It Takes Two to Encrypt

With almost 400,000 testing COVID positive daily the stories out of India are heartbreaking, in opened up Israel where only 84 tested positive yesterday a joyful religious event turned into a tragedy when at least 44 revelers were killed in a mob crush and in Russia opposition politician Alexei Navalny who has given up his hunger strike appeared at a Zoom “show trial” hearing looking emaciated so thank goodness for Rudy Giuliani, his son Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, Matt Gaetz and Roger Stone.  The gruesome characters from the Former Guy chronicles are the gift that keep giving.  Last night Rudy told Fox fish stick heir/white supremacist Tucker Carlson that he’s the victim of a political hit job, that he’s been trying for a sit down with the FBI for months to explain his exploits, that if the DOJ was serious about going after the truly guilty they would have taken that Hunter laptop sitting on his dresser with a big post it saying “take me I’m Hunter’s laptop” and anyway if he had anything incriminating he would have destroyed it months ago.  His son Andrew, who needs a job and housing so desperately that he’s teasing a run for NYS Governor, appeared on CNN’s Erin Burnett show where he also attacked the FBI, those political hacks at the DOJ who are only now acting like hacks because under Former Guy Attorney General Barr the DOJ always acted in a totally apolitical way.  He echoed a bit too closely his father’s claim that the FBI refused to take the offered up Hunter laptop.  Also it turns out that Rudy, who is likely being investigated for working as an agent for some of those corrupt Ukrainians who found former Ambassador Maria Yovanovitch’s anti-corruption campaign too effective had been warned by the FBI that he was being used as a Russian tool but ignored the warnings as did Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Ron Johnson, another one the Russians used and are still using because he’s such a compliant idiot. It’s reported that Rudy may add Alan Dershowitz, who remains embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell pedophile mess, to his legal team because why not?

On the subject of illegal sex antics, Matt Gaetz’s troubles continue to deepen. According to the Daily Beast, Gaetz’s one time BFF former Seminole County Tax Collector/Venmo guy Joel Greenfield confessed his criminal activities, including that little problem of the 17 year old he and Matt shared and compensated via Venmo in an encrypted text message to Roger Stone, part of his effort to get one of those highly sought after Former Guy pardons. Stone told Greenfield that he needed all the gruesome details so that the pardon could be properly written and that he also expected to be paid $250,000 if he managed to snare him that golden ticket.  Unfortunately for Greenfield the pardon never materialized.  Unfortunately for Gaetz and Stone, Greenfield took screen shots of his communication with Stone, totally defeating the purpose of using encrypted apps intended to hide and erase messages.  As of this moment, as far as we know, Rudy has not been indicted, Gaetz is still in Congress and Stone is still benefiting from what may or may not be an adequately written pardon but this saga has legs so who knows what comes next, certainly not the Former Guy who may be feeling a bit twitchy right about now.

Even though COVID cases are declining in the US over 50,000 Americans tested positive yesterday, most of the world is a mess and variants know no boundaries so we’re not out of the woods yet.  Keep on wearing that mask when shopping indoors, in crowds and with the unvaccinated but if you want you take it off for uncrowded, distanced outdoor activities, go for it. Have a wonderful weekend.

571,297

237 million shots in arms            

 

Kevlar Vests

Rudy!  I wasn’t planning on writing today but then Rudy Giuliani happened, Joe Biden went with an ab lib about deer in Kevlar and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who earlier spoke about all the times he was stopped for driving while Black, said that there was no systemic racism in America so here goes.  On the Rudy front, America’s one time mayor had a Michael Cohen kind of day and not in a good way.  The Former Guy’s former lawyer’s New York apartment and office were raided by FBI agents searching for information about his Ukraine activities.  The G Men left with electronic equipment including a few phones and maybe even one or more of those Hunter Biden’s “laptops.”  Notably Southern District of New York prosecutors have been trying to get their hands on Rudy’s cache for a while but had been stymied or should I say obstructed by former Attorney General Bill Barr and his henchmen.  It’s probably not coincidental that the Rudy raid took place right after Merrick Garland’s second in command Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco was finally confirmed and sworn in.  She seems to have hit the ground running, managing to sign off on the Rudy raid between investigations into police shootings.  Rudy who had a replacement sit in for him on his usual radio show gig yesterday sent son Andrew, the Former Guy’s former paid golfing buddy, out to defend him.  Unsurprisingly, Andrew who sounded like one of those mobsters that Rudy used to round up, may not have been the best spokesman unless of course cartoonish thugs are your thing. Rudy is scheduled to appear on Tucker Carlson’s show tonight, what but everything could go wrong?

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs:  If last night was a drinking game and the word jobs was the shot trigger we’d all be nursing wild hangovers this morning.  President Biden, who had clearly practiced and practiced again before stepping to the podium, made sure to mention that everything on his legislative wish list would results in lots of jobs, more jobs and job training for everyone, regardless of their ethnicity or party affiliation.  Whether you’re all in on his ambitious agenda and those potential tax increases or not you have to give him credit for the tone of his speech and its delivery, a refreshing change from the Former Guy’s Stephen Miller scribed annual doom and gloomsplaining. Though Biden mostly stuck to the script, he did include a few ad libs, including my favorite when he advocated for gun control by saying “talk to most responsible gun owners and hunters — they’ll tell you there’s no possible justification for having a hundred rounds in a weapon. What, do you think deer are wearing Kevlar vests?”  That comment didn’t go over well with Colorado Congresswoman/gun enthusiast Lauren Boebert whose whole body especially her trigger fingers looked to be twitching uncontrollably, good thing she hadn’t been able to bring some of her advanced weaponry to the speech, but it did inspire some good Twitter memes of deer in vests.  As to the rest of Biden’s speech, some Republicans actually applauded a few things he said, agreeing for example that being tough on China is a good thing but most went with the traditional for parties out of power silence/sit on hands routine even when he hit some really populist notes.  For example they didn’t even applaud when he talked about ending child hunger.  One pleasant surprise, Ted “Cancun”  Cruz who spent much of the speech sleeping actually applauded when Biden said everyone should get vaccinated.

The Official Diss:  That Tim Scott was chosen to give the official response wasn’t surprising because how better to convince white soccer moms that you’re not the party of white supremacists than to send out your one Black senator.  Unfortunately, Scott who has actually been getting some accolades from some Democrats for his efforts to hash out bipartisan police reform legislation stuck to the party line delivering a speech that could have come from some of his whitest, most insurrectionist colleagues like Utah’s Mike Lee or Arkansas’ Tom Cotton.  In addition to denying that anyone in his party or the country had a racist bone in their body, he slammed Biden’s socialist agenda and called the Democrat party, as opposed to all those Republicans who participated in the January 6^th insurrection and who still don’t think that the 2020 election was legitimate, divisive. He also had the chutzpah to claim that Republicans were all in on voters’ rights.  He pretty much said that Georgia’s new voter suppressive legislation was really the best thing since peach pie, way better than anything from the Big Apple.  He’s not wrong in pointing out that New York State’s voter legislation isn’t all that accommodating, the state only recently started allowing early voting.  However, he intentionally failed to mention that Georgia’s new law would allow its Republican legislature to undo legitimate election results they don’t like. To that end Georgia’s one time Senator Kelly Loeffler who still hasn’t gotten over her loss to Raphael Warnock is now calling on Georgia’s top law enforcement official to investigate Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican who despite his party affiliation defended the legitimacy of his state’s election results, for his handling of the 2020 election.   

 570,421

235 million shots in arms  

 

Counting Consequences

Another Police Shooting:  It’s a work week beginning with a Monday so there’s another police shooting to discuss.  This one actually took place last week in North Carolina where Andrew Brown Jr, a 42 year old Black man, was fatally shot by a county sheriff deputy who was one of several attempting to serve him with a warrant.  The sheriff’s office has body camera video and audio of the shooting but so far hasn’t released anything to the public over their concerns that sharing “could lead to civil unrest.”  They have however shown a redacted 30 second “cut” to Brown’s family.  According to the family what they’ve seen seems to confirm that while Brown who was shot in the back of the head was trying to back out of his driveway, his escape was blocked by police cars, his hands were on the steering wheel of his car and that he was not a threat to the sheriffs when he was shot. No doubt more details will surface, perhaps as early as today, but whatever comes out, it’s fair to say that the sheriffs’ office characterization of the shooting as a tragic incident is both correct and an understatement. Unrelated to the North Carolina shooting, but definitely related to the national problem, yesterday Attorney General Merrick Garland announced an investigation into the policing practices of the Louisville Kentucky police department to assess whether that department “engages in a pattern or practice of using unreasonable force.”  Among other things the DOJ will determine whether the Louisville police department “engages in unconstitutional stops, searches and seizures, as well as whether the department unlawfully executes search warrants on private homes."  This investigation is being done in response to the killing of Breonna Taylor who was shot during a botched raid on her apartment while she was sleeping in her own bed by police using a no-knock warrant that was obtained using out of date information about the whereabouts of her prior boyfriend.  The Louisville announcement together with last week’s announcement that the DOJ will be investigating police practices in Minneapolis, provides just one more indication that this administration, unlike the prior one, is serious about trying to change police practices for the better.  

