Kraken Chutzpah

Guns, Guns, Guns: Last month Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who along with QAnon Margie is a star of the Republican freshman class was interviewed in front of her bookcase, not so unusual as being shown sitting in front of curated bookcases is de rigueur in these days of Zoom interviews.  What made Boebert’s staging stand out was that hers wasn’t filled with scholarly tomes or any books, not even a few from current conservative fave Dr Seuss, instead it was chock full of unsecured automatic weapons.  Boebert is a proud gun owner who advocates gun ownership for all, the more the better.  Last night after ten people, including one police officer, were killed by an assault weapon wielding maniac in a Boulder, Colorado grocery store, Boebert’s campaign sent out a fundraising email encouraging her supporters to say “Hell No” to any gun control measures.  Three mass shootings in one week: one at a Philadelphia house party, one outside of Atlanta and now the one in Boulder, and that’s Boebert’s message. The majority of Americans support stricter gun control laws, and legislation limiting private sales and extending the time for background checks has twice made it through the Democratically controlled House, yet nothing so far from the Senate where Mitch McConnell refused to bring similar limitations up for a vote when he was in control. Senate Majority Leader Schumer plans to do so but despite the recent shootings getting the 60 votes needed for passage will be tough if not impossible.  Just another reason why so many Democrats hate the filibuster. Maybe McConnell and company should explain that to all the families of the fallen, starting with Colorado Officer Eric Talley’s now fatherless children, all seven of them or maybe with the families of the Asian women shot by the guy who bought his weapon shortly before his killing spree because he was just having a bad day.   

Theater of the Absurd: Last week after Russia’s Putin reacted angrily to President Biden calling him out as the killer he is, a number of right wing pundits including Sean Hannity as well as a few too many Republican politicians including Florida’s moronic Congressman Matt Gaetz weighed in on Putin’s side.  Yesterday, Putin who is a killer, issued a kill list of opponents, warning that his long arms will reach his enemies. Bill Browder, the ex-pat American who continues to successfully champion the passage and implementation of Magnitsky Act legislation around the globe featured prominently on that list.  The Magnitsky Act laws push world leaders to impose sanctions on foreign persons who engage in human rights abuses and corruption, a list that includes Putin’s besties. Message to Sean Hannity, Matt Gaetz and their clueless right wing followers, taking Putin’s side to own the libs makes, really?!?  Keeping with the absurd, yesterday Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell who is being sued by Dominion Voting machines over her assertions that their dead Hugo Chavez influenced voting machines flipped votes to Biden and away from the Former Guy during the 2020 election claimed in a court filing that since reasonable people couldn’t possibly believe that anything she said was factually true the case against her has no merit and should be dismissed. Her proof is that Dominion’s lawyers have said that her claims were “wild” and “outlandish.” The Kraken Chutzpah defense? Keeping with the chutzpah theme, yesterday Missouri’s one time Governor Eric Greitens who resigned from office after being indicted for invasion of privacy for threatening to release compromising pictures if the hairdresser with whom he’d been having an extramarital affair didn’t keep their relationship quiet announced plans to run for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by outgoing Senator Roy Blunt. The privacy invasion wasn’t Greitens’ only problem, he also illegally used his charity’s donor list to identify potential political contributors.  No word yet from the Former Guy who has got to admire that charity list idea as to whether he plans to endorse Greitens, maybe that’s because he was too busy endorsing Congressman Jody Hice who plans to challenge Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in his bid for reelection.  Would it surprise you to know that the FG holds a grudge against Raffensperger because he refused to question the validity of the Georgia election results and that Hice is a staunch FG ally who stood up for him during his impeachment travails?  

Viral Musings:  With the vaccine rollout continuing apace, the end of the pandemic is tantalizingly close yet we appear to be trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Too aggressive reopening’s, more variants of concern, including one here in New York, combined with partying hordes appear to be leading to more new cases.  The Astra Zeneca vaccine is also facing some new troubles.  Just one day after the company released its impressive trial results, the US Daily Safety Monitoring Board expressed concern that the company may have “included outdated information which may have provided an incomplete view of its efficacy data.”  US officials are now “encouraging” as in demanding that the company work with them to review the data, ensuring that the “most up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible. To state the obvious, this is a problem especially because AZ is trying to rebuild trust in Europe where concerns about its vaccine and blood clots, accurate or not, continue to plague its rollout.

542,949

126,509,736 shots in arms