Ham Sandwich

State of Play:  Not much has happened on the legislative front but something big that could complicate the Former Guy’s golf schedule did happen. At the risk of hiding the lede, first, the legislation.  Senators Cory Booker and Tim Scott are still hashing out the terms of police reform legislation, hung up on qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that shields police officers from civil lawsuits, with Booker and the Democrats wanting the immunity to go away while Scott and the Republicans want the protection to stay in place. Of course those are the same Republicans who have lined up against the creation of a January 6 Commission, because their concern about police ends when it comes to investigating an insurrection where officers died and a lot more were killed.  So far the only Republican Senators on board are Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski, with Susan Collins doing her usual pearl twisting charade.  The terms of Biden’s infrastructure plan is still being negotiated, though it’s not clear if it is being negotiated with Republicans or with Senators Manchin and Sinema who if, or more likely when, the Republicans walk away will be the ones he needs to convince.  As to Manchin and Sinema, the two Democrats most vociferously defending the filibuster that cedes so much power to Minority leader Mitch McConnell and his crowd, they issued a joint statement yesterday pleading with Senate Republicans to "work with us" on establishing a January 6^th commission imploring their Senate Republican colleagues “to find a path forward.” Good luck with that.  Now, the big news, yesterday evening the Washington Post broke the story that New York District Attorney Cy Vance has convened a grand jury that will be shown evidence about a number of all those Former Guy crimes we keep hearing about.  The grand jury will decide whether to indict the Former Guy, other executives at his company like CFO Weisselberg, Donny Jr, Eric and/or Ivanka or the business itself. The plan is for the grand jury to meet three days a week, wrapping up its work within six months, which coincides with when the retiring Cy Vance will be leaving office.  Last night a series of experts, or those who say they are experts, pointed out that by practice Vance generally doesn’t go the grand jury route unless he’s both certain that he can get an indictment and confident that he can also get a conviction.  Given that old adage put forth by former NYS chief Judge Sol Wachlter who said that district attorneys now have so much influence on grand juries that “by and large” they could get them to “indict a ham sandwich,” the indictment should be easy, but getting a conviction will be much harder as there is no precedent for convicting a former president. By the way Wachtler knows about indictments, he was indicted and pleaded guilty for threatening a former girlfriend.  As to the Former Guy, he too has some women problems hanging over his head, but the Cy Vance investigation has to do with manipulation of real estate values, insurance and bank fraud, and untaxed compensation.  No surprise, the FG responded to the grand jury news by blogging that it’s the continuation of the greatest witch hunt.  Here’s hoping that this time the hunt finds some witches and warlocks.             

Viral Musings:  Fifty percent of all US adults are now fully vaccinated for COVID, a huge accomplishment especially when you consider that in January only 1% of adults had gotten their shots.  Not surprisingly rates vary significantly across the country with more than half of all adults fully vaccinated in just 25 states, DC and Guam but far less across the south especially in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas which have administered the fewest doses per 100,000 adults.  To be fair those red dominated states aren’t all that into providing any form of health care. The highest rates are in Vermont, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Connecticut.  In a few weeks, those aged 12 to 17 will have another vaccine option as Moderna has submitted the results of its tween to teen study to the FDA for review.  The company reports that their mRNA shot is 93% effective in the 12 to 17 year old set after the first dose rising to 100% two weeks after the second dose, with no cases of COVID-19 reported among vaccinated participants. Sadly, William Shakespeare, not the playwright who has been dead for centuries, but the first Brit to get jabbed has died.  The 81 year old Shakespeare who’d been living in a home for the frail did not die from COVID, nor did he die from the shot, he died because that happens to elderly frail people.  Lastly, there’s been a lot of noise over the past few days about the origins of COVID 19 spurred by reports that three workers from China’s bat virus lab were hospitalized for a pneumonia like disease back in the Fall.  The question isn’t whether or not the Chinese created the virus for nefarious reasons, that still remains highly doubtful, but whether or not it escaped the lab while they were studying it. With US involvement, the WHO is trying to figure out the origin story, but to no one’s real surprise the Chinese aren’t being all that cooperative. The Former Guy of course has weighed in saying that he always “knew” it was due to Chinese malfeasance, of course that’s the same Former Guy who once told us we had nothing to worry about because  President Xi swore to him that he had contained the virus.

More Politics:  The Cyber Ninja guys are back to “auditing” votes in Arizona, getting ready to spread their conspiracy wings to Fulton County Georgia. Republicans in Arizona, where former astronaut current Democratic Senator John Kelly will be up for reelection in 2022, are on their way to passing legislation to strip Democrat Katie Hobbs, the current Secretary of State, of her ability to defend election lawsuits, a partisan retaliation for her sharp criticism of the party's Ninja audit and also something that should make it easier to throw out the results of future elections that they don’t like, and to be clear they won’t like any election that doesn’t result in a Republican victory.  In Florida Governor DeSantis isn’t only all in on voter suppression and the like, but he’s now weighed in on social media platforms.  The Former Guy mini me/presidential aspirant signed legislation prohibiting tech platforms from suspending or banning political candidates in the state, of course since he wouldn’t want to stress out any of his potential corporate donors, at the last minute a provision exempting websites of theme park operators was added.  The entire law, with or without the Mickey Mouse exemption. is likely unconstitutional but that’s not the kind of thing that concerns DeSantis who is really just all in in doing things to “bolster” his image at the most FG guy other than the actual FG. In other Florida news, it looks like the Democrats are coalescing behind Orlando area Congresswoman Val Demings who plans to challenge Marco Rubio for Senator in 2022.  Though it’s taken four days, House Republican leadership has finally spoken out about Margie Qs anti-Semitic statements and tweets, the ones that equate the Holocaust to face masking and vaccinations.  Their statements, especially the ones from Whip Scalise and Cheney replacement Stefanik are fairly weak because Q Anon Margie is a big fund raiser and that anti-Semitic stuff doesn’t really bother them all that much.  But to be fair, the statement from Senator Elizabeth Warren wasn’t all that terrific either.  She said “Antisemitism has no place in our country or world. Neither does Islamophobia.  She’s right about Islamophobia but couldn’t she have just stopped with the first part, don’t Jews deserve a dedicated defense?  Anyway, Margie Q is still at it, now also going after her Republican critics, because that’s what she does and she’s enjoying all the attention.   

