Wondering on Wednesday 6/30/21

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Let's dive in to today's wondering, shall we?

A Republican strategist on NPR suggested that because the Dems have only a five-vote majority in the House of Representatives as a whole, it would be grossly unfair to have a Select Committee on the 1/6 Insurrection with eight Democrats and five Republicans. And I wonder, if that consequence of the election is so unpalatable, why on earth didn't the R's jump at the chance to have an independent, 9/11-style commission? I mean, did they all get their Melania jackets from the dry cleaners at the same time?

Sticking with the House and the Select Committee, I wonder if any of the Rs that don't want an investigation have considered what Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) reportedly said - here's the meme that's making the rounds. 

I wonder, what's the argument against what he says? Either you want to know, because you think it was something other than what it appears to be, or you believe The Big Lie, and you don't want any more proof that it was supporters of Former Guy, just like it's been shown all along. Or, I guess, you're chicken and afraid of losing your job. 

Kinzinger, in a recent appearance on CNN, told Anderson Cooper, 

If people are willing, at a young age, to put their life on the line for this country, and we can't put our career on the line for the same thing, what's it worth? Why are you doing it, right? But if everybody just comes out and tells the truth, has differences of opinion or perspective, of course, we can fix this country. Short of that, we've got some trouble.

I wonder how many of his colleagues are willing to admit publicly they agree with him on that?

Speaking of 'we've got some trouble," we learned that South Dakota Gov. Kristy Noem, who might want to be Nikki Haley when she grows up, has promised to deploy her state's National Guard troops in Texas to help with border security. And, according to her spokesman, she's going to use private funds to "help alleviate the cost to South Dakota taxpayers."  The private funds are coming from a Trump-supporting used care billionaire from Tennessee, if that makes any sense at all.

And now, I'm wondering what would happen if say, Michigan's Gov. Gretchen Whitmer decided to send her state's National Guard to Texas to support asylum seekers crossing the border, and say it was Michael Bloomberg who was footing the bill. How'd that sit with everyone?

And are we going to see National Guard deployments up for bid on eBay and other auction sites, I wonder? Or Go Fund Me campaigns to send them to other states on a governor's whim? Think of all the money that could be separated from billionaires and used for defense. Or for The Wall. Anyone still have Steve Bannon on speed dial?

Speaking of Former Guy, he held a rally in Ohio the other day. and Amanda Uhle, a WaPo reporter, attended the rally out of her self-proclaimed inability to "stop probing Trump supporters, trying to understand exactly how they see the world and why they're not seeing it the way" she does. Speaking of his Ohio appearance, she wrote

This time, he was to be accompanied by all you might expect from an 88-degree evening at the Lorain County Fairgrounds — a dusty parking area, livestock stalls and creaky grandstands under the rich, dank odor of manure and surrounded by verdant fields. Air Force One would not be deployed. His lectern wouldn’t be adorned by the presidential seal. He’s not officially running for anything, even if all signs point to a bid in 2024. So, who would want to attend a Trump rally in 2021?

I almost stopped at "the rich, dank odor of manure" line - what could be more evocative of a Trump rally than that, I wondered? But I kept reading, and learned that the people who are attending now are the same people who attended his rallies before - he doesn't seem to have a new crowd, any more than he has a new message. I guess that's a good thing.

Finally, like most people, I've been following the story of the condo collapse in Florida. My heart aches for the families that have been forever changed by the tragedy, and for the community similarly forever changed

One thing I can't shake? Whether this, like so many other infrastructure collapses, was preventable, if only we had been paying attention. And paying attention from the very beginning, not just two or three years ago, or forty years later, or five or six months from now. 

Our appetite for building in coastal areas, on cliffs, in fire-prone forests, on fault lines, seems boundless, as does our appetite for ignoring potential signs of danger along the way, and for kicking the can down the road. 

We cringe, and duck, when we get an estimate on repairs, whether it's a condo or a bridge or a highway, and we don't act until the very last argument is made, literally dozens of times, and even then, half the time we make a temporary fix, as if the arguments will change when it comes time to pay the pipe. And pay we will, after a horrendous collapse, after people die, after families are forever changed by the tragedy, or even after a change in who holds the purse strings. 

And that's always the driver, right? Money up front to make growth happen; money in the middle to buy the view or the solitude or the speed to get from point A to point B; money on the back end to keep things standing (hopefully in time); and of course, money to distribute when our worst nightmares come to fruition.

I wonder about all of that, I do.

What are you wondering about?

Sunday School 6/20/21

 Today, two of my least favorite senators were in the classrooms: Lindsey Graham (R-Trump) who talked with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, and That Guy from Vermont, Bernie Sanders (I-'m Never Gonna Be a D), who chatted with Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union, which is where we'll start.

Bash set the stage this way: work continues trying to find a bipartisan agreement on infrastructure, while at the same time, TGFV, who's the Senate Budget Committee chair, is working towards a reconciliation bill that won't need any of the Rs. And, the $6T package (yep - that's trillion) has some of the big policy goals Dems favor, but the price tag is scaring some of them, too.

