DL Open Thread: Sunday, December 11, 2022

Pa. Rethugs Lose Election–Try To Steal It In Court.  By, you know, opposing special elections for vacant seats:

The top-ranking Republican in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives asked a court late Friday to prevent voters from filling three vacant seats in February that will determine majority control of the chamber.

Rep. Bryan Cutler of Lancaster, who served as speaker until Nov. 30, asked Commonwealth Court to issue an injunction, naming the Department of State, acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman, and the Allegheny County Elections Board as defendants.

(O)ne successful Democratic incumbent, Rep. Tony DeLuca of Allegheny County, died at age 85 of cancer a few weeks before voters returned him for another term. Two other Allegheny County Democrats who were reelected, Reps. Austin Davis and Summer Lee, resigned last week ahead of being sworn in next month as lieutenant governor and to Congress.

Bottom line: The three seats are now vacant.  All three districts are strong D districts.  The only way that Rethugs can steal control of the chamber they just lost is to disenfanchise the voters in those three districts.

Teens Being Pushed Into Junior ROTC.  Indoctrination follows…:

J.R.O.T.C. programs, taught by military veterans at some 3,500 high schools across the country, are supposed to be elective, and the Pentagon has said that requiring students to take them goes against its guidelines. But The New York Times found that thousands of public school students were being funneled into the classes without ever having chosen them, either as an explicit requirement or by being automatically enrolled.

The role of J.R.O.T.C. in U.S. high schools has been a point of debate since the program was founded more than a century ago. During the antiwar battles of the 1970s, protests over what was seen as an attempt to recruit high schoolers to serve in Vietnam prompted some school districts to restrict the program. Most schools gradually phased out any enrollment requirements.

But 50 years later, new conflicts are emerging as parents in some cities say their children are being forced to put on military uniforms, obey a chain of command and recite patriotic declarations in classes they never wanted to take.

Hunter Biden Plans To Go After Accusers.  WH Is Not Pleased:

Some involved in these efforts argue that Hunter Biden and Morris should stay out of the limelight so Democrats can focus on painting the Republican investigations as a partisan political exercise. “No one thinks this strategy of putting Hunter Biden front and center is smart,” said one Democrat involved in the broader effort, who requested anonymity to describe private conversations. “No one, including the White House, thinks this is a smart strategy.”

Dog Bites Man: Poor Katrina Victims Were Short-Changed, Wealthy Were Not:

People in the most impoverished areas in New Orleans — those with a median income of $15,000 or less — had to cover 30% of their rebuilding costs after Road Home grants, Federal Emergency Management Agency aid and insurance. In areas where the median income was more than $75,000, the shortfall was 20%, according to the analysis by ProPublica, The Times-Picayune | The Advocate and WWL-TV.

Poverty tracks closely with race in New Orleans, so the shortfalls in the city disproportionately hurt Black people. Road Home also underpaid residents of St. Bernard Parish, a mostly white, working-class community devastated by the hurricane.

Had properties in the lowest-income parts of New Orleans been covered at the same rate as the wealthiest, each of those households would have received about $18,000 more on average. Across the city, covering all homeowners’ repair costs at the rate of the highest earners would have resulted in another $349 million for rebuilding.

The Road Home program was hugely consequential for Louisiana, and much more so for its largest city, most of which flooded after Katrina’s storm surge overwhelmed its levees. Most homeowners didn’t have adequate insurance. Facing the possibility of a mass exodus, state leaders devised Road Home to cover the gap and encourage people to rebuild.

What do you want to talk about?