OrangeVerse LIX: Your Dream Wedding

"Get married at Mar-a-Lago," they said. "It'll be fantastic," they said. "You might even get to see the former president!" they said. What blushing, rich-daddy'd, Republican bride wouldn't want that? I mean, how could it go wrong? 

Let us count the ways, according to the folks at the Daily Beast, who recounted a recording that TMZ (who else?) managed to get their hands on. Here's the set up:

Former President Donald Trump wandered into a wedding reception being held at Mar-a-Lago but instead of toasting the happy couple proceeded to run through a laundry list of his own personal grievances, according to a clip of the speech obtained by TMZ.

As you know, every day is Festivus for Former Guy, and that makes wonderful poetry for the rest of us, the folks on the 'least likely to be invited to a Mar-a-Lago wedding" list.

News Flash

Y’know, I just got, 

I turned off the news, 

I get all these flash reports,

and they’re telling me

 about the border,

 they’re telling me

about China,

 they’re telling me

 about Iran—

how’re we doing

with Iran, 

howdya like that? 

 

Let's Make a Deal

Boy, they were ready

to make a deal,

they woulda done

anything, they woulda

done anything,

and this guy goes

and drops the sanctions

and then he says,

‘We’d love to negotiate now,’

[and Iran says],

‘We’re not dealing with

the United States at all,

’oh, well, they don’t

want to deal with us,”

And China,

the same thing,

they never treated us

that way, right?

 

Did You See That?

You saw what happened

 a few days ago, was terrible,

 and uh, the border is not

good, the border is the worst

anybody’s ever seen it,

and what you see now,

multiply it by 10, Jim—

you would know how to

handle the border

 tougher than me.

We have to,

and the tough is... in

the most humanitarian

way, because that’s

what it is.

What’s happening

to the kids,

they’re living in 

squalor, they’re living 

like nobody has ever seen

anybody, there’s never

been anything like what’s,

and you’re gonna have

hundreds, and you have it now

The Shocks

they have the airplane photos,

the shocks, and they call ’em

shocks, and these things are

showing thousands and

thousands of people

coming up from

South America

and it’s gonna be,

it’s just uh, look,

 it’s a disaster.

It’s a humanitarian

disaster from

their standpoint,

and it’s gonna destroy the

country, frankly, the country

can’t afford it because

you’re talking about massive,

just incredible massive amounts.

 Our school systems,

our hospital systems,

everything.

 

A Rough Count

So, it’s a rough thing,

and I just say,

‘Do you miss me yet?’

We did get 75 million votes,

nobody’s ever gotten that.

They said, ‘Get 66 million votes,

sir, and the election’s over.’

We got 75 million and they 

said... but you know,

you saw what happened,

10:30 in the evening,

all of a sudden I said,

‘That’s a strange thing,

why are they closing up

certain places, right?’

Congratulations! 

Now, a lot of things

happening right now,

I just wanted to say,

it’s an honor to be here,

it’s an honor to have you

at Mar-a-Lago, you 

are a great

and beautiful couple.

"Get married at Mar-a-Lago," they said. Just make sure you lock the door to the ballroom.

Sunday School 3/28/21: Extra Credit

For your Extra Credit this week, I spent time in the Fox News Sunday classroom. Chris Wallace had two guests: press secretary Jen Psaki, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Trump), which is where we'll start.

Graham, who has called our current border policies "a magnet for illegal immigration," proposed the Secure and Protect Act (SPA). It would require asylum-seekers from the 'Northern Triangle' countries to file claims at home or in Mexico, not here - but it also allows families that cross illegally to stay here for 100 days, not 20. His bill ideas aren't an illegal immigration magnet, though. CBP folks told him that, with 100 days and additional judges, they could get decisions on asylum cases and "never let the families go."

You need to make sure nobody is released until their case is adjudicated in the United States, you should keep them in Mexico or their home country, and you should be turning every unaccompanied minor away after they've been tested for human trafficking abuse back to their home country and it will stop this. If you don't, we'll have 150,000 a month by this summer.

Wallace and Graham failed to mention that the SPA (great acronym, don't you think?) was submitted in May 2019, when illegal immigration was surging under the Trump regime - and that it had only one co-sponsor. 

While Graham says that HR 1, the massive bill passed by the House without Republican support, "is the biggest power grab in the history of the country," he doesn't accept that Georgia's voting reforms are "un-American" as President Biden said. And he suggested that saying it was amounts to racism. 

So, every time a Republican does anything, we're a racist. If you're a white conservative, you're a racist. If you're a black Republican, you're either a prop or Uncle Tom. They use the racism card to advance a liberalism agenda and we're tired of it. HR 1 is sick, not what they're doing in Georgia.

