Morning Reads for Tuesday, December 27
Good morning! Tonight is the fourth night of Hanukkah, so take a moment to enjoy last year’s Tiny Desk Concert featuring Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings performing “8 Days (of Hanukkah).” It’s a spectacular song, and while we lost Sharon Jones earlier this year (enough, 2016!), her joy is transformative – and may be the kick in the pants you need to ease yourself into the week.
- Why did Janelle Jones, an Atlanta woman who is “young, gifted, and black,” vote for Donald Trump?
- It’s been a banner year for the GOP in Georgia – so why are they still more than $200,000 in debt?
- Bill Usery, a Georgia native who mediated labor disputes for Presidents Nixon and Ford, died this month in Eatonton.
- Will the 2020 census transform the electoral map? Eeeennnhhhhhh…
- Here’s how astronauts celebrate the holidays in the International Space Station.
- House Republicans transfer blame for the Flint, Michigan water – which is still undrinkable – crisis to the EPA.
- The Great British Bake Off ended its run on the BBC. Long live the GBBO! Long Live Mary Berry! (I mean it – ENOUGH ALREADY, 2016!)
- What one Denton, Texas man learned about Rex Tillerson when they spent a week together serving on a jury.
- Andrew Young reminds us to remember Martin Luther King’s “stone of hope” as we enter the Trump era.
- The oldest surviving Tuskegee Airman died last month.
- Bankruptcy asset hunters learn the hard way that everybody lies on social media.
- Is your child’s teacher certified to teach? Throughout metro Atlanta, many aren’t.
- Buddy the Elf goes dark.
- In America, we turn our old Christmas trees into mulch. In Sweden, they go a little farther.
- Cultural goals for the new year from a range of actors, singers, artists, and writers – including Hamilton Alum Chris Jackson.
About Author
Teri
Teri Anulewicz is a Democrat who represents House District 42 in the Georgia General Assembly. She previously spent nearly a decade on the Smyrna City Council. A native New Orleanian and quasi-Texan, Teri graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1998. She's been a front page contributor since 2015, and she compiles each Tuesday's Morning Reads.
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Did y’all know that Obama would have won against Trump if he had run? Yep, according to the Narcissist in Chief, that’s exactly what would have happened! Woulda, Coulda, Shouda…Truly, truly sad…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4066510/Obama-says-beaten-Trump-allowed-run-weigh-important-issues-ex-president-instead-staying-sidelines.htm
You’re more incoherent than normal, Drew. Obama’s musing about a third term is hypothetical pablum. This much is certain: if Hillary hadn’t been trying to shield her activities by using her own private server, she WOULD be the president-elect right now. Gar-en-teed…
I offered no opinion as to whether Obama would have won. He couldn’t run. That topic is over. It’s an entertaining what-if, nothing more. Like would a top form Jack Nicklaus have beaten a top form Tiger? A top form Jimmy Connors versus Roger Federer? Zzzzzzz….
But of the Dems running who had any semblance of name ID, an honest Hillary would have beaten any of the 17 Repubs badly, including Trump.
You know, I’ll give you some credit on that one. I’d have loved seeing him take on Hillary! That would have been real sport…
I swear, next to Al Gore, back when he didn’t win TN in 2000, Biden has to be the most depressed man in America right now. Now THAT one is a real Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda…
Hmmmm….Nicklaus and Tiger with same equipment – a push. Same with Connors/Fed. Remember Connors played with that tiny T-2000, (which I currently have in my car’s back seat. Yes, I occasionally bring it out to play with…Never served harder with any other racket…) that had a sweet spot the size of a silver dollar. Again, would have had a big bucket of popcorn to watch both of those matches…
occasionally think abt how records continue to be broken. one could argue evolution of body. but at this point, i think maybe much is evolution of the game. for non-equipment issues, the thought is that those whose bodily physics are most beneficial to the game are more likely to enter and compete. so, track athletes, and swimmers too become on average taller, and thus more likely to break records. even tennis favors height to a sig degree. matter of fact, most games favor height, so i can see taller and taller athletes everywhere. football/rugby and wrestling/fighting may have exceptions, but it ain’t otherwise easy bein short in sports.
Good subject – following kids that play sports all through schools and focus (over focus) on a few of them has their skills developed far beyond 10 or 20 years ago.
The coaches and many parents make them specialize to be selected from “feeder” schools to high school. It has a bright side and a dark side.
The worst for injuries, costs and craziness might be competitive cheer.
In this hypothetical, Fed would have no athletic advantage over Connors. Connors at 21 was fast as a cat and they say no one ever hit the ball harder off of both sides that Jimbo. You’re right that Fed is the most fundamentally sound man to draw a breath and Connors would have a disadvantage with the forehand approach shot, which was a slice that had an annoying tendency to find the top of the tape. But, throw in grit and the his ability to own a crowd and Jungle Jim would be feared, indeed. Remember when he beat the dog squeeze out of Lendl in 82 and 83 US Open? Lendl was in his prime and used to beat Connors like a yard dog anywhere else. Hell, Lendl was beating everybody then. But throw in big match pressure and the pre-major champion Lendl would fold like a pup tent.
‘Nuther question: If you had to have one tennis player, in their prime with no nerves on that day, play a match for your life, who would it be? My answer may surprize you…
And I’ll take Jack any day over Tiger. He was second in majors like 18 times…
Bernie would have wiped Trump across the floor like a damp mop…but woulda coulda shoulda doesnt count
Naaaaaa….
Here’s a look at the prospects for North Georgia natural gas. Geologists think plenty is there waiting to be found. Environmentalists want changes to the Georgia Oil and Gas Deep Drilling Act of 1975. As usual the market determines activity.
61 shootings, 11 dead over the weekend in Chicago. Locally, murders are up from 2015 in Atlanta and Dekalb.
