TGIF 10/9/20

As promised, this week's TGIF post is all about things I learned reading comments on social media posts. The comments come from posts of mine or my friends, posts from news organizations, or posts from politicians. 

I can't say I know more a lot more than I did before, but I sure had some good chuckles, some of which is not appropriate for this audience, so I won't be sharing everything. 

As has been the norm lately, I'll let you figure out who had a good week and who had a bad week.  Ready?

• It's totally wrong to talk about the fly on Mike Pence's head. There is nothing that can be said about that, EVEN IF you also talked about the fly on Hillary Clinton's face when it happened to her, and EVEN IF you also talked about the fly on Barack Obama's face when it happened to him.  (As an aside, there ain't no way we're ever going to see an un-doctored video of president Trump nailing a fly with his hand during an interview. We have that video of Barack Obama...)

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

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

• Some people think that it's appropriate for militia groups to plot to kidnap the governor of a state, and some of those same people wish that kind of thing would happen to my governor. And when they get backlash for that kind of comment, they double down and declare that's the only thing that will save us. 

• Donald Trump not only 'owns' the FBI, he owns the entire government and can use it however he wants, because he is the president, and he'll be the president for at least four more years. (I kid you not.)

• When Donald Trump said it was a blessing from God that he got COVID-19, he meant that it gave him the understanding of what people are going through. Or, it meant that it gave him the chance to lead us out of the pandemic. Or, it gave him the chance to test the new drugs so everyone else can have them. Or, it meant that God chose him. Or, it meant nothing. (I don't know about you, but I like having a president that didn't require a spin-the-wheel decoder ring to understand what he's talking about.)

• The Republicans constantly say that Democrats haven't gotten over losing the 2016 election, but what's fascinating is that the only people who are ever talking about Hillary Clinton are comedians and Republicans. (True.)

• The president wrote the 'Art of the Deal', but he is not Art of the Deal, he's Don of the Dumpster. (I'm having a hard time arguing with that one.)

• When a woman got dragged out of a store this summer for not wearing a mask, it was in Joe Biden's America. When protests happened in cities this summer, it was Joe Biden's America. When a policeman got ambushed and killed this summer, it was in Joe Biden's America. When the stock market is booming, it's in Donald Trump's America. (AH- that's it!)

• Mitch McConnell said that he's not been near the White House since August, because they're not following the COVID protocols. He's right - and not only is he right, but he should have gone there, hugged everybody and let them cough in his face. (This Biden fan is not messing around.)

• The president's decisions to pull his negotiators out of talks with Nancy Pelosi, followed by his announcement that he'd sign a bill to bail out the airlines, or a bill to send money to Americans followed by his request that his negotiators go back to work is not a sign of him being ill, or being on steroids. It's him being the master of the game, and when we get our money before the election, he'll be re-elected in a landslide Trump2020 ususus. (Says an unemployed person desperate for a stimulus check.)

• Nancy Pelosi should use the 25th Amendment on herself. No need for a commission. Just do it now. (Lots of likes for that one).

Go ahead  -- make your picks.

Quick Takes (v53): Liberate Michigan!

Quick Takes

Well, well, well....

It would seem that when the president called for the liberation of Michigan, some folks may have taken him seriously.

Now, I'll say it right up front that there may be no connection at all between the men arrested today and the president's LIBERATE MICHIGAN! tweet, which was sent on April 17, 2020.  

As we learned back then, 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has faced opposition from Republicans and business groups that argue she went too far in her April 9th extended and expanded stay-at-home 0rder. A Wednesday protest about the order in Michigan brought thousands to Lansing.

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

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

Well, we all have seen lots of examples of the president using his platforms - Twitter, Instagram, the White House briefing room, and the hosts of his favorite shows on the Fox network - in a way that's completely inconsistent with what his own Coronavirus Task Force says people should be doing, and in some cases completely inconsistent with common sense, so it's probably not surprising that he would tweet something as inflammatory as he did. 

And while it wasn't just Michigan he wanted to see liberated - Minnesota and North Carolina were similarly blessed with tweets - Whitmer's been a particular thorn in his side.  

According to today's announcement,

The court filing alleges the conspirators twice conducted surveillance at Whitmer's personal vacation home in northern Michigan and discussed kidnapping her to a "secure location" in Wisconsin to stand "trial" for treason prior to the Nov. 3 election.

"Several members talked about murdering 'tyrants' or 'taking' a sitting governor," an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. "The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message."

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

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

That's how it look from the perspective of Col. Joe Gasper of the Michigan State Police - and that united front "is the result of months of work" leading to both search warrants and arrest warrants in Michigan and in other states. If convicted of the charges, the men face the potential of life in prison.

Again, at least at this point, I haven't see anything concrete tying these folks to the president's ridiculous rhetoric, and it would be silly to make such a connection without evidence. But it would be foolish to ignore the potential for such a connection, especially since, according to this Reuters report (and many others over the past weeks and months) 

Internal U.S. security memos in recent months have warned that violent domestic extremists could pose a threat to election-related targets, a concern exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, political tensions, civil unrest and foreign disinformation campaigns. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray said during congressional hearings in September that his agency was conducting investigations into violent domestic extremists, including white supremacists and anti-fascist groups. Wray said the largest “chunk” of investigations were into white supremacist groups.

