In Case You Missed it (v88)

I'm not sure why I was so busy last week, but I only managed three posts. Here's your week in review, in case you missed anything. And if I missed anything important last week, someone give me a heads up? Thanks!

For Sunday School, I dropped by three classrooms: Meet the Press, where Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) talked about COVID funding; Face the Nation, where Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) talked about the January 6th Committee, and State of the Union, where Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) talked about all kinds of fun stuff. Here's a bit of that. 

He said that cancelling student debt is a bad idea. Bash asked if doing that wouldn't be helpful to Arkansas families that are hurting now, even though he said his state is generally doing OK. 

Well, sure it'd be helpful to them. It would be helpful to cancel rent for them. It'd be helpful to pay all their utility bills. It'd be helpful to help on mortgage payments. But the question is, what is the right solution?

He also said that he's in the game for 2024, no matter what a certain orange-haired menace decides to do.

That's why he went to New Hampshire, and why he plans on being engaged this year in the national conversation, not just on the economy but on border security, going after the cartels, helping the states, and so on. And, what Trump does or doesn't do has no impact on Hutchinson. 

I have made it clear I think we ought to have a different direction in the future. And so, I'm not aligned with him on some of his endorsements, but also the direction he wants to take our country. I think he did a lot of good things for our country, but we need to go in a different direction. And so, that's not a factor in my decision-making process.

Also in the classrooms on Sunday? Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. His interview with  with Dana Bash in the State of the Union classroom, and one with What's-his-name on Meet the Press were featured in your Extra Credit. I wasn't that impressed, but I would have to give him an A+ for consistency, that's for sure.

He talked a lot about what's going to happen when Title 42 ends later this month, and he also talked about the latest free-for-the-asking talking point the Dems have put on the silver platter for the Republicans. I'm talking about the Disinformation Governance Board, or, as the GOP is calling it, The Ministry of Truth. Bash asked exactly what it'll do, and specifically if it will be monitoring Americans. On the latter, he said it will not be monitoring us, as it has no "operational authority or capability."

And so, what will it do? Well, after saying that they "probably could have done a better job of communicating" about the program, he delved into the whys and the whats.

So, what it does is, it works to ensure that the way in which we address threats, the connectivity between threats and acts of violence are addressed without infringing on free speech, protecting civil rights and civil liberties, the right of privacy. And the board, this working group, internal working group, will draw from best practices and communicate those best practices to the operators, because the board does not have operational authority.

...What it will do is gather together best practices in addressing the threat of disinformation from foreign state adversaries, from the cartels, and disseminate those best practices to the operators that have been executing in addressing this threat for years.

And, in response to What's-his-name's same general question?

So, we've set up essentially an internal working group. And I must say that we could have done a better job in communicating what it is and what it isn't. It's a working group that takes best practices with respect to our work that has been going on for years. Best practices on how to do that work, the work of addressing disinformation that presents a threat to the security of our country, how to do that work in a way that does not infringe on free speech, does not infringe on civil liberties. So, this working group takes best practices and disseminates those best practices to the operators.

He was bad; the interviewers were worse, I think, focusing on the stuff that doesn't matter much at all, other than for sound bites, and not asking hard questions about what the hell the administration's going to do about immigration - not because of the midterms, but because we need to do something about immigration... Of course, if anyone really cared about that, other than for the midterms, we'd be doing something. So a pox on all their House and Senate seats, or something.

Finally, I was Wondering on Wednesday about the leak heard 'round the world - and for a change, it wasn't anyone's January 6th texts. 

No, I'm talking about the Alito Draft, the "it probably shouldn't be released, except that we have to make sure the conservative justices toe the line, so we'll leak it and clutch our deeply rooted pearls and everyone on the Right will blame a clerk for one of the liberal justices, and that'll work for us too, so what the heck, drop the darn thing and let's sit back and watch" bombshell opinion eviscerating Roe and Casey and all of the other abortion-related cases of the past nearly 50 years.

I offered two quickly conceived and silly brain dumps of how it got out, because, as we know, wonderment and entertainment begin at conception and, on a more serious note, wondered

What else will fall? If the standard is things that are deeply rooted in our history, clearly additional attacks on voting rights will be affirmed, and encouraged.

Interracial marriage, and marriage equality, of course, are obvious targets. but there's more.

Another issue about which we can wonder? Can any of the alleged privacy protections in the Constitution actually protect women who want to use contraception? I mean, think about it. 

Our life expectancy is falling. 

The birth rate is falling. 

We're projected to be a minority-white country - by 2045.  

Is it really beyond our wildest imagination, I wonder, for some red-state pseudo-religious legislature to decide that what we need more than anything is more cute white babies, and act to make sure that happens by restricting access to contraception?

I know Alito said, in the draft, that this was just about abortion, but we know we can trust that about as far as we can throw him, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, or Coney Barrett.

That's all I had for you - hope your week was otherwise full. 

Happy Sunday, and Happy Mother's Day to those who celebrate.