In Case You Missed It (v47)

Grab your cuppa - it's time for a recap of last week's posts.

I devoted the entire Sunday School entry to hearing from the president's 4th Chief of Staff (quick - can you name the first three? Answers at the end of the post). And it wasn't easy - I mean, I never thought I'd say this, but I much preferred listening to his predecessor than I do listening to Meadows.

He told us how much the administration is doing about election interference from China, Russia and Iran, something the intelligence community warned us about. "Trump's doing a lot, a lot more than the previous administration," investing "hundreds of millions of dollars" and he signed off on "two different legislative actions...to make sure that election integrity is - is important." 

Not only that, but he also said, "We've been willing to work with secretaries of states of every -- of all 50 states as we look at that and the territories to make sure that their systems have the needed resources for the integrity to be there and so that we can count on that."

Well, goody for them, that they've "been willing to work with" all 50 states.  I mean, in any other administration, not immediately doing that would be a dereliction of duty, but this is the 'be nice to me or you're screwed' administration, so I guess we should give them a participation medal or something.

Among the guest lecturers featured in our Sunday School Extra Credit post? Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who was pretty upbeat about the Republican's plan and about working with the Dems to get something done.  There will be a plan announced on Monday, he said. 

...we do have an entire plan, it's a trillion dollars. And let me just remind everybody that of the $3 trillion we've already passed, we have about a trillion to a trillion and a half still left to put into the economy. So these are very, very large amount of money, working with Congress to support this. And what Mark Meadows was saying is that within the trillion-dollar package, there are certain things that have time frames that are bigger priority, so we could look at doing an entire deal, we could also look at doing parts... we can move very quickly with the Democrats on these issues. We've moved quickly before and I see no reason why we can't move quickly again. And if there are issues that take longer, we'll -- we'll deal with those as well. 

And while they're pushing to spend another trillion bucks or three, which is what the House passed - back in May (that bill having sat on The Grim Reaper's desk waiting for the Rs to get off their fannies and figure out what #IMPOTUS wants before they put anything on the table) - is anyone else thinking about the trillion-and-a-half still sitting on the table, and what that was supposed to be used for, and why it hasn't, and if it isn't needed, why don't we just use that money do help people out here? Mnuchin wasn't asked that question, darn it. 

On Tuesday, I reported out the results of my survey on corporate political speech and its impact on consumer choices in a Poll Watch entry. Among the findings? 

I asked whether people had stopped doing business with a company, started doing business with a company, or decided to never do business with a company because of corporate political speech. 

• 63% of respondents said they have stopped being a customer,
• 26% said that they have become a customer, and
• 68% have chosen never to do business with a company because of political speech.

The survey also told what my friends think is the most important corporate political speech issue - can you guess what it is? 

When it came time for Wondering on Wednesday, like many others I was frustrated with the lack of action on the Republicans' COVID relief bill, or stimulus bill, or whatever you want to call it.  I think I've said this before, but being retired and on a fixed income, we are much less economically disadvantaged than people who are unable to work because their business is closed, or because they are not able to work at home, and so on.  But our better circumstances don't mitigate my outrage at stupid stuff, like that gets shoved into these bills once everyone finally agrees to act.  For example, 

How, I wonder, is putting up a new FBI headquarters, across the street from the president's emoluments hotel a component of the HEALS Act, the latest stimulus package from the White House and Senate Republicans? I know that many of the senators are against that $1.75B provision, and that the president insisted it get added to the bill, but really? How does that help with testing, or PPE, or contact tracing, or people making their rent, or getting schools open, or anything else?  

And don't start with me -- I know the HEROES Act, passed months ago by the House, has more than enough porky stuff too, but this is just one more example of the president attempting to feather his own nest, or at least make his nest attractive for feathering.  I'm getting tired of it - really tired.  

I'm getting really tired of all of it, honestly. And all of them. 

Thursday was a pass day - we were supposed to have gone to our favorite restaurant for some socially-distanced outside dining with our favorite people. but a family member was advised to get a COVID-19 test and we had spent some pretty well socially-distanced time with him, so dinner was cancelled and so was writing. (And yes - we're several days into him not having his test results... #MAGAMA).

Among the things on my mind as I was building the TGIF post for your good week/bad week list-making was dealing with the claim from the Fearmonger-in-Chief and other Trumpeters (including Snitty Snitty Bill Barr) think that a foreign government is going to interject fraudulent paper ballots into our election in November.  

I'm trying to picture that level of interference, not only because there will be thousands of different ballots in use in November, gathering votes for everything from dog catcher to president, that would have to be perfectly replicated, and be assigned to actual registered voters who have signatures on file, in the correct jurisdiction... So, is it common sense, or an attempt to sow seeds of doubt in our election processes?

I'm guessing the latter, but as you know, I'm cynical about this White House.

So, that's your full and veritable pastiche for last week. Oh - yes - almost forgot to give you the first three Trump Chiefs of Staff: 

• Reince Priebus (January 20, 2017 - July 31, 2017)
• General John Kelly (July 31, 2017 - January 2, 2019)
• Mick Mulvaney (January 2, 2019 – March 6, 2020)

If you remembered Priebus, give yourself a high five. I had to look that up.

 I'll be back later with today's Sunday School.