12.26.21: The Education of a Young Nation

First, we hope that all are having a safe, happy and healthy holiday season, this day after Christmas, Boxing Day for some. 

Today's program was a "Meet The Press" special edition focusing on schools in America, education and race, which of course included the 'controversial' critical race theory.(CRT). Our honest first reaction to all this 'controversy' about critical race theory is that it's a cynical, political red herring meant to further divide American communities. 

As Columbia University professor Jelani Cobb explained, critical race theory is not taught in high schools. Hard stop.

But what critical race theory is being used for rhetorically is the supression of teaching high school students about slavery and its influence on our society, despite the better, more open understanding we have of it on a societal level.

In the report by NBC's Antonia Hilton, the firing of principal Dr. James Whitfield from Colleyville Heritage High School in Fort Worth is the direct product of this cynical effort, and an all white school board unanimously voting him out confirmed its effectiveness, giving license, but not cover, for veiled bigotry. The residual effect is the ridiculousness you heard from a school board member in Colorado explaining to teachers that if you present the evils of the Holocaust you should also present an opposing view. Really? This does not provide for the argument that parents should final say on what professional educators should be teaching in schools. Should parents be able to see the circulae outlined for their children, of course, and raise concerns.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the 1619 project, correctly explained that CRT and her journalism have been weaponized. With regard to Ms. Hannah-Jones's work, as a journalist she asked important questions that reveled uncomfortable answers. She explained that the 1619 Project starts with when the year the first slaves were brought to Virginia and putting slavery and its effect at the center of the American story. Should this be the sole basis of teaching American history? Of course not. It would be incomplete just as eliminating the teaching of slavery and racism in our history would also leave it incomplete.

But make no mistake, to teach American history is to teach the truimphs, the defeats, the struggles, the decents, the advocates, the freedom, the slavery, the racism, the equality warts and all. However, here would be our caveat, context. Understanding that the founders knew they were imperfect and that in our short history, no other country has accomplished what we have. No doubt that it has been difficult, tragically so many times, but the progress that we've made in living as a multi-cultural society is not happening in any other place on earth to the degree of this young nation.

One more thing... In the midst of the hour's discussion about education and race in America, Mr. Todd showed statistics about teacher and education professional shortages. The losing of educational professionals in high schools writ large is being exaserbated by unreasonable attacks by parents, but it's really because teaching as a profession is stretched to the limit in most of the country. There is a distinct shortage of male teachers in the schools. Teachers aren't only educators, but also counselors, life coaches and part-time parents in some cases with their students. And what are they paid? In most cases throughout the country, not enough to make this profession your only job. Most teachers supplement their income with part-time work and buy a lot of their own school supplies. We could be wrong, but that might have something to do with it.

12.19.21: America Is Getting Coal for Christmas

America is getting coal for Christmas. 

It's a Covid Christmas and a Build Back bummer that will carry us through New Year's and into 2022. The Omicron variant, as Dr. Anthony Fauci explained, has 50 different variants attached to it, which is unprecedented as seen by the scientific community leading to high transmissability that outpaces Delta.

In true American fashion, we rapidly developed better vaccines by the best scientists in the world and now there are 30 nations with higher overall vaccination rates than the United States. And we've basically arrived at the point that Governor Jerod Polis (D-CO) advocates for, which is that it is on you if you get sick and die. 

For the common good, that's exactly the wrong tact to take because it doesn't account for the debilitating of our healthcare system and the mental toll it has taken on healthcare workers, in which 40 percent will probably leave the profession in two years. 

As Mr. Todd stated, as Covid goes, so does the Biden presidency, which is true and Republicans, frankly, are willing to risk American lives to subvert the effort to get people vaccinated, and we're not taking about private sector mandates. We're talking about all the misinformation that they're putting out there and legislating against keeping people as safe as possible. 

If over 40 percent of the population does not get vaccinated eventually, we will be the country producing other variants of the disease spreading to other nations. 

Understandably, us included, everyone is tired of being tired so in the meantime, Dr. Fauci did give some concise advice of how to be prudent about your health:

  1. If you test positive, isolate yourself for 7 to 10 days from the outset of symptoms.
  2. If you're vaccinated and are exposed to the virus, wait 3 to 5 days then get a test.
  3. For a holiday gathering, get tested before you attend.

If the surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths weren't enough, the pandemic is also the main cause for the supply chain issues we're experiencing that has been leading to the inflation of costs... for everything. 

To provide relief to those costs such as child care (daycare), prescription drugs and the child tax credit, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said NO. And his 'no' vote tanks the entire Biden agenda, which the panel emphatically agreed was a devastating huge blow to the Democrats and their base. Right before Christmas, Mr. Manchin pissed off 81 million people who voted for Joe Biden and his agenda. 

Also part of the Build Back Better legislation were its measures to address climate change, which if we to make those investments now, it would save us money down the proverbial road in avoiding the destruction and clean that follow severe weather events. 

Instead, coal for Christmas. Senator Manchin wasn't going to be on board with legislation that seeks to phase out coal as an energy source because coal is the Manchin family business in West Virginia. Now before you say, what?! Mr. Manchin has all of his ties to the business in a blind trust and is totally legitimate, as far as we know. However, it's not a deaf, dumb and blind trust and you understand cause and effect. More climate legislation means less coal means less money for Mr. Manchin. (No college degree needed on that one.)

To Donna Edwards' point, one senator has essentially stopped the legislation, but Jon Podhoretz put it in the correct context explaining the Senator Manchin had been saying since March that he wouldn't go higher than $1.5 trillion, which has lead to this massive political miscalculation. One cannot disagree because the Democrats are left with nothing but a stalled agenda going into the midterms. And by the way, voting rights legislation depends on creating a 'carve out' of the filibuster rule in the Senate which Mr. Manchin isn't in favor of.

So yeah, indeed, coal.

Panel: Amna Nawaz, PBS; Donna Edwards, The Washington Post; Philip Rucker, The Washington Post; Jon Podhoretz, Commentary

12.12.21: Democracy and Rationality On the Back Foot

 At the top this morning, we wish the people in Kentucky and the other five states affected by the tornadoes, where perhaps the longest sustained tornado in American history destroyed entire cities and towns. An understandably emotional Governor Andy Breshear (D) said the tornado traveled approximately 227 miles, 200 hundred of which torn through his state. For context, it's 226 miles from New York City to Washington DC. He ask for any many prayers that we can offer and he can count on ours.

To help directly, go to: TEAMWKYRELIEFFUND.KY.GOV

On top of the tragedy, the hospitals in western Kenkucky were already in a state of emergency due to the spike in covid cases and hospitalizations. The governor explained that by coalescing resources from around the state, the hospitals are holding, which is good to hear but the situation cannot be getting better anytime.

As Mr. Todd noted, eighty percent of covid hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated, which is a tragedy of our own doing, at this point so it was refreshing to hear Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), medical doctor Roger Marshall,  encourage people to get vaccinated and or boosted with a third shot. And though we disagree with the senator that the federal government can enforce some mandates, we respect his position.

And then...

Mr. Marshall said everything/anything - borderline ramble - except that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president. He said he has greeted him as Mr. President, but he would not actually state the words that he was legitimately elected. 

Disqualified...

Meaning that he stands by his vote not to certify the election and it can be presumed that he will not do so again if the outcome isn't for his party's preferred candidate.

We must admit that even the notion of a Democracy Summit right now is cringe-worthy to say the least since we're water-backsliding, ever more slippery, toward not respecting the will of the voters. Noting The Atlantic article by Barton Gellman and how the Trump's subversion of U.S. democracy is already happening, John Heilemann flatly stated: fact, and not hyperbole. Even Republican Strategist Brendan Buck said he was concerned about Secretary of State elections, particularly in Georgia, which that is the individual that certifies the vote count. Succinctly explained, The Boston Globe's Kimberly Atkins Stohr said that the danger of Trump continues as the Republican party has adopted the tactics that have put winning [read: obtaining power] over democracy.

Speaking of which, we agree with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that Ukraine's sovereignty is vitally important. Putin is employing the same rhetoric with regard to Ukraine as President Xi in China spouts about Taiwan, essentially that it's not its own sovereign country. But one can not help but notice that when you check in with reality, they are. In the case of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, it would essentially put a military threat at the doorstep of western Europe, but more significantly it would jeopardize the entire world political system, which would only lead to war, the Secretary Blinken explained.

If Mr. Putin does in fact invade the sovereign country of Ukraine, then unfortunately for the Russian people the Russian state should given pariah status and treated as such by the World Bank and other international banks. NATO should build up defense systems with its eastern most partners and continue diplomacy with stick in hand. And if anyone thinks that's too extreme, it doesn't go far enough and the consequences of doing nothing would have far greater implications.

Democracy and rationality can only hold out so long when all its balance is on the back foot.

Panel: Marianna Sotomayor, The Washington Post; Kimberly Atkins Stohr, The Boston Globe, John Heilemann, The Recout; Brendan Buck, Republican Strategist

12.5.21: Has The Elephant Finally Caught The Car?

"Abortion, guns and covid," was how Mr. Todd phrased it. We can not help thinking that the 'stars' are aligning for Republicans to get all that they want on 'abortion, guns and covid.' And more... Through extreme gerrymandering in the states, of which a majority are completely controlled by Republicans and the disproportionate influence that smaller states have in the U.S. Senate they will accomplish their goals without the majority support of the American people. And if in 2022, Republican-controlled state legislatures nullify any votes because of new laws giving the legislature authority over the Secretary of State to certify elections then minority rule will be solidified.

Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) did not feel comfortable talking about abortion and Roe v. Wade in the slightest, that's for sure. Because now that the dog (or the elephant in this case) has caught the car so to speak, it will become a very tenuous situation for Republicans. Senator Braun said it is a decision that should be left to the states because it's too divisive on a federal level. Seriously? 

If the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, it would instaneously divide the country even further. Simply for the fact that there are a number of states that have trigger laws that make abortion instantly illegal if the law is struck down. How does that logic not divide this country on a deeper level which is locally. In a state like Wisconsin where state-wide there is a Democratic majority, but the state is gerrymandered in a way that gives Republicans control of the state legislature. Once again, the majority will not have a voice.

Dispatch founder Stephan Hayes explained that in the Virginia gubernatorial race, abortion wasn't an issue for the electorate that Terry McAuliffe had made it out to be spending millions on television ads. But Errin Haines of the 19th gave the 'why' which is because people took it for granted, specifically women. Come the Court's decision next spring, they may not be able to take it for granted anymore because over half the states in the United States will make abortion illegal, meaning that when it comes to a woman's pregnancy, the state has a say in what you can do with your body. They legislated it.

Mr. Hayes also mentioned the rise of libertarianism with Ron and Rand Paul, but frankly libertarianism is dead in this country. If you consider yourself to be a true libertarian that you do not believe in the legislating of an individual's body in any circumstance, with no respect to religion.

Oh and by the way, if abortion is illegal and that law is broken then who are we locking up? The women? The doctors? The building owners where the prodecure took place? The Uber driver? All of the above? Senator Braun didn't want to get anywhere close to an answer on that one when Mr. Todd asked him. Again, he reverted to throwing it back to the states, knowing full well that a federal law like the Womens' Health Protection Act that Senator Amy Klobachar (D-MN) discussed will never pass, never get 10 Republican votes in the Senate. (Because the two North Dakota senators who represent 770,000 people have the same amount of influence as two California senators who represent 40 million people...just saying... This also doesn't account for the comic gullibilty of one Sentor Susan Collins (R-ME).)

The sanctity of life, protecting it, we get it... But Republicans sure do not. 

If they were truly protective of it, then they would do something, anything, to try and stop a 15 year-old with negligent parents from going into a local high school with a semi-automatic pistol and kill four people, wounding a score of others. But no... you can not ignore that. Nor can one ignore that fact that over 780,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and taking vaccines has been politicized. 

Republicans blame President Biden for not ending the pandemic while they subvert the Administration's effort at every turn locally and federally for political gain, while their constituents continue to die. 

Back to guns...

Should the parents be held accountable in this particular case? Hell yes. Is this rare case of the parents being charged with manslaughter for their negligence despite their son's obvious behavior is going to impact any change? Oh, hell no.

With all that said, we agree with the panel that the vast majority of gun owners are responsible guns owners, where they continued to put their emphasis during the discussion. 

Despite the vast majority being responsible, we as a society certainly have not been.

Panel: Ashley Parker, The Washington Post; Errin Haines, the 19th; Eugene Daniels, Politico; Stephan Hayes, The Dispatch

11.21.21: Aspiring to a Higher Standard is Becoming a Thing of the Past

We posted mid-week with regard to Kyle Rittenhouse and we haven't changed our perspective because the reasoning still holds. In terms of the verdict, it was the narrow points of confrontation, in which Mr. Rittenhouse had to defend himself and the jury made a decision based on the charges with regard to those moments. What wasn't taken into full account, it seems, was that Mr. Rittenhouse was the initial provocatur by the fact that he was the one who brought the semi-automatic rifle into the equation. 

Our issue isn't with the jury or the narrowness of the case, it's with the judge. Two young men are dead at the hands of Mr. Rittenhouse and the judge dictated that they could not be deemed 'victims.' In his eyes maybe not, but tell that to the one of the men's mother and fiance. The judge also threw out the unlawful possession of a fire arm charge and reckless endangerment, the latter he is surely guilty of for in fact putting himself in danger.

The nuances can of course be debated, glofifying Mr. Rittenhouse as a hero is wrong, and sad because we're elevating a misguided teen who is responsible, no matter how you look at it, for the deaths of two people and permanently crippling a third person. Civil Rights attorney David Anderson was succinct and accurate when he said that politicians should not be celebrating any loss of Americans lives (paraphrasing), but that's what they are doing.

Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said something that we need to unpack a bit. The senator stated that 'people have the right to protect themselves with the increase in violence.' If there is an increase in violence, glorifying someone who killed two people or in the case of Congressman Paul Gosar, not condemning social media posts depicting violence against a colleague then you're part of the problem. Twenty-six states with open carry and 32 states with stand your ground laws surely cannot be the way to deescalate. Add in the acceptance of violent political threats and it only makes society more volitile. 

And speaking of Mr. Gosar and for those who excuse what he did, one has to pose the question. At your job, if some posted a cartoon of them murdering you or others at work, would you report it? Would you expect that person to be repremmanded at the least or perhaps fired? No company would accept that type of behavior so why should we condone it in the House of Representatives? 

Holding ourselves to a higher standard seems like something that we no longer aspire to. We all see that shining city on the hill, but we're definitely not in it.

Panel: Kelly O'Donnell, NBC News; Reverend Al Sharpton, Political Action Network; Kristen Soltis Anderson, Republican Strategist; David Anderson, Civil Right Attorney

11.15.21: The Ghost of Nightmare Past

On July 21, 2013, we wrote this:

A gun provided George Zimmerman with false sense of strength and the ego to believe that he was in control of circumstances when the truth is his actions came from a place of fear and he wasn't in control. 

This was one of the comments we made with regard to the Zimmerman-Martin verdict at the time, but fast forward to the cusp of a verdict in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and one could say...

A gun provided Kyle Rittenhouse with false sense of strength and the ego to believe that he was in control of circumstances when the truth is his actions came from a place of fear and he wasn't in control.  

Same sh*t, different gun.

 

11.14.21: Governor Sununu Got It Right, Doing Nothing Is Not A Win

There is no doubt that both parties are guilty of doing nothing, but when New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) said that he couldn't live, professionally, in an environment where doing nothing is considered a win, one would conclude that he meant that for his own party. 

Whether you agree with the infrastructure and or the Build Better Better legislation that fact remains that it is in fact, legislation; something that Republicans have quite a lot of trouble with outside of tax cuts. The American Enterprise Institute's Matthew Continetti, previously editor-in-chief at the conservative Washington Free Beacon explained that after so many failed infrastructure weeks under the previous president, we finally got it and it's toxic for Republicans to support it. 

And not to make light of things, but deaths threats over infrastructure, really? It's sad to know that there are large groups of people who agree with these individuals making threats who are so gone from the reality of living in a civil society. Needless to say there is no place for this behavior in American politics as it is obviously dangerous, but also profoundly sad.

Speaking of doing nothing, Director of the Economic Council for the President, Brian Deese didn't have any good answers for what to do about inflation in the short term, particularly for Americans in the middle of the country. Comparatively, the Build Back Better bill will have a more immediate impact of the everyday lives of Americans than the infrastructure bill, but as fmr. Senator Claire McCasklill (D-MO) warned, Democrats may not implement it fast enough for the mid-terms.

Mr. Deese also didn't touch Mr. Todd's immigration question as to whether we should open it up to help with supply chain issues, so we'll touch it. The answer to the question is 'yes,' but here's how to initially approach it. We have a truck driver shortage so what the Administration should do is approach Poland and work to recruit Polish truck drivers shut out of Britain in the wake of Brexit. This would be beneficial on a foreign policy scale as well. It would deepen the dialogue between Warsaw and Washington to work together on the Law and Justice Party's flouting of EU regulations and getting the Polish government more in line with the EU so that collectively they can confront Belarus who is trying to destabilize Europe and the Russians as well who have amassed troops on the Ukrainian border. 

Yes, we realize that none of that was discussed on today's program, but it's a good illustration of how with targeted immigration we can achieve goals at home and abroard.

And with the accurately labeled 'political football' that is Russia in this country (frustrating in and of itself), as entertaining as the Steele dossier is, we never put much stock in it because there wasn't a need to do so. There were so many other implicating actions that the dossier was irrelevant. As bad as all that was, the 2020 election and what the president did in its aftermath makes it pale in comparison. 

And this is why you have to throw the book at Steve Bannon for not complying with a subpoena, a Congressional one. If this were you or me - working schmucks with no political friends and no podcast - we would be seeing the police showing up at our doors and bringing us in to testify. Frankly, that a-hole shouldn't get special above-the-law treatment. And if he refuses to testify and goes to prison for a year, it will be a better year for all of us - not having to hear about what a blowhard has to say about primary elections.

As for former chief of staff Mark Meadows, he should focus on this because he could be next. He punk'ed out of his Congressional testimony; no guts which is the sign of a punk.

There, yeah, we said it...

But we wouldn't call Kyle Rittenhouse that, 'misguided,' yes. We're following the trial but not the subtle nuances such as what we learned today from the discussion which was that Mr. Rittenhouse's mother drove him to Kenosha. If in fact that is the case, that is indeed reckless endangerment of a minor... We think the panel got it right that in that case, no one's going to be happy with the verdict.

