April 25, 2021

Imperative that Democrats figure out what went wrong in 2020

BY ALBERT HUNT, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 04/25/21 10:00 AM EDT

Al Hunt is the former executive editor of Bloomberg News. He previously served as reporter, bureau chief and Washington editor for the Wall Street Journal. For almost a quarter century he wrote a column on politics for The Wall Street Journal, then The International New York Times and Bloomberg View. He hosts Politics War Room with James Carville. Follow him on Twitter @AlHuntDC.

This past election, the Democrats won the big one — the presidency — and unexpectedly swept two Senate seats in Georgia. Overall, however, it was a bad year. Some Democrats realize if they don't figure out why — and what to do about it — deeper troubles lie ahead.

While a 50-50 Senate gives Democrats control, they lost several races they were supposed to win. Instead of picking up House seats, they lost more than a dozen to barely retain a majority. Devastatingly, they made few gains in contests for state legislatures, which Republicans have dominated for a decade. The biggest disappointments were failing to win the North Carolina Senate and Texas House to neutralize Republican gerrymandering plans.

Thus, the Democrats are at a decided disadvantage in the post-2020 redistricting — on top of the reality that the party holding the White House usually fares poorly in the midterm elections.

These problems occur at a time, ironically, when the politics should be moving the Democrats’ way. On big national issues — the economy, jobs, health care, voting rights — the Democrats have a clear advantage. It has long been conventional wisdom that America is a center-right country politically; it looks more center, tilting left, today.

more
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/550144-imperative-that-democrats-figure-out-what-went-wrong-in-2020

April 25, 2021

Graham after Chauvin verdict: 'America is not a racist country'

BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/25/21 09:51 AM EDT

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that the U.S. was not a racist country but faced racism in the form of "bad actors" following the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd.

During an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," Graham explained that in his view, the U.S. was not a racist country and did not have racist "systems," but did face continuing challenges from some Americans who hold racist beliefs.

"No, in my opinion...our systems are not racist," America is not a racist country," Graham told Wallace.

"This attack on police and policing...reform the police yes, call them all racists no," he continued.

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/550150-graham-after-chauvin-verdict-america-is-not-a-racist-country

April 25, 2021

Gubernatorial Candidate Caitlyn Jenner Gets Schooled On How California Operates

04/25/2021 08:37 am ET

She referred in a tweet to “Gov. Gavin Newsom’s district attorneys.” DAs are elected in California, not appointed by the governor.

By Mary Papenfuss

Now that Caitlyn Jenner is running for governor of California she might want to study up a bit on how things work in the state, suggested a New York public defender not too politely.

Jenner, who subscribes to the the Donald Trump strategy of having absolutely no political experience before heading for a top elected office, railed Saturday against California Gov. “Gavin Newsom’s district attorneys across California.” She was upset about a case involving a dead child.

One relevant issue: California governors do not appoint district attorneys. They’re chosen by voters. It’s the kind of thing Californians would assume a candidate for governor of the state would know. In fact, Newsom endorsed the opponent of the district attorney Jenner criticized in her tweet.

Eliza Orlins, a candidate for district attorney across the country in Manhattan, instantly schooled Jenner about how it is.

more
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/caitlyn-jenner-gavin-newsom-schooled-california-governor_n_608514d6e4b09a22a442c848

April 25, 2021

More action, less talk, distinguish Biden's 100-day sprint

By JONATHAN LEMIRE and CALVIN WOODWARD
2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The card tucked in President Joe Biden’s right jacket pocket must weigh a ton. You can see the weight of it on his face when he digs it out, squints and ever-so-slowly reads aloud the latest tally of COVID-19 dead.

Sometimes he’ll stumble on a digit — after all, flubs come with the man. But the message is always clear: The toll of the virus weighs on him constantly, a millstone that helps explain why the typically garrulous politician with the megawatt smile has often seemed downright dour.

For any new leader, a lingering pandemic that has killed more than a half-million citizens would be plenty for a first 100 days. But it has been far from the sole preoccupation for the now 78-year-old Biden.

The oldest person ever elected president is tugging the United States in many new directions at once, right down to its literal foundations — the concrete of its neglected bridges — as well as the racial inequities and partisan poisons tearing at the civil society. Add to that list: a call for dramatic action to combat climate change.

more
https://apnews.com/article/politics-immigration-health-joe-biden-election-2020-0bf5f72ba4194ba4247dcf7130af70b6

April 25, 2021

Republican lawyer is key player in voter suppression drive across US

Cleta Mitchell has emerged in a series of roles that many see as a Republican push on limiting voting rights

Peter Stone in Washington
Sun 25 Apr 2021 04.00 EDT

It was an abrupt end to two decades as a partner at legal giant Foley & Lardner for the influential and conservative election lawyer Cleta Mitchell.

Days after Mitchell participated in Donald Trump’s controversial 2 January phone call with Georgia’s secretary of state where the then president pressured him to “find” him more votes to reverse Joe Biden’s win, Mitchell resigned her post in the midst of an internal firm review and mounting criticism.

But Mitchell, a combative and top lawyer in the right’s drive to promote unproven charges of sizable voting fraud in 2020 and tighten future voting laws, was not idle for long. She has now emerged in a series of roles that have put her at the heart of what many see as a ferocious Republican push on limiting voting rights that now reaches across America.