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Super Likes

Rinse, Repeat: The more things change the more they stay the same so the Senate still hasn’t agreed on police reform, the Republicans continue to play Lucy and the football with Biden’s infrastructure proposal, and for the most part they’ve concluded that setting up a January 6^th commission will make them look bad and anyway that insurrection thing was nothing more than a tourist stop.  You know Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, rampage the Capital and beat up the police.  There is one thing that the far right and the far left do appear to agree on so both sides are beating up Jews these days, and really what’s new about that?  QAnon Margie of Jewish space laser fame got scathing criticism and all the attention she wanted for equating mask mandates with yellow stars and gas chambers while Jews in New York, California and a number of other cities were beaten up by those who assert that just because they’re anti-Israel they’re not anti-Semitic. Hmm.  In other domestic news, Liz Cheney is still pursuing her fatwa against the Former Guy but proving that she’s far from a saint she told Jonathan Swan of Axios that she’s okay with all those Republican legislators passing voter suppression legislation because though she insists the Former Guy is lying about the outcome of the 2020 election, she has no problem with anyone rigging the next one so that Republicans other than him win.  By the way the election hopes of Wyoming State Senator Anthony Bouchard, one of the Republicans seeking to unseat Cheney, hit a snag over the weekend when he was forced to reveal that he had impregnated his fourteen year old “girlfriend” back when he was eighteen.  He said it was okay because it was a Romeo and Juliet relationship, and it was, the girl who he married but then divorced later committed suicide. He also said he was a good father though he’s estranged from their son because he disagrees with the lad’s life choices.  Speaking of Republicans and their affinity for the minor set,  Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz’ minor problems are becoming increasingly major, his one-time seventeen year old honey is reportedly cooperating with the FBI and the Justice Department.  And because today is a day ending in D A Y, some not so rogue Republicans having gotten approval to “audit” Fulton County’s election results, again.  On the international front, with what was no doubt tacit support from Vladimir Putin, Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko forced a Ryan Air plane carrying dissident journalist Roman Protasevich to land in Minsk while en route from Athens, Greece to Vilnius, Lithuania.  Upon landing all the passengers were removed from the plane before being allowed to reboard for the rest of their trip, well that is everyone got back on except the journalist and some mysterious Russians.  It’s fair to assume that Protasevich is now getting the Belarussian version of Navalny treatment.  Ryan Air apologized for the inconvenience to their passengers but said nothing about the whole kidnapping of Protasevch issue.

Viral Musings:  With most of the news on Israel focused on hostilities, missiles, destruction and the left’s likely unsuccessful and not Biden or Blinken supported efforts to cut military aid, it would be easy to have missed that the country’s COVID levels continue to decline.  While Israel still hasn’t formed a new government the one they have, or at the very least their health bureaucracy, has been effective at squelching the virus.  Israel is expected to lift their remaining COVID restrictions shortly and may even stop requiring people to use their nifty green passports.  Here in the US new coronavirus cases are down too, but while lots of people are vaccinated, levels vary across the country with blue regions outperforming red ones for sadly obvious reasons. Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont have now given at least one dose of a vaccine to at least 70% of their adult residents. While New York and California haven’t made it to that level yet, positivity levels in both states are below 1.0%. Dating apps are now in on the action, providing perks like “super likes” to those who post that they’re vaccinated. OK, cupid, whatever it takes. Across the country 61.3% of adults have gotten at least one vaccine dose, the seven day moving average of new cases is down to 24,000, and the seven day death rate at just over 500. We also learned this weekend that results of a UK study indicate that the Pfizer vaccine is about 88% effective against the India virus variant.  

 586,793

Six Weeks

Consequences:  Elections have consequences and we’re still suffering from the consequences of the one that took place in 2016.  Yesterday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law banning abortions after six weeks; for those counting that’s just two weeks after a missed period when a lot of women wouldn’t even know that they were pregnant.  The so-called “heart beat” law doesn’t provide exceptions for rape or incest, only for medical emergencies, and since Texans or at least Republican Texans don’t like big government officials expect the general citizenry to help with enforcement by turning in anyone who helps to facilitate any abortions. Given that Roe v Wade as narrowed by Planned Parenthood v Casey, remains the law of the land, the Texas law won’t go into effect right away but that doesn’t mean that it won’t go into effect at some future date as the Supreme Court, currently stacked with the Former Guy’s three justice picks, has agreed to take up the legality of a very restrictive Mississippi abortion law. The Mississippi decision could cut deeply into the provisions of Roe. Unfortunately, at some point likely before the mid-term elections, we will soon know if Senator Susan Collins was right to believe Justice Kavanaugh when he promised her he would support precedent on issues related to reproductive rights.  Sadly, I am fairly certain that Collins who promised us that the Former Guy had learned from his first impeachment trial is not the best judge of character.  As I said, elections have consequences.  On the topic of elections, last night the Former Guy sat for an interview on OANN, the network that no one except his most diehard fans watch. Of course he reiterated his claims about the 2020 election being stolen while chastising Republicans for not speaking out on behalf of those Cyber Ninjas who are still conducting that bogus Arizona election audit that he believes will prove that the election was stolen, ultimately getting him back into the Oval Office. #Delusional.  He is however pleased that he’s managed to get his lapdogs, Qevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell to oppose the bipartisan legislation to set up a commission to investigate the January 6^th insurrection.  About 30 House Republicans voted for the commission legislation which easily passed in the House, but prospects for passage in the Senate remain poor because there don’t appear to be ten Senators who share either Lisa Murkowski or Mitt Romney’s courage to vote for anything the Mango Maniac opposes.  We’ll know more next week when the legislation comes up for a Senate vote.  To be clear, if the commission legislation fails to pass, there will still be an investigation by one or more Congressional committees but a commission would be better.  Worth noting that one of the House Republicans who voted against the commission was Indiana Congressman Greg Pence, brother of former VP Mike Pence.  Say what you want about Chris Cuomo who is currently in trouble for advising his brother Governor Andrew Cuomo on how to deal with all those investigations into his behavior but really, shouldn’t a brother want to help his  brother by voting to investigate who ordered his brother’s lynching?  Indiana is definitely different from New York. Talking nooses, the one around Former Guy CFO Alan Weisselberg continues to tighten and according to some just released court filings, the Feds seized 18 electronic devices from Rudy Giuliani during their raid on his home and office; that raid was requested by a grand jury that has been in session for over a year so not a Biden era request, but one initiated during the FG era.       

Viral Musings:  The nation, or at least the media remains hung up on the how the CDC’s new masking recommendations were rolled out.  If current trends continue, maybe just maybe it won’t really matter. While still not low enough, daily cases were down to 27.8 thousand yesterday with hospitalizations and deaths also down. That’s the good news, unfortunately, the declines are more impressive in pro vaccination locales, mostly blue states.  To that end Maryland’s Larry Hogan and NYS’s Andrew Cuomo have jumped on the lottery bandwagon started by Ohio’s Mike DeWine.  Anyone getting vaccinated in NYS next week will get a lottery ticket for a $5 million drawing with even better opportunities to win some of the smaller but still significant prizes.  In Maryland there will be a $40,000 drawing everyday for the vaccinated.  Do I think it’s crazy that people need incentives beyond COVID protection to get a jab or two? Yes.  Do I care that they are getting an incentive that I didn’t get? No. It’s a small price to pay to get us closer to herd immunity.  On the jab front, vaccine manufacturers are now saying that we might need a booster somewhere around twelve months after our last shot while a number of medical experts are saying though that’s possible, not so fast, we don’t know yet and won’t know for certain until we see the results of ongoing studies on the longevity of our COVID antibodies.  Getting back to masking, the wackadoodle anti vax contingent in the House is in an uproar about Speaker Pelosi’s insistence that everyone keep their masks on inside her House.  She’s sticking with the masking requirement because at last count while all the Democratic Congresspeople say they are vaccinated only 95 of the 212 Republican ones will admit to having gotten a shot.  Mask requirements for the vaccinated in the Senate have been waived because all Senators except for Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Indiana’s Mike Braun have gotten their shots.  Johnson and Paul are hold outs because they both claim infection immunity and they’re both bizarre.  Braun is thinking about it but is holding out over concerns related to fetal research which means that he may have gotten a shot but doesn’t want to admit it to his anti-abortion supporters.  By the way Republicans don’t have a lock on wackadoodle-ness, Representatives Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts all voted against expanding funding for the Capitol Police with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman of New York, along with Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, just voting present.  Apparently funding the guys who protected them from the violent insurgents goes against their whole defund the police thing.     