Panel: Leigh Ann Caldwell, NBC News; Claire McCaskill, fmr. Senator from Missouri; Eugene Scott, The Washington Post; Matthew Continetti, American Enterprise Institute 

11.7.21: Thanks to Democrats, Their Lose is America's Gain

The Democrats didn't so much receive a drubbing on Tuesday, but given that perception is everything and the major embarrassment of losing the gubernatorial race in the high profile state of Virginia, one could reasonably say that Democrats got the wind knocked out of them in a big way and doubled over got a huge shiner of a black eye that's not going away soon enough.

The New York Times' Peter Baker said it most concisely in that voters don't object to voting for Republicans, just Trump himself. That may have gotten lost in the conversational mix, but it's profound in saying that as long as Trump isn't on the ballot (or actively campaign for a particular candidate), Republicans are acceptable. 

But let's face it, Terry McAuliffe ran a poor race and didn't do what New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy was describing in speaking about kitchen table issues. Like pandemic fatigue, voters have Trump fatigue, which is mostly being perpetuated from the Democrats, specifically Mr. McAuliffe. And give credit to Governor-elect Glen Youngkin for running on local concerns, keeping his opponent on his back foot, and while acknowledging that the former president is on your team, he gave him a stiff Heisman, that's for sure.

Mr. Youngkin gave fellow Republicans a blueprint on how to deal with questions about Trump and Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) wasted no time in employing that strategy today in his interview. He completely evaded any question with regard to the former president's recent statements or why 4 in 5 Republicans think the election of Joe Biden was illegitimate. 

Instead, he railed against the Democrats spending, its 'socialist' agenda and the national debt, which is at $30 trillion - all the fiscal responsibility issues Republicans take up again when they are not in control of Congress. Racking up $8 trillion in debt over four years of Trump with nothing to show for it but a tax cut defies trusting the rhetoric of Mr. Scott. 

Ironically, the Democrats' lose however is America's gain, thanks to... the Democrats, who finally got their act together enough to stop wasting time and pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Don't think it wasn't in reaction to the Virginia result. 

The entire strategy by progressives in the House to hold up the infrastructure bill until their budget agenda (the reconciliation bill) was passed first was flawed and not well thought out. It would have had to still pass through the Senate where it would be amended by moderate Democrats. In such a divisive political climate, don't take one big win, take a series of big wins. And when you have an easy one sitting right in front of your face, you grab it, and don't look back. 

Panel: Sara Fagen, Republican Strategist; Donna Edwards, The Washington Post; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Amna Nawaz, NPR

One more thing...

Since we made a football reference earlier, we have to weigh in about Aaron Rogers of the Green Bay Packers testing positive for Covid-19 this week.  We don't have an issue with his decision to not be vaccinated, which is his right. Not at all. What we do take issue with is that he was dishonest about it or at the very least deceptively coy. When asked if he was vaccinated, he responded, "Yeah, I'm immunized." There's no other way to interpret that other that thinking he received the vaccine.  This week he said he isn't an anti-vaxer, just a critical thinker. Really? His critical thinking could use some critiquing. 

10.31.21: Today's "Meet The Press" Missed The Mark

First and foremost, we have a bone spur to address with "Meet The Press" today. The program was too much, and perhaps becoming, inside the beltway talk. President Joe Biden is in Rome for the G20 Summit and it wasn't even brought up at all let alone as a topic of discussion. The fact that the G20 came to an agreement of a 15 percent minimum corporate tax means that companies won't be able to hide their money in tax shelter countries, which will give a big boost to American tax revenue, helping to pay for the reconcilliation package. Or simply that our president is on the world stage and it didn't seem to matter.

Instead, in discussing the reconcilliation package with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D), Mr. Todd kept coming back to the question of what is not in the bill, instead of maybe asking about the 'pay-for's' on what's in the package. Dare we say that there was a bit of harping on it on the part of Mr. Todd. We get it, but make the point ask the tough question and then move on. 

That tough question, which really didn't come through should have been on prescription drugs. Talk about an industry that has the United States and the world frankly, with Covid, by the collective cajones. 

The free Covid-19 vaccine most of us are getting isn't free; the government paid the pharmaceutical companies for the doses, of course. And 20 years after the prescription drug 'donut hole' the American people still can not negotiate on the price of drugs and continue to pay the premium. 

The impatience of the American people never ceases to amaze, everything to be done yesterday in a country of over 330 million people, and that's why you see the president's poll numbers dragging right now, but as Secretary Granholm made the point, they can rebound when the Democrats pass these two massive bills. Next summer when Americans start seeing construction on roads and bridges and then send their 5 year olds to universal Pre-K, things may turn around. 

The other thing that the secretary mentioned, plugging her boss, is that the president is working for the middle class, and let's face it there is a big corporate machine that works against the little guy. See above for our prescription drug example, and the Sacklers are still billionaires. It takes time and it takes wading through an avalache of opposition rhetoric backed by a lot of cash.

Case in point, the panel's discussion of mayoral races and police funding. Interestingly, maybe because it isn't a tough contest, no one on the panel cited the New York City mayoral race where candidate Eric Adams (D) who was a former police officer is sloganing that a safe city is a prosperous city and that better policing, not less, is answer. That's the model that Democratic mayoral candidates should think about. 

And when it comes to the Virginia gubenatorial race, from afar it has seemed like Mr. McAuliffe's to win or lose all along. He was already sucessful in the position and should have been able to capitalize greatly on that progress. However, the mire that Republicans sift around in politically these days, culture wars all day, everyday, then requiring a response brings everyone down sapping the energy from voters' enthusiam.

But make no mistake, it would be a catastrophic lose for the Democrats and a signal that Americans short attention spans are fully functioning. 

Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Anna Palmer, Punchbowl News; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist; Brad Todd, Republican Strategist

10.24.21: Should Mitch McConnell Be Physically Punished?

Back from a two-week hiatus, we have to say that not much has changed given today's "Meet The Press" with an independent, Senator Angus King (M), trying to thread a legislative needle, Democrats being hammered during their very public and messy legislative sausage making, and Republicans saying 'no' to anything and everything.

One thing is for sure, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) who is not running for reelection doesn't give a shit about anything with the exception of the small bit of power he can still wield in the Senate, which is not the 'world's most deliberative body' because you can not call it that when their is zero deliberation, and that was Senator King's point when discussing the filibuster. Mr. Blunt for his part had not one constructive answer to any of Ms. Mitchell's questions.

In the Senate as it is, having the majority means nothing except when it comes to appointing judges, which is now the chamber's basic function as legislating takes a back seat. Senator King said that there should be filibuster reform but to achieve it, you have to 'thread the needle' of retaining minority rights while also not effectively giving them a veto on everything the majority wants. 

The filibuster as it stands now exacerbates the disproportionate representation in the Senate. Because every state has two senators the country a disproportionate amount of senators represent fewer people. E.g. Two senators for California's 40 million people and two senators for South Dakota's 860,000 people. Given that, there needs to be reform because as it stands whether the Republicans are the majority in the senate or the minority, they have control. 

Because Democrats always like to bite off more than they can chew, we'd suggest a first step. One this one rules change to the filibuster and that would be to make it standing, meaning that if a Senator wants to filibuster a bill he or she must stand up and hold the floor with pertinent rhetoric on why they oppose it.

Democrats should make that one change and then stick it to Republicans by bringing a slew of bills to the floor so that they have to physically make octogenarians like Mitchell McConnell and Chuck Grassley stand at the podium for 8 to 12 hours and then have a vote. 

Why make legislating physically punishing?  Let's throw that back the other way and ask haven't the American people been physically punished enough with unaffordable housing and healthcare, crappy employment and covid? Is it a little cynical to physically punish Mitch McConnell? Yes, but it's justified.

Stand up and make a case or shut the hell up, right? Since when is the United States an apartheid state where it's minority rule?

Specifically, voting rights for all Americans are being curtailed by conservative state legislatures and what used to be a bipartisan no-brainer of reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act is no more since The Supreme Court's 2013 decision to eliminate the pre-clearance provision in which states wanting to change election laws had to have approval from the Justice Dept. States like Texas and Arizona are running wild in changing their laws to suppress and potentially nullify votes. No Republicans voted to reauthorize the Act. 

Again, Roy Blunt not helpful with his disingenuous answer that a voting rights bill would be a national take over of voting, empty rhetoric. Look at it this way, states set their own minimum wage, but there is a baseline national minimum wage, which is $7.25 by the way. What the voting rights bill establishes is some basic minimums like making presidential election day a national holiday. 

But here's the rub, the bill also institutes a reauthorization of the pre-clearance provision. The Republican minority is saying 'no' to that, and what the minority in the Senate wants, it gets.

 

Panel: Ayesha Rascoe, NPR, Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; Eugene Daniels, Politco; Brendan Buck, Republican Strategist

 

10.3.21: Doesn't Matter How the Watch Works, It Just Has To Keep The Time

There's a point in the film Sicario where Emily Blunt's character asks the sicario, Benecio del Toro, if there is anything she should know about the drug trade, and he responds: You're asking me how a watch works, for now let's just keep our eye on the time.

Deciphering the negotiations going on between the Democrats in Congress is just like asking someone how a watch works and for the owners of that watch, the American public, we're not concerned about the repair process just whether it works once you're done.

In other words, one shouldn't fret about the intermediate steps that without overbearing media coverage would be part of the larger work of what is called legislating...

