February 9, 2023

Thursday, February 9,2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

To read an article included 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.

It would be great if you invite at least one other person to subscribe today. https://buttondown.email/AnnettesNewsRoundup

_______________________

A summary of President Biden’s State of the Union, 2023. By Heather Cox Richardson.

A great summary. A great President.

And then there was President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address.

This is the annual event in our politics that gets the most viewers. Last year, 38.2 million people watched it on television and streaming services. 

What viewers saw tonight was a president repeatedly offering to work across the aisle as he outlined a moderate plan for the nation with a wide range of popular programs. He sounded calm, reasonable, and upbeat, while Republicans refused to clap for his successes—800,000 new manufacturing jobs, 20,000 new infrastructure projects, lower drug prices—or his call to strengthen the middle class. 

And then, when he began to talk about future areas of potential cooperation, Republicans went feral. They heckled, catcalled, and booed, ignoring House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) attempts to shush them. At the State of the Union, in the U.S. Capitol, our lawmakers repeatedly interrupted the president with insults, yelling “liar” and “bullsh*t.” And cameras caught it all. 

Extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), her hands cupping her wide open mouth to scream at the president, became the face of the Republican Party.

Biden began with gracious remarks toward a number of Republicans as well as Democrats, then emphasized how Republicans and Democrats came together over the past two years to pass consequential legislation. Speaker McCarthy had asked him to take this tone, and he urged Republicans to continue to work along bipartisan lines, noting that the American people have made it clear they disapprove of “fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict.” 

For the next hour the president laid out a promise to continue to rebuild the middle class, hollowed out by 40 years of policies based on the idea that cutting taxes and concentrating wealth among the “job creators” would feed the economy and create widespread prosperity. He listed the accomplishments of his administration so far: unemployment at a 50-year low, 800,000 good manufacturing jobs, lower inflation, 10 million new small businesses, the return of the chip industry to the United States, more than $300 billion in private investment in manufacturing, more than 20,000 new infrastructure projects, lower health care costs, Medicare negotiations over drug prices, investment in new technologies to combat climate change. He promised to continue to invest in the places and people who have been forgotten.

Biden described a national vision that includes everyone. It is a modernized version of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, and he very clearly invited non-MAGA Republicans to embrace it. He thanked those Republicans who voted for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, then tweaked those who had voted against it but claimed credit for funding. He told them not to worry: “I promised to be the president for all Americans. We’ll fund your projects. And I’ll see you at the ground-breaking.” 

But then he hit the key point for Republicans: taxes. To pay for this investment in the future, Biden called for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy. He noted that “in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes.” “That’s simply not fair,” he said. He signed into law the requirement that billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15%—less than a nurse pays, he pointed out—and he called for a billionaire minimum tax. While he reiterated his promise that no one making less than $400,000 a year would pay additional taxes, he said “no billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a firefighter.” He also called for quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buybacks.

Republicans consider these proposals nonstarters because their whole vision is based on the idea of cutting taxes to free up capital. By committing to higher taxes on the wealthy, Biden was laying out a vision that is very much like that from the time before Reagan. It is a rejection of his policies and instead a full-throated defense of the idea that the government should work for ordinary Americans, rather than the rich. 

And then he got into the specifics of legislation going forward, and Republicans lost it. The minority party has occasionally been vocal about its dislike of the State of the Union since Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted “You lie!” at President Obama in 2009 (Obama was telling the truth); a Democrat yelled “That’s not true” at Trump in 2018 as he, in fact, lied about immigration policy. But tonight was a whole new kind of performance.

Biden noted that he has cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion (in part because pandemic programs are expiring) and that Trump increased the deficit every year of his presidency, even before the pandemic hit. And yet, Congress responded to the rising debt under Trump by raising the debt limit, cleanly, three times. 

Biden asked Congress to “commit here tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will never, ever be questioned.” This, of course, is an issue that has bitterly divided Republicans, many of whom want to hold the country hostage until they get what they want. But they can’t agree on what they want, so they are now trying to insist that Biden is refusing to negotiate the budget when, in fact, he has simply said he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling. Budget negotiations are a normal part of legislating, and he has said he welcomes such talks. Tonight, once again, he asked the Republicans to tell the American people what, exactly, they propose.