Peace?:  The bombs and missiles have stopped flying, for now, over Israel and Gaza.  Everyone’s declaring victory though no one won.           

588,546   

 

Chicken Salad

Hot Takes: The temperature is climbing in New York, especially around Trump Tower.  Late yesterday we learned that New York State Attorney General Letitia James informed the Trump Organization that her office’s investigation into the company is “no longer purely civil in nature” as they are now “actively investigating” the organization in a “criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA.”  So far no comments from anyone named Trump, though comments from the Former Guy are likely forthcoming.  Coments on Twitter ran the gamut from don’t get your hopes up, this could be just another Mueller fakeout, to odds making on which Trump flips first with most pointing the finger at Ivanka largely because with Jared footng her bills can afford to see her dad go down and she’ll be getting the best self preserving legal advice   It’s not clear when or if any of the Trump’s will turn on each other but it’s fair to assume that CFO Alan Weisselberg isn’t sleeping well these days.  In other New York news, Rudy Giuliani scion Andrew announced his plans to seek the Republican nomination for New York State Governor in 2022; that will put him up against Suffolk County Congressman Lee Zeldin among others. The two are now duking it out for the Former Guy’s endorsement.  Zeldin who has spent the past few years demonstrating his fealty to all things Former Guy is probably the more credible candidate, not that he’s all that credible.  Anyway, the chances of any Republican making it to the New York State Gubernatorial mansion where they’ll be able to pardon for state crimes is unlikely but Zeldin will probably get the FG nod but not before Andrew figures out a way to monetize his run because with Rudy’s legal bills mounting and few other no show type job prospects, Andrew probably needs the cash. By the way, Rudy and his lawyers want the courts to know that he didn’t really mean it when he exhorted those nice tourists attending the Former Guy’s January 6^th festivities that it was time for “trial by combat,” that’s just what he says when he’s caught up in a moment.  As to the Former Guy, he still has lots of clout outside of New York, especially in Washington.  He appears to have called in some chips to make sure that his party doesn’t support the formation of an independent January 6th Commission.  Responding to Trump’s direction yesterday GQP Leader Kevin McCarthy who fears he’ll be called into testify under oath in front of any such commission announced that he wouldn’t support legislation creating one even though his designated negotiator, Republican Congressman John Katko had reached an agreement with Democrats on how the commission should be structured.  McCarthy now has his second in command Steve Scalise whipping the Republican crowd to vote against the commission.  The expectation is that despite McCarthy’s direction, quite a few Republican members of the House will buck leadership and vote for the commission. The legislation is expected to easily pass through the Democrtically controlled House but is likely to get stuck in the Senate where Democrats will need ten votes to meet the needed sixy vote threshold.  Mitch McConnell appears to have gotten one of those former guy nudges too and though a number of members of his caucus have expressed an interest in seeing the legislation come to fruition, he spent the day crawling away from it as only he can. The Former Guy’s influence is also being felt in Arizona where despite pull back from some Republicans the Cyber Ninjas remain all in on continuing their “audit” of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results.  The Ninja’s are currently investigating whether some chickens ate a bunch of “tossed” Former Guy ballots, really. It wasn’t the ninja’s but a few other Former Guy guys spent the days of his administration doing weird stuff.  Over the weekend, we learned that a group funded by folks including one time and maybe still mercenary Erik Prince, brother of former Education Secretary Betsy Devos, tried to besmirch one time national security advisor HR McMaster by luring him into compromising honey pot type relationships and that the Bill Barr led Justice Department tried to have Twitter persona @DevinCow unmasked for the crime of poking fun at Former Guy fanboy/Ranking Intelligence Committee member Republican Congressman Devin Nunes.     

Viral Musings: The seven 7-day average of daily COVID deaths in the US is now at 546, the lowest level since March of 2020.  Yesterday there were 385 COVID deaths and “only” 29,387 new cases. That’s remarkable and proof that the vaccinations are doing what they are supposed to do.  Recent studies indicate that they even work well against the known variants.  Still you aren’t alone if you’re having a hard time giving up your mask, especially indoors, because though a lot of people are vaccinated far too many aren’t, a portion of them will never be and it’s not like the vax avoiders emit a warning glow when they pass too close or stand next to you on line. My inbox included a notice from Equinox this morning telling me that it was time to resume my membership because in accordance with NYC lifting its mask mandates, starting today vaccinated members will no longer need to wear a mask while in the club. Yikes, I know the science tells me I am protected but it still feels like it’s too soon for group perspiration. 

583,596  

 

To Mask or Not to Mask

Nobler in the Mind:  No longer the House Republican Party Conference Chair and with lots of free time on her hands the unshackled Liz Chaney spent her weekend hitting the Sunday news circuit.  Cheney who remains as conservative as they come is far from an example of admirable moderation, after all despite his obvious flaws she voted for the Former Guy and supported most of his positions,  but it’s hard not to appreciate her willingness to call him out as the danger to Democracy that he is while she also slams the leadership of her party for their continued loyalty to him and his continued insistence that he won the 2020 election.  Liz is playing a long game, hoping that at some point her party will resurrect itself back to some form of normalcy, whatever that is, and that when they do they’ll give her the Margaret Chase Smith award as in the Maine Senator who famously called out Joe McCarthy back when everyone else was too scared to do so.  As to the Former Guy, still banned from Facebook and forever banned from Twitter, he continues to make full use of his blog.  Over the weekend he threw some more shade at the Arizona election results claiming that there had been a  “DELETION of an entire Database and critical Election files of Maricopa County” going on to say that “seals were broken on the boxes that hold the votes, ballots are missing, and worse.” Of course none of that is true.  That absurd Cyber Ninjas “audit” of the Maricopa results is now on hold, not because it’s a total sham, but because the Ninjas had to temporarily vacate the premises to make room for a high school prom.  They plan to get back to their count as soon as they regain use of the hall.  Nothing to worry about, the ballots are currently being stored near the Crazy Times Carnival, a local which rivals Four Seasons Landscaping for absurdity.  Stephen Richer, the Republican official who won his election to serve as the Maricopa County recorder in November called the FG’s statement “unhinged” adding “We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer.  As a party. As a State. As a Country.”  Just wondering has he met the leaders of his party? One of them, GQP Kevin McCarthy  is likely to be called into testify in front of the proposed January 6^th Commission that is one step closer to happening, fingers crossed about that. 

The Insolence of Office:  McCarthy and the FG are not the only members of the Republican party who appear to be growing increasingly unhinged, Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz isn’t doing all that well either.  Gaetz who said allegations about his coke fueled parties with underage girls are comparable to the return of Congressional earmarks appears to be watching his future circle the drain, at least it should be. On Friday, his good buddy and fellow party animal Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to six of the thirty Federal charges that he was facing, including to sex trafficking a minor and “introducing that minor to other adult men who engaged in commercial sex acts.” Though Gaetz wasn’t explicitly named in any public filings and continues to insist that those Venmo payments he made were for innocent things like fidget spinners it’s fair to assume that Greenburg ratted him out and that the Feds have corroborating evidence because why else would the Feds let Greenburg off of those other 24 charges?  Among that evidence could be some receipts detailing one of his girlfriend’s no show job paid for out of government funds.  Though the Gaetz stench isn’t expected to reach into the bowels of Mar a Lago or Bedminster, wherever the FG is ruminating these days, he should be squirming too, maybe.  NYC District Attorney Cy Vance’s office has subpoenaed the financial records of Columbia Grammar and Prep, the Upper Westside private school once attended by son Barron but also attended by the grandchildren of Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg.  Weisselberg’s former daughter in law, no fan of either Allen or the FG,  claims that the Trump Organization paid for her children’s education but that her former husband did not report their “generosity” as income for tax purposes.

