Safe Harbors

A Shot in the Dark:  A 90 year old grandmother in the UK got her first shot yesterday becoming the first non-study participant Brit to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.  Expectations are that the US FDA will approve the vaccine for emergency use on Thursday and that some of our health care workers and congregate care residents will soon join her.  That’s the good news, the not so good news is that back in July the Trump White House declined the opportunity to pre-order 100 to 500 million more doses from Pfizer so our initial 100 million dose delivery which will be used up fairly quickly since each recipient needs two doses, will have to suffice until late June because others, including the EU, took Pfizer up on that July offer putting us at the back of Pfizer’s very long line. The Moderna vaccine is due to be approved shortly and others, including one from Astra Zeneca, are expected soon too but like all things Trump, already the vaccination process isn’t going according to plan. Not that Trump is all that concerned, ever the show man, he’s doing his smoke and mirrors thing.  He’s holding a White House vaccine summit today, the chief purpose of which is to pat himself on the back for his awesome warp speed accomplishment.  Notably neither Pfizer nor Moderna plan to send representatives.  In addition, Trump is expected to sign one of his America First executive orders today to ensure that US efforts to assist other countries in vaccinating their populations against Covid-19 take on a lower priority than domestic inoculations. Given our supply constraints that order is meaningless, intended to please his base, at least those members of his base who haven’t already joined the far too many Americans who already are anti-vax. It’s worth noting that Australia with a population of 27 million people has already ordered 135 million vaccine doses from three companies, those extra doses are for its neighboring, less well-off countries.  On the anti-vaxxer front, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, the Republican chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee best known for spreading Hunter Biden laptop conspiracies,  has invited Dr. Jane Orient, a vaccine skeptic who doesn’t believe in government involvement in health care and who is still promoting hydroxychloroquine as a COVID treatment to be the committee’s lead witness today because with 284,000 dead, the highest weekly death count so far, the virus raging out of control, vulnerable minority populations fearful that they’re being set up for another Tuskegee like experiment and alfalfa sprout eating Facebook mamas resistant to even chicken pox vaccines, feeding vaccine skepticism and encouraging conspiracy theories is what we need right now. 

Dr Strangelove: Trump is still trying to overturn the election. His attorneys are still filing lawsuits, Rudy plans to zoom into another “hearing” today  and Trump has called Pennsylvania’s Republican House Speaker Bryan Cutler twice during the past week to request help in reversing his Pennsylvania loss. That makes Pennsylvania the fourth state where Trump has attempted to overturn results since he lost to Biden, he previously reached out to Republican politicians in Michigan, Arizona and Georgia. To state the obvious, that’s not normal but because it’s Trump. members of his party, including Republican leaders who know how wrong his actions are,  just keep shrugging their shoulders saying inane things like “he’s entitled to be upset because no one likes to lose” and “he just needs more time to get over it.”  Could you imagine for a minute what they’d be saying if either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, who almost immediately conceded her 2016 defeat, pulled this sh-t?   Anyway, today is Safe Harbor Day, the deadline for states to certify the results of the presidential election. Meeting the deadline is not mandatory but it provides assurance that a state’s results will not be second-guessed by Congress. Notably all of those critical swing states where Trump hoped to get results changed have already certified their votes, Georgia did it for the second time yesterday, making Trump’s fever dream of  overturning the election even more remote. The arcane electoral college process isn’t over yet, the electors will formally vote on December 14 and a few Republican Congressmen still plan to oppose Biden’s win on January 6 when Congress confirms the Electoral College outcome so the noise and lawsuits will continue.  That said, Trump plans to head to Mar a Lago for Christmas and some in his staff believe, or at least hope, that he won’t return to the White House once he departs.  By the way Melania announced the completion of her White House tennis pavilion project yesterday, because that’s what we all care about right now.    

Being There:  President Elect Biden is expected to formally announce that he has selected Retired General Lloyd Austin to serve as his Secretary of Defense.  If confirmed, Austin would be the first Black person to lead the Pentagon.  Expect some squawking from the peanut gallery because Austin has not been out of the military for the required seven years and would need a waiver from Congress, that’s the same waiver that was granted to Trump’s first Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. On the legislative front, both the House and the Senate are expected to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  Ordinarily that would be a yawner but Trump is threatening a veto because it includes a provision requiring the Pentagon to change the names of Confederate-named military bases and we all know how he likes those slaveholder types and because it does not include a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the law that gives online platforms liability protection for content posted by third parties and Trump remains totally pissed at Twitter and almost as angry with Facebook because they’ve been pushing back at his election lies and conspiracy theories.  Hope springs eternal that a virus aid package will be agreed to soon and because they always wait until the last minute Congress is expected to pass a one week funding extension to avoid another government shutdown while they work on a longer omnibus spending bill. On a positive note, the Trump administration is again accepting DACA applications, not because they want to but because a Federal court told them to fully reinstate the program.     

43 Days