Which, as we've seen, have been generally ignored by the president, his AG and others in his administration, in favor of promoting antifa and Black Lives Matter as the greatest threats to our domestic tranquility.

It's a sorry state of affairs, indeed. And it will probably get worse before the election, and after, regardless of who wins.  

The VP Debate: Questions and Answers

Another post started with a confession - shame on me.

I did not watch the entire debate. I lasted about half an hour, and then I switched over to watch North Woods Law, a show about conservation officers in New Hampshire and how they deal with people, and animals, on a daily basis. 

Their work entails listening to what people say, and what they don't say; setting aside their own beliefs and impressions to cut to the chase and take care of an issue; and acting with empathy and compassion towards people (and animals) when they are not at their best. 

As I listened to as much of the debate as I did, I tried to act like a North Woods officer, and really listen to the questions that were being asked, and the answers that were given. When the lies and honestly, the "let me get my talking points in here before time runs out, or even after time runs out, because that's what I'm here for, really" stuff, I gave up and promised myself and others that I'd watch it today and that I would read the transcript. 

I kept my promise, I did.

Below is my take on the actual questions, sometimes hidden in a lot of moderator talk, and the portion of any response that directly addressed the question that was asked. 

HQ is a question asked of Senator Kamala Harris; PQ is a question asked of VP Mike Pence. If the answer provided was not directly responsive to the question, you'll see a blank space where the answer should be. 

Here is the debate, in a nutshell.

HQ. What would a Biden administration do in January and February that a Trump administration wouldn’t do? Would you impose new lockdowns for businesses and schools and hotspots, a federal mandate to wear masks?

A. And our plan is about what we need to do around a national strategy for contact tracing, for testing, for administration of the vaccine, and making sure that it will be free for all.

*****     *****     *****

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

A.

*****     *****     *****

PQ. How can you expect Americans to follow the administration’s safety guidelines to protect themselves from COVID when you at the White House have not been doing so?

A. The difference here is President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health

*****     *****     *****

HQ. If the Trump administration approves a vaccine before or after the election, should Americans take it, and would you take it?

A. If the public health professionals, if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it, absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I’m not taking it.

*****     *****     ***** 

PQ. Vice President Pence, have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with President Trump about safeguards or procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability? And if not, do you think you should?

A.

*****     *****     *****

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

A.

*****     *****     *****

PQ. Neither President Trump, nor Vice President Biden has released a sort of detailed health information that had become the modern norm until the 2016 election. And in recent days, President Trump’s doctors have given misleading answers, or refused to answer basic questions about his health. And my question to each of you in turn is, is this information voters deserve to know?

A. And the transparency that they practiced all along the way will continue. The American people have a right to know about the health and well-being of their president, and we’ll continue to do that. 

*****     *****     *****

HQ. Do voters have a right to know more detailed health information about presidential candidates and especially about presidents, especially when they’re facing some kind of challenge?

A. Absolutely. And that’s why Joe Biden has been so incredibly transparent. And certainly, by contrast that the President has not, both in terms of health records…I’m glad you asked about transparency because it has to be across the board. Joe has been incredibly transparent over many, many years. The one thing we all know about Joe, he puts it all out there. He is honest, he is forthright…

*****     *****     *****

HQ. And you would pay for that new spending by raising four trillion dollars in taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations. Some economists warn that could curb entrepreneurial ventures that fuel growth and create jobs. Would raising taxes put the recovery at risk? 

A.

*****     *****    *****

PQ. Should Americans be braced for an economic comeback that is going to take not months, but a year or more?

A.

*****     *****     *****

PQ. Do you believe as the scientific community has concluded, that man-made climate change has made wildfires bigger, hotter, and more deadly and have made hurricanes wetter, slower and more damaging?

A. And with regard to hurricanes, the National Oceanic Administration tells us that actually as difficult as they are, there are no more hurricanes today than there were 100 years ago.

*****     *****     ***** 

HQ. What exactly would be the stance of a Biden-Harris administration toward the Green New Deal?

A. I will repeat and the American people know that Joe Biden will not ban fracking…And part of those jobs that will be created by Joe Biden are going to be about clean energy and renewable energy…And so Joe believes, again, in science…Joe is about saying we’re going to invest that in renewable energy, which is going to be about the creation of millions of jobs. We will achieve net zero emissions by 2050, carbon neutral by 2035…We will also reenter the Climate Agreement with pride.

*****     *****     *****

PQ. Vice President Pence, do you believe that climate change poses an existential threat?

A. As I said, Susan, the climate is changing.

*****     *****     ***** 

PQ. How would you describe our fundamental relationship with China? Competitors? Adversaries? Enemies?

A.

QH. How would you describe our fundamental relationship with China? Are we competitors? Adversaries? Enemies?

