In Case You Missed It (v62)

Let's dive in to the recap of last week's post, starting with Sunday School and Chuck Todd's interview with Mitt Romney. 

Among other things, Todd talked about the confusing logic with the thinking that only the presidential line on all of those ballots was rigged, but all of the down-ballot races, which saw Republican gains across the country, were not. 

Romney acknowledged the point, noting

I think you make an important point, which is a lot of Republicans, a lot of voters, voted for Republicans but did not vote for the president. And that suggests to me that conservative principles are still in the majority in our country.

He reiterated that, with a little more detail, when he said

...I think if you look at the numbers and look at the pickup that Republicans had in statehouses across the country, in Congress and holding the Senate so far, versus our loss in the presidency, you'd suggest that the presidential race was more a matter of a referendum on a person. And that when it came to policy, we did pretty well.

I agree with Mittens on that.

Moving on to last week's Extra Credit, I sat in on the panel discussion in the This Week classroom. Here are a couple of points, from Matthew Dowd, who worked on the Bush-Cheney campaign and is a commentator for ABC, and Chris Christie, former NJ gov and also a commentator for ABC. 

• Dowd, on what people were thinking: I'm tired of the chaos. I want calm. I really don't want to hear from the president every single day about every single thing. I think - a year and a half ago, somebody asked me what the slogan should be for a candidate running against Donald Trump and I said, Make America Boring Again.

• Christie, on how Rs are still sticking with Trump: I'm hoping that more Republicans more in the direction of saying, not that we don't support the president, he's been a friend of mine for 20 years, but friendship doesn't mean you're bling. Friendship means that you will listen to somebody, give them their opportunity, and if they don't come forward with the, with the proof, then it's time to move on.

More agreement with the Rs from me...

I offered a Quick Take on two groups of international observers of our election. One of them was from the Organization of American States (OAS), who spent some physical and virtual time across the country, including in battleground states. Among other things, they offered this in their preliminary report.

While the OAS Mission has not directly observed any serious irregularities that call into question the results so far, it supports the right of all contesting parties in an election, so seek redress before the competent legal authorities when they believe they have been wronged. It is critical however, that candidates act responsibly by presenting and arguing legitimate claims before the courts, not unsubstantiated or harmful speculation in the public media.

And, I agree with that as well. 

When it came to the Email of the Week post, I confess I wasn't as agreeable with a couple of the former rivals who offered post-election 'congratulatory' notes to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. For example, here's part of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's note; this came after her specific references to  what the Biden/Harris administration will bring to the White House and the country.

Warren, a capitalist, makes it boldly clear she's going to be staying in the game and pushing the Dems to not cave to lobbyists and big money.

Yes, our country is divided, but whenever they are asked, voters of both parties make it clear in overwhelming numbers that they don't want a government controlled by giant corporations and their lobbyists. In the past, steps to build unity and consensus in Washington have often meant turning over the keys to those corporations and lobbyists. We must resist this. 

The message I was looking for came via tweet, not email, from the democratic socialist in the race - That Guy from Vermont.  

And finally, the congratulatory note that I was most looking forward to? It wasn't in the form of an email, but rather in a tweet - but I'm still handing this one the coveted Email of the Week award. Not for what it says, but for what it doesn't. 

Unsurprisingly, I don't agree with TGFV on much at all. 

And then it was Friday and time for your TGIF fun and games - picking good-week and bad-week listers.  Which list would you put these folks on?

What else do we have today?  Oh -- Four Seasons Total Landscaping is selling shirts and stickers saying "Make American Rake Again" and "Lawn and Order," capitalizing on its new-found fame after hosting Rudy Giuliani's press conference the other day. Fun stuff, for sure -and good for them. No word yet on whether Rudy will make another appearance, maybe to autograph shirts to raise money for the president's legal fund. 

That's it -- your week in review. See you later for Sunday School.

Email of the Week 11/12/20

Even though the election was more than a week ago, the outcome was not projected until Saturday, putting it well within the seven-day window I use for the Email of the Week feature. 

That gave me a chance to look at messages from some of Joe Biden's primary challengers in trying to find this week's winner. For example, Tom Steyer sent me a note saying, in part,

We knew this was the biggest election of our lifetimes... This win was critical.

The vision and leadership that President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris projected was exactly the antidote needed to the divisiveness and recklessness of the last four years. The American people made it clear that we are ready to turn the page on Mr. Trump's disastrous presidency and tackle our climate crisis.

In addition to hitting on his pet issue, he also called out a key demographic: young voters, who he said "were a decisive part in delivering this win," and what that means.

We have a new electorate, a new president and a new hope for getting the bold, urgent, equitable economic recovery and climate leadership we need. 

Let's get to work.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar's email was short and to the point:

We can now say President-Elect and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris! The American people have spoken. This is a moment of major celebration but I also know that Joe and Kamala understand the major challenges ahead.

Joe Biden is going to be a president for everyone, not just the people who voted for him. We have to come together as a nation, and Joe Biden is the perfect person for this moment.

Thank you for standing with us.

 Also offering congratulations? Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

 It feels so good to say it: President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Warren noted that history was made in this election.

And for the very first time, we've elected a woman as our vice president. Millions of little girls who see themselves in Kamala will dream a little bigger tonight. 

After talking about how Biden and Harris will "bring decency and competence to the White House," she turned to our economic situation and the pandemic. "We have a mandate for action on bold plans," she said, and "we need structural change." And she's planning on staying in the game. 