He didn't mention his own power grab - his alleged attempts to have ballots tossed in Georgia, but he does say that criminalizing giving water and snacks to voters standing in line "doesn't make a whole lot of sense" to him.

Wallace asked why having a debate on gun issues, including assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, would be a bad thing; Graham basically dared Chuck Schumer to bring an assault weapon bill to the floor, where "it won't get 50 votes, much less 60."  And then he added this, which made me giggle. 

I own an AR-15. If there's a natural disaster in South Carolina where the cops can't protect my neighborhood, my house will be the last one that the gang will come to because I can defend myself. You don't have to have an AR-15, but if you have one lawfully, I think you should be allowed to keep it.

Graham said most mass shootings "have a lot to do with mental health. Count me in for addressing that issue. Red flag laws exist in 19 states. There are some things we can do," but an assault weapons ban is not what we need. And even though he's on record saying that the left wants to take people's guns away, he's pushing a red flag law himself. Those bills are designed to take someone's guns away. I guess that's OK if a Republican suggests it? 

I'll eagerly await Graham's support for the bills that the House passed. I've added the emphasis in case Graham reads this post. Both address background checks. 

• One tackles the "so-called Charleston loophole," which give the FBI only three days to do the background check. That's how Dylann Roof, the Mother Emmanuel shooter, got a gun. The bill would give the FBI ten days to complete the background check. 
• And the other bill? That one would require private sellers to conduct background checks on Internet and gun-show sales. Those are already requirements for all federally-licensed firearms sellers.

"Count me in," Graham said.

So, count me in for dealing with the mental health aspects of this. Count me in for trying to have common sense background checks to get the best information into the system. And if you fail a background check, count me in for telling the local cops that the individual failed it. 

I love that he's in favor of that stuff - he's just like the rest of us Americans of every political stripe, who have long supported this kind of reasonable legislation. And I think there's some nice symmetry here - he's in favor of extending the time we have to investigate asylum claims, so hopefully he appreciates extending the time we have to investigate whether someone really should be able to purchase a gun. 

For her part, Psaki basically said a whole lot of "we're committed to transparency" and a whole lot of "we're committed to working with everyone" and a whole lot of "Democrats and Republicans working together" and a whole lot of "the Senate should be able to get stuff done" and a whole lot of "there's a whole lot of stuff going on" - and I'm not a whole lot of certain that she successfully handled any of the questions she was asked. 

See you around campus - be sure you can answer questions, with transparency, when I call on you. 

Sunday School 3/28/21

I'm going to spend our Sunday School time in just one classroom - CNN's State of the Union, where Dana Bash shared her pre-recorded exclusive interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

Blinken did his best to answer as broadly and as collectively as possible, compared to Rex Tillerson or the horrid, condescending liar, Mike Pompeo. 

Here's some of what we learned from Blinken.

• China doesn't really fit under one label, given that "there are clearly and increasingly adversarial aspects of the relationship ...there are certainly competitive ones...there are still some cooperative ones." He says we have to approach them from a position of strength, no matter which aspect of the relationship we're talking about. And, we have to bring our allies along - we're stronger together.

• On the pandemic, he said we need to be able to mitigate something like this much better in the future, and we need transparency from the WHO among other things. And, "China, like every other country, has real obligations that it needs to make good on."  As to punishment or repercussions for their behavior to date, Blinken says we need "both accountability for the past, but our focus needs to be on building a stronger system for the future."

• There will be consequences for Russia on the variety of aggressions they've perpetrated on us, including election interference, bounties on our troops, and the attacks on our computers, and NATO shares our concern with Russia's actions across the board. Everything "really starts with being clear-eyed about the challenge Russia poses and addressing the challenge together." 

• On Afghanistan, we're still working on the troop withdrawal timeline, and he said there are more European troops there than there are Americans. They've been with us on this from the beginning, when "the one and only time NATO's Article 5, an attack on one is an attack on all, has been evoked" was 9/11. So, we're telling them what we're thinking, but we're also listening to them. And yes, Biden will keep his promise to "end forever wars" but diplomacy is a part of that, too - and there's an upcoming conference in Turkey on that effort. 

• There was a lot of talk about MBS, the Saudi Crown Prince, and whether we should call him a murderer. In the end, Blinken said " The crown prince is likely to be the leader of Saudi Arabia far into the future" and that we have to work with them on some critical stuff, including ending the war in Yemen, which he called "probably the worse humanitarian crisis in the world." And he asked, "in terms of advancing human rights and progress in Saudi Arabia itself, are we better off recalibrating the relationship, as we did, or rupturing it?" He's confident the recalibration was necessary. 

Blinken made it clear we are not "America alone;" if the Biden foreign policy had a theme song, it would be "We Are the World."

I'll have more from the classrooms in tomorrow's Extra Credit. See you around campus.

