With the 2022 midterm election just months away, the Democratic Party faces losing its congressional majority due to a growing number of retirements. Photo illustration: Elise Dean

The Democrats’ plan to pay for President Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better initiative will need to strike the right balance to appeal to progressives without alienating moderates. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib discusses with tax policy reporter Richard Rubin. Photo illustration: Todd Johnson

'There is nothing that can prepare you for KKK.''We have never jumped from a building or picked up a cockroach or a snake.'

It’s the birth anniversary of poet, playwright and novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the most influential writers in German literature. He was also a civil servant for Karl August, the Grand Duke of Weimar and held many administrative posts. This week, we look at civil servants and bureaucrats who had other talents.

There's the rat race, and then there are these lab rats who learned to drive tiny cars. WIRED's Matt Simon talked with neuroscientist Kelly Lambert about what her driving rodent experiment can teach us about neuroplasticity and learning new skills.

National Bureau of Economic Research

The Democrats now have to decide afresh a new candidate to replace Biden and, as a result, their overall response to Trump whose worldview is diametrically the opposite to theirs

Harris has been criticized for not doing more media interviews

Well-known shooters Umamahesh Maddineni and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar were pushed out of the medals table, the little-known Smit shot brilliantly in the climax

"We strongly urge you to rescind this appointment immediately and build a diverse White House staff who are committed to the core American values of inclusiveness, diversity and tolerance," the letter delivered to the Trump said.

They fear that the incoming administration will push a divisive agenda; Obama says won’t comment on appointments.

Feminism is a lie and useless in modern America, patriarchy is a good thing and natural order of society. Women be like I'm oppressed cause I don't always get my way and choose careers that pay less

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) won his first election to the House of Representatives in 1988 with 64 percent of the vote. He's been reelected 13 times since then. And even though he walloped his most recent challenger by nearly 17 percentage points, some Democrats now think that this could be the final term for the Southern California conservative Politico has dubbed "Putin's favorite congressman."

Protesters, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, assemble outside Rohrabacher's office every Tuesday at 1 p.m. "He has been our congressman for a long time," laments Diana Carey, vice chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County. "But because the district was predominantly Republican, my view is he's been on cruise control." Thanks to changing demographics in Orange County and newly fired-up liberal voters, Carey doesn't think Rohrabacher's seat is safe anymore. 

Recently, Rohrabacher has been swept up in the scandal over the possible collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia. Like Trump, Rohrabacher, who claims to once have lost a drunken arm-wrestling match with Vladimir Putin in the 1990s, believes the Russian government is being unfairly demonized. (During the 1980s, Rohrabacher was a staunch anti-communist who hung out with the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Afghanistan.) He has shrugged off allegations of Moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election by pointing out that the United States is guilty of similar actions. In May, the New York Times reported that in 2012 the FBI warned Rohrabacher that Russian spies were trying to recruit him. Two days earlier, the Washington Post reported on a recording from June 2016 in which House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, "There's two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump." (McCarthy assured Rohrabacher the remarks were meant as a joke.)

But of all the issues where Rohrabacher and Trump align, Russia may be the least pressing concern for the constituents who are rallying against him. So far, Rohrabacher has voted in line with Trump's positions more than 93 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight, including voting in favor of the GOP health care bill that would effectively end Obamacare. Rohrabacher pushed hard for the bill, warning his GOP colleagues that letting Trump's first major legislative effort die would stunt the president's momentum. "If this goes down," he said in March, "we're going to be neutering our President Trump. You don't cut the balls off your bull and expect that's he's going to go out and get the job done." Health care is a hot-button issue in the 48th District, Carey says. "I've had conversations with people who are absolutely beside themselves, scared that they're going to lose coverage."

While Rohrabacher won his last race in a near-landslide, his district went for Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. She won by a slim margin, but it was enough for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to flag the district as a top target to flip in 2018. If the Democrats hope to best Rohrabacher in the midterms, they have a lot of work to do, says Justin Wallin, an Orange County-based pollster who runs an opinion research firm. "I don't think Dana has carved out a position as a fire-breathing supporter for any political personality except for Ronald Reagan," says Wallin, referring to Rohrabacher's early days working in the Reagan White House. "He tends to align quite naturally with that district in his perspectives, his persona, and his political views. His district views him as being independent, and when Dana takes a position on something that seems to be outside the mainstream, that can actually buttress his favorable regard."

Two Democrats have announced bids to run against Rohrabacher. One is first-time candidate Harley Rouda, a businessman and attorney who gave $9,200 to Republican congressional candidates and nothing to Democrats between 1993 and 2007. The other is Boyd Roberts, a Laguna Beach real estate broker who has vowed to work to impeach Trump and who finished last among five candidates running for a school board seat in Hemet, California, in 2012. Both are attacking Rohrabacher over his sympathetic stance toward Russia. "The district will vote [Rohrabacher] out because i think there is something with the Russia thing. I think I can raise money off it," Roberts told the Los Angeles Times. In an online ad, Rouda calls Rohrabacher "one of the most entrenched members of Washington's establishment" and vows to get "tough on Russia" if he is elected.

