February 8, 2023

Wednesday, February 8, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

The State of the Union.

Or Read President Biden's State of the Union speech.

In my view, the President delivered an amazing State of the Union, humbly and realistically describing the Administration’s achievements and visions for the future, and delicately handling rude disruptions, tricking the hecklers into standing in support of Social Security and Medicaid, though the GOP ran on a platform pledging to cut both programs.

If you haven’t watched the President deliver his speech, I urge you to do so. The full video is above. 👆

The President’s guest list for the State of the Union makes clear the President’s priorities.

Here's who was on Biden's guest list for the State of the Union, 2023.

While President Biden [spoke]… to the nation in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, a handful of VIPs [watched] …with first lady Jill Biden from a viewing box in the Capitol. Collectively, they illustrate different themes that Biden will highlight in his speech.

Among the guests: a cancer survivor, an activist fighting for clean water, a mother who doubles as a caregiver to her disabled veteran husband and a Holocaust survivor.

The most recognizable names

Tyre Nichols' mother and stepfather

RowVaughn and Rodney Wells are the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old unarmed Black man who was brutally beaten by police and who later died while hospitalized in his home city of Memphis, Tennessee.

Graphic footage of the incident was released at the end of January by Memphis authorities, bringing a renewed sense of national outrage over police brutality. Biden called the incident "horrific" and a "painful reminder" of the need for law enforcement reform to ensure incidents like this never happen again.

The president is calling on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would end qualified immunity for law enforcement officers, so that he can then sign the bill.

Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the Monterey Park shooter

Brandon Tsay, 26, disarmed the gunman who had killed 11 people and injured another 10 in Monterey Park, Calif., in late January.

The initial attack happened near the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, owned by the Tsay family and located in Alhambra. When the gunman entered the family's studio to carry out a second attack, Tsay did what he had to do and wrangled the assault-style handgun from the shooter.

Alhambra's police chief presented Tsay with a medal of courage for his actions.

Paul Pelosi, the former House speaker's husband, who was attacked at home

Husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi was attacked in his San Francisco home last October by an intruder wielding a hammer. The uninvited guest was looking for the California lawmaker and instead came across her husband and attempted to detain him against his will.

The police arrived at the Pelosi residence and saw the two men struggling over a hammer. Then the assailant struck Pelosi in the head, fracturing his skull and injuring his right arm.

The politically motivated attack was an attempt to kidnap and harm Nancy Pelosi, who was the House speaker at the time.

Bono, singer and HIV/AIDS activist

The lead singer of U2, Bono is a longtime activist dedicated to raising awareness about the fight against HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty. He has worked with other advocates over the past 20 years to build public and political support, including the creation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, announced by President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address 20 years ago.

The relief plan is credited with saving 25 million lives worldwide by providing lifesaving HIV medications in poorer countries. Bono is also the co-founder of the ONE Campaign, a nonpartisan group that works with governments to fight poverty and preventable diseases and that has raised over $700 million to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Recognition of Ukraine's year of war

For the second year in a row, the first lady has invited Ambassador Oksana Markarova of Ukraine to join her in the District of Columbia. The invitation is a recognition of sustained U.S. support nearly a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Biden has long promised his unflinching support, having recently sent battle tanks and assorted armored vehicles abroad to help turn the tide of the war. (NPR)

(To continue reading the list of the President’s guests, click here.)

Here's who's [were ] on Biden's guest list for the State of the Union.

Those also invited to be the President’s guests at SOTU.

There’s a longstanding tradition in Washington that during the president’s State of the Union address, there are these special guests in the audience, avatars for what politicians want to get done.

Tuesday night, President Joe Biden is said to have invited the family of Tyre Nichols, who was killed at the hands of Memphis police. A former Afghan ambassador will be in the audience, too. Each member of Congress has their own guest list. That’s how Brett Cross was invited to be one of those guests.

In truth, Cross wishes he could be anywhere else. An invitation was extended to him because of the public tragedy he’s living through. Back in May, his 10-year-old son, Uzi, was killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. When I asked Cross how he wanted to use his time in Washington, he said, “I want to talk about my son and enlighten people on him and the devastation that the inactions of other people have caused the families such as myself.”

Even after all this, Cross, who will not be able to attend Tuesday night’s State of the Union, keeps coming back to Washington. It’s almost like he can’t help it. (Source. Slate).

This man 👇 said it well.

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Now that the State of the Union is over, here is what the President could have said (though I think we can agree, he did quite well on his own too).