In Case You Missed it (v79)

We go from a flood of posts one week, to a trickle the next. Such is the ebb and flow of this craziness. Here's your recap of last week's posts.

Among the interviews I covered in Sunday School was Margaret Brennan's chat with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti on Face the Nation. They talked about COVID progress, including efforts to get vaccines into vulnerable populations. 

Garcetti's talked with Gov. Gavin Newsom about getting vaccines where the most vulnerable populations are; 40% are now targeted in those areas. They're using mobile teams, getting vaccines to people at home, and working with community organizations to get the vaccines into arms.

But I look forward to when the federal regulations release our handcuffs and allow us to target anybody in a hotspot. I think that is probably two or three weeks away... that'll allow us, if there is anything that comes up quickly, go into the geography of a neighborhood, knock it down before it spreads throughout a city. 

They also discussed Asian-American hate crimes and policing. 

Responding to Brennan's question about him having to send $150 million back to the police, money he had "reprogrammed" after Black Lives Matter protests last year, he said she was framing it wrong. 

We know that things like hate crimes need both a police response and education, a reporting mechanism, civilians and community-based groups that can help be the eyes and ears. And we have no tolerance for this hate here in Los Angeles, a great city filled with folks of Asian-American and Pacific Islander descent. 

He also said that they have "more patrols this year," and that they're "making investments in the human side of this to make sure community organizations are well-funded, too." 

Moving to mid-week, I had all kinds of Wondering on Wednesday to chat about, including books and songs. Books first.

Moving from DC to Tennessee, if everything goes as State Rep. Jerry Sexton planned, the Bible will be the official book of the Volunteer State. Sexton gave a couple reasons why the Bible should be the official book, including to "reflect family heritage and underscore the multi-million-dollar industry that is Bible printing in Tennessee." Now, obviously the Bible is not critical to many Americans, including "Buddhist, or Muhammad or any of those religions," as Sexton called them, trying to be respectful to everyone's concerns and "just put the Bible where I feel that it belongs." 

With that thought in mind, I got thinking about my state's latest 'sin and tax' plan. We're in the top two or three with our cigarette tax; we added casinos a few years ago to try and keep from hemorrhaging New Yorkers to other states to gamble, costing us tons of income, it was suggested; we then added sports betting at the casinos, and now we're looking for mobile sports betting and maybe even more casinos, because why not, right? And now?

Finally, news is breaking that New York's Senate, Assembly, and the Sonofa Gov have agreed to legalize adult recreational marijuana. I haven't seen the bill yet, but it was reported that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said getting this done is "essential" to the state's social and economic well-being - and by that, he means the 9% state sales tax is essential. Some local governments can tack on an additional 4% sales tax. There's more - a whole nother hunk of burning bureaucracy to manage the weed, and fights over what to do with the tax money, naturally. I'm not wondering about all of that - that's the New York way, adding taxes and layers of bureaucracy, and fighting about all of it. 

Wishing I still had my paraphernalia from my younger days. But, back to the wondering theme of Wednesday's post, and thinking about that whole 'putting the Bible where I think it belongs" guy down in Tennessee, let's move to songs.

Well, what am I wondering about? How do I go about getting "Don't Bogart That Joint" installed as our new state song? I respect the folks who picked "I Love New York," our current state song, but I just want to put this song where I feel it belongs. 

And, then it was time for your TGIF. One of the things that I thought needed to be placed on the bad week list? The performance of the correspondents at President Biden's press briefing. Here's an excerpt.

President Biden held a press conference yesterday, and more than one reporter asked whether he was going to run in 2024; add-ons were "will Kamala Harris be your running mate?" and "do you believe you'll be running against Donald Trump?" Because nothing's more important than talking about Former Guy to Current Guy. I did like this part of his answer, though. 

Oh, come on. I don’t even think about it. I have no idea. I have no idea whether there’ll be Republican party. Do you? I know you don’t have to answer my question, but I mean, you know, do you?

There might still be a Republican Party; Trump might even be the candidate, and Biden might even run. Or, as he said, "that's the plan" but he doesn't usually plan three or four years out. Was this the big 'gotcha' moment of the one-hour presser? Well, that would seem to be a 'yes' based on it being widely covered in print, online, and on the nightly news. Most outlets only reported the 'yes' part, not the rest of his thoughts on the subject. 

And I'll bet you one hundred pennies that he will not run again. 

There you are -- all caught up. See you later for Sunday School.

TGIF 3/26/21

Time to make your good week/bad week lists. Ready?

The Capitol insurrectionists were "hugging and kissing" the police, according to Former Guy. 

It was zero threat, right from the start, it was zero threat. They went in, they shouldn't have done it. Some of them went in and they're hugging and kissing the police and the guards, they had great relationships. A lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out. 

Johnson & Johnson appears to be on track to meet their goal of delivering 20 million doses by the end of the month. 

