And now, without further ado, few regrets, no looking back, nor latent conjecture, trepidation, misgivings or giving misses, not withstanding challenge, nor little latin lupe lu, under the boardwalk, over the rainbow, I present to you this Friday’s spicy stew of compelling yarns for your reading pleasure.
1.
Norton Juster, author of The Phantom Tollbooth, has died this week at the age of 91. In 1960 Juster began living with the cartoonist Jules Feiffer, who illustrated that classic.
Bloom County’s Berkeley Breathed wrote, “The Phantom Tollbooth was the first chapter book that captured and wholly ensnared the imagination of a nascent pre-cartoonist BB at the age of ten. The book, as many of you know, is illustrated by Jules Feiffer… the cartoonist who most inspired the style Garry Trudeau brought to Doonesbury. Garry’s style, partly born from Feiffer’s, was the immediate inspiration to the style that became Bloom County. The first character of Bloom County was named Milo Bloom…. named after 'Milo' from The Phantom Tollbooth. My son Milo was named after same. The first chapter book I gave him was The Phantom Tollbooth.
He said, “Dad, look. Same name as mine! How about that.”
How indeed.
Thank you Norton and fare thee well.
2.
Eliminating the Filibuster
Republicans, without saying out loud we have no agenda of our own, don’t want the Democrats coming off looking good just because they have actual legislation waiting to be passed. Years of it. The filibuster is now a vehicle for minority (Republicans) rule, not minority rights.
Jack Holmes in Esquire put it quite succinctly: “If Democrats—and it will really come down to the two most conservative among them, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema—refuse to adjust the threshold to move legislation to a simple majority from the filibuster's 60-vote supermajority, there will be no new Voting Rights Act or H.R. 1, the For the People Act. There will be no reforms to the judiciary system. Republicans will be free to obstruct progress, then fall back on their structural advantages to squeeze out congressional majorities for themselves in the 2022 midterms, running on a platform of Democrats Didn't Do Shit.”
According to the Washington Post, McConnell had notified his Republican colleagues in the Senate that he would deliver Schumer a sharp ultimatum: agree to preserve the legislative filibuster, the centerpiece of minority power in the Senate or forget about any semblance of cooperation — starting with an agreement on the chamber’s operating rules. The calculations for McConnell, according to Republicans, are simple. Not only is preserving the filibuster a matter that Republicans can unify around, it is something that potentially divides Democrats, who are under enormous pressure to discard it to advance their governing agenda.
It’s time to keep up the pressure…here’s how you can contact Kyrsten Sinema. The more she hears from us, the better. My post included the quote from Jack Holmes above and my own follow up: Do something for Arizona and our country. It's not about you. Democratic reforms are more popular with the American people than ever before. Don't be that thorn in the side of progress.
The New York Times had a recent article stating that “More Democrats join the effort to kill the filibuster as a way of saving Biden’s agenda.” And check in here for more information and resources if interested.
3.
Gary Nabhan, an internationally-celebrated nature writer, agrarian activist and ethnobiologist who tangibly works on conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity, lives in Patagonia, Arizona. In 2008, he joined the University of Arizona faculty as a research social scientist with the Southwest Center, where he now serves as the Kellogg Endowed Chair in Southwestern Borderlands Food and Water Security. He founded the Center for Regional Food Studies and catalyzed the initiative to have UNESCO designate Tucson as the first City of Gastronomy in the U.S.
This week he published (on his website) an article entitled Sowing the Promise of Blue Carbon on the Watery Edge of a Blue Desert. He writes, “The coastal communities and fisheries of the Sea of Cortés— known to many Americans as the Gulf of California—are facing several threats associated with climate change. These may include higher sea levels; greater salinity in coastal groundwater where aquifers have already been overpumped; acidification of the seawaters where fishes breed; huge shifts in the volumes of harvestable lobsters and abalones; and delayed or disrupted migrations and reproduction of already threatened sea turtles and whales.”
Check out how The Comcaac community members of both villages recognize the “promise of blue carbon” as a potential future source of funds to stabilize their now-vulnerable economy in the face of daunting climatic challenges. But in the meantime, the restoration of mangroves and eelgrass for the food, income and protective buffers they provide are sufficient to justify their community engagement.
4.
Because my head’s about to explode, I’m going to keep posting bits and bobs about Republicans and their blatant voter suppression attacks, legislation, and downright minority disenfranchisement.
A CNN report yesterday by Eric Bradner and Dianne Gallagher focuses on a push by Republican-controlled legislatures in several states to advocate for strict new voting laws. What popped off the page more than anything was a quote from Arizona Rep. John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican who chairs the Government and Elections Committee.
"There's a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans," Kavanagh said. "Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they're willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don't mind putting security measures in that won't let everybody vote -- but everybody shouldn't be voting. Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they're totally uninformed on the issues. Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well."
Quality votes. Yep, that would be white votes, chock full of quality.
5.
Dan Perkins, AKA Tom Tomorrow! Tom knows what’s important to Republicans…so should you!
And now, Moose and Archie toss about teenage angst.
Always up for others' points of view, my politically astute friend Gary Durrett recently commented on Facebook: "Dems don't have to kill the filibuster - they can simply do what McConnell did for Supreme Court confirmations: modify it to a specific need. If they want to pass HR 1, they can simply say that any legislation related to election/democracy just needs a simple majority. That gives political cover to people like Manchin & Sinema who want to retain the integrity of the filibuster (an oxymoron.)"