Make no mistake, however, that time is a factor, as the panel outlined in a number of ways. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson outlined it most concisely explaining that the Democrats may not have control of congress after the midterms, for which campaigning will start next year and perhaps a four-year presidential term so the window is now for the Democrats. USA Today's Susan Page called it the 'last train leaving the station,' as to say that it's unknown when the Democrats will have another opportunity like this to pass transformational legislation. 

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called the Democrats' budget bill the most significant piece of legislation in our life times, while Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman explained that the legislation is the culmination of everything Nancy Pelosi has been fighting for for thirty years. All this means that it will take time to get Democrats unified on their priorities and what the cost will be. At the moment, the media is asking every legislator what their number is on this budget bill, but it isn't asked as to gain insight, just to get something on the record because we'll only know what the number is when they arrive at it.

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan said that she didn't understand why the Democrats wouldn't give the president a legislative win by bringing the infrastructure bill to a vote and getting it passed then go to the budget. It's sound logic of moderation, but as outlined above most Democrats are looking at both as the only opportunity to forward their agenda. And the president himself is on record as saying that the two bills are linked. 

What is inexcusable and hopefully not the case is that the progressives in the Democratic party are willing to scuttle both bills if they don't get what they want in the budget bill. That's like taking the watch in for repair, paying in advance, and getting it back still broken. 

Panel: Susan Page, USA Today; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Jake Sherman, Punchbowl News; Jeh Johnson, fmr. Homeland Security Secretary.

9.26.21: A Sick Patient and The Poison Drip

The Democratic party is like a sick patient that doesn't realize that the remedies for what ails it are right there in front of its face, while it inexplicably continues to accept the poison drip from the Republicans.

The demand from the progressive side of the Democratic caucus that the reconcilliation bill, which The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter rightly explained doesn't have a name nor identity, must pass first before the infrastructure bill is only causing delays filled with uncertainty of whom stands where jeopardizing the passage of both.

Even without progressive and moderate Democrats at an impasse, the Biden Administration's agenda was always going to be at risk, but as the Democrats are wont to do, they make it harder on themselves. And then there is Dr. Strangebrew, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) administering the debt ceiling poison pill to threaten the faith and credit of the United States to pay its bills. Chuck Todd asked Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) if the failure of crafting bipartisan police reform legislation and Senator Tim Scott's (R-SC) rhetoric about Democrats being unwilling to changing their stance of 'defunding the police,' which Senator Booker refuted, explaining that there is no call for that in the bill, came from someone higher up in the party, like McConnell. Senator Booker to his credit didn't engage in any partisan accusations and declined to speculate, but please...

Senator Republicans move, follow and speak at the discretion of the Senate Minority Leader. And the longer the Democratic party sits illin', with inaction, the mad doctor McConnell will find an excuse and a way to kill infrastructure as well.

Ms. Walter also mentioned that Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is a firm no vote on the $3.5 trillion reconcilliation bill, but has yet to come forward with a number that is acceptable to him. With all due respect to Mr. Manchin, as a senator you created a problem and didn't come to the table with a solution, which doesn't get anyone anywhere. You're either part of the solution, part of the problem, or part of the landscape. Credit to Ms. Walter once more for quoting Mike Tyson to sum it up: Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face, and the Biden Administration keeps taking the jabs right in the eye.

The strychnine for democracy that is the former president keeps doing his part to coerce Republican state legislatures to do sham recounts to continue his poisoning of our democratic system by eroding faith in the process. (Why do we get that sinking feeling that when this all comes to a head, it's going to be truly 'fugly.' And though we appreciate Meghan McCaine reiterating that she thinks the former president is a Godzilla under the water, she is too dismissive and appeasingly nonchalant about the threat he poses. We guess she didn't catch the interview right before she came on with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, who as Chuck Todd put it, reported on a failed coup attempt.

Sometimes the mess becomes much worse before you can get it all cleaned up, which is where the Biden Administration is right now, and the Democrats in Congress need to get their act together and lend a hand, heal themselves and heal a nation. Question is: Who's got the antidote? 

Come to think of it... Even if they had the antidote, half the people wouldn't accept it anyway. 

Panel: Meghan McCaine, The Daily Mail; Eddie Glaude, Jr., Princeton University; Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Leigh Ann Caldwell, NBC News

9.19.21: The Summer of Delta Ahead of Our Winter of Discontent

Is it just us or is it that when you actually listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci explain things, it's really not that complicated. The Biden Administration has put a plan in place to roll out booster shots according to FDA guidelines, which informs the CDC. Right now, the FDA is reccommending booster shots for people over 65 years old and individuals who work in high risk occupations, like ICU personnel or with unlying health conditions. 

In the meantime, Dr. Fauci explained that the the first priority is to get as many of the 70 million Americans who are unvaccinated vaccinated. Being optimistic, Dr. Fauci explained that if we can get a great number of those people vaccinated, we may not have a bad winter.

But knowing what we know and having seen what we've all seen, many of those people will not move from the status in which they are now. If we maintain the status quo on the vaccination rate across the country, this is going to continue as the shadow of foreboding in the winter of our discontent.

We sincerely hope that it doesn't come to pass and the winter is indeed mild in terms of Covid-19, however suffice to say that confidence hasn't been inspired. 

Not only that, but as Anna Palmer explained, when Congress comes into session, there will be investigations on Afghanistan which isn't going away. Then there is the infrasture bill yet to pass and the albatross of the $3.5 trillion reconcilliation budget bill. Of the latter, it's vital to note the stupid and stupid: First, Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) playing games with the debt ceiling is an abdication of responsibility and a feckless, dirt level move, of which he is widely known for. But most Americans aren't ever paying attention to the debt ceiling and it only ever becomes an issue when there is a Democrat in the White House. 

And Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has got the debt ceiling debate wrong, but admittedly, he leaves the debate in a state of twisted metal and glass. The debt ceiling accommodates money already spent, not what is coming down the line. Not to mention that Republicans during the previous administration suspended the debt ceiling vote so that a tax cut could be done on reconcilliation. Yeah, pretty harsh on the Republican Senator we happen to like. 

The other stupid is the Democrats including immigration into the budget bill, and this should be obvious, right? First, it just made the mountain that much steeper to climb to get it passed. But what really bothers is that it's tucked into a budget bill instead of being stand-alone legislation. Totally sends the wrong message. If Democrats want to appear bold and moving forward, they must put these bigger issues on their own pedestals. 

Between the persistence of the delta and congressional inaction and rhetorical fighting, one would be tempted to wish for a normal harsh flu season.

Panel: Anna Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; Anna Palmer, Punchbowl News; Rich Lowry, The National Review; Jeff Mason, Associated Press

9.12.21: The Spirit of The Nation

There are other methods, other than vaccines, to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic despite the Biden Administration mandating vaccination for millions in public and private sectors. As discussed by Chuck Todd and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, instead of mandates, those other methods include masking and social distancing and testing to mitigate the spread. 

All of this was an academic conversation given that many Republican governors have banned mask mandates and have either remained silent about misinformation or spread it themselves, i.e. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Now Republican Governors are threatening to sue the Biden Administration for the mandates, to which the president has responded for them to 'bring it on.'

How that will go is that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Governors, in line with the court's federalist nature. States will be able to decide for themselves if they want to mandate vaccines. But here's the rub: the virus doesn't recognize state borders and will continue to spread. That's simply a fact. And while the governors thrwart efforts to combat the virus, our hospital systems will be overwhelmed. In Florida and Alabama, hospitals and funeral homes have ordered mobile morgues to store the dead.

Fighting the pandemic is no more a matter of not being equipped, but one of the unwillingness of Americans to rise above their own selfish interests for the public good. And we're not saying that means one must be vaccinated, but if one decides not to be vaccinated, do practice some mitigation for the safety of you and your family.

As Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) explained, we allocated $5.4 trillion dollars in covid relief and all those monies haven't been distributed yet. So his argument for the $3.5 trillion budget is too much money to be spent at this time given the covid-relief allocation. Perhaps it's unworkable legislatively, but it the Democrats should work through a budget that covers the $3.5 trillion, but with a provision for a lesser amount to be implemented at first, then if the spending bill is doing what it's supposed to, implement the rest of the money in the second five years of the 10-year budget proposal. Whether that's a workable solution or not, something has to give. Yes, it is politics 101 to negotiate support for one bill to leverage another, but it will be unforgivable on the part of Democrats if they do not get the 'hard' infrasture bill passed. Nuances aside, that's how it will be perceived.

Senator Manchin also explained that there are a number of factors such as inflation, employment numbers and of course Covid that could effect spending and how the country can recover. But of all the possible factors you can think of, it all comes back to eliminating the pandemic.

With regard to commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I think about this past Thursday when 3,160 people died of Covid-19, more in one day than died on September 11, 2001. The spirit of coming together as a nation is being lost, as Mrs. Goodwin explained. How far we've come...

Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News, Kimberly Atkins Stohr, The Boston Globe; Doris Kearns Goodwin, Presidential Historian; George Will, The Washington Post. 

9.5.21: A Working Joe in a Polarized America

Whether you approve or disapprove of how President Joe Biden is doing his job in this divided America, you have to concede that he's been a hard working, busy guy. Again, for good or ill according to your own assessment, but with that in mind, Mr. Biden's current approval rating hovers around 45 percent. 

