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.

Quick Takes(v59): GOP Pride, Swallowed (Again)

Remember last week when it was reported that former president Donald Trump had ordered the 'official' Republicans - the RNC, the NRCC and the NRSC- to stop using his name and likeness in their communications?

According to an article in Politico, The Donald was "furious that his name has been bandied about by organizations that help Republicans who voted to impeach him - without his permission." However, an advisor made clear,

...Trump remains committed to the Republican Party and electing America First conservatives, but that doesn't give anyone - friend or foe - permission to use his likeness without explicit approval.

Well, the RNC responded, telling Trump's lawyer that it

 has every right to refer to public figures as it engages in core, First Amendment-protected political speech. 

Not only that, but the attorney said that Trump had 'reaffirmed' with Ronna McDaniel that it was OK for the RNC to use his name to raise money - which the organization did on Sunday, in an email urging supporters to "DEFEND President Trump's America First policies."

Then, we learn from the WaPo that the RNC will hold an event at Mar-a-Lago next month when it brings big donors to Florida, instead of at a hotel as originally scheduled. Trump will speak at the dinner, while others, including Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis (he came in second in the CPAC straw poll), and former Secretary of BS Mike Pompeo will speak at the hotel.

The RNC will pay to rent the club and for the meals; that's typical for events like this. It's almost required to get Trump to appear. When he was president, the chances of getting his participating increased if the event was at one of his properties, where he'd make money off his supporters while accepting their adoration.

According to HuffPo, "That type of self-serving arrangement had become somewhat standard the Trump era, with his properties collecting some $10.5 million from various political and campaign funds.

 Grifters gotta grift, you know.

But what - there's more! Late last night,  Former Guy sent a direct message to his supporters. In it, slammed the Rs for supporting people who don't support him - the RINOS, he called them (adding an S to the acronym) - and asking that his real supporters send money to him, not to the RNC. He used that same tactic to raise millions for his alleged legal defense fund.

As one Twitter user noted, "this whole suicide pact could not be more explicit."

It's hard to imagine that the RNC could debase themselves any more than this - paying Trump for the privilege of having him bash their members, and then standing back and standing by as he tries to gut their fundraising efforts - but I suspect they'll find a way. They always do.

Sunday School 3/7/21: Extra Credit

At the end of Sunday School I promised I'd have some of the COVID discussions from yesterday's classrooms, so let's dive in. First up? Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who spoke with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union. 

On him relaxing guidelines in his state, Reeves said the people who've been saying for a year to follow the data "now want me, when things are going down, to completely ignore the data." He said he's "less concerned about the number of cases and more concerned about our objective," which has never been to be virus-free. Rather, it's to "ensure we protect the integrity of our health care system" and that anyone who gets the virus gets good care.

And, he said, they are trying to protect both lives and livelihoods, as he ignored Tapper's question about the surge in cases and deaths that happened the last time he lifted the mask mandate. He trusts his citizens to "make good decisions."  Reeves continues to not only recommend people wear masks, he encourages it, saying

If you have not received the vaccination, and you are going into a large crowd, or if you're going out to dinner, I strongly encourage Mississippians and people across the country to wear a mask, because I believe that it does, in fact, reduce the ability of individuals to spread the virus. No question about that, Jake.

Notably, only about 9% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated, according to Tapper, but Reeves said they did 28,000 on Friday, and they're doing a lot better now than in the past. 

Dr. Ashish Jha, from Brown University's School of Public Health, is a regular on ABC, and he was in the This Week classroom with Martha Raddatz. She asked him about teachers still not wanting to get back in the classroom. He advocated for teachers being prioritized, and said he believes

most teachers are going to be perfectly willing to go back. It's safe for them. It's safe for the kids. There may always be some outliers. But we have to deal with that. I think there's no question of public health and safety when we think about vaccinated teachers in schools with good policies.

He also questioned states lifting the mask mandates, saying that "is not just about personal choice" and comparing it to impaired driving. 

 -- if I were to drink and get behind the wheel of a car, it's not just a personal choice that I'd be putting my life at risk, I'd be putting other people's lives at risk. That's why we have laws against that kind of behavior. When you wear a mask, you're not just protecting yourself, you're protecting people around you.

He's still optimistic on "what the summer will bring" in terms of getting back to normal; we'll have "plenty of vaccines for everybody and most Americans will have gotten vaccinated" by then. The changes made in Texas, Mississippi and other places can slow that timeline down, and put people at risk of getting infected - and dying.

