Politics and So Forth In the Age of the Big V

After reading a book by Sen. Bayh about the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, I am now reading an autobiography (with a co-author; the book came out shortly after the subject died of breast cancer) by Marvella Bayh.  In another era, she might have been in office herself -- she was elected "President" as a teenager as part of the Girls Nation program and showed a lot of promise as a speaker. This can seen in this debate with someone who is currently the subject of a series.  Since this pandemic if anything leads me to do less (even though I'm inside more), I'm only in the early pages, but it is a good read so far.  She comes off as a person worth knowing.

I see that the Marvella Bayh actually died around this time, so this is well timed.  The first link is a review of the book and coincidentally there is a reference to a request for information regarding a threat to academic freedom during the McCarthy period. The author of the review was researching and wrote multiple books on the topic including a later one that I myself read.  Given all the material I have read over, it is not surprising that things overlap, but such "hey" moments amuse me.

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One bitten, twice shy and all, but politically, if nothing else, things look optimistic. Somewhat related to a theme of that book, there is some disappointments about the reach of possibilities there, surely.  As someone who wanted a woman to be the nominee.  As someone who realizes the limits of what will be accomplished, especially given the hole we have dug for ourselves in the last few years.  And now this.  I checked on Twitter and saw -- I'm not of the "f Twitter" mindset; too many good people there, but it does have a dark side -- and there is a hashtag for Biden to step aside.  Apparently, there is a clip of the Biden accuser's mother calling Larry King back in the day.  Her mother?  Come on.

Prof. Colb (the wife of the name leader of Dorf on Law & who doesn't regularly blog there these days) looked at the bigger question. Yes. We need to not think "Believe Women" is some absolute rule that means the women are always right or that nothing else matters.  The path to insanity was seen when there was a big push, now mostly forgotten, for the Virginia governor to resign because back in the 1980s he did something in black face or something.  I had people call me out for saying "whoa now." 

The Biden thing is a bit less absurd than that though given his m.o. (violating social distancing, let's say) and so forth, the allegation seems dubious.  And, we are talking about one thing from the early 1990s about someone who already was vetted to be vice president!  This was before the #MeToo Era as such but it still was after sexual harassment and so forth was a thing after the Thomas years.  I write more there, but even Kavanaugh is a case in point.  It was not just something he allegedly did when he was a teenager and then not every allegation was treated the same.

Biden will be the nominee and an allegation regarding events that come off as unlike him from the early 1990s probably won't knock him down. And, it should not.  The essay however is good beyond that from someone who is a strong advocate for the rights of women (and animals). Then again, Sherry Colb is nothing if not a rational sort, mixed with her passion.

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As to "this," I am tired of the people who make this out to be years into it.  There are already moves (such as in Georgia) to "re-open" when even New York has not been completed "closed" and that for less than two months.  How did we last WWII?  The future there is far from clear and in fact it seems on some level rather soon to here positive talk about plateaus and such.  Over fifty thousand people died in a couple months, a fifth in my city.  So, I'm going to be careful here.  NY will for now be on "PAUSE" until mid-May for now.  The amount of effort being done, including by my local state senator, is pretty amazing.  We are talking something that seemed to come out of nowhere (a misnomer and perhaps there was some behind the scenes efforts before March, but it seems that way) and the efforts to educate a million children alone is impressive.

There have been some efforts to provide snapshots and so forth of the people who have died, including Elizabeth Warren's brother. Chris Hayes, who has been very angry about the response from up high etc., had a segment the other day, including of people connected to his staff.  NYT had a nice obit about an immigrant tailor.  The faces deserve to shine out.  My sister got sick but is well now from what I can tell.  She's a NYC school teacher.  It all personalizes it.  It also reminds that though there is a horrid death toll, many more get over it.  People were talking as if the PM of the UK was likely to die.  He has recovered.  Let's remember that.

I have lived some history.  Sigh.  Note the new Big V label. A bit later than it should have been added, probably!