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Per this rando website I pulled up on Google:
The Anglo-Saxon name Biden comes from when its first bearer worked as a maker of buttons. The surname Biden is a metonymic name derived from the Old French word boton, which means button.
Alternatively, the name could have been derived from the Old English "bi" + "dun," collectively meaning "dweller by the down." [1]
Early Origins of the Biden family
The surname Biden was first found in Hampshire and later in Gloucestershire and Somerset. Lower says the family can be traced to the 13th century in Hampshire where Sir Walter de Button was progenitor of the family about 1216 A.D. The family had flourished for several centuries in that county, intermarrying with many distinguished families, supplementing their estates with marriages of the heiresses of the Furneaux, Bryan, Turbevilles, Bassets and others.
According to the Pipe Rolls of 1177, Trihon Bidon held lands there at that time and over one hundred years later, William Bidun was listed in Hundredorum Rolls of Bedfordshire in 1279. [1]
William of Bitton I (d. 1264,) also listed as William Button was a medieval Bishop of Bath and Wells. His nephews included another William of Bitton (d. 1274,) was also Bishop of Bath and Wells; and William's brother, a Thomas of Bitton (d. 1307,) an Archdeacon and Dean of Wells, and later Bishop of Exeter (1291-1307). [2]
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B IS FOR BUILD BACK BETTER
In 1988, George H.W. Bush’s team knew how hard it would be to win what would effectively be a third term for Reagan-Bush, so they came up with the brilliantly vague/vaguely brilliant “kinder, gentler America” catchphrase.
Kinder, gentler than what, you might ask?
Team Bush 41 avoided answering.
Biden’s Build Back Better smartly suggests at least two things to the voters’ ears: better than Trump and better than Obama, without specifying either.
What does Biden actually means when he says BBB and how does he plans to do it?
Stay tuned…..
ESSSENTIAL RESERVE READING:
David Von Drehle offers some interesting ideas related to China, trade, and the Middle East.
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I IS FOR IRAN AND ISRAEL
This is a thorny inbox item for the incomings.
How the roiling cauldron will be handed off on January 20 is an important question but one that is ten million miles away at this point. The world has long braced for an Israeli-Iranian conflict that spiraled out of control.
This might not be it, but it might be.
ESSSENTIAL RESERVE READING:
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has blamed Israel for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
“Once again, the evil hands of global arrogance were stained with the blood of the mercenary usurper Zionist regime,” Rouhani said in a statement Saturday morning, according to Reuters, citing state TV….
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also dubbed Fakhrizadeh a “martyr” and vowed retaliation on Saturday morning.
Tweeting on his Persian account, Khamenei said: “Distinguished nuclear and defense scientist of the country, Mr. #MohsenFakhrizadeh was martyred at the hands of criminals and cruel mercenaries. This unique scientific character followed the path of God in his great and lasting scientific efforts, and the high position of martyrdom is his divine reward.”
He continued: “Two important issues should be put on the agenda by all stakeholders: 1- First, pursuing this crime and a #definitivepunishment for its perpetrators and commanders; 2- Continuing the scientific and technical efforts of Martyr Fakhrizadeh in all the departments in which he was engaged.” (Jerusalem Post)
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D IS FOR DEALS
If Democrats don’t win both Georgia Senate seats, it remains impossible to imagine how Biden gets anything through both Nancy Pelosi’s House and Mitch McConnell’s Senate AND how a newly elected president gets NOTHING done with Congress.
Something would have to give.
Squaring that circle is in line to be THE politico-media question of early 2021.
ESSSENTIAL RESERVE READING:
The New York Times with a great political profile of Maine’s newly reelected Susan Collins, complete with a Chuck Schumer cameo that one hopes puts to rest the notion that the Mainer might party swap, despite the real relationship she has with “Joe.”
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E IS FOR ELECTION
Georgia, Georgia, Georgia.
Or, really: Georgia, Georgia.
Democrats seem a tad less hopeful in the last 48 hours about winning both seats, but these are still considered coin toss contests. Bipartisan sources now see a Perdue win/Loeffler loss scenario as quite possible, which as you know would still leave Mitch McConnell in the majority.
ESSSENTIAL RESERVE READING:
The Associated Press smartly rounds up both races through the prism of the pandemic.
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N IS FOR NEW GOVERNMENT
Much will be made in December about the Joe Biden balancing act on ideology, diversity, and identity politics in staffing his administration, but chances are, if he picks confirmable folks, the guns of winter will be long forgotten in the spring, when performance will matter much more than picks.
ESSSENTIAL RESERVE READING:
The Great Mentioner is in overdrive in this fresh New York Times look at who is apparently/reportedly/possibly/actually in play for some of the remaining big Biden jobs.