A.

*****     *****     ***** 

HQ. What is your definition of the role of American leadership in 2020? 

A. Just think about it as relationships. So we know this in our personal and professional relationships, you got to keep your word to your friends. Got to be loyal to your friends. People who’ve stood with, you got to stand with them. You got to know who your adversaries are and keep them in check… it’s about relationships. And the thing that has always been part of the strength of our nation in addition to our great military has been that we keep our word…

*****     *****     *****

PQ. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, what would you want Indiana to do? Would you want your home state to ban all abortions?

A.

*****     *****     *****

HQ. If Roe V Wade is overturned, what would you want California to do? Would you want your home state to enact no restrictions on access to abortion? 

A.

*****     *****     *****

PQ. Tell us specifically, how would your administration protect Americans with preexisting conditions to have access to affordable insurance if the Affordable Care Act is struck down? 

A.

****     *****     ***** 

HQ. In the case of Breonna Taylor was justice done? 

A. I don’t believe so…And her life was taken unjustifiably and tragically and violently.

*****     *****     ***** 

PQ. In the case of Breonna Taylor, was justice done?

A. I trust our justice system, a grand jury that reviews the evidence.

*****     *****     *****

HQ. If your ticket wins and president Trump refuses to accept a peaceful transfer of power, what steps would you and vice president Biden then take? What would happen next?  

A.

*****     *****     *****

PQ. If vice president Biden is declared the winner and president Trump refuses to accept a peaceful transfer of power, what would be your role and responsibility as vice president? What would you personally do?

A.

*****     *****     *****

PQ. If our leaders can’t get along, how are the citizens supposed to get along? 

A. I want to tell you that we’re going to work every day to have government as good as our people, and the American people each and every day. Love a good debate. We love a good argument. But we always come together and are always there for one another in times of need. And we’ve especially learned that through the difficulties of this year.

*****     *****     *****

HQ. If our leaders can’t get along, how are the citizens supposed to get along?

A. Joe has a longstanding reputation of working across the aisle, and working in a bipartisan way. And that’s what he’s going to do as president… I do believe the future is bright. And it will be because of your leadership, and it will be because we fight for each person’s voice through their vote.

And blissfully, that was the end of it. 

Now, you may think that all the other stuff that was said during the 90 minutes or so of the debate was necessary, or helpful, but to me, it wasn't. It was just talking points, it was trying to get the soundbite in, it was looking for a zinger... and even those fell pretty flat.

You can see that, if we scheduled the debates for 30 minutes, there'd be more than enough time for the actual questions and answers. And if the Commission on Presidential Debates wants to allow an hour of random chatter after the actual question part, that's up to them. 

I've been watching debates since 1968, when I followed the election with my Dad, a history teacher, who was trying to get his high school juniors and seniors engaged in our process for choosing a president. That was also the first year I 'voted,' going into the booth with him, pulling the curtain back, and pushing the lever for his choices. With that foundation, I've been engaged in this stuff ever since, but my distaste for the debate process has increased as my interest in actually sitting through them while they are happening has waned.

How about you? Did you think anyone answered questions that were actually asked? Did I miss anything that was responsive to the specific question posed by Susan Page? What did you think of the debate as a whole?

Wondering on Wednesday 10/7/20

Ready... Set... Wonder!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday School 10/4/20 Extra Credit

For your Extra Credit this week, I wanted to let you hear from folks we don't get in the classrooms all that often. Here's what I found for you, starting with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday and his chat with Steve Cortes, another senior advisor to the Trump campaign.

As did Jake Tapper (you can read his comments here), Wallace noted that the White House was not sending folks to make the rounds on Sunday; instead, they were referring folks to the campaign. Remember that the next time you want to know who's running the government, I guess. 

Wallace pointed out the apparent conflict between what Sean Conley, DO (the president's physician and, it would seem, a skilled Doctor of Obfuscation) and Mark Meadows (Trump 4th Chief of Staff) said in response to questions about Trump's condition.  Cortes said that he had spoken with the president - he and the campaign staff that's not infected with COVID, I guess - and that

He was as upbeat and assertive as he's ever been. And then we also know what the rest of the world saw, which was that terrific video of Donald Trump, the fighter, speaking directly to the American people extemporaneously for four minutes, looking good, sounding good and, of course most importantly of all, we know what his doctors said, which is that his progress has been incredible. So this president is going to recover. We are highly confident of that and, again, he is a fighter in every sense of the word and he's doing really well.

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

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

Yes - when the man who has told over 20,000 lies in his short time in office says he's healthy, we should believe him. One thing that Cortes said that I completely agree with? 

I'm not Mark Meadows, I'm not part of White House staff. As you well know, both the campaign and the White House staff, we both serve the president but we have very different tasks. 

And the campaign is to present Trump as a winner, not as a human being with underlying medical conditions and a potentially fatal illness. Got it. 

