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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