Yes, our country is divided, but whenever they are asked, voters of both parties make it clear in overwhelming numbers that they don't want a government controlled by giant corporations and their lobbyists. In the past, steps to build unity and consensus in Washington have often meant turning over the keys to those corporations and lobbyists. We must resist this. 

In a nutshell, the Dems have got to walk the talk, and rise to the occasion.

Mayor Pete also reached out, looking to ensure that we stay in the fight, and that our wallets were, too, by donating to the Biden Fight Fund. And, contrary to what the Rs have been suggesting, the Ds are looking more broadly at votes.

We know not every vote that comes in from now until the end will be a vote for Joe, but we still believe that all votes should be counted. The hypocrisy we're seeing from Trump's allies across the country is telling - but we will do whatever it takes to ensure voters are protected and all valid votes are counted.

Hear, hear.  

And finally, the congratulatory note that I was most looking forward to? It wasn't in the form of an email, but rather in a tweet - but I'm still handing this one the coveted Email of the Week award. Not for what it says, but for what it doesn't. 

Now, don't get me wrong - I don't want greed and bigotry to rule the day, any more than Sanders does. But would it have killed him to actually offer congratulations to the people who won the election? Say their names, maybe, or say anything about them at all? 

Nah -- it's not about them, those winners, it's about us - the people who didn't win. It's about what we want, not what the people who voted want. 

As usual, color me unimpressed with That Guy from Vermont.

In Case You Missed It (v56)

It's a bit nippy out for hanging on the porch, but my cuppa's hot and so were last week's posts.  Here's your week in review.

In Sunday School, we heard from Ken Starr and Laurence Tribe, two constitutional law experts, on the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill RBG's seat on the Supreme Court.  While Starr thought going ahead with the nomination was fine, Tribe disagreed.

Tribe went first and said the nomination should have waited until we had the results of the election, and that "we've never, never jumped the gun this quickly" and that people are already voting. And he compared that to the 400 days with an open seat after the nomination of Merrick Garland. 

The idea that we need to rush ahead with a lifetime appointment, that as Judge Barrett herself would readily acknowledge will make a huge difference in the tilt of the court on health care, on women's reproductive rights, on voting rights, the idea that we can't wait a few days is ludicrous. There's no reason for it.

And, although he said he thinks quite well of Amy Coney Barrett, "the issue is not the nominee, it's the nomination." The Rs aren't willing to wait, Tribe said, because "they really are nervous about what the American people believe the Constitution means and what they believe should be represented on the Supreme Court." 

On Monday, My Sweet Baboo and I took one of our epic fall foliage tours - an 11-hour trip that did more for our mental health than anything else I can think of - so I didn't give you an Extra Credit post. On Tuesday though, it was a two-fer. 

First up, a post from January on Making Political Debates Better - something that we clearly need. The post recapped some of my thoughts, and added those of Greta Van Susteren, who shares my opinion that we do this really badly. And that was before Tuesday night's cage fight.  Among my ideas?

I would much rather hear real discussion on key topics, with 30 minutes or more set aside to have a real debate about the issues that matter. The candidates can be made aware of the topics in advance, but obviously not the questions, so everyone can be prepared for a robust discussion. That's right, a discussion - not an argument or dissection of resumes.

And here's a bit of what Van Susteren's thinking.

Presidential debates are supposed to provide voters with a better understanding of a candidate’s views and how he or she would likely govern. Of course, if you think the job of the president is to make short, snappy decisions without consulting others and without examining all the pros and cons, then the existing debate format probably suits you. If, on the other hand, you think the job of the president is problem-solving, then the debate ought to be exactly that — a problem-solving test.

... If we don’t want the Oval Office to operate like Twitter, why do we test our candidates as if it does?

 More people need to listen to Greta and me...

And, I offered some specific pre-debate thoughts in this post, including

The larger questions?  

Is anyone watching to learn, or just to have fun? 

Will either candidate even answer a question, much less answer it fully and factually? 

Will anyone actually talk about policy, or will it be just a bunch of malarkey? 

Will any votes change as a result of the debate? 

Will the debates encourage people to vote, or have them running screaming into the woods and far, far away from their polling places or mail-in ballots? 

Does anyone think there's really any value in having these darn things, anyway?

I think, after watching it, the fifth bullet is the likely winner, wouldn't you agree?

I did a post-debate edition of Wondering on Wednesday  which included thoughts like this one:

I saw a tweet last night suggesting that Latinos watching the debate on Telemundo thought that Trump won the debate. And that got me wondering what it must have been like being the translators and closed-captioners for the #CacophonyinCleveland - I picture it looking something like this: fkjg;h$(*Y lkjaoia4[ #$(*&#P$( )$5385-#$$^%(^(@*#pao48yp983y4t  -- and I hope I've not offended anyone with that effort. For all I know, I've typed a top secret Qanon password or something, and my fervent hope is that's not the case.

Thursday's review of emails from politicians did give us a clear winner for Email of the Week, which sometimes doesn't happen. There was a lot of fundraising stuff, given the end-of-quarter deadline on the 3oth, but one email stood out: one from Tom Steyer, the billionaire turned climate activist.  You can read the email in the post, but in a nutshell, 

For not asking me for money, for asking me to volunteer (even though I'm not a young person, which is the demographic NextGen America speaks to), for not taking his eyes off the prize - beating Donald Trump - and for staying true to his passion, dealing with climate change,  Steyer earns the coveted Email of the Week.