 

Politics as Usual:  Yesterday’s big news concerned the results of the 2020 census, the once every ten year exercise mandated by the Constitution which was undertaken while the Former Guy was still in office. Census results dictate the apportionment of Congressional seats among states as well as federal aid amounts which explains why Wilbur Ross, the Former Guy’s octogenarian/narcoleptic Secretary of Commerce tried to exclude undocumented residents from the count. Though he didn’t succeed in convincing the Supremes that he could proceed with his anti-migrant counting methodology it’s likely that the vision that he and the Former Guy shared had an impact on the final results which could be one explanation for what appears to be an undercounting of Hispanic residents. In any case it looks like with a population of 331.5 million, overall US population growth has slowed to levels not seen since the Depression of the 1930s.  Texas, Florida, Colorado, Montana, Oregon and North Carolina will gain more House seats while California, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will lose one each. The general trend of population shifting towards the south and west, though not California, isn’t surprising but still the results didn’t turn out totally as expected.  New York which fell only 89 residents short of keeping all of its seats was actually expected to lose two but instead will lose only one. By the way if you’re one of the 89 who didn’t fill in your form, note the consequences of inaction are real. Arizona which was expected to gain stayed the same and while Texas is getting two new seats, the Lone Star state was expecting to do even better as was Florida which will be gaining only one seat rather than two. Attention now shifts to the fight over redistricting. Due to a change in control of the state legislature, New York’s lost seat could turn into a net gain for Democrats who are likely to try to redraw lines to squeeze a few Republicans like gubernatorial hopefuls Elena Stefanik or Lee Zeldin out of their seats. Republican controlled legislatures will try and probably succeed in screwing a few of their states’ Democrats too but nothing can be done to save one of the Republicans in West Virginia where the state’s only two Congressmen, both Republicans, will have to duke it out to see who survives. The bottom line is though Democrats will ultimately lose a few safe seats, the results are not as bad for team blue as had been anticipated and it’s quite possible that’s due to the Former Guys anti-immigrant scare tactics which likely are the cause for Florida, Texas and Arizona getting fewer seats than expected.

Say What:  Former Pennsylvania Senator/CNN commentator dissed all Native Americans by telling an audience of young conservatives that "there isn't much Native American culture in American culture," that the culture of the United States is largely unchanged since it was birthed by "Judeo-Christian" values. He went on to say that when “we” arrived here the land was a blank slate because you know those prior residents that were slaughtered and/or run off their lands didn’t count and still don’t.  It’s never been clear why CNN keeps Santorum on board, but that offensive speech provides just another reason that he should be shown the door, permanently. Someone else who should be shown the door is Tucker Carlson, but sadly his spot seems secure. Last night the reliably controversial, hate mongering Carlson urged his viewers to oppose the outdoor wearing of face masks by children calling it child abuse. He went on to tell his viewers to harass outdoor mask wearers and to call the police or Child Protective Services if they see a masked child outdoors as if the police don’t already have their hands full. Not to be outdone in the absurdity category, House GQP Leader Kevin McCarthy now says that the Former Guy acted admirably on January 6 because he tried oh so hard to call off all those marauding insurrectionists.  McCarthy also seems to be losing his patience with fellow GQP leader Liz Cheney, something to do with her refusing to take back any of those not so nice things that she keeps saying about the Former Guy.  Cheney by the way won’t rule out a future presidential run, although it’s not quite clear that her party has much interest in a conservative who doesn’t adhere to the tenets of Q.  And proving that’s it not just Republicans who say outrageous things, according to Iran’s former Foreign Minister one time Senator/current climate guy John Kerry leaked some information about Israeli strikes on Syria back when he was negotiating the Iran nuclear deal for President Obama.  Kerry denies that and given the source he might be telling the truth, there are some tapes but they appear to be heavily edited.  Of course Republicans are up in arms calling for Kerry’s resignation.  More swift boating?  

And More:  Biden announced yesterday that we will be sending up to 60 million doses of our Astra Zeneca vaccine stores, the ones we don’t ever plan to use, abroad to those who need them and will use them. Also, over the weekend Biden formally recognized the targeted killing of somewhere around 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 as a Genocide. To state the obvious, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan isn’t pleased with that word

572,674

230,768,454       

 

Bring Your Passports

Viral Musings:  They’re not perfect but when a large percentage of the population get them vaccines really work.  At least that’s the indication out of test country Israel where only 50 new COVID cases, down from a peak of over 10,000 in January, were reported yesterday despite the relaxation of mask mandates and a return to a more normal life.  To put Israel’s case count in perspective, yesterday there were 1700 cases in similarly sized New Jersey, 4000 in New York State and 30,000 in the US with that US number probably a Sunday reporting anomaly as 50,000 US cases were counted on Saturday. The good news is that though they are still too high, the US numbers are trending in the right directions.  Notably hospitalizations in New York State are likely to dip below 3000 this week and daily positivity rates have been below 2% for two days straight. Worldwide the picture is bleaker, particularly in India where the daily new COVID case count is around 350,000.  Earlier in the pandemic it looked like India was going to be a success story, but taking a page from the Former Guy’s playbook, the Modi administration reopened the country too soon, part of an effort to look “good” during local election campaign season. That not so shrewd decision, combined with holiday celebrations and the explosion of new variants have put the country in dire straits.  Over the weekend the Biden administration, which has been facing criticism for not acting sooner,  joined a number of other countries in pledging to provide supplies and raw materials for vaccine production to India to help deal with the scourge.  What makes the India situation particularly horrifying is that unlike a lot of other suffering countries India has a huge pharmaceutical industry and has its own vaccine proving that production capabilities and scientific know how can only go so far without rational government leadership. Back to the US, on Friday the CDC and FDA lifted their pause on J&J’s one shot vaccine after determining that the risk of getting those particularly gnarly blood clots linked to the shot are extremely rare especially as compared to the risks of getting sick and suffering some of COVID’s awful consequences.  Over all there were 15 cases of blood clots; 13 were in women 18 to 49, 2 were in women 50 or older.  That is an incidence rate of 7 in 1 million in women younger than 50. For women 50 and older, the incidence rate of clots was 0.9 in 1 million. Though the CDC didn’t say it, if you’re a woman under the age of 50 and you have the option of getting and don’t mind the two shot regimen, go for one of the mRNA options because as rare as those J & J blood clots are they haven’t shown up in people getting either Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. In other vaccine news, a number of experts in the know have more than hinted that the Pfizer shot will be approved for use in the 12 to 15 year old set within weeks, with Modern approval to follow. It’s also expected that new guidance concerning outdoor mask wearing will be released this week.  And if you want to travel to an EU country this summer they’ll let you in, but you’ll need two passports, the usual one documenting your citizenship and another proving that you’ve been vaccinated.  Those heads on Fox News must already be spinning about that.   

