Wondering on Wednesday 3/17/21

Today, we're playing a fill-in-the-blank version of our wondering game. You're free to complete the answers any way you want. 

1. Someone suggested Meghan Markle might run for president in 2024. I wonder, will this really make Former Guy more likely to _______?
2. I wonder how many people have learned a new skill, such as _________ ,since the pandemic was declared a year ago this week?
3. A crossword puzzle clue asked 'where politicians like to play.' The answer was Peoria;  I wonder, wouldn't they rather play in ________?
4. Just days after the American Rescue Plan passed, stimulus checks are arriving. I wonder if people will ______ the money, or will they _____?
5. The Washington Post issued a lengthy correction for an article about _______between a politician and a woman. Was the politician ______? And was the woman ________, I wonder?
6. There are all kinds of weather warnings - historic warnings, I've heard - for parts of  Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee beginning today. If a Sharpie was needed to update the weather maps, I wonder if ______ would be best suited to handle the task.
7. At a COVID briefing today, I had to wonder when I heard my Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo say  _______.
8. The NY Assembly and Senate are working on the budget, and might make mobile sports betting, legal pot, and more casinos a reality. I wonder, will they legalize ______ next?
9. Every now and then, I wonder how much longer we'll __________.
10. _______ and ______ are worth a wonder or two - do you agree? 

I'd love to see your answers - chime in! And I'd love to know what you're wondering about.

Poll Watch: New Yorkers Speak

I briefly mentioned the new Siena College poll as a Sidebar to this week's Sunday School, but I wanted to take a deeper look at the poll today. 

First, the small print: it was taken March 8-12; 805 NYS registered voters participated, 430 via landline and cell phones, and 375 online via a proprietary panel. The youngest person in the household was asked to participate. Phone and web data was merged and statistically adjusted by age, party, region, race/ethnicity, education, and gender. The error margin is 4.1%.

Recapping the info about the Sonofa Gov, the survey found

• 48% think Gov. Andrew Cuomo can effectively do his job despite the investigations; 34% say he can't (a +14 margin);
• 35% (+11) believe he has sexually harassed women; 
• 57% (+25) are satisfied with how he's addressed the allegations against him; and
• Blacks are the only group where a majority (59%) want to see him re-elected.

Here's some detail on the resignation question; as I noted yesterday, 50% say he should not.

• Independents are the most conflicted on that; 46% say no, but 22% are undecided;
• the 'no' votes from all regions of the state: 55% in NYC, 46% in the NYC suburbs, and 47% upstate;
• Blacks (69%) offer more support for him staying in office than other ethnicities; whites and Latinos both are at 47%,' and
• responses are pretty consistent across income levels: 51% of the <$50K, 47% of the $50K - $100K, and 52% of the >$100K all say he should not resign.

Here's what else is on our minds in the Empire State.

• By a slight margin (but within the margin of error), more of us think the country is on the right track (50%) than think New York is (48%).
• Independents view Joe Biden (57%) more favorably than they do Andrew Cuomo (38%), and Cuomo more favorably than they do former NYer Donald Trump (34%).
• Higher income earners ($100K and up) significantly favor Biden (65%) over both Cuomo (43%) and Trump (30%)
• Upstaters show higher favorability ratings for both the Assembly (42%) and Senate (44%) than I expected; Independents (35% and 36%, respectively) are less happy with both chambers. 
• Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins have extraordinarily high Don't Know/No Opinion ratings (71% and 68% respectively), given they're not new in their roles. That may have to do with them being in Cuomo's shadow, until recently.
• Our senior Senator, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, has both a higher favorable rating than Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (49% to 43%) and a higher unfavorable rating (35% to 27%). 
• With 74% overall support, we love the Biden administration's American Rescue Plan. Other than Republicans (48%), a majority of every single demographic - political party, ideology, gender, union and non-union households, all age groups, all declared faiths, all geographic regions, all races/ethnicities, and all income brackets - support it.

Finally, since we're in budget season, here are the responses to a couple of potential money-making opportunities for the state.

• On whether we should allow online sports betting, at least a plurality of all demographics except Jews (38%) says yes.
• Similarly, on the question of legal recreational pot, at least a plurality of all demographics says yes.

Do you see your opinions represented here? And are they accurate compared to what you and folks in your circles (or COVID pods) are thinking? Chime in!

Wondering on Wednesday 3/10/21

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Well, well, well. The House passed the American Rescue Plan (the Biden Stimulus) with zero Republican support, just like the Senate did. And while the Rs continue to complain that "the bill wasn't targeted enough" I haven't seen anything specific that's supposed to get me all up in arms about this bill. Why is that, I wonder? And who has that information - Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? 

I worked pretty hard today to get myself a COVID vaccine appointment, something I was able to do because I'm retired and not picky about where I go for the darn thing. As I was going through the process - two times, on different websites, trying to find the best timeslot -  I was shut out of three available time slots that were available when I started entering my info, but gone by the time I was done. And that makes me wonder why they didn't talk to the Ticketmaster/Live Nation people to see how they coded their "your transaction must be completed within 10 minutes to hold your seats" stuff - boy, what a game-changer that would be with the vaccine appointments!

The Pentagon approved having the National Guard protecting the Capitol until May 23rd, at the request of the acting leadership of the Capitol police. I'm on the side of legislators who work there in wondering why the need continues and how the date was chosen. I also have to wonder why they're not getting any intelligence briefings on why the need remains. Unless, of course, there are senators and representatives who have some bad stuff that got swept up in the cell phone data, and they can't be trusted with the intelligence?  Could that be it, I wonder?

I wonder what the roll call vote would be to have Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene disallowed from requesting roll call votes on stuff for the sole reason of trying to maintain her relevancy?

There's more, but there's also tomorrow.

Wondering on Wednesday 3/3/21

Ready... Set... Wonder!

So, are you wondering about the agreement between President Biden and moderate Dems in the Senate, the one that'll tighten the income requirements for the next stimulus? Honestly, I think it's a good idea, and I don't care if that puts me in the minority. 

The House bill would give the full $1400 payment to individuals who make up to $75K and married couples making up to $150K, a lesser amount for folks earning between $75K -$100K and couples earning between $150K-$200K, and nothing for folks over those higher thresholds. The new plan for the Senate version is the same as the House, except that individuals earning over $80K and couples over $160K wouldn't get anything.