Viral Musings:  Whether to “grunt and sweat” while masking is no longer necessary for the fully vaccinated, a tribute to the effectiveness of the vaccines.  The okay to go mask free is the advice that we’ve all been waiting for yet like everything else about the coronavirus pandemic, the revised CDC masking advice has raised hackles with mask haters questioning why we were ever mandated to wear them in the first place and mask adherents alarmed that they weren’t warned that the change was coming and fearful of dropping protection while so many remain unvaccinated.  As an early and consistent masker I get the concern, it’s a bit unnerving to go barefaced on trafficked city streets but also very freeing.  My advice for what it’s worth is to do whatever makes you happy, keep the masks in stores and indoor markets especially in high positivity locales which means keeping them on in counties that voted for the Former Guy, sad but true.  Also be respectful of those, like at least 50% of the people walking around my neighborhood, who stay masked outside. As to those nine members of the Yankee organization who have tested COVID positive, though all were vaccinated, most if  not all with the J & J one shot wonder, the only one who showed symptoms is doing very well and the others, all asymptomatic, were only caught due to aggressive testing.  In other words, the vaccine is doing what the experts said it would, preventing most positives from happening while tamping down the severity of breakthrough cases. Not only is NYS’s positivity down to 1% but hospitalizations are falling quickly.   

Arms Against a Sea of Troubles: I am no Shakespeare so the sh-t show in Gaza and Israel leaves me without words or solutions, I’d just like to see it end.  That said, who could have guessed that merely recognizing long existing business ties with neighboring countries wasn’t going to be the solution, if there is one?   

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59.8% of 18 + with at least one vaccine

 

 

Revising History

Red Alert:  Well the vote to sack Liz Cheney went as expected.  The outspoken reliably conservative Liz was stripped of her leadership position by a voice vote allegedly for failing to stay on message about what a Marxist threat Joe Biden is but really because she keeps on speaking truth, saying that the Former Guy and his continued insistence that the 2020 election was stolen is the real threat. After the vote Liz, who is now freer than ever to speak her mind, said that she’s committed to making sure that the FG never makes it to the Oval Office again.  She plans to speak out wherever and whenever.  To that end she’s already given an interview to NBC’s Savannah Guthrie where she said that its inexplicable to her how the leaders of her party continue to embrace the FG, she repeated that keeping silent about that is not an option, confirmed her commitment to her party and continued to call for a January 6^th focused bipartisan commission, one that’s likely to reveal that some of her “colleagues” were insurrection complicit. GQP Leader Kevin McCarthy who has never been invited to sit for such an interview but will be someday if he succeeds in his life ambition and becomes Speaker in 2022 actually said “no one is questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election” even though we know that throwing shade on the election is his party’s line and that absurd Arizona election audit by the Republican endorsed Cyber Ninjas continues.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell mostly did what he does, speaking in circles, slamming illusory Marxists while trying his hardest not to say anything that would cause an enraged FG to pull a Liz on him. For his part the FG responded to Liz’s ouster by gloating on his blog that she’s a “bitter, horrible human being” just a smidgen more mature than North Carolina Congressman Madison Hawthorne’s “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye Liz Cheney” tweet. In that spirit, during an Oversight hearing on the events of the January 6^th insurrection other Republicans from the increasingly dominant wingnut side of the party spoke their truths as well in an attempt to rewrite recent events: Arizona’s worst ever Dentist/Congressman Paul Gosar defended the capitol rioters, calling them “peaceful protesters,” condemning that they are now under investigation by the DOJ; Georgia’s Jody Hice said it was FG supporters who lost their life on January 6, not FG supporters who were taking the lives of others; fellow Georgian Andrew Clyde just denied that the insurrection ever happened, saying that “to call it that was a bold faced lie.” The wingnuts did that while the FG’s last Acting Defense Secretary, Christopher Miller, the mid-level official who’d been promoted into that position over the heads of a number of more deserving and competent folks, tried to back off from some of the more FG implicating parts of his prepared remarks, hedging his bets in case Liz doesn’t succeed in her quest to make sure that the FG stays out of Washington DC forever. CNN threw shade on all of them by playing new body cam video of the brutal beatings of some of the Capitol Police during an interview with Officer Michael Fanone, one of those most physically and emotionally damaged by those friendly, nice insurrectionists.    

Building Back Better? Because speaking out of both sides of their mouths is what politicians, especially this crop does, McCarthy and McConnell walked out of a “bipartisan” meeting on infrastructure with President Biden with smiles or should I say smirks on their faces agreeing with Biden’s statement that they had a nice chat but adding that the two sides had not yet agreed on the definition of “infrastructure.” They doubled down on their refusal to revisit the 2017 tax cuts to pay for improvements.  Shortly after the meeting ended McCarthy sent out a fund raising text saying I just met with Corrupt Joe Biden and he’s STILL planning to push his radical Socialist agenda onto the American people.”  So much for bipartisanship.  By the way, while McConnell and McCarthy obstruct infrastructure funding, bridges are falling down, literally. Yesterday transportation officials closed traffic on and under the Hernando DeSoto bridge that crosses from Memphis, Tennessee to West Memphis, Arkansas after inspectors found a huge fracture in its span. Vehicle traffic is now being rerouted away from the major I-40 highway while barges are lined up waiting for learn whether it’s safe for them to proceed through the waterway. Repairs are expected to take months to complete.  On the positive side, the Colonial east coast pipeline has been turned back on so no cancel those plans to fill plastic bags full of gas.  Yes, some people really did that.

Viral Musings: Late yesterday the CDC rubber stamped the FDA’s approval for the Pfizer vaccine to be administered to the 12 to 15 year old set which is good given how many states had already jumped the jab. Websites were immediately inundated with requests for appointments, a trend that will probably ease once the most vax enthusiastic parents and tweens get their appointments locked in.   In other vaccine news, it looks like effectiveness of China’s Sinopharm vaccine isn’t all that impressive, a big problem for a lot of the developing world especially those countries relying on its effectiveness.  The vaccine which has made it into the arms of 55% of the vaccinated in the Seychelles, the most vaccinated country on the planet, isn’t doing as well a job at preventing COVID infections as hoped. To put its performance in perspective more people in the Seychelles have been vaccinated than in Israel yet the number of daily new confirmed COVID cases per million people in Seychelles is 2,613 compared with 5.5 in Israel.  As to Israel yesterday there were around 30 new cases of COVID, good news, but sadly the situation there remains out of control, not due to the virus but due to continuing escalation of the fight with Hamas.  Vaccines, good; rockets and missiles, painful to watch, worse to experience.  Biden has dispatched an envoy.  

