TGIF 1/11/19

Well, happy Friday, everyone! How's your week going?

NY's junior senator Kirsten Gillibrand seems to be having a good week - she's hired some new folks and rented some new office space, and she's also traveling to Iowa, we've heard. Based on all of  this, it seems the senator is staring at 2020 on her calendar. Even though, we remember, she made it clear during her 2018 campaign that she had no designs on a presidential race. "I will serve my six year term." she said.

But if she's planning on serving her full Senate term, maybe all of her work now is really just to get her better name recognition for 2024? Of course, at that point, she might be joined in the race by our Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo - he's also not running in 2020, he's assured us, but he sure sounds like he's running sometime soon.

Staying in New York,  I really can't tell if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is having a good week or a bad week. She seems just fine being in the public eye for, well, for being in the public eye. Giving as good as she gets when people say something about her, whether it's an attack from the right or a nudge from the left; whether it's a response to an interview, an attack on her college dancing, even pictures of naked legs (that aren't hers) or just someone deciding to talk about all of the attention she's getting. Which generates more attention, which generates more responses, which generates more attention, and so on.

I'm going to get yelled at for this, I'm sure, but I'd love for her to be getting attention for her work in Congress, not because she is in Congress. And yes, I know it's early, and I know this new class of Dems is the loudest bunch of folks the media has seen since, well, that orange cur rode the escalator, but the proof is not in the press, it's in the pudding.

Sunday School 9/16/18

FEMA administrator Brock Long made the rounds today, hitting three of our classrooms: Face the Nation, Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday  We'll look at each of those appearances in reverse order.

Before we get into the interviews, here's a quick refresher on the current investigation into Long's potential abuse of official cars.

The IG is investigating whether Long misused government resources and personnel on trips back home to Hickory, NC, on the weekends, said two of the officials. The IG's interest was drawn after one of the vehicles - a black Suburban - was involved in an accident, according to one of the officials. 

There's also noise that Kirstjen Nielsen was concerned about Long's frequent trips home and extensive time out of the office, and that she had talked to him about that - and about resigning.

Chris Wallace didn't mention the investigation, and instead spent the bulk of the interview focused on Hurricane Florence, with only a little bit of time on Puerto Rico and Hurricane Maria. On the former, Long expressed confidence that FEMA was well positioned and cooperating effectively with state and local officials in the Carolinas. On the latter, Wallace asked a "simple factual question" whether Long disputed the 3,000 hurricane-related deaths. The response was, well, less than simple. Here's part of it:

Well, there are several different studies that are all over the place when it comes to death; in the official stance of FEMA is we don't count deaths. You know, the only thing that would come remotely close to data that we would have is the funeral benefits that we push forward... And there is a difference between direct deaths and indirect deaths. One study could have studied the entire year that's gone by about a number of indirect deaths over time or whatever, versus a six-month study in George Washington. 

So, that's -- you know, there's a lot of issues with numbers being all over the place. It's hard to tell what's accurate and what's not, but we have got to come together as a country to focus on the rebuilding of Puerto Rico and building a resilient infrastructure... 

Frustrated, indeed - by the numbers that were made up to make him look bad.

Let's look at Long's answer to Chuck Todd's question about that 'make president look bad' thing:

Well I mean there's, I don't think the studies, I don't know why the studies were done. I mean, I think what we're trying to do, in my opinion, what we've got to do is figure out why people die, from direct deaths, which is the wind, the water and the waves, you know, building collapsing, which is probably where the 65 number came from. And then there's indirect deaths. So, the George Washington study looked at what happened six months after the fact.

And you know, what happens is -- and even in this event, you might see more deaths indirectly occur as time goes on because people have heart attacks due to stress. They fall off their house trying to fix their roof. They die in car crashes because they, they went through an intersection where stoplights weren't working/ You know the other thing that goes on, there's all kinds of studies on this that we take a look at. Spousal abuse goes through the roof. You can't blame spousal abuse, you know, after a disaster on anybody.

Stop right there and re-read that italicized sentence again, maybe a couple of times. Because I'm pretty darn sure that you can always blame spousal abuse on the spouse, hurricane or no.  That's a shocking comment for Long - or anyone - to have made. I can't wait for the president to retweet this one.