To paraphrase PBS's Yamiche Alcindor, new administrations want to set their own agenda but real life situations and crises happen to set the agenda for them, which is certainly still the case on battling the pandemic. We agree with Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) that the messaging from the White House, the FDA and the CDC has been poorly coordinated and confusing. (Best thing to do btw is to just check the CDC website.) However, responsibility for the record cases and a death count of one thousand five hundred Americans per day falls on all political leaders, obviously, because the Biden Administration has made the vaccine widely available and free while still encouraging people to get vaccinated. 

Outside of that, it's up to, frankly, Republican governors to act more like Governor Hogan and less like Ron DeSantis (R-FL). We're not going to go completely down this wormhole but Covid-19 infections and deaths will continue in this country unless we get past what Ms. Alcindor called our original sin of the pandemic, which was policizing masks and vaccines. 

Speaking of both, here's what we don't get... You see clips on the news you see someone without a mask threatening a school board member about mask mandates. This seems completely counterintuitive. If you're going to threaten someone in front of a camera don't you want to wear a mask so that they cannot identify and arrest you later, which is what inevitably happens. Take it as a bit of advice, but to protect yourself and others along the way of threatening people is a nice added bonus. Bottom line is that masks aren't a big deal, get over it.

And then there are the vaccines, which according to a number of people who have taken horse dewormer to fight Covid-19 and ended up in a poison control unit. We are not good at math, admittedly, but millions of people have taken the vaccine and have stayed out of the hospital and a few thousand have taken horse dewormer and have either gotten sick and or ended up in the hospital. Hmmmm... we'll take a moment to figure it out.

But in the meantime, there's reacting to real life and then there's acting in the face of extremism, which is exactly what Texas' new abortion bill represents. First, ninety percent of abortions occur after six weeks of pregnancy because most women don't discover they are pregnant until after that time. This six week stipulation has effectively shut down women's health clinics that provide that care. This puts upon women an undue burden of access which as it stands is federally against the law. Having said all that, this column thinks of it in more base/ libertarian terms. A person, any person, has the right to control his or her own body and that should not be legislated. Men shouldn't legislate over womens' bodies and minds because they have no idea what they're talking about. If women passed a law that said men had to be castrated if found guilty of any rape or sexual assault, how do you think that would go over? None too well, we assure you.

But even if you're pro-life or pro-choice and feel that what we wrote above is a load of it, here's something else to consider. The Texas legislature took the coward's way out on enforcement, giving the task of caring out the law to citizens, which is like the Texas government saying we're too chicken to enforce the laws that we pass.  Instead they've opted for vigilante justice. An 'assinine' law is what Republican strategist Brendan Buck called. 

If this law is left to stand, one can only dread the consequences not to mention that surely in a year's time you'll tune into Texas Public Access Television and watch "Abortion Hunters in Texas" searching the Lone Star state for bounties, and a cottage industry is born. There you go polarized America, who said we can't contribute?

Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, PBS; Betsy Woodruff Swann, Politico; Matt Bai, The Washington Post; Brendan Buck, Republican Strategist

8.22.21: Mr. Biden's Obstinate Strategy Owns the Chaos In Afghanistan Right Now

So many head-scratchers, they seem more like head-slappers. As more stories come out of Kabul over the week, one thing is for certain and that is that the 'chaos fear and desperation,' as Mr. Todd described it, is only going to get worse.

Everything that Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) said made sense; the panel was brutally accurate; and even National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's explanations were direct and sober. So why are we left scratching our heads?

The flat truth of the matter is that President Biden has been completely off the mark, in his remarks and his inability to see the bigger picture and plan appropriately. This is why he is justifiably being criticized from all sides, including from our NATO allies. President Biden wanted to own and said that the buck stops with him, but you can not then pass the proverbial buck.

Mr. Sullivan explained that 'no plan survives first contact with reality,' which makes complete sense and therefore adjustments need to be made. However, this forgets the initial premise of having a comprehensive plan in the first place, which it seems did not consider all the circumstances of what would happen on the ground. He also explained that the United States planned to have a diplomatic presence in Kabul after the withdraw, which was a farcical notion since the Taliban have no interest in diplomacy. To that point, Mr. Sullivan said that they have agreements with the Taliban to allow Americans safe passage out of the country and if they didn't honor those agreements, the U.S. would respond militarily - that's the diplomacy the Taliban understand. The last thing the Taliban want is an open space conflict with the U.S. military who they truly are afraid of, the same military that airlifted 7,900 people out of country just yesterday, 30,000 total.

Dispatch founder, Stephen Hayes was pointedly correct in contesting what Mr. Biden said in his speech - that our allies were inline with us, that Afghans didn't want to fight, that Americans can get out safely, and that Al Qaeda isn't already in country. 

Our closest allies are furious with us as while this is mostly a stain on the reputation of the United States, it's also a blow to trust in NATO. Seventy-five thousand Afghans died fighting the Taliban and their moral back was broken with the final blow of closing Bagram Airbase, which Military Times editor Leo Shane III explained. And while the Taliban is indeed harassing Americans and Afghans alike throughout Kabul, terrorist groups are definitely making their way in. 

But on that last point, they have been planning the move for a while, from May 2020 in fact. Representative Cheney explained the entire progression and that we're in fact in this situation at present because of the agreement the Trump Administration, the deal then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo specifically made with the Taliban back in May of 2020, in which the Taliban conceded nothing for the United States pulling out in a year, and completely undercutting the Afghan government that lead to its quick collapse. Ms. Cheney also explained her concern for Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for terrorists once again, but unsurprisingly there were shades of her father in her statements that are meant to say that we should keep a force in country indefinitely, which simply isn't sustainable given what she earlier explained as the inevitability of the Taliban taking complete control. - at Kabul's airport.

But despite that inevitability, Mr. Sullivan didn't really have a good answer for Chuck Todd when he asked him, why didn't the administration get the civilians out before the military so that maybe some of these tragic consequences could be mitigated? 

What Mr. Sullivan couldn't answer was left to Andrea Mitchell of NBC News and Helene Cooper of The New York Times. Ms. Cooper, the paper's Pentagon correspondent, explained that the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs recommended keeping troops in country to get everyone out, but Mr. Biden didn't heed that advice, and now there is a lot of blame shifting going on. More pointedly, Ms. Mitchell said that the stance of Joe Biden in 2009, to just get out is the president's prevailing thinking and that the optic of troops leaving Afghanistan has blinded him to the immediate consequences.

This is certainly a blight on Mr. Biden's record as president and his poll numbers presently reflect that, along with his handling of the pandemic. However, let's be honest, on the latter the president's performance is being sabotaged by state governors who are putting political and ideology gain over public health.

One last noted for the week on Afghanistan, its immediate future isn't certain. There is already resistance in the Northern provinces lead Ahmad Massoud whose father was the leader of the Northern Alliance back in 2001 and assassinated two days before September 11th. Also, seventy percent of Afghans are under 25 years old, and in Kabul too young to ever know life under the Taliban. Twenty years of being able to live how you want to live accompanied by hope for the future are notions not easily crushed as history has shown us.

 

Panel: Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Stephen Hayes, The Dispatch; Leo Shane III, Military Times

 

8.15.21: In All War, There is the Right and the Very Wrong

There was a lot to digest from today's "Meet The Press" on the pending collapse of Afghanistan's central government and take over by the Taliban as the U.S. completely withdraws from the country, leaving only core diplomatic personnel on the ground.

As with all war and conflict, there is the right and the very wrong.

We'll start with the former first, which is whether the U.S. should keep a residual force on the ground in Afghanistan. Given that the previous administration set a deadline for complete withdrawal for May 1st, the Biden Administration had its hands tied... loosely. They gave themselves an extension hence the newsreel images we're seeing, but going far past any deadline starts the clock ticking on when American soldiers become targets. And if not that, it's inevitable that American soldiers will be forced to engage with the Taliban. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained that our capabilities to closely monitor the situation on the ground to mitigate the a resurgence of Al Qaeda or other terrorist activity is very strong, to which anyone would respond, "It better be."

But it's time to go and it's the right thing to do, and it's very true what Secretary Blinken said that our adversaries would like nothing better than to see us bogged down in Afghanistan for another 5 to 10 years. It is not in the United States national interest to do that. And yes, how do you ask another soldier to make the ultimate sacrifice for a mission that has clearly changed but isn't clear.

However, the bad is egregous given that all this was forseeable, back in January as a matter of fact. Coming into office the Biden Administration knew that it was faced with this deadline. Even this column, sitting in the cheap seats, could see that it was inevitable that the Taliban would once again control the country, but the Biden Administration was slow to act and didn't have a plan in place to get the tens of thousands of Afghans out of the country (if they want to leave) and others who worked for the U.S. The forseeable tragedy of the oppression of women will once again take hold in Kabul, a humanitarian crisis waiting to happen.

One thing that particularly draws our ire is the fact that the U.S. military has been in Afghanistan for 20 years, trained a local force of 300,000, spent a trillion dollars, and gave them an airforce. The U.S. gave them all the tools, but once again as NBC's Richard Engel reported, the Afghan military is just 'melting' away without even confronting the Taliban. If the Afghan military refuses to defend the country themselves, how can you expect the U.S. to continue to do it after all that? 

Rightly, as Mr. Engel also reported, Afghans are angry at everyone - the U.S. for the quick bail on the country, the corrupt Afghan government and of course the Taliban because everyone knows what life is going to be like when they take complete control again. 

During the panel discussion, Mr. Todd posed the question of why the U.S. couldn't have something in Afghanistan like we do in South Korea or Germany or Japan  - a permanent base in place. The panel agreed, but it's not that simple. The last of these bases was established in South Korea in the 50's, and much has changed since then. Too much to make it geopolitcally tennable to have such a presnce. But South Korea was and is an ally. Germany we we have a base, we're surrounded by allies. In Japan after the war, the country didn't have a military as part of the conditions. The U.S. helped to rebuild Japan and has become one of our greatest allies, which we were positioned to defend against an aggressive China. With all that said, you have to ask, is Afghanistan our ally, really? Our geographically closest ally is Pakistan, which we wouldn't say is an ally per se, but a country that we have to deal with. Plus they have their own problems considering their tasty combination of extremists and nukes.

The previous administration set the parameters, but make no mistake, the Biden Administration owns this policy now and the tragic repurcussions inevitably to follow. But this demoralizing devistation isn't the only crisis in country as Afghanistan is in the midst of a historic drought already causing food shortages and let's not forget the covid pandemic.

Speaking of which, we'll just say this as to what is happening in the United States at present. With the numbers we're seeing today, we're basically back where we started, probably worse considering the Delta variant spreads twice as quickly and the fact that Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota explained that we have to start using better masks. How is that going to happen when Republican governors - yes, Ron DeSantis in FL and Gregg Abbott in TX - are actively thrwarting mitigation efforts. Cynical sadists letting their own constituents die for political power. A**holes.

Panel: Anne Gearan, The Washington Post; Kristen Solis Anderson, Republican Strategist; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist

8.8.21: Delta Level Polarization

"The pandemic we're experiencing at this time is a 'pandemic of the unvaccinated.'"
                                                                        -says Everyone.

Republican officials, such as Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), are shifting their position on vaccinations and mask mandates, but it's too late. The political distrust that has been baked into the cake writ large is the toothpaste out of the tube so to speak. Cook Political Report's Amy Walter explained that as the coronavirus delta variant has become more prevalent, the political attitudes of the right and left are becoming even more hardened. 

So where does that leave us? 

In a bad spot, according to Dr. Fauci who explained that if you give the virus the oppotunity to circulate, it can further mutate which could possibly become a strain that also affects the vaccinated. This is really virology 101 and should be common knowledge for anyone who has gotten a vaccination, which is 99 percent of the U.S. population, at some point or another.

Forty percent of the covid cases are coming from two states, Texas and Florida. Governor DeSantis has decided to ban mask mandates and is relying on people making a personal decision on getting vaccinated, not letting industries like cruises require vaccination. The result is that it is putting millions of people at risk of infection and death. Governor DeSantis is willing to take that risk for the sake of politics. 

The panel agreed that Joe Biden's presidency depends on his handling of the pandemic and without the cooperation of Republican governors in the aforementioned states along with others like South Dakota who won't get out of the way, making our way forward is not going to come anytime soon.

At this point, people are learning to live under this constant threat and as long half the country refuses to take it seriously, it will continue to be the circumstance.

The real tell will be when kids go back to school in little over a month. Pediatric hospitals are seeing a rise in childhood covid cases and one can only imagine that even if it isn't a dramatic spike in cases and hospitilizations, there will be increases. Even with 90 percent of teachers in the United Federation of Teachers represented by Randi Weingarten, she is worried about the delta variant, so much so that as a matter of personal conscience she is advocating for vaccine mandates for teachers. Dr. Fauci, on the subject, said that the best way to protect the kids is to surround them with vaccinated individuals and to have everyone mask indoors. Both of which aren't going to happen in Florida or Texas.

And it's not the people, it's the civic leaders that are doing their constituents are disservice by not being honest with them. The ethos of love thy neighbor but trust no one seems to be the American way and it's killing us.

Panel: Amy Walter, Cook Political Report; Jake Sherman, Punchbowl News; Donna Edwards, fmr. U.S. Congresswoman (D-MD); Sara Fagen, fmr. White House Political Director for George W. Bush

One More Thing...
This column called for Andrew Cuomo to resign when these allegations first came to light. The allegations are worse than first revealed and the resignation should be immediate, post haste. 

7.11.21: Should We Have Stayed or Were We Right to Get Out of Afghanistan?

Should we have stayed or should we go?  The messiness that is foreign policy; such decisions are never clear cut and the results are unpredictable. In the case of Afghanistan, it's even more so. Consider Rep. Adam Kinzinger's (R-IL) perspective, who fought in the country and has a deep personal feeling to the soldiers he fought alongside of and to the Afghans that helped the U.S. military. From his perspective it is a crushing defeat, as characterized by an Economist headline, because he sees the Taliban coming back into power, which naturally makes one ask, "Why did we sacrifice blood and treasure?"

Mr. Kinzinger said that he would see to see a residual force left there - the 2,500 soldiers - to keep the Taliban at bay and the population, especially women, safe. It's a reasonable position, for the right reasons because we do not want Afghanistan return to being a safe haven for terriorist, but you have to understand that that would be another 20-year commitment, in the same sort of policy positioning we have with South Korea or other places where the U.S. has military bases.

To quote Mr. Kinzinger, "The Americans have the watches, but the Taliban have the time." There is no changing that dynamic and in realizing that, a decision on the commitment has to be made. Always complicating factors further is carrying through policy from one administration to another.

Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) explained that the Trump Administration set a date for full withdrawal from Afghanistan as May 1st, instead of creating a withdrawal scenario based on conditions on the ground. In keeping the word of the U.S. government, even if it was lead by a different president, it said it would withdraw so that it what President Biden has done. However, it hasn't been done well. 

The visas and refugee status for Afghans whose lives are in danger for helping the Americans should have already been expedited, with people on planes as we speak, leaving from Bagram Airbase. Speaking of which, there seemed to be no formal handover plan of the airbase to the Afghan military... that has an air force.

Staying in Afghanistan would reinforce the notion of the U.S. Military as the world's police force and that's not sustainable. Will the U.S. be involved in Afghanistan with military advisors and aid? For a long time. But here is where diplomacy can make a difference.

Best case scenario for Afghanistan is that it gets to resemble Pakistan, without the nukes of course. Where there is a civilian government and a military that can take on the Taliban. If the Afghani and Pakistani governments could work together to squeeze the Taliban, then there could be some stability achieved, and that's the opportunity the U.S. has. 

And there is no doubt that the U.S. would have been more successful in Afghanistan if it had not been for the war in Iraq. That's the history we have to take with us and learn from, no white washing it away.

And speaking of which, Republicans white wash the insurrection of January 6th at their own political peril. The commission is going to move forward and when there is a full accounting, we believe that you're going to see some names in Congress change. 

Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC; Stephanie Cutter, Democratic Strategist; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist; Mark Leibovich, The New York Times.

Today's "Meet The Press" was cut short for a special report on Richard Branson's Virgin Galatic making a suborbital flight, the first 'space' flight for commercial aircraft. We're write more about this later in the week, but the significance of the flight can not be understated.

Have a great Sunday and thank you for reading.

7.4.21: Normal Left a Long Time Ago

Definitely not the direction we would have gone for this week's "Meet The Press" considering it is Independence Day here in the States. We're 245 years old, by the way. Maybe discussing the state of our democracy and the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution would have been more appropriate for today given the fragile state that it's in at present, but we get it. President Biden set Independence Day as the date for his goal of having at least 70 percent of adult in the U.S. vaccinated with at least one shot, against Covid-19 so where are we?

We've fallen short of that goal, but for the administration's part it has provided enough doses so that every person has easy access to a free vaccination. However, what we see, as Dr. Fauci described, are regions of the country where the vaccination rate is low are seeing increased infections and hospitalizations due the new highly transmittable delta variant of the virus.  

Regional outbreaks... The lowest vaccination rates are in the Southern regional states and other that with the exception of North Carolina are all run by Republican governors who either made a political issue out of the vaccine or didn't push hard enough to dispell misinformation. Mississippi has the lowest vacination rate in the United States... for once, just once we'd like to see Mississippi not bringing up the rear, but here we are... again. 

There are many who have genuine concerns about getting vaccinated and for vaccines in general, what ever they are it's understandable, but given above how can one say that it hasn't been politicized? The sad political commentary about this is that a Republican president continuously touted the speed in which the vaccine was coming and delivered but because he lost the election and it was left to a Democratic president to distribute it and then encourage people to get vaccinated. 

Because of politics, people don't want to listen. Yet, we have the foremost expert on infectious disease in the world telling us that 99.2 percent of the deaths occuring right now in the United States are among the unvaccinated, and are 'entirely avoidable and preventable,' Dr. Fauci explained.

 With all that, this holiday weekend is being viewed as a beginning to 'getting back to normal,' but it's going to be a long time in the making, if it's coming back at all. Most of us would agree with NPR's Audie Cornish that "normal left a long time ago." We add: on so many levels...

A lot of the panel discussion focused on physically going back to work and the overall change in work culture. Interestingly, psychologist Adam Grant explained that flexibility in the workforce (hybrid) should be the way going forward citing a study in which people working from home were 13 percent more productive. But employers, especially corporations, are willing to eat that 13 percent in productivity as they have too much invested in infrastructure and they want bodies in seats, thinking that there will be greater accountability. Time will tell, but 'normal,' yeah, not so much.