On Friday, I was looking for an old post on something - what I was looking for escapes me now, which often happens - but what I found was a year-old Poll Watch post on the leading candidates in the Dem primary, and the president. The post gave us the Not-so-good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Take a look.

The other takeaway from this question?  Approval of his policies is underwater by 10 points (54% don't approve, 44% do). And, this will pain Trump I'm sure, but his predecessors - Obama (64%), Bush II (57%), Clinton (55%) Bush I (78%), and Reagan (66%) were all better liked than he is. Data on Abraham Lincoln is not immediately available.

That, and the fact that all of them - the Dems and Trump - were under water on the positive to negative question. Which led me to offer this:

There's a lot the Dems can learn from this survey, I think, in terms of the depth of support, the lack of recognition for even the front-runners, and on why voters vote. The last thing the Dems want to do is choose a candidate who is 'less dislikeable' than Trump. 

Yep. The last thing they wanted to do...

Also on Friday, another two-fer from last week, we had our TGIF feature, which included a confession that, in private conversations, I behaved like the president when talking about the president and his positive COVID diagnosis. 

I don't wish him any harm, really - I want him out of office, that's a well-known fact - but I shouldn't be laughing at the karma or the fact that he brought this on himself by not doing the right thing, and about Melania having to quarantine with him, and other thoughts that, quite frankly, are representative of how HE treats people than the way that I like to treat people.  And I shared those thoughts with two of my most irreverent friends who, if they ever publish our text messages, will make true our surmisal that we're going to end up in hell. 

In thinking about the many and varied conspiracy theories surrounding this whole adventure happening at this particular time, I had to ask these questions:

And how horrible is it, that the president and his entire administration have lied to us so many times that those thoughts, or other similar ones, can actually be entertained by reasonable people?  How much trust have people lost in the president, the presidency, the White House?  And will we ever get that trust back again?

That we have to ask those questions is much worse than me laughing at a meme of Melania holding a shovel and...   Anyway. 

And finally, yesterday while meandering through posts, about the coronavirus pandemic, I stumbled on a Sidebar from back in March, where Donny Jr. had been complaining about people politicizing the virus, and where Mike Pence was asked to give a specific example of that. He pointed to a NY Times article, which I dissected to see what the heck he was talking about. 

So, what did the piece, with the headline "Let's Call it Trumpvirus," say? Let's take a look at what columnist Gail Collins, former editor of the Times' Op-Ed page, wrote.

On appointing Mike Pence to be head of the coronavirus task force: 

So, our Coronavirus Czar is going to be … Mike Pence. Feeling more secure? “I know full well the importance of presidential leadership,” the vice president said as soon as he was introduced in his new role. Totally qualified. First criterion for every job in this administration is capacity for praising the gloriousness of our commander in chief... 

In contrast, here's what the president had to say about appointing a similarly unqualified person to lead a pandemic effort. 

And here we are: appointing a person with no experience in the medical area and zero experience in infectious disease control: A TOTAL JOKE - and the president, who ignored not only his unskilled appointee to lead the task force, but all of the experts and all of the experience from around the world and across our country, is now sick with the disease.

It's up to you to decide if that's  "A TOTAL JOKE" or not. I'll keep my thoughts to myself, and my most irreverent friends. 

I'll be back later with your Sunday School. Keep your mask on, please. 

Email of the Week 10/1/20

Not unexpectedly, most of the political emails I received this week were all about the Benjamins - after all, yesterday was September 30th, and the end of the all important third-quarter fundraising period. 

A couple of the emails weren't just straight-out asks for donations. For example, Papa Joe spoke about the debate a little, as a preface for a $25 donation request, to "make this fund-raising hour huge"  and, of course, to meet the quarterly fund-raising goal. 

Here are Biden's quick thoughts on the debate:

Sue, I just stepped off the debate stage.

It was a real battle out there, but I hope I made you proud by calling out Donald Trump's lies and failures, and by letting the American people know what I - and everyone who is a part of this campaign - stand for.

And it goes on to talk about a 'debate night contest.' I must have missed that email, so I wasn't disappointed that I didn't get a phone call from Biden himself, which was the prize. There was also mention of the great fundraising that the debate inspired, and

...Sue, I'm serious. We're in this thing to win - together. 

And we're in it to win because American can't afford four more years of Donald Trump. It's time to build back better than we were before. 

I can't afford to give $25, but I'll still keep reading the emails. 

The other, more compelling debate-related email was from Tom Steyer, the billionaire activist who dropped out of the Democratic primary race on Sadie Hawkins Day. Take a look.

Susan,

 Last night's presidential debate was chaotic. Mr. Trump refused to follow the rules of a moderated discussion. He then spewed lie after lie - resulting in 90 minutes of desperate, incomprehensible bluster.

I was proud to watch Vice President Biden's thoughtful responses and detailed answers in spite of the mayhem all around him. He reminded us all of the very clear choice this election, between  a wannabe despot and a compassionate statesman.  

Thanks to you and the thousands of people who demanded climate coverage, we had the first direct question on climate change from a moderator in 20 years and the first sustained debate on climate ever. You did that.