Other News:  The NRA’s efforts to evade NYS Attorney General Tish James suffered a lethal shot after a Texas judge rejected their attempt to move to gun friendly Texas and file for bankruptcy protection.  Arizona joined the long list of Republican controlled states doing their best to suppress blue voters.  In all likelihood the only way that everyone who wants to will be able to vote going forward will be if the Senate passes some form of a voter rights bill. It’s fair to assume that won’t happen unless Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema sign on. Manchin at least may be starting to appreciate that the situation is dire, he’s signaling willingness to sign on to some protective legislation with or without the support of ten Republicans. Bye, bye filibuster for voting rights? Maybe.     

583,690  

264.7 shots into arms    

 

What Me Vote?

Red Alert:  The Republican crazy continues.  Yesterday about to be ousted Republican conference leader Liz Cheney took to the floor of the House to make her case that her party and the country cannot and should not forget the actions of the seditious Former Guy.  She said that “we face a threat America has never seen before.  A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, who has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him" adding he “risks inciting further violence. Millions of Americans have been misled by the former President. They have heard only his words, not the truth."  Of course not wanting to hear the truth most of her colleagues vacated the premises before she started talking leaving her speaking to a mostly empty room. Cheney made it clear that she plans to continue speaking out as she’s playing the long game, hoping that at some point her party will return to its senses and that she’ll then be rewarded for having the guts to speak truth.  Like her or not, that’s very noble but she’ll likely be waiting a long time as GQP  leader McCarthy and most of her colleagues are on the other side of the wager, putting their eggs in the FG basket.  For his part Kevin McCarthy is counting on becoming the Speaker after the 2022 midterms, assuming of course that the Republicans retake the house, a frighteningly possible outcome because of redistricting and because the out of power party generally gains seats during the midterms and Democrats can’t afford to lose more than a few seats given their tiny majority.  Here’s a fun but beyond scary factoid: the Speaker doesn’t have to be a member of Congress so if a certain FG decides that he wants to be speaker and can intimidate enough of his crowd to vote him in he could take over the spot.  Sounds a bit preposterous but what about the FG’s rise and continued dominance isn’t? Talking about preposterous reality TV celebrities, during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash Caitlyn Jenner of Olympics and Kardashian fame revealed that she’s running for California governor not because she has any ideas on how to improve the state  but because she got bored during quarantine, at least she got bored when she wasn’t playing golf.  The golf kept her so busy that she never got around to voting in November or so she says.  While the no good ideas part is probably true, it turns out that she did vote, or at least records indicate that she did, so now we know that she has no constructive policies and is a liar, but then again maybe being a liar makes her perfect for the job. Getting back to the FG and his family, a new book from Pulitzer Prize winning author Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post reveals that a few members of his family got inappropriately close to their Secret Service protectors, and no we’re not talking Melania and her much rumored relationship with one of the FG’s former body guards but are talking about Don Jr’s former wife Vanessa and the other daughter Tiffany.  As to those Secret Service guys, we don’t know who they are but we do know that they, unlike the FG, are svelte because the FG refused to have the tubby ones on his protection squad.  And proving that Republicans aren’t the only ones who don’t know what they don’t know, of all the many, and there are many, Democrats running for NYC mayor, when asked by the NY Times only Andrew Yang knew that the average price of a home in Brooklyn was $900,000.  A few of the other candidates who should have known  including former HUD Secretary Sean Donovan and Citibank Executive Ray McGuire  were so far off the mark, or as they say they “didn’t understand the question” that they thought that $80,000 to $90,000 was the right amount.  Wonder if that even buys you an outhouse?   By the way, the NY Post has endorsed former police officer/reformer Eric Adams though it’s not clear that an endorsement from the NY Post is a good thing for a candidate running in a NY Democratic primary.  The NY Times has endorsed former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia who also served as former Mayor Bloomberg’s environmental chief but then again they endorsed both Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren as Democratic nominees for president. By the way, Garcia knows the price of Brooklyn real estate, she went with $800,000 which wasn’t far off.    

Viral Musings:  The CDC is expected to formally approve Pfizer’s COVID vaccine for the 12 to 15 year old set today and New York is planning to start delivering those shots into adolescent arms tomorrow but responding to demand a few locales across the country, including Atlanta and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania have already started jabbing the younger set.  After dipping, daily US vaccinations are trending up again.  To keep that trend going, the Biden administration announced that Uber and Lyft will provide free rides to vaccination sites for those lacking another means of transportation or for who just want to be chauffeured to their shots.  The free rides will be available through July fourth.  New COVID cases in Israel are down to around 40 cases per day, although given the fireworks that are going  on there right now it’s fair to assume that some people are sheltering in place rather than running out for tests. Who would have guessed that the Abraham Accords weren’t going to solve the long simmering problems?  It turns out that money and commerce are not the solution for everything.

Question, should I pull a toilet paper and run out to the gas station to fill my half full tank or should I hope that the east coast pipeline shutdown problem is solved soon, very soon?

582,848

 

Cancelling Culture

Rockets and Pipelines: It was another good news, bad news weekend.  The hurling through space Chinese rocket debris landed in the Indian Ocean, a bit too close to land for residents of the Maldives but far enough away to avoid killing anyone….this time.  That said the Chinese plan to continue using similarly uncontrolled rockets to launch their satellites because they can and keeping the rest of the world in a perpetual state of concern about massive pieces of falling detritus hitting population centers is so on brand. On the bad news front, what appears to have been a Russian criminal gang launched an effective ransomware attack on the Colonial pipeline that provides 45% of the fuel consumed on the  East Coast.  Though the attack was done by a non-state actor it’s more than fair to assume that Putin was on board or at the very least is celebrating its effectiveness, and it was effective, as the pipeline is now shut down and gas prices are climbing, hopefully only temporarily, and who doesn’t need a gas shortage and higher prices going into the summer season. The Former Guy had nothing to say about that little pipeline “snafu” or the out of control Chinese debris probably because he was busy composing his response to the news that Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a drug test. To that end he used his new “blog” to issue a bizarre statement equating the Derby mess with his “stolen” election saying "So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky. This is emblematic of what is happening to our Country. The whole world is laughing at us as we go to hell on our Borders, our fake Presidential Election, and everywhere else!"