To me, that's progress - and it bodes well for them taking a closer look at other parts of the bill that seem excessive, or that have a razor-thin tie to COVID. 

Also not really drawing wonder from me? Comments by AOC, of the Squad of progressives in the House. Here's what she said, according to the same article above

I don't understand the political or economic wisdom in allowing Trump to give more people relief checks than a Democratic administration. People went far too long without relief last year - if anything, we should be more generous, not more stingy. It's also an insensitive compromise for the roughly 80% of Americans that live in urban areas, which are known for higher costs of living.

Here's the thing I do wonder about, now that AOC is on record with concerns about being sensitive to people in high cost of living areas. How can she be such a proponent of a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour? If you want to talk about being "insensitive," imagine convincing yourself and countless millions of others that it's acceptable to have the same minimum wage in Mississippi, where the 2021 cost of living is 86.1; Arizona, where it's 97; and in New York, where it's 139.1?

Sticking with sensitive people, the poor people at Fox are beside themselves with the insensitivity of Dr. Seuss Enterprises in deciding to stop publishing six books. Here's a chart from the Media Matters gang showing the absurd imbalance in the network's coverage yesterday of three topics: Seuss, COVID vaccines, and testimony about the insurrection on January 6th. 

Now, we know exactly why they're doing this - it's to get our attention away from things that are, you know, actually important - including the ongoing pandemic and anything that might put the network and their conspiracy theories in a bad light - which is exactly what FBI Director  Christopher Wray did.

We have not to date seen any evidence of anarchist violent extremists or people subscribing to antifa in connection with the 6th," he said. "That doesn't mean we're not looking, and we'll continue to look, but at the moment we have not seen that.

Wray also noted that there was no evidence that there were "fake Trump supporters" in the mob that stormed the Capitol, as Johnson and others have insinuated.

Now, back to the folks at Dr. Seuss Enterprises; the reason they're choosing to stop publishing the books is because they "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong."  

In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in high school and performed as the main character in full blackface."

Oh - in case you're wondering, it's not "cancel culture" when a company, after a couple of years of review and reconciliation, decides to do something like this. It would be cancel culture if I were a million times more famous than I am, and I called on my millions of followers to, say, stop shopping at Macy's, like Dear Leader did.

Finally tonight, here's the official statement from my Sonofa Gov's website on the recent allegations that he sexually harassed three women, and here is the statement he gave in person today at his COVID press conference.  The second one - the live version, if you will - started out this way:

Now, the lawyers say I shouldn’t say anything when you have a pending review, until that review is over. I understand that; I’m a lawyer too. But I want New Yorkers to hear from me directly on this.

I'm wondering if Gov. Cuomo talked with his daughters about how they would feel if someone his age talked to or acted towards them the way it's alleged he spoke or acted.

If he didn't, I hope he does.

What are you wondering about tonight?

Sunday School 2/28/21

Seven senators made classroom visits today; with the House passing the stimulus package, and Dem plans to use reconciliation to get the minimum wage through the Senate being shot down, attention will turn to them, so that's where I'm focusing, too. 

Here are highlights of a few of them, starting with Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), who spoke with George on This Week. Hirono was first.

• She's supportive of anything that will work to get the minimum wage increased, noting that it's mostly essential workers who are earning the $7.25 hourly wage, which she called "poverty level."
• The appropriate response to sexual harassment allegations against my Sonofa Gov is to listen to the people who come forward, "and then to do the appropriate investigation and corroboration of the allegations." The NY AG "would be the independent entity to conduct such an investigation."
• The Biden administration is showing leadership on anti-Asian hate crimes, having issued an executive memorandum requiring the new AG "to work with state and county officials and community groups to prevent and prosecute these kind of hate crimes."

Next? Sen. Portman, who voted to pass the Trump tax cuts and repeal Obamacare via reconciliation, but says trying to do COVID relief that way "would poison the well of bipartisanship." 

• He thinks what Biden should do is "...to start off with more bipartisan measures, so that we don’t poison the well, so that we can continue to work together. And in this case, it would be very easy to get Republican support for a COVID relief package."
• He poo-pooed the idea that Republican voters are in favor of the bill -"if, you know, checks are coming out to people's homes, that's going to be popular, but that doesn't mean that this is the right bill." He gave a list of things in the bill he says are not related to COVID.
• Working together "is not difficult. We can work together on this one and then continue to work together on infrastructure and retirement security and supply chain issues with China and so on. So my hope is that they'll change their mind before this over." 
• He doesn't think Biden has gone far enough on Saudi sanctions vis a vis MBS and Jamal Khashoggi, "although you have to give him credit" for increasing sanctions and travel bans on the people directly responsible for murdering Khashoggi - but he thinks there needs to be something directly targeting MBS. 
• He says former president Trump is "very popular" with the Rs, but policies are more popular - in fact, "there are a number of things we can talk about from a policy perspective that I think will help to move the party forward. And that's where we ought to focus."

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was in the Meet the Press classroom; here are highlights.

• Brown's statement about not waiting for Rs to grow spines but having the Dems show Americans they don't have to "settle for a government that's set up to fail" was not defiant, but prescriptive. 
• He always wants to be bipartisan - he's a Dem in conservative Ohio, after all - and says the COVID bill is a bipartisan plan, will broad support, and "Just because Senate Republicans don't support it doesn't make it partisan." 
• He says " -- it's become a Trump party. It's not a party of reason. It's a party that has turned its back." He referenced Sen. Mitch McConnell doing nothing about COVID relief for months, the Rs failing to raise the minimum wage, and more. 
• He says they'll find a way to solve the problem somehow, noting "The corporate elite, the far-right elite in Washington have blocked it year after year after year after year, and we're going to make it happen."'
• We're not done yet on Saudi Arabia, he says, saying "We need to hold any foreign authoritarian, like the royal family, some of the members of the royal family, we need hold them accountable."

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Chris Coons (D-DE) talked with Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union. Here are excerpts, with Cassidy up first. 

• He said the Rs "have got to win in two years, we have got to win in four years. If we do that, we will do that by speaking to those issues that are important to the American people." That's more than "putting one person on a pedestal and making that one person our focal point."
• He also said that "CPAC is not the entirety of the Republican Party... we lost the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency. No president -- that has not happened in a single four years under a president since Herbert Hoover. "In order to win, they have to listen to all voters, not just the Trump fans. "That is a reality that we have to confront."
• He doesn't think Trump will be the nominee in 2024, and whether or not Trump is fit (Cassidy didn't answer), he said, "The point is, I don't think he is going to be our nominee..."
• He has "no clue" how the COVID bill will come out of the Senate, and that the Rs haven't been involved. He "started laughing" listening to press secretary Jen Psaki saying the Rs have been listened to, saying "that is such a joke."
• Bipartisanship isn't dead, though; he's working with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) on a privacy issue, and, "Republicans remain willing and are working on issues that require bipartisan cooperation. We have done five on a COVID relief package in the past. It could have happened here. They made a conscious decision not to include us."

And, here're excerpts from the interview with Sen. Coons, a close friend of President Biden.

• He hasn't seen the details of Sen. Ron Wyden's Plan B proposal to tax companies that don't pay $15/hour. More importantly, "And if I'm someone who is always willing to negotiate with Republicans, I'm willing to negotiate with Democrats as well." Everyone - Ds and Rs alike - agree the minimum wage is too low, they just need to find a way to agree on a number and a path. 
• As do most Dems, he pointed to polling overwhelming support (76% of all Americans, and 60% of Republicans), so they should listen to the voters. And he's glad to hear Cassidy is still willing to work across the aisle, noting they've done that together in the past.
• He also said ..."Biden and the Democrats in Congress gave several weeks for there to be a serious negotiation that came close to the scope and range of this challenge. The proposals that came forward weren't anything like" what we're up against. "And so, frankly, we're moving ahead with a bill that probably will get no Republican votes in the Senate, but will have broad Republican support in the country."
• He said the Dems shouldn't "throw up the white flag and say, well, there's no way that we can work with Republicans, when this is literally the first major piece of legislation to come through. We will have other chances to pass bold legislation in this Congress, in this year, but we have to give bipartisanship a chance."

Dr. Anthony Fauci made four classroom appearances today (This Week, MTP, FTN and CNN SOTU), so I'm going to leave you on your own for those interviews.

See you around campus. Follow the COVID guidance, please, or I'll have to excuse you from class and assign additional homework. 

Sunday School 2/7/21

Are you ready for some football? Political football, I mean, of course. Let's dive in to the classrooms, shall we?

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who led the team of House managers on Trump's first impeachment chatted with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. Schiff said that the managers for Trump II need to present all the facts, and not presume that everyone - including all senators - are familiar with the full breadth of what the former president did over the course of many months leading up to January 6th. He's confident they'll be able to tell the story.

Schiff also said that he thinks some senators would complain about the process no matter how slowly the House moved, but he said there was "a real sense of urgency" this time, given what happened. 

And we felt in the House, as well as ten of the Republicans, that every day he remained in office he was a danger to the country and we simply couldn’t -- you know, we couldn't, you know, sit still, and wait for weeks or months while this man posed a danger to the country. So, we did act with alacrity.

The president will have "every opportunity" to defend himself, even though he's already rejected testifying, and Schiff is encouraged by some senators who have said they're keeping an open mind. And yes, when he led the managers, they did believe that they had a chance - "it was very uphill" - and that, had they been allowed witnesses, they might have been able to change people's minds.

He said everyone needs to let the managers put on their case; he said lead manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is "an extraordinarily capable, brilliant Constitutional scholar " and will be among the folks making the call on whether or not to ask for witnesses.

But in a very real way, Chuck, we have the unusual circumstance where, on the very first day of the trial, when those managers walk on the floor of the Senate, there will already be over 100 witnesses present. And those will be the House and Senate members.

Finally, Chuck shared this comment from GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, directed at Democrats after the vote to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her assignments.

If people are held to what they have said prior to even being in this House, if majority party gets to decide who sits on what other committees, I hope you keep that standard because we have a long list you can work within your own.

He asked if Schiff if he was worried about the precedent. Schiff said

Kevin McCarthy stands for nothing except the perpetuation of his own position. He has no values. And in my view, cares about little except for hoping to be speaker one day, God forbid.

He said that members - of either party - who threaten violence against other members, who cast doubt on 9/11 and school shootings, who heckle shooting victims, who suggest that a religious group is shooting laser beams to start forest fires, 

they should be expelled from their committees, whatever party they are in. They shouldn't, frankly, even be in the Congress.

The bottom line for Schiff? If everyone is held to the same standard, there's nothing to worry about.

And, speaking of worrying about things, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joined Jake Tapper in the State of the Union classroom. She was asked to respond to comments from Larry Summers, a former Treasury Secretary himself, who said that "the proposed Biden stimulus is three times as large as the projected shortfall" and that it could lead to rising inflation. Yellen said that,

as Treasury secretary, I have to worry about all of the risks to the economy. And the most important risk is that we leave workers and communities scarred by the pandemic and the economic toll that it -- that it's taken, that we don't do enough to address the pandemic and the public health issues, that we don't get our kids back to school.

She listed other impacts, including millions out of work and out of the work force, children falling behind because schools aren't open, too many small businesses closing, police and firemen losing their jobs, and more. She said "we need a package that's big enough to address this full range of needs. And I believe that the American Rescue Plan is up to the job."

Regarding the risk of inflation, which she has "spent many years studying,, she said there are tools to deal with that if needed. And, she said, if we do nothing, "we would have a long, slow recovery" like we did after the Great Recession, according to the CBO. But, according to folks at Moody's and the Brookings Institution, this plan will put people back to work much sooner. Not only that, but she said if the package is passed, she expects that "we would get back to full employment next year."

Yellen said Biden is willing to work with folks in Congress to "define what's fair" and that he wouldn't want to see families making over $300K getting a stimulus payment, but that middle class families do need to get support. She didn't get any more specific than that, other than to reiterate that going big is important.

She said the SEC is working on a report giving all the facts of what went on with the GameStop trading and after that, folks can decide if new regs are needed. They'll review to "make sure the markets function efficiently, that investors are protected, and also that they understand the risks that they face when they engage in trading."

Regarding her own financial history with Wall Street types, including one of the hedge funds that was short-selling GameStop, she pointed to her ethics agreement and said she'd "religiously adhere to" that, and "will certainly abide by my ethics obligations."

Tapper dug up some old tape of Yellen saying, back in '98, "On average, women now earn about 75 percent of what men earn." And now, with women earning 81% of what men do, Tapper wondered what she wanted it to look like when her tenure as Treasury Secretary is over. 

Well, I would like there to be equal pay for equal work. And I would like to see the barriers that remain that impede the progress of women in the labor force addressed. Once upon a time, labor force participation of women in the United States exceeded that of most European countries.

The opposite is true now of Europe and other developed countries. And big differences are the availability of child care and paid family and medical leave. And these are things I think we need to work on in order to make it easier for women to work and to combine work with family life.

That would be fun, right?

I'll have Mayor Pete, er, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, in your Extra Credit. 

See you around campus - masks on, of course. And Go, Bucs in the Super Bowl!

Quick Takes (v57): What Just Happened Here?

In a world where everyone has their own definition of 'unity' and 'bipartisan' and 'what government should do' and 'who elected officials should listen to,' something interesting just happened.

On January 21st, President Biden released what he calls the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9T COVID package. The major provisions? $160B for vaccines, testing and the like; $170B for getting schools reopened; extended unemployment benefits through September; and stepped increases in the federal minimum wage to $15/hour. There would also be direct stimulus payments of $1400 to Americans earning up to $75K.

Ten days later, group of GOP Senators introduced a $600B counter-proposal. It keeps intact the vaccine money, but slashed money for schools, decreased the time and amount of extended unemployment, and dropped the minimum wage increase. It also recommends a smaller direct payment, and recommends giving it to a smaller group of people, excluding individuals earning over $50K a year.

The very next day, the senators met with Biden, VP Kamala Harris, and other members of the administration. They talked for a couple of hours, and ended with Biden reiterating the need to 'meet the moment', but that he was amenable to his folks getting together with the GOP team to talk things over.

Three days later, on February 4th, guess what? The White House has released an updated proposal which keeps the direct stimulus at $1400, but drops the income level down to $50K a year. In terms of overall impact, Biden dropped from about 85% of Americans getting full payments down to just over 71% getting full payment and another 17% getting partial payments.

Biden and the Dems also wanted to see payments of $3600 for kids under age six, and $3000 for kids six to 17. Senator Mitt Romney is working on a proposal that would provide $3000 for all kids, in another effort to garner bipartisan support.

What's going on here? The president meeting, in person, with people from the other party? And adjusting his proposal to try and come up with something that might be amenable to folks on both sides of the aisle? That's heresy! 

That's not how this is supposed to work, right? Aren't they supposed to just be shouting at each other, calling each other names, and refusing to even meet with people from the other side? That's what we're used to, and frankly that's what some folks seem to be selling.

Maybe we should be paying more attention to the people doing the work, and giving lots less time to the people babbling in front of the microphones.

Sunday School 1/31/21

Who's making the rounds in the classrooms today?  

Let's start with a couple of Senators - Rob Portman (R-OH) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), both of whom were in the CNN State of the Union classroom with Dana Bash. 

Sen. Portman was first up.  He's one of ten senators who sent a two-thirds smaller COVID package to the White House today. He says it's "more targeted and more appropriate for the times we're in," and hopes they can meet with President Biden and hammer out a deal.

He wants more targeted direct payments; I agree. And he's concerned about "unprecedented deficits and debts," and about enhanced unemployment benefits. He says the Biden plan extends protections through September, but that

Most economists believe next year will be significant growth, over 4% growth. So, let's target that a little bit more and make sure that it ties somewhat to the economic conditions.

He also said the Dems using reconciliation to get the COVID bill taken care of is different than the Rs using reconciliation on tax cuts and repealing the Affordable Care Act. The Dems are trying to use it wrong, and without even trying to reach across the aisle to get a deal. Or something. 

Bash asked if he considered Trump's actions before and on January 6th amount to "impeachable conduct, yes or no." Portman's response took more words, but in a nutshell, Trump's behavior can be both inexcusable and not subject to conviction.

I have said with regard to the president's comments that day that they were partly responsible for what happened, for the horrible violence that occurred on Capitol Hill. I have also said that what he did was wrong and inexcusable.

He has concerns about the constitutionality of "convicting a private citizen," though, and how that might impact all former presidents, alive or dead. 

Sen. Warren was up next, talking about Wall Street, GameStop, Reddit, and hedge funds. Bash asked what she meant by saying it was time for regulators to "wake up and do their jobs."  Among the concerns is that "we actually don't know who all the players are in this." And, she hit on her favorite theme - the rigged system, where the stock market is more like a casino now. 

They have been doing all kinds of market manipulation, pump and dump, companies that buy back shares of their own stock, so that they can inflate stock prices. We need a market that is transparent, that's level, and that is open to individual investors. It is time for the SEC to get off their duffs and do their jobs.

Warren says we need more regulation around manipulation. The SEC's got some rules pending, but needs to take a "broader look" at how companies and hedge funds manipulate the market, "grow a backbone," and enforce the rules they put into place. We need more market transparency, a more level playing field that "helps individual investors come into that market and, frankly, helps make that market more efficient," and that big corporations and hedge fund love an inefficient market - they get better returns, she said, and individual investors lose out. 

The decision by Robinhood and others to prevent small investors from trading, while allowing the hedge funds to continue, is a prime example and "that's why we're going to have an investigation. That's why there's going to be a hearing in the Banking Committee. And I'm looking forward to it."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (That Guy from Vermont) was in the This Week classroom, with  Martha Raddatz hosting. She was interested in bipartisanship and COVID, and wondered if there was an over-estimation on the part of the new administration on that.

TGFV's confident we'll see it down the road, but "we have got to act and we have got to act now" to get relief to folks who can't feed their families, who are facing eviction. 

