TGIF 2/28/20

Want to make a list with me? Let's give it a whirl!

Mick Mulvaney, the president's acting Chief of Staff, has suggested that the media should be talking about the president's  relationship with his youngest son, instead of talking about the COVID-19 outbreak. Seriously.

Criticizing the media for wanting Trump "to be this terrible monster," Mulvany provided some  info about the president checking in with Barron by phone, and said the media would never show that side of him. And he's right.

There's little about Barron in the media - by design. It's because the legitimate media know that president's kids are off limits, and because they know that the mere mention of the name Barron - nothing about the child himself, mind you, but simply using the homophones Barron and baron in a sentence - caused an uproar on the Trump News Network. Mulvaney better have his bags packed.

And of course, when I say the "legitimate media" know better, that doesn't include Medal of Freedom honoree Rush Limbaugh, and his comments about a certain 'dog' in the White House. However, sometimes a 'dog' has its day.

Here's a recent tweet from Chelsea Clinton, referencing Limbaugh.

Where else can we go to add to this week's list? Let's see... 

Papa Joe picked up some endorsements for his presidential bid, including from SC Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in the House, and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton's running mate in '16. That Guy From Vermont got a big one this week, too: former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson. And, so did Bloomy, getting the Clint Eastwood nod in a Wall Street Journal interview last week that I just stumbled upon. Here's the relevant part of the interview: 

As for the domestic political scene, Mr. Eastwood seems disheartened. “The politics has gotten so ornery,” he says, hunching his shoulders in resignation. He approves of “certain things that Trump’s done” but wishes the president would act “in a more genteel way, without tweeting and calling people names. I would personally like for him to not bring himself to that level.” As he drives me back to my hotel, he expresses an affinity for another former mayor: “The best thing we could do is just get Mike Bloomberg in there.”

Kudos to the givers and receivers there.

Speaking of Bloomy, he had to spend a bit of time defending himself in a PBS NewsHour interview with Judy Woodruff, on Muslim surveillance practices in NYC after 9/11. I half expected the Rs to be supporting him on this, given how readily they fell in line with Trump's travel ban, but I haven't seen much support for him.

Closer to home, NY's Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo is planning to follow what's left of the Grateful Dead across the country on his 'Marijuana Tour' - or, at least, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw these headlines: Where Cuomo could go on his cross-country weed tour; Cuomo Plans Marijuana Tour; Checking out the joint; and Cuomo Takes a Weed Tour, just a nickel bag of headlines that are out there.

But what he's really doing is trying to learn from states that have legalized pot to figure out how we can legalize it here, even though three years ago he said it was a gateway drug. And, he said,

You don't want New York competing with New Jersey, you don't want New York competing with Connecticut. You don't want people driving to New Jersey, because they can get more in New Jersey, or a higher percentage in New Jersey, or they have a different age in New Jersey, or a lower tax rate. So, it's regional coordination.

Riiight. Because the last thing we would want is to literally hemorrhage potheads to a neighboring state.

TGIF, everyone  - and, remember, don't bogart that joint.

Sunday School 2/18/18

Only visiting Fox News Sunday today and only giving a handful of excerpts from the show.

First, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas school.

Cameron Kasky: Today, I'd like to announce that we have an event coming up to have everybody in the nation talking about what we're talking about. And one of the things we've been hearing is that it's not the time you have to talk about gun control and we respect that. We've lost 17 lives, our community took 17 bullets to the heart and it's difficult to come back from that. 

So here is the time that we are going to talk about gun control. March 24th, we have the March for Our Lives which you can find at MarchforOurLives.com... The March for Our Lives is going to be in every major city and we are organizing it so students everywhere can beg for our lives, because at the end of the day this isn't about the red and blue, GOP and Democrats. This is about adults and kids.And at this point you're either with us or against us. We are giving all our politicians a clean slate and in the next election, we are saying if you are accepting money from the NRA, there is a badge of shame on you because you are enabling things like this to happen.

David Hogg: This is a student-led grassroots movement and this is not a debate, this is a discussion between Americans because we've had too many debates before and they've gotten nowhere. From the Republicans, they can talk about mental health care and from the Democrats, they can talk about gun control. 

But what we need to do -- but what we need to do here is come together not as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans and work together to solve this issue through love and compassion, because this event occurred on Valentine's Day sadly and sadly 17 people had to take a bullet to the heard and so did our community This is a time for change and we can't let this ever happen again...

Our elected officials need to get together, overcome their political differences and get some things done because they need to save the future of our country, in the future of our country are those children that are currently dying because politicians refuse to take action and continue to take money from the special interest groups. 

Emma Gonzalez: This is a case of, simply, please stop. Please stop allowing us to be gunned down in our hallways... Every generation is supporting us with countless, countless amounts of energy. So many people are coming up to us in the street saying "thank you" and we want to thank them by communicating what we're trying to communicate. We want to get  the support for March for Our Lives...

We want people to -- we want students to be at that march and to be with us. We want to be with those students who we didn't understand their pain before and it's all too tragic that we all have to understand the same pain now. 

Kasky: We're here for everybody's kids.  

Also on the show? Rush Limbaugh. 

What I found interesting about the students  and - they are very articulate and you have to feel for them. And  - I mean, this is -- it's with their lives. They are a combination  scared and angry. 

But Chris, I have to ask if anybody is really serious about solving this because none of this - by the way, I couldn't care less about the gun angle of this. None of this is going to solve - prayers and condolences don't solve it and marches aren't going to solve it...

We have security, armed security at virtually every public entity in this country except schools. For some reason, they are a gun free zone and everybody who wants to shoot up a school knows that they are going to be the only one armed. Until we're willing to get serious about where we are and how do we stop this from happening and marches aren't going to do it, saying no more guns isn't going to do it, bashing the NRA isn't going to do it...

You know, we're told, well, we can't do anything until the crime has been committed. That's what has to change and is going to take some really smart people to figure out how to do that without violating civil liberties and the Fourth Amendment and so forth. But it's clear that the way we deal with this no -- this, Chris, this is totally political.

The students think they are taking politics out of this. The minute they bash the NRA, it's politics. And the point for many of this is - this is an event that advances a political agenda for the American left and the Democrat Party to bash the NRA.

Mark Kelly was on the show, too. You know - Mark Kelly, husband of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. They're working on a number of issues, including laws that would allow family members to have guns taken away from their own, or to keep their own family members from getting guns.

He spoke about the kids differently than Limbaugh did.

Well, these kids are incredibly articulate and certain members of Congress are really good at not listening to their constituents. I mean, these - you know, these reforms are supported typically by 70 to 90 percent of Americans. And to have high school kids who went through this horrific shooting, calling for change, should matter. I would hope in our society that that would make a difference.

This is a very political issue, though.  We've got to get people to vote on this issue. I can guarantee you that those kids you had on today are going to vote on this issue probably for the rest of their lives. They're going to encourage others to do, to do that as well. 

See you around campus.