Seven Times the Charm?

Checks are in the Mail: Yesterday, short one Democrat and without the support of a single Republican, the House signed on to the Senate’s version of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief legislation.  That one Democrat is Maine moderate Jared Golden, considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress and a target of Republicans who hope to pick up enough seats during the 2022 midterms to regain control of the House, something that could really happen given all the voter suppression legislation being passed throughout the country combined with the expectation that Democrats will lose seats through redistricting in Republican controlled states. Despite the bill’s popularity, it’s supported by more than 70% of Americans, most Republicans and the right wing media either went on the attack, calling it’s boosting of the social safety net proof that Biden and the Democrats are turning the country into a socialist nightmare akin to Venezuela,  continued to lament the demise of potatoes, eggs and ham, and/or pivoted to the “virus infested” masses of migrants crossing the southern border.  Well, that’s what most Republicans did, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker bragged to his constituents about how the legislation that he voted against would support independent restaurant operators with $28.6 billion of targeted relief, ensuring small business survival.  Who knew chutzpah was a thing in Mississippi?  Republicans have a point in that the relief legislation is all encompassing, extending far beyond simple virus related programs but in a lot of respects they’re responsible for Biden’s push to go big as they spent years complaining about how economic growth didn’t ramp up adequately enough under Obama, a result that’s attributed by many economists to  Obama’s decision to compromise on the size of the bailout he put in place to restore the economy after the Bush era economic disaster.  In other news, three more of Biden’s cabinet members were confirmed yesterday:  never to be Supreme Court Justice Merrick Garland by a vote of 70 to 30 as Attorney General, Congresswoman Martha Fudge by a vote of 66 to 34 as HUD Secretary and Michael Regan also by a vote of 66 to 34 as EPA Administrator.  Native American New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland, one of Biden’s more controversial picks, at least controversial to those who would rather drill on park lands than hike through them, has won the support of Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who needs the support of her Native American population to remain in office, as a result she appears to be on track to be voted in as Secretary of the Interior next week.

Viral Musings:  The vaccination rate is ramping up throughout the country; one in four adults, 18.8% of the population, have received a vaccine dose with 9.9% fully vaccinated.  Yesterday President Biden announced that he’s made arrangements to obtain 100 million more doses of the  J & J vaccine on top of the 300 million Pfizer doses , 300 million Moderna doses and the 100 million J & J doses previously ordered.  Those figures don’t include the amounts also ordered from Novavax and AstraZeneca for their not yet not approved for US use vaccines.  We remain on target to vaccinate all adults who want shots by the end of May, before the newly order J & J doses even show up.  It’s possible that they will be allocated to children and teens assuming the trials currently underway conclude that those populations can be safely vaccinated, used as second shots if that is determined to enhance effectiveness and/or sent overseas to help out countries in need because Biden unlike his predecessor gets that we only get out of coronavirus hell and squash the emergence of nasty variants when the rest of the world gets out too.  That’s the good news, the troubling news is that more and more Governors have concluded that going mask free and partying in the streets and bars is the way to go. Statewide restrictions go bye-bye in Texas today and about 300,000 motorcyclists are due to arrive in Daytona Beach shortly because why shouldn’t Florida get to have its own Sturgis super spreader party?      

FG Chronicles:  The Former Guy seems very upset that he isn’t getting enough credit for the success of the vaccine drive.  He still doesn’t have twitter, but he does have the ability to issue press releases which his enablers and the FG starved mainstream media post for him so yesterday he issued a statement taking credit for what he called the “China Virus” vaccine saying that if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have had a vaccine for another five years.  Sure his administration should get and does get credit for funding a lot of vaccine development through the warp speed program but Pfizer took no development money and other countries like China and Russia have developed vaccines too, so that five year assertion is bogus.  Moreover, the Former Guy’s administration never bought into the idea that the states would need help, lots of it, to get those shots into arms and that more shots were needed. Anyway, the FG, who continues to dominate the Republican party, glomming onto its financial resources and advocating for his kind of candidates may just be trying to divert attention from incoming from several other fronts.  Yesterday the Wall Street Journal released a tape of the six minute conversation that he had with Georgia’s chief election investigator Frances Watson who was responsible for Georgia’s signature match audit.  During the call he pushed her to find fraud because as everyone knows he really won the election that he really lost, telling her that “when the right answer comes out, you’ll be really praised.”  Why is it that all those Georgia election officials felt compelled to tape their calls with him? Notably, the FG managed to throw former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows under the bus, saying that he was making the call because Meadows told him to. In other investigative news, the WSJ also reported that NYC’s Cy Vance and NYS AG Letitia James are looking into the curious valuation of the FG’s Seven Springs Westchester property, focusing on how it was undervalued for tax purposes while wildly inflated to impress bank lending officers.  And to cap everything, one time FG lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen reports that he was called in for the seventh time to sit with attorneys in Cy Vance’s office.  As CNN Legal Commentator/former SDNY Attorney Eli Honig tweeted yesterday, “prosecutors don’t meet with witnesses ‘seven times’ for no reason.”   One more note, I have no idea what’s really going on with Governor Cuomo.  He either spent the better part of his terms groping and propositioning women or he’s the victim of a massive smear campaign.  Tish James’ office has its hands full.

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95,721,290 shots in arms