On CBS, John Dickerson talked about interrupted medical care, which accounted for a large percentage of  Katrina deaths, and Maria deaths as well; he also specifically asked who at FEMA contributed to the George Washington University report. This answer, too, is shocking, but for a different reason.

Yeah, I don't know who they interviewed within the agency. They may have looked at funeral benefits to help, you know, calculate whatever number. And that's a number, you know, that's the only number we would really be able to contribute to any study going forward...

So, multiple times today, Long had the chance to clarify what FEMA knows about the death toll from Hurricane Maria, by simply offering up the funeral benefits figure he cited as facts FEMA could provide. And he didn't do it.  That none of the interviewers asked for death figures shows a lack of curiosity on their part as well.

Long also has zero curiosity about his own agency, to the point that since the GW study came out at the end of August, he hasn't even found out who at FEMA provided information or what information was provided.  How is that even possible? If he knows there was no 'interview' per se but just a data capture, he should have said that, too.

See you around campus.

Trump in Transition (v33)

Please...

Someone...

Anyone...

PLEASE --

for the sake of the country.

Make him stop tweeting.

Make him stop lying.

Just. Make. Him. Stop.

#MAGA

Wondering on Wednesday (v145)

Wondering what happens when you Google 'Trump News'? Here, I took one for the team.  Taking the step to go first to Google News, and then search for Trump News. I get this.

As you know, what you see when you search for Trump News and what I got will almost certainly be different because you and I are different and because we're searching at different times, and so on.

For example, because I follow the president on Twitter (forewarned and all that jazz), his tweets are featured prominently on my search page.  Also featured in the search, in case you're wondering, is this article from PolitiFact:

Trump tweeted that "96 percent of (Google News) results on 'Trump News' are from National Left-Wing Media."

This figure is based on a non-scientific study from a conservative website that categorized any media outlet not expressly conservative as being part of the "left." These outlets include wire services, broadcast networks and most major newspapers and collectively account for a large percentage of original news reports produced in the United States. The methodology essentially preordains that a large percentage of coverage captured by Google will be what the study defines as "left." which is wrong. 

We rate the statement False.

No surprise there, in case you were wondering.

Moving on to more fun wondering, what will it look like when some 100 pink Cadillacs line the street at Aretha Franklin's funeral?  The word was sent out to Mary Kay consultants across the land, and really to anyone else who has a pink Caddy, and they're coming from as far as Texas and Florida. That surely will be a sight to see, don't you think?

In a remarkable effort to help other people, NFL star JJ Watt raised over $41M for Hurricane Harvey relief, via a GoFundMe page.  This week, the first anniversary of Harvey, Watt said that he had distributed all of the money through eight groups; their efforts, according to the Houston Texans,

have been used to clean up and rebuild more than 600 homes and 420 childhood centers, distribute more than 26 million meals and provide health care to more than 6,500 people. 

In a statement, Watt said

As I reflect on the events of Hurricane Harvey one year ago, the memories of destruction and devastation remain, but they are accompanied by memories of hope, selflessness and the beauty of the human spirit. The actions of professional first responders and everyday citizens alike were an inspiration to the world and a shining example of the inherent good that lies within us all...

While a great deal has been accomplished in the past 12 months, there is still much work to be done. Moving forward, there will be more of the same, as we continue to work with our incredible nonprofit partners to provide as much help and support as we possibly can for those affected by Harvey. I cannot thank everyone enough for your support and generosity.

A couple of things come to mind reading about this tremendous effort: first, what an amazing accomplishment, to contribute so much and get others to contribute as well, to help perfect strangers.

At the same time though, it's painful wondering what the folks in Puerto Rico must be feeling, a couple of weeks shy of the anniversary of their nightmare, Hurricane Maria.

The big new number for them is not record millions of dollars of charity being distributed, it's an almost overwhelming adjustment to the official death toll of the storm. The original number, 64, was widely hailed by the president as a success story for the federal effort after the storm; the new number, an estimated 2975 storm-related deaths, came from a study by George Washington University.

The study let to renewed criticism across multiple fronts.

The Top Five Posts of 2017

OK, we've come to the last day of December, so you know what that means, right?

Yes, the time when everyone does that backwards glance over their shoulder, looks at the year that was, and makes plans for the coming year.

I'm not going to aggravate over it too much; there are professionals who are paid a ton of money to do that. Maybe we'll have the chance to catch up with some of them later, we'll see. 

