Eyes and Ears

State of Play:  The impeachment is behind us but the political divide remains.  Outspoken Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of those who crossed party lines to vote to impeach Trump, is getting nasty letters from members of his own family who think his brain has been taken over by Satan and a Pennsylvania GOP official condemned Senator Pat Toomey, another one who crossed over, saying he wasn’t sent to Washington to “vote his conscience” but to do the right thing and by right thing, think kowtow to Trump.  Proving that George Orwell knew what he was talking about when he wrote that the party’s most “essential command” was to “reject the evidence of your eye and ears” a number of Republicans have taken to the airwaves to recharacterize the events of January 6^th.  Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson who spent much of last year dwelling on Hunter Biden’s laptop, says that the Capitol attack “didn’t seem like much of an armed insurrection” to him because most of those present were just nice Trump fanatics out for a day in the park and anyway the problem was that a teeny tiny small but highly visible group of them were agitators.  As to that weaponry Johnson appears to be conveniently ignoring the automatic weapons, tasers and those still unattributed pipe bombs found near both the Democratic and Republican headquarters. Johnson is not alone, others question why anyone would think that carrying of scads of zip ties was an indication of plans to restrain any officials because obviously sometimes a zip tie is just a zip tie and those screaming for Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence’s heads were just kidding. Of course Jim “Gym” Jordan and Devin Nunes also have something to say. Together with a few fellow Republican Congressmen they assert that the insurrection was all Pelosi’s fault, that she, rather than Trump or his obedient Acting Defense Secretary, was the one who failed to authorize the calling up of the National Guard because clearly someone with her “enormous institutional responsibilities and involvement in all operational decisions” could have and should have done so. Nancy’s not buying any of their crap, instead yesterday she announced plans for a bi-partisan, independent 9.11 like commission to study the origins of January sixth as well as the day’s events. That’s important but those kind of reports take time to produce so the divisive rhetoric and fantabulous accusations will continue abetted by right wing social media site Parler which reared its ugly head again yesterday.  Unfortunately twitter for extremist wingnuts has found a new host, California’s SkySilk, and a new interim CEO, Mark Meckler, one of the creators of the Tea Party. How long before Trump starts sending out parlers? Probably sooner than the curiously silent former Pence starts speaking out about his horrible, terrible day.

Midterms Already: Mitch McConnell who isn’t going anywhere, took to the Wall Street Journal to further justify his vote to acquit that criminal Trump letting us know that voting to acquit wasn’t a vote to exonerate Trump but a defense of the Constitution, or at least the Constitution as he sees it. Mitch also confirmed what we already knew, that his goal is to retake the Senate in 2022 and though he’d prefer more mainstream candidates, he’ll take anyone who can win against Democratic opponents and he’ll be happy to accept any assistance from that crime king Trump as long as he gets behind those who can win a general election rather than just a primary.  And in case you’re thinking we’re not even two months into 2021, why are we talking about the 2022 midterms, the Georgia Senate election is already in play.  Yesterday, former Senator David Perdue who was unseated by newbie Senator Jon Ossoff announced the formation of an exploratory committee to run against newbie Senator Raphael Warnock who since he only won a filler seat,  is up for reelection in 2022.  And it’s not just Perdue, former Senator Kelly Loeffler who Warnock beat in January’s runoff is also considering running again as is Georgia Congressman Doug Collins. What happens in Georgia really matters since the Democrats’ hold on the Senate is tenuous.  One more interesting note, while the Republican parties in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana have censured their Senators for voting Trump guilty and Maine’s party is considering doing the same to Susan Collins, Utah’s has no plans to follow suit.  The state’s party says that they’re just fine that Mitt Romney thinks Trump is a criminal while their another Senator, Mike Lee, is one of his biggest fans. Maybe that’s what happens when most of your residents shun, or at the very least say they shun, caffeine and alcohol?

Viral Musings: There’s been a lot of debate about the CDC’s school reopening guidelines, mostly focused on whether or not teachers should get their vaccinations before being told to return to schools.  Even though school transmission, particularly in elementary schools, is low it’s fair to say that teachers should be prioritized for shots. The good news is that they are in 28 states, DC and Puerto Rico but even though the CDC recommends that they be prioritized everywhere, they’re not in the remaining states.  Sure shots remain a scarce resource, but really what are those states’ Governors thinking?  As to shot availability, the FDA’s meeting on J & J’s one shot vaccine is scheduled to take place on February 26.  Assuming the shot is approved, and it likely will be, its early March availability could help with the teacher situation.         

486,332

52,884,400 shots in arms