Bash asked TGFV if he had Biden's approval to go big - way big. He said that Biden's given them a "serious and comprehensive blueprint" of where they want to go, and while there's an admittedly important inclination to "get bogged down in numbers,"

we got to look at what the needs are of the American people, what's going on right now. And what is going on right now, obviously, as everybody knows, very rich are doing phenomenally well. Corporate profits are soaring. And yet we have -- in terms of real wages for working people, it's lower today than it was 48 years ago. Half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.

And then he ticked off the issues: childcare; housing; climate; paid medical leave; corporations not paying taxes; rich people not paying taxes.

So, all that the president is doing, all I am doing is taking a look at reality for working families, understand their needs have been ignored for decades. Now it is time to create good-paying jobs, millions of good- paying jobs, addressing health care, housing, infrastructure.

And about those Ds who are feeling queasy, is he willing to cut the price tag or edit the laundry list? He said the process is just beginning, and he plans on talking to everyone and trying to hammer things out, but again,

... I think that there is general agreement that the time is long overdue that we address many of the long-neglected problems facing the middle class and working class of this country.

TGFV does not support the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Bash noted. He said the bill "provides spending in some important areas," but the money is not adequate. He does think that raising taxes on wealthy people is ok, but that "raising the gas tax, or a fee on electric cares, or maybe privatization of infrastructure," which have been mentioned, are "bad ideas." He said he'd have to see how the bill is paid for, and added, again, the laundry list of his priorities which he clearly considers are everyone else's priorities.

And I can't help thinking, as I do every time he's interviewed, that he seems to forget that he lost - twice - to a less progressive candidate. And yet, he always seems to think that he's in the driver's seat. And if he's the one to kill a bipartisan infrastructure bill, he'll have proven that he's not president for a reason.

Down the hall, Chris Wallace asked Sen. Graham, one of the Group of 21 (10 Ds and 11 Rs) who have a $1T infrastructure plan, "how close are you to a deal with the White House? And what's the effective deadline for reaching an agreement?" Graham said that the group is willing to add more new money to the plan, whereas the previous group was not willing to do that. He also said that it's up to Biden, really.

...I am hopeful if the White House and Joe Biden stay involved, we can get there. I would just say this: President Biden, if you want an infrastructure deal of a trillion dollars, it's there for the taking. You just need to get involved and lead. 

Graham's thoughts on compromising on infrastructure with the Dems, knowing that they're seemingly willing to go forward unilaterally with the $6T behemoth spending plan? 

That could be very problematic. I'm going to sit down and talk with my colleagues. But $6 trillion being spent through reconciliation is more money than we spent to win World War II. Infrastructure to me is roads and bridges and ports -- and electrical vehicles are fine. I don't want to raise taxes to pay for it. 

Well, except for things like the federal gas tax, which he said hasn't been adjusted for inflation since the 90s. He's also OK with using unspent COVID money to fund an 'infrastructure bank' but Wallace didn't ask for details on that, or even on what that money was originally intended for in any of the COVID relief packages. And, Graham threw in the talking points that are required every time an R gets in front of a microphone.

And what they're calling infrastructure, the liberal left, to me, is not remotely related to what's traditionally been called infrastructure. It's just -- it's just a power grab by the Democratic Party in every area of our lives. 

Because affordable broadband and eldercare and whatnot didn't exist back in the day? Because investing in medical infrastructure for our aging population, or broadband for our poor children are just ways for the Dems to grab power? And adjusting a tax for inflation is a good idea, but fixing the minimum wage which is even older is a bad one? Who are these people?

Moving on to voting rights, Wallace asked Graham whether he'd support the Manchin plan, which is a heavily stripped-down version of SR-1, the For the People Act. Manchin's proposing making election day a holiday, at least 15 days of early voting, banning partisan gerrymandering, and requiring a voter ID. 

Graham doesn't "like the idea of taking the power to redistrict away from state legislators," because 

You're having people move from red -- blue states to red states. Under this proposal, you would have some kind of commission, redraw the new districts, and I don't like that. I want states where people are moving to have control over how to allocate new congressional seats. 

So, he's a no on the plan, just as he's a no on SR-1 

In my view, SR-1 is the biggest power grab in the history of the country. It mandates ballot harvesting, no voter ID. It does away with the states being able to redistrict when you have population shifts. And it's just a bad idea and it's a problem that most Republicans are not going to sign -- they're trying to fix a problem most Republicans have a different view of. 

Wallace did do some fact-checking on Graham's statements, but it didn't matter. And then, he asked if the Rs run the risk of the moderate Dems throwing in the towel on bipartisanship and joining calls to change the filibuster.

Graham says he hopes not, noting that the two parties are close on police reform, and on infrastructure as they discussed, and that he's willing to work with Manchin. He also said when the Rs had Former Guy and majorities in both the House and Senate, there were "a bunch of Democrats" willing to sign a letter protecting the filibuster. They're hiding somewhere now, Graham thinks, but he's adamant on one thing.