Politics as Usual:  in case you’ve missed it, and I am guessing that you haven’t the political divide in the US remains huge.   Last week, Derek Chauvin was found guilty for George Floyd’s death but still there were so many more police shooting incidents that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep the names of the victims or the circumstances of their shootings straight.  Reports out of Washington are that Senate Republicans may agree to some form of police reform legislation, that they, or some of them at least, might line up to support legislation being negotiated by South Carolina’s Tim Scott with New Jersey’s Cory Booker and California House Democrat Karen Bass. It’s probably not a coincidence that Republicans have picked Tim Scott, the party’s one minority Senator, who is up for reelection in 2022 and could also be a Republican contender for the VP slot in 2024, to deliver their official response to President Biden’s 100 day address to the joint chambers of Congress scheduled to take place on Wednesday night.  During that speech Biden will most certainly discuss his all-encompassing infrastructure plan, his climate goals, a tax increase or two and everything else that the Democrats want to see passed ASAP. Maybe he’ll even mention statehood for DC, another one of those things that won’t be easy to achieve, and that’s not because DC is too small or lacks mines but because its population is largely Black and votes blue.  Much of Biden’s planned legislation relies on Republican buy in and/or the further dismantling of the filibuster, neither of which will be easy to accomplish.  Sadly, should GQP Kevin McCarthy take over the leadership of the House in 2022 and/or should undertaker Mitch McConnell regain his spot in the Senate much, if not all, of what Biden does accomplish will go down the drain.  While focus is starting to turn towards 2022, some in the Republican party haven’t given up on 2020.  Arizona’s Republicans are currently engaged in an audit of Maricopa County’s results.  They’ve hired a team of conspiracists who adhere to the myth that George Soros and dead Hugo Chavez teamed together to steal the vote from the Former Guy and for good measure are allowing right wing network OANN to serve as official observers of the recounting. The Former Guy wants Arizona’s Governor Ducey to send security to protect the “patriots” doing the recount, as if private citizens get to make requests like that.   Combine the Arizona insanity with all the states that have or are trying to pass legislation to make it harder for people they don’t like to vote and you can see that the picture going forward might not be all that rosy.

Human Resources:  With the surprising help of the Alaska’s somewhat unpredictable Senator Lisa Murkowski, Vanita Gupta was finally confirmed as Assistant Attorney General despite Mitch McConnell’s assertion that no one from his crowd would support her nomination largely because of her stellar record supporting civil rights.  The newest accusation against Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz is that in addition to engaging in some minor trafficking funded through his Venmo account, he is also being probed for corruption.  The alleged corruption involves his demand for the inclusion of a provision in a Florida medical marijuana law to require the hiring of medical advisory firms like the one that his weed entrepreneur/hand surgeon friend owned in exchange for a jaunt to the Bahamas.  It’s probably not a coincidence that Gaetz has been paying Former Guy buddy Roger Stone for advice. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson who received an endorsement from the Former Guy last week even though he hasn’t announced if he’s running for reelection in 2022, endorsed the vaccine free rider concept because basically he sees no reason why people should be encouraged to get vaccinated when they can stay healthy by hanging out with those who do. And because we need another reality TV star in the mix, Caitlin Jenner formally announced that she’s running for California Governor because why not, and anyway, there has to be a way for her to monetize the run.  On the international front Putin pulled back some of his troops from the Ukraine border and allowed his nemesis Alexei Navalny to be seen by some real doctors.  In response Navalny ended his hunger strike.  Also the Former Guy weighed in on things Korean, reupping his support for his good BFF North Korea’s Kim Jung un while slamming South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, as if anyone cares.  

572,200

228,661,408 shots in arms (42% of adults with one shot, 28% fully vaccinated)

 

3 G

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty:  A Minnesota jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts for the killing of George Floyd.  The verdicts are significant and precedent setting, but among the things that remain haunting are:  that absent the cell phone video provided by a young witness the initial intentionally innocuous police statement that “a man died after a medical incident during police interaction” would have stood leaving Chauvin on the job; that so many, especially people of color, were convinced that Chauvin would walk or at most be found guilty of only the least serious charge despite all the damning evidence presented in court; that Daunte Wright, the motorist who was “accidentally” shot to death rather than “just” tasered over a minor traffic infraction last week by another Minneapolis area policeperson hasn’t even been buried yet; that others continue to die and get hurt in similar circumstances; and that despite the verdicts George Floyd will forever be dead over a suspicious $20 bill.  In lieu of doing anything productive while the jury was deliberating, GOP leadership spent their time railing against and trying to sanction outspoken California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters for her weekend remark that racial justice demonstrators should “get more confrontational” in the event that the jury were to find Chauvin not guilty of all or some of the charges against him.  Count me among those who believe Waters’ remarks were inflammatory and inappropriate, but it’s not like Congressional Republicans have any moral standing especially since they still enthusiastically pray to that king of unfortunate utterances, the Former Guy; the majority of them refused to validate the presidential election results right after January’s insurrection; they wink at Margie Q and Louis Gomer’s white supremacy antics; think Colorado gun nut Lauren Boebert’s use of weapons of mass killing as her Zoom background is just fine; and remain largely silent about those inconvenient allegations against Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz.  The party, that former President George W Bush called "isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist” yesterday needs to get its own house before taking on Waters.  By the way, that vote to sanction Waters was ultimately blocked by a vote along party lines.  Waters didn’t apologize for her remarks but did express regret for putting her colleagues in the position of having to defend her at their own peril and by peril she’s talking the fight to hold the House in the 2022 midterms because even if, or maybe because, Kevin McCarthy and his band of GQP misfits continue to follow the nativist handbook, their odds of taking back the House remain frighteningly high given all those voter suppression bills passing through state legislators and the specter of even more gerrymandered redistricting.     

Viral News: Though the Former Guy continues to talk about his great affinity for Putin while teasing that he’ll be running again, things Russian continue to deteriorate.  Our Ambassador is on his way home for consultations but probably really because the Russians “suggested” he should leave, Vlad is having dissidents rounded up, a warning to protestors that taking to the streets will have consequences, political opponent Alexei Navalny is reportedly close to death and way too many Russian forces are poised on the Ukrainian border.  On the coronavirus front, in the US everyone 16 and over can now get a vaccine subject to appointment availability but as hard as it is to believe for those who spent sleepless nights in front of their computer screens hitting the refresh button to get one of those once almost impossible to obtain shot slots, there are now too many pockets of the country where appointment slots remain unfilled due to a combination of shot wariness, logistical impediments and outright anti-vax attitudes helped along by anti vaxxers like one time feminist heroine/current conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf among others. Overseas, India where somewhere in the neighborhood of 270,000 new COVID cases, up from 11,000, are now being diagnosed daily is experiencing an unprecedented COVID wave.  That’s tragic for India and for the rest of us, because people are dying and the virus and its variants know no boundaries. While we’re still waiting for the FDA and CDC to unpause J & J’s one shot vaccine, something they are expected to do on Friday, the European Union’s drug regulator said that the shot is good to go with a warning of potential rare side effects since its benefits outweigh its risks.

564,813

270,030,795 doses distributed

213,388,238 shots in arms

 

Q Klux Klan

Weekend Update:  Just an ordinary weekend in the days of corona.  People around the world watched Prince Philip go to his not so final resting place in his custom built Land Rover accompanied by his somewhat dysfunctional family as the really dysfunctional Republican Party’s Q Queen, Marjorie Taylor Greene, road tested the creation of a white supremacist caucus.  A bunch more people were killed during a spate of mass shootings, daily US new covid case counts remained too high, in the vicinity of 70,000, and cities across the country began boarding up in anticipation of the Derek Chauvin verdict.  As to that white supremacist thing, while one Oath Keeper turned on his insurrection buddies, the Congresswoman from Q, remained loyal to the cause.  She circulated her plan for a “new” American First caucus to a few of her closest buddies but hit a roadblock when at least one of them or a member of one of their staffs sent a copy to Punchbowl News which gleefully shared the written racist rant with the rest of us. Margie Q’s white plan, which was drafted with input from co-racist Texas Representative/Dentist Paul Gosar, emphasized the dominance of “uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and white people architecture, whatever that is.  Of course Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz thought that her ideas were spot on and immediately indicated an interest in joining possibly because anything diverting attention from his mounting list of crimes and his phone that has been in the custody of the FBI for months has to be a good thing for him but also because he shares her racist inclinations.  Margie Q’s initiative was met with pushback by several Republicans including designated party kvetcher Adam Kinzinger who few outside of the main stream media listen to and by two members of Republican leadership, the almost equally disdained Liz Cheney and House GQP leader Kevin McCarthy who seemed genuinely distressed about it, not its premise but that she’d said the quiet part out loud and that’s the kind of thing that could put his not unreasonable hopes of becoming Majority Leader in jeopardy. After McCarthy came out with a statement saying that the Republican party was the party of Lincoln not the party of “nativist dog whistles,” Margie Q kind of retracted her plan saying it was only a draft written by staff, that she hadn’t approved it, yet, and that it was being taken out of context by the “scum and liars in the media.” Pretty much a confirmation that it was her plan, but that she’d hadn’t expected such forceful blowback because she was just repeating what others say in private, those same fellow Republicans who thought that Gaetz sharing nudie shots of his “dates” was just fine too. Moving on to the shootings and sadly, there were far too many to move onto because gun violence remains rampant, pick a city and odds are that someone or a group of someones were shot there over the weekend.  While we were learning that the 19 year old Indianapolis Fed Ex mass shooter had purchased his two semi-automatic rifles legally because someone forgot to note or didn’t care that he’d had another rifle taken away earlier after his mother expressed concerns about him growing increasingly unhinged, nine more people were killed and ten others wounded in mass shooting events in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio, Nebraska, and Louisiana and that doesn’t count the Ohio teen who got arrested after he was caught carrying a semi-automatic rifle in NYC’s Times Square.  By the way his excuse, which didn’t fly with either the NYPD or his judge, was that he thought it was okay to carry a rifle around NYC and on the subway as long as it wasn’t loaded.  To be clear, he had plenty of ammunition with him, he just hadn’t loaded his bullets, yet. Crisis averted, for now.  As to other crisis management, this week is likely to be a tough one on steroids.  After both sides present their closing arguments the Derek Chauvin jury will start deliberating.  Regardless of what they decide, it’s highly likely that some, or more likely, a lot of people won’t be happy.  Last night there were dozens of police cars positioned along NYC’s Madison Avenue, in response to my asking what was up, the accompanying officers said that they were out in force because of concerns about “current events” and they were talking spring flowers and cherry blossoms.