And given how close we are to the finish line, anybody who gets infected today and dies in three or four weeks is somebody who would have gotten vaccinated a month from now. This is why it's urgent to just keep going for a little bit longer. I think a lot of these restrictions can start coming down later April, certainly by May, but not right now. 

And finally, Chuck Todd talked with White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients on Meet the Press. Chuck asked about the difference between "having enough vaccine for every adult American" and getting every adult American a shot. In fact, Chuck asked the question twice, without getting a real answer - the best he got was 

So, our goal is to get as many Americans, all Americans, vaccinated as efficiently and as fast as possible. But I want to emphasize equity and fairness is as important as speed and efficiency.

They also talked about people maybe holding out for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead of the Johnson & Johnson one. Zients said we have "three safe and very effective vaccines" and that folks should take the first one they're offered, and that the administration is working to ensure even distribution of all three of them.

They also talked about vaccine equity, with Chuck sharing that the most African-American ward in DC, which has the most COVID deaths, is not getting the most vaccines. Zients is aware that type of thing is happening "in too many parts of the country" and it's unacceptable, it's not fair and it's not equitable. 

We need to bring vaccines to people where they are, which is why community health centers are so important. They serve over 30 million Americans. Two-thirds of those that use community health centers live below the poverty line. Sixty percent come from communities of color.

The community health centers, the mobile units, and the pharmacy program are also focused on hard-hit areas. He also said they're working with states on vaccine supply, access issues, and support for folks trying to get signed up.

Many governors and states have improved their access. But we need equal access across the board. We need to fix this problem. We need to hold ourselves accountable to both speed and efficiency, but fairness and equity in the distribution of the vaccine.

See you around campus. Please get vaccinated as soon as you're able, and keep making good decisions about mask-wearing and social distancing. 

Sunday School 3/7/21

In the classrooms today? Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the most important man in the Senate; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY). Manchin was in just about every classroom, but I'll limit his appearances here to two. 

First up? DeWine and Austin, who talked with Martha Raddatz on This Week.

Gov. DeWine didn't want to talk about Texas and Mississippi, he wanted to talk about "the Ohio way." He said they've learned a lot over the past year. And while things are getting better, they're still at a "fairly high level." How high? 179 cases per 100,000 people for two weeks, down from over 700/100K in December. They're shooting for 50/100K, before he'll look at getting rid of his state's guidelines.

Turning to schools, they've got 95% of kids in classrooms now, compared to 50% at the beginning of the year. The hold-out? Cleveland, where everyone got vaccinated but the union still doesn't want to go back. 

...many of our urban kids have been out of school for one whole year. We had to get them back. Absolutely urgent that we did. So, we -- frankly, we made a deal... and we made the superintendents and the CEOs sign a paper, if you go back in school, promise by March 1, we will vaccinate everyone in your school that wants to. And it's worked exceedingly well and it's safe because we're vaccinating the teachers. They need to go back.

 DeWine seems confident they'll get it worked out. 

Gen. Austin (Ret.), the first Black Defense Secretary, said he wants to do what's necessary to make sure he's not the last Black Defense Secretary, and that opportunities exist for people of color in the military to "rise to the very highest ranks."

On extremism in the service (40 vets have been arrested for actions on January 6th), he said the service branches are all having "some really in-depth conversations," and added that it's not about political parties or beliefs. Rather,

we want to make sure that our troops are reminded of what our values are, reminded of the oath that we took coming in. And my belief, my strong belief... is that 99.9% of our troops embrace those values, and are focused on the right things, and are doing the right things each and every day.

On some hot topics, here's what he had to say. 

• We want Iraq to quickly investigate the rocket attack last week, make sure we understand who was responsible, and that whoever launched them should "expect us to do what's necessary to defend ourselves." 
• Saudi Arabia is a strategic partner; we have to work together, but "that doesn't mean (we) can't hold them accountable for various things." 
• China's trying to close the competitive edge we have over them, and that they've been "very aggressive" in the region, including against our allies; he said our allies are "very important to us."

Moving down the hall to the State of the Union classroom, Jake Tapper chatted with Sen. Manchin, who initially was confused and called Tapper 'Chuck' instead of 'Jake.' Tapper wasted no time, diving in by asking why Manchin was "fighting for less help for citizens during this cruel economic time?" Manchin said he just tried to make sure that "we were targeting where the help was needed." He didn't say specifically that he was "under pressure," but said  

the bottom line is, that's what it's about, negotiations. I work with my Republicans friends. I work with my Democratic Caucus and my friends. We try to find that middle. With that, sometimes, it gets -- it gets a little frustrating at times. But the bottom line is, at the end result, we got one tremendous piece of legislation.

