February 7, 2023

Tuesday,February 7,2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

Yesterday.

Tonight, the night you have been waiting for, the President delivers the STATE OF THE UNION address to a Joint Session of Congress, 9 PM ET.

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President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton walk into the East Room for an event to mark the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act at the White House on February 02, 2023 in Washington, DC. Some Democrats in Congress are calling on Biden to expand access to the FMLA by, in part, including a national 12-week paid family leave system as part of his proposed federal budget.

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Biden Calls for Paid Leave for All.

President Biden made his most public commitment to passing America’s first ever national paid family leave program this Thursday, at a White House event to mark the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). 

Joined on stage by Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Bill Clinton, President Biden said, “94% of our lowest wage workers, mostly women and workers of color, have no paid family leave at all. I remain committed to changing that by passing a national program of paid leave for all.”

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Kamala is always busy.

Vice President Harris announces also $1 billion in private funding to address root causes of the migration crisis.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday announced almost $1 billion in new pledges by private companies to support communities in Central America, part of the Biden administration’s effort to keep migrants from fleeing toward the U.S. border.

Ten companies, including Nestle, Target and Columbia Sportswear, said they would collectively spend $950 million on projects in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to support farmers, create textile jobs and invest in telecommunications and other industries.

The effort comes as crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border remain at record highs, posing logistical and humanitarian challenges to President Biden and drawing intense criticism from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

House Republicans have begun to investigate the administration’s efforts at the border and said they might pursue the impeachment of Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary. The vice president’s announcement came on Monday afternoon as she met with a number of companies.

It added to the commitments from businesses through the Partnership for Central America, a nonprofit organization that was created in mid-2021 to facilitate Ms. Harris’s efforts to rally support for the region. The partnership had previously announced about $3 billion in future spending from a range of companies.

The idea, according to the vice president’s aides, is to address what she calls the root causes of migration: poverty, corruption, climate change and political instability that drives people to leave their homes in search of a better life.

Administration officials said the program had already generated results, though they acknowledged on a call with reporters that they could not specifically document that effects. Since mid-2021, officials said, migration from the three countries was down 71 percent. (NY Times).

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The same media that doesn’t cover the Vice President is happy to complain about her. The Times is one of the guilty.

A Frustrated Kamala Harris tries to define her role.

[Vice President Harris] has already made history as the first woman, the first African American and the first Asian American ever to serve as vice president, but she has still struggled to define her role much beyond that legacy.

Her staff notes that she has made strides, emerging as a strong voice in the administration on abortion rights. She has positioned herself as a more visible advocate for the administration, giving a speech last week at the funeral for Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old who was beaten by Memphis police officers. [ see photo above. ] And her critics and detractors alike acknowledge that the vice presidency is intended to be a supporting role, and many of her predecessors have labored to make themselves relevant, as well.

Now with Mr. Biden appearing all but certain to run again, the concern over Ms. Harris has shifted to whether she will be a political liability for the ticket. Given that Mr. Biden at 80 is already the oldest president in American history, Republicans would most likely make Ms. Harris, who is 58, a prime attack line, arguing that a vote for Mr. Biden may in fact be a vote to put her in the Oval Office.

Some 39 percent of Americans approve of Ms. Harris’s job performance, according to a recent aggregate of surveys compiled by the polling site FiveThirtyEight. This puts her below Mr. Biden’s approval rating, which has hovered around 42 percent for the past month. [The President’s new number is 46 percent].

Ms. Harris’s allies said she was trapped in a damned-if-she-does, damned-if-she-doesn’t conundrum — she is expected to not do anything to overshadow Mr. Biden while navigating intractable issues he has assigned her such as voting rights and illegal immigration. And some see a double standard applied to a prominent woman of color.

“That’s what being a first is all about,” said Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina and one of the nation’s most prominent Black lawmakers, who has been an outspoken supporter. “She’s got to work every day to make sure she’s not the last.”

Mr. Klain, who served as chief of staff to two vice presidents, said that those who hold that post often “take grief” but go on “to prove skeptics wrong.” He cited Ms. Harris’s outspoken support for abortion rights and her international trips. “She has done all that operating under high expectations,” he added, noting her status as various firsts. “She carries these expectations not as a burden but with grace and an understanding of how much her history-making role inspires others.” (NY Times).

