The Handout Thing

Handouts have been getting play these days. You know, the college loan relief thing versus the PPP loans that were forgiven.

Here is the definition of handout I found online:

something given free to a needy person or organization

Here are accompanying synonyms:

Aid, benefit, financial support, gift of money, subsidies, and payments.

Here is from today’s Chron:

WASHINGTON — A Harris County commissioner called out a state senator for complaining about student debt forgiveness after his Houston tax business had a $623,500 paycheck protection loan forgiven in 2020.

“Is this you?” Democrat Adrian Garcia tweeted at Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican who criticized President Joe Biden’s plan to offer student debtors up to $20,000 in relief was “costing $600+Bil.”

Garcia included a screenshot showing Bettencourt Tax Advisors LLC’s loan was forgiven in December 2020. According to ProPublica’s database of paycheck protection loans, the company received a loan during the first round of the program — meant to help businesses weather the COVID pandemic — in April 2020.

Bettencourt said in an interview that the loan helped him pay his employees during COVID: “I’m one of 5 million people that did what we could do to keep our employees hired.”

It was the Texas version of a social media trend that has taken off since Biden announced his plan as Democrats — and the official White House Twitter account — seek to shame Republicans who have been critical of the plan, but had their own business loans forgiven.

A spokesman for Garcia said the commissioner was inspired by the White House “noting similar hypocrisy among some Republican members of Congress.”

“Given Sen. Bettencourt’s strong opposition to President Biden’s program, does this mean he intends on reimbursing the United States the more than $600,000 he took in loan forgiveness?” Garcia spokesman Scott Spiegel said.

Here is the Chron story on Bettencourt’s hypocrisy: Harris County leader shames Sen. Bettencourt over $623K PPP loan (houstonchronicle.com).

PPP is turning out to be one of the biggest rip-offs ever. Commentary turned it down.  It was a handout, and I didn’t need a handout.

Sen. Bettencourt got a handout. Too bad he won’t own it.

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I mentioned before that last November I took a break from CNN to watch the Hallmark Channel Christmas flicks. I never went back to CNN. I thought they lost what they started out to be. I did watch the final “Reliable Sources” last week.

I now watch on occasion MSNBC because they know what they want to be. It is too bad about CNN. The Chron has an AP story on the state of CNN on page 2 of the Star Section today that covers half a page. Here is the best line from the story:

“CNN has to figure out what it wants to be,” said Carol Costello, a former anchor there and now a journalism instructor at Loyola Marymount University.

Here is the entire read: CNN management intent on changing perception of the network | AP News.

The story says Donald Trump going after CNN hurt their audience share. The story also says the new CNN honcho is reaching out to GOP leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell and Cong. Kevin McCarthy. Sigh.

Just cover the news.

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Commentary doesn’t know @Oliviajulianna who tweeted this yesterday:

Texas Democrats, stop hiring consultants who aren’t from Texas.

And then added this:

Okay let me be more specific— Texas Democrats, stop hiring people who don’t understand Texas or Texas culture.

I wonder what prompted her.

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I happened to catch “The Lost Valentine” on Hallmark last night. It first came out on CBS in 2011. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and the late great Betty White. It earned Betty White a Screen Actors Guild acting nomination. It is a tearjerker for sure.

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Commentary really doesn’t want to talk about the playoffs that begin in about 5 ½ weeks. This is our 61^st season in MLB.  We have gone to four World Series and won one.  We have a good-sized lead in the AL West and have the best record in the AL.  We have never had one of those ugly September collapses at the end of the season to blow a spot in the playoffs. We look pretty good heading into the final 33 games of which 18 will be at The Yard.

I ran across this headline on the internet yesterday:

3 reasons the Yankees won’t win the 2022 World Series

Here is reason # 3:

Yankees don’t have the pitching depth to win a World Series

Here is reason #2:

Yankees offense is great until it suddenly goes cold

Here is reason #1 with the details:

Yankees have a giant called the Astros to get through

Something about the Yankees seems similar to the story of the first Major League movie. You may recall the team didn’t even win the World Series in the film. Things ended with an American League pennant victory. And as we learned in the second film, they didn’t win the World Series.

This feels like a scenario which could happen with the Yankees. Unable to overcome the current incarnation of the Houston Astros during their many recent postseason battles, if they are able to slay the giant, it might exhaust all of their energy.

First, we need to believe they can take down the Astros. Houston has many more ways they can win games. They’ve stayed much healthier this year and don’t have an offense relying on a single player to hit a home run or two for victory.

Houston is beatable but so are the Yankees. An ALCS between these two could drag on for seven games. Then comes the real challenge: beating the winner from the National League.

The Yankees spent a good portion of the 2022 season way ahead of everyone else in the standings. Lately, it’s looking like several of the National League clubs would have nothing to fear with them.

New York is in for a brutal battle on their way to possibly face the Astros in the ALCS. Unfortunately, even if they come away as the winner, it might take the last ounce of their energy before the challenge of a World Series fight even begins.

We are in Arlington this evening and our AL lead over the Yankees is now four games.