NBC's Kate Snow viewed this summer's opening up as a mental health reset. And damn, do we all need it.

HAPPY FOURTH EVERYONE, and thank you as always for reading.

Panel: Audie Cornish, NPR; Kate Snow, NBC; Adam Grant, psychologist

 

6.27.21: The Tragedy in Surfside, Infrastructure and Climate Are Part and Parcel

 Amidst the debate on infrastructure, Joshua Johnson explained that there's nothing like tragedy to focus the mind, and when you look at the horrific images from Surfside, FL preventing it from ever happening again. 

Turns out that there was a 2018 report filed that outlined the building's structural deficiences and one would have to conclude that being ocean front for 40 years facing storms and salt water andd erosion played a part in its decline.

The fact of the matter is that when it comes to infrastructure and buidling for the future, the United States cuts corners and hasn't invested in a real way in over sixty years, sacrificed at the alter of profit motive. And as Andrea Mitchell explained, the 'pay-fors' for the bipartisan agreement are make believe, citing that the IRS explanation is the 80's version of waste, fraud and abuse which at this time is standard practice. The bottom line is if corporations aren't going to be taxed, it's going on the credit card... and interest rates are likely to increase. Not a good look.

But it's all tied together - the tragedy in Miami Beach, the infrastructure deal and the climate and we have to wrap our collective head around this notion. Without mentioning climate specifically, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) explained that he was happy to see that money is being put aside in the agreement for receding coastlines and river and canal reinforcing. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said that she wasn't as much stuck on a number as she was as to whether or not the agreement makes a positive tanglible impact on people's lives. And she does make a point that if Senator Cassidy citing his wife calls bridges and roads a woman's problem, then yes, we need to get women baby sitters. You could take that as code that she expects a much larger reconcilliation bill to come along, but the point is that it does seems that eveyone wants to get to 'yes.' 

That's the good news, everyone wants a 'yes' vote on infrastrure. Bad news is that equal voting rights for all Americans is a 'no.' 

The Department of Justice this week announced that it would challenge Georgia's new voting laws that the DOJ says targets minorities to suppress their vote. And here's where Danielle Pletka once again put her foot in her mouth saying that the Republicans don't want to known for voter suppression as much as the Democrats don't want to be known for voter fraud. Frankly, that's a bush league disingenous comparison and she should know better because the fact is that Democrats didn't commit any voter fraud yet Republican statehouses around the county are passing voter suppression bills, purging voter rolls of tens of thousands of voters. So... 

Yamiche Alcindor put it in perspective explaining that when it comes to voting rights, there are going to be various court battles while there is also a legislative tract. Ms. Alcindor also reminded us that these laws are based on the lies told by the former president, which Ms. Pletka said that she could separate out from the bills being passed on the state level. Again, an example of intellectual dishonesty in this column's humble assessment.

Maybe this is the 'Hail Mary' on the part of Republicans as Joshua Johnson described and that this fervor will pass. However, right now it looks like a jump ball in the endzone and who comes down with it, we'll find out.

Panel: Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS NewsHour; Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute; Joshua Johnson, NBC News 

6.20.21: We Have Our Own Version of Putin's 'No Happiness in Life'

What was evident from today's balanced discussion of international diplomacy and domestic issues is that as Mr. Todd noted, 'we're in for more politics than Putin' because of the lack of bi-partisanship hence Congress's inability to get anything  big done. However, when you have have Mitch McConnell, do you really need more Putin?

Fiona Hill noted that the United States inability speak with a unified voice on domestic issues spills over internationally as someone like Putin uses that. It's no secret to the world that the Republican party in the United States cannot be relied upon to negotiate in good faith. Allied and advisarial governments alike look at this intransience and know that stability within the United States and with regard to diplomacy predictability has gone out the window.

The United States, the champion of democracy, is rated a flawed one. The discussions today are the cases in point.

On infrastructure, according to Cornell Belcher and the consensus in Washington is that Democrats will not kill a bipartisan deal, they won't like a lot of the concessions to get there, but they'll swallow it. In essence they'll concede to an enhanced version of what Republicans call 'infrastructure' but by Senator Rob Portman's (R-OH) own admission the Republican plan is to borrow the money. In other words, deficit spend with the justification of it being a long-term investment, which by the way, makes no sense. What also didn't make sense was putting a user fee on people who purchase hybrid and electric cars, as the senator suggested. Ah, no... one should get a tax break for purchasing such automobiles. 

And then there's our own version of Putin's 'no happiness in life' in the form of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

A bipartisan group of Senators is negotiating said infrastructure package, which Mr. McConnell will kill because someone that he thinks shouldn't be taxed gets taxed.

A bipartisan police reform bill being negotiated by Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), which Mr. McConnell will kill because somewhere in it there will be a weakening of qualified immunity.

A moderate Democrat proposes some major concessions on a Voting Rights bill, but Mr. McConnell will kill it, having already deemed it unnecessary and of course because Stacey Abrams endorsed the compromise.

Speaking of which, to clearly illustrate the above, Republican strategist Brad Todd (no relation) said that Ms. Abrams purposely endorsed the compromise with the clear intent of defeating the notion. The degree of cynicism was unbelievable to the extent that no one on set, in fact, believed it. 

So to answer the question of whether President Biden's meeting with Vladimir Putin was a success of a mistake...

Putin looked small and at time squeamish in interviews, press conferences and photos during the summit. It was necessary for President Biden to set down a marker and tell Putin what's what when it comes to his country's interference of the U.S.'s internal infrastucture and discourse as well as its agression toward allies of the United States, particularly when it comes to cyberattacks. 

We liked how Ms. Hill framed the conversation when it comes to cyberattacks. She cited the example of what happened in Syria when Russian troops tried to decieve American forces by posing as separatists. Russian troops shot at American troops and got some. The Americans embarrassed the Russians because of their own foolishness. Think of that example, when it comes to cyber, she suggested. 

We'll have to wait and see how Mr. Putin reacts in the coming months, but for right now, we don't need more Putin, we have our own champion of 'there's no happiness in life.'

Thank you very little, Mr. McConnell.

Panel: Amna Nawaz, PBS; Ashley Parker, The Washington Post; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist; Brad Todd, Republican Strategist

6.6.21: When Will The United States and the West Decide?

For this week's column, keep in mind what Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and her department's stake is in the Infrastructure package moving through Congress and that Republicans in their counter proposals have not included upgrading the energy transmission grid and improving our cybersecurity infrastructure. 

However, when Chuck Todd asked Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) what the United States needed to do in the face of an increasing number and frequency of cyberattacks, he said that the U.S. needed the ability to be offensive and to have international norms. Blah blah blah... a weak response in our view.

The two most recent high-profile cyberattacks on Colonial Pipelines and JBS meat processing respectively, the perpetrators are based in Russia. So the 'ability' to be offensive should simply be 'go on the offensive.' The United States doesn't sanction rogue firms committing cyberattacks coming from this country and if Russia wants to be considered legitimate. 

Though Senator Roy Blunt's (R-MO) response on a January 6th commission was inadequate with shades of irresponsibility, his statement on Russia was unambiguous that they should be treated as 'virtually a criminal enterprise.' At this point, it is. These cyberattacks are sanctioned by the Putin regime in addition to their state-sponsored cyberattacks and assassinations. 

Senator Warner did mention something we found interesting. He explained that Colonial Pipelines had paid the ransom before notifying anyone that they did so, but that it took five days after that for everything to come back online. Five days of Putin time, in which he knows that for the effect to be felt by U.S. consumers, it needed more time. 

When Putin says that he knows nothing about these cyberattacks and that the protesters of January 6th at The Capitol was individuals with a political point or whatever he said, think about this: In 1989, when Putin was stationed in East Berlin and the West, specifically the United States, shoved Democracy so far up his ass that it was like 40 pounds of JBS beef lodged in his colon to the point he's still experiencing the bitter taste of. 

Our advice would be to keep shoving it up there. 

Ransomware should hit every one of his oligarch buddies' accounts and companies - the United States needs to respond. In each instance, the perpetrators whoever they are should demand $2. 

Yes, two dollars.

It's more difficult to pay two physical dollars than it is to pay 4 million in Bitcoin. It sends a message and to that end, cyber currencies like Bitcoin, Doge, and the rest - they're all bullshit. There is no underlying product or service or backing that sustains the value. It's all based on computer equations giving value to another computer equation that in turn gives value to a virtual piece of nothing so the sustainability on any one of these currencies is not justified. Not to mention that the energy (speaking of) that is required for virtual currency computing is larger than many countries and is a factor in climate change. Don't you feel better now? If some one starts hacking into that system, it would go a long way in cutting cybercrime.

The Washington Post's Anne Gearan reported that the White House considers larger than one nation, Russia, which is true that a slew of these attacks come from Eastern Bloc countries, aligned with Russia. Calls for transparency and international norms that Senator Warner had mentioned are needed, but a much more substantial response to Russia's nefarious activities is warranted and frankly overdue.

As for the United States, Chris Matthews explained that it's the government that is responsible for the offense and that the defense has to be a coordinated effort between the public and private sectors. Given that that has to happen, there have to be minimum standards and requirements for companies. Without it, there can be no coordination.

It's good to see Mr. Matthews back on television giving his perspective, which included that the once Cold War is transitioning into a Cold Cyberwar. It's all about energy. And if that is the case, when is the West going to decide to start sticking it to Mr. Putin again? Hopefully, in ten days when he meets with President Joe Biden.