Never once did I go to Joe Manchin or any other Democrat and say, if you don't do some of the things I want, I'm going to agree with Trump to change the rules. I'm not going to be extorted here. I'm asking no more of my Democratic colleagues then I ask of myself. It was very unpleasant to be beat on every day by the president of the United States, President Trump, and his allies, to try to change the rules in the Senate to have their way. I said no because it's bad for the Senate. I hope these Democrats understand it's bad for the Senate to change the rules, and I don't want to be extorted. I've got to give two or three things before they will not change the rules. I don't like that at all. I didn't do that to them and I wish they would not do this to me. 

Unasked? 

• Why aren't more Rs willing to compromise? 
• Where is the Grim Reaper on all of this, encouraging his party to work together so that the rules could be protected? 
• Why are the Republican so against these proposals which have broad support conceptually, even if not broad support on the money? 
• Why, specifically, are the policies being proposed the wrong ones? Not the spending part, the policy part? How are these needs going to be met otherwise?

Sigh. See you around campus.

Wondering on Wednesday 6/9/21

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Lordy, there's a whole lot of stuff to wonder about this Wednesday, so let's dive in.

You've probably heard about the richest people in America - and by people, I mean the living, breathing kind, not the brick-and-mortar kind - who pay diddlysquat in federal income taxes, while the rest of us regular folks diligently pay our fair share.

The investigative journalists at Pro Publica have obtained IRS records for the richest Richie Richs in the country, and they're letting us in on a pretty poorly kept secret: the rich *are* different. Here's just a taste of what they've found about what they're calling the 'true tax rate' guys like Bezos, Bloomberg, Buffett and Musk pay, based on the taxes they paid each year compared to "how much Forbes estimated their wealth grew in that same time period." 

According to Forbes, those 25 people saw their worth rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018. They paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes in those five years, the IRS data shows...(which) amounts to a true tax rate of only 3.4%.

I don't know about you, but I'm certain My Sweet Baboo and I are paying way more than 3.4% as our 'fair share' and it feels really wrong that the billionaires are paying only that much on theirs. 

So here's what I'm wondering: why is it acceptable for extremely rich brick-and-mortar people (aka corporations) and their living, breathing founders and CEOs and what not to all pay zero or nearly zero in federal taxes.  

I also wonder why the Rs are adamant that raising taxes on either type of people is a non-starter. And yes, in case you're wondering, I wonder how this information got leaked, and how long it's going to take to find the leaker.

Have you run out and purchased a gun cabinet's worth of Swiss Army knives yet? If not, I wonder what on earth you're waiting for? According to the judge who struck down California's assault weapons ban, 

Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle.

I'm wondering also about all the people who said you shouldn't take a knife to a gun fight, and if our border patrol agents and TSA screeners are all armed with those 'perfect' red-handled homeland defense items.  

I'm also wondering about Florida Man Matt Gaetz, who shot down all the stuff the NRA has been saying for years about guns and hunting and target shooting and stuff. Here's Gaetz:

The Second Amendment is not about, it’s not about hunting, it’s not about recreation, it’s not about sports. The Second Amendment is about maintaining within the citizenry the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary. I hope it never does, but it sure is important to recognize the founding principles of this nation and to make sure that they are fully understood.

It appears Gaetz and the judge are on the same side of the gun issue, but not the same page, but that's not where the wondering is. Rather, I'm wondering how Gaetz pretends he hopes it doesn't become necessary to have an armed rebellion against the government, when we just had one six months ago? And when he's on the road with nutjob Marjorie Taylor Greene trumpeting support for the guy who was - and still is - the object of the insurrectionists' affection?

The Grim Reaper has spoken on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, saying that it's unnecessary.

The Supreme Court concluded that conditions that existed in 1965 no longer existed. So there’s no threat to the voting rights law. It’s against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of race already. And so I think it’s unnecessary.

I don't wonder so much about Senator McConnell's opposition to ensuring everyone has the right to vote; that's to be expected. I do wonder, though, what Sen. Joe Manchin thinks about this, since he said there are ten Rs who would go along with allowing debate on the bill. 

As always, there's more, but that's it for now. What are you wondering about?

The Update Desk: TGIF 6/4/21

In my TGIF entry for June 4th, I mentioned the Memorial Day celebration in Hudson, OH. 

Hudson is where a decorated veteran's remarks during the town's Memorial Day celebration were partially silenced by event organizers, and I compared the flap over a tweet sent by VP Kamala Harris two days before Memorial Day to what happened in Hudson on Memorial Day.

The same people, plus many others, aren't making a peep about this story, reported by the AP. 

Organizers of a Memorial Day ceremony turned off a speaker's microphone when the former US Army officer began talking about how freed Black slaves had honored fallen soldiers soon after the Civil War. 

That's right - when Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter (Ret.) decided to include that part in his speech, he did so because "he wanted to share the history of how Memorial Day originated." Sadly, the folks who organized the Ohio celebration Kemter spoke at, said "that part of the speech was not relevant to the program's theme of honoring the city's veterans."  Pretty easy to see who the good week guy is, and who they aren't, right? 

A quick review of news at the Update Desk show there has been significant fallout since then. According to Fox 8 News in Cleveland, the local American Legion, which sponsored the remembrance, is being suspended until it's officially closed, and at least two people have resigned.

Suzette Heller, Department Adjutant with the American Legion Department of Ohio, confirmed to the I-Team Friday that the one official involved in the event informed her he was resigning and that the Post is closing.  She added the commander of that Post is also resigning.

The resignations come less than 24 hours after the officials with the American Legion Department of Ohio started investigating Monday’s Memorial Day event.

American Legion of Ohio Commander Roger Friend on Thursday requested the resignation of two officers of Hudson American Legion Post 464 that organized the event. 

Friend also stated in a letter asking for the resignations that a full investigation and the charter of this post are pending with the Department Executive Board. 

The station also reported that the sound engineer refused to lower the volume on the mic, so one of the organizers did it. 

The organizers issued a statement, noting

It appeared that Mr. Kemter was making a distinction between Black soldiers and their families and white soldiers and their families before Memorial Day was created.

I'll note that even calling him 'Mr. Kemter' seems to be a slight, given that he's a retired Lt. Colonel, but maybe that's just me.

Not being sure of what racially charged comments the speaker might make, the volume was reduced on the microphone. The microphone volume was restored when he returned to the issue of remembering the men & women who have given their lives in defense of our great country. It was an attempt to avoid racial speech in a ceremony planned to honor our town’s fallen heroes. The speaker was not asked to stop. He gave his entire speech. While we acknowledge that the contributions of Black men and women in the military are often overlooked, the purpose of the 2021 Memorial Day Ceremony was to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and not to bring race into the discussion. We recognize the sacrifice of all men and women, regardless of the color of their skin.

It's interesting that the organizers suggest they didn't know what Kemter was going to say; after all, early reporting on the incident noted his speech was reviewed in advance and, while edits were suggested, Kemter didn't see the request in time to make changes.

You can read Lt. Col. Kemter's entire speech here. I've copied the renegade portion below. 

Today is Memorial Day. This is the day that we pay homage to all those who served in the military and didn’t come home. This is not Veterans Day, it’s not a celebration, it is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of our freedom.  

Memorial Day was born out of necessity. After the American Civil War, a battered United States was faced with the task of burying and honoring the 600,000 to 800,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who had died in the single bloodiest military conflict in American history. The first national commemoration of Memorial Day was held in Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1868, where both Union and Confederate soldiers were buried.

Several towns and cities across America claim to have observed their own earlier versions of Memorial Day or “Decoration Day” as early as 1866. (The earlier name is derived from the fact that decorating graves was and remains a central activity of Memorial Day.) But it wasn’t until a remarkable discovery in a dusty Harvard University archive the late 1990s that historians learned about a Memorial Day commemoration organized by a group of freed black slaves less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865.

But in recent years the origins of how and where Decoration Day began has sparked lively debate among historians, with some, including Yale historian David Blight, asserting the holiday is rooted in a moving ceremony held by freed slaves on May 1, 1865, at the tattered remnants of a Confederate prison camp at Charleston’s Washington Race Course and Jockey Club – today known as Hampton Park. The ceremony is believed to have included a parade of as many as 10,000 people, including 3,000 black schoolchildren singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body” while carrying armfuls of flowers to decorate the graves.

More importantly than whether Charleston’s Decoration Day was the first, is the attention Charleston’s black community paid to the nearly 260 Union troops who died at the site. For two weeks prior to the ceremony, former slaves and black workmen exhumed the soldiers’ remains from a hastily dug mass grave behind the race track’s grandstand and gave each soldier a proper burial. They also constructed a fence to protect the site with an archway at the entrance that read “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

The dead prisoners of war at the race track must have seemed especially worthy of honor to the former slaves. Just as the former slaves had, the dead prisoners had suffered imprisonment and mistreatment while held captive by white southerners.

Not surprisingly, many white southerners who had supported the Confederacy, including a large swath of white Charlestonians, did not feel compelled to spend a day decorating the graves of their former enemies. It was often the African American southerners who perpetuated the holiday in the years immediately following the Civil War.

African Americans across the South clearly helped shape the ceremony in its early years. Without African Americans the ceremonies would have had far fewer in attendance in many areas, thus making the holiday less significant.

My generation grew up listening to the famous radio personality Paul Harvey. Paul would say at the end of his broadcast, “And now you know the rest of the story." And now, you know the rest of the story about the origin of Memorial Day.

After the offending segment, Lt. Col. Kemter spoke about taking the oath when he joined the military; he called for recognition of Hudson's fallen, many of whom he knew; and he recited a poem about soldiers. All in all, it seems his remarks were more than appropriate, and more than worth telling.

It's unfortunate that people - worse, that American Legion members, for Pete's sake -decided to muzzle him in the first place.

Sunday School 6/6/21: Extra Credit

Let's dive in to the Extra Credit with Chuck Todd and his interviews with Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) on Meet the Press. Warner was first, and was asked about cybersecurity. To a large degree, he echoed the thoughts of Sen. Angus King (I-ME), who was featured in yesterday's Sunday School. And so did Blunt - there wasn't a lot new there. 

The conversation around Blunt's opposition to a January 6th commission was interesting. He said he was never in the "I'll support it if it's bipartisan" crowd; rather, he felt that "we know what we need to do here" and that a commission would slow that effort down. There's a two-committee bipartisan report coming out next week, and, "we, I think, are going to be happy - I think you're going to be really pleased with the report you see." 

Blunt is "concerned we're losing faith in the election system" and "it's important to have a bipartisan belief that the election system does what it's supposed to do," and he was "pleased to see" that Sen. Joe Manchin (??-WV) also thinks "we need to move forward on election reforms."

Blunt said he "really can't analyze" whether Former Guy believes the nonsense he spews, but says that he had the right to take it to court. The courts didn't buy the argument, 

and so, we moved forward, and we continue to move forward. I do think President Trump is an incredibly popular figure in our party, certainly a political figure in my state. I'd like to see him get focused on the 2022 elections. There are plenty of things for Republicans to be talking about besides the election process itself...

Boy, if this is how the Rs define moving forward, we're in a boatload of trouble if they regain the majorities in the midterms.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on Face the Nation with John Dickerson; cybersecurity came up there as well. She sees the international community pulling together to address the issue, including asking countries like Russia to provide intelligence and law enforcement support. It's a test, she says, to see how involved the governments might be with the criminals perpetrating the attacks.

On the insurrection and a commission, she says we "somehow need to look into" what happened, that "it was a terrible stain on our democracy," and that our "really terrific system...was tested on that day."

... And so, we have a tradition of these citizens, these elders, if you will, of the country to help us through times like this. The problem right now is there isn't enough trust in Washington to get this done in a way that everybody will- will trust the process. We do need to know what happened on January 6.

Dickerson pushed back, pointing out that the Rs blocked the commission. Rice said the problem is, there's not enough trust in Congress,

because we have constant discussions about how am I going to simply push you aside and do what I want to do. So let's just recognize that we are not in 2004 when the 9/11 Commission was constituted and worked and try to find a way to get to a set of answers about what happened on- on January 6th. I would prefer that this were not the case, but maybe we have to think about ways to do this outside of our electoral bodies.

And on how we teach American history, including the Tulsa Massacre, and the things that led to the civil rights movement, and yes, also American exceptionalism, Rice started her answer with this:

American history was in part shaped at its very beginning by this birth defect of slavery. Do I wish that the anti-slave forces had won out? Absolutely. But they didn't. And then we had after the Emancipation, we had a Reconstruction which gave way to Jim Crow.

She said she was eight before her family could go to a restaurant or to the movies, and she was 12 before she ever had a white classmate. 

So, yes, I know America's troubled past and that troubled past continues to have an impact going forward on how we see each other. When I hear the talk about structural racism, it really gives me pause and it gives me pause because it doesn't tell me what to do.

She's talking about things like medical outcomes for people of color vs. whites, which she said "clearly are still disproportionate." And how our education system "is really serving poor kids and minority kids very badly." And how minorities and the poor don't have the choice to move to a better district, with a better house, or go to private schools like people of means can.

I want kids to know about Tulsa. I also want them to know what that Black community did to overcome that horrible massacre. I want them to know about '63 in Birmingham, but I want them to know that the mayor of Birmingham today is a Black man who grew up in a poor community. So I want them to see the forward progress of America as well on these issues. And I want us as a country to do it together because I don't want this to be black against white, my weaponization of my identity against yours.  

Dickerson asked for clarification on structural racism, asking if it's "not that it doesn't exist, but that the term itself doesn't get you as far as you would like?" She said she's stopped using the term "because I don't know what it means anymore," and that it's become a barrier.

Do I think that there are impacts of race that are clear in American life? Absolutely. But, you know, the other problem with it is it sounds so big and impenetrable, as if we have to jettison the system somehow. And with all of its problems, having been all over the world and having seen how people deal with difference, I will tell you that America deals with difference better than any country I've ever visited. 

And that's at least the third time in a past couple of weeks that I've seen someone say that we're better than the rest of the world when it comes to this kind of stuff. And yet, I can't imagine Condi Rice saying that 'being better than some really awful people' is good enough for America - can you? 

See you around campus. And, by the way, I hope you're vaccinated.

Sunday School 6/6/21

And, we're back at it, plodding our way through the Sunday Shows. 

Let's start with John Dickerson and his chat with Sen. Joe Manchin (D, kinda - WV) on Face the Nation. Dickerson wasted no time, starting out by saying Dems, including President Biden, think Manchin is "standing in the way" of their agenda. Manchin disagreed, noting that everyone knows he's "always tried to work in a bipartisan way" and he said "Let's unite this country. We don't need to be divided any further."

To that end, he doesn't want Dems to go it alone, even if others in his party think Manchin is "basically putting all the negotiating leverage in the hands of" the ten Rs Biden needs to get past the filibuster. Rather, he says, they must "work within the framework," adding

There's been seven brave Republicans that have spoken out. They have voted, whether it be impeachment or the wrongdoings of the president, whether it be for a commission. We have to continue to keep striving to make sure that we can get to that ten. And that's why we're called the deliberate body. We keep working towards that goal. 

In the business world, we had 'analysis paralysis' getting in the way, and in the Manchin world, we have 'prohibitive deliberative' thinking getting in the way. Take voting rights.

Manchin said the For the People Act is way too big and has too much stuff in it that the Rs will never go along with. On the other hand, he said it's appropriate to work on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which he thinks "truly does protect the voting rights." It's good, but needs to be more bipartisan, and with Rs like Alaska's Sen. Lisa Murkowski on board, deliberating will make it better and something the Rs can vote for, too. 

Dickerson wondered, as do all the rest of us, why on earth the Rs would go along with anything that endangers the successes they've had at the state level implementing restrictive voting bills. 

Well, because, you see, it's like this.

John, they achieved what they've achieved before they won - thinking they had to make changes. Why in the world would they want to make changes that basically subvert- because I can tell you what goes around, comes around. It could be more damaging to them too. The bottom line is the fundamental purpose of- of our democracy is the freedom of our elections. If we can't come to an agreement on that, God help us, John. And someone's got to fight for this. And we've got to say, listen, the divided country that we're in today, the insurrection that we saw on January the 6th, if we don't try to heal that, if we don't make every effort and go beyond the call of duty, then what are we and who are we? We've been known to go around the world and promote democracy and observe other elections. What kind of credibility do you think we have in doing that today? So, I'm going to fight for this and I think the Republicans will fight for this and understand we must come together on a voting rights bill in a bipartisan way. You can't divide our country further by thinking you've given leeway to one or the other. 

Is it me, or is Manchin the Senate's Nero, fiddling around the margins of bipartisanship, while watching the "fundamental purpose of our democracy" go up in flames?

Down the hall in the CNN State of the Union classroom, Jake Tapper talked with Maine Senator Angus King, who's an Independent but maybe more a Dem than Manchin. King is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and he's also co-chair of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.

King thinks "we have been a cheap date" over the past decade or two, because we haven't really responded strongly to cyber attacks. Our adversaries need to know that "they will pay a price, there will be a cost" for attacking the US or our infrastructure, but "thus far, they haven't really felt that." And, he cautioned, "We keep getting wakeup calls, and we keep not waking up." The problem? Most of the risk - "85% or 90% of the target space," is in the private sector.

...  If one person at one desktop in the operations center of a pipeline system bites on a phishing e-mail or opens an attachment they shouldn't, then we're sunk. So, it's -- this is a -- it's a cliché to say all of government, but this is all of everybody has got to be in on this.

There may be a need for legislation to move things along. He says "we need essentially an entirely new relationship" between the feds and the private sector, even as he admits that talking about "the 'relationship between private sector and federal government' is an is kind of an oxymoron." Somehow, we must build trust.

Speaking of trust, King understands Biden's desire to have a "decent" relationship with Putin and Russia. That said, he's pretty sure they'll talk about cyber when they get together in ten days. And, we need them to crack down on bad guys within their borders, just as we would if "we had an international bank robbery outfit in Richmond, Virginia, that was robbing banks in Europe..." we'd be all over that, and he's right.

This interview, too, steered toward voting rights. King's been working on the For the People Act; it's in the Rules Committee, where he's a member. Tapper mentioned Sen. Manchin's lack of support, as well concerns of other Dems, both in the Senate and at the state level, that the bill goes too far. King agrees; he's made Schumer and Sen. Amy Klobuchar aware that there "are clearly some things" he thinks need to be negotiated.

 -- but the guts of it, Jake, is voting rights. It has a lot of other pieces. It has -- for example, it has public financing of elections. It has a lot of other pieces in it. But the important part for me is protecting voting rights. And I think that's becoming more urgent by the day, based upon what's going on around in the states.

King realizes, even if other people aren't talking about it as much, that changes that would allow a state legislature to "essentially overturn the results of an election" are extremely important. 

Remember, Raffensperger stood up in Georgia and said, no, we have certified these elections, the governor certified them. We're worried that -- or I'm worried that they're going to turn that over and say, OK, a Republican legislature can say, we think there was fraud in Fulton County, and, therefore, we're going to certify a different set of electors. That's really dangerous. 

Finally, Tapper asked him whether he believes the Republicans "negotiate in good faith or are just obstructionists. What are they doing today? Are they negotiating in good faith? Do you support eliminating the filibuster?" I love his answer:  "Well, it's kind of schizophrenic."

He pointed to some things that are being done in a bipartisan manner, such as a bill designed to "help us compete with China." He said those negotiations have been completely bipartisan, and while it stalled before the Memorial Day break, he's hopeful they can get it finalized.

But I was thinking about that bill... If the bill had had Joe Biden's name on it, we wouldn't even be talking about it, I don't think. I mean, it's -- that's sort of where we have gotten this.

