In Case You Missed it (v34)

You know, once we get some eve halfway decent weather for a couple of days in  row, it's hard to sit inside in my office and write - which helps explain why there were fewer posts this week.

Right now, I'm happy to be sitting on the newly opened screened porch with a cuppa, my favorite acoustic radio show, a bunch of lazy cats sleeping in the sunshine, and birds chirping - so much more relaxing than, you know, political press conferences and bizarre tweets and stuff, which is what most of last week was all about.  Here's a recap.

We started with a full cast of characters out making the Sunday School rounds, including Dr. Birx, who talked with Jake Tapper,  and Amy Klobuchar, who chatted with George Stephanopoulos. I've got bits of those conversations, and more, including Chuck Todd's chat with former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who's very interested in a particular job opening.

After some discussion on what skills a Biden VP should have, or what that person should bring to the table, she was asked if she thought it'd be a mistake if Papa Joe didn't pick a woman of color.

I think President, a President Biden will do what he has always done, which is respect and value communities of color. I think he understands that black communities and people of color are vital to the success of the Democratic Party. And I think he's going to pick the right person. I, of course, think that a woman of color can bring certain attributes. We have to lift up marginalized communities, communities that do not trust that they will be served because they’ve been the hardest hit by this pandemic.. And so, yes, having a woman of color on the ticket will help promote not only diversity, but trust. But I trust Joe Biden to pick the person he thinks is the right running mate for him.

In our Extra Credit entry,  I veered away from the usual suspects and checked in with the mayor of San Francisco, the CEO of the Bank of America, and with Kevin Hassett, a senior economic advisor in the Trump administration.  Much of his conversation was about what kind of recovery we might see (in case you didn't know, recoveries have shapes) and the debt, he also talked about bipartisanship. And it's interesting how everyone who works for Trump discusses this in the same way: make sure we know they think they're better than the Obama administration, and make sure to take a dig at the press.  Take a look at this snippet from Hassett's visit to George's classroom.

..When President Obama was elected, it was middle of December when they started to have the stimulus bill discussions with Congress and it was the middle of February when they passed it. We just did a major, major bill in a week, and that's because basically people care more about their country than the sort of nastiness in Washington that's covered on the news every day.

Now,  they did just do a major bill in a week - my goodness, they're spending scads of money faster than most of us could imagine (without having any real idea, I think, as to which of the many things they've done have had any positive impact on anyone) but Hassett misses something:

Given that it's basically the same people in Congress, including the leaders, are we to believe they only learned to care for their country when Trump got in office? They only care when it's an election year? They only care that it's small businesses, actual people, instead of big banks and large corporations? The possible explanations are endless, I think - including that without the Ds, the Rs can't get it done, but only the Rs get invited to the signing ceremonies. Sorry - riding a huge cynical wave today.

What next? Oh - yeah, that's right - the "My Fellow American" letter from the White House, in Thursday's Email of the Week post. I know -- a letter and an email are not the same - but it was a communication from a politician so I made it work.

For a whole host of reasons, I took issue with 45's letter. But rather than outline each and every one of them, I basically wanted to get this point across.

In keeping with your efforts “to protect hard-working Americans…from the consequences of the economic shutdown,” I believe it would be appropriate for your campaign committee to absorb the costs of this self-serving and wasteful letter.

In these challenging economic times, it’s disrespectful for you to spend our money tooting your horn.

And then it was Friday, and time to spin a tale of a president who has an uncanny ability to misidentify "very good people" and a vice president who has an uncanny ability to ignore the rules he touts, and a vice president who wants to be president but probably shouldn't be (but not necessarily for the reason in the post), and a new press secretary for the president who has an uncanny ability to burn through press secretaries. Here's a snippet from this week's TGIF.

And speaking of mixed signals and maybe speaking of lying, Kayleigh McEnany, the president's press secretary, held her first briefing today. In it, she promised she would never lie to the press. Some have suggested her promise lasted around 15 minutes, so we'll have to see how that plays out as things go forward. On the plus side, she held a press briefing, something that last happened 400 days ago.

Can you even imagine a Trump official going on the record with that statement? It's going to be fun, don't you think?

So, that's our week in review. Enjoy the day - I"ll be back later with Sunday School.