Keep this in mind from the New York Times - “Most Americans disapprove of the job President Biden is doing, with his approval rating hovering around 42 percent for months after recovering from a dip into the mid-30s over the summer.

The first years of a president’s term generally represent the high-water mark for their ratings. Overall, Mr. Biden had among the lowest average second-year approval ratings of any modern president, with his numbers dropping nearly eight percentage points since his first year in office. Only President Donald J. Trump’s second-year average was worse.”

What the Fork Do You People WANT?!? -

by Jonathan V. Last.

Inside the mind of the American voter.

Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. If you want a job in America right now, you can probably get one.

Also: Inflation keeps slowing. Here’s Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic setting some expectations for the next rate increase:

I try to let the data guide me as we get closer and closer to the meetings and we get a lot of information that helps give me a sense of what the right approach is. So right now, I actually think that the ratcheting down of the pace to 25 basis points is fully appropriate. We’re trying to get the whole economy and people’s expectations about where we are back to a more normalized level.

What do you call it when a period of large-scale economic expansion experiences a shock, creating inflationary pressures, which then eases back to equilibrium even while people keep their jobs?

It’s called a soft landing. It is the rarest achievement in all of macroeconomics. And people ought to be thrilled at the prospect of (possibly) getting a soft landing instead of a recession.

We’re not there yet. Things could still go south. But the markets are starting to believe:

And the data is encouraging even to inflation hawk Larry Summers:

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said a “soft landing” for the US economy is looking more likely, though inflation gauges remain too high.

“I’d say I’m encouraged, but I still think it would be a mistake to say we’re out of the woods,” Summers said . . . Inflation indicators remain “unimaginably high” compared to two or three years ago, and getting back to the Federal Reserve’s target “may still prove quite difficult,” he said.

With the pace of US price increases slowing, the economy added 517,000 new jobs in January, far exceeding estimates and driving the unemployment rate to 3.4%, the lowest since 1969. 

“It looks more possible that we’ll have a soft landing than it did a few months ago,” Summers said.

I look at all of this economic data and think, Man we have gotten super lucky. #Blessed

The rest of America looks at this data and says, Boooooo!

In 2020, 68 percent of Americans were “satisfied” with the state of the American economy—even as COVID disrupted economic life In 2021, that number fell to 43 percent. For 2022 it was 33 percent.

What is this nonsense?

But wait—it gets more irrational. In the same set of Gallup polling, Americans say that in addition to being largely dissatisfied with the economy, they are super-duper double-unhappy with the “moral and ethical climate” in America. Only 20 percent are satisfied with this! Probably because of all the BLM Antifa Socialist Drag Queen Story Hours.

Oh, but we’re not done yet.

Because in the same forking set of polling Americans also report that they are . . Overwhelmingly HAPPY with their “overall quality of life.”

So let me get this straight:

• Unemployment is historically low.

• Inflation is slowing.

• Americans are personally doing okay economically.

• But the economy is terrible.

• And American society is a hellscape.

• Also: The vast majority of people are happy with their quality of life.

Yes, yes. This all makes perfect sense. Vox populi, vox dei, stercus tauri.

( translated ‘The voice of the people, the voice of God, the dung of the bull.’) ( source. The Bulwark.Substack).

On the Republican response to the SOTU…

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Too disgusting to imagine, but we all must know this happened. 👇

Memphis Officer Texted Photo of Tyre Nichols After Beating, New Documents Show.

MEMPHIS — As Tyre Nichols sat propped against a police car, bloodied, dazed and handcuffed after being beaten by a group of Memphis police officers, one of those officers took a picture of him and sent it to at least five people, the Memphis Police Department said in documents released by the state on Tuesday. (Source. New York Times).

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Board Leadership Numbers of Public Companies for women aren’t where we want them.

The number on Boards at 27% isn’t great either, and while this Fortune report below 👇 isn’t a study about people of color, here is some information- 5 percent are black, 5.2 percent are Hispanic, and 2.4 percent are Asian, Hawaiian, or Pacific Islanders (for a total of 22 percent nonwhite). I wouldn’t dance and sing about those numbers either. (Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance).

More women are on boards, but few are chairs or lead directors.

Although women comprise 27% of board directors at Russell 3000 companies, only 7% of board chairs and 13% of lead directors are female, according to data from the latest Inside the Public Company Boardroom report by the National Association of Corporate Directors. (Fortune).

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Catalyst suvey of 2,734 women from marginalized racial and ethnic groups in Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The findings show that 51% of respondents have experienced racism in their current workplace.

