MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
The U.S. Census Bureau releases state population numbers in a preliminary report today. The population count will determine how many representatives each state will have in the House of Representatives, and the number of Electoral College votes.
Son of Citizens United? — The U.S. Supreme Court today will hear a case challenging California’s requirement that charitable and non-profit organizations operating in the state provide its attorney general’s office with names and addresses of its largest donors, according to SCOTUSblog. The case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriguez (consolidated with the Thomas More Law Center v. Rodriguez) could challenge the last check remaining that puts a spotlight on rich donors contributing to political clauses. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-GA, have sent a letter to Justice Amy Coney Barrett asking she recuse herself from the case, because the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Koch Brothers’ political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, announced last September that it would spend “in the seven figures” on a campaign to assure Barrett’s confirmation, SCOTUSblog says. The Supreme Court’s April argument session ends next week.
Note: Barrett recusal or no, considering the current court’s makeup, including two other Trump administration justices, it would appear Americans for Prosperity have the upper hand in the case.
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Who Wants a Jab? -- Twenty percent of U.S. Americans say they do not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccination, according to polling done by Morning Consult. Fourteen percent are unsure and 66% have gotten a jab or plan to. Looked at in terms of party affiliation, 27% of Republicans don’t plan to get vaccinated, the same percentage of Blacks who are not interested in the vaccine. In terms of income, 24% with no college degree are not planning to get vaccinated. Twenty-four percent of these who are earning less than $50,000 per year are also not planning for a visit to a clinic. As for those who are expressing uncertainly, 36% are concerned with side effects and 29% say they think the vaccines ran through clinical trials too quickly.
In terms of who have already been vaccinated or plan to, 85% are over 65 years old; 80% are Democrats; 84% have a post-graduate degree; 69% are men; 80% earn $100,000 or more.
Note: While the results show that 27% of Republicans don’t plan to get a vaccine and only 10% of Democrats think the same way, it should be noted that 59% of Republicans have been vaccinated or plan to. (No surprise: 80% of Democrats.) Notably, 21% of Independents don’t plan to, although 63% of them have been vaccinated or plan to. When considered from the points of view of age, income, and education, older, wealthier and more-well educated Republicans are less opposed to the vaccinations: Only 9% of Republicans over 65 are not planning to be vaccinated; only 9% of Republicans with a post-grad degree are opposed; and 11% of those who earn $100K or more per year are not interested. Which seems to indicate that older, wiser and wealthier Republicans realize the value of a vaccine.
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EU Opens to U.S. Travelers – Fully vaccinated travelers from the U.S. “should” be able to visit the European Union for non-essential travel over the summer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. The EU also has approved all three COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S.--Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson--which opens the door for tourism from the U.S., Politico reports. Meanwhile, the EU also has triggered an emergency assistance response to India’s spike in the coronavirus. “The EU is pooling resources to India’s request for assistance via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism,” von der Leyen tweeted over the weekend.
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Biden’s Approval Ratings at 52% -- President Biden’s approval rating is “above water,” The Washington Post reports, but while it’s 10 points above Donald J. Trump’s rating four year ago (42%) and higher than Trump ever reached (Gallup found Trump to have an approval rating of 49% five times during his four years in office), it is not as strong as previous presidents, including Barack Obama (69%), George W. Bush (63%) and going back to Eisenhower at this point, just short of their first 100 days in office. The Washington Post-ABC News poll published Sunday says that broken down by party, 90% of Democrats approve of Biden’s job as president, compared with just 13% of Republicans and 47% of independents, indicating an ever-growing rift between parties and political philosophies. Also, 60% of those polled believe Biden should try to win support from Republicans by “making major changes” to his policies, while 30% believe he should try to get his policies passed with no major concessions.
Note: Making major changes to his policies will certainly not move the pro-Trump congress members who still appear to control the GOP, though it seems Biden could help strengthen the struggling moderate wing of the Republican party against the pro-Trump wing by reaching a satisfactory deal over his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. The moderate Republicans’ counter-bid of $568 billion doesn’t seem very serious, however, as it’s lower than the 2009 Obama stimulus package now criticized for being too modest. Can the two sides eventually get to a number somewhere around the $1.0 to 1.5-trillion level?
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Biden Acknowledges Armenian Genocide – On its 106th anniversary, President Biden acknowledged the start of the Armenian genocide by Ottomans in Turkey, Saturday. On April 24, 1915, “with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination,” Biden said in a statement released Saturday. Even acknowledging the genocide has been a sensitive subject for modern Turkey for much of the last century, as previous American presidents have refrained from criticizing the United States’ closest ally in the region.
Note: Raising the longstanding controversy clearly is easier now, with long-time Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan running what most consider an authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, Erdogan quickly responded to Biden’s statement, calling for opening Turkey’s national archives and for a “joint historical committee” to investigate the validity of the U.S. president’s remarks, Newsweek reports. –Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash