Mark of the Beast?

Captain Obvious: Yesterday was relatively uneventful for people not named Andrew Cuomo.  Homeland Security Chief Mayorkas announced that in an effort to right the wrongs committed by the Former Guy’s family separation horror, the Biden administration plans to give reunited families the option of remaining in the US with a possible path to citizenship assuming that they still want to stay; otherwise the administration will reunite them in their home countries.  Sadly, though the Biden team is making progress on the reuniting front, challenges remain as many parents still have not been found.  The Former Guy, who finally admitted during his CPAC speech that he and Melania had been vaccinated before moving south, something that he should have gone public with earlier as many of his supporters continue to shun the vaccine thinking that if he didn’t get one maybe they shouldn’t either, may finally be facing some legal problems or not, with him you never know.  The NY Times reports that prosecutors are “sharpening their focus” on his company’s finance director, Allen Weisselberg and also looking at Weisselberg sons Barry and Jack. That’s a captain obvious report, of course they’re circling CFO Weisselberg.  Though the article specifically says there’s no evidence that the sons have done anything wrong it’s curious that Jack works at Ladder Capital, one of the Trump company’s biggest lenders since one of the things being investigated is whether or not the Former Guy inflated the value of his properties to obtain loans while minimizing values for tax purposes. The other son, Barry, isn’t on the finance side, he runs the Trump managed Central Park Wollman Ice Skating Rink, but his position provides more evidence of just intertwined the Weisselbergs’ fortunes are with those of the Former Guy.  Last night the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that things are heating up in Atlanta as well where Fulton County prosecutors are expected to appear before a grand jury this week to obtain subpoenas for documents and witnesses related to the Former Guy’s efforts to commit election fraud.  Again, don’t get too excited about any of this, if we’ve learned anything thus far it’s that the Former Guy has a long history of avoiding the legal consequences of his actions.  However, given yesterday’s news out of France where former Prime Minister Nikolas Sarkozy was actually found guilty and sentenced to jail for corruption who knows, maybe the Former Guy’s luck is about to run out too.  

Viral Musings:  Five thousand doses of the newly approved J & J are already being shipped to locations throughout the country but don’t expect the Pillow Guy to line up to get one.  Despite the Former Guy’s admission that he’s been vaccinated, Mike “Pillow” Lindell disparaged coronavirus vaccinations, calling them the “mark of the beast” while also attacking Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu for “forcing” all Israelis to get vaccinated and telling his population that only the vaccinated will get to start going out and living normal lives.  We don’t know what else Mr. Pillow had to say because with a panicked smile plastered on her face his YouTube interviewer cut him off midstream, concerned that his spewing of vaccine misinformation would get her channel banned from the media platform.  Sadly, Lindell isn’t the only Republican reluctant to get vaccinated. Polls indicate that while much of the focus has been on hard hit minority communities and their vaccination hesitancy, white Republicans are the group most unlikely to get vaccinated, more collateral damage from the Former Guy’s failure to get his jab in public. Since we only get to herd immunity after almost everyone gets their shots, this could be a big problem.  On the mutation  front, the New York variant is being watched closely over concerns that it may increase virus deposits in the nose, another reason that fully vaccinated people are being asked to keep wearing masks to make sure that they aren’t asymptomatic spreaders.  Because we are nowhere near herd immunity and because declines in virus cases appear to be plateauing and maybe even turning back up combined with overly aggressive re-openings throughout the country, CDC Head Rochelle Walensky warned yesterday that we must all remain vigilant during the vaccine rollout.            

Politics as Usual:  Attorney General nominee/Judge Merrick Garland still hasn’t been confirmed but his nomination did make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 15 to 7 with four Republicans, including ranking member Chuck Grassley, former Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis voting for him.  Senators Ben Sasse, Mike Lee, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, John Kennedy, Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn all voted in opposition. Cruz, who should be quarantining both because of his Cancun sprint and his attendance at the largely unmasked CPAC convention complained that Garland who did meet with him via Zoom refused to have an in person meeting.  Of course Cruz refused to meet with Garland when he was nominated to serve on the Supreme Court but that was then and this is now and almost everyone not named Cruz agrees that Lyin’ Ted is a horrible human being. Neera Tanden’s nomination to serve as OMB Director is still alive, barely,  Yesterday she met with Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski who reportedly is trying to negotiate oil drilling rights for her state in exchange for her vote for Tanden’s nomination.  It wouldn’t be the first time that the very independent Murkowski managed to extract a promise in exchange for her vote, she did the same successfully when Mitch McConnell was in charge. Separately, after the Former Guy called her out for voting him guilty, yesterday McConnell who knows he needs Murkowski if he’s ever to retake his Senate leadership position said that he will be backing her reelection in 2022. We also now have a new Education Secretary, yesterday the Senate confirmed Miguel Cardona by a vote of 64 to 33. 

Arf:  Stanley who is firmly in the pro-vaccination camp will be staging a hospital breakout later today with me riding shot gun. And by shotgun I am talking metaphorically, no Lady Gaga bulldog incidents are planned. Thanks for sending so many kind thoughts his way!   

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76,899,097 shots in arms