Wondering on Wednesday 3/8/23

 

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Let's dive right into the wonderment, shall we? 

If you've followed me for a while, here or elsewhere on social media, you know I'm a frequent critic of media folks and publications. I don't pretend I can do their jobs better than they do; I just sometimes wish they did their jobs a little better. 

And that's how I felt reading this AP article about a "surreal Twitter exchange" between an employee and chief twit Elon Musk.

Haraldur Thorleifsson, who until recently was employed at Twitter, logged in to his computer last Sunday to do some work — only to find himself locked out, along with 200 others. 

After several days of not hearing from the company whether or not he had been fired, Thorleifsson decided that publicly engaging Musk might get him the information he was looking for. 

Eventually, he got his answer after a surreal Twitter exchange with Musk, who proceeded to quiz him about his work, question his disability and need for accommodations (Thorleifsson, who goes by “Halli,” has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair) and tweet that Thorleifsson has a “prominent, active Twitter account and is wealthy” and the “reason he confronted me in public was to get a big payout.” While the exchange was going on, Thorleifsson said he received an email that he was no longer employed.

There's more to the story, and the article covers it all. Here's what I'm wondering: why write an article about a Twitter exchange, surreal or otherwise, and not include a link to the tweets? 

News is out that Walmart is closing its last two Portland, OR stores.

The closures come after Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said in 2022 that record-breaking retail theft has hit the company’s economic performance and could lead to store closures. “Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been,” McMillion said, adding that “prices will be higher and/or stores will close” if authorities don’t crack down on shoplifting crimes.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems kind of obvious to wonder whether the company considered hiring security guards instead of greeters and employing cashiers instead of leaving it up to customers to do the work.

NY's Gov. Kathy Hochul has put forward changes to our state's bail reform law. A key change? Getting rid of  "the so-called 'least restrictive' standard for judges when considering bail." 

It's going to be a battle with her own party; "Democratic leaders have called for ways to address underlying issues surrounding crime, such as poverty, housing, and mental health," while Hochul is looking to make the law itself fairer. 

It depends on the judge and the political leanings or the philosophical leanings, or the judicial leanings of a judge versus looking at commonsense, commonly accepted criteria.

I can't help wondering why so many Dems disagree with her. After all, they're among the first to complain when people 'judge shop' to find a friendly ear for redistricting or gun control cases. Surely, the Dems know that alleged criminals don't have that chance. 

There are probably a couple million folks talking about the spate of 'anti' bills introduced by Republican legislators around the country.

One, in Florida, would ban the use of pronouns "that do not correspond with [a] person’s sex." The guy who submitted the bill said it

would enshrine the “God-given” responsibility of parents to raise their children... The bill also protects students and teachers from being forced to use language that would violate their personal convictions.

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I have to wonder why we need laws designed to disregard the God-given responsibility of parents who are respectfully raising their children, and to violate the personal convictions and identities of others. 

Tennessee is trying to out-Florida Florida. A bill passed this week would 

require paid drag performers to get a permit before they can take the stage, and would specifically prevent minors from attending their shows...

I didn't have to spend a lot of time wondering how soon drag performers would start acting for free just to be able to host a show without having to go through the permitting process? And it's fun to think about the 'small government, anti-regulation' folks having the tables turned on them, isn't it?

And speaking of protecting minors, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that America's Youngest Governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R- AR), just signed a bill "loosening child labor protections" in her state. 

Under the law, the Youth Hiring Act of 2023, children under 16 do not have to obtain permission from the Division of Labor to get a job. They will no longer need to get an employment certificate, which verified their age, described their work and work schedule, and included written consent from a parent or guardian. Sanders signed the bill into law on Tuesday.

Why was this bill necessary, you might be wondering? Because requiring a permit 

had placed an "arbitrary burden on parents" who needed government permission for their child to get a job. 

If you follow all of this kid-protecting stuff, coming from the same basic political idea gene pool, you're doing better than I want to do.

What are you wondering about tonight?

Sunday School 5/1/22

Lots happening in yesterday's classrooms, including multiple appearances by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. I'll address those in your Extra Credit.

For Sunday School, we'll listen in on a Congressman, a Governor, and a Senator, which is where we'll start. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chatted with What's-His-Name on Meet the Press, who asked if we needed to change our posture if the Russia expands beyond Ukraine into Moldova. Menendez said it wasn't going to "change our calculus" about direct engagement.

We need to keep our eye on the ball. And that is about helping Ukraine and Ukrainians ultimately be able to defeat the butcher of Moscow. And if we do that, the world will be safer... and others who are looking at what is happening in Ukraine will have to think twice. 

And, whether there's "a limit in how much support we're going to give" Ukraine, Menendez thinks we'll do whatever it takes, because it's not just about Ukraine. 

If Ukraine does not win, if Putin can ultimately not only succeed in the Donbass but then be emboldened maybe to go further, if he strikes a country under NATO, under our treaty obligations with NATO, then we would be directly engaged.

Stopping that from happening is critical, Menendez says,

so that we don't have to send our sons and daughters into battle. And I think that ability not to have to send our sons and daughters into battle is priceless.