Viral Musings: The coronavirus story is such a mixed bag right now.  New cases, positivity rates, and those important hospitalization figures are trending down in many places but are still stubbornly high or peaking elsewhere like Michigan.  Over the weekend the US crossed the 200 million shots in arms metric that President Biden promised but vaccine hesitancy continues to be a big, or should I say bigly problem as according to the NY Times counties with the most vaccine-hesitant residents generally also voted for the Former Guy in 2020 by large margins, while counties with the lowest levels of hesitancy generally had fewer FG voters.  Sadly for all those delusional red county crackadoodles, COVID is an equal opportunity virus that cares nothing about who you voted for but does find mask and shot avoidance particularly appealing.  For the record, hospitalizations in NYS have finally fallen below 4000 to 3754 and while there are still some high positivity counties, the state’s over positivity dipped to 2.35%, not as good as California’s 1.5% but far better than Idaho, Iowa and Michigan which remain at the top of the board that no one wants to lead.  Half of US adults have now received at least one shot with 32% of adults or just under 25% of the country fully vaccinated. In Israel, where 61% of the total population has received one shot, 57% are fully vaccinated and only 14 new cases were recorded yesterday, face masks are no longer required outdoors.  Fauci expects that the J & J pause will be lifted later in the week possibly with some usage restrictions and/or instructions to the medical community on how to treat the unusual but rare blood clot occurrences. 

Stay safe!           

567,217

209,406,814 shots in arms

 Collusion not a Delusion

Russia, Russia, Russia:   Does the name Konstantin Kilimnik ring a bell?  He’s the Russian spy who was also a close business associate of the Former Guy’s one time campaign manager/convicted then pardoned felon Paul Manafort. As a result of information released yesterday when the Biden administration announced new sanctions on Russia we learned that in the run up to the 2016 presidential election Kilimnik shared the internal FG polling data that he received from Manafort and his partner Rick Gates with Russian intelligence.  To be clear, that means that Russian collusion was not a delusion but a reality.  Andrew Weissman, the Justice Department attorney who was the member of former Special Counsel Mueller’s team responsible for the Manafort prosecution says that though the Mueller squad suspected the direct link, they had not been privy to the intel that tracked the polling data all the way to Russian intelligence which means either that the evidence was intentionally kept from them or that it was uncovered after the completion of their investigation. So to recap, Manafort told Gates to share polling information with Kilimnik, Kilimnik delivered that information to Vlad’s guys, and the FG pardoned Manafort, to keep him from talking about what else he knew perhaps? Moving back to the newest round of sanctions, they’re in response to both the Solar Winds cyber-attack and Russian interference in the 2020 election, the efforts that were bought into by far too many Republicans especially Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and everyone at Fox and then used to smear Ukraine and candidate Biden and his son Hunter. By the way, Hunter’s book about his personal addiction journey is out and it doesn’t look as though he’ll need to follow in FG junior’s footsteps.  In other words he won’t need the DNC to distribute copies to donors as it’s garnered surprisingly good reviews for its candor and is sitting at #4 on the NY Times non-fiction best seller list. 

Out of Breath:  After making the highly dubious suggestion that George Floyd’s death was really attributable to carbon monoxide fumes from a nearby car rather than those nine minutes plus of pressure on his neck, the Derek Chauvin Defense team wrapped its case.  To the surprise of virtually no one who has ever watched Law & Order or Perry Mason, Derek Chauvin opted not to testify in his own defense likely because he didn’t want to be asked about his record of prior infractions. After final statements by both sides the case will go to the jury for their deliberation.  Sadly, while they’re out we’ll have plenty to focus on.  Yesterday, Kim Porter, the Brooklyn Center Minnesota police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright with a gun rather than a taser during a traffic stop was charged with second degree manslaughter.  It turns out that even evangelist Pat Robertson doesn’t buy into her assertion that she accidentally pulled out her Glock when she really just meant to pull out her taser.  Yesterday on his 700 show, Robertson brandished reproductions of both weapons to prove his point saying that if you can’t tell the difference “it’s crazy and you deserve the consequences.” The pro-police Robertson also slammed Derek Chauvin, saying that “we can’t have clowns like him patrolling the streets.”  Shortly after Officer Porter was charged, a video of another police involved shooting, this one in Chicago, was released. The video is grainy but it looks like the shooting victim, 13 year Latino youth Adam Toledo, had his empty hands in the air at the time he was shot and killed. Toledo was fleeing the police, the shooting took place at 3 AM and the police were out in response to reports of gunfire so the facts of the case are different than those of either the Chauvin or Porter shootings, except of course for the dire result, but the timing, the death, Toledo’s age and the lack of transparency about what happened as before the video was released a local prosecutor claimed that Toledo had a gun in his hands when he was shot, are adding to an already heightened sense of outrage about police shootings of people of color.  And because guns are such an American thing, late last night another mass murder took place at a Federal Express warehouse in Indianapolis where eight people were killed, at least 7 more were wounded and the assailant committed suicide. That package you’re expecting, it may be delayed. 

Viral Musings: At over 70,000 the US daily coronavirus count is still way too high, not something that at all disturbs Jim “Gym” Johnson who finds virus mitigation procedures to be an infringement on his personal rights to spread disease, or so he told virus guru Fauci during a televised Congressional hearing.  Speaking for the rest of us California’s outspoken Maxine Waters told Gym to shut up.  Of particular concern, positivity rates and hospitalizations are still peaking in Michigan, probably a result of more contagious variants combined with the risky behavior that goes along with extreme virus fatigue, particularly among those who’ve pushed back at all of Governor Whitmer’s containment efforts. Given its population Michigan stands out as a problem area but it’s 16.1% positivity rate doesn’t top the chart, that dubious distinction goes to Idaho and Iowa with 22.8 and 20.0% respectively.  That’s the bad news, the good news is that it looks like NY state where just a smidge under 40% of the total population has received at least one shot and a whole bunch of people probably have some virus acquired immunity, is really benefitting from the vaccine rollout.  Yesterday the state’s positivity rate was at 2.76% putting the 7 day rolling rate at 3.07% and statewide hospitalizations have finally dipped below 4000. Remarkably in the US overall only 5800 break through cases have been reported among the 77 million fully vaccinated people. In other vaccine news, the J & J “pause” will stay in place for at least another week or two as the FDA and CDC continue to gather information about the incidence of the extremely rare but troubling blood clots that appear to be associated with the jab and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says that we will likely need to roll our sleeves up again for a booster shot within the year and that doing so could become an annual ritual for a while at least. Of course, if you’re watching Fox racist/replacement theory advocate Tucker Carlson, none of the good news about the benefits of vaccination matters.  At least that’s the message that he continues to deliver to his deluded audience when he’s not trying to convince them that those people of color living next door are out for their jobs and daughters.  By the way, Ivanka isn’t buying Tucker’s vaccine mishugash, to the disappointment of many of her Twitter followers who hammered her for failing to rely solely on her “superior” immune system she got her first shot this week and actually did the right thing by tweeting out a picture of her experience.

565,289

198,317,040 shots in arms

Pushing Pause

Viral Musings:  As you probably heard, yesterday the FDA and CDC pushed the pause button on the J & J COVID vaccine to get a better handle on why out of 7 million J & J recipients, 6 women between the ages of 18 and 48 experienced cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) blood clots in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia) within a 6 to 13 days of getting their “one shot wonder.” Though its important not to overstate the risk especially since the incidence of blood clots in the general population and among women who are on birth control pills is much, much higher, the very, very rare, blood clots experienced by the 6 women were unusual and are more difficult to treat given the platelet complication, than other types of clots. It may not be a coincidence that the clots that led to the pause are similar to the very rare ones that have complicated the delivery and rollout of the Astra Zeneca vaccine used elsewhere but not yet approved for use in the US as both vaccines rely on adenovirus technology as opposed to the mRNA technology used by Pfizer/Bio N Tech and Moderna.  Expectations are that the J & J pause will be lifted within a few days with additional guidance to the medical community on how to identify and treat the clotting complication and who, to the extent they can figure it out, should be steered to an alternative  vaccine option. In response to the pause, the vaccine peanut gallery went full on nuts against the FDA and CDC for doing their job, saying that they were jeopardizing lives by taking the shot out of circulation for what is likely to be no more than a week adding that they were killing public confidence in the whole vaccine program.  Not surprisingly, one of the loudest nut cases was none other than the Former Guy, you know the one who believes he’s a science savant because of his MIT professor uncle and who tried to wish the coronavirus pandemic away thinking that we wouldn’t notice the 500 thousand bodies piling up around him. The bottom line, while its certainly a bummer that J & J is on hold, the FDA and CDC are doing what they are supposed to do.  At least here in the US there’s plenty of mRNA vaccines available to cover the pause and, as a result of unrelated manufacturing delays, J & J supplies were expected to run dry over the next few weeks anyway.

Out of Breath:  What I know about guns, tasers and the differences between the two would fit in a thimble, leaving lots of room for Tom Thumb and his entire family.  That said, what’s with experienced police people who “accidentally” pull the wrong weapon and then shoot and kill someone who just happens to be Black during a traffic stop with a gun when they meant “only” to use their taser? Doing so just miles away from an emotionally charged trial of another police officer who “only” used his knees to take down a $20 scofflaw! The Brooklyn Center, Minnesota killing of Daunte Wright, whose name now goes down on the way too long and growing list of Black victims of inexplicable police overreach, forever associated with the “mistaken” shoot by long term police officer Kim Potter is another tragedy, one not helped by the violence and destruction that sadly accompanied the nights of understandable protest that followed.  As to the nearby trial of Derek Chauvin, yesterday the defense presented its witnesses, in an effort  to advance their case that Chauvin was only doing his job and that George Floyd was either an uncontrollable perp who needed to be subdued or so drugged out that he died not from the pressure on his neck but from those cardiac and respiration suppressing drugs that he ingested.  That argument doesn’t have to be rational, it just has to plant doubt in the mind of one juror, and if that works, the Brooklyn Center demonstrations will look mild in comparison to what will likely happen.  And because police can be victims too, yesterday the Capitol memorialized another one of its own, Billy Evans, the officer killed last week by another hate filled lunatic. It’s good that we have a president who oozes genuine compassion, but it would be much better if we didn’t have to see it on display so often. 

International Relations:  President Biden had a chat with the Former Guy’s one time buddy Vlad Putin yesterday where among other things, like Russian aggression against Ukraine, cyber intrusion and election interference, and the new START nuclear treaty, they discussed plans for a formal meet up. This time we got the dope on the discussion not from one of Vlad’s guys but from a White House prepared read out, a quaint return to normal even if the subjects being discussed remain as concerning as ever. In other news, Biden is expected to announce plans today to get all troops except those needed to protect the US embassy out of Afghanistan by September 11, a little later than the Formal Guy planned when he wasn’t being undone  by his generals but relatively soon.  Those plans are expected to be met with protests by those in the Senate who want us to remain in Afghanistan forever and celebrated by those who want to end our longest war. Twenty three hundred US soldiers killed and 20,000 wounded and sadly Afghanistan remains the problem that no country, including the UK and Russia, has ever been able to solve.

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192,282,782 shots in arms      

SOB Alert

Politics as Usual:  The Former Guy remains the herpes of politicians.  He’s out of office but still erupting when not golfing or drinking soda and yes that soda is still Diet Coke. This weekend at a Mar a Lago Republican event he went off script and attacked a bunch of mainstream Republicans including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who he called a son of a bitch who never adequately thanked him for having hired his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.  He also said he remained keenly “disappointed” that his one-time partner former VP Pence didn’t upturn the 2020 election results, repeating, of course, the Big Lie that the election was stolen from him while pushing the myth that those January 6 insurrectionists were just nice guys out for a walk on a sunny day who accidentally found themselves in the Capitol beating up police, destroying property and calling for Pelosi and Pence’s heads on sticks. The FG isn’t totally irrational, listening to his advisors, he refused to meet with Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz who was last seen Friday night at the Doral in Miami with his still loyal fiancée Ginger Luckey in hand speaking to the right wing Women for America, one of the groups that participated in the January 6 insurrection. At least for now, it also looks like Ivanka has put aside her political ambitions as the FG who last week endorsed Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks, one of his most outspoken supporters/co-insurrectionists, for the Senate position being vacated by the retiring Richard Shelby, has now also endorsed Florida’s Marco Rubio who’s up for reelection in 2022.  On the Democratic front, President Biden and his team, including the very articulate Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who more than holds his own during his frequent Fox News visits have begun their infrastructure/jobs legislation push. This week Biden will begin meeting with a bipartisan group of Senators to drum up support though those meet ups are probably just  Kabuki theatre, as few if any Republicans are really expected to sign on. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin isn’t on today’s invite list but it’s highly likely that he’s the one that Biden is trying to convince. Taking a page from departed Senator McCain’s handbook, Manchin keeps calling about the need to return to the regular way of passing legislation, and by that he means compromise and back room arm twisting.  It’s not clear that Manchin can’t be placated, at least with regard to infrastructure funding, some of what he’s doing and saying now may be part of that Kabuki exercise, after all West Virginia probably needs a new bridge or a jobs program.  Ultimately, Biden will have to satisfy the left wing of Speaker Pelosi’s House contingent too.  She can’t afford to lose any votes, last week one of her members, Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings, passed away, his loss, combined with the number of House Democrats who’ve joined the administration, leaves her with a very, very slim majority. Though the FG probably thinks it’s amusing that the Anti-Defamation League is calling for Fox star Tucker Carlson to be fired for pushing the racist/Anti-Semitic replacement theory crap he’s probably experiencing some agita over New York prosecutors getting their hands on additional boxes of financial documents and receipts from the former wife of one of CFO Allen Weisselberg’s sons. It’s fair to assume that Weisselberg is being subjected to some back room arm twisting, though it’s not clear how he’ll respond or whether any of this will ultimately affect Teflon Don.                 

Viral Musings:  The US vaccination rollout continues to ramp up, yesterday 4.6 million doses were administered. So far approximately 35% of the US population has received at least one dose, placing us fourth behind Israel, the UK and Chile in terms of percentage of population at least partially protected.  Yesterday Israel, where over 61% have received one dose,  reported only 120 new cases.  To put that in perspective, New Jersey with almost the same population reported 3,387 cases. Overall the case count in the US still remains high, a 7 day rolling average just under 70,000 largely because the now dominant UK variant which is both more contagious and more virulent is still a step ahead of the vaccine rollout, doing to us what it did in Europe, spreading like wild fire. That probably explains the bad news out of Michigan where the positivity rate is above 17% and disease levels as well as hospitalizations are climbing.  That said, there are pockets of good news as positivity rates and hospitalizations are trending down in large bell weather states including California where the positivity rate stands at 1% and New York where it’s down to 3.4%.   On Friday, Pfizer/Bio N Tech submitted an emergency use application to the FDA for the 12 to 15 year age group, the companies plan to request similar authorization from other international bodies in the coming days. It’s not yet clear when the approval for use for the adolescent set will come through but it likely will be sooner than originally forecasted, quite possibly before the summer.  With regard to the Pfizer vaccine, and probably with regard to the others as well, an analysis in Israel of those relatively rare but still possible break through cases, i.e. COVID positives in people already vaccinated, indicates that the Pfizer shot isn’t working as well against the feared South African variant.  The data which is still preliminary showed a higher than expected percentage of the small number of Israel break through cases were attributable to the South Africa strain.  That doesn’t meant that the Pfizer vaccine isn’t working, it is working remarkably well, but it may mean that we may all need that much talked about and still hypothetical booster shot at some point, particularly if we don’t get our  act together nationally.  In other vaccine news, Gao Fu, the head of the Chinese CDC admitted that his country’s vaccines aren’t working much better than a not particularly effective flu shot.  It looks like their efficacy levels could be as low as 50%, that’s a problem for a lot of the countries that have “benefited” from China’s much hyped vaccine diplomacy including Chile and Turkey which have been dispensing Chinese shots as part of their vaccine program and could explain why COVID levels continue to climb in Chile despite the country’s relatively high vaccination rate.  