Manchin lamented that folks "don't have the tolerance to sit down and work more," but he also said the bill is more bipartisan than people realize, that Rs and Ds have been working together for a month, and that they did make changes to the bill.

Tapper asked what Manchin would say to AOC about her comment on the minimum wage provision being dropped from the bill. Here's what she said.

The fact that we have two people in this entire country that are holding back a complete transformation in working people's lives, the same people who have held our country together throughout this pandemic, is wrong

Manchin respects her input, but takes a different approach, in part because they come from "two different areas of the country that have different social and cultural needs," and everyone needs to be respected..." He'd like to see a more collaborative approach on getting the minimum raised. He thinks it should be $11, based on the poverty guidelines, and that they can "do it very quickly too, within a couple of years" and then index it to inflation. 

It should be the respect to the dignity work always being above the minimum wage of what the guidelines for poverty is and being able to lift yourself way far above that by your skill sets and your determination. And that's all we're saying. And that's what we have been trying to.

He calls that "the easiest lift of all."

Finally, we turn to the Meet the Press classroom, with Manchin again, and Barrasso. Quickly, on Manchin,

• he didn't get any promises from President Biden for his vote;
• he doesn't think they should get rid of the filibuster;
• he doesn't think reconciliation is the first path to legislating, it should only happen after working together and the normal process- "a committee, a hearing, amendments" - fail; 
• he hopes they can get Rs involved to the point where 10 or 15 of them will work the Ds.

In contrast, we have Sen. Barrasso, chair of the Republican Conference. He said once people find out what's in the bill, "they're going to lose a lot of any enthusiasm they may have for it..." He said the bill was "a liberal wish list of liberal spending just basically filled with pork." He said the White House didn't work with them, and that the bill "was never about getting people back to work or kids back to school or the disease behind us." He didn't identify any of the alleged pork in the bill.

Chuck asked if Barrasso didn't wish they were bigger checks, back in December, instead of just $600.

Well, not to the level that people are getting them now... with this bill, they're going to people in prison, they're going to people who are illegal immigrants, they're going to people who make much more money than you would expect people to actually need relief or help at this point. So, I think this is a mistake, what's happening in the bill that just passed the Senate.

Barrasso doesn't remember that prisoners got the Trump stimulus checks, I guess, or that the requirements for undocumented immigrants in this bill are the same as for the second stimulus.

On infrastructure, Barrasso said the bill that his committee passed last year is a great starting point; it passed unanimously, even That Guy from Vermont voted for it. And, he's talked to Mayor Pete about it, too.

On whether he supports the reelection of Lisa Murkowski in the Senate and Liz Cheney in the House (Trump doesn't, of course), he said Murkowski hasn't announced her intentions yet, but if she runs again, he'll support her. He and Cheney work closely together, "fighting the Biden administration," so he supports her, but disagrees with her on impeachment.

Also making the rounds today? Lots of folks talking about the pandemic, vaccines, masks and more. I'll have them tomorrow for your Extra Credit.

See you around campus. Wear your mask. And don't be stupid on Spring Break.

In Case You Missed It (v76)

Grab your cuppa and settle down to a review of last week's posts, in case you missed anything.

Sunday School brought conversations with a handful of Senators, including Ohio Republican Rob Portman, who talked about the American Rescue Plan (ARP) - the Biden COVID package - and about bipartisanship.

 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.

The bill passed yesterday, without a single Republican vote. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was featured in the Extra Credit post; he talked with Chuck Todd on MTP. Among other things, 

he sees there being an active engagement between our two countries - and he's happy to see us re-engaging.

I think certainly there were things that were more challenging under the previous administration in terms of moving the dial in the right direction on the international stage. But, at the same time, you know, we all have democracies that go in different directions from time to time. And the, the sweep of the work that we need to do together as, as allied nations in the G7 and elsewhere, continues to be really important.

I added a Sidebar to the previous week's Poll Watch and TGIF entries, which talked about our collective dissatisfaction with the two political parties and about the potential for a major Trump announcement at CPAC a week ago. And, there was the CPAC straw poll. Trump did well, naturally - it's his cult after all - and so did Ron DeSantis, Florida's governor. So, good news for them, right? Well, maybe not so fast.

One thing to keep in mind? The CPAC straw poll isn't very reliable. This Vox article includes a tweet from Jake Sherman at Punchbowl News. Take a look.

I was Wondering on Wednesday about a few things, including the fact that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dropped an inadvertent truth bomb on her argument for a federal $15 minimum wage. Complaining about the ARP giving only $1400 direct payments to everyone, where Trump gave $2000, here's what she said (emphasis added today)

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?

She proved the point I've been making about that for a few years now. And, as you probably know, the minimum wage hike was removed from the bill before it was voted on, and an amendment to put it back in was defeated, with eight Dems voting with all of the Rs to keep it out. 

I dropped a Quick Take on the fine art of negotiation that's practiced by some. And by some, I mean by macaques, when the tourists they steal from want to get their stuff back. 

I would never compare our elected officials to monkeys - someone got in trouble for doing that recently, I think. And I certainly wouldn't compare macaques to people - I'm sure someone would yell at me for that.

I'm just saying, if monkeys can learn to negotiate with people, can't we get our elected representatives to negotiate with each other? Is that too much to ask?

Funny, on the ARP, the hardest negotiation was the Dems talking to one of their own, WV Sen. Joe Manchin, who wanted to drop extended unemployment in the middle of the summer, when the House and Senate would be adjourned, and, for all we know, some of them (QanonRon Johnson, for example) might be in Moscow or something, and unavailable to fix it.

Lots of the progressives have been calling for the Senate Dems to ditch the filibuster. That's not new, I noted, by sharing a 2019 Knock Knock post on that very subject. I was surprising to me that I was on the same side of an issue as my other senator, Kirsten Gillibrand.

I don't always agree with my senator, but on this issue, I surely do. And if they don't want to listen to her any more than I normally do, maybe they'll listen to Delaware's Senator Chris Coons.

It's a terrible idea. Democrats would reap the whirlwind almost immediately. It is the last bulwark of the rights of the minority in the Senate. If a simple majority could carry the day, we'd have a right-to-work law signed into law by president Trump  - I could give you a list of 20 things that president Trump would have signed into law in his first few weeks that would either repeal anything positive thing that President Obama did or anything that a progressive Democrat would hope to do in the future.

The progressives may need to be reminded that they are not the majority of Dems,  that they've got to work extra hard to get things accomplished - and that they'll have to give a little. It will be interesting to see what they do with the ARP this week, when they have to vote on the Senate version before the bill can make it to Biden's desk. 

For your TGIF, I put my foot down and assigned the good week/bad week lists. The good were fun, the bad were to be expected - and I added a mixed week list just for all of us who vote. 

Voters had a decidedly mixed week, depending on what you read and, heaven forbid, on your own opinions, should you have them - please say you have opinions on this! Take a look:

Former lynching target Mike Pence had an op-ed about election integrity, which attacks HR1, the House voting rights act. Mostly, he says, it's full of changes making it harder for all kinds of people - the living, breathing kind I'm fond of, and the other kind, too - to engage in political speech. Not only that, but

Every single proposed change in HR 1 serves one goal, and one goal only: to give leftists a permanent, unfair, and unconstitutional advantage in our political system.

And that's only part of it - it actually gets both better, and worse. 

Finally, I ended the week with an Irony Board entry, after I stopped laughing.  It seems that some old guy named Trump has ordered his most fervent fundraisers to stand by and stand back, or something like that. According to an unnamed advisor to the former president, cease-and-desist orders have been sent to the RNC, NRCC, and NRSC.

...Trump remains committed to the Republican Party and electing America First conservatives, but that doesn't give anyone - friend or foe - permission to use his likeness without explicit approval.

That's so rich, coming from Trump - complaining about someone using him without permission. After all, Trump and his campaign have not been at all shy in using other people's intellectual property without permission, suggesting that they are folks who support him and his message. 

There's a list for you, if you want to know all of the people he's co-opted without permission. 

There you have it -- last week, in a nutshell. See you later for Sunday School.

The Irony Board: 45's Cease and Desist Orders

You may have heard someone say that a headline or an article 'almost writes itself.' Well, this is one of those articles.

It seems that the twice-impeached former president has declared his name and likeness off limits to the Republican National Committee (RNC) the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). 

According to Politico, lawyers for the former president "sent out cease-and-desist letters Friday to the three largest fundraising entities for the Republican Party  - the RNC, NRCC, and NRSC - for using his name and likeness on fundraising emails and merchandise," according to a Trump advisor.

