Sunday, November 14, 2021

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 




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