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

5.2.21: Yes, The U.S. Can Pay Its Bills, But It Chooses Not To

Chuck Todd lead off today's "Meet The Press" with the famous Ronald Reagan quote in his 1981 inauguration speech, in which he said that government is not the solutions to your problems. Government is the problem. 

Never understood that. If you don't believe in government then why be in government other than to make it ineffective or bring it down? Basically what President Reagan was referring to was that the government taxed it citizens too much and by lowering taxes, less government services and a more pay-your-own-way living. 

Forty years later and the result is the great income disparity that we're seeing today. As families expenses go up and wages remain behind the basic standard of living something like having two jobs becomes the norm to make ends meet. What the pandemic has exposed is the staggering number of Americans who live check to check and the loss of just one can throw a family into turmoil, never mind a year of lost income. 

So it isn't surprising that 55 percent of Americans want government to do more because too many families are having to choose between food and healthcare or adequate housing and expenses - untenable at this point.

As for the Biden Administration proposing $6 trillion in spending, which would recalibrate the U.S. economy, a younger Joe Biden may have been more conservative in his proposals but with what he's seen with experience, the pandemic, the widening inequality of income he going big because this is the best chance to push these reforms through and he knows he has to utilize all his experience for this last opportunity to do so. 

And if you're in favor of government doing for the average American in the form of services and infrastructure, really the only person as president that would be able to get that done at this time is Joe Biden.

In his interview with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mr. Todd posed the notion that Mr. Sanders may have lost the battle for the presidency but won the war of ideas within the Democratic Party. Without question, many of his policy ideas be them amended to appeal to moderates have become more popular. For example, Senator Sanders proposed free four-year college, but the Biden Administration is pushing for two years of community college. So how much influence has he had, a lot but made palatable by Joe Biden - probably why the get on so well. What's clearer is that Senator Sanders was not the right messenger for these policies because practicality was not on the Senator's side. In the form he proposes, they wouldn't pass amongst Democrats, forget Republicans.

In the dueling interviews with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) respectively, one can not help but feel like a juror in a civil case when it comes to these plans and how to pay for them or to choose not paying for them at all. We're judging the credibility of both witnesses, e.g. their expertise. 

In terms of credibility on monetary policy, let's face it Senator Portman has none in the face of someone who chaired the Federal Reserve and is now the Treasury Secretary so we're more apt to listen to Secretary Yellen who outlined a number of different ways in which these spending proposals can be paid for.

However, as we all know, and Mr. Portman confirmed this, is that Republicans are a big no on anything that put these two words together - raise and taxes. And because everyone knows this, there are two choices: either the Democrats go it alone and pass these bills through reconciliation without Republicans or they scale it back and not pay for it, using deficit spending which even some Democrats support.

There was a quick clip of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) saying that if he heard Democrats described as moderate one more time, he was going to throw up. Fair enough... (We'd buy a ticket to that.) By the same token, hearing that Republicans are fiscally responsible is an ipecac causing projectiles. 

One aspect of note outlined by Secretary Yellen on how to pay for it is to better enforce the existing tax code, cracking down on tax cheats which totals $7 trillion over ten years. The I.R.S. has been cut to the point where there is virtually no enforcement. In other words, there's collection, only receiving. The last significant cut to the I.R.S's budget decimating the agency came during the... wait for it... Trump Administration. 

NBC's Kasie Hunt seemed optimistic that there may be some of these proposals passed in a more piecemeal approach, but the counter proposal has to be serious. Senator Portman said he was skeptical of a bipartisan bill because the Democrats decided to go it alone on the Covid package. But he didn't tell you why and that was because their counter laughably fell short of what was needed.

Perhaps the police reform legislation being negotiated could be the start of some bipartisan progress, but the problem remains with Republicans and until they scrape off the sludge of Trumpism and stop legislating according to alternate reality of grievance, it's going to be really difficult to obtain any progress. As mother's always say to their kids, "We'll see."

And poor Lanhee Chen who once advised Senator Mitt Romney said that Republicans should be talking about fiscal responsibility but he's speaking to or about a Republican party that simply doesn't exist anymore. They've ceded legislative credibility with their signature legislative achievement over the last four years was passing a tax cut, ultimately through reconciliation. And as PBS's Yamiche Alcindor noted, they're not going to go back on that.

So can we pay for it? Yes, we could but we choose not to.

Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS News Hour; fmr. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO); Lanhee Chen, Hoover Institute, Stanford University