Republicans need to watch more Sesame Street to learn to share

In today’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos Chitown Kev quoted Robin Pogrebin and Graham Bowley of the New York Times discussing a response to the nasty guy’s demands that the Smithsonian museums remove displays he doesn’t like:

The Smithsonian offered the first indication on Wednesday afternoon when Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Smithsonian’s secretary, sent a letter to the staff indicating that the institution had agreed to set up a team to review turning over materials to the White House, as requested, but to do so as an autonomous institution. “I take my responsibility to steward the institution on behalf of the American people very seriously,” the letter to staff said, adding, “Our independence is paramount.” [...] While complimenting Mr. Trump’s “admiration and regard for the Smithsonian,” Mr. Bunch told the staff that his response to the White House, sent in a letter on Tuesday, had reiterated the institution’s intention to rigorously review its content for inappropriate partisanship. But he said it would be the Smithsonian, not the executive branch, that would direct the effort. “Our own review of content to ensure our programming is nonpartisan and factual is ongoing, and it is consistent with our authority over our programming and content,” Mr. Bunch wrote in his letter to the staff.

Those bits about “inappropriate partisanship” and “nonpartisan and factual” along with “not the executive branch” mean to me that the Smithsonian will not bend the knee to the nasty guy. Paul Krugman wrote:

Donald Trump loves emergencies. He has been in office less than 8 months, but has already formally declared 9 national emergencies, as well as a “crime emergency” in Washington DC. He’s probably about to use similar claims about an urban crime emergency to send the National Guard into Chicago — which, as Jeff Asher notes, “has likely had fewer shootings this year than any year since 1965 or 1966.” As far as I can tell, so far all of Trump’s claims about emergency have been false excuses for power grabs. There is no national crime wave demanding military action — America’s big cities are, on average, safer than they’ve been since the 1960s. There is no economic emergency to justify the highest tariffs in 90 years — Trump himself keeps insisting that the U.S. economy is doing great. Given this pattern, the scariest words in the English language right now may be “Trump officials declare that we are facing a national emergency.” So I got a sinking feeling when I saw Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, saying that the administration may soon declare a national housing emergency.

What does one do to relieve a “housing emergency”? With the nasty guy supplying the solution I don’t want to find out. I can imagine it being (and would be horrified if it was) making more housing available by throwing immigrants out of their homes so white people could move in. The only (humane) relief I can see is building more housing. From the federal government side that means proving ways to encourage builders to build (I’ll leave the details to those who know). But that’s not what the nasty guy and Congressional Republicans are promoting. Also, there is that bit about the nasty guy saying the economy is doing great while also justifying tariffs because there is an economic emergency. The left side of his mouth doesn’t know what the right side is saying. In the comments a meme posted by exlrrp plays into the speculation that the nasty guy isn’t well:

Trump goes 2 full days without an impeachable offense, and we all just assume he’s dead.

Another meme posted by exlrrp, original author not given.

“Why should coal miners pay for PBS”? This was an actual question asked by the Trump administration yesterday. Obviously a blatantly stupid question. We have questions too. Why should a poor black family in Detroit pay for the president to go golfing? Why should a single mother of 3 who’s working two jobs in Louisianan be denied health-care so that the CEO Aetna can get a tax-break? Why is the guy washing dishes in Baton Rouge paying for the President’s wife’s secret service protection so she can live comfortably in NYC? We could do this all day. But here’s the real question in the Trump administration and the Republicans who empower him need to answer: Do you have a heart? Did no one teach you to care about your neighbors? Do you know what “empathy” means? Did no one ever teach you to “share” when you were in kindergarten? Have you never heard the phrase “do unto others”? I can’t think of a group of people who need to watch Sesame Street MORE than the Republican Party. Perhaps they would learn some common decency.

A third meme posted by exlrrp, this one from Allenanalysis:

The Trump White House is threatening Republican lawmakers – saying if they sign Congressman Thomas Massie’s petition to release the Epstein files, it’ll be treated as a “hostile act.” That’s not how innocent people act. That’s how coverups get enforced.

Chitown Kev quoted the first tweet in a thread by Michael Harriot, black historian. I found the whole thread on Treadreader. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson mentioned land built by slaves. Sen. Ted Cruz asked “Which slaves built Chicago?” Which is enough to get Harriot started. Slavery was first brought to Illinois to work the salt mines (yeah, I didn’t know Illinois had salt mines, though I’ve visited the salt mines below Detroit). When Illinois became a state, it was declared free – with the exception of the salt mines. Blacks quickly learned to avoid being enslaved and forced into the mines they needed to move to Chicago. A third of the state’s revenue came from the salt mines. That money was channeled into building the biggest railroad, the Illinois Central. George Pullman got the idea of a hotel on wheels, the Pullman train cars. That prompted the developing the Chicago neighborhood of Pullman. Many leaders of the civil rights movement, such as Thurgood Marshall, were Pullman Porters. So, yeah, the money to build Chicago and turn it into a railroad hub came from slave labor. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported on what Rep. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, said on the House floor. He refers to CRAs, Congressional Review Acts, a tool to overturn agency rules, such as California’s Clean Air Act waivers.

It's unclear to me when Republicans are going to stop complaining and actually do something to address the challenges that face our country. They spend more time talking about Joe Biden than they do about reducing costs. Every sentence from that side of the aisle: Biden, a verb, an adjective, and more coal—that's essentially the sum total of every sentence. I know that more of my colleagues are going to come to the floor here to engage in debate on, I don't know—how many CRAs are they putting on the floor today? Three. Four. Five? All we do around here is CRAs. So I encourage them, as they're watching, to please when you come to the floor, maybe spend some time talking about your affirmative vision for the country, and not so much time talking about the prior president

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