Raddatz asked about the new bill from the ten GOP senators, and whether the Dems made a mistake thinking about "abandoning bipartisan negotiations so soon?" Again, TGFV said the issue is about addressing the crises we face, ticking off the list of issues: producing the vaccines we need, and getting them into arms; children going hungry; evictions; schools not open. Asking about bipartisanship is the wrong question, the right question is how will we go about

addressing the unprecedented crisis that we face right now. If Republicans want to work with us, they have better ideas on how to address those crises, that's great. But, to be honest with you, I have not yet heard that.

He said he's confident the Dems have the votes to pass the package via reconciliation, and that the polling shows overwhelming support by Rs, Ds, and Is. And he doesn't seem concerned about Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who's the most conservative Dem in the Senate and, according to some, the most powerful. Manchin complained that no one reached out to him about the bill, saying "that's not a way of working together."

Democrats have majority because of the fact that we won two seats with great candidates in Georgia. And, obviously, those candidates won the support of the people of Georgia, but that campaign, in many ways, was a national campaign. And what those candidates said is, yes, we are going to provide checks of $2,000, $1,400 on top of the $600. Yes, we're going to extend unemployment benefits. Yes, we are going to address the needs of working families. The entire Democratic Party came together behind the candidates in Georgia. We made promises to the American people. And if politics means anything, if you're going to have any degree of creditability, you know what? You can't campaign on a series of issues, and then, after the election, when you get power, say, oh well, you know what, changing our mind. That's not the way it works. We made promises to the American people. We're going to keep those promises.

See you around campus. Wear a mask or two, please - and thank you.

Sunday School 1/17/21: Extra Credit

For your Extra Credit today, I spent some time in the Fox News Sunday classroom, where Chris Wallace chatted with the Biden administration's top economic advisor Brian Deese, who'll be the director of the National Economic Council starting this week. 

Wallace wondered if they really need $1.9T in COVID relief, and Deese made the case for it: 30M Americans without enough food; a negative jobs report in December; dealing with the pandemic; getting schools open and parents back to work... It all adds up to "an acute economic crisis and human crisis" that require "decisive action."

Wallace outlined a number of criticisms of the bill, including not targeting direct financial aid to people who need it; $20B for public transportation; $9B for cybersecurity; raising the minimum wage to $15. He asked, "whether those last items, Brian, are a good policy idea or not, are – can you really say that they are part of emergency COVID relief?"

Deese explained how they all fit. The cybersecurity stuff? Well, we just had a major hack, and not only that, but much of what's getting done now is getting done on line because of COVID, so those resources are needed. And, all across the country, in both red and blue states, transit systems are in trouble, and the point of giving relief now is to prevent service reductions and support once we start climbing back out of the pandemic crisis. And the $15 per hour is a "concrete and direct way" to support the front-line workers, who have been providing the rest of us services throughout the pandemic.

Next, Wallace questioned whether they'd be able to get 60 votes in the Senate and avoid a filibuster, and pointed out the reticence of the Rs to go over $1T for COVID relief when they had control. Deese mentioned an analysis by Moody's suggesting that if Biden's plan was acted on quickly, it could lead to 7.5 million jobs just this year. Not only that, but there was good bipartisan support for $2K in stimulus. Expanding the child tax credit, vaccination efforts, efforts on education -- all of that, too, has bipartisan support with governors and mayors.

I think there's a lot of -- there's a lot of support for taking these actions. So we -- we're -- we see every reason why Congress should move out and should move out in a bipartisan way.

And if the Rs were to block it, to filibuster the bill, would Biden ask the Senate to get rid of the filibuster?  Deese pointed to recent skepticism, about Biden being able to win by calling for unity and working together, or that Congress could pass a bipartisan COVID bill in December. Both of those things happened, 

So let's see where we can get here. There is a lot of, again, a lot of elements of this plan that have support across the board, both in Washington and in state capitals and around the country. But we need to act. We need to act quickly. And that's what the economy is telling us. That's what the experts are telling us. And so that's our priority.

So, I guess that means one thing that's off the table is talking about ending the filibuster... 

Moving on to the upcoming-at-some-point second impeachment trial, and the hope that it could be scheduled to have the Senate do necessary work part of the day - including confirmations of Biden's cabinet - and the trial part of the day, Wallace wondered what happens if they can't get that kind of deal? Would Biden try to delay the trial until some of his stuff moves? Deese's answer?

So that's going to be our focus is trying to get an agreement and a structure that will allow that to happen. And we're able to move out on these multiple fronts and -- and make progress on these multiple priorities.

Final two questions. First, Wallace wondered if "raising taxes and increasing regulations" are the right things to do to get back the pre-pandemic economy.

Deese's answer? He pointed again to the Biden win, and suggested that wouldn't have happened if the economy was working for everyone. 

One of the things we've learned in crises is that acting decisively will put us on a path to have a stronger economic recovery coming out of this. So that's going to be our -- our focus, our immediate focus. Let's get decisive action. Let's put the economy on a stronger trajectory. That will be the best thing for American people, American workers.

And the last question was about Deese himself, not about Biden. Wallace mentioned the pushback from the left wing of the Dems because Deese was "too conservative" when he worked in the Obama administration, even going so far to call for reduced spending - the horror!  So, Wallace wondered, were the lefties wrong, or has Deese had a change of heart?

Well, look, the -- the -- the president-elect has a clear vision for making this economy work for working Americans again. That's a vision that I share and that we're going to wake up every day trying to move forward. It involves addressing some of the significant structural inequities in our economy that have left out too many Americans, including black and brown Americans around this country who have not had a fair shot, and that's going to be our focus. It's going to be my focus. That's been my animating focus across the last decade or more in public life and private life and I think that that's going to be what the president-elect expects of us and certainly that's what I and the team will carry forward.

Was that a teeny little filibuster there?

See you around campus.

Sunday School 12/27/20

Let's dive in to your Sunday School with interviews Dana Bash had on CNN's State of the Union with Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL) and Democrats Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY) and Rep. Cori Bush (MO). The Dems were both newly elected in November. 

Kinzinger was asked if there are enough R votes in the House to override the president's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act. Kinzinger hopes so, noting that the veto was "for nonsensical reasons" including Trump's requirement that the bill eliminate the Section 230 protections for Twitter and Facebook.  