And then Biden did something astonishing. He tricked the Republicans into a public declaration of support for protecting Social Security and Medicare. He noted that a number of Republicans have called for cutting, or even getting rid of, Social Security and Medicare. This is simply a fact—it is in Senator Rick Scott’s (R-FL) pre-election plan; the Republican Study Committee’s budget; statements by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Ron Johnson (R-WI); and so on—but Republicans booed Biden and called him a liar for suggesting they would make those cuts, and they did so in public. 

Seeming to enjoy himself, Biden jumped on their assertion, forcing them to agree that there would be no cuts to Social Security or Medicare. It was budget negotiation in real time, and it left Biden holding all the cards. 

From then on, Republican heckling got worse, especially as Biden talked about banning assault weapons. Biden led the fight to get them banned in 1994, but when Republicans refused to reauthorize that law, it expired and mass shootings tripled. Gun safety is popular in the U.S., and Republicans, many of whom have been wearing AR-15 pins on their lapels, booed him. When he talked about more work to stop fentanyl production, one of the Republican lawmakers yelled, “It’s your fault.” 

In the midst of the heckling, Biden praised Republican president George W. Bush’s bipartisan $100 billion investment in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. 

And then, in this atmosphere, Biden talked about protecting democracy. “For the last few years our democracy has been threatened, attacked, and put at risk,” he said. “Put to the test here, in this very room, on January 6th.” 

With lawmakers demonstrating the dangerous behavior he was warning against, he said: “We must all speak out. There is no place for political violence in America. In America, we must protect the right to vote, not suppress that fundamental right. We honor the results of our elections, not subvert the will of the people. We must uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy. And we must give hate and extremism in any form no safe harbor.”

“Democracy must not be a partisan issue. It must be an American issue.”

With Republicans scoffing at him, he ended with a vision of the nation as one of possibility, hope, and goodness. “We must be the nation we have always been at our best. Optimistic. Hopeful. Forward-looking. A nation that embraces light over darkness, hope over fear, unity over division. Stability over chaos.”

“We must see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans. We are a good people.”

Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the Republican rebuttal. Full of references to the culture wars and scathing of Biden, she reinforced the Republican stance during the speech. “The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left,” she said. “The choice is between normal or crazy.”

She is probably not the only one who is thinking along those lines after tonight’s events, but many are likely drawing a different conclusion than she intended.  (Letter from an American,

______________________

Hard to know which moment of the State of the Union was best-but here are contenders. 👇 Touch to watch.

_____________________

Who watched Biden’s State of the Union? What did they think?

23 Million Viewers Watch Biden’s State Of The Union Address, With Fox News Drawing Largest Audience.

More than 23 million viewers watched President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening, with Fox News Channel drawing the largest share, 4.568 million viewers, according to Nielsen Fast National ratings—the numbers will likely rise when final ratings data is compiled.

ABC had the second largest overall audience, drawing 4.256 million viewers, followed by NBC (3.683 million viewers), CBS (3.519 million viewers), MSNBC (3.464 million viewers), CNN (2.313 million viewers) and Fox Broadcasting (1.597 million viewers).

Among viewers 25-54, the demographic most valued by advertisers, ABC finished first with 1.026 million viewers, followed by NBC (978,000 viewers), Fox News Channel (793,000 viewers), CBS (675,000 viewers), CNN (617,000 viewers), MSNBC (479,000 viewers) and Fox Broadcasting (482,000 viewers). (source. Forbes).

____

72 percent of viewers had positive reaction to Biden speech: CNN flash poll.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3849076-72-percent-of-viewers-had-positive-reaction-to-biden-speech-cnn-flash-poll/

More than 7 in 10 viewers of President Biden’s State of the Union address had at least a somewhat positive reaction to the speech, according to a CNN flash poll. 

The poll found 72 percent of watchers had a positive view of the speech, with 34 percent saying it was very positive. It reported that 28 percent of watchers viewed the speech negatively, with 10 percent saying it was very negative.

71 percent of watchers said the policies that Biden proposed in the speech would move the country in the right direction, while 29 percent said they would move it in the wrong direction. Going into the speech, only 52 percent said Biden’s policies will move the country in the right direction.