In the meantime, here are the top five most-viewed posts of the year, with an excerpt from each. Not surprisingly, the president is connected to four of the five.

(1) January 21st: #NeverTrump Answers to #TrumpVoter Questions. I could have included dozens more questions and answers in this post, but limited it to a few of the most common ones that could be strung together in a conversation.

It's January 21, 2017 and it appears that at least a very vocal, and, it seems, a very large percentage of Trump voters are stuck in a 'sore winners' rut and don't know how to get out of it. Which means I guess it's up to people like me, a #NeverTrump, to try and help them out. 

 Wish me luck.

Yeah, we'll need more than luck, I'm afraid. But I won't give up the fight. And I will continue to fight Trump without mentioning Hillary, for this is not about who lost - it's about who won.

(2) June 3rd: Poor, Poor Pitiful Me (v1). Kathy Griffin was upset that she faced a backlash for her hideous 'joke'?  Oh, stop it.

Oh, Kathy Griffin, you poor thing you. Linda Ronstadt understands, she does.

I know you spend your time on the D-list, but does that mean you're living under a rock? Had you no idea that your highly offensive "comedic" video, you slowly raising your arm to gradually display a bloody, severed Donald Trump head, would bring consequences?  

Did you really think that Trump himself, the victim of your prank, would be appreciative? Did you now know that the Tweeter in Chief, his family, staff, friends and supporters would rain down 140-character responses upon your (still attached) head?

(3) October 3rd: OrangeVerse XVII Puerto Rico. The poetry posts did well this year -- apparently I'm not the only one who is fascinated by the president's use of language.

The president held a rally in (oops, my bad) visited hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico today, and boy was he proud of himself. So proud, he made everyone else tell him how wonderful he and his administration are. And then he was bigly very proud. Here he is in his own words.

My People, Tis of Thee

And to all of my people - 
And I have to say
General Buchanan...
there's no doubt about it
you are a general.
There's a reason
 you're a general
right?
But he's not games:
I said
give me a general
I don't have to have any -- 
I don't want
to have a general
that plays games...

(4) June 4th: Sunday School 6/24/17 - this was the one where I didn't have the heart to fight my way through the Sunday talk shows, and instead provided links to arts, music and phys ed - important yet frequently cut courses when it comes to public education spending.

Maybe it's because I've been spending too much time weeding my garden, and I don't have the energy to pull the weeds out of the comments of the people who defend Trump on the news shows.

 Maybe I simply lost interest this week, after all of the absurd tweets send by #NotNowNotEver #NotMyPresident Trump. 

Or maybe, it's just covfefe. 

(5) November 24th: Meanwhile, Back in Albany (v12), in which we looked at the reality of expanding casino gambling in New York State.  Are we getting the promised benefits from the constitutional amendment? 

The sure thing the government promised us? Let's look back that that ballot initiative:

The proposed amendment to section 9 of article 1 of the Constitution would allow the Legislature to authorize up to seven casinos in New York state for the legislated purposes of promoting job growth, increasing aid to schools, and permitting local governments to lower property taxes through revenue generated. 

Fun times, right? Hopes were high back in those days. Not so much now though, According to an article from earlier this month, all three of the first licencees are underperforming. 

So there you have it -- another year in the books. All the best to you and yours in 2018.

TGIF 10/27/17

Time to put another week to bed.

We'll have a tax bill to look at next week, it seems, and it can pass as long as there no more than a couple of Republican defections, even though many Americans don't think it's a priority. 

The House this week narrowly approved  their budget bill, kicking off the opportunity for the Senate to do tax reform as part of 'reconciliation' instead of through regular order, which would require the participation of Democrats to reach the 60-vote majority needed for passage. It'll be fun to see how well Mitch McConnell herds his cats this time, after the debacle on health care.

So, other than yet another opportunity for vice president Mike Pence to cast the most important vote of the day, what does the tax reform plan really mean? If rumors are true, folks like me in blue states are apt to lose, while folks in deeply red states are apt to win - no surprise there. And those other people, the bricks and mortar ones, will win as well. it seems.

I'm doing my best to remain patient and see what actually ends up in the plan, though isn't it kinda cool that we mere citizens in the cheap seats are being treated the same as most members of Congress, who also have no real clue what's headed their way? Stay tuned on this one.

