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!

Sunday School 3/14/21: Extra Credit

As promised, here are some of the other classroom conversations from yesterday. 

Stacey Abrams, of the voting rights group Fair Fight, was in a couple of classrooms, including Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. He asked if HR-1, the House's massive voting-rights-plus-more bill, should be pared down to get past Senate filibuster rules, or if the focus should be on eliminating the filibuster. 

Abrams said the US Constitution gives the House and Senate "the sole responsibility... to regulate the time, place and manner of elections." She'd rather have Republicans join the fight, but if not, "I would say that an exemption to the filibuster for the purposes of protecting our democracy is not only logical, it is fundamental to who we are." 

She said "the whole of our democracy" needs to be defended and protected, and that 

the Senate has to believe it has the responsibility and the ability to act. And that is why my focus is on making certain that the exemption to the filibuster be the necessary front and center conversation, so we can get something done to protect our democracy.

Of the Georgia bills, Abrams said they're not about protecting the right to vote, the bills "are nothing more than a pretext for returning to Jim Crow and stopping voters that they (don't) want to hear from." 

Georgia's Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan was next. He said 

Republicans don't need election reform to win. We need leadership. I think there’s millions of Republicans waking up around the country that are realizing that Donald Trump's divisive tone and strategy is unwinnable in forward-looking elections. We need real leadership. We need new focus, a GOP 2.0 that includes moderates in the middle to get us to the next election cycle.

He's "one of those Republicans that want more people to vote." He believes Republican ideas help people, that "an overwhelming number of Americans" think the Rs are better on the economy, and keeping communities and the country safe, and so he wants more voters, not fewer.

You know, this started shortly after the November elections, when all the misinformation started flying up. And quite honestly, it hurt Republicans in any sort of conversation around election reform. We lost credibility. Those were ten weeks that we can't take back. January 6th was a pivot point for this country and for this party. 

Finally, on the investigation into Trump's "possible" interference (we all heard the call, right?), Duncan said, "I think the best thing we can do is to continue to focus ahead on our jobs at hand. And district attorneys and lawyers and whatnot can do their job."

In the CNN SOTU classroom, Jake Tapper talked with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) about the nearly 4000 children that are in custody at the southern border, and asked her if what we're seeing now is a "crisis," which is what she called it back in 2019 when there were fewer children in custody.

In a nutshell? No. That was a crisis; what we have today is "an enormous challenge. And it's unacceptable." It's gotten better - she also said pre-COVID, the last time she was there, kids had been in shelters for months, some up to a year, but now it's down to about a month.

Tapper asked her about Mexicans seeing Biden as "the migrant president," according to Mexican President Lopez Obrador, and whether that's helping create the mess at the border. She said focusing on that

... obscures the bigger picture that many of us, myself included, have been talking about for years. The flows -- the flow of humanity ebbs and flows. There - as I mentioned, in April, we began seeing - in April of 2020, under the harshest of conditions, a Trump administration and COVID, we still saw people arriving at our front door.

She believes Biden will "address the root causes of migration," and that we'll keep having the conversation again and again "until we have leaders in this hemisphere who are willing to work together."

George Stephanopoulos talked infrastructure with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on This Week. Pelosi said this has always been bipartisan, "except when they oppose it with a Democratic president, as they did under President Obama, and we had to shrink the package." She's asked her committee chairs to reach across the aisle and find common ground.To 

This is about broadband. It's about water systems. It's about mass transit, it’s about good paying jobs all over the country. It’s also about schools and housing and the rest. Good paying jobs across the country. And not only that, once those jobs of building are done, it's about promoting commerce, creating good -- so it’s -- the goal is to promote good growth creating good paying jobs as we protect our planet and are fiscally sound.

To pay for it, taxes are in the mix, along with several other options, because "we want to be fiscally sound as we go forward."

And this is job creating which creates revenue that comes back to the Treasury, unlike what the Republicans did with their tax scam in 2017 which gave 83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent and indebted our children to the tune of nearly $1.9 trillion -- recognize the figure, in debt, added to the national debt. So they should be the last people to be talking about what is too expensive for the American people as we meet their needs.

Always so helpful, the Speaker, isn't she?

We'll end where we started, with the filibuster. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) also talked with George, and said there's nothing wrong with the 'talking filibuster,' when a Senator had to hold the floor to block a vote. The issue is "how many votes does it take to get moving forward with legislation?" 

You know, we have a 50/50 Senate. That's what the American people sent to Washington with the vice president breaking the tie. You know, George, that ought to be a mandate to move to the middle. So we ought to do things that actually can get broad, bipartisan support like the infrastructure bill that came out of my committee last time. That's the best way to get things done. If you get things that are one vote, and the vice president breaking a tie, harder for America to buy into that thing. The major pieces of legislation for our country historically have been done in a broad, bipartisan way.

Good lord, I'm thinking like Barrasso? Which one of us has lost our way? George Tried to bring him back to the filibuster, and got basically the same answer.

I don't mind talking. I think the people ought to be able to stand and express their views. The question is, is it 50 votes or 51, or is it 60? And the current number is 60. We've had this going on now for over a century. And the idea is to get bipartisan buy-in to bills. If there are parts that are very partisan, they ought to be left out. Focus on the areas on which we can agree. On most items, I think you can agree on 80 percent of the things. So let's leave out the 20 percent which are the hot button issues and move the country forward on issues on which we agree.

What's your takeaway from this week's classroom visits? 

See you around campus - I'll be wearing a mask, still and hope you will be, too. 

Sidebar: Sunday School 3/14/21

Yesterday's Sunday School classrooms were full of talk about my Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo, the harassment allegations against him, and his defiance in the face of continuing calls for him to resign. 

I didn't include everyone's full remarks in the post - no room for all of that - but the gist of many comments was that New Yorkers have lost faith in him and we want him to resign. And, as you've likely heard, there's a whole host of folks - both Democrats and Republicans - who weren't in the classrooms yesterday who think that's appropriate, and have issued statements to that point. 

Here's the thing: according to a Siena College Research Institute poll taken last week and released today, it's not true that 'most' New Yorkers want him to resign. Here's a quick look from a NY Times article; I've added the emphasis.

In a survey of 805 registered New York State voters, 57 percent said they were satisfied with how Mr. Cuomo had addressed the allegations, while 32 percent said they were not. Fifty percent said he should not resign, while 35 percent said he should. Nearly half said they believed he could continue to do his job effectively as governor, with 34 percent saying he could not.

Even so, the governor’s favorability rating has plummeted to one of the lowest points of his decade-long tenure: Only 43 percent of voters said they had a favorable opinion of the governor, down from 56 percent last month.

I'll have more from the poll later this week, including opinions of New Yorkers on the American Rescue Plan, vaccines, and more.

Sunday School 3/14/21

It's a Sonofa Gov Sunday School today. 

All five of the main classrooms mentioned Andrew Cuomo at least once, and we'll see how much'll fit, starting with Chuck Todd and the panel on Meet the Press, 

• John Heilemann (NBC,) suggested we don't know "what else is out there," and that Cuomo's "following what is now seen as the Trump precedent:" be determined, be shameless, and hold on.
• Lanhee Chen (Hoover Institute) said "this shouldn't be a partisan issue," and eventually the Rs will have to admit that what Trump did and what Cuomo's doing "look very, very similar." All of this stems from having one party in power for a long time, which "creates a toxic environment ...that lacks accountability." 
• Maria Teresa Kumar (Voto Latino) said "Trump has basically moved the goalposts" of what's proper and what's not, and she thinks Cuomo won't step down unless the voters demand it, or unless something worse comes to light.
• Hallie Jackson (NBC) said it's "highly unlikely" that President Biden will address this on his own; she said there's "at least some talk" that Cuomo could lessen the heat "if he were to say he would not... run again in 2022," but even that won't make it go away.
• Chuck said "it was amazing to read today that he has no place to go. No place to live. He has no apartment. He has no house. He only has the governor's mansion."

In the State of the Union classroom, Jake Tapper talked with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan; Cuomo succeeded him as head of the National Governors Association. Hogan said it's not his place to speak for New Yorkers, but "hopefully, we're going to get to the bottom of this, because it's pretty serious allegations and growing every day."

Stacey Abrams didn't want to enter the fray, other than to say she believes "that women should be heard, that any accusations of sexual misconduct should be investigated." 

Tapper had a lot to say, including that Cuomo is entitled to due process. Still, he said,

By now he has to know there is a chasm between how he perceives how he talks to women on his staff and how some of those women perceive it, as in some of them perceive it not only as inappropriate but as pressure to sleep with him...Only he knows what other names and incidents might come forward as he digs in. One wonders if that is even a remote consideration.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked with George in the This Week classroom. She said she's got confidence in AG Tish James, but that Cuomo's got to ask himself if he can be effective in leading our state - but she stopped short of saying he should resign. George also asked his panel about Cuomo. Here's a sampling of their comments.

• Former Rep. Donna Shalala doesn't think he can effectively lead, noting the "cumulative effect" with so many women coming forward, and "at the end of the day, it looks like he cannot and should not survive" as governor.
• Amanda Renteria, a Democratic operative, agreed with Shalala. "The days of where you can use your positional power to take advantage of folks who work for you is over."
• Former Gov. Chris Christie, who called for patience and letting Trump investigations play out, said he has to take the same position here, otherwise "we'd just be playing the same polarizing politics we've been playing in this country. If it's right for the Republicans, it's right for a Democrat, too."
• Former Texas Congressman Will Hurd disagreed with any suggestion that Cuomo's a victim of cancel culture. "This is an issue of a powerful individual creating a toxic culture that prevented women from being successful within their jobs." That's unacceptable, and it's why he needs to step down.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio, who has a contentious relationship with Cuomo, talked with Margaret Brennan in the Face the Nation classroom. He thinks Cuomo will try to hang on, saying that "he is used to getting his way..."

But I got to tell you, the folks in this state and the political leadership don't believe him anymore. He doesn't have any credibility. So I think an impeachment proceeding will begin, and I think he will be impeached and perhaps right before that he'll decide to resign. That's probably the most likely outcome right now... 

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said it's "very important" to take any allegations seriously, that the women "have credibility," and beyond that, as to the Governors Association, "it's within their bailiwick to deal with that issue."

And finally, here's what the folks had to say in the Fox News Sunday classroom, where Chris Wallace asked his panel about Cuomo. 

• Jonathan Swain, of Axios, said Cuomo "doesn't have a lot of friends, doesn't have a lot of ingrained loyalty and affection," and he's isolated now. He suggested that President Biden's silence "becomes more conspicuous" and may not be sustainable.
• Karl Rove, the Republican operative, said Cuomo "can sort of string this out," but the NY Delegation calling for his resignation on Friday after the majority of the state Dems did so on Thursday make that much harder. "I think he's toast," he added.
• Donna Brazile, former DNC chair, said Cuomo's "not going to listen to the music no matter how loud it plays" - rather, he'll try and tough it out. And, "he's not going to be able to govern effectively" for us in NY, when "we really need leadership at this moment."

I promise we'll get to some of the other topics - including what's happening at the border - in your Extra Credit. 

See you around campus - masks on, of course.

Noodling Around: A More Perfect Union (Part 1)

Steaming hot noodles

In what seems like a lifetime ago, back in January of 2014, I posted this quote from President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. 

We owe it to the American people to say what we're for, not just what we're against.

He was talking about Republicans and their then forty votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act; his point was that if they had ideas to make it better, to save money, or whatever, they should tell us what they'd do differently. But the truth is, he could have been talking about any bill, idea, plan, or pipe dream.

We see this all the time, the things everyone's against: the Dems are opposed to ABC if the Rs are for it, and the Rs are totally against XYZ if that's what the Dems support. And what makes thing worse? The American people probably have different priorities than the people we elect do - and we agree on them. 

It's true: polls have long shown there's agreement on what needs fixing, even if there are dozens of ideas on how to fix what ails us. And with people on both sides of the aisle unhappy with each other and with their own parties, with extraordinarily thin majorities in both chambers,  and with folks even arguing about what unity means, how on earth is anything going to get done?

I've been doing some noodling around on this for a while now. To me, the first step is to figure out what's important to us - to the majority of us, not just the loudest yellers. All we know for sure is, what matters most to the politicians (i.e., staying in office while amplifying the voices of the yellers) doesn't seem to jive with what most of us want for ourselves, our families, our neighbors, or even for perfect strangers.

In Case You Missed it (v77)

It's 'grab your cuppa' time! Here's your recap of last week's posts, in case you missed anything.

We started the week with the most important man in the US Senate, West Virginia's Joe Manchin, who was in just about every possible Sunday School classroom. Heck, I think he even dropped in to some private schools; he was so busy he called Jake Tapper 'Chuck' on CNN's State of the Union.

Manchin was asked about comments made by Rep. AOC about the Senate dropping the minimum wage provision in the American Rescue Plan. He said he "respects her input," but has a different approach

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.

Tapper also had one of the interviews in the Extra Credit post; he talked with Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who talked about relaxing the COVID restrictions 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.

There was more news about Former Guy and his squabbles with the Republican establishment, which I touched on in a Quick Take entry. After getting - and ignoring - a cease-and-desist order from Trump, the RNC took a firm stand. Yep - 

... 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.

But there was more after that. It seems making money from the RNC is not enough - I cover it all in the post, but I'll give you one more snippet.

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

 What kind of Wondering on Wednesday was going on? Well, among other things,

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?

On Thursday, I did a #tbt of a Wondering on Wednesday from a year ago, which focused in part on the pandemic. 

Remember when the House held impeachment depositions in the SCIF - the secure, compartmentalized info filing cabinet, or whatever you call it? And how horrible that was? Well, I wonder why it is that, according to multiple sources who have spoken to Reuters, the administration is holding coronavirus meetings in a similar SCIF?