Pollsters found the largest shift among those who do not approve of the way Biden has been handling his job. Only 7 percent of those respondents said before the speech that Biden’s policies will move the U.S. in the right direction, but 45 percent said so after. (The Hill).

_____________________

Has Romney told Speaker McCarthy too?

Romney tells embattled Republican George Santos he 'shouldn't be in Congress.’

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Mitt Romney told embattled fellow Republican Representative George Santos on Tuesday that should not be in Congress and shouldn't have taken a central seat at President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.

Romney, an elder statesman of the party and former Republican presidential candidate, was seen having a brief exchange with Santos, who has made multiple false claims about his past on his way into the House of Representatives chamber before the address.

"He shouldn't be in Congress and they're going to go through the process and hopefully get him out," Romney told reporters after the speech. "But he shouldn't be there and if he had any shame at all he wouldn't be there."

Romney said he had told Santos as much. (Reuters).

__

New York Times - “Mr. Romney admonished Mr. Santos for positioning himself in a prime camera-ready spot in the chamber, saying he didn’t belong there, and had no shame.

“I didn’t expect that he’d be standing there trying to shake hands with every senator and the president of the United States,” Mr. Romney said afterward to reporters who asked about the incident, which was captured on camera and erupted on social media.

He added: “Given the fact that he’s under ethics investigation, he should be sitting in the back row and staying quiet instead of parading in front of the president and people coming into the room.”

https://twitter.com/victorshi2020/status/1623141951418830848?s=61&t=DRnraPKlpbNlSrDXJPQjBA

_______________________

The Club no one wants to belong to.

The Community of Mothers Who Lost Sons to Police Killings.

On Wednesday, RowVaughn Wells joined the grim sorority of Black mothers who have buried their children after deadly police encounters and then pleaded for those deaths to spur reform. Parents of other victims were in attendance at the funeral — along with Vice President Kamala Harris and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Mona Hardin’s son, Ronald Greene, was killed by police in 2019.

Mona Hardin, whose son Ronald Greene died after a police chase outside Monroe, Louisiana, in 2019, is a veteran in the ranks of mothers who have calcified themselves and turned to activism, lobbying and media appearances.

For two years, Louisiana State Police leaders told Hardin that her son had died in a car crash. Then, in 2021, The Associated Press published videos showing troopers beating and dragging Greene across the ground. “I’m sorry,” he pleaded, blood splashed on his skin and clothes. “I beat the ever-living fuck out of him,” one officer said. Greene stopped breathing soon after.

___________

What Republicans really stand for.

Touch 👇 to watch Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) voice his hopes and dreams on Social Security.

___________________

Joe is always busy.

Biden rallies workers in Wisconsin after big speech.

DeFOREST, Wis. (AP) — Fresh from his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden rallied supporters in Wisconsin on Wednesday, preparing for an expected reelection announcement this spring and trying to shore up the backing of working-class voters who have edged away from Democrats in recent years.

“Fighting for the sake of fighting gets us nowhere,” Biden said at a training facility run by the Laborers’ International Union of North America. “We’re getting things done.”

Workers lined up in orange shirts and hard hats behind the president as he spoke. A banner that said “union strong” hung to the side.

Biden, who beat Donald Trump in 2020 by a narrow margin in Wisconsin, talked about helping workers make “a couple more bucks” and preventing them from “getting stiffed” by companies that “play us for suckers.”

“My economic plan is about investing in people and places that feel forgotten,” said Biden, who pointed to new federal funding for a bridge and electric buses in Wisconsin.

His trip was one stop in the traditional post-State of the Union blitz, where the president, vice president and Cabinet officials fan out across the country to promote his themes from the speech. Biden’s next stop is Tampa, Florida, on Thursday, where he’s expected to discuss proposals to safeguard Social Security and Medicare, and lower the cost of health care. (AP).

________________

A not so fun fact.

From Mark Bittman, former food columnist for the New York Times - New York State has 57,000 farmers, but only 139 of them are Black. And nationally, Black farmers own just one per cent of farmland.

________________

LeBron James broke his record. Here is what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has to say.

What I Think About LeBron Breaking My NBA Scoring Record.

Everything You Wanted to Know About LeBron and Me and the Scoring Record.