What else did we have this week? Well, there was the fascinating tale of the two-dude energy company from Whitefish, MN who landed a $300M contract to restore power to Puerto Rico. There is no reason to think that the company being from the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had anything to do with their getting the contract, but there are LOTS of reasons to look into the deal, including these little nuggets:

• it was a no-bid deal
• it contains a no-audit clause
• it contains a 'no claim against the contractor' clause if work is delayed
• it includes a $330+ per day per worker accommodation payment
• the Governor of Puerto Rico says he wasn't involved in the deal
• FEMA says they weren't involved in the deal

Zinke said he had nothing to do with it either, although he did talk to someone at the firm and that relevant documents would be turned over to the "appropriate officials." Can't you just hear Trey Gowdy (R-Benghazi) saying Whitefish! Whitefish! Whitefish!  Nah --- me neither. 

Rumor has it that Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Senate Republican since sliced bread, is not going to run again -- and that Mitt Romney, who is the most popular politician and possibly the most popular human in the entire state of Utah will be his replacement. One good thing about Romney? I've already got a Mittenverse tag in the veritable pastiche inventory.

And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't wish Lee Greenwood a happy birthday. 

I know pretty much nothing about Lee Greenwood, except his Proud to be an American song, but because I follow the Tweeter in Chief, I now know it's his birthday. 

In case we missed it the first time, there was a second tweet to remind us.

I'm proud to say TGIF.

Trump in Transition (v22)

The photo for today's TiT post is larger than usual, on purpose.

It represents the size of the president's IQ, which, we're to believe, is way more bigly higher than that of Rex Tillerson.

Or, maybe, it represents the size of the president's sense of humor, which, we're to believe, is what the whole "my hands are way more bigly than Rex Tillerson's" tweet was all about.

Oh wait -- did I say hands? I meant IQ. I meant IQ!

Or, maybe, it represents the size of the frustrationburger the president is eating because he's not being bigly recognized enough for what he's doing for Puerto Rico. After all,

Or, maybe, it represents the size of the sigh of relief that the president has sighed, as he's not really been called upon to comment on the Harvey Weinstein thing. Oh sure, Trump said

I've known Harvey Weinstein a long time. I'm not at all surprised to see it.

But that was about as far as things went, other than declaring again that locker room talk is nothing to worry about.

No one called upon him, as a leader, to condemn Weinstein's actions, as they have called upon Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and others to do. And while Weinstein was a Democratic donor, not a GOP donor, should that matter?

Shouldn't the president champion protecting women from all sexual harassment, and all harassers, whether it's  Harvey Weinstein, Bill Clinton, Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly or Donald Trump? And shouldn't he do that without prompting?

Or, maybe, it represents the size of the ego that a person has to have to think that this administration, this president, and Republicans generally, are not getting their fair share of TV time on the late night shows. Look:

Shouldn't he know that when they're talking about him, constantly, it would be almost impossible for him to have more time? Shouldn't he be aware that Fox News is the 24/7 pro-Trump network (a few words from Shep Smith notwithstanding)? And that no one else - no elite Hollywood star, no other politician, no other social media star, has such a thing working in their favor?

In fact, when you consider the amount of coverage Trump gets, it seems that the late night hosts and the Dems should be begging for more time.

What does all of this have to do with Trump transitioning from something into a president? Nothing, I guess -- and everything.

I can't count how many times he told us all he was all about America First, but every day, he does his goodgoddamnest to show us how important it is that he put himself first.

Transitioning away from that might take a while longer.

Wondering on Wednesday (v106)

Reuters photo

OK, I'm wondering if maybe that whole thing about president Trump being a real estate developer was #fakenews?

I mean, are we sure he wasn't one of those people who randomly launched tee shirts into concert crowds?

I was pretty sure that the remarks at the Celebrate Me rally he held for the press was bad enough (you can read some of those comments in Tuesday's OrangeVerse post -- but I had to cut out a ton of it to stay sane; his full comments are here). But then, he tossed a Bounty of Viva to Hurricane Maria survivors??

Somehow, I'm thinking the people of Puerto Rico are not impressed with his remarks, or with the hurling of paper products any more than San Juan's mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz, was:

This terrible and abominable view of him throwing paper towels and throwing provisions at people, it really - it does not embody the spirit of the American nation, you know?

