Sunday School 8/27/17

Not surprisingly, much of the talk this morning on the news shows centered on the devastation across Texas from Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Friday.

Things are continuing to deteriorate even as Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm, because of the constant barrage of rain that's hitting the state. Some areas had 24-hour totals over 16 inches, 18 inches, with several more days of rain anticipated.

If you would like to make a donation, texting Harvey to 90999 will send $10 to the American Red Cross specifically for those in the storm's path. (Messaging and/or data charges may apply.)

Over on NBC's Meet the Press,  Chuck Todd interviewed Ohio Governor John Kasich about president Trump's comments on Charlottesville and his pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for disobeying n order to stop racial profiling Hispanics; according to reports, Trump did not discuss the pardon with officials in the Justice Department. Here's part of Kasich's answer:

Look, I think at the end, Chuck, we keep talking about the president. You know, maybe starting with the flood business, it is time for us to figure out what institutions we're a part of from the bottom up that can bring some unity in this country. We don't have to keep looking to Washington. Everybody focuses on Washington. What about everything else happening in this country? Where it's, it's gauging profits by businesses or whether it's the clergy that does things that are out of bounds. I mean, nobody's looking for sainthood. But the whole country needs to come together and stop looking at Washington. Figure out what you can do as part of your (community) to raise the country and bring some unity. 

Todd then wondered if Paul Ryan should have the House scrutinize the Arpaio pardon, referencing Ford's pardon of Nixon and Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich - both of which happened when the other party was in charge of Congress. Kasich wasn't falling for it:

Chuck, we've got enough problems. We have enough problems to start, you know, figuring out why he did this, OK? I don't know. I just think that we just keep grinding this down. And to me what Paul Ryan ought to figure out is how he can get his people together to pass a health care law that isn't going to cut 20 million people off the rolls. He out to figure out how we can being to deal with entitlement reform at the same time we pass the debt limit.  He's gotta, he's gotta figure out how we're going to, to do the things that we need to do to make sure that we begin to move the country forward. Can't keep looking backward, we've got to look forward.  I'm absolutely convinced that you cannot deal with those who are way out there playing politics all the time. You've got to build your coalitions from the middle out. And that includes involving Democrats. I mean, that is not a dirty word. The Republicans get to call the tune, but you can't just do it alone. How do you think you're going to get tax reform if you don't have both parties involved. It will not happen. Period. 

Hear, hear.

Chris Wallace had Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Fox News Sunday. Their discussion included the oil and gas implications of Hurricane Harvey; North Korea; and Afghanistan. He expressed confidence that the energy companies in the Gulf would be OK; he denied having any difference with Trump on North Korea, and also disavowed any disagreement on Afghanistan either.

The point of our mission in Afghanistan, whether it's described in Trump's language on obliterating ISIS or Tillerson's language on letting the Taliban know they can't win, Tillerson says, is simply this:

...all terrorist organizations have somewhat different objectives. So, whether it's ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban or others, our objective is to deny any terrorist organization any territory with which they can organize, raise financing, recruit new fighters, develop techniques for carrying out terrorist attacks and then deploying those. We know that if we deny them to space to do that, we protect the homeland. We also protect Americans and our allies as well... we have to secure Afghanistan in a way that that can never occur again because there's no territory available to organizations to do so.

And finally, Tillerson talked about values - those the State Department puts forward, and the ones that we hear from the president; the context for this part of the discussion was criticism from a UN committee on the administration's "failure at the highest political level to unequivocally reject and condemn the racist violent events and demonstrations" that occurred in Charlottesville. Wallace wondered if Trump made it harder to put our values out there.

Chris, we express America's values from the State Department. We represent the American people. We represent America's values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment to people the world over. And that message has never changed. 

Here's how the conversation wrapped up.

Wallace: And when the president gets into the kind of controversy he does and the UN Committee responds the way it does, it seems to say they begin to doubt...whether we're living those values

Tillerson: I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values or the commitment of the American government or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values. 

 Wallace: And the president's values?

Tillerson: The president speaks for himself, Chris.

Wallace: Are you separating yourself from that, sir?

Tillerson:  I've spoken - I've made my own comments as to our values as well in a speech I gave to the State Department this past week.

That's all the time we have for this week -- and it's a good discussion on which to end today's classroom work. How about a homework assignment? Does the president speak to your values? To our shared values as Americans? Or does he only speak for himself? Think about it, talk about it. comment if you like.

See you around campus.