Pittsburgh’s Suburbs Try to De-Karen the 2020 Election (Dan)
The author writes, ‘[Clare] Dooley is one of thousands of mostly college-educated white women who, awakened by the Trump upset of 2016 and charged up by the subsequent Women’s March in Washington, D.C., began building local political organizations in their homes in outer-ring suburbs, middle suburbs, exurbs and rural communities across the U.S. The new women leaders were convinced that there was enough liberal energy that existed, or was hiding, in these mostly white enclaves to ensure that 2020 would not be a repeat of 2016. The general understanding was that America under Trump was broken, and so who better to fix it?”
Tired of Trump, Deutsche Bank Games Ways to Sever Ties With the President (Dana)
From Reuters: “Deutsche Bank is looking for ways to end its relationship with President Donald Trump after the U.S. elections, as it tires of the negative publicity stemming from the ties, according to three senior bank officials with direct knowledge of the matter. Deutsche Bank has about $340 million in loans outstanding to the Trump Organization, the president’s umbrella group that is currently overseen by his two sons, according to filings made by Trump to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in July and a senior source within the bank. The three loans, which are against Trump properties and start coming due in two years, are current on payments and personally guaranteed by the president, according to two bank officials.”
Pro-Worker Ballot Measures Approved in Florida, Colorado as Voters Ignore Business Protests (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Decisions by Florida and Colorado voters to pass labor-friendly ballot initiatives over objections from business groups underscored a national movement toward improving benefits and pay for low-wage workers, even as employers grapple with unprecedented financial pressures in the COVID-19 pandemic. … The success of the measures — particularly in Florida, on a night Republicans won the presidential race there and flipped several House seats — showed that worker needs resonate across the electorate.”
The Sheriff Fired Her Because She’s a Lesbian So She Ran Against Him. She’ll Be the New Sheriff Now. (Dana)
From LGBTQ Nation: “Charmaine McGuffey is going to be the new sheriff for Hamilton County, Ohio. She defeated Bruce Hoffbauer, her Republican opponent, in the general election with 52% of the vote. McGuffey made headlines when she announced her decision to run for sheriff. She was challenging her former boss, Jim Neil, in the Democratic primary. Neil had fired her, McGuffey alleged, because she’s an out lesbian. McGuffey easily defeated him with approximately 70% of the vote, getting sweet revenge.”
A Powerful Argument for Wearing a Mask, in Visual Form (Gerry)
The author writes, “Despite the clear opposition to masks within the Trump White House and among its allies, Americans of all political stripes overwhelmingly support their use as a public health measure and say they wear them whenever they’re in public. Still, there are significant differences in mask-use rates at the state level. And data from Carnegie Mellon’s CovidCast, an academic project tracking real-time coronavirus statistics, yields a particularly vivid illustration of how mask usage influences the prevalence of covid-19 symptoms in a given area.”
The Hidden Toilet Humor in a Titian Masterpiece (Mili)
The author writes, “You could easily miss it amid the romp and revelry that surrounds Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, as he leaps from his cheetah-drawn chariot after clapping eyes on the beautiful Ariadne: that tiny detail that transforms Titian’s passionate painting of love-at-first-sight into something a little less fragrant. … Smack dab in the centre of his canvas, Titian has carefully, if curiously, positioned a caper flower, whose ivory petals and radiant bristle of exploding stamens are rendered with meticulous botanical detail. Follow the trajectory of the caper’s strangely overextended pistil and it catches in its stigma’s crosshairs the floating crotch of Bacchus, who, blasted from his seat, is frozen forever in mid-air, in what is surely among the most ungainly poses in all of art history.”