Apparently, still according to Politico,

...Trump was furious that his name has been bandied about by organizations that help Republicans who voted to impeach him - without his permission. Trump, who made his fortune in licensing, has always been sensitive to how his name has been used to fundraise and support members, even while in office.

And, there's also this, again per an advisor.

...Trump remains committed to the Republican Party and electing America First conservatives, but that doesn't give anyone - friend or foe - permission to use his likeness without explicit approval.

That's so rich, coming from Trump - complaining about someone using him without permission. After all, Trump and his campaign have not been at all shy in using other people's intellectual property without permission, suggesting that they are folks who support him and his message. 

From classic American rockers to British artists to the estates of late legends, here’s a look at some of the musicians who have objected to Donald Trump using their songs at campaign events.

John Fogarty, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen  Some classic rockers say not only do they oppose Trump using their music, the choice of songs is ironic or downright wrong... 

Neil Young, Eddy Grant Most musicians have stopped at legal threats, but a few have actually sued over the use of their songs... 

Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Prince The heirs of dead artists have been as quick as living musicians in objecting to Trump’s use of songs... 

The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Adele Artists from the UK have been as vocal about their songs as their American counterparts... 

Panic! at the Disco, Pharrell, Rihanna It’s mostly Baby Boomer favorites who have objected to Trump’s use of their music, but younger artists have cried foul too, sometimes with foul language...

R.E.M., Guns and Roses Generation X bands have been as angry as anyone about the use of their tunes...

I think it would be interesting if the Republicans treated Trump's cease-and-desist orders with as much respect as he treated the requests from these artists - which was pretty much none. A few of them had to go back a second time when their first demands were ignored.

But what's really going to be fun is seeing how the RNC, NRCC, and NRSC work around not being able to use Dear Leader's name and/or likeness - or how much they'll be asked to contribute to him for the privilege. 

TGIF 3/5/21

Can you believe it's Friday again, already? 

Let's dive right in with the bad week list, and get that out of the way.

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared his state open - fully, freely, masklessly, crowdedly open - this week, saying that there are vaccines (!!) that will protect his constituents. He did say that people are urged to "continue wearing the mask" but that it was time to have the government stop running their lives. 

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbot also said that "the Biden administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID" into Texas, and that the administration must "IMMEDIATELY end this callous act that exposes Texans and Americans to COVID." That second statement is kind of silly, I think. I mean, if we just urge them to wear a mask, everything's going to be just fine, right? And who says they have COVID anyway? And are they also rapists and murderers and drug dealers, or just virus carriers? 

• Federico Klein, a former Trump campaign worker and later, a "special assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs" in the State Department, was arrested for participating in the January 6th insurrection. Klein was seen on police body cam video "jamming a riot shield into doors at the Capitol," and was "heard on video trying to encourage others to clash with police." He's been charged with assault on police officers, interfering with law enforcement, obstruction, and other charges. MAGA, or something.

• Andrew Cuomo, my Sonofa Gov, has had a horrible week. Pick your favorite search ending and search Andrew Cuomo news, and you'll have an idea. 

Voters had a decidedly mixed week, depending on what you read and, heaven forbid, on your own opinions, should you have them - please say you have opinions on this! Take a look:

• Former lynching target Mike Pence had an op-ed about election integrity, which attacks HR1, the House voting rights act. Mostly, he says, it's full of changes making it harder for all kinds of people - the living, breathing kind I'm fond of, and the other kind, too - to engage in political speech. Not only that, but

Every single proposed change in HR 1 serves one goal, and one goal only: to give leftists a permanent, unfair, and unconstitutional advantage in our political system.

• Compare that "one goal only" that Pence talked about to the goal expressed by the Arizona GOP in a virtual appearance before the Supreme Court earlier this week. When asked by Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett about "the interest of the Arizona RNC " in keeping certain disqualification rules on the books, attorney Michael Carvin was disarmingly honest. 

Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to the Democrats. Politics is a zero-sum game. And every extra vote they get through unlawful interpretation (of the Voting Rights Act) hurts us. It's the difference between winning an election 50-49 and losing an election 51-50.

As the linked article notes, "credit the Arizona Republican Party for at least admitting that these bills aren't about ensuring the integrity of Arizona's elections and they certainly aren't about ensuring democracy." 

• There are over 200 bills under consideration in red states that will, at least in the eyes of the opposition, suppress voting rights. That includes changes to Georgia's election laws that will, among other things, make it a misdemeanor  to hand out food and drinks to voters standing in line to vote. That's taking the 'zero sum game' to a whole nother level, don't you think?