The White House's announcement Friday was a surprise, then, with CNN's Kaitlan Collins noting that the goal had "been in doubt as of just a few days ago, given less than half the 20 million had gone out." Indeed, according to Politico, the administration on Tuesday said it only had four million doses of the vaccine to deliver. 

Georgia has decided that if I were to hand food or water to a voter in line waiting to cast their ballot, I'm trying to sway their vote, and I've committed a crime. At the same time, if I make food or water available to the same voter, but don't offer it to them, I'm not trying to sway their vote and haven't committed a crime. And boy, if I were a Georgian, I'd be ever grateful to my elected officials for “taking another step to making our elections fair and secure.” 

New York is on the verge of releasing the whole megillah of our new legal pot bill, maybe this weekend. One sticking point? Impaired drivers. According to Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, that doesn't seem like a big deal. 

There are almost 150,000 people in the state of New York who are medical marijuana patients, as we speak. And this is a multiple billion-dollar underground business, so there are tons of people who are already driving around in our communities with THC in their system. That doesn’t mean they are impaired.

Utah, on the other hand, has passed a bill that would require porn filters on new smartphone sold in the state - but the bill won't go into effect unless at least five other states pass the same requirement. Pretty sure NY won't be one of them; we're more likely to look at that as a revenue source, rather than a "public health crisis," which is how Utah views it. 

President Biden held a press conference yesterday, and more than one reporter asked whether he was going to run in 2024; add-ons were "will Kamala Harris be your running mate?" and "do you believe you'll be running against Donald Trump?" Because nothing's more important than talking about Former Guy to Current Guy. I did like this part of his answer, though. 

Oh, come on. I don’t even think about it. I have no idea. I have no idea whether there’ll be Republican party. Do you? I know you don’t have to answer my question, but I mean, you know, do you?

Virginia abolished the death penalty this week, becoming the first in the south to do so. Home of the first execution, in 1608, and more than any other state, it's now the 23rd to get rid of the death penalty. Here's what Gov. Ralph Northam said, before signing the bill.

We can't give out the ultimate punishment without being 100% sure that we're right. And we can't sentence people to that ultimate punishment knowing that the system doesn't work the same for everyone.

 I'll leave you with this info from AAA on gas prices. The average price of a gallon of gas in the US was $2.88 over the past week, and a third or so higher than this time last year. What's driving the price increase? It's not President Biden, no matter what your friends say. Rather, 

Fuel prices have gotten a boost from rebounding oil prices as the global economy recovers from the devastation of coronavirus lockdowns.

And that ship that's blocking the Suez Canal isn't helping, either; if you've got any ideas on that, be sure to let someone know.

TGIF, everyone.

Wondering on Wednesday 3/24/21

Ready... Set... Wonder!

I've got an eclectic set of wonderment today. Let's dive in, shall we?

According to this article, the Biden administration is putting accountability back into the government, because "(a)gencies were clear, and unanimous, in their desire to have the earlier framework reinstated," according to an OMB official. The guidelines, which were removed on Christmas Eve, relieved agencies from having to set performance goals and track progress against them. One reason for the removal was that folks weren't reading the reports on Performance.gov. Another reason? The Trump administration was focused on getting rid of work that "doesn't lead to impactful change or measurable efficiencies." I'm wondering, how you can determine if measurable efficiencies have been made if you're not measuring them?

Moving from DC to Tennessee, if everything goes as State Rep. Jerry Sexton planned, the Bible will be the official book of the Volunteer State. Sexton gave a couple reasons why the Bible should be the official book, including to "reflect family heritage and underscore the multi-million-dollar industry that is Bible printing in Tennessee." Now, obviously the Bible is not critical to many Americans, including "Buddhist, or Muhammad or any of those religions," as Sexton called them, trying to be respectful to everyone's concerns and "just put the Bible where I feel that it belongs." 

His feelings aside, I wonder about the choice. While Bible publishing may be a multi-million- dollar industry," the healthcare industry in Tennessee is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Maybe the state's official book should be the manual on how to read an insurance claim form?

A researcher asked groups of voters to imagine that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party were each one person, and to identify the characteristics each of those people would have, or, as he put it, to “pretend that the attributes you associate with the Republican party were encapsulated in one person.”

• Five independents and one Democrat defined the Republican Party 'person' using these terms: Stubborn, Conservative, Unreliable, Selfish, Greedy, Ultra-capitalist, Closed-minded, Ultra-religious, Anti-immigrant, and Hypocritical.
• Three Republicans, two independents, and one libertarian used these terms: Fiercely loyal, Fiscally conservative, Responsible, Egotistical, More extreme, Rudderless, Narcissistic, Controlling, Elitist, Fearful, Passionate, Inconsistent, and Divided.

