January 24, 2023

Tuesday, January 24,2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Kamala is always busy.

How dare they?” Kamala Harris repeatedly asked, referring to GOP leaders in Florida and elsewhere who have put abortion bans in place. Watch the Vice President’s speech on the YouTube box below.👇

Remarks by Vice President Harris on the 50th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade | The White House

The MoonTallahassee, Florida 12:21 P.M. EST THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Dr. Sujatha Prabhakaran, where are you?  There she is.  She just left the stage — (laughs) — but is always on the stage.  AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you! THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we love all of our frontline folks.  And this room is filled with them. …

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Nancy Pelosi of California.

The Speaker Emerita keeps busy.

Nancy Pelosi :Liberated and Loving it.

I went to lunch with Nancy Pelosi at the Four Seasons to find out how she was faring, now that she has gone from being one of the most powerful women in the world — second in line to the presidency — and one of the most formidable speakers in American history to a mere House backbencher.

I was expecting King Lear, howling at the storm, but I found Gene Kelly, singing in the rain. Pelosi was not crying in her soup. She was basking as she scarfed down French fries, a truffle-butter roll and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts — all before the main course. She was literally in the pink, ablaze in a hot-pink pantsuit and matching Jimmy Choo stilettos, shooting the breeze about Broadway, music and sports. Showing off her four-inch heels, the 82-year-old said, “I highly recommend suede because it’s like a bedroom slipper.” (Source. NY Times. Maureen Dowd).

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In addition to the Barnett conviction 👆, Monday brought 4 more convictions of Oath Keepers for “Seditious Conspiracy.”

The four men – Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo – were accused of plotting to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral college victory, a conspiracy that culminated in the attack on the US Capitol.

The convictions are another win for the Justice Department who brought the rare charge against members of the far-right militia early last year. After a 10-week trial this fall, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes as well as Kelly Meggs, a leader of the group in Florida, were the first of the group to be found guilty of seditious conspiracy. (CNN).

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The Mass Murders in Monterey Park, California.

The tragedy is the fifth mass shooting in the US this month and the deadliest since the Uvalde school shooting in Texas last May.

@CoreyCiorciari on Twitter. The shooter in California allegedly used a Cobray M11 9mm semi-automatic weapon, which allows a killer to fire 30-round magazines in rapid succession. The weapon is illegal in nearly every developed country except the United States. https://cnn.com/2023/01/22/us/monterey-park-california-shooting/index.html?utm_source=twCNN&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2023-01-23T01%3A41%3A04&utm_term=link

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With Ron Klein leaving the White House, who is the new Chief of Staff?

Biden picks Jeff Zients, Jewish advisor who helped launch DC bagel chain, as new chief of staff.

(JTA) — Days after his first chief of staff announced that he would step down, President Joe Biden has announced a replacement: another Jewish advisor, this time an investor in a popular Washington, D.C., Jewish deli.

Jeff Zients, led the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response from 2021 to 2022. He had previously held multiple positions in government, including as advisor to the Biden transition team and the Obama administration and director of the National Economic Council, following a career in business.

Zients is also known locally in Washington as the businessman who helped start the chain Call Your Mother, which says it serves “Jew-ish deli favorites.” Now operating in seven D.C.-area locations with an expansion planned to Denver, Call Your Mother offers bagels, smoked salmon, whitefish salad and black-and-white cookies, as well as an assortment of gear that has turned the Jewish catchphrase into a local fashion statement. (source. Jewish Telegraph Agency)

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A showdown will soon happen in the House.

Jeffries taps Schiff, Swalwell for Intelligence panel; McCarthy vows to block both.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has formally recommended that Reps. Adam B. Schiff and Eric Swalwell be reappointed to the House Intelligence Committee, escalating a clash with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who has vowed to deny spots on the panel to both California Democrats.


In a letter dated Saturday, Jeffries argued that McCarthy has no justifiable reason not to accept his appointments of Schiff, who served as chairman of the Intelligence panel until Republicans took control of the chamber, and Swalwell.


“It is my understanding that you intend to break with the longstanding House tradition of deference to the minority party Intelligence Committee recommendations and deny seats to Ranking Member Schiff and Representative Swalwell,” Jeffries wrote in the letter obtained by The Washington Post. “The denial of seats to duly elected Members of the House Democratic Caucus runs counter to the serious and sober mission of the Intelligence Committee.”

