Jovial and Friendly?

Cross Sections: Yesterday the Senate held a hearing on the January 6^th Capitol attack.  Putting aside a number of absurdly inane comments from the usual members of the loony tune gallery like Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson who asserted that the insurgency crowd represented a mostly  jovial, friendly, and earnest cross section of America and that the violent attackers among them weren’t Trump supporters but antifa and the like in drag, it remains clear that the attackers were Trump supporters but that much about what led up to the day’s violence and why the Capitol police weren’t better prepared is still murky. The FBI did warn that extremists were threatening violent attacks on the Capitol but it’s not clear why their alert bulletin wasn’t delivered more forcefully and why those in command who should have recognized that the warnings they received were ominous, especially given the volume of social media postings visible to everyone, made decisions that left the Capitol without an adequately robust defense force and whether they made their decision not to be better prepared under direction from those high up the food chain as in someone in the White House. We still have much to learn about January 6^th but one thing we do know is that Thomas Webster, a 20-year NYPD veteran, former Marine, and Trump supporter was arrested yesterday charged with attacking a DC police officer with a pole and trying to gauge his eyes out during the insurrection.  If he’s representative of America’s cross section we’re all in big trouble. In other news, Stephen Miller, another one of those jovial characters may be gone from the White House but sadly is still up to his old shtick.  Apparently, he’s been keeping busy meeting with Congressional conservatives, helping them hone their anti-immigrant rhetoric in preparation for attacking anything and everything Joe Biden plans to do to ease immigration and the path to citizenship.  Miller has even met with a very receptive Mike Pence who won’t be at the CPAC conference this weekend because the former guy doesn’t want him there and threatened to stay home if his former VP was invited.  In keeping with the Stephen Miller anti-immigrant line, a number of Senators are squawking about Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary pick, Xavier Becerra, claiming that since he’s not a doctor he shouldn’t head up HHS, an odd assertion given that they had no problem confirming that other non-doctor Alex Azar.  Their real concern is that Becerra wants to provide health care to undocumented residents.  While OMB candidate’s Neera Tanden’s nomination continues to dangle by an increasingly frazzled thread, a number of Senators, including possibly nomination killer/coal state Senator Joe Manchin are lining up in opposition to Native American Deb Haaland’s nomination to Interior Secretary over concerns that she’s too friendly to the environment and not friendly enough to the fossil fuel industry.  That said, some nominations are going through, yesterday Linda Thomas Greenfield was confirmed as Ambassador to the UN and Mitch McConnell who once refused to grant Merrick Garland a hearing when he was nominated for the Supreme Court announced that he’ll be voting for him to become Attorney General. Garland is expected to sail through as soon as the Senate holds his confirmation vote.  

Viral Musings:  Pfizer and Moderna announced yesterday that they’ve successfully ramped up their vaccine production capabilities and as a result now expect to deliver 140 million doses over the next five weeks, that’s 28 million per week.  To date they’ve only delivered 80 million doses, so that ramp up would result in significantly more people being vaccinated more quickly than previously anticipated.  And again, those numbers do not include J & J or the other vaccines still in the pipeline including a two dose one from Novavax which so far appears to be 89.3% effective but is still undertaking its US trials. In separate news, virus guru Fauci says that he expects the CDC to issue new less stringent guidance for those who have already been fully vaccinated.  Don’t get too excited, that guidance isn’t going to give license to “normal” behavior but is expected to address how the vaccinated can behave in family settings and among other vaccinated individuals.   

Et Cetera:  Rough day yesterday for golf legend Tiger Woods who though he survived a car crash was severely injured.  Also a rough day for my little goldendoodle Stanley who ate one too many foreign objects off the streets of New York and is now in the vet hospital recovering, hopefully, after having undergone intestinal surgery which accounts for today and yesterday’s shorter than usual and somewhat awkward write ups.  Oy, Oy.  

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65,032,100 shots in arms