The same groups were asked to define the Democratic Party 'person.'

• The first group used these terms: Community-minded, Humanitarian, Open-minded, Fun, Caring, Globally aware, Accepting of other humans, Diverse in interests, Racially/gender diverse, Futuristic.
• And the second group? Stereotyping, Critical of ideas/of things they don’t like, Underdogs/Uncomfortable in the majority, Empathetic, Patronizing, Hypocritical, Messiah-complex, Utopian-driven, Spend a lot/not fiscally conservative,

I don't see any revelations there, but I do wonder about the Republican-Independent-Libertarian group being so harsh on their own party, and what that will mean going into the next election cycle.

Speaking of the next election cycle, C-SPAN is kicking off the "Road to the White House 2024" this Friday, with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talking up the Westside Conservative Club in Iowa. Whether Pompeo gets to run or not depends on whether The Former Guy decides to run again. With that decision seeming to be on hold until after next year's midterms, everyone else interested in running is forced to get out in front of voters - or at this point, are they just donors?  I also wonder who else will jump into the early fray.

And speaking of elections, how horrible must it be in Israel, I wonder? Yesterday's election apparently has resulted in another no-winner decision, for the fourth time in two years, if the exit polls are right. I can't even imagine having to go through that - it's hard enough having to put up with the mid-terms here. And if those polls are right, there'll be a fifth election later this year. 

Finally, news is breaking that New York's Senate, Assembly, and the Sonofa Gov have agreed to legalize adult recreational marijuana. I haven't seen the bill yet, but it was reported that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said getting this done is "essential" to the state's social and economic well-being - and by that, he means the 9% state sales tax is essential. Some local governments can tack on an additional 4% sales tax. There's more - a whole nother hunk of burning bureaucracy to manage the weed, and fights over what to do with the tax money, naturally. I'm not wondering about all of that - that's the New York way, adding taxes and layers of bureaucracy, and fighting about all of it. 

Well, what am I wondering about? How do I go about getting "Don't Bogart That Joint" installed as our new state song? I respect the folks who picked "I Love New York," our current state song, but I just want to put this song where I feel it belongs. 

What are you wondering about?

Sunday School 3/21/21

 We'll start your Sunday School tonight with Martha Raddatz and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) on This Week. Chu was the first Chinese-American Congresswoman, and is chair of the Congressional Asia Pacific American Caucus. 

Chu "strongly believes" the shootings in Atlanta which killed eight, including six women of Asian descent. She's not at all convinced the shooter has a sex addiction problem; as she said

This is a 21-year-old white male who chose, as his first victim, a business that was called Young's Asian Massage. Then he drove for 27 miles to another spot where he hit two more Asian spas. If his only problem was sex addiction, then he could have had his choice in those 27 miles of any place that he could have gone to. But, no, he specifically went to those Asian spas...

She spoke of the high legal bar - that investigators will have to find someone who's heard the shooter use an anti-Asian slur - but in her mind, "and in the minds of many, this is an anti-Asian hate crime." She also pointed out that some of the people who might have heard him say something could be among the victims.

Raddatz asked her to talk about two bills, the NO HATE Act and the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act would have the DOJ appoint someone to track anti-Asian hate crimes, make sure they're prosecuted, and provide prosecution guidelines. The NO HATE Act would tackle "our very flawed hate crimes system," including the undercounting that she says happens, give resources to law enforcement, and provide oversight. 

How flawed is the reporting? Chu said "18 states don't even track such data. Three states don't even have a hate crime statute in the law."

Next, let's turn to Face the Nation and Margaret Brennan, who talked with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. She started with COVID and whether he's confident there's not another wave coming.

Oh, COVID makes you never confident, but hope really hangs on the horizon. I haven't felt this optimism in 12 months... 

He said if LA was a state, they'd have the second-lowest positivity rate, and he thinks California has the third-lowest positivity rate. He believes the variants Brennan asked about may have "burned through Los Angeles" back in December. And they've been cautious reopening, "with the lessons learned," but

it's time to get things moving. It's time to get our economy started. It's time to start hugging our loved ones again. And certainly, that comes from getting a vaccine. 

Garcetti disputed Brennan's comment that he said he "can't meet the president's target of May 1st opening up all vaccinations" because he's not getting enough supply.

What I've said is, you give us more and we have double the capacity today. So, I look forward to when those deliveries come in for us to be able to do that. And I think cities across our country, mayors have been very clear, are the right places to add more vaccines.. I'll keep saying that especially when cities are larger sometimes than most states. We're larger than 23 states. LA County is larger than 45 states. Give us more, we'll get them into arms.

He also said he's talked with Gov. Gavin Newsom about getting vaccines where the most vulnerable populations are; 40% are now targeted in those areas.  They're using mobile teams, getting vaccines to people at home, and working with community organizations to get the vaccines into arms.