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The First Lady is always busy.

Jill Biden at the Grammy Awards.

The First Lady was at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, wearing glitter by Oscar de la Renta. The reviews, except as expected from the mad GOP, were great.

The New York Times put it this way - … “The decision to be part of the Grammys (was clever). Michelle Obama appeared, in 2019, but her husband had left office by then; Hillary Clinton won, in 1997, for best spoken word or nonmusical album.

After all, if you are the soft-power face of an administration whose much-discussed Achilles’ heel is the age of its leader; if you are the partner of a president contemplating running again who was already the oldest person ever to assume the office; if the goal is to get out of establishment Washington and be seen in a different, more … energetic context, the Grammys is not a bad way to do it.

Especially a Grammys powered by the combined attention of the BeyHive, Swifties and Harries. Especially one recognizing the legacy of 50 years of hip-hop.

Especially one in which Dr. Biden was handing out the first Grammy in the category of song for social change, given to Shervin Hajipour, a young Iranian whose song “Baraye” has become an anthem for the women’s rights protests and a way for those around the world to demonstrate solidarity. (Haider Ackermann used it in his recent couture show for Jean Paul Gaultier.)

The first lady also gave Bonnie Raitt her surprise Grammy for song of the year, but it was the award to Mr. Halipour, currently in Iran awaiting trial and charged with disseminating propaganda against the regime and inciting violence, that made the political point. Albeit one couched in the glitz and circumstance of an awards telecast.”

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Hillary is always busy.

Hillary Clinton Announces Global Climate Resilience Fund For Women To Tackle Climate Change.

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Monday announced a Global Climate Resilience Fund of 50 million dollars for women to fight climate change in association with the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) founded by late activist Ela Bhatt.

The fund will empower women and communities to fight climate change and help provide new livelihood resources and education, she said.

"Today, Clinton Global Initiative with American Indian foundation, SEWA and other organisations, I announce 50 million dollar Global Climate Resilience Fund for women," she said addressing the salt pan workers.

"I have had the privilege of working with Elaben (Bhatt) and SEWA for nearly 30 years. But we are thinking about next 50 years," she said.

"Whether you're in construction, waste recycling, plastic, or a farmer, your challenge to make an income working through heat will be the next big problem," said Clinton, who is on a two-day visit to Gujarat from Sunday.

She had attended a programme in Ahmedabad on Sunday to mark 50 years of SEWA as a trade union and paid homage to its founder and renowned social activist Ela Bhatt, who passed away in November last year.

During the event, she had said heat caused by climate change poses an additional challenge to women workers in informal sectors and the Global Climate Resilience Fund will help tackle this challenge.

(This took place in India )(Outlook).

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The Justice Department will look into Memphis Police.

U.S. Justice Dept. to review Memphis police after Tyre Nichols' killing.

• The Justice Department will participate in a review of the Memphis Police Department after the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man fatally beaten by officers in the Tennessee city last month, according to city officials. The review was disclosed in a bulletin by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. (Reuters)

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Venture money to women entrepreneurs at a new low.

The simple misogyny that leads to this number is still shocking. The GOP wants us pregnant and out of the work force. But this number suggests women even in America have few champions, at least few with investable funds.

Congratulations investors. We’ve now stooped to a new low of 1.9%.

ICYMI, the startup investing ecosystem took a nose dive. Again. It was a nose dive of about 0.5%, and represents the amount of US-based venture capital dollars allocated to women-led startups in 2022.

1.9%.

1.9%.

And that’s down from 2.4% in 2021, which was down from 2.7% in 2020, the highest it’s ever gotten. 2.7% in and of itself is pathetic. (Switch].

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As Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto taught Americans, Love is Love.

India may become the second Asian country to allow same sex couples to marry. Taiwan was the first.

Indian gay couples begin legal battle for same-sex marriage.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Utkarsh Saxena and Ananya Kotia’s love story began just like any other college romance. Except no one else knew about the gay couple’s relationship.

It was 2008. Homosexuality was yet to gain a degree of acceptance in deeply conservative India, with many gay couples facing stigma and isolation. So Saxena and Kotia took their time, watching from a distance how people’s acceptance of homosexuality was changing.