Red Alert:  As weird as the FG’s misspelled and unhinged “junky” horse comments are they pale in comparison to what he’s successfully doing to “his” Republican Party. He’s got the NRCC so addicted to him that they’ve been sitting on polling data that show he isn’t as popular with “his” party  as he needs everyone to think he is.  Despite that damning data as far as his golf buddy Senator Lindsey Graham sees it tossing reliably conservative Republican House Conference leader for a minute more Liz Cheney under the bus is okay because the party can’t move forward without the Former Guy. He also said that he’s always “liked Liz Cheney, but she’s made a determination that the Republican Party can’t grow with” the Former Guy. “I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”  House GQP Leader Kevin McCarthy sent a letter out to his caucus announcing that he’ll hold a vote to dump Liz on Wednesday.  The unctuous Kevin actually says ‘We are a big tent party, we represent Americans of all backgrounds and continue to grow our movement by the day and unlike the left we embrace free though and debate.”  Of course he said that while calling for the dumping of Cheney because of her refusal to kowtow to his and the FG’s party line, because she refuses to let go of her criticism of the “big lie,” she’s backing an investigation into the January 6 insurrection and she challenged him about hiding that negative FG polling data.  Not everyone in the Republican Party is on board with Graham and McCarthy’s obsequiousness, Mitt Romney tweeted yesterday that “expelling Liz Cheney from leadership won’t gain the GOP one additional vote but it will cost us quite a few” and even Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a member of Senate Republican leadership and a stalwart FG supporter, sided with Cheney calling her ouster “cancel culture” but they’re the outliers, most in the party are either supportive of dumping Cheney, fearful of the consequences of publicly supporting her or have their heads in the sand.  The dump Cheney vote is likely to take place on Wednesday and even though it will be carried out by secret ballot, with the FG, McCarthy and second in leadership KKK curious Steve Scalise all calling for her to go and New York’s Stefanik campaigning for her position, Cheney is expected to lose.  In fact, with the FG determined to destroy her, it’s quite possible that she also loses a primary for her reliably Republican Wyoming House Seat. The face of the House Republican Party is now teen trafficker Matt Gaetz, gun toter Lauren Boebert, white supremacist dentist Paul Gosar and QAnon Margie and the policy of the GQP isn’t to gain votes but win by suppressing minority voting while continuing to question the validity of the 2020 election.  They are all in on more havoc, insurrections and Arizona like audits by the Cyber Ninjas  Getting back to cancel culture for a minute,  Bob Baffert, Medina Spirit’s trainer, who’s been caught drugging his horses before, blamed his current mess on “cancel culture” too and why not, it and denial appear to be in vogue. Look what’s happening to the Golden Globes. Wonder if Pia Zadora will join Tom Cruise in turning in her not so deserved globe?                 

Viral Musings:  New US COVID cases are trending down with daily levels now averaging about 40,000.  That’s a significant improvement over where they were during the peaks but at 647 per day, the number of deaths remain frustratingly high, especially given the wide availability of disease sparing vaccines. While not unique to the US, vax avoidance and vax laziness remain significant hurdles to that oft discussed goal of herd immunity, the level that experts say we’ll probably never reach because of all those vax avoiders, which accounts for why local leaders keep coming up with new incentives. Those incentives now include shots (jabs not bullets) in subway stations in exchange for free rides, a shot for an ice cream cone or with a free beer chaser, baseball tickets, cash payments or savings bonds, all to get the wary to hold out their arms for a jab or two.  As to eligibility, yesterday the FDA signed off on lowering the eligibility for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine down to those twelve years of age.  The CDC is expected to provide final signoff today. The shot regimen and dosing for adolescents will be the same as for adults.  Moderna’s application which was submitted later than Pfizer’s is still pending.  In other vaccine news, facing production delays caused by resource shortages Novavax has pushed back filing for approvals for its anticipated less expensive, easy to distribute and store COVID vaccine.  Given our vaccine surplus that’s not a problem for the US, it is however a problem for the world as Novavax has pledged 1.1 billion doses to COVAX, the international vaccine sharing network, and its more easily distributed shots are desperately needed in the developing world.  We only get out of this mess when all of us get out of this mess.

582,162

268 million shots in arms

       

Duck for Cover

The Red Cult:  It’s highly likely that by this time next week Liz Cheney will have lost her Republican leadership position.  That’s bad, not because Cheney’s views are all that admirable, she’s consistently among the most conservative members of the Republican party when it comes to almost everything, including social policies, but because her ouster provides additional proof that the Republican party has devolved into a cult of the Former Guy.  To be clear, Cheney’s not being ousted over her voting record, in fact her record is far and away more conservative than that of her likely replacement, upstate NY Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.  Cheney is being banished because she keeps speaking truth and writing op-eds about the 2020 election and the need to do a robust investigation into how the January 6^th insurrection came about, something that spooks the Former Guy and also freaks out GQP Leader Kevin McCarthy who fears being called to testify under oath.  Stefanik who voted against the FG’s tax cuts is being attacked by the Koch Brothers controlled Club For Growth PAC as they aren’t pleased that the reliably conservative Cheney is about to be replaced by that moderate, or at least previously moderate, New Yorker.  To counter the Koch attack, Stefanik who earlier told her constituents that she voted against certifying the 2020 election results because of those hundreds of thousands of “fraudulent” Georgia voters, appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast where she displayed her loyalty to the FG and his “big lie” by defending the faux “audit” in process in Maricopa County, Arizona.  That’s the audit being done by the Cyber Ninjas who in addition to subjecting ballots to infra-red lights and  destroying their integrity with blue ink are currently testing for bamboo content to “prove” that they were smuggled in from Communist China to ensure the victory of that Bolshevik Joe Biden.  While it’s easy to disregard the Cyber Ninjas as nutty extremists and the Maricopa audit as just another desperate act, both should be taken seriously, not because anything “uncovered” will be for real but because the audit fuels the myth that the election was stolen, something that far too many members of the Red cult already believe and that we’ve learned the hard way also encourages violence.  As to the FG, as a result of the recommendation of the “independent” Facebook board responsible for deciding who does and doesn’t get to post on the company’s site, he remains banned from the social media platform, however that ban may not be permanent as the board punted the final decision back to Mark Zuckerberg, giving him up to six months to weigh in on whether or not to allow the FG back. By the way, though the Facebook board’s decision to keep the FG banished was supposedly a secret until it was officially released, it’s probably not a coincidence that the FG launched his blog the day before the decision was announced, maybe he was given a heads up?  Of course the FG and his supporters in Congress and in right wing media are fuming about the Facebook decision, calling it out as a violation of the First Amendment, which it isn’t since the First Amendment isn’t applicable to the private sector. The FG is still and hopefully always will be banned from Twitter, but nevertheless his team spent part of the week trying to post his newly released blog which is really just a stream of long tweets to Twitter by using newly created Twitter personas, so far those efforts have been thwarted by the vigilant Twitter police. And, lastly if you’re wondering why the FG is so upset about being deprived of access to social media, its not because he misses posting pictures of Barron’s life moments, but because being  kept off Facebook and Twitter hits his bottom line, bigly, no posts equals less cashflow,

Red Alert:  While the Cheney banishment is diverting, the real news is that the Republicans are continuing to get voter suppression legislation passed into law.  Yesterday, Florida Governor DeSantis who bragged about how perfectly his state’s elections were run in 2020, signed legislation making it more difficult for his residents to get absentee ballots, vote via drop box, and get fluids while waiting on line.  He signed that legislation in front of Fox and only Fox, locking out all other networks. Similarly, despite last minute efforts by Democratic legislators, Texas, a state already known for having the most voter suppressive rules around, passed more of them early this morning. Texas Governor Abbott will definitely sign that bill, maybe at the same time that he signs another one making it legal for people to carry hand guns without permits. So voting, hard; carrying guns, easy.  Lawsuits were filed against the Florida law immediately after DeSantis signed it into law and likely there will be plenty filed against Texas but given that the FG and his one-time partner in suppression, Mitch McConnell packed the courts, it’s not clear how those cases will fare. Speaking of undertaker Mitch, he went ahead and said the quiet part out loud on Wednesday, vowing to block every piece of legislation that Biden proposes and promising that no one in his caucus will cross party lines.  Mitch might actually lose a few Senators for a few votes, but to pass anything substantive Biden will have to do so via the lower voter threshold reconciliation method and/or destroy the filibuster.  The White House is still going to go through the motions of holding bipartisan meetings but its fair to assume that those sessions are mostly for show, and that the real negotiation is between Biden and Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and that Mitch’s statement might have just made those negotiations a bit easier.