"They're both kind of waving the flag of the Russia thing, and I just don't think that's gonna get them over the line," says Wallin. Carey declined to comment on either candidate, though she says a third challenger will be announcing a bid this summer. Meanwhile, the DCCC hasn't thrown its backing behind anyone yet. "Barring something dramatic happening, I'd say he is far more safe than a number of other districts in the area," says Wallin.

Yet Carey thinks that so long as the Democrats continue organizing with the same intensity they've shown so far, they can turn the district blue. "We have a lot of folks who said they never paid attention before, a lot of no-party-preference people who are really concerned about democracy," she says. When asked whether people in the district continue to be engaged, she responds, "So far I think the energy is staying. I tell people, 'This is not a sprint, it's a marathon.' But I think as long as Trump keeps tweeting, we'll keep having interest!"

California Republicans might steal a rare Congressional seat during next week's special election, but Democrats could possibly parlay that back into a blue win during November's general election.

A Democratic-led subcommittee overseeing federal coronavirus aid is demanding that five companies return loans the panel says should have gone to smaller businesses. The subcommittee led by Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., sent letters Friday to the companies as its first official action. The House voted last month to create the panel over the objections of Republicans who say it is partisan and duplicative of other oversight efforts around the federal government.

Americans resent inquisitions aimed at depriving them of their elected president

President Trump accused Democrats in California of attempting to 'steal another election' on Saturday

Senators Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey introduced the Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act Friday.

The comedian and political commentator devoted part of Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher monologue to addressing the potential fallout of Reade's claims against the former Vice President.

A roundup of recent articles featuring spiders, bats and rats....

The post A Halloween roundup featuring recent articles on spiders, bats and rats appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Bald from snout to tail with baggy wrinkled skin and beady eyes, eastern African naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) are subterranean mammals long credited with […]

The post Rare cancer cells discovered in naked mole rats appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

More than 500 carats of rough diamonds were recently donated to the Department of Mineral Sciences of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum by Jewlers Mutual Insurance Co. of Neenah, Wis.

The post 500 carats of rough diamonds donated to Natural History Museum appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This week: Historic homes with gruesome backstories, a woman wages war against rodents and Martha Stewart pays her respects to American crafters.

By 2050, New Zealand hopes to be rid of rats, possums, stoats and other invasive predators.

National surveys show the public supports having more green energy. But in local elections energy is likely to take a backseat to the economy.

Here are tips on how to prevent and get rid of rats in and around your home.

You've heard of cat cafes, but this might be taking things too far...

Rats played hide-and-seek with scientists for no other reward than strokes and tickles.

Scientists got rats to drive little cars, and it could help improve mental health treatments for humans.

Examples Include Pepsi, Wells Fargo, Target, Starbucks, Samsung, Volkswagen and more. Foreword by Best-selling Author Marshall Goldsmith

No 1 Buyers of Gold, Silver and Diamond in Gurgaon/Gurugram, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and all over Delhi NCR India.

Former Vice President Joe Biden denies a sexual assault allegation by former Senate aide Tara Reade. The presumptive Democratic nominee spoke publicly about the allegation this morning for the first time.

The GOP has flipped two of the five Connecticut General Assembly seats left vacant by Democratic incumbents who resigned to take jobs in Governor Ned Lamont’s new administration.

Democrats who want to increase the capital gains tax in Connecticut say there’s no evidence it would lead to the wealthy fleeing the state.

Richard Lutz chews his pew over Hot Rats at Birmingham Town Hall.

On September 23rd, Representative Abigail Spanberger joined six other House Democrats—all from swing districts and all veterans of the military, defense, and intelligence communities—in drafting an op-ed in the Washington Post declaring President Trump a threat to the nation. The op-ed signalled a shift in the position of the moderate members of the House Democratic caucus. The day after the Post op-ed ran, the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. Spanberger joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss divisions within the Party, how Democratic candidates can win in 2020, and the Trump debacles in Ukraine and northern Syria.

This week, ten of the seventeen candidates still running for the Democratic nomination met on a debate stage in Atlanta. The setting was significant: for decades, Georgia has been seen as a Republican stronghold, but last year the Democrat Stacey Abrams very nearly won the election for governor. Democrats hope that the state will go blue in 2020. Key to any Democratic strategy in Georgia, and in other states, will be mobilizing black voters, ninety-three per cent of whom went for Abrams in 2018. Jelani Cobb joins Eric Lach to discuss the candidates’ messages on race, and how voter suppression efforts may play a role in the 2020 election.