I like giving myself challenges. I also know that I tend to be too wordy. So I'm giving myself a limit of 150 words on many subjects instead of a single deep dive. It's still 1,000-1,500 words, so... mission accomplished? Anyway, let's get into it:
Racial gerrymandering
There were strange bedfellows in a recent Supreme Court case. You'd be hard pressed to find a similar assortment of justices on one side of a case. In a 5-3 ruling, Clarence Thomas (!) sided with the more liberal judges to rule two North Carolina Congressional districts illegal. The ruling was that N.C. GOP leaders used race to illegally pack two districts with black residents — likely Democrats.
Those last four words are key, because racial gerrymandering is illegal. Partisan gerrymandering isn't illegal necessarily (though one case will soon decide that). This brings me back to a broader issue: Why do we allow even partisan gerrymandering? Lawmakers are not secretive about their plans for greater power, but do the people want to let the parties choose their voters rather than the other way around?
Trump/Russia
Every day there isn't a major revelation is a breath of relief in the White House. But there are bad omens coming from D.C. Robert Mueller has reportedly been given authority to investigate a possible cover-up of Trump-Russia connections, including obstruction of justice. President Trump will reportedly hire a private attorney for Trump-Russia issues. These are not good signs, and both indicate an escalation in seriousness related to the charges. The Mueller investigation is necessary, but it's a dice roll for both sides. If Mueller finds nothing, Democrats have no room to complain. If he does, the GOP should run. However, it also takes time. This won't be over by fall. It won't be done this year, I bet. Honestly, we'd be lucky if it's done by the midterms next fall. That buys both sides time to pretend the other is lying... and wait for the die to be cast.
FCC and Colbert
The FCC chose not to punish Stephen Colbert for a crude joke about the President. Funny thing is: They were never going to. Punishing an entertainer for saying something (crude or not) critical of the president is something out of a lesser country. We are not that country. Censorship is the first step toward authoritarianism. And we still have a long way to go for that. And as for what Colbert said: he's rarely that crude, but cruder things have been said by others, including the President. I'm sure he regrets his choice of words, but I can't imagine him ruing the day he needled at a weakness of Trump.
Kathy Griffin
Speaking of "cruder things", there's Kathy Griffin, who was photographed holding a bloody fake head of Trump. The outrage cycle spun up, she apologized, she asked for the photos to be taken down, and then she was fired from CNN's New Year's Eve duties (Is that even a punishment?). That's how the outrage cycle is supposed to go: anger > person at fault apologizing/sincerely or insincerely attempting to mitigate damage > punishment. Yet I can't help but compare the reaction from the right to other outrages: "Grab them by the pussy," "not a war hero," anything related to Khizr Khan, the Obama birth certificate complaints, Hillary's stamina, accusing Ted Cruz's dad of being related to the JFK assassination, etc. We rewarded him with the highest office in the land. Greg Gianforte punched a reporter and was still elected in Montana. No apologies* and no punishments.
*Technically, Gianforte did apologize, but it was after the election -- literally in his victory speech. So he already got his reward, and then swept the incident away.
Hard to fill FBI seat
Funny how no one wants the job. Trump has already hit reset on the search for a new FBI director after five people pulled out and the remaining 2-3 didn't meet his standards. It seems like a tough job. Given the controversy involved, I would expect a quiet announcement that acting FBI director Andrew McCabe ends up getting the word "acting" dropped from his title.
Seth Rich
I'm glad to see Fox News do the right thing and recant its stories on Seth Rich. In case you missed it, Fox pushed a story that DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered last summer because he had leaked DNC documents to Wikileaks. Long story short, that was based on a lie. The family was outraged and called for Fox to recant — which they did, several days after the fact. The problem for me was that the Seth Rich story was foxnews.com's top story for a day or two. It led the coverage on the network. Not only was this during the middle of the Comey/Russia revelations, it was supplanting it in conservative media while most other media sources were on the topic critical of the president. Although a recant came, it was like a whisper of "sorry" after shrieking "WOLF!" for three days.
Trump budget
Budgets from the President are kind of dumb. They don't really mean much, other than a pie-in-the-sky wish list, no matter the party. With a sympathetic Congress, maybe it can act as a signpost for the direction they'd like to go. That's really what the presidential budget is: a description of the president's priorities with dollar signs attached. Which is why Trump's budget was so surprising. It included trillions of dollars in a math error, it cuts from food stamps, it cuts disability aid, it cuts the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, it cuts the Community Development Block Grants, etc... It's been interesting to see both Democrats and many Republicans come out against the budget and say that it's dead on arrival. We'll see at the midterms if Trump's priorities align with his voters'.