I'll have a separate post on HR 1, which was passed by the House without a single Republican vote. There's a ton of stuff in it, some good and some bad - and the chances for it to make it out of the Senate, scathed or unscathed, are less than stellar.

Now, for the good week list.

• In a really cool use of technology, a 300-year-old sealed letter was 'read' after it was virtually opened. The letter, from 1697, was found in a postmaster's trunk. Historians and techies are both excited by the prospects.

• A townhouse development that didn't happen in an Atlanta neighborhood  allowed for something better: a 7-acre free 'food forest" which contains 2500 edible and medicinal plants, in an area where the nearest grocery store is a half-hour bus ride away. The article notes are there are 70 free food forests in the country now.

• Let's end with a good news story about the pandemic, to help wipe out the foolishness from Texas. Dolly Parton, who donated $1M to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help fund an early trial of the Moderna vaccine, got her first dose of the vaccine this week. And, to encourage others to do the same when it's their turn, she updated one of her classic songs. 

That's it for today - TGIF, everyone.

The Update Desk: The Sonofa Gov on Sexual Harassment

Everyone knows that my Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, has been accused of sexual harassment, inappropriate touching, and of making three accusers very uncomfortable. He issued a couple of apologetic statements the other day: an official one on his website, and a more personal one at the end of his COVID press conference. I've got links to both statements in this week's  Wondering on Wednesday, if you haven't seen them yet.

Some people may have forgotten about another sexual harassment case with ties to Cuomo; I addressed them in this Meanwhile Back in Albany entry from December 2017. 

It's everywhere, the insidious scourge of sexual harassment. 

That was the opening sentence. And, it continued by explaining that 'everywhere' included, we were told,  in the administration of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York City, Lisa Marie Cater alleges that William (call me Sam) Hoyt, who worked as head of the Empire State Development Corporation, repeatedly made unwanted advances, and further that the harassment was reported to and ignored by Cuomo's office, which is why Cuomo is a named defendant in the suit. The governor's office  denies ignoring the complaints.

It was against that backdrop that the governor found himself on the receiving end of a question from Karen Dewitt, an award-winning, long-time journalist with New York Public Radio, on this issue 

and it's safe to say that it didn't go well for the Sonofa Gov.

Dewitt noted the Hoyt allegations and asked Cuomo what he could do differently, and here's how he responded.

You have it going on in journalism. What are you going to do differently?

OK - sure, that's true, but this is a reporter talking to a governor who is a defendant in a sexual harassment case involving an appointee of the governor. There was some exchange after that comment, including a different reporter pointing out that the question was about state government. That didn't sit well.

No, it's about you and journalism (pointing his finger at the other reporter). And it's about you and journalism (turning to Dewitt and pointing again). And it's about state government. And it's about carpentry and it's about training forces... (Note: that last one may not be accurate, it was hard to understand what he said.)

Again, Dewitt asked if there was something that Cuomo could do differently. Apparently, his only option on that was to lecture Dewitt, using his best professorial intonation, especially at the end of this exchange.

We will have policies in state government, obviously, that affect state government, but I think you miss the point. When you "it's state government" you do a disservice to women, with all due respect, even though you're a woman.

Um... what the hell is that?

It went on like that, with him trying to change the subject, deflecting the questions about him, and talking about some bigger, "this has nothing to do with me" issue. At one point, Cuomo lectured the reporters on the need for them to see the bigger picture. In the emphasis I've added below, you can hear his voice, if you're at all familiar with how he speaks.

It's not government. It's society. It was Harvey Weinstein in the arts industry. It's comedians. It's politicians. It's chefs, right? It's systemic. It's societal. It's not one person in one area. It's not just Charlie Rose, right? It's not just Matt Lauer. It's not just journalists. It's societal.

Finally, slowing down the pace of his answer to something slower than a school closing chyron, he finished his lecture.

Understand. The. Breadth. Of. The. Problem

Which, frankly, is exactly what Dewitt and the other reporters were hoping Cuomo would do, specifically as it relates to him, not as it relates to anyone else. 

Importantly, the lawsuit against Cuomo and the SECD was dismissed in 2018, with the judge giving several reasons for doing so, including that there were no allegations that Cuomo knew about or participated in the harassment. The case against Hoyt was dismissed in 2019. 

Still, several questions remain, including a big one: Does Andrew Cuomo Understand. The. Breadth. Of. The. Problem? 