Cortes also said that people don't get close to the president, "at least people who don't have to" and that everyone takes a test and stuff, but 

I think given these precautions and given that he is probably the most protected person on earth, the fact that he still got infected shows us that unfortunately this virus has that kind of power, that kind of communicable ability. And the president though, and he's made this clear, he was unwilling to completely sequester himself to take no risk because leaders take risks and he is the servant of the people as well as the commander-in-chief so he said he must be around the people he serves.

And of course, as I write this, he's announced that he's leaving Walter Reed today at 6:30 PM Eastern time, also known as national news time, and I heard Melania's wearing her favorite jacket - you know the one I mean, right? But that last part might be a lie, not sure. It's so hard to tell these days.

Unfortunately, he got the virus and I think what this shows us for a policy perspective, I think this is important, Chris, is that we know that even the most severe of lockdowns cannot completely stop the virus. Therefore, we should take reasonable precautions, as a society, and we should not, as Joe Biden threatens, even think about shutting this economy and this society down again. 

Which, of course, Joe Biden is not thinking of doing - he never said that, and Cortes and everyone else know that, but you know, the campaign is still part of the Trump Lie Machine, and we should expect nothing more from them than we do from the White House 

There was somewhat of a contentious discussion surrounding the debate, where Wallace pointed out the rules: everyone must wear a mask, with the exception of Wallace himself, Trump and Papa Joe; and that it didn't matter that everyone was tested, because the Cleveland Clinic rules are that everyone actually wear a mask, and they even offered masks to the Trump cohort, which didn't accept the help or abide by the rules. And, by the way, Wallace also said that anyone not wearing a mask would be escorted from the hall, so 

Why did the first family and the chief of staff feel the rules for everybody didn't apply to them? 

Cortes tried the 'we believe that masks are helpful... We also believe in some element of individual choice, people were distanced and they had been tested' but Wallace disagreed. They argued back and forth, about the rules and about the chairs being apart or not apart and the rules, and the rules, and why didn't the follow the rules. And then this happened.

(CORTES) Chris, the way you're starting to harangue me now actually reminds me of what you did to the president during the debate on Tuesday night when he  - WALLACE: Oh yes, I harangued him -- (CROSSTALK) CORTES: No, that he had to -- he had to debate not just Joe Biden, but you as well. You were not a neutral moderator then. I don't mind tough questions. I welcome -- WALLACE: You know how much (ph) -- CORTES: -- reasonably tough questions. But what I don't think is okay is for you to become the effective opposition to the president. Okay? And those -- (CROSSTALK) CORTES: -- everyone there was tested in the crowd, they were distanced from each other. People can make reasonable decisions -- (CROSSTALK) WALLACE: Steve, that's -- CORTES: -- for themselves.  WALLACE: Steve -- no, actually they can't, there are the rules and they will be kicked out next time. 

And, Wallace added,  

Steve, let me simply say the president interrupted me and the vice president 145 times, so I object to saying I harangued the president. I know it's the talking point.

Wallace then asked if there was any concern on the campaign about keeping Pence off the campaign trail, or delaying the veep debate, "until we see the president is safe?"  Cortes poo-poo'd that, saying it's important that the campaign "vigorously proceed" and

look, the MAGA movement is bigger than just President Trump, he's instrumental of course, but he is not the only element of the MAGA movement. And so what we have said is that the other people, including of course vice president, campaign people, millions of regular Americans need to step up and to some degree fill the void that is left because our champion, our main instrument, is not able at this moment to vigorously campaign and certainly not campaign physically right now at all. 

Wallace then asked about the data showing "the seven-day average of new cases is almost 44,000 new cases a day and 700 new deaths a day" and wondered how that shows that we're "rounding the corner" on the pandemic, as the president says. But of course we are, says Cortes.

Hospitalizations are down from the July second spike highs, down 60% in ICU patients, and down 34% in deaths. 

Now, nobody is signaling the all clear, but all of those statistics that I just noted tell us that we absolutely are rounding the corner as a country. And, by the way, not just on the virus, but also economically. We are more than rounding the corner, we are actually exploding higher economically and they are very much related, those two phenomena, of course. And part of the reason why President Trump needs to and will recover quickly is because he needs to also get back to leading the greatest economic recovery in American history, and that is tied to our trend toward health.

And finally, with at least three GOP senators having COVID, should there be a delay in the Amy Coney Barrett SCOTUS nom? 

No. Listen, there will be no delay and Leader McConnell has been very adamant on this. There's already been quite a bit of remote technology used in these hearings, clearly those who don't feel safe to be in a room can do so, but there is a constitutional mandate to do this. There's also an electoral mandate from the American people to get this done. It can be done expeditiously. Amy Coney Barrett is an amazing justice, she's going to be a credit to the court.

SCOTUS opened their 2020-2021 term today, with one empty seat.  

See you around the virtual campus. 

Sunday School 10/4/20

I don't have a clue where to start my classroom stroll today, so I'm doing it the old fashioned way: drawing names out of a hat.  And the winners are: This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and  CNN's State of the Union, with Jake Tapper.  Which means I get to skip Chuck Todd, which is good, and I get to skip Nancy Pelosi, which is also good. 