But I look forward to when the federal regulations release our handcuffs and allow us to target anybody in a hotspot. I think that is probably two or three weeks away... that'll allow us, if there is anything that comes up quickly, go into the geography of a neighborhood, knock it down before it spreads throughout a city. 

Responding to Brennan's question about him having to send $150 million back to the police, money he had "reprogrammed" after Black Lives Matter protests last year, he said she was framing it wrong. 

We know that things like hate crimes need both a police response and education, a reporting mechanism, civilians and community-based groups that can help be the eyes and ears. And we have no tolerance for this hate here in Los Angeles, a great city filled with folks of Asian-American and Pacific Islander descent. 

He also said that they have "more patrols this year," and that they're "making investments in the human side of this to make sure community organizations are well-funded, too."

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) was also in Brennan's classroom. She was asked about FBI Director Chris Wray's comment that, so far anyway, it doesn't look like the shooting in Atlanta were racially motivated. Duckworth says she wants 

a deeper investigation into whether or not these shootings and other similar crimes are racially motivated. It looks racially motivated to me, but I'm not, you know, I'm- I'm not a police officer. I'm not investigating the crimes.

She did send a letter to Wray and to AG Merrick Garland asking for that deeper investigation. 

We know that crimes against Asian-Americans that have been categorized as hate crimes have increased by over 150% in our nation's major cities. That's over 3,800 additional crimes last year. But we also know that many of these crimes go underreported as hate crimes and are just classified as a mugging or harassment or vandalism when really, they were targeted at Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in particular.

Duckworth said these are often not reported as hate crimes "because people just don't see Asian-Americans as a minority group that gets attacked on a regular basis." She and her family know that's not the case - it does happen on a regular basis And she's concerned about the commoditization of Asian women, who "have this stereotype against them that they are weak and submissive, and they've become over-sexualized." 

Finally, Duckworth said that they don't yet have any Republicans signing on to the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.

And it's astonishing to me. I mean, the House passed a bill that actually condemns - was a resolution against hate crimes against Asian-Americans tied to COVID. And, you know, we had actually Republicans who voted against it. And Mitch McConnell at the time, because Republicans were in charge, wouldn't even let us vote on it in the Senate. I mean, how- where can you be that you would not be willing to vote on a bill that would condemn violence against any group of Americans?

It's a great question - and the answer, sadly, is that we aren't willing to do that for the same reason that we have an All Lives Matter response to the Black Lives Matter movement. It's who we are, whether we like it or not.

See you around campus. And if you went to Florida for Spring Break, I sure hope you're quarantining before you come back into my classroom.

In Case You Missed it (v78)

Time for a cuppa and a recap of the week that was March 14th - 20th. 

It's rare that we start with something other than Sunday School, but that's what happened on Sunday, the first two-fer of the week. 

I offered up a Noodling Around post on how the people we elect seem to be working their agenda, not our agenda, and how that messes up opportunities for bipartisanship. Here's part of the post that sets the stage for what's coming this week in Part Two.

The folks at Pew Research did a poll last summer, the results of which are shown here, to see what issues registered voters thought were "very important to their vote" in the 2020 election. 

Looking at the chart, I can't help thinking how most of the issues could have been identified by people from both parties, and from the officially unaffiliated middle, which is where you'll find me. And while we don't know why these issues are very important, we know that they are, and that there's a lot of common ground here; nine of the twelve garnered at least 50% mention.

More to come on this one. 

For your Sunday School, I focused on the classroom discussions about my Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo. Jake Tapper, host of 'State of the Union' on CNN, offered some commentary at the end of the show; here's an excerpt.

Tapper had a lot to say, including that Cuomo is entitled to due process. Still, he said,

By now he has to know there is a chasm between how he perceives how he talks to women on his staff and how some of those women perceive it, as in some of them perceive it not only as inappropriate but as pressure to sleep with him...Only he knows what other names and incidents might come forward as he digs in. One wonders if that is even a remote consideration.

The last two sentences are even more important now, given the news we got at the end of the week.

Staying on the Sonofa Gov, Monday was another two-fer. First, I had a Sidebar countering one of the key classroom proclamations: that Cuomo should resign, because that New Yorkers want him to. A Siena College Research Institute poll suggests that the people of NY aren't as keen on him resign as the politicians of NY are.

In a survey of 805 registered New York State voters, 57 percent said they were satisfied with how Mr. Cuomo had addressed the allegations, while 32 percent said they were not. Fifty percent said he should not resign, while 35 percent said he should. Nearly half said they believed he could continue to do his job effectively as governor, with 34 percent saying he could not.

The Sunday School Extra Credit post, on the non-Cuomo stuff, included excerpts from Stacey Abrams and Chuck Todd's conversation about the boatload of anti-voting legislation around the country, including in her home state of Georgia. They also talked about HR 1, the House's 'For the People Act,' that the Senate will take up soon.