“We were actually quite scared about the consequences,” said Saxena, a public policy scholar at the University of Oxford. “We were very fragile and vulnerable, a young couple figuring out ourselves, and didn’t want, you know, something as drastic as this to break us in some sense.”

Over the years, as Indian society became more accepting of homosexuality and much of the country’s LGBTQ community began celebrating their sexuality openly, the couple decided to make their relationship known to their friends and family. Most of them were accepting.

Now, 15 years into their relationship, they have set out for a bigger challenge and filed a petition to India’s Supreme Court that seeks the legalization of same-sex marriage. Three other gay couples have filed similar petitions that will be heard by the country’s top court in March.

If legalized, India would become the second economy in Asia after Taiwan to recognize same-sex marriage, a significant right for the country’s LGBTQ community more than four years after the top court decriminalized gay sex. A favorable ruling would also make India the biggest democracy with such rights for LGBTQ couples but run counter to the ruling Hindu nationalist government’s position, which opposes same-sex marriages.

“Our relationship has been, in a social sense, undefined for so long that we would like it to now be embraced in the same way as any other couples’ relationship,” Saxena said.

Legal rights for LGBTQ people in India have been expanding over the past decade, and most of these changes have come through the Supreme Court’s intervention.

In 2014, the court legally recognized non-binary or transgender persons as a “third gender” and three years later made an individual’s sexual orientation an essential attribute of their privacy. The historic ruling in 2018 that struck down a colonial-era law that had made gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison expanded constitutional rights for the gay community. The decision was seen as a landmark victory for gay rights, with one judge saying it would “pave the way for a better future.” (AP).

Former Manhattan Prosecutor Mark Pomerantz on 60 Minutes.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg now seems likely to indict Donald Trump. But last February, when Bragg felt the only first hand testimony he had was from Michael Cohen, and that was not enough, Bragg dropped the Trump case.

Mark Pomerantz was one of the prosecutors who had been working on the case - he disagreed with Bragg and resigned in February 2022.

As you may have heard, Pomerantz has written a book about his involvement in the investigation of Trump, titled People vs. Donald Trump, scheduled for release on February 7, 2023. In a pre-publication letter to the publisher, Bragg cautioned that the book might contain secret grand jury information related to the investigation, which he feared could be a setback to the inquiry. However, publisher Simon & Schuster declined the request for a delay.

One memorable fact - in the book and here, 👇Pomerantz likens Trump to John Gotti. Watch the interview below.👇

More on Black History Month.

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Where are you in the cycle of recovery from the pandemic? Will you put on a mask and buy a theatre ticket to save a theatre?

Broadway is at about 80% of 2019 pre-pandemic levels, but big title shows/musicals (Hamilton, Wicked, MJ) are breaking records. Leopoldstadt has done well. But even well received plays like Ohio State Murders starring Audra McDonald have not been able to be sustained. The missing audience is suburban. These usual ticket buyers no longer come into town on weekday, since they are no longing commute to midtown for work.

The story below 👇 is about nonprofit theatres suffering all around the country.

The point is that everywhere in America, theatre is suffering. Do yourself and these artists and this art/entertainment form a favor. Buy a ticket. Wear a mask. Go to a show.

Theater never recovered from COVID — and now change is no longer a choice.

A repurposed school bus from Control Group Productions' climate change-focused immersive theater experience, The End.

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Katie Weisberger/Control Group Productions

Many of the problems facing the nonprofit theater industry in the U.S. right now — from scant resources to the lack of diversity — have been around for ages.

But before the pandemic, performing arts groups were so focused on raising the curtain each night it was easier to ignore long-standing problems than fix them.

Now, thanks to a combination of lackluster ticket sales and an end to government relief, they have no choice but to try out new things in order to secure a future.

"The key question is, what are the things that are being done in order to emerge from the pandemic in a sustainable way?" said Teresa Eyring, executive director and CEO of Theatre Communications Group, a support organization for the nation's performing arts sector.

No one has the answer. But organizations around the country are at least trying to find creative new solutions. (NPR).

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How to help people affected by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

Click above 👆to see some options.

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