After a news brief from a handful of correspondents, George started out with Jason Miller, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign and an all-around good guy, it would seem - and yes, that's sarcasm.

Miller's one of the folks who has tested negative, so far, but he had some very upbeat news from the president:

Number one, that we're going to defeat this virus. President Trump personally is going to defeat it. As a nation, we're going to defeat it and get life back to normal. Get this vaccine. 

But then also our campaign is going to defeat it. And I think when President Trump gets out of the White House, or -- excuse me, out of the -- gets back to the White House and back on the campaign trail, it's going to be a slingshot taking us forward.

But he said something that was important, George, and that’s to be careful. To make sure that folks are washing hands, to make sure using hand sanitizer, to make sure they're wearing a mask if you can't socially distance. These are all important things and reminders that President Trump told us.

Those are all important reminders from the president, who doesn't follow any of his own advice.  George noted  a new poll showing that 72% of Americans "say the president didn't take the risk of getting COVID seriously enough and didn't take appropriate precaution when it came to his own personal health." 

Miller's response? It's pretty funny, actually. He said Trump made sure we stopped the foreign travelers from China and Europe, shut down the country for two weeks and a month, "had to go and keep us safe," and that flattened the curve, helped us develop therapeutics, then the vaccines being developed and 100,000 ventilators, and you know what else? NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE QUESTION!

Oh, wait, sorry. Let me address the question, which George helped him do by giving some concrete examples: 

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

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

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

And people wash their hands and use sanitizer and drink bleach.. (sorry, he didn't really say that, and on and on and on about not answering the question. And I'm done with Mr. Miller, I'm not even going to watch the rest of his segment. 

The round table gang was all there, except for Chris Christie, who tested positive after hanging out maskless doing debate prep with the president, and was in the hospital due to his pre-existing asthma. 

In contrast to Miller, Matthew Dowd (chief political analyst for ABC) said 

first thing is I hope we can simultaneously do two things, which is send compassion and concern for the first lady and the president, and be so angry about the cavalier attitude and the cavalier way and the irresponsibility of this president and the White House... 

Which means, basically, he's mad as hell and doesn't want to take it any more. For her part, Republican strategist Alice Stewart said that this whole thing does put pressure - "tremendous pressure" - on Republicans up and down the ballot.

Look, the president's base will support him. Biden's base will support him. But these undecided voters, they do have concerns about how this has been handled. And leadership is about not just showing that you're in control but actually being in control. And to be in control, you have to lead by example and heed the advice of these public health officials and also talk the talk and walk the walk. And there's great concern whether or not this president has done so.

Rahm Emmanuel, former Obama chief of staff, talked about what George called "a case study for how not to bring important information to the public."

I will say that what they did there on the White House was everything you're not supposed to do. And it continues to undermine the president's campaign, because it was a lack of information on a very, very important issue. And what they needed to do from the get-go was hit the restart and say, 'here's how we're going to be honest, here's how we're going to lead by example.'

And he said, "the edifice of what Trump is to the public" is starting to come apart.

And I think the White House, in this set of decisions, has actually shown a disjointed -- you got a medical team that saying he's OK, yet all the care he's getting shows he's a very sick patient. And that dissonance, that kind of information that's jarring, is actually undermining the presidency and his candidacy right now.

Which is just one more "thing that makes you go hmm... " 

Down the hall in the CNN classroom, Jake Tapper noted the confusing information on Trump's condition, with Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff, contradicting Sean Conley, the president's doctor. And, Tapper said,

Right now, it is of the utmost importance for the White House to provide you, the American people, with information, accurate information, factual information, about the president's condition.

We asked the White House for someone to be here to do just that today. We asked for the vice president or the chief of staff or the communications director or the president's physician. We asked for members of the Coronavirus Task Force, including health Secretary Azar, Dr. Fauci, or Dr. Birx, or the surgeon general, or the director of the NIH, or the CDC director, or the top vaccine adviser, or Jared Kushner, or the national security adviser.

The White House declined to provide any of them, any of them, to update you on the president's condition. Instead, they referred us to the president's political campaign. We told them we would be happy to take the campaign manager.

But, unfortunately, he, too, is now battling the coronavirus.

Some folks on social media thought that those comments meant that Tapper was picking on the White House. In fact, he was picking on their apparent inability to speak the truth. Not the same, usually, but with this administration, I guess it is. 

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was one of the guests. He said there had been no contact from the White House on the potential exposure to anyone who had attended the debate in his state,. And he doesn't know if the White House had reached out to the Cleveland Clinic folks, either - they're the medical consultants for the debates.  That said, DeWine didn't seem too upset about the president, his family and his team perhaps putting Ohioans at risk.

Well, I think it's important what the president has done. The president went to the hospital. That will -- could not have been an easy thing for him to do. I'm sure he didn't want to go the hospital. He made the right decision. They put up two videos of the president talking to the people of this country. I think that is very positive.