In the same post, we learned about "radical transparency" and how the Trump administration had "set the global standard" in handling the pandemic and protecting us. All of that seems even more absurd now than it did last March.

And before you know it, it was TGIF time. In addition to talking about Former Guy, and Reps. Matt Gaetz and Gym Jordan, I touched on talk that Geraldo Rivera and Matthew McConaughey might be considering getting into politics in Ohio and Texas, respectively. On the actor's potential run to replace Gov. Abbot, 

... some folks think that's ridiculous. Like this guy, offering his opinion to CNN.

Let me offer him some friendly advice from someone who has spent decades reporting on my state's government: stay out of Texas politics. McConaughey is exactly what the state does not need

 — someone with great talent in his chosen profession and no known experience in public office or politics. 

That's last week in review. I'll be back later with Sunday School, and more. 

TGIF 3/12/21

Let's flip things around today, and put the good week stuff on top, shall we?

If you're a fan of nature, pretty colors, cardinals, or things that you'll never see with your own two eyes, this story's for you. Folks in Illinois have spotted a "super-rare" yellow cardinal. How rare, you might be wondering? Well, there are only about a dozen of the gorgeous birds in the entire Eastern US and Canada. You can see the gorgeous bird in the link above. 

Have you ever done something for someone else, every day for 591 days? I can honestly say I haven't. But this guy has: he's been picking up trash on a popular hiking trail in California's Eaton Canyon, a couple of buckets full at a time. And what else is cool? He's going to keep picking up trash, on other trails, until he goes to college - and finds a park there to clean up.

And, there's this: last night, as part of his address marking the anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic, President Joe Biden strongly condemned hate crimes against Asian-Americans. After saying they've been "attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated" during the pandemic, he said

They've been forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America. It's wrong. It's un-American, and it must stop.

This is in marked contrast, of course, to Former Guy.

One last bit of good week-iness? Rep. Marcia Fudge was confirmed as HUD Secretary; Judge Merrick Garland was confirmed as Attorney General, and Michael Regan was confirmed as EPA Administrator.

On the bad week side of the ledger?

Florida's Rep. Matt "where's Nestor?" Gaetz and Ohio's Rep. Gym Jordan had a bad week, I think. The American people don't agree with their position on the American Rescue Plan, and neither do Dems in the House majority, who ignored them and passed it anyway. And then - and then - the two of them decided to climb aboard the #FreeBritney movement and ask for an investigation into conservatorships. But then, to make matters worse, an attorney for Britney's father's, (he's the conservator) fired back at the two goofballs in a statement to Fox News, suggesting they don't know what they're talking about. 

My Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, continues to refuse to resign, as calls for him to do that escalate. He called that cancel culture, which I think is a bad idea. Him calling it that, I mean. The latest to pile on? Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. They issued a joint statement calling for him to step down.

Former Guy is in the news again, for the wrong reason again: his acting Secretary of Defense, Chris Miller, said Trump's speech on January 6th was responsible for the insurrection. In an interview with VICE on Showtime, Miller said

Would anybody have marched on the Capitol, and tried to overrun the Capitol, without the president’s speech? I think it’s pretty much definitive that wouldn’t have happened.

Not only that, but he described his tenure as a "constant drumbeat...of potential illegal, immoral, and unethical activities causing him to "closely examine his ethical, moral and legal red lines." 

Geraldo Rivera toyed with the idea of running for office this week. He was exploring a bid for the US Senate seat held by Rob Portman - he's not running for re-election next year. After a whole 36 hours of what he called a "pondering whirlwind" he decided against it, without giving reason on Twitter. However, on TV, he blamed folks at Fox News who challenged him to decide if he's a journalist or a politician. 'None of the above' wasn't a choice, I guess. 

Actor Matthew McConaughey is sorta maybe kinda seriously considering running for governor of Texas next year, and some folks think that's ridiculous. Like this guy, offering his opinion to CNN.

Let me offer him some friendly advice from someone who has spent decades reporting on my state's government: stay out of Texas politics. McConaughey is exactly what the state does not need — someone with great talent in his chosen profession and no known experience in public office or politics. 

Finally, lots of folks in Jackson Mississippi are entering their fourth consecutive bad week. Remember the storm that froze the Texas windmills? Well, that same storm caused millions of folks in Mississippi's capital to lose power, deal with freezing pipes, and, still, broken water mains. From this NPR piece we learn that

Hundreds of residents in Jackson, Miss., are now in week four of a water crisis. Some in the majority-Black capital city still don't have water after last month's winter storm. Others have to boil their water first. 

When's the water coming back on? No one seems to have the answer.

TGIF, everyone.

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.