Et Cetera:  Biden is trying to get the US back into the Iran nuclear agreement but this weekend’s event might make that just a bit more difficult as it appears that the Israelis sabotaged centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility and judging by reports in the Israel press, the usually more circumspect Israelis aren’t denying that they are the likely culprits. In other international news, Putin is amassing forces on the Ukraine border again and more and more citizens keep getting shot by the Myanmar military. Domestically, the Derek Chauvin trial continues this week and because Minneapolis isn’t already on edge, there was another lethal police shooting of a Black man there during a traffic stop this weekend.  That shooting follows news out of Virginia about a December incident where a Black soldier in uniform was stopped by police while driving his newly purchased vehicle and then pepper sprayed as was his dog after he questioned why he’d been stopped.  The police later asserted that they’d stopped him because his car didn’t have plates despite the fact that the required new vehicle paperwork was prominently and appropriately displayed on his vehicle window.  It’s more than fair to assume that the soldier was being profiled and had every reason to be upset about the way he was being treated and fearful of a far worse outcome.  We know about this incident now because the soldier is suing and video evidence supports his assertion that he was mistreated.                  

562,066

187,047,131 shots in arms

 

One Fish, Big Fish

Guns, Guns, Guns: Calling gun violence an epidemic and an international embarrassment President Biden rolled out a series of executive actions targeting homemade “ghost” guns and devices that turn pistols into short-barreled shotguns while also tasking the Justice Department to develop model red flag legislation. Additionally, he announced the nomination of David Chipman to be the director of the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Chipman is an ATF veteran who has been serving as an adviser for the gun control advocacy group named for Gabby Giffords, the former Congresswoman who still suffers from the horrific injuries she received when she was shot while meeting with constituents in gun friendly Arizona. While the executive actions that Biden announced might help around the edges, they are unlikely to do much to curb our lethal national obsession with guns. Yesterday Tennessee became the latest state to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without first clearing a background check and training and Texas’ Governor Abbott tweeted that he’s seeking to make his state a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” by signing a law moving through the Texas house that will defy any new federal gun control laws. Just hours after Biden spoke a gunman killed one person and injured five others at a shop in Bryan, Texas where a state trooper was shot and injured while taking the suspect into custody. That shooting followed one on Wednesday where five people including two children were killed by a former NFL  player in South Carolina.  The day ended with Fox favorite Tucker Carlson calling ATF David Chipman, rather than those gun toting murderers or gun friendly state legislative initiatives, unhinged.

Barbarians at the Gaetz: The legal troubles facing Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz continue to mount.  Yesterday, the lawyer for Joel Greenberg, Gaetz’s one-time BFF and alleged partner in sex trafficking, and the US Attorney prosecuting him told a Federal judge that they expect Greenberg to accept a plea deal by May. That’s really bad news for Gaetz since the best way for Greenberg to get years taken off the really long jail sentence that he’s facing will be for him to turn on what one time Impeachment lawyer Dan Goldman calls a “bigger fish.”  Unfortunately for Gaetz, so far at least, he appears to be that bigger fish.  As if that wasn’t enough bad news for Gaetz for one day, late yesterday the Daily Beast reported that Gaetz had used the Venmo payment app to fund Greenberg’s payments to some of those young ladies that they retained. Not only did both Gaetz and Greenberg use the app for their “dating” transactions, but the geniuses failed to turn off the “open to all” feature leaving those payments visible to prying eyes. The Daily Beast reveal is likely only the tip of the iceberg or given that this is Florida the start of a long trip into the alligator infested everglades as, not to be outdone, the NY Times shed new color on Gaetz’s Bahamas trip with hand surgeon/weed entrepreneur Jason Pirozzolo revealing that the plane they flew on was stopped by immigration authorities during their return trip, that one of the other men on the sex junket was Governor DeSantis’ aide Halsey Beshears, and that federal authorities seized a phone used by one of the group’s “dates” before they disembarked. Citing “health” concerns, Beshears left the DeSantis administration in January. Worth noting that Weed Doctor Pirozzolo was also one of DeSantis’s fundraisers and yesterday video surfaced of him greeting the Former Guy on the Orlando Airport tarmac  back in 2019.  The NY Times also reports that Gaetz is being investigated for pushing a sham candidate scheme to help a Republican candidate win a state seat. Two of Gaetz’s aides have now resigned their posts but so far the only seated Republican to call for his resignation is outlier Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger though it is fair to assume that Liz Cheney, who Gaetz campaigned against in her home state of Wyoming, is really enjoying watching Gaetz circle the drain.  In other Republican news, despite last weekend’s article about the nefarious tactics used by the Former Guy’s campaign on his WinRed campaign fundraising site, the Republican party is still modeling their solicitations after his deceptive ones. Contributions default to recurring mode, with big red boxes warning contributors that if they uncheck the annuity box their names will be forwarded to the Former Guy who will place them on his sh-t list.  One more thing, Long Island’s Lee Zeldin, one of the Trumpiest Congressman in the House,  announced yesterday, by Twitter of course, that he’s running for NY governor in 2022.  That puts him up against Andrew Giuliani and maybe also against Trumpitista North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik who is also considering throwing her hat in the ring.  NY hasn’t had a Republican Governor in a while but then again, Cuomo’s got some problems, besides when have there been so many so charming Republican options? Oy.

Asphyxia:  Though defense attorneys really hope that at least one person on the Derek Chauvin jury buys into their argument that George Floyd’s death was the result of COVID and/or drugs but had little to do with Chauvin’s knees pressing into his neck for nine plus minutes, yesterday the prosecution’s medical expert made it clear that Floyd died of asphyxia from Chauvin’s actions because it turns out that putting unrelenting pressure on a neck and continuing to do so after breathing stops effectively stops the flow of oxygen and that is lethal, really lethal.    

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174,879,716 shots in arms  

Stay safe and keep masking, it’s not over yet!   

  

Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz

Drip, Drip, Plop:  President Biden continues to push forward with his agenda.  With the passage of his coronavirus relief package checked off his to do list, he’s moved on to focusing on what he can do by executive action with regard to guns and  promoting his $2 trillion infrastructure plan despite Republican assertions that the plan is too big, focused on things that fall outside of their definition of infrastructure and because it relies on corporate tax increases that they find intolerable mostly because lowering those taxes, along with the confirmation of judges, was all they accomplished during the last administration.  Curiously enough a number of Republicans seem to be harping on the fact that Biden’s infrastructure plan provides funding for elderly care and facilities.  To that end, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn spent part of yesterday day tweeting, and then being tweet bombed for questioning all that old people stuff.  Call me crazy, but  going after old people hardly seems like a winning strategy, particularly for a party that relies on an increasingly aging demographic.  Maybe Blackburn was doing her best to distract from some of the really crazy stuff emanating from Republican land, like Former Guy golf buddy/caddy/Rudy son Andrew Giuliani’s reveal that he’s seriously considering running for New York Governor in 2024 and former Decathlete/Kardashian family member Caitlin Jenner retaining some Former Guy consultants and benefiting from free advice from the Former Guy’s once disgraced but now back in the fold data guru Brad Parscale as she moves towards running against California Governor Gavin Newsom who despite his improving popularity is likely to face a recall election.  As bizarre as those candidacies might sound they pale in comparison to the newest about the Panhandle’s finest, Representative Matt Gaetz. Earlier in the week, while acknowledging that he may have lavished his “dates” with hotel accommodations and flights rather than cash, he whined that the Merrick Garland Justice Department was attempting to do him in by selectively dripping out damning, but according to him, very fake information.  Well, apparently he knew what was coming.  Yesterday more indictments were plopped out against his jailed former BFF/Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg.  Greenberg now faces the possibility of  thirty years or more so in the slammer so it’s fair to believe that he might find implicating Gaetz in his sex capades, most notably that allegation that the two of them spent inappropriate time with the same 17 year old an attractive option.  As if that wasn’t enough for Gaetz to worry about last night CBS News “dripped” that another member of his sex capade posse is Florida hand surgeon Jason Pirozzolo, a self-described marijuana entrepreneur who at least once funded a joint trip to the Bahamas, one where they were accompanied by some of those ladies who accept hotel rooms and gifts in lieu of cash.  Hand surgeon/pot guy Pirozzolo may have been so generous because Gaetz was working with him on legislation to “facilitate research” on the medical effects of cannabis;  after that trip Gaetz paid him back twice, by introducing the Medical Cannabis Research Act that was never voted on.  That’s the same Gaetz who when he was a member of the Florida House was one of only two legislators to oppose bipartisan legislation outlawing revenge porn law, not much of a surprise given how he likes to share pictures of his “girlfriends” with his fellow legislators. While Gaetz waits for what is increasingly looking like an inevitable indictment, he remains busy. He’s scheduled to speak at a “Women for America First” event at the Former Guy’s Doral resort tomorrow which is just fine with the Former Guy who remains Team Gaetz because “he has totally denied all the accusations against him” and no one respects people who deny accusations against them more than the FG.  The FG made that statement while also denying reports dripped from the NY Times that Gaetz asked to be included in an omnibus pardon that he hoped the FG would issue prior to his departure from office; that pardon which was never issued was supposed to also include Joe Exotic. One more special delivery from the GOP, on Tuesday the Arkansas legislature voted to override Governor Asa Hutchinson veto of legislation that effectively bans the provision of gender confirming medical care for trans youths. No report on whether they bothered to up the funding of their suicide hotlines, assuming they have any, to compensate.       