And I think, look, this is -- what I said at a press conference I did the other day, this is -- should be kind of an alert to everybody that anybody can get the virus. Even the president of the United States can get the virus. And so we ought to use this, and simply just learn from it. And so people who -- maybe who have not worn masks in the past, I'm hoping that they will look at this and say, look, the president can get it, I can get it, it can happen to anybody.

And I hope that that's what happens and that's what comes out of this.

He's quite the tap-dancer, the Governor is. Or, he's physically incapable of saying anything bad about Trump, I'm not sure which. Oh wait - my bad - it's something else entirely. Tapper flat out said to him, "I just don't understand the reluctance to state the obvious, which is, President Trump has been mocking people who wear masks. And now there are a lot of Republicans who won't wear masks.

DeWine's answer?

Look, do I wish -- look, do I wish the president had worn masks all the time? Of course. Of course. When people go vote, there's a lot -- there's other things besides that. I think the president has done a very good job, as I just detailed, in trying to get us the things that we need, the testing that we need... and the PPE that we need. And that doesn't, frankly, a lot of times get reported. And they have done a very good job.

And if I don't keep saying stuff like that, he left unsaid, I won't get the stuff I need. And so in that regard, it's not October, it's March. And April. And May. And June... when all the governors were having to suck up to the president, or Jared, or Pence, in order to get the things they needed. 

That's all for now. I'll have more for you in tomorrow's Extra Credit. And, as Chris Wallace said so eloquently, wear your damn mask.

In Case You Missed It (v56)

It's a bit nippy out for hanging on the porch, but my cuppa's hot and so were last week's posts.  Here's your week in review.

In Sunday School, we heard from Ken Starr and Laurence Tribe, two constitutional law experts, on the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill RBG's seat on the Supreme Court.  While Starr thought going ahead with the nomination was fine, Tribe disagreed.

Tribe went first and said the nomination should have waited until we had the results of the election, and that "we've never, never jumped the gun this quickly" and that people are already voting. And he compared that to the 400 days with an open seat after the nomination of Merrick Garland. 

The idea that we need to rush ahead with a lifetime appointment, that as Judge Barrett herself would readily acknowledge will make a huge difference in the tilt of the court on health care, on women's reproductive rights, on voting rights, the idea that we can't wait a few days is ludicrous. There's no reason for it.

And, although he said he thinks quite well of Amy Coney Barrett, "the issue is not the nominee, it's the nomination." The Rs aren't willing to wait, Tribe said, because "they really are nervous about what the American people believe the Constitution means and what they believe should be represented on the Supreme Court." 

On Monday, My Sweet Baboo and I took one of our epic fall foliage tours - an 11-hour trip that did more for our mental health than anything else I can think of - so I didn't give you an Extra Credit post. On Tuesday though, it was a two-fer. 

First up, a post from January on Making Political Debates Better - something that we clearly need. The post recapped some of my thoughts, and added those of Greta Van Susteren, who shares my opinion that we do this really badly. And that was before Tuesday night's cage fight.  Among my ideas?

I would much rather hear real discussion on key topics, with 30 minutes or more set aside to have a real debate about the issues that matter. The candidates can be made aware of the topics in advance, but obviously not the questions, so everyone can be prepared for a robust discussion. That's right, a discussion - not an argument or dissection of resumes.

And here's a bit of what Van Susteren's thinking.

Presidential debates are supposed to provide voters with a better understanding of a candidate’s views and how he or she would likely govern. Of course, if you think the job of the president is to make short, snappy decisions without consulting others and without examining all the pros and cons, then the existing debate format probably suits you. If, on the other hand, you think the job of the president is problem-solving, then the debate ought to be exactly that — a problem-solving test.

... If we don’t want the Oval Office to operate like Twitter, why do we test our candidates as if it does?

 More people need to listen to Greta and me...

And, I offered some specific pre-debate thoughts in this post, including

The larger questions?  

Is anyone watching to learn, or just to have fun? 

Will either candidate even answer a question, much less answer it fully and factually? 

Will anyone actually talk about policy, or will it be just a bunch of malarkey? 

Will any votes change as a result of the debate? 

Will the debates encourage people to vote, or have them running screaming into the woods and far, far away from their polling places or mail-in ballots? 

Does anyone think there's really any value in having these darn things, anyway?

I think, after watching it, the fifth bullet is the likely winner, wouldn't you agree?

I did a post-debate edition of Wondering on Wednesday  which included thoughts like this one:

I saw a tweet last night suggesting that Latinos watching the debate on Telemundo thought that Trump won the debate. And that got me wondering what it must have been like being the translators and closed-captioners for the #CacophonyinCleveland - I picture it looking something like this: fkjg;h$(*Y lkjaoia4[ #$(*&#P$( )$5385-#$$^%(^(@*#pao48yp983y4t  -- and I hope I've not offended anyone with that effort. For all I know, I've typed a top secret Qanon password or something, and my fervent hope is that's not the case.