Viral Musings: Sadly while the situation in India and now also in some of its neighboring countries continues to worsen, things continue to improve in the US, more in blue states than in vax avoiding red, but almost everywhere.  Of course Fox pundit/Swanson fish stick heir Tucker Carlson continues to do his best to throw shade at the reason things are improving, the vaccine rollout.  Fishy Tucker is dissing shots, pointing out that some people who get vaccinated die.  To be fair people do die after getting shots, they also while crossing the street, they die on their couches, they die while running, while just breathing and even more of them die when they get old. Heck, he’ll probably die someday too.  Carlson, who may or may not have gotten vaccinated, is lying with statistics to spook his watchers because that’s what he does.  According to GOP pollster Frank Luntz, Carlson‘s deadly shtick is his way of positioning himself for an inevitable run for the presidency because we need Tucker in the Oval Office about as much as we need to be hit on the head by that out of control Chinese rocket that’s hurling to earth and due to land, somewhere, this weekend.  To counter Tucker’s anti-vax BS, a number of states and localities are proving incentives to the vax wary so if you haven’t been vaccinated yet but like baseball, head to Yankee or Citi stadium where you’ll get a voucher for a free ticket with your shot and once fully vaccinated you’ll be able to sit in a special crowded section with all your similarly protected friends and a whole lot of strangers. Though Canada has already approved the Pfizer shot for 12 to 15 year old’s, we’re still waiting for that expected FDA/CDC sign off. Pfizer remains busy, they announced this morning that they’ve initiated their application for full as opposed to emergency use authorization in adults.  That’s important because full authorization will facilitate vaccination mandates making it harder for Governors like Florida’s DeSantis, another presidential wannabee, to ban vax mandates by for example the cruising industry.  Don’t even get me started on why he doesn’t want to allow cruise ships to require that their passengers be vaccinated before getting on those floating petri dishes.         

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy: According to Politico, Rudy Giuliani is feeling financial pain.  Apparently facing mounting legal bills he’s started to lay off staff, he’s even down to only one part time driver.  What’s next?  The subway?  He’s also trying to pressure the Former Guy to help him with his legal bills, that’s the same Former Guy who doesn’t even pay his own lawyers.  Maybe Rudy should call California gubernatorial hopeful Caitlyn Jenner who was last seen sitting with Sean Hannity whining about her hangar side chat with another super rich person about how awful California has become.  Maybe one of Caitlyn’s friends will toss some of those state income tax dollars they’ll be saving by flying one of their private jets to Arizona or wherever it is that rich Californians fly to avoid seeing poor people.      

580,063

252 million shots in arms

 

Beer and Bonds

Red Alert:   Liz Cheney is likely to lose her party leadership role next week, Bill Barr lied about the conclusions of the Mueller report and expectations are that Facebook will let the Former Guy back on its platform today.  On the Cheney front, FG sycophant/GQP leader Kevin McCarthy was caught on a hot microphone saying that “Cheney’s got real problems, I’ve had it with her” and that he’s “lost confidence” in her. Without McCarthy’s support Cheney is expected to  lose her Republican Conference Chair position next week, a spot that New York’s Elise Stefanik covets and has been not so discretely campaigning for.  Stefanik who has shifted from her early in career moderate stance to being in full alignment with all things Former Guy was one of his defenders during his second impeachment trial and although her voting record is less FGian than the reliably conservative Cheney who’s voting record has been lock step with the FG, she voted against recognizing Biden’s victory. A few of the usual Republican “suspects” including Senator Mitt Romney, Congressman Adam Kinzinger and Cindy McCain have come out in support of Cheney essentially saying that there’s something seriously wrong with a party that finds standing up for truth and the rejection of the “election was stolen” lie problematic but since they’re all considered RINOs few if any members of their party care or at the very least will admit to caring what they say. Though Speaker Pelosi said it’s not her business to get involved with the Republican caucus’ decisions, she did,  expressing her opinion in a classically Nancy way by having her office release a mocking help wanted ad that said “Word is out that House GOP Leaders are looking to push Rep. Liz Cheney from her post as House Republican Conference Chair – their most senior woman in GOP leadership – for a litany of very Republican reasons: she won’t lie, she isn’t humble enough, she’s like a girlfriend rooting for the wrong team, and more. So what exactly are House GOP Leaders looking for in a #3? They want a woman who isn’t a ‘threat’ to them.”

Lowering the Barr: Former Attorney General Barr has largely been out of sight since Merrick Garland took over at the Department of Justice but he hasn’t been out of mind, or at least hasn’t been out of US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s mind.  Yesterday the judge who presided over the Roger Stone case, ordered the release of the Justice Department memo that Barr said supported his  conclusion that the Former Guy should not be prosecuted for obstruction of justice as a results of what special counsel Robert Mueller’s uncovered in his investigation.  Berman Jackson issued that ruling while accusing Barr of obfuscating and being “disingenuous” when describing Mueller’s findings.  She also found that his Justice Department was not candid with the court about the purpose and role of the 2019 memo prepared by Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.  The memo hasn’t been released yet but when it is, Barr may finally get the comeuppance he deserves, well maybe. As to the Former Guy while it would be nice to believe that he will finally be prosecuted for all of his obstructive acts, he probably won’t be, not because he doesn’t deserve to be but because doing so would open up Garland and by extension Biden to distracting attacks from the right.  Speaking of the Former Guy, yesterday with much fanfare and a “breaking news” chyron Fox News announced that he was back on social media with his own platform, an announcement that made it sound like the FG had finally launched his own Twitter competitor.  He hasn’t but he has started a plain old blog as a way of getting his long winded harangues out to his followers. Later today we will learn if the FG who has been banned from Facebook since the January 6 insurrection will be allowed back to spread lies about voter fraud and hamburger restrictions. Odds makers predict he’ll be allowed back on and that within days if not minutes of his reappearance he’ll start violating Facebook’s rules, though only time will tell whether anyone like Mark Zuckerberg will care. To be clear, the FG back on Facebook will not be a good thing for democracy as we know it.  One more Republican thing, sticking with the culture wars, Republican California Governor wannabee Caitlin Jennings has come out against that huge only in the mind of right wing culture warriors problem of transsexual girls participating on girls sports teams.  Notably former Olympia Jenner plays in women’s golf championships.     