Quick Takes (v58): Why is This So Hard?

I often chuckle at how the concept of 'unity' is being interpreted by politicians, and how it seems the only thing that unites them these days is their dismay that 'everyone else' isn't going along with their definition of the word. 

On the right hand, the Rs seem to think unity means doing whatever they want, even though they're now the minority in both the House and the Senate, and they lost the White House.

On the left hand, the progressive Ds seem to think it means doing whatever they want, even though their candidate (not a Dem, you remember) lost to a more moderate choice.

In the middle of it all? People like me. The moderates, the fiscally conservative, socially liberal (FCSL) folks, wondering why the two parties seem hell-bent on getting everything they want, and only everything they want, no matter what. We want them to unite in our best interests, while they seem to only care about 'winning,' whatever that means. 

If macaques can figure out how to negotiate, why can't the humans we send to DC? Seriously. Take a look. 

I would never compare our elected officials to monkeys - someone got in trouble for doing that recently, I think. And I certainly wouldn't compare macaques to people - I'm sure someone would yell at me for that.

I'm just saying, if monkeys can learn to negotiate with people, can't we get our elected representatives to negotiate with each other? Is that too much to ask?

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?

Sidebar: It's My Party (or not)

A Poll Watch entry last week touched on how people feel about the two major political parties (we're not happy with them), GOP loyalty to Trump (it's high, and almost a necessity for potential candidates), and on chances we'll see a new party emerge from the carnage of the last election (62% of us are that disappointed with our current party). 

And, my TGIF post included these notes on CPAC 2021.

... the former president will be speaking to his minions on Sunday. Given his post-presidency comments, there's some speculation that he'll be announcing his next insurrection run for the White House in 2024. According to the oddsmakers in Vegas,

...Trump is more likely than not to declare himself for the Republican nomination...during his CPAC speech... As of Friday morning, the odds were 4 to 5, suggesting a 55.6% implied probability that Trump declares during his speech.

And will he do that as a Republican, or as a Patriot Party member? Well, there's only a 4-to-1 chance that he'll do it as anything other than a died-in-the-wool RINO. 

Ye, I called him a RINO. He's not an ideological Republican - he's an opportunist. His ideology is whatever the most outrageous person in the room thinks, coupled with how he thinks any kind of action will help his image and his personal bottom line. Similarly, I don't consider him a patriot. But I digress. Trump made a few pronouncements at CPAC, but before we get to that, a little history. 

According to this Politico article from January 13th - smack dab in between the insurrection and the inauguration - only 40% of Rs and R-leaning independents said they'd vote for him if he ran in 2024. That's a significant drop from the 53% who said he'd be their guy in November's version of the same survey.

In mid-February, the same question was asked by the same pollsters. Trump was back up to 53%, with Mike Pence (12%), Nikki Haley and Donny Jr. (6% each); 'would not vote' (5%); and Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz bringing up the rear (4% each).

So, what happened at CPAC? Here are the results of the 2024 nominee straw polls. One included Trump; he won with underwhelming support, taking only 55% of the votes. Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis finished second with 21% and South Dakota Gov. Kristi 'Let's put Trump on Mount Rushmore' Noem was a distant third, with 4%.

When Trump is out of the picture, DeSantis gets 43%, and Noem claws her way to 11%. After that? Donny Jr. (8%), and Mike Pompeo and Cruz (7% each). I don't know about you, but if I were polling worse than the son of the president, I'd wonder if there's a need to invest the time or money making a run. 

One thing to keep in mind? The CPAC straw poll isn't very reliable. This Vox article includes a tweet from Jake Sherman at Punchbowl News. Take a look.

Perhaps they should call it CPAC's Grasping at Straws Poll? 

Now, did Trump announce a run? Not quite; here's what he said.

... But who knows? Who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time, OK?

And there was this.

With your help, we will take back the House. We will win the Senate. And then a Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House. And I wonder who that will be? I wonder who that will be. Who, who will that be? I wonder.

One thing that's certain? CPAC attendees are the Trumpers of the GOP. They hang on his every word, fawn over his golden statue, and bask in all things 45. As noted in this NY Times article,

The party’s viability in the future, these people suggested — some as they proudly displayed their well-worn Trump 2020 T-shirts — was entirely contingent upon its members’ willingness to remain fixed in the past.

