In Case You Missed It (v43)

Last week, in review.

Among others making classroom visits during the Sunday School hours was Mike Pence, who said in his chat with John Dickerson on Face the Nation that the only thing he heard from the #BlackLivesMatter protests was that we need more law enforcement. And here's a portion of his comments on why he won't say black lives matter.

John, I really believe that all lives matter. And that's where the heart of the American people lies. And we're going to continue to stand strong. We're going to continue to stand strong with Americans that- that want to see us come together as a nation. And we're going to carry that message all the way to November and for four more years. 

Moving to the Extra Credit stuff, the part all of you virtual learners look forward to, we had the highly quotable Governor Jay Inslee (D-WA), a man of whom the president is no fan, and a man who is no fan of the president.  Take a look at a bit of his conversation with Dickerson.

On presidential priorities: The moment Donald Trump tweeted that he wanted to liberate Michigan from the health messages of Gov. Whitmer...all of a sudden people wearing MAGA hats decided they didn't want to help out as much. And that has been very, very damaging. We need a president who will be fully committed to a message of health, you know, and instead of tweeting the other day about the importance of masks, he tweeted about monuments. We need a president who will care more about living Americans and less about dead confederates... And if we can get everybody wearing a MAGA hat to wear a mask, we're going to tame this virus...

I skipped Tuesday, since it was my birthday and I was wallowing in, you know, celebratory stuff.

In the Wondering on Wednesday entry, I wondered about those vaunted adults in the room we've heard about throughout the Trump administration. They were on my mind because of the leaked story that Russia was offering bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan, and that the president had been given that information. And which he immediately said was a hoax, of course, because anything that calls into question his intelligence or his ability to do his job is, of course, a hoax.

Will we ever meet the 'adults in the room', do you think? I mean, other than at a book signing? These mysterious people who share secrets, treasonous secrets unless they're a hoax, in which case, l guess, they're sharing lies. Except that we (ususususus, as they say on social media) shared this information with our allies, so why would we do what if it were just a hoax? Are we in some kind of celebrity game show or something? (Don't answer that.)

I want these people to find their inner Ellsberg, dammit. Or go to Oz and get some courage and then stand in front of a camera, with their documents, and tell us this stuff directly, instead of hiding behind the shield of a reporter.

In Thursday's Poll Watch, I looked at some Rasmussen Reports surveys - fun stuff, including this bit of insight on which of the major party candidates is best suited to make us safe - the law and order, us vs. them guy, or the one who survey respondents think needs to address his 'dementia.'

Voters worry about their safety more these days, and have more confidence in Biden than in Trump to make things better.

52% of likely voters, including 64% of Dems and 53% of not major party affiliateds, but only 39% of Republicans, feel personally less safe than they did four years ago, 19% feel more safe, and 26% say things are about the same.

Dementia aside, 49% of all voters, and 70% of those who think they are less safe now than four years ago, think Biden will make America a safer place to live; 42% think Trump will, and only 22% of those feeling less safe believe Trump's the one to make it better. (1000 likely voters, 6/23-6/24.)

When Friday rolled around, and I was working on the TGIF post, I focused a little on the confluence of politics and sports and outrage.

The NFL announced that it would play 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' a song known as the black national anthem, before the US national anthem at each of the first-week games. Not at every game all season long, mind you - just on opening weekend - but that's enough to drive people crazy on social media, some of whom (including some who may not even watch NFL games anyway) have declared they will never watch the sport again. No comment on whether they're ever going to drink Pepsi again, or ship by FedEx, or pay too much for Nike sneaks. We'll have to see how that all works out.

And, for Independence Day, I roamed through old posts to see what I had every said about our country's birthday.  I only found two entries - both of them poetic. From 2019, there was this OrangeVerse entry on American cities, and what the president is going to do about them.

Seriously Maybe Important

I'm gonna maybe

and I'm looking at it

very seriously,

we're doing some

other things

as you've probably noticed

like some of the

Very Important Things

we're doing now.

And from 2016, we had this one, the second of a two-parter on space.

This is infinity here.

It could be infinity

We don't

really know.

But it could be.

It has to be something

but it could be

infinity,

right?

It could be infinity, or it could just be last week's veritable pastiche.  I'll leave that up to you - and I'll see you back here later for Sunday School.