And it couldn't be more important. While Trump strung together 17 lies about the climate crisis and continued his dangerous denial, Biden laid out his urgent, bold climate plan not only to deal with the crises we're facing right now, but to also address environmental justice and create millions of well-paying union jobs.

If you took anything away from last night's debate, let it be this: We must do everything in our power to elect Joe Biden.  Please sign up to volunteer with NextGen America today and help us build turnout for a Biden-Harris victory. 

Mr. Trump's dangerous comments were not limited to climate change. In addition to refusing to accept the election results, he refused to denounce white supremacists and gave orders to domestic terrorists to "stand by." These comments are not to be taken lightly.  

 If you took anything away from last night's debate, let it be this: We must do everything in our power to elect Joe Biden.  Please sign up to volunteer with NextGen America today and help us build turnout for a Biden-Harris victory. 

Thank yo for being in this fight. 

Tom 

For not asking me for money, for asking me to volunteer (even though I'm not a young person, which is the demographic NextGen America speaks to), for not taking his eyes off the prize - beating Donald Trump - and for staying true to his passion, dealing with climate change,  Steyer earns the coveted Email of the Week.

What's in your inbox?

In Case You Missed It (v54)

Grab your cuppa - here's your recap of last week's posts, in case you missed anything. 

Sunday School had me listening in on the MTP classroom for the second week in a row, and during my time there I learned that Ronna McDaniel not only wears a mask (although I couldn't find any pictures of her doing so - and there's at least one of the president wearing one, so she's pretty good at hiding), but that she had some extra N-95s hanging around that she and her family donated. And, that she's apparently unaware of what stimulus bills have been passed, and blissfully unaware of the president's lack of deal-making finesse.

Let's show the best of America. The president's willing to work with everyone. Why aren't Democrats passing a fourth stimulus bill? Why aren't they helping small businesses? Why aren't they working with this president? 

And, I learned from Peter Strzok (the real reason I dropped in) that the gang working on the FBI's Russia investigations had multiple arguments about whether the investigations were the right thing to do, but "conclusively, the concerns we had about Russia were merited and it was the appropriate thing to do to look into them." Strzok also pointed out that, given the facts, Trump "is surrounded by people who have a pervasive pattern of conduct with the Russians." And, he said, 

It is not without exaggeration that there is no president in modern history who has the same broad and deep connections to any foreign intel service, let alone a hostile government like Russia.

For last week's Sunday School Extra Credit we learned that "the fog of war" is the new mantra the White House Spin Doctors have cooked up to explain the president's mishandling of the pandemic. Here's a summary of just a piece of the conversation between Chris Wallace and Trump senior campaign advisor Steve Cortes.

He said what he means is that "it's very clear that the president, early on during the fog of biological war" (and I can't stop seeing an image of a guy with orange hair fighting off a fog of Agent Orange, or worse, a fog of sexually transmitted diseases - his own personal Vietnam, you'll recall), Trump decided to "reassure the American people. That he was going to be the kind of leader who convinces people that we can persevere through this epidemiological Pearl Harbor" and that meant he had to lie to us. (Cortes didn't actually say that last part, I did.) All of that added up to what he called "a record of superb management actually of the virus."

I'm in a fog just recalling the interview...

The first of two Sidebars last week spun off the Extra Credit post. Jake Tapper, bless his heart, attempted to interview Peter Navarro on CNN's SOTU. I didn't cover that - I can't deal with Navarro - but I did feature Tapper's remarks about China and Disney and the NBA and America's right to make a profit even in the face of that country's human rights violations. American first, and all. 

This summer two Uighur organizations lodged a complaint against the government of China at the International Criminal Court accusing the Chinese government of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity.

This is the government to whom the NBA is bowing and president Trump is giving approval and Disney is openly thanking.

After a horrible genocide, the Holocaust, the world came together and pledged never again, never again. The NBA, President Trump and the Walt Disney Company, they're making those words meaningless.

For our Email of the Week  I highlighted some snail mail my brother-in-law shared with me.  He gets all kinds of mail from the Republicans, not sure why, and passes them on to me in case I need to get riled up. The latest was from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the truth-telling former White House Press Secretary, right?  The email was all about getting word to the president about how important my BIL's voice was on a Stop Fake News petition, since he's, you know, a special patriot.

I for one, can't sit idly by any longer as the Democrats and their medial allies try to tear down our president, our Republican Party and our values with malicious smears and pervasive lies. Your name was forwarded to me as a strong pro-America patriot, so I am counting on you to join me. 

I was moved, I tell you. I was moved.  Moved enough to share, in the second Sidebar of the week, how much it appeared the Republicans were asking that the media no longer cover the president, after I removed a dozen or so words from her petition.

I'm not a Republican - heck, right now I'm not a registered anything, truth be told - but I've got to tell you, I'm practically giddy seeing Republicans all up in arms about the lies and the attacks (in which they've been complicit, as we all know - and they know, too).  

I mean, Trump has attacked them, and lied about them, and he's also attacked and lied about: 

And then I included over 50 bullets of the attacked and lied to and lied about. The Rs have a strong case here, they really do. 

For your TGIF, I was all over the map, starting with Trump buying votes in Florida by sending billions and billions of aid to Puerto Rico to help them recover from Hurricane Maria - you know, the one where he threw paper towels to suffering Americans?  And yes, this is vote-buying in Florida, because that's where so many Puerto Ricans went in 2017 when they ran out of paper towels. And of course, who could ignore this comment from the president?