Trump and international leaders
President Trump is not making a lot of international friends. During his recent foreign swing, the French President intentionally mangled his hand in a handshake because of Trump's noted handshake power plays. Macron also appeared to avoid Trump to show direct love to Angela Merkel. Speaking of Merkel, Trump said that the Germans are "bad, very bad" after Merkel said that her country can't rely on the U.S. and the U.K. for its own protection anymore. Trump's "shove" of the Macedonian prime minister was not a good look. All told, none of these incidents are that much. But in a broader scope, they tell a story that the U.S. is losing its clout on an international stage, and some of that may be due to our leader.
Climate Agreement
There are 195 countries in the Paris Agreement. That's significant, as the United Nations only recognizes 193 countries (others include the two Koreas, Taiwan, and the Vatican). Now, President Trump is under consideration for pulling out of the climate agreement. There are only two notable countries not in the Paris Agreement, and for differing reasons: Syria, because they are in a civil war, and Nicaragua, because they don't believe the agreement goes far enough (!). Speaking very broadly, the U.S. and China account for about 20-30 percent each of the reduction in carbon emissions. The rest of the world is 50 percent. The U.S. goals are easy to meet and will probably be met regardless of Trump's move. Which further prompts the question of why? If it's an easy goal and builds bridges with the rest of the world, what are we trying to prove?
Female Superheroes
Wonder Woman comes out on Friday. Captain Marvel is coming soon. There's supposedly a Phoenix-centric X-Men movie on its way. But until now, when was the last superhero movie focused on a single woman? Maybe the bombs Elektra and Catwoman? So I got to thinking about which female superheroes should be next to star in their own movie. I came up with a list of 20+ super heroines.
The problem is that many of the most prominent female superheroes are either a) derivative of some male superhero, like Supergirl or Batgirl or, sadly, She-Hulk or Hawkeye Kate Bishop b) they are more known for being part of a team, and may not have enough to stand on their own as the lead of a movie, like Incredible Woman or Black Canary or Storm or Liz Sherman or Domino. So I ruled out some of them out. I also ruled out a few who I don't think have quite enough to sustain their own 2-hour movie (sorry, Huntress and Black Cat).
Here are some ideas, with brief commentary:
• Black Widow — she's already in the Avengers movie, but her backstory needs fleshed out. Do this.
• Zatanna — could be DC's female Dr. Strange. Could also fit into a Justice League scenario. But also has an interesting family history that could make for a good movie.
• Miss Marvel (Kamala Khan) -- Muslim-American teen girl from Jersey City with stretchy body part powers. This writes itself and is relevant. Also is an Inhuman, apparently.
• Angela -- Angel/Heaven's bounty hunter who turns out to be the sister to Thor/Loki. She's a badass. She also goes and takes over Hell to save the soul of her woman. That's a good story.
• Squirrel Girl — I would pay to see this one. Sweet girl with a rather silly power but can take down the most powerful people in the universe, including Thanos, Galactus and Dr. Doom. Yes, please.
• Miss America (America Chavez) -- LGBTQ Latina with Superman powers and some dimension-hopping skills. She once threw a shark over Dr. Doom's wall. She's cool, though her origin is... wonky.
• Oracle -- Batgirl got shot/paralyzed by the Joker and becomes computer expert. Starts own team of female superheroes. Babs Gordon is the best, and you could even get Nightwing to drop by.
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur -- 9-year-old black girl genius and red T-Rex. She has Inhuman abilities to switch minds with Devil Dinosaur. A fun romp for kids.
• Witchblade -- Not a DC or Marvel property, but hard-nosed NYPD detective gets symbiotic relationship with sentient body armor/weaponry. The armor decides what she needs in a situation, which could be a good relationship exploration.
• The Question (Renee Montoya) -- I am a huge fan of Vic Sage, the original Question. But moving the title onto former Gotham City detective and Batman-adjacent Renee Montoya was a brilliant move. The Question, in any iteration, could stand on its own.
Summary Judgments
The relatively silly reaction to President Trump's "covfefe" tweet is one of those amusing distractions we all need from time to time. What I liked was it might be the first time I've ever seen Trump seem to embrace an imperfection — he tweeted again about it, and seemed to laugh at himself. That was good, I think? (That said, if Rogue POTUS Staff is real, then the self-laughter was short-lived. • • • I ran 4 miles in 42:15 last week. That's 3 minutes shorter than my time in early March, which had snow and a big hill. Still: Three minutes less! • • • While Roland is the funniest little kid, Evie can have moments. At day care, I learned that she broke Miss Ashley, who has been doing this for 15 years and said she's never had a kid do this. Evie was sent to timeout and refused to apologize. So Miss Ashley brought her up front (big deal punishment at day care) to sit until she said she was sorry. Evie just shut down and didn't do anything. 10 minutes go by: nothing changes. Every time Ashley would try to get her to apologize, she'd grump no and just sit there. After an hour of this, Miss Ashley and Evie's teacher Miss Hillary realized Evie wasn't going to back down, so they gave up and let her go back to class. Alyson and I find this story hilarious, only because it didn't happen to us.... but it happens to us often, too. She'll be a fun teenager.
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