Kareem on the left, LeBron James on the right.

I begin everything I write with a lot of apprehension because I know how hard it is to translate complex thoughts and intense emotions into the exact words that accurately express those thoughts and emotions. But this article I approach with even more trepidation because I really want to get this right. It’s important to me, to basketball fans, and to the legacy of a great player (not me).

First, the facts: LeBron James passed my scoring record and now is the leading scorer in NBA history. It takes unbelievable drive, dedication, and talent to survive in the NBA long enough to rack up that number of points when the average NBA career lasts only 4.5 years. It’s not just about putting the ball through the hoop, it’s about staying healthy and skilled enough to climb the steep mountain in ever-thinning oxygen over many years when most other players have tapped out.

It’s also about not making scoring your obsession. Otherwise, you’re Gollum and the record is your Precious. The real goal is to win games so that you win championships because you want to please the fans who pay your salary and cheer you on game after game. Fans would rather see you win a championship than set a scoring record.

It’s also about making sure your team gets their moments to shine and thrive and pursue their own greatness. A record is nothing if you used other players’ careers as stepping stones just for self-aggrandizement. For me, I strove to play at the highest level I could in order to be a good teammate. The points—and the record—were simply a by-product of that philosophy.

I think LeBron has the same philosophy.

Second, my reaction: In the months leading up to LeBron breaking my record, so much was written about how I would feel on the day he sank that record-breaking shot that I had to laugh. I’d already written several times stating exactly how I felt so there really wasn’t much to speculate about. It’s as if I won a billion dollars in a lottery and 39 years later someone won two billion dollars. How would I feel? Grateful that I won and happy that the next person also won. His winning in no way affects my winning.

Third, the context of it all: In Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum’s character explains chaos theory in which a small event can have a ripple effect to create something much larger: “A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking, and in Central Park, you get rain instead of sunshine.”

That’s what I think has happened a few months ago when two NBA legends flapped their wings and a tsunami of reaction washed over the basketball world.

The first wing flap came when LeBron James, who was on the verge of breaking my NBA scoring record, was asked what his thoughts were about me and what kind of relationship we had. His answer: “No thoughts, and no relationship.” Ouch. I’ll return to that in a moment.

The second butterfly making it rain is my long-time friend and ex-teammate Earvin “Magic” Johnson. He opined on a podcast that “If I got to say it, we got to be honest. And the fact that it’s a dude that’s playing for the Lakers, too… I think it’ll be a hard pill to swallow… I think he thought he was going to have [the record] forever.” Double ouch.

How Magic Got It Wrong

I love Earvin and, after forty years of friendship, he knows me pretty well. If he publicly announced that I had suddenly shrunk to 5’2”, even I would be tempted to believe him. But, in this case, he was very, very wrong. I don’t blame him for thinking that I might be bothered because he knows how competitive I used to be. And, if someone had broken my record within ten years of me setting it, he would probably be right. I might have hobbled out of retirement just to add a few more points on my record.

But that ain’t me today. I’m 75. The only time I ever think of the record is when someone brings it up. I retired from the NBA 34 years ago. For the past 20 years, I’ve occupied myself with social activism, my writing career, and my family—especially my three grandchildren. If I had a choice of having my scoring record remain intact for another hundred years or spend one afternoon with my grandchildren, I’d be on the floor in seconds stacking Legos and eating Uncrustables.

Sorry, Earvin. I love you, brother, but this time you got it wrong. I’m not the grumpy grandpa on the porch yelling at kids to stay off my lawn. I fret much more over picking the right word in this sentence than in my record being broken.

I was in the room here one day, watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pelé. I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball on his feet.

Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in—upside down and backwards. The goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pelé gets excited. He rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium wav­ing it around over his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying. [Pause.] Yeah, that’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I hap­pen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings up to a better place to be, if only for a minute . . . Let me tell ya, kid—it was pretty goddamned glorious.

That is the magic of sports. To see something seemingly impossi­ble, reminding us that if one person can do it, then we all somehow share in that achievement. It is what sends children onto playgrounds to duplicate a LeBron layup or a Steph Curry three-pointer. Or Mia Hamm inspiring a whole generation of girls to come off the bleachers and onto the field. Millions of children across the country pushing themselves toward excellence because they saw an athlete do something spectacular and they want to do it too. Or at least try. That same kind of drive is behind many of humankind’s greatest achievements.