I have to say, in a very nice way, a very respectful way - I'm the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico. Nobody even close.

There were also thoughts on the beleaguered folks at the CDC, and about the Big 10 deciding after all that, since they can rapid-test all of their players every day, they might as well rake in some money and play football after all, and  on the administration's fear of mask fraud.

As I was finishing Friday's post, news was breaking that Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - the #NotoriousRBG - had died. And that's what led to yesterday's post about consistency and hypocrisy. For your reading pleasure, I highlighted comments made by 15 current Republican senators about the importance of waiting to fill a vacant SCOTUS  seat during the last year of a president's term. We know where they stood when they were the ones who wanted the people to speak, and I'm pretty sure I know where they stand now that they are the ones who don't want to wait for the people to speak.  

For example, here's what Sen. Ted Cruz, himself apparently a potential justice candidate in Trump's eyes, had to say back in 2016 when Justice Scalia died. 

It has been 80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year... In an election year, we have a long tradition that a lame-duck president doesn't get to jam a Supreme Court nominee through on the very end. 

But long traditions, like long memories of someone calling your wife ugly and your father a presidential assassin, don't mean a thing when it comes to a SCOTUS swing, do they? 

I'll be back later with your Sunday School.

Email of the Week 9/17/20

Taking a slightly different approach this week, and featuring an actual piece of mail my brother-in-law received from none other than former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Sanders, you'll recall, was no stranger to spilling falsehoods from the podium during her tenure as Trump's mouthpiece, and she's more than happy to volunteer to share people's thoughts with the president, if they would only respond to her survey and make a donation to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), of course. 

Here are some excerpts from her letter:

Dear Fellow Patriot,

Enclosed, please find your STOP FAKE NEWS petition, which is prepared specifically for your signature.

It is vital you return your STOP FAKE NEWS petition right away, because the DC/New York "reporters" are totally out of control;

X  The New York Times prints articles with quotes from unnamed "sources" all attacking president Trump.

X  MSNBC lets unhinged liars like Congressman Adam Schiff go on TV and smear the president with ridiculous falsehoods; and

X CNN has entire panels of "experts" who spend all night telling made up stories to the American people about presidential "wrongdoing" that simply does not exist. 

I for one, can't sit idly by any longer as the Democrats and their medial allies try to tear down our president, our Republican Party and our values with malicious smears and pervasive lies. Your name was forwarded to me as a strong pro-America patriot, so I am counting on you to join me. 

Trust me, I know that the best way to handle these people is to constantly call out their ridiculous lies, slander and abuse, which they constantly level at our Commander-in-Chief simply because they hate him and they want him out of office.

***So please sign and return your STOP FAKE NEWS petition, which I will show to president Trump as a sign that the American people have his back and do not believe the lies being spewed on TV, online, and in print every day by left-wing radicals in the media.***

The letter went on for another page, talking about how important it was for a donation to be included, and for the Rs to hold the Senate, and did I mention, for a donation to be included? 

Here's what my brother-in-law was supposed to have returned to Ms. Sanders:

I can assure you that his 'best contribution" is a whopping zero dollars - as mine would be, and as would the contributions of most people I know. 

I'm thinking I have to  subscribe to emails from the former Trump mouthpiece - it sounds like it might be fun. Until I on her mailing list, I'll be happy with just awarding Sanders the snail mail version of the coveted Email of the Week. 

In Case You Missed It (v52)

Only five posts for you last week - took a couple of days off (one on purpose, one due to technology issues).  Here's your week in review.

Sunday School brought us a conversation with Trump's Wisconsin Senator, Ron Johnson, who apparently can't bring himself to say anything even remotely honest about his boss. And Dana Bash, on CNN's SOTU, pushed him pretty hard to do so, particularly on his tweets about Kenosha, which she said were "agitating and actively encouraging his supporters." She wondered if that's what Johnson wanted to see from the president.

But, Dana, there are people -- there are people agitating all over the place. And what we need to do is get control of the situation.

He kept talking about Wisconsin officials; she kept asking about the president, finally asking him ..."would you prefer that the president not tweet agitating comments and agitating ideas on his Twitter feed?"

Well, that's how you -- that's how you are typifying it. What we need to do is, we need to encourage an end to the violence and the rioting.

It's a cult - I swear it's a cult. And the penalty for speaking ill of the Grand Poo-bah or whatever they call him must be of the utmost severity. Also in a classroom? Kate Bedingfield, who's a key person on the Biden/Harris campaign. She, too, had a hard time answering a direct question. 

For your Extra Credit this week, we sat in on conversations with athlete/activists Etan Thomas and Sue Bird (with Chuck on MTP) and Nneka Ogwumike (with Dana Bash). Those conversations centered on how current and former professional athletes are getting involved with social justice issues. 

Both Bird and Ogwumike, who are WNBA players and leaders in the player's association, talked about how much support they have from the league, and that the players have been leaders in speaking out on issues. Here's how Ogwumike sees how they're able to leverage their fame for good.

And the platforms that we have, just as the politicians do, need to be used to effect change in our communities. And, as athletes, we would be discrediting our essence if we didn't use that platform for good and for change. Quite frankly, too, a lot of what we speak about, it shouldn't be political, but, unfortunately, the way that our country has kind of evolved, certain issues, certain human issues have become political.

Thomas gave a great illustration of the difference being supportive and enabling, something that the Poo-bah could benefit from hearing.