Moving down the hall to the State of the Union classroom, Dana Bash talked with term-limited Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), who said that the lack of growth in the last quarter, coupled with other issues, could be a sign of a coming recession.

Whenever you have high inflationary pressures, whenever you have interest rates going up to slow the economy down, these are stressors on it. You add that to the supply chain woes that we have, we have got challenges...this administration needs to address those. And they need to do it quickly.

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 said his approach is different. 

... we're looking at not providing more relief, but trying to return more of what we're collecting in terms of taxes back to the taxpayers. That will help them. And it's a more long-term solution as well.

Here are his thoughts on other hot topics. 

• Kevin McCarthy (R-So What if I'm a Liar? I'm YOUR Liar!) will have some work to do if the Rs win and he wants to be Speaker. Hutchinson, a former Congressman, said "it all depends upon who the alternative is" when asked if he would vote for McCarthy if he had the chance.

• He feels the "tone has changed" in the GOP, from where people stood right after the insurrection to where they are now; he believes "that's an error." It won't be helpful for the folks who have "diminished the significance of that event," when we start having public hearings on it this summer.

• He thinks Disney handled the "Don't Say Gay" bill situation "very poorly." And, while he thinks we shouldn't be "teaching sexual orientation" in the lower grades, he doesn't buy into the government being "punitive against private businesses because we disagree with them." It's fine to debate special tax deals, but going after businesses is principled Republican behavior. 

And, the big question, "Are you seriously considering running for president?" He said yes, "that's an option that's on the table."

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.

Finally, a recap of a Face the Nation conversation Margaret Brennan had with Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Stands for REAL Republican) about the January 6th Committee, and more.

• He expects we'll hear new information once the public hearings get under way. He made it clear the DOJ will make decisions on the legality of things; it'll be up to us "to take the work (the Committee has) done and decide what they want to do with it or what they want to believe after that."

• He'd love to talk to everyone they've asked to testify, but didn't offer anything specific on additional subpoenas, calling that "both a strategic, tactical decision and a question of whether or not, you know, we can do that and get the information in time." 

• If some of the, um, interesting candidates Trump has endorsed end up winning, he agrees "it would be a sign" of Trump's continued hold on the party (Brennan used the term "still the leader and kingmaker within the party"). 

• He said his organization, Country1st.com, is focused on "playing in some of those primaries to bring at least reasonable people to the forefront" and encouraging people - particularly if they're in a guaranteed red district -  to vote (and vote against the Trump people, of course).

• He also reminded us of Trump's tactics: "If somebody starts falling behind in the polls, he always finds a reason to un-endorse them, because he doesn't like having a losing track record." That's important to keep an eye on.

• He supports the $33B Ukrainian aid package, and hopes it'll pass. He's introduced an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) which would give President Biden "congressional leverage or permission to use it if WMDs, nuclear, biological or chemical are used in Ukraine." He said "also, it is a deterrent to Vladimir Putin." 

The all-Mayorkas Extra Credit should be fun - look for that later.

See you around campus.

Sunday School Extra Credit 4/12/20

I wanted to drop in on a couple of the other virtual classrooms, starting with Margaret Brennan' and Scott Gottlieb on Face the Nation.  Gottlieb is the former FDA commish, and I had his interview with Chuck Todd in yesterday's Sunday School if you want to compare the two.

Brennan wondered who should be responsible for testing in advance of any 'reopening' effort. Gottlieb said it would likely have to be the states, particularly the contract tracing to identify people who may have been infected. He said Wuhan had 1800 five-person teams - 9000 people - handling the process, but that CDC only has about 600 deployed across the country.

The states are supplementing that, but the states need to increase their resources now. The feds are gonna have a hard time pulsing their resources in the throes of this crisis... and a lot of it's going to be on the governors. 

Gottlieb reminded us that contact tracing is "sort of the bread and butter of public health work." He thinks that businesses will have to think about compensation, paid leave and whatnot for people who are forced to by the government to self-quarantine. And,

the government might actually want to pay those people to give them an incentive to step forward, because if it's seen as punitive, if it's seen that when you get COVID-19, you're going to be forced to self-isolate for two weeks, you're going to miss work and you're going to be out of money, then people aren't going to want to step forward and get diagnosed. 

He also said he doesn't think "anyone's optimized really right now" to handle a rolling reopening, and he acknowledged the pressure not just on the administration, but on governors as well. Gottlieb expects a "slow reopening" through May, which could include older people staying home longer, under-staffing shifts, limited face to face meetings, and so on - decisions that will likely fall to local politicians and governors.

He sees only "marginal utility and impact" from serology tests, and thinks there'll be around 2% immunity in the general population, versus the 30% or more some people are anticipating. And, he doesn't think this is a good time to defund the WHO, but he also believes that WHO accepting and sharing what China was saying, which was not truthful, slowed the global response.

I think going forward, the WHO needs to commit to an after action report that specifically examines what China did or didn't tell the world and how that stymied the global response to this.

And he called on the organization to welcome Taiwan into the fold. 

