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.     

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248 million shots in arms