So, for instance, I love my baby Sierra. You know, that's my girl. But if baby Sierra came to me and said, "Daddy, I want to have chocolate chips for dinner," I wouldn't be supporting her by telling her that she can go have chocolate chips for dinner, you know what I mean? That's not supporting her.

And Trump and the right believe that you have to allow the police to do anything that they want to do and then that equals supporting them... Applauding someone and saying, "Everything that you do is wonderful" is not supporting them. It's actually enabling them. And, you know, so I would say Trump is actually acting more anti-police than what he's claiming to be.

Too bad this will have fallen on deaf ears, right?

I tossed a Knock Knock post out there this week, wondering about Dems and their purity tests (never a perceived sexual predator or sexually indiscreet person shall you be) and their whole 'are we progressives or are we traditionalists' conflict.  On the latter, the answer is yes, we are progressives AND we are traditionalists, as least this cycle, at least in Massachusetts.

A Kennedy lost a statewide race for the first time ever, even though Joe Kennedy III is young, and progressive. Those two things, and his family name, were not enough to allow him to unseat 70-something progressive Ed Markey, who had the support of AOC.  In the other race, the one with the perceived sexually indiscreet young progressive, the battle went to the 70-something traditional Rep. Richard Neal, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.  Fickle Dems? Principled Dems? Not sure.

Thursday's Email of the Week was from a politician, former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who through his massive charity is going to be donating millions - 100 of them, actually - to historically black medical schools over the next four years.

This funding will allow the schools to provide scholarships up to $100,000 to nearly every medical student currently enrolled and receiving financial aid.

These four schools tend to have higher graduation rates of Black students than medical schools overall -- in part because increasing diversity in medicine and offering medical services for communities most in need are ingrained in their mission, so they provide more support to help students overcome obstacles and graduate.

Good stuff - the kind of thing real billionaires do with their money - and what real billionaires do with their charities (you get the drift, I'm sure.)

And, back to normal for our TGIF post after spending the last two weeks publishing the acceptance speeches of Biden-Harris and Trump-Pence, I shared coverage of the very different visits to Kenosha made by Trump the Agitator and Biden the Listener, and the president's bizarre tale about a plane full of looters and rioters and vandals, dressed in black, and six people who were generally like a seventh who told the story... confused yet?  There's more confusion to that one I can assure you. 

And I couldn't resist talking about Trump's bizarre claim about Joe Biden "abandoning" Scranton PA... it's a big deal for the president, it is -- he mentions it frequently, as shown in the example below of the president getting all of this straightened out for Pennsylvanians.

He keeps talking about, ‘I was born in Scranton. I lived in Scranton.’ Yeah, for a few years, and then he left for another state. You know the state. But this Scranton stuff. That’s why I figured I’d come here and explain to you one thing. But I think you people know it better than I do. He left! He abandoned Pennsylvania. He abandoned Scranton.

Yep -- he sure as heck did. When he was 10. And his family moved to Delaware. Because all 10-year-0lds have the power to keep their families from moving, right? And didn't the president just abandon his home town, his state, too? Hypocrisy much, Donny?

After the conventions, it was kind of nice to slow down for a bit, but I'm expecting this week to take off again. Hope you stick around for the ride.

I'll be back later with today's Sunday School.

Email of the Week (v22)

Somehow, I managed to get unsubscribed from all of the Biden-Harris team emails - no more Team Joe, Joe Biden, Joseph R. Biden, Biden 2020, Kamala Harris, Biden-Harris 2020, and so on. 

I suspect it was due to neglect - I admit I haven't been all that responsive to the emails - but with nothing new for the past several days, it's been pretty quiet in my politics inbox.

I did get an email from Papa Joe's camp touting my popularity. In case you didn't know, I was a hot commodity for a minute there, and here's who let me know that: Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Khizr Khan, Carole King, Symone Sanders, Jill Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Tammy Duckworth, and Biden himself.

They wanted my money, of course - although, according to an email I got today from Ballotpedia, the Biden-Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee together raised a whopping $365,000,000 in August - far exceeding the previous record of $193,000,000 raised in September 2008 by the Obama/DNC combo.

I did get an email that I thought was interesting, and while it came from a former presidential candidate, it had nothing to do with the campaign.  Take a look.

Friend,

 

Racial disparities within our communities are a matter of life and death, and COVID-19, which has had a disproportionate and devastating impact on Black people across the country, is a stark example -- and a call to action.

The effects of inequity were present well before the pandemic, and they show up across a range of health outcomes for Black Americans, from higher infant mortality to higher death rates from cancer and heart disease. And these health inequalities contribute to wealth inequalities -- and vice-versa. It is a debilitating cycle that we must confront head-on.

Today, I joined the Presidents and Deans of four Historically Black Medical Schools to announce an initiative to take on these connected challenges. Bloomberg Philanthropies is committing $100 million over the next four years to America's four Historically Black Medical Schools -- Meharry Medical College, Howard University College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. This funding will allow the schools to provide scholarships up to $100,000 to nearly every medical student currently enrolled and receiving financial aid.

These four schools tend to have higher graduation rates of Black students than medical schools overall -- in part because increasing diversity in medicine and offering medical services for communities most in need are ingrained in their mission, so they provide more support to help students overcome obstacles and graduate.