Viral Musings: Well, as predicted, the UK coronavirus variant is now the dominant strain in the US.  That’s a problem because though our current vaccines work against the UK strain, it’s more transmissible and more virulent, so while the vaccination rate continues to ramp up at an impressive pace a lot of people, including ineligible children and adolescents, are not yet vaccinated.  After plateauing at a daily rate around 60,000 new US cases are now up to around 78,000 with 50% of those cases coming from five states:  New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  A large part of the case spike is likely due to the prevalence of the UK strain.  Again, that’s not because the vaccinations aren’t working, it’s just that the virus is still finding plenty of vulnerable, unvaccinated hosts.  Though we’ve got lots of Astra Zeneca vaccines in our warehouses, the shot still hasn’t been approved for use here and odds are that even once the AZ shots are approved they won’t go into US arms given our Pfizer, Moderna and J & J supplies and expected deliveries so we’ll probably share them with other countries, assuming we can get over a hurdle that the Former Guy’s team agreed to when they signed contracts with the vaccine manufacturers.  That hurdle which protects the vaccine manufacturers from US lawsuits would leave us assuming any liability if we transferred our vaccines out of the country.  That little glitch explains why we haven’t been able to do much in the way of vaccine diplomacy, yet.  As far as the AZ shot goes, though the number of people getting the scary blood clot complication remains very, very small, somewhere around 30 cases out of the 18 million shots dispensed in the UK, the UK government is now recommending that people under 30 get another vaccine while several other countries are only dispensing their AZ shots to people over 50 where the risk of getting really sick from COVID outweighs blood clot fears even more.  Despite the AZ concerns, with the blood clot problem a rarity, albeit a bad rarity,  a lot of countries would happily take our supplies if only we could get over the liability hurdle.

Breathing Lessons:  The Derek Chauvin case goes on, remaining both horrifying and immensely sad.  In a nutshell, prosecutors continue to call witnesses, including medical professionals and fellow police officers, who say that Chauvin’s actions violated procedures, were unwarranted and that George Floyd was killed by pressure from Chauvin’s knees while Chauvin’s defense team tries to introduce doubt in the mind of one or more jurors by saying that those actions were okay because of that fake $20 bill, the “threatening” crowd as in those people of color standing nearby and by claiming that anyway Floyd’s death was “really” his own fault because of his drug use. No words.     

559,116

171,476,655 shots in arms!  

 

No Coke, Pepsi?

Seeing Red: The Former Guy doesn’t have access to Twitter but he still manages to get his messages out.  These days they come in the form of press releases that read like stringed together incoherent tweet rants.  Last weekend, in one of his shorter ones he wished Happy Easter to ALL including the Radical Left CRAZIES who rigged our Presidential Election, and want to destroy our Country!” That message was very on brand as was his campaign’s misuse of WinRed, the Republican campaign funding website modeled after the Democrat’s very successful ActBlue funding tool.  Unlike ActBlue, WinRed isn’t a non-profit, it’s run as a profit making entity and as revealed by the NY Times this weekend, WinRed even takes a cut of any refunds that it makes to contributors.  That’s quite convenient given that as a result of some chicanery WinRed had to refund $122 million in contributions, 10% of what it took in during 2020.  By comparison the Biden team only had to refund 2.2% of its ActBlue take. Refunds happen for a few reasons, sometimes campaigns send refunds after realizing that a contributor has exceeded their individual contribution cap and sometimes people request refunds upon realizing that they’ve “inadvertently” signed on to make reoccurring contributions.  What make’s WinRed’s high refund rate so alarming is that most of it was attributable to contributors who were duped into turning intended one time contributions into monthly or even weekly contributions.  It’s not a coincidence that the flip from “one time” to “reoccurring” accelerated during the fall as that was when the Former Guy’s campaign was running short of cash.  To fill his coffers the WinRed team, intentionally made it more challenging for contributors to opt out of turning one time contributions into Former Guy annuities.  They did that by requiring contributors to jump through more “uncheck” hurdles and by shrinking the language in those warning boxes into smaller and smaller print. As a result, unsuspecting WinRed contributors ended up providing interest free loans to the FG’s campaign.  To the extent that those inadvertent lenders realized that they’d been taken, something that many of them didn’t notice until after they exceeded their credit limits and/or received their credit card bills, they were able to apply for and receive refunds out of the funds that the FG continued to raise after the election when he told his delusional fanbase that he needed their money not to refund the duped but to keep up his legal battle against the “Big Steal.” Your choice as to whether to call this a Ponzi scheme, fraud or both, but it is notable that ActBlue discouraged its candidates from keeping reoccurring contributions as their default option and over time few of its candidates did.  Given the FG’s success with the ‘lie until you get caught and then keep on lying until everyone moves on’ model, Panhandle Congressman Matt Gaetz came out swinging yesterday, he’s not denying his extensive womanizing, he’s just insisting that he never paid any of his “dates” while also denying that any of them were underage.  He warned his fans that they should expect to hear a “drip, drip, drip” of allegations but that they will all be Fake News, just false accusations from the Merrick Garland Justice Department.  Somehow or other he’s skipped over the part about the investigation into his activities predating AG Garland.  And in case you’re wondering he has no plans to step down, at least for now.  Mitch McConnell’s recent comments are also just a wee bit deceptive.  Mitch wants all those corporations taking action against Georgia while also making statements against voter suppression legislation to chill out because as far as he’s concerned they should stay out of politics, or at least stay out of politics except when they are making contributions to his PACs or supporting Republican candidates.  By the way, a lot of airlines fly to Denver which is convenient because it appears that Denver is likely to be the new site for baseball’s All Star game.  Of course, the word from the FG and quite a few likeminded pundits and politicians is that no one should ever watch baseball again and that while they’re not watching they should also not fly Delta and not quaff Coke.  Of course that Coke ban doesn’t apply to the Diet Coke addicted FG who posted a picture of himself with his favorite immigrant hater, Stephen Miller, yesterday.  We know that because someone forgot to remove the bottle of Diet Coke from his desk.  Also, maybe flying United won’t work either as the friendly sky guys have also come out against voter suppression.  No word yet from Pepsi.

