Wasabi and Apples

Diplomat in Chief: While the rest of us were weekending, Joe Biden spent his time charming his fellow G7 leaders, a task made easier by their obvious and collective relief that he rather than the Former Guy who spent his weekend issuing nasty statements about many of them is now president. Even Queen Elizabeth seemed chipper.  For the most part Biden, who at one point referred to Libya when he meant to say Syria and committed a royal faux pas by revealing some details of his conversation with the Queen, performed admirably helped along by the really low bar set by his predecessor.  He even managed to get all the other participants to sign on to a final communique that criticized China, much to China’s obvious dismay.  As to China, as if sharing and obfuscating details about a bat virus hasn’t been enough for this decade, last night it was revealed that they have a leaky nuclear reactor, one that they claim to have under control which probably means that they don’t.  Biden’s now in Brussels reaffirming the US commitment to NATO, another one of those things that the Former Guy had a hard time doing.  Next up will be a meeting with Vladimir Putin, but don’t expect a joint post news conference, Biden says that’s off the table, no surprise given that the only thing the two agree upon is that relations between the US and Russia are at a low point.  In other international news Bibi Netanyahu is no longer Israel’s Prime Minister.  Late yesterday, a coalition that agrees on little beyond wanting him out of office took over, secured power by a one vote margin.  On his way out of office Netanyahu embarrassingly went full Former Guy, attacking the legitimacy of the winning coalition, claiming that his departure from power will doom Israel’s security.  He asserted that he’ll be back and the sad thing is that given Israel’s parliamentary system, he actually could return, indictments and all.  Israel’s new Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, a right wing politician whose party only has six Knesset seats, was sworn in last night.  Assuming the new coalition holds, Bennett will turn over the reins of the country to centrist politician Yair Lapid in two years.  Lapid whose party holds 17 seats will serve as Foreign Minister until then.  Biden, who likes Netanyahu about as much as Netanyahu likes him, which isn’t much, immediately congratulated Bennett, Bennett responded in kind.

 

Politics Unusual: It turns out that a lot of people in Washington had their Apple meta data subpoenaed by the Justice Department during the FG era, so many that those politicians and journalists who were excluded might feel as if they were slighted. Before the weekend the NY Times reported that House Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff’s information was subpoenaed, now we know that one of the other Democratic committee members who had data grabbed was Congressman Eric Swalwell, the outspoken one time Democratic presidential candidate.  Former White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife’s information was scarfed up as well, not coincidentally their data was grabbed around the time that he was spilling all he knew about the Former Guy’s obstructive behavior to Special Counsel Mueller.  Oddly enough, FG Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions say they have no recollection of any of the relevant subpoenas.  As far as I can tell, no one has asked AG for a few minutes/endowed toilet marketer Matt Whitaker what he knows.  In any case, either someone is lying, that deep state exists and is aligned with the Former Guy or all of the above. Anyway we only know about all of these subpoenas now because Attorney General Garland’s Justice Department let the gag orders covering Apple and, as it turns out,  Microsoft also expire.  Garland is due to meet with members of Congress shortly, he’ll have lots to explain. While calling the grabbing of opposition phone and email data something that even Richard Nixon wouldn’t do, Speaker Pelosi hinted that she is closing in on creating a January 6^th commission of her own though she also suggested that the Senate might try voting again on a bipartisan commission, suggesting that a few more Republicans may have seen the light.       

New York City: All politics is local except maybe in the Big Apple where early voting has begun in the mayor’s race primary. For the first time, New Yorkers will be ranking their choices so recent polls showing Brooklyn Borough president/former police captain Eric Adams in the lead should be taken with a grain of salt.  Progressive Maya Wiley, best known for her days working in Mayor de Blasio’s administration and her time on MSNBC, appears to be moving up in the polls, benefiting from recent endorsements from Congresswoman AOC and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Like her or not at least AOC is a bona fide New Yorker, I have no idea why Warren is endorsing NY mayoral candidates.  For what it’s worth, Adams has been endorsed by the NY Post, while former Sanitation Department Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, another top tier candidate, has been endorsed by the NY Times. And let’s not forget Andrew Yang and a whole bunch of other candidates including former Citibank executive Ray McGuire.  That’s just the Democratic contingent, on the Republican side, we’ve got Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa who has been endorsed by Rudy Giuliani and Taxi Driver Federation head Fernando Mateo who has been endorsed by Mike “Q” Flynn, yes that Mike Flynn.  I have no idea who’s going to win the Democratic nomination but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he or she will ultimately prevail over either one of the Republican nominees.

Viral Musings: New virus cases and deaths are way down in the US.  That’s good but the news on the vaccine front remains spotty, with Biden blue states way more vaccinated than a lot of those FG red ones. Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Wyoming remain extreme laggards, a problem because the Delta (India) variant which is more contagious and possibly also more virulent is gaining traction in the US.  The UK is so concerned about Delta that officials there have delayed the country’s reopening by four weeks, waiting to make that announcement until after all of those G7 visitors departed. On the vaccine front, we’re likely to have a fourth one approved by the end of the year as American biotech company Novavax announced that its much awaited two jab regimen is 90.4% effective at preventing COVID and 100% effective at preventing severe disease.  Sadly, while COVID deaths are trending down, mass killings are on the rise.  Who but everyone could have figured out that guns sold in a no or low restriction states could be used to kill people elsewhere.

597,195

64.4% of 18+ vaccinated