Joe, in the end, has always been there. He’s always been with me, I think we can work something out. - President Biden
Franklin Roosevelt is remembered for the New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson the Great Society. What will Joe Biden be remembered for? It likely depends on the fate of two pieces of legislation that encompass nearly the entirety of his once-in-a-generation agenda, including infrastructure, climate, voter rights, higher taxes for the wealthy, equal justice for people of color and low incomes, healthcare, and greater assistance for low-income families and children.
Should Biden’s agenda emerge from Congress relatively…
Koan: a paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and force them to gain sudden intuitive enlightenment.
Had someone asked me a year ago what leadership characteristics Donald Trump and Joe Biden would share as president, I would have been at a complete loss to think of even one — other than old, like me.
Perhaps not as pure an example of a koan as the sound of one hand clapping, the Trump/Biden question has assisted me to abandon dependence on reason and gain at least something like…
In her argument, Olson said she knows of no other instance where people suffering personal injury
at the hands of their government are told to go to the polls when a constitutional right is being violated.
The 21 young plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States will mark their six-year anniversary just days from now. They first petitioned the federal District Court for the District of Oregon on August 12, 2015.
Over the past six years, the Juliana plaintiffs have grown in age, under-standing, and stature. …
We’re not a cheap date; the House is going to do what we have to do.
Jim McGovern (D-MA)
While the Senate fiddles over infrastructure and budget reconciliation legislation, the House burns. Seethes is perhaps a better word. I’ll explain why in a moment. First, I’ll set the stage for that discussion.
The Senate is currently in the process of trying to hammer out two critical climate-related pieces of legislation. The first is all about jobs and updating and repairing roads, bridges, and other essential services, including getting quality internet services to all Americans.
URGENCY is the message of today and every day until the US finally has the policies in place
and acted upon that will lead it to a sustainable environment and economy.
Introduction
The US is fifteen months away from the 2022 midterm elections. If history repeats itself, as it often does, the Democrats will lose their tenuous hold of majority status in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Let’s do the math. The Democrats will go into the 2022 midterm elections with a four-seat majority in the House and a sometimes one-vote majority in the Senate.
If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it.
President Joe Biden
Saturday[i] saw both President Biden and former-President Trump making news lines. The day foreshadowed the slide into the 2022 midterm congressional elections and possibly the 2024 presidential. It’s a present that bodes badly for the president’s climate and society agendas and a future I had hoped would remain in the past.
Trump held what was billed as just the first of his revenge rallies. In the case of The Donald, one hardly needs to ask revenge for what? Trump takes any disagreement with…
The three questions Democrats are asking themselves these days are:
· Can we afford not to pass an infrastructure/climate bill before the end of the year?
· Can we do it on our own, i.e., without Republican votes?
· Will Senators Manchin (D-WV) and Sinema (D-AZ) agree to vote for a reconciliation bill that includes many of the climate and family provisions in the American Jobs Plan?
For readers in a hurry, the answers in order are no, possibly, and that’s a really good question.
For readers with a bit more time, allow me to elaborate.
Can the Democrats afford…
Some things just seem to go together — Bogey and Bacall — for example. There are other things — voting rights legislation and the future of national climate policy — not so much.
It is critical for the climate community to follow closely the federal voting rights law passed by the House and now being considered by the Senate. …
Will There Be a Chance to Make a Second Impression?
Gina, Gina, Gina…didn’t your mother ever tell you that you never get a second chance to make a first impression? Certainly, mine told me, and I’d venture most have been offered such pearls — or something like them — at one time or another.
I’m confident my mother heard the phrase in an ad for a brand of men’s suits. The first of many times she told it to me was just before a meeting with my college’s scholarship committee, when she advised I shave my beard, cut my hair…
A public garden is an institution that maintains collections of plants for the purposes of public education and enjoyment, in addition to research, conservation, and higher learning.
— American Public Gardens Association
This is a story about the critical role of public gardens and the pandemic-induced recession’s impact on them — as seen through the experiences of the Green Ark Botanical Garden Foundation (Foundation or Ark) in Costa Rica.
First, a word or two about botanic gardens
· The world’s first botanical garden was created in 1545 in Padua. …