In his letter, Jeffries argues that the issues that prompted the votes to remove Greene and Gosar are quite different from those motivating McCarthy’s potential denial of seats to Schiff and Swalwell.
Greene and Gosar were removed “after a bipartisan vote of the House found them unfit to serve on standing committees for directly inciting violence against their colleagues,” Jeffries wrote. “It does not serve as precedent or justification for the removal of Representatives Schiff and Swalwell, given that they have never exhibited violent thoughts or behavior.” (Washington Post).

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If you are wondering, how The President can solve the Debt Ceiling without surrendering to the GOP House Thugs….

The Constitution Has a 155-Year-Old Answer to the Debt Ceiling by Eric Foner.

The 14th Amendment, added to the Constitution in the wake of the Civil War, has been back in the news of late, mostly because the Supreme Court has taken aim at past decisions, notably Roe v. Wade, that employed it to protect Americans’ liberties. The amendment remains the most significant addition to the Constitution since the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Its magnificent first section established the principle of birthright citizenship and prohibited the states from denying to any person the equal protection of the laws, laying the foundation for many of the rights Americans prize.

Long-forgotten provisions of the 14th Amendment are suddenly crying out for enforcement.

Then there is Section Four, which offers a way out of the current impasse over increasing the debt ceiling. “The validity of the public debt of the United States,” it declares, “shall not be questioned.”

Whatever one thinks of Civil War-era fiscal policy, the Amendment’s language is mandatory, not permissive — the validity of the public debt “shall not be questioned.” Today, over a century and a half after the Amendment’s ratification, this promise is no longer considered an “extraordinary guarantee”; it is an essential attribute of a modern economy.

Our Constitution is not self enforcing. The 14th Amendment concludes by empowering Congress to implement its provisions. But if the current House of Representatives abdicates this responsibility, throwing the nation into default by refusing to raise the debt limit, President Biden should act on his own, taking steps to ensure that the federal government meets its financial obligations, as the Constitution requires.

Joe Manchin, of course, has a different point of view.

Manchin: It’s a mistake to ‘not negotiate’ with Republicans on debt ceiling.

Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday said it’s a “mistake” that the Biden administration won’t negotiate with Republicans on the debt ceiling limit.

“This is a — this is a democracy that we have. We have a two-party system," Manchin (D-W.Va.) said, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And we should be able to talk and find out where our differences are. And if they are irreconcilable, then you have to move on from there and let the people make their decisions.”

President Joe Biden said Friday that he would speak with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about the debt ceiling, but stated that if “we don’t meet our national debt and renege for the first time, we have a calamity that exceeds anything that’s ever happened financially in the United States.” And White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said raising the debt ceiling was too important to be haggled over. “Congress has always done it, and the president expects them to do their duty once again," she said. "That is not negotiable.”

No date has been set for the Biden-McCarthy meeting. (Source. Washington Post).

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Diversity’s in full bloom in the Governor’s Mansion in Pennsylvania.

A kosher kitchen in the governor’s mansion: Josh Shapiro sworn in to lead Pennsylvania.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s third Jewish governor, proudly embraced his Jewish faith as he was sworn in as the state’s 48th governor on the steps of the state Capitol on Tuesday. Flanked by his family, Shapiro took the oath of office on a stack of three Bibles, including one that was rescued from the deadly attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

“Along the winding road that has led to this moment, I have been grounded in my family and in my faith,” were the first words he said after taking the oath.

Shapiro, a practicing Conservative Jew who keeps kosher, said he will be posting mezuzahs and keep a kosher kitchen in the governor’s mansion that will be overseen by his wife Lori. Shapiro featured challahs baked by his wife in his campaign launch video and said he will continue the tradition of Friday night Shabbat dinner with his family, which includes his four children and his parents and in-laws, at his new residence.

Jews comprise an estimated 3% of the Pennsylvania electorate. The first Jewish governor in the history of Pennsylvania, who later ran for president, was also originally named Shapiro. Milton Jerrold Shapp, who served from 1971 to 1979, changed his surname because he was worried about facing antisemitism. The 45th two-term governor, Ed Rendell, is also Jewish.

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Dolphins in the Bronx River. Really.

This second photo 👆was taken in Rhinebeck. All the reporting sources agree, it is important for anyone sighting the Dolphins not to disturb them because it poses a safety risk to the animals.