Monday Reads: Another Blow to the Big Lie

Frida Kahlo, self portrait

Good Day Sky Dancers!

It’s women’s history month!  Today is International Women’s Day and I’m focusing on women artists and their work.  It’s just a small selection of women’ painters, singer/songwriter and actress!  I’m going to keep it up for the month so keep your eyes and ears open!

SCOTUS rejected Trump’s final attempt to throw out legitimate elections.  This time the state of Wisconsin was the target of the lawsuit chase.  From The Hill: “Supreme Court rejects final Trump bid to nullify 2020 election results”.

The Supreme Court on Monday denied a bid by former President Trump to nullify his electoral loss in Wisconsin, rejecting the former president’s final pending appeal over the results of the 2020 election.

In an unsigned order without noted dissent, the justices declined to take up Trump’s lawsuit alleging Wisconsin election officials violated the Constitution by expanding absentee voting amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

The justices’ move brought an end to Trump’s scattershot and ineffective legal campaign to overturn President Biden’s victory and added to the abysmal post-election court record of Trump and his allies, which included more than 60 losses and just one narrow win.

Carrying Clay Pots, Helen Mmakgabo Mmapula Sebidi

Georgia Republicans continue to push “election integretity” laws that are clearly aimed at suppressing minority votes.  This is from NBC News: Georgia Republicans are pushing dozens of ‘election integrity’ bills. Black voters are the target, rights groups say.As the battle over voting rights plays out in legislatures across the country, advocates say federal protections are more necessary than ever.”

After 15 years allowing voters to cast absentee ballots without excuses, Georgia Republicans say the practice has got to go.

The Republican-controlled state Senate votes Monday on a package of legislation that would, among other things, limit mail-in voting primarily to Georgians who are elderly, disabled or out of town on Election Day — one of dozens of restrictive election-related measures under consideration in state legislatures.

Supporters of the measures, who include allies of former President Donald Trump and those who stood up to his bogus allegations of fraud after Joe Biden upset decades of Republican dominance to win the state, say the bills are commonsense election security efforts. Democrats, voting rights advocates and civil rights groups say something else is going on.

“It’s pathetically obvious to anyone paying attention that when Trump lost the election and Georgia flipped control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats shortly after, Republicans got the message that they were in a political death spiral,” state Rep. Renitta Shannon, a Democrat from Decatur, said during a floor debate over the Republican proposals in Georgia last week. “And now they are doing anything they can do to silence the voices of Black and brown voters specifically because they largely powered these wins.”

Untitled, Bridget Bate Tichenor

NPR reports that President Biden has established a Gender Policy Council within the White House.  I’m withholding judgement on this.

President Biden marked International Women’s Day on Monday by signing two executive orders geared toward promoting gender equity, both in the United States and around the world.

In a statement, Biden said: “In our nation, as in all nations, women have fought for justice, shattered barriers, built and sustained economies, carried communities through times of crisis, and served with dignity and resolve. Too often, they have done so while being denied the freedom, full participation, and equal opportunity all women are due.”

The first executive order establishes a Gender Policy Council within the White House, reformulating an office from the Obama administration that was later disbanded by the Trump administration, and giving it more clout.

Under former President Barack Obama, the office was called the White House Council on Women and Girls. The name change to the Gender Policy Council is intentional, according to an administration official speaking on background, “to reflect the fact that gender discrimination can happen to people of all genders.”

But, the official said, “there will be a focus on women and girls, particularly women and girls of color, given the historical and disproportionate barriers that they face.”

Poppies, Georgia O’Keefe

Zack Beauchamp at Vox writes “The stimulus shows why the left should stop worrying and learn to love the suburban voter. Contrary to the left’s fears, the road to redistribution runs through the suburbs”.

But a funny thing happened over the past few years: As Democrats made inroads into the suburbs, they also became more progressive on economics.

Consider President Biden’s economic policy agenda.

To date, it is almost certainly the most left-leaning since Lyndon Johnson’s. The stimulus is more than twice the size of the one passed by President Obama’s majority in 2009, and includes (among other progressive priorities) $1,400 checks for tens of millions of Americans and a generous child tax credit. His broader legislative agenda includes a $2 trillion climate change plan, a public option for health care, and a plan to expand Section 8 housing vouchers that would radically reduce the poverty rate. This ambitious program would be paid for primarily by deficit spending and tax hikes on corporations and Americans making over $400,000 per year.

Some leading political scientists and Democratic pollsters see this agenda as perfectly consistent with an influx of college-educated white suburbanites — for the simple reason that this demographic has, in recent years, become much more progressive on economic issues than it was in the past.

This is certainly a relief to hear from the Save our planet and sacred/historical spaces for the future agenda.

The Biden administration has withdrawn an environmental review for a massive copper mine in eastern Arizona, temporarily blocking a multinational mining corporation, Resolution Copper, from taking over a parcel of land sacred to the San Carlos Apache Nation and other Native communities. The U.S. Forest Service said it needs more time to consult with Native people about the mine’s impact on Oak Flat, an ancient forest with spiritual and cultural significance. Advocates say the proposed mine would destroy Oak Flat and contaminate a large swath of southern Arizona. Arizona Democratic Congressmember Raúl Grijalva is set to reintroduce the Save Oak Flat Act, which would repeal the appropriation of the site.

Emmie and her child, Mary Cassatt

Now that we’re beginning to get vaccinnated there’s some additional good news for those of us through our first doses.  My friend Nancy across the street and I frequently get together but it still feels akward to have our little picnics and dinners while doing all the hand washing and masking.  We’re both fully vaccinated so this is great news!  Now, we just have to get to a place where we get the kids into the mix.  I’m sure there’s a lot of grandparents missing hugs!  Another one from NPR: “CDC Says It’s Safe For Vaccinated People To Do These Activities”.

The CDC has issued new guidance for vaccinated people, giving the green-light to resume some pre-pandemic activities and relax precautions that have been in place.

Specifically, people who are fully vaccinated can gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing masks or social distancing. People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after they have gotten the second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines (or two weeks after receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine).

Vaccinated people can also gather, unmasked, with people from another household who are not yet vaccinated, as long as those people are at low risk of serious illness from the virus. However, the agency said, vaccinated people should continue to mask when they’re in public, avoid crowds and take other precautions when gathering with unvaccinated people who are at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19.

The CDC said this new guidance is a “first step” to returning to everyday activities. There’s accumulating evidence to show that people who are fully vaccinated are less likely to become infected and also “potentially” less likely to spread the virus to others, agency officials wrote in a press release.

The good news is that Trump is still under his Mara LaLa rock.  The bad news is Mike Pence may take his show on the road.  He’s headed to South Carolina which is definitely an important state in presidential primaries.

Well, that’s it for me today!  What’s on your reading and blogging list today!  Happy International Women’s Day!