Last month, Mitchell was tapped by the libertarian FreedomWorks to spearhead a $10m drive in seven key states including Georgia, Arizona and Michigan to change voting laws to curb potential but unproven election fraud, which many Democrats and legal experts view as aimed at limiting minority votes.

more
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/25/cleta-mitchell-lawyer-us-voter-suppression

April 25, 2021

'State of crisis': Advocates warn of 'unprecedented' wave of anti-LGBTQ bills

Eight of these bills have already been enacted and 10 more are on governors’ desks, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

April 25, 2021, 6:00 AM EDT
By Jo Yurcaba

Hundreds of bills that target LGBTQ people have been filed in state legislatures, creating a “state of crisis,” advocates say.

The bills “attempt to erase transgender people and attempt to make LGBTQ people second-class citizens,” Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said during a news conference Thursday.

David said the number of bills, particularly those targeting transgender young people, is “unprecedented” and that 2021 is on track to “become the worst year for state legislative attacks against LGBTQ people in history.”

Until now, 2015 held that record, with 15 anti-LGBTQ bills enacted into law, David said. So far this year, eight bills targeting LGBTQ people have been signed into law, and another 10 are sitting on governors’ desks awaiting signatures, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

more
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/state-crisis-advocates-warn-unprecedented-wave-anti-lgbtq-bills-n1265132

April 25, 2021

Millions Are Skipping Their Second Vaccine Shot

Source: PoliticalWire/New York Times


April 25, 2021 at 9:34 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

More than 5 million people have skipped their second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, the New York Times reports.

“The reasons vary for why people are missing their second shots. In interviews, some said they feared the side effects, which can include flulike symptoms. Others said they felt that they were sufficiently protected with a single shot.”

###

Read more: https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/25/millions-are-skipping-their-second-vaccine-shot/

---

April 25, 2021

Joe Biden Wants To Make Community College Free. Can Progressives Push Him Further?

04/25/2021 06:00 am ET Updated 1 hour ago

Making community college tuition-free has “no political downside.” Free four-year degrees are a tougher political sell.

By Kevin Robillard

DIXON, Illinois ― President Joe Biden’s administration is set to push to make community college tuition-free across the country, a potentially revolutionary policy that could nonetheless disappoint progressives who hope to persuade him to turn a campaign plan to make four-year public colleges free into a reality.

On Monday, first lady Jill Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona traveled to Sauk Valley Community College here to extol the virtues of the nation’s community colleges as economic boosters and institutions open to all economic and social classes. It’s a familiar role for Jill Biden, a longtime professor at Northern Virginia Community College who has spent much of the past decade pushing to make community colleges free.

“Community colleges are our future,” Biden said, without ever directly mentioning her husband’s yet-to-be-formally-unveiled plan to make them tuition-free. (The president is expected to lay out his proposal, part of the broader American Families Plan, during a Wednesday address to Congress.)

There is relatively little intra-Democratic debate over free community college. Progressives and moderates have both embraced the idea, which has broad support in public surveys. More than a dozen states, including several controlled by Republicans, have made attending the two-year schools free over the past decade, and mounting evidence suggests the programs have enticed more low-income students to earn associate’s degrees or complete job-training programs that are often essential to economic survival in 21st-century America.

more
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-community-college-free_n_6084a67ce4b09a22a4429e69

April 25, 2021

McManus: How do Biden's first 100 days in office compare to Trump's?

Doyle McManus
Sun, April 25, 2021, 7:00 AM·4 min read

A president’s first 100 days are an arbitrary benchmark, a point of measurement journalists are fond of because it allows us to draw comparisons between the current officeholder and Franklin D. Roosevelt, the last chief executive whose first three months were truly momentous. But in recent times, the 100-day trope has also been taken seriously by presidents — including both Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised that in his first 100 days he would repeal Obamacare, build a wall on the border with Mexico and persuade Congress to pass term limits.

None of those things happened, but Trump did outdo former holders of the office in one regard: producing unshirted chaos.

The headstrong new president imposed a ban on immigrants and travelers from Muslim countries, but it was quickly reversed by federal courts. He stripped federal funding from sanctuary cities, but that, too, was quickly challenged. His national security advisor resigned amid a scandal over secret contacts with Russian officials.

more
https://news.yahoo.com/mcmanus-bidens-first-100-days-110054205.html

April 25, 2021

'Reckless' Russia's power is in decline, says British spy chief

MI6 chief believes Moscow’s power is waning.

BY MARI ECCLES
April 25, 2021 1:49 pm

-snip-

Last week, Moscow announced it would recall almost 100,000 troops from the Ukraine border, de-escalating tensions amid concerns of a full-blown invasion. Moore said that the U.K. and United States had warned Russian President Vladimir Putin of the damage an invasion could cause.

Despite the concerns, Moore said Moscow’s power is waning.

“Russia is an objectively declining power economically and demographically,” he said. “It is an extremely challenged place. And clearly the treatment of Alexei Navalny, as we saw with the thousands of protesters on the streets of … a number of cities, shows that there is a deal of disaffection with Mr Putin.” Opposition leader Navalny was imprisoned in February and has been on hunger strike to protest his treatment.

Moore — the first head of the service to ever give a broadcast interview — also revealed that MI6 is checking up on countries’ green commitments.

-snip-

full article
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-military-power-ukraine-britain-mi6/