Trump is only lacking VA pick, Agriculture and SCOTUS. All selections (possible exception is the Treasury guy) will eventually be confirmed with varying degrees of difficulty.
Ted Cruz gets the SCOTUS slot…
Senator Mike Lee from Utah
You know, that’s just fine, too!!!! Current gov appoints himself or other Repub. No fuss, no muss…
Ag- hope he picks a tariff person over a subsidy person. And we replace food cards with real meals.
Already said he doesnt want it
Trust me, if Trump offered it (to Lee or Cruz…), he’d foam like a Pavlovian dog.
No way would the Senate approve him. They haaaaaaaaaate him.
Nice point. I’d watch that – Lindsey Graham might hate him most of all, and I bet Boehner would be front and center in the Gallery.
But would they confirm him to be rid of him in the senate?
Yes, Cruz would be questioned critically, then confirmed to SCOTUS.
That’s what I thought.
God Forbid
Doggone it, Iran is stealing Trump’s “the art of the deal” tactic and bragging they got their 80 Boeing airliners at half price.
Love it that Trump is going into the world bazaar and not wanting to pay first asking price.
Carrie Fisher dead at age 60.
All right, all these people about my age or a little older are dying! I don’t like that. Cut it out!
Yeah, one of the participants in our dead pool cheated. He had already cheated the reaper a couple of times with the big C but didn’t wake up a couple of weeks ago. Poolees (poolers?) automatically win if they cash in their own chips. His widow had us send the pool money to the American Cancer Society. A great guy that was so honest he couldn’t play poker worth a damn. 2016 has seen several of my friends and family leave us. I’m hoping to do my share of strutting and fretting in 2017.
Ok, Drew gotta start a new thread. We wore that last one out:
Clay: Nadal
Grass: Borg (Five straight, retired at 26) I know, I know Fed and Sampras both won 7…
Hard: Connors (Sampras also won 5 US Opens as did Fed)
But for my life, in their prime, no nerves with all stars lined up: Steffi Graf
this story was out a week ago, but i didn’t want to ruin Christmas by injecting the power of Coca-Cola’s advertising. but here in the A, some probly proud of it.
http://www.npr.org/2016/12/20/506215632/how-red-and-green-became-the-colors-of-christmas
Could somebody pull-eezzzeeee get this 800 Pound Gorilla off the national couch!!!
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/311883-pardon-the-interruption-clinton-allegation-may-force
I would like for any Supreme Court Justice to have at least some experience on a bench somewhere. Even Taft had put in some time as a judge prior to Harding naming him for the court. Generally only the most difficult cases make it to the Supremes and I for one would appreciate a justice selected for his previous written interpretations of the Constitution, not a political hack. No matter how some have ridiculed the concept lately the Constitution is a living document as it has to be. For example there is no way Madison, et al. could have foretold challenges to the 4th Amendment that we have now come up against with modern communication.
Even today I read this one with Amazon on the hot seat because the cops want to ask Alexa whodunnit:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/12/27/amazon-alexa-echo-murder-case-bentonville-hot-tub-james-andrew-bates/95879532/
Rehnquist, White, Powell, Warren had no previous judicial experience prior to SCOTUS. For repub appointees (in recent history) a judicial record does not necessarily predict or show how one wii vote on high profile SCOTUS cases. O’Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Roberts and Stevens did not vote party line on several cases. If you want a “political hack” check with the dem appointed justices as they always vote party line on big issues.
Should be “will” not “wii”
Ideally a justice votes his or her interpretation of the Constitution and/or what is best for the country regardless of the party line. And unicorns fart rainbows, etc. Warren was a former conservative Governor from California but tell that to the conservatives in the sixties who wanted to impeach him for his “liberal” decisions striking down separate-but-equal schools, etc. Not that it matters what I want but what the nation should want is a track record. We also don’t need one without a track record who could possibly be on the court voting who knows how until 2055 or so.
That’s not really true though. Read down criminal procedure cases on the years, and you’ll often find Breyer joining up with Rehnquist and company and Scalia siding with Ginsburg–the latter being much more skeptical of the cops entering your house or checking your car without a warrant than the former. And I don’t think you’ll see any more Souters: since him there hasn’t been a GOPer who joined the ‘liberal’ block, even if Roberts wasn’t going to strike down Obamacare and overturn decades of Commerce Clause or Statutory Interpretation precedent willie-nillie (just hamstring it with a silly interpretation of the Spending Clause power that blocked the Medicaid expansion in half the country) just to get rid of it. Otherwise, he’s been a driver or a fair amount of hard right judicial activism, from Shelby County to Citizens United to rolling back Brown in school desegregation cases.
Criminal procedure is not a big issue to the public. I was referring to gay marriage, abortion, Obamacare, affirmative action… It’s the repub that crosses over not the dem.
Yes, once again in Lawrence, repub justices were swing votes, not the two dem justices.
Societal change should be expressed legislatively (with a few exceptions) not judicially.
I know the activist court thing is still a big rallying cry, especially from the far right. However without the judiciary we get little protection for minority and/or individual rights. A representative legislature is going to necessarily follow the will of the majority most of the time if they want to be reelected. To paraphrase Larry Flynt, we can’t have 5 wolves and 1 sheep voting on what’s for supper.
In vitro fertilization among other societal issues changed the map on gay marriage. How many decades would it have taken for all of the states to accept gay marriage legally if the Court had not stepped in? In the meantime children from gay couples would not receive equal protections under the law.
I will give you a case that should demand legislation though will not because the trough has become a politician’s cornucopia: Citizens United v. FEC. A decision that, to slice it up your way, was 5 Repubs to 4 Dems. It is also one of the biggest threats to our Democracy I’ve seen in my lifetime.