She said "the whole of our democracy" needs to be defended and protected, and that 

the Senate has to believe it has the responsibility and the ability to act. And that is why my focus is on making certain that the exemption to the filibuster be the necessary front and center conversation, so we can get something done to protect our democracy.

She doesn't think much of the bills in Georgia, as you'll see in the post. 

Next up? A Poll Watch on that SRCI survey; again, I focused on the non-Cuomo stuff (although I did recap those highlights at well.) Among the findings? 

• Upstaters show higher favorability ratings for both the Assembly (42%) and Senate (44%) than I expected; Independents (35% and 36%, respectively) are less happy with both chambers. 
• Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins have extraordinarily high Don't Know/No Opinion ratings (71% and 68% respectively), given they're not new in their roles. That may have to do with them being in Cuomo's shadow, until recently.

Five posts before we hit mid-week? Maybe that's why your Wondering on Wednesday took a different turn - because it surely did. Here's how the post started.

Today, we're playing a fill-in-the-blank version of our wondering game. You're free to complete the answers any way you want. 

1. Someone suggested Meghan Markle might run for president in 2024. I wonder, will this really make Former Guy more likely to _______?
2. I wonder how many people have learned a new skill, such as _________, since the pandemic was declared a year ago this week?

I'll publish my answers to the questions this week. And I'm still open to yours, if you want to share.

Thursday's Meanwhile Back in Albany addressed the struggles and missteps the NYS Assembly's having trying to get an investigation of Cuomo off the ground, and whether it was an impeachment investigation or just an investigation. It's the latter, I guess.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee's investigation "will focus on three different things: the seven women who have accused the governor of assault, the nursing home deaths and the mounting questions about" the Mario Cuomo Bridge project. As one Assembly member said, “He’s got three major buckets of shit going on here,” referring to Cuomo. 

An apt description, I'd say. 

Friday was the third two-fer of the week. First, I dropped Democratic Overreach: HR 1 Edition. As Stacey Abrams pointed out, the voting rights stuff is a big darn deal - but that's not all the House put in HR 1. There's SO MUCH STUFF in the bill, which is at least partly why it passed without a single Republican's support. Here's my take on that.

Are the ethics, oversight, and transparency provisions important? Of course they are, from an overarching, lofty goal perspective. Should we be concerned about political appointees, lobbyists, and foreign influence? Of course we should be. 

But do those have the same immediate impact as do admittedly partisan restrictions and limitations on voting? 

My answer's in the post. 

We closed the week with a TGIF  that meandered around some fun subjects, including this one, about a house fire in Wisconsin.

An investigation determined the fire started on a couch in the living room and the cause of the fire was determined to be from a glass "crystal ball" ornament. The crystal ball had been located on a table near the couch and in direct sunlight. When sunshine came through a large set of windows and through the glass ball, it ignited the couch.

It seems some things should be kept under wraps and out of direct sunlight, including "crystals, mirrors, glass ornaments, and even bottles."

There's at least one other thing mentioned in the post that should be kept under wraps. You'll know it when you see it, I'm sure. 

That's a wrap on your week in review - I'll see you later for Sunday School. 

TGIF 3/19/21

Here's your random recap of good weeks and bad weeks. Note that all of this isn't from this week, but it's recent stuff. I'll let you figure out who goes where.

One Republican Congressman from Texas voted in favor of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and no one was more shocked than the man himself, Rep. Lance Gooden. In a since-deleted tweet, Gooden clarified that he 

accidentally pressed the wrong voting button and realized it too late. I have changed the official record to reflect my opposition to the partisan George Floyd Policing Act.

Sticking with issues about police, a recent USA Today/Ipsos poll shows that only 18% of Americans support "defunding the police," but 43% support re-allocating police funding to social services, proving the point that words matter - especially when you're trying to sell a country on a fairly new - and potentially beneficial - concept.

People have said that the pandemic made everything different. Apparently, that applies to dating preferences, too.

• A new poll from Dating.com revealed that only 15% of the website's members prefer a "Barbie- or Ken-like" body type, while nearly 75% said they're fans of the "dad bod" - a less chiseled figure, if you will. Not only that, but guys who think they have a dad bod are adding #dadbod to their profiles.
• All that preference stuff aside, 38% of members say they've joined a gym to get in shape - but haven't started working out yet, while more than 70% of the site's say they're working out already, with summer just around the corner. 

My brain's getting a workout on that math, I think. And something else entirely is getting a workout with this next item - here's the eye-catching headline:

You'll never wash your pants again if this pioneering US company has its way

That's right - the company, HercLéon, sells underwear with the name Kribi, made from bamboo, eucalyptus, beechwood, and copper, and says it doesn't really need to be washed, just aired out every now and then. 

