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BLANK CANVAS — To create a successful political cartoon, Matt Wuerker relies on the news cycle, a politician’s unique physical characteristic, common tropes and famous symbology. A regular character in his POLITICO cartoons is Uncle Sam, a handy and durable symbol of the U.S. government.
But as he sat down not long ago to draw another Uncle Sam, Wuerker found himself wondering if a tall, skinny, old white guy is an accurate representation of America. So now he’s on a quest, with the help of his “Punchlines” video producers, to update the old icon. He wants your help.
We’ve started work on a limited-run “Punchlines” series about Uncle Sam and how best to change him. You can watch the teaser video for the series now. We’ll roll out all the episodes during inauguration week.
Video producer Mary Newman, who’s working on the series, called Matt today to talk to him about why he wants to discover the origins and possible future of Uncle Sam. — Brooke Minters, executive producer, video
Mary: So why Uncle Sam?
Matt: Because in the midst of a crisis of democracy and a historic pandemic, the most important issues to deal with are of course cartoon issues! Kidding!
It came to my mind over the last few years as an offshoot of our national conversation about the icons we seemed to take for granted, but maybe shouldn’t have. Here I’m speaking as a white guy who just accepted things like omnipresent Robert E. Lee statues, schools named for Confederate generals, Confederate flags at the race track. It gets you thinking about our nationalistic symbology — especially if you’re a cartoonist.
I’m not in favor of chucking Sam just for the sake of revisionism. I mean, the old guy helped us defeat fascism in the last World War. That said, maybe those of us who use symbols like this could consider adjusting and updating him in ways that would make him more in keeping with where we are in 2020, a country that’s doing better when it comes to the struggle for equality across race, gender and sexual orientation.
Mary: I know you’ve been talking to some of your professional cartoonist friends about this project. What have you heard from them?
Matt: I’ve got a good range of prototypical Uncle Sam caricatures from them that I’m hoping we can figure out how to deploy. I got a little bit of pushback from the cartoonists, and even already on Twitter: “Leave him alone; don’t go near him; he’s a sacred icon.” But mostly everyone is intrigued.
Our little effort in this regard may turn out to be no more lasting than the effort to come out with “New Coke.” But that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun with it.
Mary: What has been the most surprising bit of information or history that you’ve found in your research so far?
Matt: The thing that your team came up with, that Uncle Sam is dead and buried in Troy, N.Y., and has a gravestone even.
Mary: Can you explain what we hope to accomplish with this Punchlines spinoff?
Matt: It seemed like it might be a fun activity for all those creative souls hunkered down in their Covid bunkers. And since this is POLITICO, I’m sure we’ll get plenty of Sams with a whiff of Biden to him. I mean talk about an old white guy with white hair! On the other hand there’s also lots of potential with “Uncle Don.”
But we do not come to bury Uncle Sam — more like revive him.
The Punchlines team wants your artwork and concepts to update Uncle Sam. Send us your ideas. Our favorites will be featured on POLITICO in a larger interactive package next month. There are no rules, just submit your ideas and artwork with our form.
Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. ICYMI: Read Annie Snider’s piece on how one Colorado rancher is trying to solve the West’s water crisis. Will Jack Nicholson make a cameo in the film version? Reach out at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected], or on Twitter at @wuerker, @marynewmanphoto and @renurayasam.
First In Nightly
THE 411 ON THE 1040 — States tax people based on where they live or where they work. But what happens when someone who normally works in an office in one state has spent the past nine months working from home in another? It’s a pandemic tax mess that lawmakers are pushing to sort out, writes senior tax reporter Brian Faler. Many lawmakers want to create a clear, uniform rule as part of the latest coronavirus relief efforts. The clock is ticking, with next year’s tax-filing season set to begin later next month.
Pandemic work-from-home arrangements are creating big problems not only for individual Americans, but also for their employers, tax preparers and cash-strapped local governments. Some taxpayers now working in lower-tax states than the ones in which they normally work may spy an opportunity to save on their tax bills. Corporations could potentially find themselves on the hook for paying business taxes in places they don’t normally operate, simply because they now have employees working from home there. It’s even an issue within some states, with fights over whether cities should continue imposing commuter taxes on suburbanites who no longer have commutes.
