Hakeem Jeffries Recites the ABCs of How Congress Should Work

Recently I've written several blog entries about Kevin McCarthy's quest to become Speaker of the House. His election, which he won only after 15 highly contentious rounds of voting, isn't the only historic thing that happened this weekend in Congress. Democrats selected Hakeem Jeffries as House Minority Leader. Rep. Jeffries is the first Black person to serve as leader of any major party in Congress. But it's not just who Jeffries is that's newsworthy (besides, his party selected him for this role 6 weeks ago) it's what he did as his first act in the new Congress.

After McCarthy won the 15th round of voting, Jeffries handed him the ceremonial gavel of the Speaker of the House. Jeffries did that because he took it from former speaker Nancy Pelosi, when she stepped down as party leader. And before he handed over the gavel, Jeffries gave a speech. A stirring speech.

The most memorable part of Jeffries's speech employed a rhetorical technique of using the alphabet. Going from the letter A to Z, Jeffries enumerated the important American values the Democrat Party stands for.

“House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues … freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred. … maturity over Mar-a-Lago ... quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression ... zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation."

That was Jeffries's first official act in the new session of Congress.

McCarthy's first official act? He thanked President Trump. Former President Trump, though he didn't say former. Upon this graceful transition of power he invoked Trump, the leader who personifies the opposite of graceful transition of power. Trump, who still claims that he rightfully won the 2020 election and should be installed into office 2 years later by the Supreme Court— or the military. Trump, who revved up an armed mob to attack the Capitol building on January 6, 2020. The evidence for his responsibility there was laid out in clear detail by a House committee investigation that finished just days ago. And, of course, McCarthy even stated that responsibility in the days immediately following Jan. 6— until he backtracked days later upon realizing that Trump would remain kingmaker in the Republican Party. So here we are just over 2 years later, with the new Speaker giving a bow to the utterly corrupt kingmaker.

What a sad state of affairs, rendered in such stark contrast by these two leaders' speeches.

Belated Oktoberfest Beer Tasting: Leinenkugel's vs. Firestone Walker

It's been a while since I've blogged about my Beer Tasting 2022 project. My previous entry was almost 4 months ago. Here it is 2023 already... so much for the "2022" part of that title!

Where I left off back in September was with a pair of Oktoberfest beers. (Yes, Oktoberfest happens in September. For an explainer on that and other things about Oktoberfest, click the link.) In that round I compared a US Oktoberfest beer to a German Oktoberfest beer. They're different styles! (That's one of those things. Click the link.) I preferred the US's use of the older Märzen style so for Oktoberfest Round 2 I focused on 2 US beers.



For this taste test I paired the previous round's winner, Leinenkugel's Oktoberfest, with Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest. Leinenkugel's is rich and slight sweet, typical of the Märzen style. (If you're wondering what Märzen is... you guessed it! Click the link.) Firestone Walker is like the same thing but with the intensity turned up a notch or two. The Firestone Walker wasn't bad but it did taste overdone. It comes on too strong, like it's trying to prove it's the most Märzen-y Märzen that ever Märzened. I prefer the less in-your-face profile of Leinenkugel's. It's a good beer for relaxing with a glass all by itself or with rich food.

Dry January? Not Here.

"Dry January" has become a meme. It's not even new this year. A quick web search reveals that it started 10 years ago with just a few thousand people. Now it's all over social media. Didn't we just do this a few months ago with Sober October?

Not that I'm trying or anything, but as the clock wound past 10pm this evening I thought to myself, "Hmm, I haven't alcohol today... and I don't need a drink now." Then I thought for a moment, "Hmm, how close am I to Dry January?" In a moment I remembered this is probably only the second day so far (out of 9) this month I haven't consumed beer, wine, or liquor. 🤣

See, my notion of Dry January is more like this:



I don't mean to take anything away from people who've struggled with alcoholism and have gone totally dry. There are a few in my family and several among my friends. I also don't mean to take anything away from people for whom Dry January is an opportunity to recognize they have a problem and take strong steps to correct it. I roll my eyes, though, at the people spraining their shoulders to pat themselves on the back on social media for taking a brief break from drinking— before returning to their old habits, including bragging about drunken antics on social media.