And it’s all exceptionally glorious.

Here’s the main reason I don’t care that much about my record being broken: I’m no longer focused on my basketball legacy as much as I am on my social legacy. I’m not trying to build a billion-dollar empire, I write articles in defense of democracy and advocating on behalf of the marginalized. (Maybe the billions will roll in eventually if I write a really, really great article.) I also am deeply involved in my charity, the Skyhook Foundation, which treats disadvantaged kids to week-long STEM education in the Angeles National Forest. That and my family are all I have the energy for. (Did I mention, I’m 75!)

Why LeBron and I Haven’t Had a Relationship.

LeBron said we don’t have a relationship. He’s right—and for that I blame myself. Not for anything I did, but perhaps for not making more of an effort to reach out to him. By nature I have never been a chummy, reaching-out kind of guy (as the media was always quick to point out). I’m quiet, shy, and am such a devoted homebody that you’d think I have agoraphobia. I like to read, watch TV, listen to jazz. That’s pretty much it. For the past 15 years my focus has been less on forming new relationships than on nurturing my old friendships with people like Magic, Michael Cooper, Jerry West, and so on.

I think the main reason that I never formed a bond with LeBron (again, entirely my fault) is simply our age difference. I established my scoring record in 1984—the year LeBron was born. When he started to make a name for himself, I was already pretty removed from the NBA world. Except for certain gala events, I was just like any other fan, watching games on my TV in my sweatpants while munching on too many unhealthy snacks.

That disconnect is on me. I knew the pressures he was under and maybe I could have helped ease them a bit. But I saw that LeBron had a friend and mentor in Kobe Bryant and I was just an empty jersey in the rafters. I couldn’t imagine why he’d want to hang with someone twice his age. How many do?

Why I’m Happy That LeBron Broke My Record

I have written many articles lavishly praising LeBron. In 2020, I wrote an article for Sports Illustrated describing why LeBron deserved to be named Sportsperson of the Year. In the article, I wrote, “Part of being a hero is to have both the modesty to feel unworthy of such a heavy word and the strength to accept the responsibility that comes with others looking to you to be that hero. What is a hero but someone who stands up for those who can’t? Who embodies our cherished ideals of sportsmanship: fair play, hard work and compassion? That pretty much describes the LeBron James I’ve watched and come to know since he was the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA draft and was named Rookie of the Year.”

Regarding whether or not LeBron is the GOAT, I wrote, “Lending weight to the vocal GOAT herders is the fact that LeBron is closing in on my NBA record for most points scored: 38,387. LeBron is about 4,000 points behind, but I was an elderly 42 when I retired and he’s a sprightly 35. He averages about 2,000 points a season, so in two years he could break my record. How does that make me feel? Excited. I expect to be there if and when he does it, cheering him on—as I know he will be on that day in the future when someone surpasses his mark. Breaking a sports record is a celebration of the human drive to push past known limitations, to redefine what we are capable of. It is an acknowledgement that humans have the capacity to always be improving, physically and mentally.” (Earvin, did you not read that article?)

My good opinion of LeBron has grown in the two years since I wrote that. His passion for social justice and bettering his community has only increased—and his athleticism has soared to a whole other level of performance.

While it’s true that I have taken a couple minor jabs at him over vaccine protocols—which in my mind was the kind of nudging one teammate does with another—I know that LeBron is too accomplished, mature, and savvy to hold a grudge over something so petty. That’s why I don’t want my fans to in any way tarnish or equivocate his enormous achievement. This is all about LeBron doing something no one else has done, about scoring more points than anyone has been able to in 75 years. There are no “yeah, buts,” just praise where it is rightfully and righteously due.

Bottom line about LeBron and me: LeBron makes me love the game again. And he makes me proud to be part of an ever-widening group of athletes who actively care about their community.

I’ve had a lot of people ask me about the black jacket I wore last night when LeBron broke my record. It’s part of a new adidas Evolution of Excellence line that is being made available to members only through Club Skyhook. Check it out here.

Copyright © 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbaar. All Rights Reserved. Any republication shall include a link to kareem.substack.com