But the Social Media president? He was not wondering at all, about his visit, tweeting

A great day in Puerto Rico yesterday. While some of the news coverage is Fake, most showed great warmth and friendship.

Does this mean that most of the media showed great warmth and friendship? Most of the Puerto Ricans? Most of the people who caught the paper towels? Most of the people who were paid to show up and say nice things about Trump?  I wonder, I really do.

Separately, we continue to get round the clock updates from various news outlets about the terrorist attack in Las Vegas.  And, of course, we know it's "too soon" to talk about having conversations about maybe doing something about why so many people die or are injured from some kind of shooting each year in the US.

We may talk soonly or laterly about making guns easier to silence to protect the ears of the people who use them, but maybe we won't even get to that until after we get a massive tax cut for the rich and corporations. And by rich and corporations, I mean the middle class.

Speaking of protecting people's ears, I wonder how it was that swimmers figured out they could use earplugs to keep the water out of their ears? And how was it that someone designed earplugs for shooting?

And speaking of  massive tax cuts for the middle class, I don't know about you, but as sure as I'm sitting here, I'm really looking forward to filing my taxes on a postcard.

I'm not even remotely wondering about the lack of security there -- I'm just happy that the government is looking to shore up the Post Office after all this time.

OrangeVerse XVII: Puerto Rico

The president held a rally in (oops, my bad) visited hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico today, and boy was he proud of himself. So proud, he made everyone else tell him how wonderful he and his administration are. And then he was bigly very proud. Here he is in his own words.

Trip Advisor? 4 Stars!

Well thank you very much.

It was a

great trip

and a beautiful place.

I've been to Puerto Rico many

times, as I think,

most of you have known.

And I've always loved it.

And your weather

 is second to none but every

once in a while

you get hit. And

you really got hit - 

there's no question

about it.

Suddenly A Category 5 Rang Out

And then all of a sudden

we said there's another one 

heading out 

to Puerto Rico...

but it wasn't one -- it was two!

And I was going to 

be here

a week ago

if you remember

and that was the day 

of the hurricane --

that was the day

of the second

hurricane.

So Brock

has been unbelievable and

this has been

the toughest one.

This has been

a Category 5,

which few people

have ever

even heard of --

a Category 5

hitting land.

But it did

hit land - and 

boy, did it 

hit land.

My People, Tis of Thee

And to all of my people - 

And I have to say

General Buchanan...

there's no doubt about it

you are a general.

There's a reason 

you're a general,

right?

But he's no games:

I said

give me a general

I don't want to have any --

I don't want

to have a general

that plays games...

Not My People? Tis of Thee!

Your governor has been - 

who I didn't know

I heard very good

things about him.

He's not even from my party

and he started out right

at the beginning

appreciating what we did.

And he was

tremendously supportive

and he knew the 

level of problem

that you had

at the beginning

before

and the level -- 

what happened...

right from the beginning

this governor

did not play politics.

he didn't

play it at all.

He was saying

it like it was

and he was

giving us

the highest grades.

And I want to

 -- on behalf of our country --

I want to

thank you.

One Shoe Drops

And Mick Mulvaney is here -

right there - and

Mick is in charge

of a thing

called

"budget"

Now, I hate

to tell you

Puerto Rico,

but you've thrown

our budget

a little out of whack

because

we've spent a lot 

of money on

Puerto Rico

And that's fine.

We've saved

a lot of lives.

And The Other Shoe Drops

If you look at the

--every death is a horror.

But

if you look at a

real catastrophe

like Katrina and

you look at the

tremendous

hundreds

and

hundreds

and

hundreds

of people

that died and

you look at what

happened here with really

a storm

that was just

totally overpowering

--nobody

has ever seen 

anything like this.

Gimme the number!

What is your

death count,

as of this moment?

17?

Sunday School 10/1/17

We only had time for a couple of quick classroom visits today.

First, we checked in with John Dickerson on CBS' Face the Nation. Guests today included House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. A lot of the discussion was on the new tax plan that the Republicans have been pitching. 

Needless to say, there's a difference of opinion between what Ryan and Schumer think will make sense for the middle class, who are the targets? objects? pinatas? of the new tax plan. Here's part of what Ryan said.