Viral Musings:  The India picture remains dreadful, an example of what happens when leadership fails and the virus beats out an anemic vaccination roll out, particularly horrifying since India is the world’s largest producer of vaccines.  Here in the US things are improving but great disparities remain.  California’s positivity rate is now below 1%,  0.6% in San Francisco County and 0.7% in Los Angeles County but positivity rates remain in double ditches in many other, mostly red locales: 18.2% in Idaho, 16.8% in Iowa, 14.5% in Kansas and 10.8% in Alabama.  California’s impressive levels compare favorably to vax leader Israel where only 61 COVID cases were diagnosed on Monday and fewer than 100 COVID patients are in serious condition, the lowest number since last July.  Similarly, illness is down in the UK, one of the other country’s leading in the vaccine rollout. Having exceeded both his 100 million and 200 million shots in arms targets, yesterday President Biden announced a new one.  He wants at least one shot delivered into the arms of 70% of adult Americans by July Fourth.  To date, Biden has under promised and over delivered, so hopefully his team knows something we don’t and has a plan to get those who remain vax wary and/or dead set against shots on board.  Maybe he plans to add some incentives ala New Jersey where participating bars are providing a free beers to those showing that they’ve gotten their first shot or like West Virginia where the Republican/one time Democrat Governor Justice is giving $100 savings bonds to those getting fully vaxxed. Biden’s 70% number doesn’t appear to take into consideration the number of adolescents who are likely to qualify for the Pfizer shot next week, but his administration is focused there as well, planning to be in a position to get shots into middle school arms immediately after the CDC/FDA signs off.  Yesterday Pfizer announced plans to apply for full as opposed to emergency use authorization for its vaccine for adults by the end of the month while also announcing plans to seek emergency authorization for the 2 to 11 set in September.  Full authorization is important because it will make it easier for businesses and schools to mandate vaccination.     

 578,503

248 million shots in arms

Gates Gate 

Viral Musings: Okay, who had Bill and Melinda Gates getting divorced on their pandemic Bingo card?  One thing’s for certain, whatever their differences, they weren’t fighting over who gambled away the rent money at the Kentucky Derby.  Anyway, their business is their business but it’s only a matter of time before the QAnon mafia goes full on Gates gate attributing their marriage woes to a fight about who gets to control those chips that conspiracists and anti-vaxxers insist Bill has been inserting into our arms along with our mRNA vaccines.  Concern about those illusory chips may be one of the reasons that somewhere north of 25% of Americans say that they won’t ever get vaccinated.  That reluctance, which feeds variants, together with the slow rollout of vaccines across the world, are among the reasons that scientists are now saying that we’ll probably never reach true herd immunity but instead will have to learn to live with coronavirus outbreaks for a long time to come, hopefully at much lower levels and with newer “Tamiflu like” antiviral drugs along the lines of one that Pfizer says they’ll have by year end.  On the Pfizer front, US approval of its vaccine for the 12-15 year old set is imminent, no later than early next week with approval for Moderna, which to date has only been approved for those 18 and over, likely to follow in a few weeks.  As far as the virus goes, daily new cases fell to just under 50,000 yesterday with deaths at 738, largely because of the vaccine rollout but also helped along by seasonal effects. Most states are moving forward with the loosening and/or elimination of COVID restrictions and of course, not to be outdone, Florida’s president wannabee, Governor Ron DeSantis, signed an executive order yesterday that suspends all local COVID emergency orders restricting what local officials can do during pandemics.  For the record despite DeSantis’ assertion that all is hunky dory in Florida, it’s not.  The state has the 8^th highest COVID positivity rate in the country.  DeSantis is also expected to sign legislation that makes it difficult for Floridians to vote in future elections despite the fact that he earlier bragged that his state should serve as the model for how an election should be run.  Apparently even though Republicans did well during the last election, that “model” made it too easy for far too many Democrats to vote by absentee ballot so at the risk of disenfranchising a few older Republicans, the state wants to make it more difficult to get absentee ballots and for good measure plans to get rid of a lot of drop boxes.   

Red Party Politics:  The virus isn’t the only thing mutating these days.  The Republican Party continues to slither down the Former Guy hole.  Over the weekend consistently and reliably conservative Senator Mitt Romney survived a censure vote but was booed by the audience at his state’s Republican party convention. Likewise, Liz Cheney, another stalwart conservative, who refuses to back off her statements about the Former Guy, her confidence that President Biden won the 2020 election and who is getting pilloried for greeting him via fist bump during his walk to the podium for his Joint Session speech, is facing increasing pushback from House Republicans leadership. GQP Kevin McCarthy who has gone from acknowledging that the Former Guy bore responsibility for the January 6 reaction to kissing his ring and claiming that it was his efforts that stopped the coup appears to be ready to dump Cheney from his House leadership triumvirate with Axios reporting that he’d like to see her replaced by an insurgency friendly pick, someone like New York’s Elise Stefanik, Missouri’s Ann Wagner, or Indiana’s Jackie Walorski.  In other Republican news, Lin Wood, the conspiracist/wackadoodle election lawyer who claims that all those Hugo Chavez/George Soros Dominion vote counting machines flipped the election to Biden is seeking to lead the South Carolina Republican Party. A believer in all things Q, Wood has been campaigning and rallying in South Carolina with convicted/Former Guy national security advisor Mike Flynn, who many Qsters believe is Q.  By the way, Flynn who appears to love that people believe he is Q, isn’t, apparently the real Q or at least the originator of QAnon is likely a guy named Jim Watkins, the owner of the white supremacist/neo-Nazi message board site once knowns as 8chan.  In other news the Washington Post, NY Times and NBC have all retracted their story that Rudy Giuliani was warned by the FBI that his Ukrainian friends were Russian spies using him as part of their disinformation campaign against Joe and Hunter Biden.  That’s the good news for Rudy.  The bad news is that the FBI knew he was being used but didn’t bother to brief him over concerns that doing so could hurt their investigation.  It does appear the Senator Ron Johnson was briefed.  Anyway, whether he was briefed or not Rudy, who has taken to the airwaves to claim that he’s the victim of a political hitjob, is in trouble.  The FBI now has upwards of ten of his electronic devices as well as a cell phone that they obtained during a search of the home of uber conservative lawyer Victoria Toensing, who together with her husband Fox commentator Joe diGenova is knee deep in a lot of the Ukrainian business. Stepping back to the unfounded accusations about the Dominion Voting machines, the company is still suing virtually everyone who maligned them but Newsmax appears to have worked out something with Eric Coomer, Dominion’s director of product strategy and security.  After falsely accusing Coomer of rigging his company’s machines to flip votes Biden’s way and hounding him into hiding, Newsmax ran a series of apologies on air last week. Clearly Newsmax is trying to dig itself out of what could turn into its financial ruin.  Of course, as indicated by the ongoing vote audit being conducted by the too cutely monikered Cyber Ninja firm in Maricopa  County Arizona the damage has already been done.  Cyber Ninja, a company founded by a right wing nutter, is still counting away, employing a cast of questionable characters including a former Arizona legislator who participated in the January 6^th insurrection and some truly bizarre techniques such as special lights to detect watermarks that don’t exist and blue pens that can permanent mar ballots to “prove” that the election was stolen from the Former Guy.  The Ninja squad, which is being egged on by the Former Guy, promises to move on to Michigan and Pennsylvania next and have been placing calls to election lawyers to ask if its too late to “award” the election to the FG.   

Et Cetera:  Biden’s team will be reuniting four of the families separated at the border during the FG’s reign this week.  Sadly many more remain in separation hell because undoing evil is hard.  In addition, yesterday the White House announced that it will be lifting this year’s refugee cap to 62,500 from the 15,000 level set by the prior not so refugee friendly crowd.  The Biden plan is to lift next year’s number to 125,000.  Also, contrary to assertions on Fox, Biden’s earth friendly plans don’t involve restricting your monthly intake to one hamburger though it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to cut back.  Anyway, it’s not clear what you could eat instead as reports are that we are facing an imminent chicken shortage, something to do with the popularity of chicken sandwiches.    

577,565

246,780,203 shots in arms