Politics As Usual:  Yesterday, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that Chuck Schumer can pass a significant portion of Biden’s proposed infrastructure/economy redesign legislation through the lower vote required reconciliation technique.  Now all Schumer has to do is convince West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and any other of those reluctant to sign on Democratic Senators hiding behind in his shadows that they should sign on. Some negotiation and changes are likely to be made to get Manchin and company on board, perhaps Biden will lower his plans to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% to some slightly smaller number, only time will tell. Remember Maria Butina, the Russian Red Sparrow who claimed that she wasn’t really a spy even though she spent much of her time in the US sidling up to prominent Americans until she ended up in jail and then sent back to Russia.  Well the “not a spy” lady is still doing Putin’s bidding. Last week she showed up at the prison where deteriorating Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is being held, not to help him get the medical care he needs but to taunt him on camera for unfairly complaining about the wonderful conditions in his jail. Navalny who is not doing well was finally moved into a prison hospital ward yesterday but not due to Maria’s intervention.  While Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson had no problem signing on to legislation banning nearly all abortions, discriminating against transgender youths is a reach even for him.  Yesterday he vetoed a bill banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths, calling the legislation a “vast government overreach” and a “product of the cultural war in America.” Unfortunately Hutchinson is term limited and it’s quite possible that whoever replaces him will eventually sign a similar law, especially if that someone is Sarah Huckabee Sanders who is running to replace him. That’s Sarah whose father, former Governor Mike Huckabee, tweeted out a bizarre statement saying he was going to identify as Chinese so that Coke and Delta will like him, his ugly way of commenting on the outrage about Georgia’s election legislation because who doesn’t go all in on racial crap on a Easter weekend?

Viral Musings:  The race to vaccinate is accelerating.  This morning President Biden will announce that he wants all states to open up vaccinations to everyone over 16 by April 19.  More shots in more arms is the only way to get ahead of the more transmissible UK variant that, as expected, has taken hold in lots of places through out the country.  That variant is the reason that new cases in the US are rising again particularly among a younger cohort, especially in places like Michigan, despite the vaccine rollout. Notably though new cases in the UK and Israel are now way down, both countries had a similar experience during their vaccine rollout.  To date, in the US, 75% of those over 65 have gotten at least one shot and 55% are fully vaccinated.  To get shots out more broadly, the participation in the federal pharmacy program is being ramped up from 17,000 to 40,000 locations.  Also yesterday, Press Secretary Psaki said that the loss of the batch of  J & J doses that were tossed after they were contaminated with some materials from some Astra Zeneca shots that were also being manufactured at a Baltimore plant were not included in the administration’s rollout numbers because the plant had not yet been approved.  The expectation is that J & J will still be able to make its promised 24 million “one and done” dose delivery in April.

555,615

167,187,795 shots in arms            

       

Bunnies and Eggs

Barbarians at the Gaetz:  Things keep getting worse for Florida Panhandle’s errant Congressman Matt Gaetz.  Last night the NY Times reported that not only did he allegedly “buy” the “services” of a number of women, at least one of whom was the 17 year old teen he’s reported to have transported across state lines, but because he occasionally  paid for their time through Apple Pay and other cash apps there are receipts.  Moreover the NYT reports that Gaetz also shared and used drugs including ecstasy with his “dates.” His proclivities are not a surprise to his House colleagues because he’s shared nude pictures of his “girlfriends” with them and they all knew about his drug habits. Nevertheless, two of those colleagues Jim “Gym” Johnson and QAnon Margie, who introduced a bill to fire and/or stop paying virus guru Fauci yesterday, remain solidly team Gaetz, although, to be fair, most of the other members of his party want nothing to do with him and haven’t for some time because they never liked him to begin with, or so they say.  Citing the ongoing investigation by the DOJ, Democrats want Gaetz’s Judiciary Committee assignment revoked and it probably will be, eventually, but not until he resigns or is taken away in handcuffs to join his friend/partner in sex trafficking with whom he supposedly shared the 17 year old, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg who is currently sitting in jail because he violated a parole violence.  In all likelihood Greenberg probably ratted Gaetz out. Remember Democrat Al Franken left the Senate for tushy pinching and some other far less serious antics and House Democrat Katie Hill was drummed out over a relationship with a female aide.  Gaetz continues to assert that he’s the victim, claiming that two guys, a former DOJ attorney and a former Air Force intelligence agent, were trying to extort $25 million from his father to help find and obtain the release of CIA agent Robert Levinson who went missing in Iran years ago and who was declared dead last year and that all of the sex trafficking allegations are payback for his father’s failure to cough up the dough.  The two Levinson seekers probably did approach Gaetz’ father for help, but they say they did so only to help improve Gaetz’s reputation, because finding the “dead” Levinson would help him beat those sex trafficking charges that are likely to drop soon.  By the way, though she hasn’t said much Gaetz has a fiancée named, Ginger Luckey who he met at Mar a Lago and so far their plans to get married in 2024 by an Elvis impersonator are still on. A few more things, Gaetz who has several DUIs had a college roommate who died under mysterious circumstances, another one of those things that his dutiful dad helped him deal with.  Also, curiously he is the only House member to have voted against an anti-human trafficking bill that provided more money for the fight against things like transporting minors across state lines for sex and drugs, proving once again that truth is way stranger than fiction.    

Breathing Lessons: Turning to a real tragedy, yesterday there was more heartbreaking testimony in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Prosecutors walked Floyd’s girlfriend talked through their joint not so successful attempts to recover from their opiate addictions, a paramedic revealed that Floyd was already dead when he arrived on the scene and that none of the police present had tried chest compressions even though they all had to know how to do so, and most implicating for Chauvin a police supervisor said “When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended their restraint,” that’s the restraint that went on well past the time of any resistance.  It’s increasingly clear that Chauvin’s, best and only hope is to convince one or more jurors that Floyd died from his drug use and that his death was unrelated to his knee.  There are no words to describe how incredibly sad everything about this case is.

Politics As Usual: On the voting front, corporate America appears to have finally pulled its collective head out of the sand, not because they wanted to but because they were pushed to do so by Black activists and 72 Black executives who said enough is enough.  Georgia based companies Delta and Coke are now on record criticizing that state’s voter suppression legislation,  too little too late but enough to enrage Georgia’s Republican politicians who are so furious with Delta that one house of the Georgia legislature actually voted to increase taxes on the company in retribution, sparing the hometown airline only because the other house went on recess before they could follow through. Texas Republicans plan to follow Georgia’s suppression lead out of fear that allowing everyone to vote could turn their state, where voting access is already limited, to be the next to turn blue.  Texas based companies including American, Southwest and ATT have spoken out as have a number of other corporations including Microsoft, Amex, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America, among others but its not clear that any Republican politicians care because they know when push comes to shove corporate America is likely to move on and still fund their campaigns. Voter “protection” bills are all the rage among the Republican set, not because of any real voter fraud but to help voters who believe the Former Guy’s big lie get past the concerns about voter integrity that he inspired. At the end of the day, these efforts could result in holdout Democratic Senators Manchin and Sinema joining the rest of the Democrats in killing the filibuster because that’s the only way that the For the People Act voting rights bill that is intended to stop this suppression crap will ever get passed. Then there’s Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, he has come out against President Biden’s $2.5 trillion infrastructure plan, something to do with opposing any legislation that funds anything by raises taxes, especially those on the corporations who will probably end up ignoring voter suppression efforts to keep their taxes low but also some on plain old richer people.  Undertaker Mitch says that none of “his” Senators will vote for Biden’s plan even though Republican voters appear to really want new bridges, wireless, more Amtrak routes and the like which will leave it to Democrats to negotiate among themselves so that they can “build back better” through the lower vote threshold reconciliation method.  Worth noting that a lot of Democrats want the infrastructure bill to be way bigger and with no Republicans to placate that could happen.

Viral Musings: The good news is that ongoing studies indicate that Pfizer’s vaccine is really working.  Yesterday the company reported that is remains effective for at least six months against our prevailing variants including the one from South Africa.  The only reason that Pfizer is using that timeline is because the shot has only been in circulation for six months, in all likelihood it will protect for far longer.  In addition, vaccinated people are not spreading disease.  The bad news is that the virus is still doing its thing because we need at least another month or two of ramped up vaccination to stop the spread, particularly among the younger still unvaccinated set who seem to be doing their best to help it along.  Unfortunately, expectations are that fewer of those shots going into arms after next week will come from J & J, at least for a while, as they’ve run into production problems at one of their plants and as a result have had to ditch 15 million of their one and done doses. It’s also a good thing, or at least a good thing for the US, that our plans to vaccinate don’t rely on Astra Zeneca.  A number of countries are now only using their Astra Zeneca shots for the 60 and over set over concerns that the risk of getting a blood clot, though extremely low, isn’t worth it for anyone younger.  In the UK where the shot is being used widely, regulators upped their blood clot total to 30 from 5.  Overall they’ve administered 18.1 million doses so that remains a teeny tiny percent but still a concern to the shot wary.   

553,138

153,631,404 shot in arms

Happy Easter!