Panel: Anne Gearan, The Washington Post; Kimberly Atkins Stohr, The Boston Globe; Chris Matthews, author and fmr. "Hardball" host; Lanhee Chen, Stanford University

5.30.21: A Rainy Memorial Day

From where we're writing today's column, it's raining and cold or in other words cold and sobering. As a nation, this is our most solemn of holidays, and perhaps our most important. One could argue more significant than July 4th because Memorial Day commemorates all the people who gave their lives defending that Declaration and the freedoms that came with it for the last 245 years. 

But the rain is falling today and rightly so. In the latest stark example of that heroism that we memorialize, Congress has decided to turn its back. They decided that they didn't want a independent commission to investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. The DC Capitol police that defended the very congress people who deny them that recognition. Officer Brian Sicknick died from defending what everyone in the press like to call the 'Citadel of Democracy,' which was last breached during the War of 1812, approximately 15,000 Americans died which was essentially the rematch between the States and England. 

Since that declaration, some 1,350,000 individuals have given their lives for the principles outlined in that document, just and ill-fated alike. By not treating an insurrection of seat of the United States as a grave and serious matter to be investigated, Congress, on this Memorial Day, dishonors the memory of Officer Sicknick and his family, all the other Capitol officers on duty that day, and by extension all those who died in service to their country. It's cold...

And sobering... To know without a doubt that our Congressional 'leaders' are more concerned with party and power than for a United States. A decidedly big step back from the pursuit of a 'more perfect nation.' 

And speaking of the pursuit, part of that is acknowledging our difficult and tragic past as uncomfortable and difficult to hear that may be. To acknowledge our past failings as a nation, we gain understanding and respect for one another which translates to our military who reflect us as a country. 

Almost half of our history's military dead perished in one war, our Civil War, nothing civil about it as it was fought over the ownership of other people. Many Americans don't acknowledge it that way but that's denial of a truth. One can never be equal in the eyes of someone who denies stark truths about the other. 

Eighty-three percent of Oklahomans were never taught about the race massacre of 1921 in Tulsa, and it's safe to say that 97 percent of all Americans didn't know about it before last year. It wasn't just sanctioned by local government and police, but coordinated and executed by them where 35 died and the entire neighbored destroyed. This dark moment happened 60 years after the start of the Civil War. And 160 years later, a Confederate Flag was walked through the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

So today, from our cold and rainy corner, we honor all those who sacrificed their lives in defense of democracy and truth, while knowing soberly knowing that on this Memorial Day our Congress has no honor.

Panel: Sara Fagen, fmr. Bush W.H. Political Director; Stephanie Cutter, Democratic Strategist; Ayesha Rascoe, W.H. Correspondent PBS; Geoff Bennett, NBC News 

5.16.21: For The Palestinians, Hopelessness Is Ultimately More Lethal Than the Missiles

At the top here, we'll say that this may be a short column because frankly we're fed up with discussing the plights of the Republican party. Whitewashing what the party has said about the election and what happened on January 6, 2021 means that it can not be trust to negotiate in good faith on any issue facing the American people. Colloquially, they have no cred.

During the panel discussion, Chuck Todd ticked off a series of issues facing the Biden Administration to NBC's Kristen Welker and rightly, maybe to the chagrin of Mr. Todd, she reported that the top issue right now is the violence going on in between the Palestinians and the Israelis, which has taken a disturbing turn in this latest conflict. 

Not only are Hamas and the Israeli military exchanging missile fire, but Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis are clashing in city streets as well. This means the shared desire for peace is breaking on such levels that there will be damaging costs to civil society in the long term - the social fabric is torn. 

As with history, there is plenty of poor judgement to assess this time starting with the poor decision on the part of the Israeli police in Jerusalem to crack down on Palestinians gathering during a time of worship outside a mosque. Prime Minister Netanyahu embrace of the hard right in his country has emboldened such groups to push against the balance of the shared city. That's a lot to put out there... We know. 

There's no mistake that Hamas initiated the military conflict firing missiles indiscriminately into Israel from Gaza, over 2,000 at this point. No government in their right mind is going to let that go without counter-punching and they would be stupid no to because if they didn't it would only give license for more missiles. Israel definitely has the right to defend itself and give consideration to the civil population when retaliating unlike Hamas.

And what is the world supposed to think when a Hamas commander is quoted as saying that for Hamas bombing Israel is easier than drinking water.

The most dangerous aspect of this conflict, ultimately more lethal than the bombs, that NBC's Richard Engel touched on in his report citing its danger, which is the utter hopelessness as a collective state of mind in the Palestinians of Gaza. Mr. Engel explained that he spoke to one woman that asked 'why should I start a business or plan for the future when in 3 years it will all be blown up in conflict and its day one all over again.' 

The responsibility for this lethal dose to civil population of Gaza falls squarely on Hamas. It controls Gaza but it doesn't administer to it, which is easily evidenced by the state of its basic infrastructure such as water and electricity. It is not because of Israeli bombs that those basic needs are in short supply, but rather Hamas' bombs, which it funds over infrastructure. 

But Hamas capitalizes on this state of hopelessness giving it the license to keep pouring money into destroying people instead building up its own. Compounding this nihilistic approach, Hamas builds it's weapons depots and command centers under schools, hospitals and hotels. If you work in one of those places are you thinking about the future? Yes, if you define the future in two hour intervals. 

One can not expect for Israelis at this moment to have hope for societal civility and living peacefully among one another but it is there because the people have experienced it. There just have to be leaders on both sides willing step up with that approach. With that said, both sides have been looking for an exit ramp as Mr. Engel reported, but of course both sides need to look victorious whatever that means at this point. 

As for Hamas, there is no hope or future in nihilism and this is the plain from which we see Hamas operating. The tragic consequences of this manifest themselves in the horrific plight of the Gazan people. It's an approach that always ends in self-destruction and if that's the case then you have to question the motivations of one's cause. 

A population state of hopelessness is unsustainable and ultimately will come undone.

Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News, Donna Edwards, fmr. Congresswoman (D-MD); Brendan Buck, Republican Strategist; Peter Baker, The New York Times

5.9.21: What's Happening in the Republican Party is Dragging Us All Down [Caution: This Post May Contain Bamboo]

What's going on in the Republican is downright depressing. 

Don't take our word for it, if you watched today's "Meet The Press" you could see the look of utter disgust on the face of Danielle Pletka, from the conservative think tank The American Enterprise Institute, who looked like she threw up in her mouth a bit listening to the unhinged liars that are controlling the Republican Party. 

The unmoored group think and the complete abdication of the truth and the blind loyalty to a man who grifted the American people makes it nearly impossible for anyone to negotiate with them in good faith. A blind ideological platform devoid of any fact that spurns democracy itself is no way to govern. 

And there it is: it's has nothing to do with governing, only winning elections, and Republicans are determined to uncover every strand of bamboo they can find. (Not only ridiculous, but racist as well... Oh, well.) However, the first thing that Congressional Republicans need to do is remove the bamboo thorn from their political rib cage, and that thorn's name is Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY). Chuck Todd said that Ms. Cheney was a media hero for simply stating the truth that Joe Biden won a free and fair election; and that Donald Trump inciting an insurrection to subvert the United States democracy. (It's not a 'big lie,' it's an attempted coup and that's how it should be thought of.) She shouldn't be a media hero and she shouldn't be scorned by her party, but here we are.

On Wednesday morning the House Republican caucus plans to vote on whether Congresswoman Cheney should retain her leadership role. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is all in on voting her out because at this point he'll do whatever he has to to be the Speaker in two years. Putting party over principle isn't, as Mr. Todd described, isn't at issue as much as it's putting power over democracy.

The party is purposefully putting any moral authority and ideas aside as a means to an end, but this first move of removing Ms. Cheney can only come back in the form of a 'hard bite in the ass.' Freed from the prospect of being removed from her leadership role and seeing the writing on the wall as to the future of her seat, her voice will only become louder.

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said it's going to take time to have good Americans understand that what they've been told is not the truth about the election, a process he called it. He has a point in that it reminded us of the justification for the Iraq War that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which now everyone knows to have been false. The war started in 2003 and by 2008 the truth prevailed, but that was five years. We can not wait that long and the scary thing is that while history will be harsh on Republicans of this time, their immediate goals of winning elections may be realized. With the nutter-butters setting the United States' agenda for even two years could set us back ten in terms of competitive progress in the world. 

Senator Cassidy said in response to Senator Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) statement that his 100 percent focus was on stopping the Biden Administration (which he did walk back a bit) was more about the $7 trillion that the Biden Administration wants to spend, in a single year. The Louisiana senator does have a point and that's a seriously big number. Also knowing that Mr. Biden intends to pay for it by closing corporate tax loopholes causes Republican senators' shorts to ride up, which is OK too. 

But Mr. Cassidy and Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) were speaking today for a Republican party that doesn't exist in the governing bodies of Congress right now. Trumpism, which isn't a governing philosophy; it is a whim exercised. And it is this that has caused so many former Republicans to become just that, former. If everyone agrees that we need a functioning two-party system to govern the United States more effectively and efficiently, those former-Republican, good American, voters need a new political home because the current landlords are burning this one down and their adding more bamboo to the flames on Wednesday.

Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute; Jake Sherman, co-founder of Punchbowl News;  Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist

The Bamboo Conspiracy as reported by 3TV in Arizona