Senate Republicans have called for a national fix. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also has indicated she wants to address the issue. The holdout: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. New York is very assertive about its right to tax visitors, and the state’s budget relies heavily on taxes paid by nonresidents. Any federal proposal, even one that holds the state harmless for now, could set a precedent for lawmakers who’ve been pushing broader, more permanent changes that could curtail New York’s power to tax nonresidents.
Palace Intrigue
POMPEO’S END CIRCUMSTANCE — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo long ago developed a reputation for defiance. He’s ignored diplomatic norms by speaking at the RNC, refused to cooperate with congressional investigations, and breezed ahead with activities that have raised questions about his (and his wife’s) use of taxpayer-funded resources.
But, foreign affairs correspondent Nahal Toosi emails Nightly, Pompeo’s latest move — holding a series of holiday gatherings during the rampant coronavirus pandemic — is leading to unusual outcry. Even the cautious union that represents U.S. diplomats is criticizing the plans, arguing they seem to violate Foggy Bottom’s own guidelines.
According to The Washington Post, which first reported on the gatherings, at least 900 people have been invited to one event. Pompeo aides haven’t been able to fully explain how they will enforce social distancing rules during the get-togethers, which will be held at the State Department as well as Blair House. The plans are upsetting department employees, including contract catering staff, who fear exposure to the virus. They also pose a headache for foreign officials, who may worry that spurning an invitation could be a diplomatic faux pas.
But as of this evening, Pompeo appeared unwilling to cancel the plans. He may be thinking of his boss, President Donald Trump, whose White House is hosting its own holiday events despite Covid-19 concerns. Pompeo, after all, is eyeing a 2024 presidential run, and he’ll need Trump voters’ support (if Trump himself doesn’t run again). Why break with the Republican kingmaker now?
Bidenology
Welcome to Bidenology, Nightly’s look at the president-elect and what to expect in his administration. Tonight, energy reporter Zack Colman examines Biden’s climate plans:
The friction between the lore of Biden as a union ally and the policies of a future President Biden was laid bare in Oct. 22’s final debate: Biden, standing next to President Trump, said a “transition” away from oil and natural gas was in the offing. Such a transition is ostensibly a prerequisite for Biden’s ambitious climate change agenda, including his proposal to neutralize emissions from the power grid by 2035 and do the same for the whole economy by 2050.
But fossil fuels and power plants have higher rates of organized labor than their renewable alternatives. This is expected to create tension between the young, environmentally minded voters who warmed to Biden’s bold climate promises and the union workers who have long been a fixture of the Democratic base.
Biden, of course, won the election, including Pennsylvania — even after Trump’s consistent message that Biden’s “transition” meant killing energy and union jobs. And the transition is already underway in the marketplace, as even oil majors like BP are ditching carbon-heavy assets in favor of renewable power. (Biden’s climate plan, for what it’s worth, does allow for continued oil, gas and coal if their emissions can be offset, likely through currently expensive carbon capture, storage and utilization technology.)
Yet talk of a “just transition” in which workers are taken care of with better-paying jobs and benefits is so far just that — talk. There is quiet acknowledgment among environmentalists and elected Democrats that some occupations will lose in a transition, even if the U.S. economy overall could benefit from excelling in emerging clean energy industries. But arguments about the broad economic benefits are likely to do little to comfort union workers who are still reeling over promises made in the 1990s about the job training and other economic transition policies that would accompany NAFTA.
Unionization in solar installation is 4 percent, compared with a 6 percent national average. Fossil fuels fare better, with unionization rates of 10 percent in coal-fired generation, 11 percent in the natural gas industry and 17 percent in transmission, distribution and storage of power, according to a report by the Energy Futures Initiative — run by former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz — and the National Association of State Energy Officials.
Of course, labor is far broader than the energy sector — many unions support the emphasis on clean energy. But energy sector unions will present political roadblocks — they report better pay, wages and benefits in the oil and gas sector than workers in renewables do, according to a July survey by North America’s Building Trade Unions, which endorsed Biden for president. And some unions have raised concerns that buzzy cleantech like electric vehicles require fewer parts and, therefore, fewer jobs.
On The Hill
‘BIG, STRONG VOTE’ — Pelosi said today she wants to attach a coronavirus relief bill to a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package that would avert a government shutdown later this month, raising the prospects of long-stalled stimulus relief finally being signed into law, Heather Caygle and Caitlin Emma report.