Thursday's review of emails from politicians did give us a clear winner for Email of the Week, which sometimes doesn't happen. There was a lot of fundraising stuff, given the end-of-quarter deadline on the 3oth, but one email stood out: one from Tom Steyer, the billionaire turned climate activist.  You can read the email in the post, but in a nutshell, 

For not asking me for money, for asking me to volunteer (even though I'm not a young person, which is the demographic NextGen America speaks to), for not taking his eyes off the prize - beating Donald Trump - and for staying true to his passion, dealing with climate change,  Steyer earns the coveted Email of the Week.

On Friday, I was looking for an old post on something - what I was looking for escapes me now, which often happens - but what I found was a year-old Poll Watch post on the leading candidates in the Dem primary, and the president. The post gave us the Not-so-good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Take a look.

The other takeaway from this question?  Approval of his policies is underwater by 10 points (54% don't approve, 44% do). And, this will pain Trump I'm sure, but his predecessors - Obama (64%), Bush II (57%), Clinton (55%) Bush I (78%), and Reagan (66%) were all better liked than he is. Data on Abraham Lincoln is not immediately available.

That, and the fact that all of them - the Dems and Trump - were under water on the positive to negative question. Which led me to offer this:

There's a lot the Dems can learn from this survey, I think, in terms of the depth of support, the lack of recognition for even the front-runners, and on why voters vote. The last thing the Dems want to do is choose a candidate who is 'less dislikeable' than Trump. 

Yep. The last thing they wanted to do...

Also on Friday, another two-fer from last week, we had our TGIF feature, which included a confession that, in private conversations, I behaved like the president when talking about the president and his positive COVID diagnosis. 

I don't wish him any harm, really - I want him out of office, that's a well-known fact - but I shouldn't be laughing at the karma or the fact that he brought this on himself by not doing the right thing, and about Melania having to quarantine with him, and other thoughts that, quite frankly, are representative of how HE treats people than the way that I like to treat people.  And I shared those thoughts with two of my most irreverent friends who, if they ever publish our text messages, will make true our surmisal that we're going to end up in hell. 

In thinking about the many and varied conspiracy theories surrounding this whole adventure happening at this particular time, I had to ask these questions:

And how horrible is it, that the president and his entire administration have lied to us so many times that those thoughts, or other similar ones, can actually be entertained by reasonable people?  How much trust have people lost in the president, the presidency, the White House?  And will we ever get that trust back again?

That we have to ask those questions is much worse than me laughing at a meme of Melania holding a shovel and...   Anyway. 

And finally, yesterday while meandering through posts, about the coronavirus pandemic, I stumbled on a Sidebar from back in March, where Donny Jr. had been complaining about people politicizing the virus, and where Mike Pence was asked to give a specific example of that. He pointed to a NY Times article, which I dissected to see what the heck he was talking about. 

So, what did the piece, with the headline "Let's Call it Trumpvirus," say? Let's take a look at what columnist Gail Collins, former editor of the Times' Op-Ed page, wrote.

On appointing Mike Pence to be head of the coronavirus task force: 

So, our Coronavirus Czar is going to be … Mike Pence. Feeling more secure? “I know full well the importance of presidential leadership,” the vice president said as soon as he was introduced in his new role. Totally qualified. First criterion for every job in this administration is capacity for praising the gloriousness of our commander in chief... 

In contrast, here's what the president had to say about appointing a similarly unqualified person to lead a pandemic effort. 

And here we are: appointing a person with no experience in the medical area and zero experience in infectious disease control: A TOTAL JOKE - and the president, who ignored not only his unskilled appointee to lead the task force, but all of the experts and all of the experience from around the world and across our country, is now sick with the disease.

It's up to you to decide if that's  "A TOTAL JOKE" or not. I'll keep my thoughts to myself, and my most irreverent friends. 

I'll be back later with your Sunday School. Keep your mask on, please. 

TGIF 10/2/20

What a strange week this has been - a chaotic, depressing, annoying, loud, tantrum-filled debate on Tuesday, and the president being whisked off to Walter Reed Hospital on Friday... 

I've said about all I care to about the debate debacle, other than to reiterate that they better get things under control for the next one, assuming there's even going to be a next one I suppose it could all depend on the president's condition going forward. 

And if the president is still in the hospital, will Mike Pence be able to debate Kamala Harris next week, or will he be too busy acting as the president (well, hopefully, acting better than the president...)? That's probably our only chance for a real debate, and to think it might be lost...

On the president and the First Lady being diagnosed with COVID-19, I've got lots of thoughts, but first, a confession right off the bat: I have, off and on throughout the day, both laughed at and made inappropriate comments regarding the president's diagnosis. I don't wish him any harm, really - I want him out of office, that's a well-known fact, but I shouldn't be laughing at the karma or the fact that he brought this on himself by not doing the right thing, and about Melania having to quarantine with him, and other thoughts that, quite frankly, are representative of how HE treats people than the way that I like to treat people.  And I shared those thoughts with two of my most irreverent friends who, if they ever publish our text messages, will make true our surmisal that we're going to end up in hell. 

OK  - confession over, on to the thoughts.