Whether you're planning on going for an all-day hike, weekend camping trips, or even just going to the gym and then the bar to grab drinks with friends; your Kribi underwear will keep you feeling fresh & smelling good.

I'm reminded of the old, Gee, your hair smells terrific! commercials, and I'm not happy about that. 

A couple of numbers for you, starting with a report from CNN on robocalls. If you think you're getting more of them lately, you're right. February's robocall volume was up 15% from January - over 4.6 billion calls were made, or more than 159 million of the annoying things a day. That's the highest in a year, and we're on track to exceed 51.5 billion robocalls this year. And, in case you were wondering. your car's extended warranty is about to expire, or may already have expired. 

If you're tempted to grab your crystal ball and see if there's a way you can avoid future robocalls, a word of caution. According to the fire department in Delton, WI a homeowner's crystal ball started a fire that caused over $250,000 in damage.

Shortly after 4:00PM on the day of the fire, the owner arrived home, discovered thick smoke throughout the house, and immediately called 911. An investigation determined the fire started on a couch in the living room and the cause of the fire was determined to be from a glass "crystal ball" ornament. The crystal ball had been located on a table near the couch and in direct sunlight. When sunshine came through a large set of windows and through the glass ball, it ignited the couch.

It seems some things should be kept under wraps and out of direct sunlight, including "crystals, mirrors, glass ornaments, and even bottles."

No word on whether that's necessary for your Kribis, but I'd consider it, just in case.

TGIF, everyone.

Democratic Overreach: HR 1 Edition

I mentioned in this week's Sunday School Extra Credit post that I agreed with Wyoming's Sen. John Barrasso when he said

You know, we have a 50/50 Senate. That's what the American people sent to Washington with the vice president breaking the tie. You know, George, that ought to be a mandate to move to the middle. So we ought to do things that actually can get broad, bipartisan support... 

He's right: we should focus on what's critical, not on trying to cram through laundry lists of stuff that are, at best, remotely related to the issue at hand. And that's what happened with HR-1, the For the People Act; it's an 800-page behemoth of a bill being sold as a voting rights package. 

Several provisions apply to people who don't even get elected, to people who are already in office - and, let's be clear, to preventing another Donald Trump presidency. The voting rights provisions would be a heavy lift on their own, but with the add-ons, chances are slim to none that this'll pass the Senate without a VP tie-breaker or a filibuster change. 

Folks at the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice, who support the bill, say the bill "...would make it easier to vote in federal elections, end congressional gerrymandering, overhaul federal campaign finance laws, increase safeguards against foreign interference, strengthen government ethics rules, and more." 

The voting-related provisions have a lot of value - and some overreach, too. (Info below links to the Brennan Center's exhaustive summary.)

Title I — Election Access This title aims to modernize voter registration and take other steps to improve voting access in federal elections. 

Title II — Election Integrity This title would address restoration of the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and several other pressing voting rights issues, and also seeks to curb partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts. 

Title III — Election Security This title aims to improve the security of U.S. election infrastructure to counter the threat of foreign interference.

Here are several sections of the bill that aren't related to voting rights.

Title IV — Campaign Finance Transparency The provisions in this title aim to increase campaign finance transparency, deter corruption, and prevent foreign money from infiltrating U.S. elections.

Title V — Campaign Finance Empowerment The provisions in this title aim to counter the harmful effects of Citizens United v. FEC and related court decisions by empowering small donors and taking other steps to help working- and middle-class candidates run for office. 

Title VI — Campaign Finance Oversight This title aims to improve the administration and enforcement of campaign finance rules and take other steps to counter corruption. 

Title VII — Ethical Standards This title would, among other things, require new ethical standards for Supreme Court justices and presidential appointees, bolster enforcement of rules governing foreign agents operating in the United States, and strengthen lobbying disclosure rules. 

Title VIII — Ethics Reforms for the President, Vice President, and Federal Officers and Employees This title would create a variety of new ethics requirements for executive branch officials, including the president and vice president, and bolster enforcement of ethics rules in the executive branch. 

Title IX — Congressional Ethics Reform This title addresses legislative branch ethics.

Title X — Presidential and Vice Presidential Tax Transparency This title would require sitting presidents, vice presidents, and major-party candidates for those offices to disclose their tax returns. 

Are the ethics, oversight, and transparency provisions important? Of course they are, from an overarching, lofty goal perspective. Should we be concerned about political appointees, lobbyists, and foreign influence? Of course we should be. 

But do those have the same immediate impact as do admittedly partisan restrictions and limitations on voting? 

Of course they don't. And, with some 250 voting-related bills under consideration around the country, we should be much more focused on the latter. When we get the voting stuff straightened out, let's pick what's next, and go after that.