Research has shown that Black patients have better health outcomes with Black doctors. More Black doctors will mean more Black lives saved, and a reduction in the health issues that can limit economic opportunity in Black communities. That won't cure the disease of disparities within our health care and economic systems, but it is an essential part of the treatment.

During my presidential campaign, I announced The Greenwood Initiative, which was aimed at closing the racial wealth gap and securing economic justice for Black Americans. That work continues through the partnership we're announcing today -- with more to come in the future.

Read about our effort to support more Black doctors, and the lives it can save -- and please share the op-ed with your family and friends to raise awareness about these urgent challenges.

Have you figured out which former presidential candidate is behind this initiative? If you guessed Michael Bloomberg, you guessed correctly. 

And, for investing his own money in something worthwhile, instead of asking for my money to run an ad in a swing state or something, he gets the coveted Email of the Week award. 

In Case You Missed It (v49)

Grab your cuppa and settle down for our review of last week's posts. It was kind of a tough week, I have to tell you, so be warned.

For Sunday School, I took one for the team,  I really did. I mean, Nancy Pelosi. Chuck Schumer. Steve Mnuchin. These three are not great interviews, especially when they are all pushing their agendas. I find it difficult to listen to each of them, much less all three of them in the same classroom session. But I did it, for you.

One of the best lines of the day? Mnuchin, talking about aid to states and municipalities. He of course used the White House talking points about "poorly managed" states and local governments.

But, he said,

We can deal with in January, if there's ongoing issues, we can pass more legislation. This will be the fifth bill. We don't have to get everything done at once. What we should do is get things done for the American public now, come back for another bill afterwards.

Seems he's planning on being around for a while. Anyone up for helping make that not happen?

I tried to find something more palatable for your Extra Credit, and even though I did devote quite a bit of time to Larry 'I Find it Hard to Understand Something Called Systemic Racism Because Lots of White People Voted for Barack Obama' Kudlow trying to do math with Dana Bash (who deserves a medal for putting up with him, I might add), I also spent some time in the Meet the Press classroom (again, taking one for the team) with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).

Like Mnuchin the day before, Durbin hit the party line, saying that the Dems had dropped a trillion dollars from their plan, so the Rs should add a trillion to theirs - meeting in the middle, as it were.  There was more, too, including scathing remarks about

"this urban legend, which I say is an urban lie, about people sitting at home bingeing on Netflix and eating chocolate-covered cherries," simply is not happening 

And another thing?

Durbin argued that actually "doing something directly about the coronavirus" is more important than unemployment. 

...this notion that you're going to have the same instant results of testing that (the president) does with his White House visitors or Major League Baseball does overnight, that isn't the real world out here. The people are waiting in line for testing, and they're waiting for results from 5-12 days, which makes them almost pointless. That is a priority for us. Testing to deal with coronavirus is key to opening the economy and opening our schools.

Moving on, I believe my inclusion of the information below in my Wondering on Wednesday post may have been the reason why I had so many hits from Russian IP addresses in the second half of the week. We'll see if that's true with this re-post.

Moving on to QAnon - something I honestly NEVER anticipated typing - it seems we'll have an honest to goodness supporter of the conspiracy theorists in the House come January. As noted in this NPR story,

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a construction executive, won 57% of the vote in Georgia's heavily-Republican 14th Congressional District, handily defeating neurosurgeon John Cowan, who had pitched himself as, "All of the conservative, none of the embarrassment."

I did like Cowan's campaign slogan; there are actually loads of Rs who could probably use that, if they were willing to distance themselves from you know who.  And he, of course, was not able to distance himself from Ms. Greene.

President Trump congratulated Greene on Wednesday morning, calling her a "future Republican Star" who is "strong on everything."

Shocked, I amn't.

I was a little shocked, however, by the fervor with which the NRA's Wayne LaPierre tried to woo me over to his side, now that the lobbying organization has been hit with a lawsuit by NY's Attorney General Tish James (something I wasn't thrilled about).

And while LaPierre's love letter was the winner of the coveted Email of the Week, it didn't win me over.  He started out all lovey-dovey, with gentle tugs on my heart-strings, telling me about the "radical fringe of our country."

And here's how it was at the end, all capitalized and throbbing, or something.

This isn’t simply a fight for the continued existence of the NRA. It’s a fight for the continued existence of American freedom as we know it.

This is a fight for the Right-to-Carry permit in your pocket that you’re sure to lose if and when NRA goes out of business.

This is a fight for the guns in your safe that are certain to be banned and confiscated if NRA is forced to shut down.

And this is a fight for your God-given right to protect your life and your loved ones against violent criminals – who will still have their illegal guns long after you hear that knock at your door.

So please, join NRA today. Add your VOICE, your VOTE, and your MEMBERSHIP to our FIGHT.

Yeah, no - but thanks for trying.

And, blissfully, it was TGIF time, even though it wasn't the best week ever.

Now, why would I say something like that? Maybe because we're having to deal with this...

How about the new birther attacks, suggesting that Kamala Harris is not eligible to be Joe Biden's VP because, you know, she was born in the USA.  Does that sound familiar to anyone, maybe from a few years ago? And now, maybe trying to keep another person of color out of the White House? This is a tried and true tactic of the Trump squad; you can hear Tamara Keith's reporting that it's playing out in living color - again from tonight's All Things Considered.

So - your cuppa should be at least cold, if not empty, if checked out all of these posts - but at least you're up-to-date on the full and veritable pastiche from last week.