Exposé of Women’ Workplace Experiences Challenges Antiracist Leaders to Step Up.

World of Voices_SkinTones - Infogram

Key Findings.

• Half (51%) of women from marginalized racial and ethnic groups experience racism at work.

• Women with darker skin tones are more likely than women with lighter skin tones to experience racism at work.

• Trans women

• (67%) and queer women (63%) are more likely than cisgender heterosexual women (49%) to experience racism at work.

• When senior leaders display allyship and curiosity, they can decrease the climate of silence and boost the diversity climate in their organizations, which in turn decreases the likelihood that women from marginalized racial and ethnic groups will experience racism at work.

• Senior leaders need to step up: 49% of survey respondents say their senior leaders do not engage in allyship, and 43% say they do not engage in curiosity.

Becoming an Antiracist Leader. (Click here to continue reading.) (source. Catalyst.)

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The Governor of Florida is trying to control the magic kingdom, as well as every other place and person in Florida.

Florida's Gov. DeSantis is expected to control Disney district governing board.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis would take control over the board of a special governing district Walt Disney World operates in Florida under a bill introduced Monday, as the Republican governor punishes the company over its opposition to the so-called "Don't Say Gay" law.

Republican leaders in the statehouse, in coordination with DeSantis, have begun a special legislative session to restructure the Reedy Creek Improvement District, as the Disney government is known.

The proposal would largely leave the district and its abilities intact but change its name to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and require the governor to appoint a five-member oversight board. Members previously were named through entities controlled by Disney.

Lawmakers are also considering a proposal to create a state department focused on migrant transportation, after the governor flew a group of South American migrants from Texas to Massachusetts last year in protest of federal border policy.

The session continues a focus by DeSantis focus on social issues including sexual orientation, gender and immigration as the Republican governor wades into political divides on his path to a potential 2024 presidential run. (AP).
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This is a big success. We won in Pennsylvania yesterday.

Democrats win control of Pennsylvania House, end GOP rule.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania House in special elections Tuesday, wresting partial power from Republicans for the first time in a dozen years in the competitive swing state.

Democrats won all three vacant Pittsburgh-area House seats to claim a slim edge over Republicans, finally securing a majority they first appeared to have won in last November’s General Election. Republicans still hold the Senate, creating a political division that could make it difficult for lawmakers to send priority bills to new Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.

The special elections capped several months of electoral drama. (AP).

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A charismatic man of principles who fought for them and wrote about them. David Harris.

David Harris, Leader of the Vietnam Draft Resistance Movement, Dies at 76.

A nationally renowned activist who went to jail for refusing to serve, he later wrote for Rolling Stone and The New York Times Magazine.

The antiwar activist David Harris speaking at the University of California, San Diego, in 1971. Though he was sometimes labeled a draft dodger, he was very much the opposite.

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David Harris, an activist and journalist who in the late 1960s became a national figure for encouraging young men to resist being drafted to serve in the Vietnam War — and who went to jail after refusing the draft himself — died on Monday at his home in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 76.

His wife, Cheri Forrester, said the cause was lung cancer.

Mr. Harris was an unlikely avatar of the antiwar movement. The son of a real estate lawyer and a religiously conservative mother in California’s Central Valley, he entered Stanford University in 1963 after being elected “boy of the year” by his high school, where he debated and lettered in football.

But a freshman year awakening, including a few weeks working in Mississippi at the end of Freedom Summer in 1964, persuaded him that his generation had a moral obligation to fight injustice, including what he saw as the unfolding disaster in Vietnam. Over the next several years, he used his establishment standing to rise to national prominence, calling on his fellow students and other young people to confront the draft head on.

Though he was sometimes labeled a draft dodger, he was very much the opposite. He advocated resistance, not avoidance, urging his fellow students to return their draft cards to the government in protest.

Doing so was a felony, and when Mr. Harris himself was drafted, in 1968, he refused to report for induction. He was almost immediately indicted by federal authorities.

“I dodged nothing,” he wrote in a guest essay for The New York Times in 2017. “I courted arrest, speaking truth to power, and power responded with an order for me to report for military service.”

A few months after his indictment, he married the singer Joan Baez, whom he met through the antiwar movement.

Mr. Harris and Joan Baez at a news conference in New York after their wedding in 1968. They met through the antiwar movement and spent 16 months touring the country, with her singing and him speaking.

(Click here to continue to read this obituary of this important antiwar activist in the New York Times).