The Sunday School classrooms included Dana Bash's conversation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Among the topics they covered was the shenanigans on Wall Street, the whole Reddit vs. hedge funds battle, with GameStop in the middle of it all.
Bash asked what she meant by saying it was time for regulators to "wake up and do their jobs." Among the concerns is that "we actually don't know who all the players are in this." And, she hit on her favorite theme - the rigged system, where the stock market is more like a casino now.
They have been doing all kinds of market manipulation, pump and dump, companies that buy back shares of their own stock, so that they can inflate stock prices. We need a market that is transparent, that's level, and that is open to individual investors. It is time for the SEC to get off their duffs and do their jobs.
Also making appearances? Sen. Rob Portman and That Guy from Vermont.
For Extra Credit, I listed in to Chuck Todd's conversation with Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the most vocal anti-Trump Republican in the House. He's started a new PAC, and is all about the Rs getting back to their roots and out of the clutches of Trump. He's likely to be censured by his state party, and there aren't a lot of folks standing next to him in front of the cameras, but that's OK.
Even given that, he said it's invigorating to stand up for what he believes in. And, the question of whether the GOP can survive without Trump is the right question to ask. He thinks the focus on getting reelected is the wrong approach, and that there's a leadership problem in the party. That includes House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy trotting off to Mar-a-Lago, further tying Trump and the party together, and feeding his desperation to stay relevant. They "they shouldn't be a Trump-first party, they should be a country-first party."
And we need to quit being the party that even one iota defends an insurrection, a dead police officer and other dead Americans on the Capitol. There is no equivalency to that. And we have to run from that as fast as we can.
Like Kinzinger, I look forward to the day when he's not standing alone at the mic. I also had highlights of the Fox News Sunday interview with Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. He's one of the 10 senators who offered up a counter-proposal to the Biden COVID aid package.
I turned to my home state with a Meanwhile Back in Albany post about my Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his State of the State for 2021.
I ignored him the rest of last year, as he spent a lot of time looking like he was preparing to run for president in 2024 via his daily televised - and, eventually, daily nationally televised COVID-19 briefings, wrote a book about leadership in the time of COVID, and made some fun guest appearances on his brother's CNN show. And, of course, I was a little distracted with the 45th president - no shock there for regular readers.
It's time to turn my attention to the Sonofa Gov and his plans for our future. Cuomo, recognizing that "these are no ordinary times, and our plan is more complex and detailed," took four days to get the SOTS all rolled out.
Four days? That's a lot of Cuomo, but I'm going to give it a shot.
In my Wondering on Wednesday entry, I combined a little bit of reality and a lot of fiction into a sad tale of what happens in DC when one party takes offense at offenses taken by the other party, and how something that should be really quite simple - taking action against the indefensible actions by a House member - becomes a tragi-comedy, a ridiculous game of tit-for-tat and puffery and bluster and petty bickering and they are SO embarrassing.
I wonder, this Wednesday, since some of what's documented above is true, what the other members of the House - those not in leadership positions, those not participating in all this backdoor intrigue, and those who don't qualify as extremists - think of all of this?
Are they standing at their doors or windows screaming along with the rest of us? Are they hanging their heads in abject embarrassment somewhere?
Or are they gleefully sitting around, popcorn at hand, watching all of this transpire and hoping to land in a better spot when the dust settles?
We deserve better, and we need to start demanding it.
In the interest of unity and bipartisanship, I did a Quick Take on what happens when people at least try to negotiate with the other guys. I'm not here to dissect the motives of the Rs, but to commend them for at least trying, and to commend President Biden for giving a little on his original COVID plan.
What's going on here? The president meeting, in person, with people from the other party? And adjusting his proposal to try and come up with something that might be amenable to folks on both sides of the aisle? That's heresy!
That's not how this is supposed to work, right? Aren't they supposed to just be shouting at each other, calling each other names, and refusing to even meet with people from the other side? That's what we're used to, and frankly that's what some folks seem to be selling.
Maybe we should be paying more attention to the people doing the work, and giving lots less time to the people babbling in front of the microphones.
Finally, in a look at good week/bad stuff in my TGIF entry, I had to share a link to video of a white man coming face to face with privilege. It wasn't in a way that you might expect, but when the lightbulb came on, it was a moment, for sure.
Let's see, what else... Oh, this was eye-opening, and worth giving some attention. Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips took to the floor of the House to apologize to people of color - his colleagues, and everyone else - for never really having understood white privilege until the attack on the Capitol last month. I know, that sounds kind of odd, but I encourage you to spend fewer than two minutes listening to what he said, and as much time as needed to contemplate what he said, and to check your own understanding of white privilege.
That's all that made it into publication. Coming up this week? If I can get my drafts edited, I'll have the rest of the Cuomo SOTS, look at ranked choice legislating, update you on some recent polling, and offer the usual features as well - all the while trying to pay attention to the impeachment trial.
See you later for Sunday School.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts!