Among the folks making the Sunday School rounds was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Where the Dead Things Are); he chatted with Dana Perino on Fox News Sunday. They talked about Ukraine, and things on the home front, and about the upcoming midterm election.
He suggested that the Biden administration "just can't seem to get their act together on the economy," but that's only part of why "the American people are so down on the president."
The economy, the precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the domestic energy issue we've already been discussing, crime, problems in public education, this administration has really got its hands full and I think they're headed toward a pretty good beating in the fall election.
And if the Rs retake the majorities in the House and Senate, all those issues will be part of the agenda, as will increasing military spending; Biden's current request "doesn't even keep up with inflation." And, McConnell said, "We've got a war going on in Ukraine."
Some of those things he mentioned were discussed in other classrooms as well.
For your Sunday School Extra Credit, I sat in on a couple of the panel discussions, including the one on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, with Jon Karl hosting. The endorsements being handed out by the Former Guy garnered some attention, including the recent glowing recommendation of Dr. Oz for Senate in PA. Trump said that being on television is "kind of like a poll" and Oz was on for a long time, so people must like him. Rick Klein (ABC News) and Laura Barron-Lopez (Politico) chimed in on that.
After the laughter subsided, they got down to the nitty gritty: the fact that it seems Trump is endorsing "candidates that don't appear to be on track to win," including Oz. Klein says it's "totally fascinating" that Trump's putting himself on the line, and that, "in a bunch of cases, it could blow up in his face." A notable example? Trump's efforts to get rid of Georgia's governor and secretary of state.
So, this is a big moment, I think, for Donald Trump. I think the conventional wisdom about him is this kingmaker, as the biggest force in the Republican Party. It's going to be tested when you have actual Republican primary voters in a range of states, starting next month.
Barron-Lopez said none of this means he has lost his grip on the party,
because we see Republicans, time and time again, repeating, whether it's the big lie, or repeating, you know, other claims and attempts to try to change election laws in -- in states, in order to make it so Republicans have a better edge in future elections. So that's continuing. That isn't going anywhere.
And that's pretty much the way it goes with the Former Guy, right? They need him, and they feed him, all the while not really knowing how things are going to end up.
I was Wondering on Wednesday about elections, and election security, and goofballs - and that was just this one entry.
Lauren Boebert, who represents a couple of people somewhere, I guess, wondered out loud about the recent election in France.
The socialist nation of France held elections today.
In that election there was no mail-in voting, early voting, or use of voting machines.
There was a mandatory proof of ID to vote.
Why can’t we get that basic election security here?
I wonder if she's figured out yet that we can't do here what they do there, because (a) we're not a socialist nation, (b) we don't have one set of election rules that everyone must follow, (c) we don't have automatic voter registration, and (d) she doesn't want us to be or have any of those things?
I was grumpy on Thursday when I did this Sidebar on how we allow folks - the talking heads, for sure, but they're not the only ones - to just toss stuff out there, unchallenged, and how easy it is to find information to refute what they say. A case in point was the panel discussion on Fox News Sunday, where Brit Hume opined that the Biden administration needed to "throw open the regulatory barriers" and that would allow oil companies to increase production here in the US.
If we did that, he said, we could supply countries in Western Europe with energy to make up for what they're not going to be getting anymore from Russia. And that would "cut off the flow of Western funds into Vladimir Putin's war chest." Perino said Hume's answer "makes sense to me. We'll see if it makes sense to them going forward."
Of course, it makes sense to Perino and Hume: if we're cutting regulations, everything will be fine, right? Well, no; what Hume's selling, the oil industry isn't buying.
Here's where it gets interesting; there's this great reporting from Freightwaves.com, which covered CERAWeek (emphasis added).
Even as Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was using the platform of a major energy industry conference to call on the nation’s oil producers to ramp up production, what was being said during other sessions made clear that was not likely to happen.
And there was a lot more from CERAWeek, which "has been described by the Financial times as the 'Davos of energy,' and by Politico as the "industry's Super Bowl," among other accolades - so it's not a bunch of people like me making stuff up - it's experts who disagree with what the pundits are throwing out there. And boy, I wish it would stop.
I did a total 'good week' TGIF - it seemed like something we could all use. Here's one example.
Moving on, we've got a nine-year-old fashion designer. Kaia Aragon, a third-grader, designs and sews her own clothes, after being taught to sew by her mom when she was five. You can see her designs via a link in the article; she shares them on her mom's TikTok page.
Now, as a person who had to finish her junior high sewing project during the summer break, in order to avoid taking an incomplete, I can't even comprehend how Kaia does what she does. My project? A denim skirt, in case you were wondering. Which I'm pretty sure I never wore, but at least I finished the darn thing. In August. Ugh.
That's all I had for last week. I'll see you tomorrow for a recap of the Sunday School classrooms.
If you're celebrating Easter, Passover, or Ramadan, I wish you the blessings of your holiday.
If you're celebrating spring, or colored eggs, bunnies, and chocolate, or family time, or simply enjoying a quiet Sunday, I extend blessings to you as well.
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