end up looking overcooked.

From the outside it’s a white-pink granite cliff with yawning windows shaped a little like the openings to caves, nestling the museum’s wonderful Romanesque Revival addition from the turn of the last century. Past the front doors, that cliff face morphs. It becomes an atrium in the guise of a towering canyon, a city block deep.

For its architects, Jeanne Gang and her team, Gilder was clearly a gamble and leap of faith, bucking today’s innocuous norms, almost begging for charges of starchitectural self-indulgence.

Now that it’s built, I love it.

I wouldn’t go so far as to equate it with the curvaceous genius of Gaudi or with Saarinen’s groovy TWA Terminal, but it’s in the family. Like them, Gilder is spectacular: a poetic, joyful, theatrical work of public architecture and a highly sophisticated flight of sculptural fantasy. New Yorkers live to grouse about new buildings. This one seems destined to be an instant heartthrob and colossal attraction.

Over the years I’ve watched architects’ eyes roll at the mention of Gang’s canyon. I’ve heard grumbling that, in light of climate change, shotcrete isn’t the most sustainable material for a museum whose central themes are the sanctity of nature and the veracity of science.

But then, many of the greenest buildings turn out to be ones that last longest because they continue to be used and loved. Maybe I’m coming from a blinkered place, because I have grown up visiting Natural History and watched my children grow up there. Even today I find myself returning from another encounter with the model of a giant squid or the narwhal diorama feeling something I now feel navigating Gilder’s grotto-galleries, squinting into the sun that pours through its transom and rose windows.

It’s more than just the pleasure that comes from allowing one’s disbelief to be briefly suspended before trudging back out into the streets and daily life.

I guess I’d call it wonder.

(Review by Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic, The New York Times).

One more thing. The Museum and the Gilder Building are my neighbors. I love it too!

___________________________

The world grows kinder and more inclusive, one action at a time.

Mattel introduces first Barbie with Down syndrome.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Toy company Mattel revealed its first Barbie doll representing a person with Down syndrome on Tuesday.

Mattel collaborated with the National Down Syndrome Society to create the Barbie and “ensure the doll accurately represents a person with Down syndrome,” the company said.

Design features of the new Barbie were made under guidance from NDSS, Mattel said. In addition to portraying some physical characteristics of a person with Down syndrome, the Barbie’s clothing and accessories carry special meaning.

First Barbie Doll With Down Syndrome Unveiled

The blue and yellow on the doll’s dress, accompanied by butterflies, represent symbols and colors associated with Down syndrome awareness. And the three chevrons on the Barbie’s necklace represent how people with Down syndrome have three copies of their 21st chromosome, Mattel said.

In addition, the Barbie wears ankle foot orthotics, which some children with Down syndrome use. (Associated Press)

___________________________