...we had way more than two-thirds votes to pass this. I don't understand. I could not justify if I voted for this bill and then voted to sustain the president's veto, instead of override it. I do not know how you justify that, besides saying, I'm just going to do what the president wants. This is a great bill. This goes after China, Russia. It does a lot to shore up our cyber-defenses, which, as we have seen, are extremely vulnerable. To sustain the president's veto, after you voted for this bill, I just don't understand.

He couldn't say he was confident they'd be able to override the veto, saying "...we're in such a time that I just have no idea right now." They could afford to lose some of the original 'yes' votes and still override the veto, but he doesn't know how anyone could explain that.

Bash asked what he thought was next for the stimulus bill. Kinzinger said "this just shows the chaos of the whole thing," noting that Steve Mnuchin negotiated it, "presumably, on behalf of the president." And if the president wants $2000 checks, he should have negotiated that all along, and he can negotiate that after the agreed-upon bill is signed.

I don't understand what's being done, why, unless it's just to create chaos and show power and be upset because you lost the election. Otherwise, I don't understand it, because this just has to get done. Too many people are relying on this. We have worked hard. We should have had this done a lot earlier...

He said when he talks to his constituents, he tells them the same thing he told her: they did the negotiating, it wasn't pretty, but an agreement was reached, and that while it's easy to point fingers at Congress, they're not the bad guys now. 

Kinzinger also laments the president purposefully conflating the COVID bill and the omnibus spending bill, which is money that would have been spent "whether we had COVID or not."

But to then say that we're giving money to other countries in the COVID bill is disingenuous. And it totally conflates two different issues. But -- and it doesn't do a service to the American people to explain what's going on and how these things are different.

When it comes time to officially accept the Electoral College results, he expects "there will be a little chaos," and said "This is a scam, though." The election can't be overthrown, isn't going to be overthrown,

...And so all that's being done is, certain members of Congress, the president, et cetera, and like -- quote, unquote -- "thought leaders" on Twitter are getting retweets, they're getting followers, they're raising money on this scam. It is a scam.

Disappointing to people who think the election was stolen? Yes, but the disappointment's misplaced. 

...instead of being disappointed in the people that led them on this grifting scam, they're going to somehow try to convince these people that it was, I don't know, what's the new word, the RINOs in Congress or something like that, and not the Constitution that prevents this from happening in the first place...

Finally, he's not worried so much, but

...if you convince people that Congress can change a legitimate election, and everything was stolen, and there's a deep state-slash-QAnon theory driving this, which is that it's Satanist pedophiles that run the government, you could see people being driven to violence. So, I'm concerned about that.

He's also worried about the future of the Republican party, "that's being destroyed by conspiracies right now and anger."

We need more Kinzingers, don't you think? We need people are willing to speak out, who seek and understand reality, even if it's not to their liking.

Next, Bash talked with Reps-to-be Bush and Bowman about the state of things for them, as progressives in the House where the Dems hold only a slight majority. She asked Bush if she felt "confident and comfortable" with compromising. Bush said her first priority is to bring St. Louis to the table, as a "politivist" which she describes as an activist and a politician.

So, I'm using what I learned on the streets of Ferguson and every other -- every other protest, every other movement I have been a part of, that moxie, that desire to apply pressure, that -- being bold and fierce, bringing that to Congress, making sure that our -- the voices of regular people, and bringing grassroots organizers, bringing the people that are actually on the ground doing the work, bringing that to Congress, and making sure that that voice is heard. I feel like that is something that is -- that we're not seeing enough of. So, that's what I think that has to happen.

And, she said, you can't compromise "if you don't -- if you're not one of the people that know exactly what's happening on the ground in our communities?" She knows, she's been there, she said, and "that is what I bring, my lived experience."

Turning to Bowman, Bash wondered how he'll work to act on his ideals, including his support for defunding the police. He echoed what Bush said, that "our job is to meet the needs of our constituents, period, point blank." He talked about his district and said 

I have had two police-involved shootings in my district over the last year. So, as we talk about defunding the police, we're talking about reimagining public safety, reimagining public health, taking a holistic approach to legislating to truly meet the needs of the constituents in my district. That is the bottom line.

And, as far as compromising? Yeah, you can't do that "when it comes to, what are the needs of the people in my district." 

People are hungry. People are homeless. People are jobless. Poverty rates are way too high. And my fight in Congress is going to be with the people of our district to make sure we deal with those issues explicitly and directly, without compromise. 

Bash asked about the stimulus bill. Bush said that $2000 is not enough.

And so when we talk about giving somebody $600, that's a slap in the face to people who are suffering. And let me tell you, when you're hungry, you're hungry all day. That's an every moment, every hour feeling. And it does something to you.

And whether Trump's right to not sign the bill? He needs to get "his Republican buddies" to up the amount, to give people the money, and worry less about "getting his friends out of prison."

Bowman said we need monthly $2000 checks, and continue the $600 unemployment bonus and that Trump 

recently suffered a malignant narcissist's harm by losing the election. He continues to go to court to try to overturn the results. He continues to lose. And now he's posturing to make himself -- to bring himself back as the hero of the American people, asking for $2,000. 

He didn't agree that Speaker Pelosi erred by agreeing to the bill, but said they need to get back and do more.  And, in addition to prioritizing winning the two Georgia runoffs, he had more harsh words for Trump.

The president is the embodiment of everything that's wrong with this country. He's a privileged person who rose to power as a reality TV star. And now he's trying to drive this country into chaos. I can't wait for him to be out of office. 

Finally, she asked them both if they would support Pelosi for another term as Speaker. The non-answers were consistent, I'll give them that. Bush said she was "working within her community" while Bowman said he was "organizing within our community"  - and each said we'd find out when they voted.

When Bash asked what that meant, and after each trying to let the other go first, here's what Bowman got in before they ran out of time. 

We got to bring HR-40 to the floor for a vote. We need reparations for the African-American community. We need a federal jobs guarantee. We need Medicare for all. 

Is Pelosi's career as Speaker in trouble? Maybe; we'll have to see. But it sounds like she might have her hands full with Bush and Bowman, two new aggressive progressives. 

See you around campus. Wear your mask, or I'll kick you out of class. 