Well, first of all, the whole purpose of this is to get a middle class tax cut, to help the people who are working paycheck to paycheck and keep more of their own hard-earned dollars. They haven't had a break in a long time. Our economy's been growing between one and two percent for a long time. We haven't had three percent growth in about a decade, and that means workers are struggling.

Dickerson asked specifically what would happen to the blue collar worker's paycheck, and pressed Ryan for a promise (which I think was a waste of time, but maybe that's just me). Here's Ryan:

You know some money's coming to you. We're going to double that standard deduction. We're going to make it so he can fill out his taxes on a postcard. We're going to lower his taxes. That's really important. So he has more take-home pay. But here's another component to that is look at this machine shop, this business pays about a 40% tax rage but it competes with companies all around the world who pay an average 22 1/2% on their taxes.

So we're going to lower the taxes on this business so it's globally competitive, so it can compete with its foreign competition. And then we're going to give this business an ability to write off investments they make in this business to buy more machines, to hire more workers, to raise wages. That, to us, is really important.  

Dickerson pushed some more, noting that it sounded like rich people (estate tax people, carried interest people, the alternative minimum tax folks - they make out great, what about the middle class? Ryan, again:

Can I go through that? Can I get through that? We're going to double your standard deductions so you can file your taxes on a postcard. We're going to take people who are in the 10% bracket and put a lot of that money in a zero% bracket. We're taking the 15% bracket down to 12%. We're going to get rid of the marriage penalty. We're going to increase the child tax credit. We're going to maintain critical things like incentive for home buying, charitable giving, education,. Those are all middle class tax things. The purpose of this is to help people who are living by a paycheck keep more of their own hard-earned money but also get more jobs, a faster-growing economy.

And on and on it went.  Ryan pushed the "American businesses pay 40%" mumbo jumbo, which we know is not the case most of the time, and even when Dickerson pushed back, he didn't back away. We need to help our businesses compete by lowering taxes, period end of sentence seemed to be the answer. He promised a deficit-neutral plan, and that a growing economy will help us retire out debt more quickly, and he talked about entitlement reforms. He talked about doing things in 'regular order' and he talked about doing things via reconciliation (the process that brought reforming the ACA to its knees) as if you could follow both of those processes at the same time.

And, he noted bipartisanly,

We do work with Democrats, but we're not going to give Chuck Schumer the ability to filibuster this bill because we think that would derail tax reform. 

Which segues nicely into Dickerson's discussion with Schumer, disagreed with basically everything Ryan said.

We Democrats sent a letter to the Republican leadership and the president, said that here were three things that we thought that tax reform ought to have. 1) Tax breaks out not to go to the top 1% but ought to be focused on the middle class.  2) it out not to blow a hole in the deficit and 3) it ought to be done in a bipartisan way, not through reconciliation.

Unfortunately, the Republican plan doesn't agree with any of those. First, it's completely focused on the wealthy and the powerful not on the middle class Second, it blows a huge hole in the deficit. And third, they said they're going to do it through reconciliation. That's a partisan process. It excludes Democrats. It's the same process that led to the demise on health care. And let me just address one thing, John. Speaker Ryan keeps saying it helps the middle class. That's not true. What he's saying and what the plan is are totally different. 

Schumer pointed out that the tax policy center said

...80% of the tax breaks in their plan are aimed at that top 1%. And the top .1%, the people who make over $5 million, who are one in 1000, get a tax break of over a million dollars.

And he also pointed out the loss of state and local deductibility, which will likely be lost (because it doesn't fit on a postcard, I'm assuming). And, he pointed out the huge failure of the Kansas experiment, which was all about cutting taxes and the miraculous growth that would come from that.

They dramatically cut taxes and said "There's going to be growth and an increase in the surplus." Well, after they did it, they predicted the surplus would go up $300 million; it went down $700 million. They had to cut money for schools and infrastructure And then they had to put in a tax increase. 

And so it goes. And so it goes.

Quickly, here's what was happening at Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, who was joined by Brock Long, the head of FEMA.

As background, the mayor of San Juan is chastising Trump for not responding quickly enough after Hurricane Maria; Trump is criticizing her leadership, slamming Puerto Ricans, and tweeting his brains out to the people of Puerto Rico (the majority of whom are without power or communications) about #fakenews, those pesky reports that administration is not doing enough, fast enough, to help compared to what they did in other areas.