The bill he's working on started with a conversation between Schumer and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), and is working "through regular order" with committees and amendments and whatnot.

But then, on other areas, it's been -- as you say, it's been pretty well stalled. I think the infrastructure bill is a good test, because, listen, there's not a lot of policy there. This is just numbers. It's helping the country. And we ought to be able to find a resolution on that. If we can't, that spells trouble. 

And is King ready to scrap the filibuster? 

Not in general. I'm very reluctant about it. But if it comes down to voting rights and the rights of Americans to go to the -- go to the polls and select their leaders vs. the filibuster, I will choose democracy.

That's where we're going to leave it. I'll have Condi Rice and maybe a couple more senators in tomorrow's Extra Credit. 

See you around campus. 

TGIF 6/4/21

Ah... Friday! My chance to pick the good week and bad week lists. It's always such fun, isn't it?

Let's start with me: I had a great week, at least in one respect: veritable pastiche has been around for twelve and a half years, while Former Guy's blog lasted barely a single month. Yay, me!

And speaking of Former Guy, he had a bad week, and not just because his blog slunk into the morass of failed Trump business ventures. It's been determined that his bans from Facebook and Instagram have been extended at least until January 2023. Never one to miss an opportunity to lash out at others, Former Guy responded in typical bullybluster fashion.

Facebook's ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our country can't take this abuse anymore!

And my favorite part? 

Next time in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business! More hamberders and covfefe for MEEEE!!!!!!!!!! 

OK, I made up the last sentence. But only the last sentence. 

Now those "plus many others" he mentioned? I have to assume he's referring to the Russians and Ukrainians and Iranians and the rest of the election interferers who were on his side, right? 

Economic prognosticators had another bad week; they (again) widely (again) missed the mark on their jobs projections. In May, the experts anticipated over a million jobs would have been added in April, but it turned out there were only 266K. For May, the experts were looking for around 650,000 (or even as high as 671,000), but only 559K were added. Which makes me wonder if meteorologists are now helping predict our key economic indicators are going?

Elected officials in Surry County, NC think they had a good week, but I think they had a bad week. The county banned Coke machines from government buildings, to let the soda company know that they aren't going to tolerate 'woke' corporations and their support for "the out-of-control cancel culture and bigoted leftist mob." By, you know, cancelling the corporation's machines. Sigh.

Here's what the Surry County Board of Supervisors said in a letter to the company: 

Citizens of Surry County and across America are growing increasingly tired of large multinational corporations and their CEOs pushing an increasingly intolerant, bigoted, left-wing, divisive political agenda on its customers.

The root of this? A statement from James Quincey, the Georgia-based soda giant's CEO, in response to the restrictive voting legislation passed in its home state. Among other things, he had the audacity to say in part, that 

Voting is a foundational right in America, and we have long championed efforts to make it easier to vote.

We want to be crystal clear and state unambiguously that we are disappointed in the outcome of the Georgia voting legislation...  our focus is now on supporting federal legislation that protects voting access and addresses voter suppression across the country. We all have a duty to protect everyone's right to vote, and we will continue to stand up for what is right in Georgia and across the US. 

Now, I don't find anyone who says that voting is a foundational right in America to be bigoted and divisive and worthy of cancellation. And by 'anyone' I mean both living, breathing people and those large, multinational corporate people. I reserve those words to describe the people who have submitted over 360 restrictive voting bills across the country this year, and to people like the officials in Surry County, plus many others. Kudos to Coca-Cola on this one, and a giant, over-ripe raspberry to the rest of them.

Don McGahn - remember him? After a two-year fight, McGahn finally had to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. I initially thought maybe this was a bad week for McGahn, but it probably was a relief to be able to tell people how hard Trump worked to obstruct justice. Since McGahn was limited to talking about stuff in the Mueller Report that was already public knowledge, I don't think anyone else got much out of it, we'll see. We can probably read any number of books written by Trump staffers and critics, plus many others, and learn just as much.  

Do you need a fix from Donny Jr, since Daddy's availability is limited? Well, have no fear - for as little as 20 bucks, you can hear directly from the heir to the Golden Toilet. Seriously!

Apparently, there's a service called Cameo, and lots of self-important people like these are out there, waiting to provide you a personal video message, or in some cases, DMs. 

• Junior’s squeeze, Kimberly Guilfoyle ($200 for video; $19.99 for DM)
• George Papadopoulos ($100/no DMs available)
• Tomi Lahren ($90/no DMs available)
• Corey Lewandowski ($70/DMs at a bargain price of $2.99. No word if punches are included or cost extra)
• Jacob Wohl ($50/no DMs available)
• Sebastian Gorka ($99 for video, no DMs available)
• Joe Arpaio ($30/no DMs available)

That's a full-blown bad week list right there, IMO. 

And finally, there was a big kerfuffle over a tweet sent by Vice President Kamala Harris two days before Memorial Day, in which all she said was "Enjoy the long weekend." That was too much for the Fox News/My Pillow crowd, plus many others, who went off on Harris, never mentioning that she issued a Memorial Day tweet - on Memorial Day. And that's something that many of the attackers didn't even bother to do themselves.

The same people, plus many others, aren't making a peep about this story, reported by the AP. 

Organizers of a Memorial Day ceremony turned off a speaker's microphone when the former US Army officer began talking about how freed Black slaves had honored fallen soldiers soon after the Civil War. 

That's right - when Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter (Ret.) decided to include that part in his speech, he did so because "he wanted to share the history of how Memorial Day originated." Sadly, the folks who organized the Ohio celebration Kemter spoke at, said "that part of the speech was not relevant to the program's theme of honoring the city's veterans."  Pretty easy to see who the good week guy is, and who they aren't, right? 

There's more, but this'll have to do. TGIF everyone - I hope your week was a good one. 

Random Thoughts 6/1/21

This is the first post I've managed to write in over three weeks. It's not for a lack of trying - I've spent quite a bit of time researching, outlining, and then deleting posts, feeling little compulsion - and less ability - to put thoughts to screen in any useful way.

The news of late is disheartening, disconcerting, and discouraging. My frustration level with the goings-on in various red states and with Republicans politicians is through the roof, and not being able to dump all of that out of my head has been interfering with my mental health.

Fortunately, I've had ample time in my garden over the past several weeks, which has been my saving grace. Weeding, planting, transplanting, deadheading, mulching and the like - the simple tasks - keep me moving forward. Major transitions in the garden - moving and installing structures, paths, and edging, allow me to prove to myself that I can finish things, and that my writing paralysis is not an all-encompassing inability to function.

And while I do get help from My Sweet Baboo now and then, my garden is 'my' garden, and it's up to me to make it work. I know that it does, because people regularly stop to check it out. I see smiling people, looking closely at different plants, pointing at flowers and what not, and I hear them talking, to themselves or whoever might be with them, about the garden.

If' I'm outside working, they'll call to me, and tell me how much they like the flowers, all the different plants, and how it makes them happy. They'll call me over to tell me they make a point to walk by at least once a week, to see what's new.

They tell me about their gardens, their mom's garden, their grandmother's garden. They ask for help, what to do with such-and-such a weed, or what the purple plants are, or that big bush over there, can they grow one of those, too? I've even been asked, more times than I can count, if I live in the house, or if I'm 'the gardener.' I smile and say it's both. They don't mention the weeds, and they don't see the long list of tasks I have yet to start, and that helps me smile, too.

There's room for everything in my garden. Bulbs, perennials, and annuals. Ground covers and vines. Trees and shrubs. Colorful flowers and glorious foliage. Aromatics and unscented blooms. Plants for all seasons, from very early spring to the last breath of fall. Plants that thrive in full sun, in full shade, and somewhere in between, which is where I thrive, too.

With all the hours I've been spending in the garden, I've come to the realization that I've been looking at Republicans all wrong. They're not evil people from the dark side, from some bizzaro world, a parallel America. Well, maybe they're that, but they're also gardeners. It's true.

Look at all the time they've spent - years, when you think about it - sowing seeds. Seeds of doubt. Seeds of hate. Seeds of fear. Seeds of anger. Seeds of rage. Seeds of control. Seeds of division. Seeds of conspiracy.

They're gardeners, carefully tending their crops, nurturing their harvest, and reaping the rewards.

They are passionate about ripping out plants that are the wrong color, the wrong zone, the wrong fill-in-the-blank. They are passionate about making sure they only nurture the right plants, the ones that will thrive under their particular care. Poor performers? Tossed. They cover their crops with manure, layers deep, and feed them a regular, stringent diet designed to achieve uniformity, nature be damned. And invasive species that dare set foot in the garden? The only method they know is a path of scorched-earth eradication. They've no patience with trying to understand, nurture or rehabilitate; no understanding that one man's weed is another man's flower.

They're gardeners. Just like me.

Except I'm growing love, sharing joy, spreading happiness. I've got the garden that a man told me he walks an extra mile with his dogs just so he can stop and look. I've got the garden that a woman just had to tell me about some flowers she saw a couple of streets over, and gave me the name of them because she thought they'd be a great addition to my collection.

Now, before you get your trowels and hoes all up in arms, I'm not throwing every single Republican onto the woodpile. That would be unfair, and I don't want to label them; I'd rather let them label themselves. Think back to Hillary Clinton's 'deplorables' comment. We've heard it a million times, but people forget she said half of Former Guy's supporters were deplorables - so if someone chose the label, they probably owned the label.

The same is true here. Are all Republicans the kind of gardeners who sow divisive, hateful seeds? Of course not, any more than all Democrats or non-affiliated people (that's what I am, these days) garden the way I do - hopefully, impulsively, inclusively, imperfectly. But if you do choose the label, if you are one of those deplorable Republican gardeners, I feel sorry for you.

If you're a Republican and you walk around your party's garden, and you see the goals and the methods and practices used to try and achieve them, I really wish you would ask the folks tending the garden why they have chosen to plant so much darkness and fear, so much anger and bitterness.

At the very least, I hope you know that there are other seeds your party could be sowing.