Wondering on Wednesday 12/23/20

Ready... Set... Wonder!

There's so much wondering in my head today. For example:

Who will be in the next round of pardons, clemencies and commutations? 

Why is the United States considering offering immunity to Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi royal who's such a good What's App friend of Jared Kushner, for his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi?

Who will be the next target that the president will attack, now that he's gone after the #2 Republican in the Senate? Any guesses?

Why are people all of the sudden worried about foreign policy? Why haven't they been complaining all along? And why are reporters and politicians lying about it?

Why did the president decide, suddenly, to be interested in the pandemic spending bill once it had been approved, after not paying attention - for months?

If you don't put out cookies for Santa Claus, does he get free returns on your stuff? And does he keep all those receipts? 

How many Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons do you think they get at the North Pole, anyway? And, of course, while I'm typing this, a BB&B coupon landed in my inbox... 

We've been listening to our collection of Christmas CDs (we're old - we don't stream) and my husband said that the "Mayhem Steamroller" tunes would be coming up soon... and can't you just picture THAT Allstate commercial? 

How do we get out of the mess, all of this stuff I posted yesterday?

Why are people STILL so concerned about the House Speaker's ice cream habit? And why do people think that she could fund the stimulus with it? And am I a bad person for buying craft ice cream myself?

How many people will follow the applicable COVID restrictions where they live? How many of the three million+ people who've moved through TSA airport screening checkpoints around the country are going to quarantine when they get off the plane? 

How much does Dr. Deborah Birx regret travelling with multiple generations of her family?

News is breaking that the president has vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act, the $740B military spending plan, mostly (he's said in the past) because it allows for renaming military bases, and because it doesn't remove protections for Twitter and Facebook, which have aggressively labelled his posts as fake news - and, really on both, what do they have to do with the military? 

How long will it take for his veto to be over-ridden? Probably not long.  And does Trump know he's the first to not sign the bill in nearly sixty years? And does he consider being the first another notch in his #winning  hair spray bottle? 

Should pandemic-denying Republican members of the House and Senate be getting the vaccine ahead of front line health care providers, the elderly, essential workers, and folks of all ages with pre-existing conditions? Are they really that much more valuable or that much more worthy of the protections than, say, my 90-year-old-with-a-heart-condition Mom?

What are you wondering about?

In Case You Missed It (v57)

Let's stroll down short-term memory lane, shall we? Here's your recap of last week's posts.

For your Sunday School, I literally drew names to see what classrooms I'd visit, and I ended up with George Stephanopoulos and Jake Tapper, which is better than ending up with Chuck Todd, wouldn't you agree?  

George talked with Jason Miller, a campaign guy from the Trump team. 

Miller was happy to talk happily about how happy everyone is that Trump is happily getting over his case of COVID-19 and how happy his doctors are not telling us the truth and stuff, and when George pointed out that 72% of respondents in a recent poll said Trump didn't take the risk of getting COVID-19 seriously enough and had not even protected himself, Miller recited all the things that Trump did that were completely unresponsive to the question. 

George tried to help him out by giving some concrete examples: 

... the president had to take it head-on, but he didn't have to have -- hold rallies where people did not social distance, where did not wear masks. He didn't have to mock former Vice President Joe Biden for wearing a mask and reporters who wore masks. He didn't have to continue to go to event after event without wearing a mask.

Again, we have an epic fail from Miller: the president is one of the most tested people in the country...  anyone spending time with him is tested before hand, they keep their distance - 

 -- the closest I ever get to the president is about eight feet, maybe six feet, usually a pretty solid distance back. A lot of times it's more like ten feet. 

Eight feet, six feet, ten feet - don't ever go fishing with this guy, he'll turn a guppy into a shark... 

In the CNN State of the Union classroom, Tapper continued his 'take no prisoners, I'm going to say what people all across the country are saying, and I don't care' attitude. Some people find it annoying; I find it refreshing. Check the post for his conversation with Ohio's Gov. Mike DeWine, one of many who won't say a bad thing about the president if you stood them in the middle of 5th Avenue... 

Your Extra Credit post had another Trump campaign guy, Steve Cortes, in the Fox News Sunday classroom. His rose-colored-glasses are even rosier than Jason Miller's.  Wallace pointed out what everyone knows -- someone, or maybe everyone - wasn't telling the truth about the president's health. 

As to the doctor lying, or Mark Meadows lying, Cortes didn't want to talk about that but when Wallace asked if the American people don't deserve the truth, Cortes said yes, and he was the one giving it to us. And, of course,

... we talk directly to the patient, in this case the President of the United States, who tells us things are going great. The whole world heard directly from the doctor who said things are going great. I mean to me, if the patient and the doctor say things are great and you hear from both of them and see both of them, to me, that is sort of case closed, really.

Yes - when the man who has told over 20,000 lies in his short time in office says he's healthy, we should believe him.

Mid-week, I was Wondering on Wednesday about all kinds of stuff, including the head-spinning announcement that Trump was pulling his negotiators and that we wouldn't see any stimulus until after he wins the election. Take a look.

Will there be a stimulus payment for Americans who are struggling and those who are not? Will there be a bailout for the 'too big to fail' airline industry?  Do we have to wait until after the election, when Donald Trump says he will be elected, before we'll see a rescue plan - for anyone? Or, maybe, those hearty, wholesome, crime-free red states will get some stimmy, and us blue-staters will have to wait until... when, I wonder? But the big wondering is, what happens if we hold off on handing out any relief until after the election and (drum roll please) Donny gets sent packing?  Who gets the bump then? Blue states? Blue states and maybe purple swing states that voted for Papa Joe and Mom-ala? I mean, has Trump thought this through, I wonder?

We now know, of course, that Trump hadn't thought it through, and then he came out with a couple of different 'roid-influenced statements and now, honestly, I don't even remember for sure whether anyone's talking or not.  

Thursday was a two-fer; the first post brought my recap of the vice-presidential debate. I focused not the talkin points that Sen. Kamala Harris and VP Mike Pence gave, and not on zingers they were trying to inject into the Interwebs, but rather on their answers to specific questions they were asked. Here's a look at a couple of those.  First, a question to Pence (PQ), the leader of the White House Coronavirus Task force:

PQ. Why is the US death toll, as a percentage of our population, higher than that of almost every other wealthy country?