The California Democrat said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed with her about combining the annual spending measures with coronavirus relief during their conversation Thursday, the first time in weeks the two leaders have discussed moving a relief bill. “That would be a hope, because that is the vehicle leaving the station,” Pelosi said of attaching pandemic aid to a must-pass fiscal 2021 funding package during her weekly press conference. “We would want a big, strong vote.”
NDAA GETS ITS DAY — The House will vote Tuesday on compromise defense policy legislation, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced today, as lawmakers in both the House and Senate prepare to buck Trump’s threat to veto the legislation.
The move comes after the president lashed out against one of his top allies on the Hill, calling Senate Armed Services Chair Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) out by name and faulting him for not repealing legal protections for social media companies as part of the legislation. Hoyer announced the Tuesday vote via Twitter a day after the House and Senate Armed Services committees rolled out their final version of the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.
From The Transportation Desk
BY LAND, BY AIR, BY CDC — Despite warnings from the CDC, air travel soared over Thanksgiving week — and even more people are expected to travel in the coming weeks for the holidays. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, transportation reporter Sam Mintz breaks down what we know — and don’t know — about the safety of airplanes during the pandemic.
Ask The Audience
Nightly asks you: Every December, the news media reflects on the lives we lost this year, and 2020 has been especially deadly. Tell us who you’ll miss the most — a family member, a civic leader, a celebrity — and how you’ll remember them. Send us your answers in our form, and we’ll publish select responses next week.
Around the Nation
‘WHAT A FOOL’ — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy admonished Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz today for attending a large gala event in the state after it was forced out of its original location in New York City under pressure from local officials, Nick Niedzwiadek writes.
“What a fool,” the Democratic governor told reporters during a press briefing. “You are not welcome in New Jersey, and frankly I don’t ever want you back in this state.”
Pictures of the event show dozens of attendees, including Gaetz, milling about in close proximity to one another and scarce mask wearing. The Florida Republican was the back-up headliner of the event — put on by the New York Young Republican Club — after former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin backed out of the indoor event. James O’Keefe, the leader of the conservative outfit Project Veritas, was also on the billing.
Gaetz’s profile has grown considerably in the Trump years, as the congressman is one of his most fervent backers in Washington and frequently spars with critics online. Murphy, echoing the president’s penchant for derisive nicknames, referred to Gaetz as “Matt Putz,” using a term for a foolish person. “It is obvious being a knucklehead is not beyond the pale for him,” Murphy said while commenting on a photo taken of Gaetz at the event.
Nightly Number
PUNCHLINES
‘INFUSIONS OF REALITY’ — Matt brings us the latest in political satire and cartoons in the Weekend Wrap-Up, including the virus’ continuing march, rumors of rampant presidential pardons and the ongoing wild cries of election fraud.
The Global Fight
BUON NATALE, NON VIAGGIARE — Italy enacted tough new measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus over the Christmas period, including a ban on travel across the country’s internal regional borders between Dec. 21 and Jan. 6, Paola Tamma writes.
A decree detailing dos and don’ts over the holiday period, adopted by the government late on Thursday, states that all movement around the country is “strongly discouraged.” It prevents people from leaving their town on Christmas Day, Dec. 26 and Jan. 1.
Parting Words
GREEN BOOM — The House today passed a landmark bill that would remove federal penalties on marijuana and erase cannabis-related criminal records.
The bill passed by a vote of 228-164, with several Republicans on board. While the MORE Act is not expected to come up in the Senate this year, and likely won’t in the next session of Congress either, its passage nevertheless marks a monumental step in marijuana policy.
The MORE Act passage joins a series of huge events in the world of cannabis recently, including a narrow vote by the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs to loosen restrictions on cannabis under an international treaty.
And our colleagues at Morning Cannabis tell us that this year’s Thanksgiving cannabis sales continued the trend of strong holiday sales. The latest figures from Akerna and Headset:
$238 million — That’s total sales nationwide from Nov. 25 to 28.
$122.64 — The average purchase by a medical customer during those four days.
$33.2 million — That’s sales on the day before Thanksgiving in the five states — California, Colorado, Nevada, Washington and Oregon — tracked by Headset. That was a 12.9 percent increase over 2019.
$11.2 million — Sales on Thanksgiving in those same five states, a 15.2 percent increase over last year.
$31.1 million — Sales on Black Friday in those five states — a 0.9 percent dip from 2019.
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