I'll be back later with Sunday School.  Word has it Jared's making a classroom appearance, and I know you'll not want me to miss that.

Email of the Week (v21)

I know I've got an in-box full of emails from the Biden team, now the Biden-Harris team, and I thought about incorporating pieces of those in today's post.

But then, there was that lawsuit filed by the NYS AG, Tish James, seeking to put an end to the NRA, and as expected, there was a reaction from the man at the center of it all, Wayne LaPierre.

The lawsuit alleges Mr. LaPierre spent hundreds of thousands of the organization’s dollars on private plane trips, visiting the Bahamas “by private air charter at least eight times” in three years, according to a summary of the suit. He and his family were often allegedly “gifted the use of a 107-foot yacht” by an NRA vendor and he spent more than $3.6 million on travel consultants, including luxury black cars, over two years. He also is said to have secured a post-employment contract without board approval worth more than $17 million.

(For his part, LaPierre apparently argued that he needed to go to the Bahamas on a 107-foot yacht complete with a gourmet chef and two Jet-skis for “security” reasons. He doesn’t need a bigger boat, but he damn sure needs a better alibi.)

And, it should be noted, there was really no surprise about the lawsuit - the investigation had been well-publicized long before James announced her decision. Similarly, there's been ample time for LaPierre to draft the mother of all emails to recruit people like me.

So, without further ado (and without fact-checking the claims included in it), here's your email of the week:

The radical fringe of our country – now openly supported and cheered by anti-gun politicians, elites, and the media – is working to tear America down and tear our nation apart.

Our cities have fallen under a cloud of violence, mayhem, and destruction. Crime rates are soaring.

JOIN NRA!

Anti-gun politicians are shuttering gun shops and doing everything in their power to deny law-abiding Americans our Right to Keep and Bear Arms – and at the same time, ordering the police to stand down in the face of criminal violence.

This is nothing more than a disgusting, brazen attempt by gun-ban politicians to shackle freedom and leave regular, law-abiding Americans defenseless.

And now, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James just launched yet another attack in their war on our freedom – one they’ve been plotting and planning for years.

THEY ARE SUING TO FORCE NRA TO CLOSE OUR DOORS FOREVER.

JOIN NRA!

Even on the campaign trail when she ran for office, Letitia James made it clear that she hated the NRA and everything we stand for.

She vowed that, if elected, she’d use the full power of the Attorney General’s office to silence our voice – even claiming that NRA isn’t a charitable organization but a “terrorist” one instead.

The fact is, NRA is the oldest and most effective civil rights organization in America – representing millions of law-abiding citizens from all walks of life.

JOIN NRA!

But according to Letitia James, NRA members are “terrorists” because we support a freedom enshrined in our Constitution that she personally despises and wants to eradicate from the face of the earth.

And now, she’s deployed the full power of the Attorney General’s office to take down the NRA – with a lawsuit to revoke our New York corporate charter that’s been in effect since 1871 and dissolve our Association.

JOIN NRA!

This isn’t politics as usual. It’s a vendetta – by despotic government officials who believe their power entitles them to muzzle and destroy opposing views.

They’re inspired by pure contempt for the law, and by an unbridled and burning hatred for the NRA.

They know that the minute NRA closes its doors for the last time, our nation’s first and most important line of defense for the Second Amendment will be gone forever.

Make no mistake. NRA is fighting back with every ounce of legal strength we can muster. And others have joined us – even the ACLU – because they know that if the government can weaponize its power to shut down the NRA, it can shut down any organization in America.

But we can’t win this fight without you.

That's why I'm asking you to join the National Rifle Association TODAY.

This weaponization of government power is like something you’d expect to see in Communist China – NOT in the United States of America.

JOIN NRA!

This isn’t simply a fight for the continued existence of the NRA. It’s a fight for the continued existence of American freedom as we know it.

This is a fight for the Right-to-Carry permit in your pocket that you’re sure to lose if and when NRA goes out of business.

This is a fight for the guns in your safe that are certain to be banned and confiscated if NRA is forced to shut down.

And this is a fight for your God-given right to protect your life and your loved ones against violent criminals – who will still have their illegal guns long after you hear that knock at your door.

So please, join NRA today. Add your VOICE, your VOTE, and your MEMBERSHIP to our FIGHT.

JOIN NRA!

Let’s not allow Andrew Cuomo and Letitia James to shutter and silence our great NRA fighting machine that’s done so much for freedom’s cause. Let’s not allow Cuomo and James to destroy our right to peaceably join together under the NRA banner to fight for the Constitutional rights we cherish.

And let’s not allow Cuomo and James to weaponize government – and turn this nation into a place where those in power can shut down any organization or silence any voice they disagree with.

If we win this battle, we will score the biggest victory for freedom in the history of the NRA – and make a mark on the Second Amendment and the First Amendment that will be remembered for generations.

JOIN NRA!

That's why it's important for you to join NRA today. And when you join, you'll receive a $15 or more discount on your dues, valuable members-only benefits, plus a FREE GIFT of your choice.

But the best benefit of all is leading the fight to save your Right to Keep and Bear Arms...a fight we can't win without you.

So PLEASE, let me hear from you today.

We need to fight back against this attack like we’re fighting for the Declaration of Independence and our freedom – because it’s ALL on the line.

In Liberty,

Wayne LaPierre
Executive Vice President