Moving over to CNN's State of the Union virtual classroom, Jake Tapper had three governors visiting: Phil Murphy (D-NJ), Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), and Michelle Lujan Griffin (D-NM). I'll take them in that order. 

Here's Murphy on the anticipated May 1st reopening: There's "a sequence here" he said, that includes "a health care recovery, a health recovery first, and then the economic recovery."

And I fear, if we open up too early, and we have not sufficiently made that health recovery and cracked the back of this virus, that we could be pouring gasoline on the fire, even inadvertently...

He also said it has to be a regional thing, agreeing with my Sonofa Gov on that.

...  in this respect, whether it's testing, contact tracing, the rules of the road such that you don't have -- you don't have unintended consequences or you get a different set of policies on one side of the Hudson vs. the other, or one side of the Delaware River in our case or the other, is, we need to do this regionally.

On whether he could have acted sooner, or if any of them could have acted sooner? There's always an urge to second guess, and it's a fair thing to do on something like this. He'd like to see a national, bipartisan commission, similar to the 9/11 Commission, as well as state-level reviews.  

The woulda, shoulda, coulda deserves a -- an important focus. Right now, again, the house is on fire. We got to put the fire in the house out, and then we got to begin to get back on our feet. And then, at that point, we have to look back and say, what could we have done differently?

Moving across the country, here's Hutchinson on whether other governors were wrong to have done statewide stay-at-home orders (Arkansas is one of the few states that didn't). 

No, not at all. It just reflects the flexibility a state needs. I applaud that New Jersey and New York, they've had to really lock down. They have a high density population. But we have less density in our population here in Arkansas. And I think we can take this targeted approach, which has proven to be effective.

He thinks they're "beating that trend line" and said there's "a lot of hope and optimism this Easter that our tough time is behind and we're going to be getting better." He also said "no such thing as a true lockdown."

You're going to have, if we put a shelter-in-place order today, tomorrow we would have 700,000 Arkansans that will be going out on the streets going to work. The most important message is that you wear your mask, you do your social distancing and the people of Arkansas have embraced that.... 

He said he assured Tony Fauci that he'd do more, if they needed to, but feels his targeted, long-term approach, is working, even when Tapper cited the data showing one case and zero deaths a month ago to over 1200 cases and at least 25 deaths now. Hutchinson said that's still more than 1000 cases short of projections, and only 80 people are in the hospital, in a state with 8000 hospital beds available. He also said some counties in neighboring states that have more cases than the entire state of Arkansas.

They talked about religious gatherings, which are OK as long as attendees practice social/physical distancing at church, even thought Hutchinson has been "discouraging" large religious gatherings. Hutchinson said there wouldn't be any action taken against people who don't follow the guidelines, but there would be a "very specific directive" and a discussion with any church where there was an outbreak.

So just virtually all of the churches in Arkansas are following the guidelines very carefully. They're just as concerned about their parishioners as I am as governor... and I expect everybody to make sure they follow those social distancing guidelines and not gather whenever you have a risk.

Finally, let's head to New Mexico, where Tapper asked the governor what she's do if the president makes the call for a May 1st reopening. Lujan Grisham said they'll make whatever decision safeguards New Mexicans, including first responders and healthcare workers. And the said there's a problem without having a national strategy.

This virus is blind to state borders. And if we had better national strategies... and universal testing and software-based contract tracing then we can really figure out when opening makes sense and we could actually start to do that in the country.

She said they're already looking at recovery options, but nothing going to happen "until that peak occurs and we're clear about not having hospitalizations and reducing the number of people that are positive every day in our surveillance and testing efforts."

Tapper asked about the tracking, using cellphone data, and about privacy concerns people might have and what kind of oversight there is. She said it's not state data or a state effort, it's whole-country aggregate data, which they're using to see where people are travelling and for how long and the data's being used to see if they need any additional social distancing guidelines. 

Next, they moved to the issue of communities of color being more impacted by the virus. Tapper noted that almost half of New Mexico's population is Hispanic; the governor added that another 6% of the population is Native American, with 23 distinct sovereign nations. She acknowledged

that the social determinants of health, poverty, lack of access to adequate shelter, food, health care, is an aspect that makes this virus and our efforts to combat it and provide productive treatment incredibly challenging.

And, in some cases, with the Native Americans populations, there are places where people don't have access to water and electricity, creating "unique challenges." And while she said the administration needs to do more, she echoed NJ's Gov Murphy on states working together

We're looking at a regional strategy to support the leadership of the Navajo nation between Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. We're putting out field hospitals, triage centers. And I will tell you that the pueblo nations in New Mexico have really looked at containment strategies for their community, and we're supporting that... we hope this not only slows the spread but gives us better support to the individuals living in these remote areas in New Mexico. 

They closed the conversation with Lujan Grisham denying that she wanted to be veep in a Biden administration.

I want to be the governor of New Mexico. I will do whatever it takes to support a Biden administration, and I'm looking forward to a federal administration that can do a national strategy in good times and in bad times both.

Aren't we all... 

See you around the virtual campus, with smiling faces and nice clean hands. Those'll get you real extra credit.