Sunday School 2/28/21: Extra Credit

In yesterday's Sunday School, I gave you excerpts from five of the seven senators who were in the classrooms. There was nothing surprising in any of those interviews, and I suspect the other two - Rick Scott (R-FL) and Mark Warner (D-VA) - were equally unsurprising. You can check out their interviews on Fox News Sunday. 

Today, I want to focus on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chat with Chuck Todd on MTP. President Biden and Trudeau had a virtual meeting last week, in which Trudeau spoke highly of the state of things in the world, according to this article in The Guardian. 

Among other things, he said that "US leadership has been sorely missed over the past years," and added, "And I have to say a we were preparing the joint rollout of the communique on this, it's nice when the Americans are not pulling out all the references to climate change and instead adding them in." 

Chuck asked Trudeau about the 'leadership vacuum' he alluded to, and the PM said the issues the two countries are facing are things that "we naturally have to work together on," and he sees there being an active engagement between our two countries - and he's happy to see us re-engaging.

I think certainly there were things that were more challenging under the previous administration in terms of moving the dial in the right direction on the international stage. But, at the same time, you know, we all have democracies that go in different directions from time to time. And the, the sweep of the work that we need to do together as, as allied nations in the G7 and elsewhere, continues to be really important.

Chuck wanted specifics on global policy initiatives that Biden can help move forward. Trudeau pointed to COVID, saying the Biden approach is more in line with the Canadian approach - science, and protecting the people "as the best way to protect the economy," and supporting people as we move through it. Other things he mentioned? the US rejoining COVAX, rejoining the fight to address climate change, and on "the tremendous economic opportunities" linked to clean energy and clean jobs, and how those will help the middle class "and those working hard to join it."

Trudeau was asked about what's behind the low number of Canadians being vaccinated, compared to our equally unimpressive numbers.

Obviously, it's not going as fast as, as everyone would want. We all want this pandemic to be over yesterday and to vaccinate everyone as quickly as possible. But we're confident that in the coming weeks, hundreds of thousands of vaccines every week, millions into the coming months. We are going to have everyone vaccinated probably by the end of the summer. And that is something that we're, we’re very positive and excited about.

He also said they have contracts with multiple vaccine makers, with three now approved in Canada (Pfizer, Moderna, and now Astra-Zeneca) and hopes to approve more of them in the coming weeks. In the meantime, he said, they must "just keep hanging on" like everyone else is doing. 

Where we've got a slightly less warm and fuzzy relationship is on the Keystone XL pipeline, which was shut down by Executive Order on January 21st. Chuck asked Trudeau to make the environmentalist case for the pipeline, to help those of us who are against it. He said we probably haven't noticed how much Canada has done in fighting climate change, even as they recognize that "the world still relies on fossil fuels right now." But it's about balance, and transforming the energy mix to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible. So, while he KXL decision was disappointing, there's a lot than can be done.

So, Chuck asked, does this mean it's now a done, and done dead, deal? Trudeau said they're more interested in making sure we're moving forward "in ways that are good for both of our countries."

I think there's so much we can do together that I don't spend too much time worrying about the tension points. It'll always come up in our relationship, but we'll work through them, particularly given the alignment on so many things that we're able to bring with this new administration.

Two last questions, the first of which was about Trudeau's reaction to seeing the Capitol riot back in January. 

Dismay. A reminder of the fact that democracy is something we need to keep working at. A reminder that none of us are immune from polarization and anger and frustration. Certainly, there is -- there was a real sense that we all need to be careful about what we say and how we, how we lead as a way of trying to bring people together and unify people. But that was a, that was a scene that Canadians watched with consternation and horror and, and real concern.

As did I, and almost everyone I know. I say almost everyone, because some people have made no comments at all about it - and I'd hate to assume that they were fine with it, as were a very limited few to admit that. I don't want to project that on anyone. 

And the final question: What's the metric for reopening the border? 

 I think there's an awful lot of different metrics we need to look at on, on border and on keeping Canadians safe from Covid-19. Obviously, case counts, presence of variants, hospitalizations -- all these things factor into the expert analysis. Our public health experts telling us what the right measures are and how concerned we have to be about, about variants. Obviously as vaccinations increase, we’re all hoping for good news and to get through this. But we'll continue to engage with the, with the White House and with the administration on the best times to start releasing border measures. But, for now, we all need to keep safe, and that means keeping them in place.

I can't wait for them to be safely relaxed - it'll mean both countries are in a better place with the pandemic, and with vaccines, - and it'll mean that we can make trips across the border for photography and other adventures. 

Masks up - and I'll see you around campus.