Kevin Q-Ca

Off for shot two so this morning’s note will be brief. On the subject of shots,  the Republican Party continues to shoot itself in the foot. That wouldn’t be so bad except that they remain just a few seats away from winning back the House and only one octogenarian seat from regaining Senate control.  Yesterday QOP Leader Kevin McCarthy who the not very subtle Speaker Pelosi snidely referred to as McCarthy (Q-Ca) in an email to her troops gave his Representative from QAnon Marjory Taylor Greene a pass because she was only kidding when she trafficked in anti-Semitic and racist conspiracy theories and questioned whether 9.11 and mass shootings were real things. To drive home the point that she remains welcome in his caucus, around half of his complicit crowd gave her a standing ovation last night during their closed, but leaky, group grope.  That’s the same meeting where they also voted on whether or not Liz Cheney, who refused to apologize for voting her conscience on impeachment, should remain in her party leadership role. By 145 to 61 with 1 voting present,  Cheney won that that vote largely because it was a secret ballot and many Republicans are willing to cross Trump when no one can see that they have.  Given the way the ten Republican House members who voted for Trump’s impeachment are being treated by right wing media, their local party officials and even members of their own families, it’s fair to assume that if the ballot had been transparent, she would have had a harder time holding on to her position. Though the Republicans, or at least most of them not named Liz or Adam Kinzinger are okay with Margie Q retaining her committee positions, the Democrats not so much, later today they plan to vote away her committee assignments.  QOP McCarthy’s response to their plan is that the Democrats are being mean and spiteful, that they better watch out because if or when Republicans are in charge they’ll be sure to do the same to a few members of the so-called squad like Ilhan Omar, who actually apologized publicly for her anti-Semitic remarks or maybe even AOC just for the heck of it. On the subject of hate, our Canadian neighbors to the north declared that the Proud Boys, the guys that Trump told to stand by, are a terrorist group, putting them on a list that includes al-Qaeda, ISIS and al-Shabab.  While the US hasn’t done that, possibly because Trump nixed any and all efforts focused on the threats of violent white supremacism, newly confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced plans for a military wide stand down, pausing regular activity at some point in the next 60 days to tackle the issue of white nationalism in its ranks, an acknowledgement that as shown by the number of current and former members of the military that were involved in the January 6 insurrection, we’ve got a mondo big problem. As to confirming other members of Biden’s cabinet and team, yesterday Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer finalized and passed their organizing agreement which means that Democrats now chair all of Senate Committees so that yokels like Lindsey Graham will no longer be able to sit on confirmations of nominees like soon to be Attorney General Merrick Garland.  On the legislative front, while President Biden and Bernie Sanders, the new head of the Senate Finance committee, are willing to lower the income qualification limits for families with more than two earners, they’re both standing by the $1.9 trillion size of the virus relief package. That package is moving forward via reconciliation, so while a few changes might still be made, with or without Republican support it will pass.

Have a good day! Stay safe and #WearAMask or two. 

450,805 dead

33,878,300 shots in arms