I shouldn't be surprised at how many people who have never publicly offered a single thought or prayer for anyone who's been infected with the virus, and who have been quoting the president almost verbatim from the very beginning, whether it was on minimizing the virus, mocking people who wear masks, calling out the scientists for trying to bring the president down, or any number of other ridiculous comments, are now calling on everyone to flood the first couple with tons of both.  I find that hypocritical, I really do.

It's also interesting how many people who have never uttered a conspiracy theory in their life are contemplating that this whole thing could be a fake-out by the president and his handlers, an attempt to get him under lockdown, off the TV cameras, off the phone with the folks on Fox, and off Twitter, so people will stop talking about him, the debate, and the damage that Tuesday night did to the campaign? 

Is this his way of not having to do additional debates? Of not being told he can't hold his beloved rallies because he refuses to respect local restrictions on large gatherings? Is this the way the president can not lose, but go out #winning instead?

Or is it just a way to get those suburban women voters, the ones who worry about their parents, their children, their friends at church getting the virus? After all, if the president comes through this well, and quickly, that only adds fuel to his fire that the virus is nothing to fear, and that businesses and schools and everything else that's closed or partially so should reopen.

And how horrible is it, that the president and his entire administration have lied to us so many times that those thoughts, or other similar ones, can actually be entertained by reasonable people?  How much trust have people lost in the president, the presidency, the White House?  And will we ever get that trust back again?

We also had a release of the president's taxes, and an analysis by the NY Times that Trump paid less in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 than I spent on ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, or cat litter during the same time period - and that his measly $750 tax payments may have been perfectly legal. And, more frighteningly, that he's got some $420 million in debts and loans coming do during a potential second term. Who he owes that money to is still up in the air - we will not find out until after the election, we're told. 

We've also been told that Melania doesn't much like her responsibilities for decorating the White House for Christmas, and that she doesn't like being called complicit in her husband's policies. Those things we learned because the First Lady was secretly taped by a former staffer (and friend of more than a decade). There's a book, of course. There's always a book. I've said it before and it becomes more true almost daily: if nothing else, the administration has been good for book contracts. 

TGIF, everyone - and wear your damn mask.

Email of the Week 10/1/20

Not unexpectedly, most of the political emails I received this week were all about the Benjamins - after all, yesterday was September 30th, and the end of the all important third-quarter fundraising period. 

A couple of the emails weren't just straight-out asks for donations. For example, Papa Joe spoke about the debate a little, as a preface for a $25 donation request, to "make this fund-raising hour huge"  and, of course, to meet the quarterly fund-raising goal. 

Here are Biden's quick thoughts on the debate:

Sue, I just stepped off the debate stage.

It was a real battle out there, but I hope I made you proud by calling out Donald Trump's lies and failures, and by letting the American people know what I - and everyone who is a part of this campaign - stand for.

And it goes on to talk about a 'debate night contest.' I must have missed that email, so I wasn't disappointed that I didn't get a phone call from Biden himself, which was the prize. There was also mention of the great fundraising that the debate inspired, and

...Sue, I'm serious. We're in this thing to win - together. 

And we're in it to win because American can't afford four more years of Donald Trump. It's time to build back better than we were before. 

I can't afford to give $25, but I'll still keep reading the emails. 

The other, more compelling debate-related email was from Tom Steyer, the billionaire activist who dropped out of the Democratic primary race on Sadie Hawkins Day. Take a look.

Susan,

 Last night's presidential debate was chaotic. Mr. Trump refused to follow the rules of a moderated discussion. He then spewed lie after lie - resulting in 90 minutes of desperate, incomprehensible bluster.

I was proud to watch Vice President Biden's thoughtful responses and detailed answers in spite of the mayhem all around him. He reminded us all of the very clear choice this election, between  a wannabe despot and a compassionate statesman.  

Thanks to you and the thousands of people who demanded climate coverage, we had the first direct question on climate change from a moderator in 20 years and the first sustained debate on climate ever. You did that.

And it couldn't be more important. While Trump strung together 17 lies about the climate crisis and continued his dangerous denial, Biden laid out his urgent, bold climate plan not only to deal with the crises we're facing right now, but to also address environmental justice and create millions of well-paying union jobs.

If you took anything away from last night's debate, let it be this: We must do everything in our power to elect Joe Biden.  Please sign up to volunteer with NextGen America today and help us build turnout for a Biden-Harris victory. 

Mr. Trump's dangerous comments were not limited to climate change. In addition to refusing to accept the election results, he refused to denounce white supremacists and gave orders to domestic terrorists to "stand by." These comments are not to be taken lightly.  

 If you took anything away from last night's debate, let it be this: We must do everything in our power to elect Joe Biden.  Please sign up to volunteer with NextGen America today and help us build turnout for a Biden-Harris victory. 

Thank yo for being in this fight. 

Tom 

For not asking me for money, for asking me to volunteer (even though I'm not a young person, which is the demographic NextGen America speaks to), for not taking his eyes off the prize - beating Donald Trump - and for staying true to his passion, dealing with climate change,  Steyer earns the coveted Email of the Week.

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