In Case You Missed it (v30)

How's your social distancing going, everyone still hanging in there?

If you need a distraction from being stared at by your pets, or trying to find something to talk about with your quarantine cellmate, here's a recap of last week's posts. Grab a cuppa and set a spell.

Sunday School brought us a conversation with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Papa Joe Biden, who appeared in the MTP classroom. Biden had to navigate not only pandemic technological requirements, but also Chuck Todd's questions, which had me thinking they were designed to trip Biden up, rather than to educate people. Among other things, Todd asked Biden to critique Trump's handling of the coronavirus, and then followed up with this. 

You've been around government a long time. And you know there's a fine line between constructive criticism and backseat driving that can be disruptive. What do you believe that line is for you when it comes to critiquing President Trump right now?

And, there was this. 

Your campaign put out -- in a critique of President Trump and says, "If he doesn't do these things he could cost lives." Do you think there’s already -- do you think there is blood on the president's hands considering the slow response? Or is that too harsh of a criticism?

I devoted your Extra Credit to conversations with Dr. Deborah Birx and Superhero Disease Fighter Dr. Anthony Fauci. The latter talked with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union, covering topics like how much longer we'd need the social distancing requirements. Among other things, if someone decides we need to relax those requirements, there better be a specific plan in place first. 

Because if you release the restrictions before you have a good eyeball on what's going on there, you're going to get in trouble. So, I'm not against releasing the restrictions. I'm actually for it in an appropriate place. But I don't recommend it unless we have the tools in place in real time to do the things I just said. 

A bit of quiet, seething bif of Ranting and Raving managed to escape from head. I got tired of seeing people agreeing with and sharing an op-ed about how the poor president was so focused on impeachment that he really couldn't devote the necessary time and attention to the coronavirus situation. He would have done way more better, I guess, if only he weren't so distracted by trying to defend himself.

Henry Olsen, the author of the op-ed that set me off, says that is long past time Dems put country over party and join together and sing Kumbaya or something. But it's not just Dems, it's not just Never Trumpers like me. The 'country over party' mantra

... most assuredly also applies to Republicans. Asking only people on the left to make the "country over party" declaration is as absurd as expecting the president to suddenly start acting like some who was elected leader of the free world. Don't tell me that - tell him that. He acts as if he doesn't believe it to be true, and he still has a laser focus on all who suggest he was undeserving.

And, no, I maintain,  

It's not impeachment that's making it harder for Trump, but I know what is: people like Olsen, who set the bar so much higher for people like me than they do for the president they so adore.

I hadn't done a Sidebar post in a while, but I was compelled to this week, as a companion to the rant about impeachment and making excuses for the president. I did a quick data pull, using search skills that any fifth-grader could have improved upon, to see what was really consuming the president's time and energy during January and February - and it wasn't impeachment that kept him so busy that he barely had time to do anything else, much less focus on saving the lives of Americans. For example, 

Would you be surprised that, as the White House was fighting for its very survival, the president managed to attend 10 rallies - or, on average, one every six days? 

During this very trying time for White House, the president managed to make nine trips to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, which averages just under one trip every seven days.  

There's more too - his tweets, his fundraisers, and oh yeah - media coverage, which supposedly was 100% about impeachment. That, too, was not the case. 

As is my new plan, my Wondering on Wednesday posts include feel good stories from social-distancing land, as well as a little bit of politics. After all, this is a mostly political blog, and as they say, "no pain, no gain" or something. Because Florida was an early adopter of 'outsiders aren't welcome here", I spent some time looking at recent decisions made by the Sunshine State's friend-of-Trump Governor, Ron DeSantis.

... his executive order identifies religious services as an 'essential activity' and therefore excepted from the stay at home requirement, even though we've seen from around the world and around the country that attending religious activities can be a very risky proposition for many people. I have to wonder about DeSantis' decision, and similar decisions in other states, and I'm hopeful that people will stay safe.

And then it was Friday and time for TGIF. This week's edition included reference to a column by Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation/Ayn Rand guy, on government overreach during a time of pandemic, and how those big bad governors who are trying to keep their citizens alive are stepping on people's right to take foolish risks if they want to. That's fine with me.

I'd say we're at the point when allowing people their selfish rights can unnecessarily endanger the rest of us, but maybe that's just me. Like I said, I'm not big on the Bible, but I know about that Golden Rule thing, and since I wouldn't ignorantly infect anyone else with the coronavirus, I don't think anyone should be selfishly giving it to me.

And finally, there was this Trump in Transition post, all about Trump's insultingly childish and embarrassing tantrum, proudly shared by the White House - his playground bully letter to Senator Chuck Schumer, a man who's not averse to grandstanding every now and then himself  (what day is it?). Regardless of what Schumer said to, um, inspire Trump's response, the president was wrong to have responded. Supposedly he knew that, as reports indicated he didn't want the letter to actually go out. I'm not believing a word of it. 

...if he didn't want the letter to go out, it wouldn't be posted on the White House website right now, complete with a link to download a copy of the letter. That last part is important, because when the president sends a letter to Congress, there's no download link, just the text. When he issues a statement? No link. When he issues an Executive Order? No link.

In this case, he's so proud of himself that we can get our own copy of the letter, we can see how big and strong and angry his signature is, we can see how POWERFUL he is.

We can see how big a jerk he is.

Why yes, yes we can. 

So there you have it - the fully veritable pastiche from last week. I'll see you later with this week's Sunday School.