A.

That's right - no answer. And here's a pretty important question for Sen. Harris (HQ):

HQ.  have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with Vice President Biden about safeguards or procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability? And if not, and if you win the election next month, do you think you should? 

A.

Yeah, no answer to that one either.  Neither of them answered direct questions on the economy, or on abortion... We really need to change the way we do these darn things. (I've talked about this before.)

The second post was a Quick Take on the domestic terrorism plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and law enforcement officers. Whitmer, you may remember, has been a thorn in the president's side on all things related to the pandemic, and he famously tweeted that her state should be liberated, around the time that armed protesters were gathering, confronting legislators and police, and what not.  Here are a couple of thoughts on that kind of thing, from Whitmer at the time of the tweet, and from LEOs announcing the arrests of the terrorist militia members.

When she was asked then whether the president's tweet might encourage more protests, Whitmer hoped it wouldn't, and "she also noted that people are feeling anxious about the pandemic and its economic fallout. And, she said.

The most important thing that anyone with a platform can do is to try and use that platform to tell people, 'We're going to get through this."

The collected federal and state law enforcement officers spoke of "elaborate plans" to kidnap Whitmer and overthrow the government, and referred to the "rather unprecedented" nature of the case - and, I'd suggest, the rather unprecedented state of affairs in the country today. 

...it does send a very vivid reminder that while we may be in a period of discourse, possibly even divisiveness and fighting across the nation, law enforcement stands united.

And finally, blissfully, it was time for your TGIF. I'd been reading lots of comments on lots of subjects, and used the post to recount some of them. Here's a couple for you.

Some people who think it's offensive to talk about the fly on Mike Pence's head think it's perfectly OK to call people names, including libtard. Apparently insECTS are must worse than insULTS. (I love that one!)

Some people think that white supremacists and BLM are literally the same people.(Not just Joe Biden literally, but actually - literally - the same people.)

Chew on that last one for a bit... I did, for sure. 

So that's it -- your veritable pastiche from last week.  See you later for Sunday School. 

Wondering on Wednesday 10/7/20

Ready... Set... Wonder!

I wonder what we should call tonight's vice presidential debate? Will it be the #UghfestinUtah or the #KnockoutinKingsburyHall or the #SmackdowninSaltLake -- I can't pick my favorite, but I can pick what I hope they get to talk about: something OTHER THAN the coronavirus pandemic. I get that the Biden/Harris team is running in large part on how poorly the Trump/Pence team handled things, and I know that Pence is the alleged head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, but we really need to hear from the teams, without all the shouting and interrupting and gurgling and whatnot, what the heck these folks want to do if they're declared the winner after voting ends on November 3rd. 

And speaking of November 3rd, I see that Facebook is now saying they won't run any political ads after voting ends that day. And I wonder, who's still going to be running ads at that point, other than Trump and his main man #SnittySnittyBillBarr - I mean, I'm sure they'll still be screaming about election fraud even as ballots are being received, or removed from their locked boxes and then opened and inspected in accordance with each state's rules, but is anyone else going to be running ads then? If not, why doesn't Facebook just tell the Trump team to "stand back and stand by" (aka sit down and shut up) until counting is done?

And speaking of voting and interference and lies and fake ads and stuff, today FBI Director Christopher Wray had a virtual press conference reassuring Americans that our election will be safe. And I wonder, will Trump wait until after the election before firing Wray? Or will he do it first, just to make sure he has the chance?

What else is going on? Will there be a stimulus payment for Americans who are struggling and those who are not? Will there be a bailout for the 'too big to fail' airline industry?  Do we have to wait until after the election, when Donald Trump says he will be elected, before we'll see a rescue plan - for anyone? Or, maybe, those hearty, wholesome, crime-free red states will get some stimmy, and us blue-staters will have to wait until... when, I wonder? But the big wondering is, what happens if we hold off on handing out any relief until after the election and (drum roll please) Donny gets sent packing?  Who gets the bump then? Blue states? Blue states and maybe purple swing states that voted for Papa Joe and Mom-ala? I mean, has Trump thought this through, I wonder?

Um, let's see -- we're getting October surprises almost daily, it seems. Or maybe it's Trump's 'roid rage, not sure. Today he lost another case on his taxes, and he's declassifying documents going back to Abraham Lincoln, I think... oh wait - Hillary Clinton, not Abraham Lincoln. Sorry -- different three-syllable, two syllable name there. My take on the document dump? No one will read them.  

Instead, the nation will turn its lonely eyes to Fox and Friends, or Don Lemon, or Chuck Todd, or Judge Jeannine, woo woo woo, and be told what to think about what they haven't read. And, if all goes according to Trump's plan, his base will vote for him, and Biden's base will vote for him, and nothing really matters any more... 

When did the president last test negative before being diagnosed with COVID-19, I wonder?  Bueller? Bueller? Anybody?

Mike Pence's aide Katie Miller is married to immigration psychopath Stephen Miller, who has tested positive. Mike Pence attended the #2020RoseGardenSuperSpreaderParty for Amy Coney Barrett, sitting in front of Sen. Mike Lee who has tested positive. I'm impressed with his negativity, I am, no wondering about that. 

And according to something I just heard, there are now 34 cases stemming from that little party. Anyone wondering how long before Kevin Bacon tests positive? 

The president said that his getting COVID was a blessing from God. I'll let you wonder about that one, and whether the 210,000-plus people who have died from it since the pandemic began would think the same thing.  And speaking of blessings and bizarre statements, don't forget that Trump's 4th chief of staff Mark Meadows, said that sticking by Trump while he was doing photo ops  undergoing treatment at WRMC was a message for our military men and women and boy oh boy, if you're not wondering about that, I don't know what you ARE wondering about...

And finally, about tonight's debate, I'm not wondering at all which of them will answer fewer questions: that's Pence, for sure. He is a professional question-non-answerer, and we've got proof.  Even though his chief of staff just said Pence is a "gifted communicator" - blecch.

Get your snacks, your beverages, and your bingo cards, if you're so inclined. We can compare notes tomorrow. About that, there's no wondering at all.