The Enemy is in the House 

Bizarro Loops: Bad news, Trump is still the man in GOP circles and, as the NY Times’ Paul Krugman puts it, as a result the Republican party is stuck in a “doom loop of bizarro.” That doesn’t sound bad if you believe that the Republican party given it’s increasingly racist, xenophobic, and conspiracy laden underpinnings and its antiquated, hate filled social policies is on its way out to be replaced by one with economic policies that you may or may not agree with but that are at least debatable.  Unfortunately, the Republican party, appears to be doubling down on crazy and as it currently stands, is only one seat away from regaining control of the Senate, a few seats short of retaking the House and one election cycle away from recapturing the presidency. Yesterday, after meeting with Trump at Mar a Lago, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and someone from Trump’s orbit with a Twitter account proudly circulated a picture of the two of them standing shoulder to shoulder, grinning cheek to cheek while announcing that McCarthy has invited Trump to speak at the GOP’s upcoming Palm Beach shindig.  In addition, despite the barrage of the horrible coming to light about Congresswoman QAnon Marjorie Taylor Greene, like her assertion that last year’s California fires were caused by “space laser” wielding Jews led by the “evil” George Soros, McCarthy, who asserts that he is going to have a “talk” with her, appointed her to the House Education committee, because what better place for a conspiracist who claims that all those horrifying school shootings were false flags performed by crisis actors?  Speaker Pelosi called out Greene’s appointment to the Education committee as “beyond the pale,” questioning what Republican leadership was thinking, or if they were really thinking at all.  She did that while also saying that she may need to pass a supplemental budget to fund the additional security now needed to protect legislators and staff from future attacks because the “enemy is in the House.”  In an effort to make her point, she’s seriously considering bringing a vote to the House floor on a measure to expel QAnon Greene.  It won’t get the supermajority that’s needed to pass but it will force Republicans to once again show their true colors. Those are the colors that Florida Congressman/dad of Nestor Matt Gaetz showed by rallying against Liz Cheney, who at least for now remains the number three on the House Republican leadership team, in her home state of Wyoming yesterday.  His performance included a taped message from Don Jr.  Notably Gaetz did that just one day after the very disingenuous or worthless or both McCarthy “directed” House Republicans to put up a united front.  One of those House Republicans, Ohio’s Jim “Gym” Jordan announced that he has no plans to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.  Jordan may have reached his decision because his screaming shtick doesn’t play well outside of his gerrymandered district, because he’s concerned about the renewed attention it would focus on his failure to call out all that sexually abusive behavior he turned a blind eye to during his coaching days, and/or because he wants to assume Liz Cheney’s leadership position. Bottom line, with the Texas Republican party adopting a QAnon slogan, the Oregon Republican party moving further to the right side of lunacy and Arizona’s sanctioning Cindy McCain, Jeff Flake and Governor Ducey, the party is off the rails and may well be taking the country with it.

Executive in Action:  Mean time back in the real world, or at least the world not controlled by Krakens and crazies, Joe Biden spent yesterday rolling back some Trump imposed rules that banned US foreign aid from being used to fund family planning organizations that provide abortion services as part of their women’s reproductive health services.  He also began a review, government speak for getting legalities in order so his executive actions stick, of a Trump policy that cut off funding for US based family planning organizations, like Planned Parenthood, that provide abortion referrals and/or procedures.  At the same time Biden announced the reopening of ACA/Obamacare enrollment, an action intended to help out those who lost their health insurance as a result of the pandemic.  Many state exchanges have facilitated late enrollment but those living in states that rely on the Federal exchange had been unable to access insurance because keeping the exchange open wasn’t exactly a Trump priority and surprise, surprise Trump left office before providing that oft promised “due in two weeks” perfect new health insurance plan.  Shifting gears so to speak, just one day after President Biden announced his intention to replace the US car fleet with all electric vehicles, General Motors announced its plans to go all electric with all its vehicles except trucks by 2035. That’s big. Not so big, the NY Times’ editors criticized Biden for issuing so many executive actions, apparently they are back to #ButHerEmails false equivalency.  

Viral Musings:  News out of the vaccine world is a bit confusing due both to the number of vaccines approved or close to getting approved and because of concerns about effectiveness against some of the more troubling new variants. Novovax, not to be confused with Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca or J & J, the likely next to be approved in the US, reports that preliminary results indicate that its vaccine is around 95% effective against the original virus, 89% effective in the UK but only around 60% effective in South Africa. The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed together with Oxford University, which is already being administered in the UK might not work well in those over 65, though the data there is incomplete.  Pfizer believes that its vaccine works against the UK and South Africa variants though the antibodies generated in response to the South Africa variant are slightly less effective whatever that means. That’s consistent with earlier reports from Moderna. Both Moderna and Pfizer are already working on a booster to improve performance to the extent necessary. Keep an eye on J & J, its results are due in shortly and if, as expected, the company gets preliminary approval for its one dose wonder, a lot more shots will make it into US arms soon.

433,206 Dead (+3992)

26,193,700 shots done  (+ 1,541,100)

(source: CNN)

Have a safe weekend.  Double mask up.