In Case You Missed it (v77)

It's 'grab your cuppa' time! Here's your recap of last week's posts, in case you missed anything.

We started the week with the most important man in the US Senate, West Virginia's Joe Manchin, who was in just about every possible Sunday School classroom. Heck, I think he even dropped in to some private schools; he was so busy he called Jake Tapper 'Chuck' on CNN's State of the Union.

Manchin was asked about comments made by Rep. AOC about the Senate dropping the minimum wage provision in the American Rescue Plan. He said he "respects her input," but has a different approach

Manchin respects her input, but takes a different approach, in part because they come from "two different areas of the country that have different social and cultural needs," and everyone needs to be respected..." He'd like to see a more collaborative approach on getting the minimum raised. He thinks it should be $11, based on the poverty guidelines, and that they can "do it very quickly too, within a couple of years" and then index it to inflation. 

It should be the respect to the dignity work always being above the minimum wage of what the guidelines for poverty is and being able to lift yourself way far above that by your skill sets and your determination. And that's all we're saying. And that's what we have been trying to.

Tapper also had one of the interviews in the Extra Credit post; he talked with Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who talked about relaxing the COVID restrictions in his state.

Reeves said the people who've been saying for a year to follow the data "now want me, when things are going down, to completely ignore the data." He said he's "less concerned about the number of cases and more concerned about our objective," which has never been to be virus-free. Rather, it's to "ensure we protect the integrity of our health care system" and that anyone who gets the virus gets good care.

There was more news about Former Guy and his squabbles with the Republican establishment, which I touched on in a Quick Take entry. After getting - and ignoring - a cease-and-desist order from Trump, the RNC took a firm stand. Yep - 

... the RNC will hold an event at Mar-a-Lago next month when it brings big donors to Florida, instead of at a hotel as originally scheduled. Trump will speak at the dinner, while others, including Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis (he came in second in the CPAC straw poll), and former Secretary of BS Mike Pompeo will speak at the hotel.

But there was more after that. It seems making money from the RNC is not enough - I cover it all in the post, but I'll give you one more snippet.

As one Twitter user noted, "this whole suicide pact could not be more explicit."

 What kind of Wondering on Wednesday was going on? Well, among other things,

The Pentagon approved having the National Guard protecting the Capitol until May 23rd, at the request of the acting leadership of the Capitol police. I'm on the side of legislators who work there in wondering why the need continues and how the date was chosen. I also have to wonder why they're not getting any intelligence briefings on why the need remains. Unless, of course, there are senators and representatives who have some bad stuff that got swept up in the cell phone data, and they can't be trusted with the intelligence? Could that be it, I wonder?

On Thursday, I did a #tbt of a Wondering on Wednesday from a year ago, which focused in part on the pandemic. 

Remember when the House held impeachment depositions in the SCIF - the secure, compartmentalized info filing cabinet, or whatever you call it? And how horrible that was? Well, I wonder why it is that, according to multiple sources who have spoken to Reuters, the administration is holding coronavirus meetings in a similar SCIF?

In the same post, we learned about "radical transparency" and how the Trump administration had "set the global standard" in handling the pandemic and protecting us. All of that seems even more absurd now than it did last March.

And before you know it, it was TGIF time. In addition to talking about Former Guy, and Reps. Matt Gaetz and Gym Jordan, I touched on talk that Geraldo Rivera and Matthew McConaughey might be considering getting into politics in Ohio and Texas, respectively. On the actor's potential run to replace Gov. Abbot, 

... some folks think that's ridiculous. Like this guy, offering his opinion to CNN.

Let me offer him some friendly advice from someone who has spent decades reporting on my state's government: stay out of Texas politics. McConaughey is exactly what the state does not need

 — someone with great talent in his chosen profession and no known experience in public office or politics. 

That's last week in review. I'll be back later with Sunday School, and more.