My Week In Tweets (April 30 - May 6)

Dan Rather

• 5 min read
My Week In Tweets (April 30 - May 6)

If it’s Friday, it’s time for “My Week in Tweets”… Hope you enjoy another walk through my personal feed, annotated with a fair amount of “shade.”

- Friday, April 30th -

Politics isn’t only about passionate speeches and detailed legislation, it ultimately boils down to a numbers game. If you have the votes, you win. If you don’t, you lose. In a democratic republic like our own, the votes in Congress are supposed to represent in some form the will of the people. But this fascinating breakdown lays out why the odds have been in the GOP’s favor and the filibuster is running the show.

- Saturday, May 1st -

Many Republicans have been in the news lately accused of some rather “colorful” behavior, if you define colorful as morally bankrupt and likely illegal. Over the decades the GOP has been preaching “family values” and they didn’t stop when they elected Donald Trump who carried more baggage than a 747. Even with him out of office, the parade of hypocrisy continues unabated.

There’s nothing better than a good book. And what a joy to have an entire shelf of them. Tell me, what’s on your shelf? Drop a “shelfie” in the comments section below.

- Sunday, May 2nd -

DC Statehood is not a new topic but one that has been gaining momentum lately. The week before last, the House voted for statehood — the second time it has done so. The pushback from Republicans was inevitable as they see this as a Democratic ploy to garner two more Senate seats. And the filibuster (see above) makes the movement for DC statehood DOA in the Senate, thanks to the Republican advantage in small states. Irony meet expediency.

- Monday, May 3rd -

An encouraging update in the battle against the coronavirus. I will repeat this as often as necessary: Yay, Science!

- Tuesday, May 4th -

Now, I’m not one to rain on anyone’s parade so I won’t ruin the illusion for a certain senator who enjoys his jaunts south of the border. It’s kind of like saying Santa isn’t real…

- Wednesday, May 5th -

The GOP continues its efforts to cast doubt on the veracity of the 2020 election. An unprecedented and troubling audit of the 2020 election results in Maricopa county, Arizona is taking place. Despite the fact that the county has conducted and confirmed multiple audits previously, the firm hired to conduct this audit, CyberNinjas, is moving forward. With pristine reasoning and methodology, they are looking for tell-tale signs of tampering like checking the fiber of the ballot papers for traces of bamboo (racist much?)… to see if some 40,000 ballots were smuggled into Arizona from Asia… Not even Superman could clear such giant leaps and bounds of logic.

No one can deny the loyalty of the Trump fandom. They will rush to his defense at the drop of a dime… or like a button-summoned Diet Coke. But you have to wonder if you’ve strayed into the area of over-compensating if you get pathetically defensive over the opinions of middle-school children. It’s a wonder that Republicans are losing the youth vote.

- Thursday, May 6th -

It’s like the Republican Party is in a bar fight with the truth. Sadly American democracy is in danger of getting walloped by flying stools and pool cues. The truth has had an ally in Republican representative Liz Cheney. By speaking out against the Big Lie of a stolen election, she has forced the party into what might seem to be a moral (and political) dilemma: continue the insanity or tell the truth. I wouldn’t hold my breath for the latter. Duck, here comes a shot glass with Kevin McCarthy's face on it.

After the shameless depravity noted above, I would like to end this week with a note of sportsmanship and humanity. If there’s a list of the most universally-loved American athletes, there’s more than a fair chance that Willie Mays would be one of the names at the top. His talent and athleticism on the field was equaled only by his style and grace off the field. He is simply one of the greats. At a spry 90 years of age, he is undoubtedly the greatest living baseball player. But I could talk a cat off a milk truck for the length of time I could praise the sport of baseball and icons like Mays who played the game. Instead, you can read those thoughts here and I’ll close by wishing your weekend is a well-earned home run.

- In Case You Missed It -

Here are some articles from this week of stories underreported or just plain interesting:

In South Texas, Hispanic Republicans Try to Cement the Party’s Gains [New York Times]

Texas enabled the worst carbon monoxide poisoning catastrophe in recent U.S. history [Texas Tribune]

DC police officer: 'It's been very difficult' seeing elected officials trying to whitewash brutal insurrection [CNN]

Well, that’s a walk through my Twitter week. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for your support.

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