Long talked about his pushing forward, pushing in and pushing forward (it started to feel a little creep there for a bit) and in the end Chris Wallace asked what it was going to look like for Puerto Rico in the coming weeks.

Weeks from now? Well, you know, the key is, it's a couple of factors. Right now, you know, many days ago, we mission-assigned the Army Corps of Engineers to do one very important job, emergency power, but also begin rebuilding the grid. So, getting power back is obviously the most important thing.

In conjunction with that we're trying to work with the private sector to get telecommunications back up. The governor's reporting this morning that about a third of telecommunications has been put back up after two major hurricanes an all the equipment that was damaged, telecommunications is about a third, you know, back up and running. 

So, we have to get the power up. We have to get communications back up And then the bottom line is, that that takes a long time because it was almost a total loss when it comes to the power grid. And so, it's going to be multiple - multiple months before power is restored to many of these areas and that's just a reality. 

That's what we were saying before the storm hit and I think people have to remember that. Going into the storm, we were -- we were setting expectations that this is going to be a nightmare for Puerto Rico. 

There's your "fake news" right there, folks. From the horse's mouth.

See you around campus.

Wondering on Wednesday (v105)

I wonder: can you tell, just by looking at the average person, dressed and acting in an unremarkable fashion, whether they're religious? Liberal? A Nazi? Trans? Patriotic? Can you see into their heart of hearts just by looking at them?

And I wonder, looking at the average member of the military, can you tell whether they're in the service to defend the flag, or to defend our Constitution, or just because they want to take out a bad guy?

Wondering further, when you hear me talk about "American ideals" are you thinking what I'm thinking? And, wondering most, what exactly is the 'correct' definition of patriot? Of American? And who gets to define that?

Does the president have the right to define it for us? Do you have the right to define it for me? Or me for you? Or is it the most American ideal of all, that we each have the freedom - and the responsibility - to be the best kind of American we can, as we define it?

I wonder, when people watched or heard about what happened at NFL games on Sunday, whether they questioned the motivation of  the players who participated? Are they on board with the real reason for the protest - racism, discrimination, blacks dying at the hands of the police - or are they just pissed that the president called one of them an SOB and so they're all SOBs?  And I wonder, are the people who were booing all upset about the same thing? Can we be sure, without talking to each of them?

Are the owners really standing in unity with the players? And, I wonder if they're united for something, or if they're united against someone? Because there's a real difference there. Shannon Sharpe had some interesting opinions on all of this.

So did the wife of Pat Tillman, the former NFL player killed by friendly fire back in 2004. She found her husband the subject of a meme suggesting that he would have been against those 'anthem protesters' which is not the case.

Speaking of standing united, the president is going to head to Puerto Rico soon, to view the horrific damage from Hurricane Maria. I supposed, if Melania goes with him, we'll have to put up with more questions about her footwear -- and for the record, she wore her heels on the walk from the White House to the helicopter, but she never wore them in Houston. Those who said she did were saying it on purpose.

On Twitter, the Governor of Puerto Rico said he "briefed @POTUS in the Situation Room and thanked him for his leadership, quick response and commitment" which of course both @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS retweeted. But most of the quick response, it seems, came before Maria actually hit. And a pre-landfall emergency declaration, and post storm disaster declarations can only go so far, as Rosello noted in an interview with Bloomberg.

Administration, they've been helpful up until now. But we need more help. We need more help. We need more resources. And at the same time, Congress solidarity and all of the help they've pledged through social media and phone calls with our staff. Now is the time to materialize it.

For his part, Trump noted

We've had tremendous reviews from government officials. This morning the government made incredible statements about how well we're doing.

This, as we watch folks stand in water lines, food lines, gas lines, and gather around random working cell towers trying to reach the outside world. 

But united we stand  - including the five living presidents. As they did for Harvey and Irma victims, they're fundraising for Maria victims.

United we stand, where locally the Boys and Girls Club is collecting donations for Puerto Rico; the same thing is happening across the state of New York, which has long had the largest population of Puerto Ricans in the US (that's now being challenged by Florida), and across the country.

United we stand. And wondering again: when you hear me talk about "American ideals" are you thinking what I'm thinking? And, wondering most, what exactly is the 'correct' definition of patriot? Of American? And who gets to define that?