Delta, Delta, Delta

Crunch a Bunch: Today is infrastructure crunch day, well maybe.  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says that he plans to bring up a motion to begin debate on the bipartisan portion of the planned legislation sometime today.  Of course a number of those Republicans who are supposedly part of the ten who will join the Democratic majority to get to the sixty votes needed to proceed are squawking about being rushed to vote before details have been finalized.  At least one of those details already deleted from the proposed legislation involved funding some infrastructure by giving the IRS the funds to raise money by going after super rich scofflaws.  Don’t be surprised if Schumer pushes off his planned vote, also don’t be surprised if the bipartisan legislation goes the way of the rotary phone and ends up rolled into one big reconciliation package.  On the people front, there were two notable pieces of news yesterday.  The GOAT Tom Brady finally made it to the White House, part of the celebration of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl victory.  Brady’s presence was notable, he did not accompany the Patriots when they visited either the Obama or FG White House after their victories.  It turns out that Brady has quite a sense of humor, he riffed about how about 40% of football fans didn’t believe Tampa had really won their game and also made a joke about being referred to as “sleepy Tom” when he forgot what city he was in during the season. Joe Biden appeared to be in on the joke but it’s fair to assume that wherever he was, the FG was not laughing.  Also while we’re talking Toms, another one Thomas Barrack, a long-time FG associate, advisor and the chair of the 2016 Inaugural Committee was indicted on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates yesterday.  Barrack is accused of “secretly advancing the interests of the UAE at the direction of senior officials of that country by influencing the foreign policy positions of the FG’s 2016 campaign, and then those positions of the U.S. government during Trump’s presidency through April 2018.”  He’s also charged with obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements during an interview with federal law enforcement agents.  Barrack’s influence on the FG goes far towards explaining the prioritization and direction of a number of his administration’s Middle Eastern policies.  Barrack has the means to hire the best lawyers but since one of his co-defendants has already fled the country, the DOJ is likely to press hard to keep him in jail until trial. Although the charges are serious, Barrack may have a few cards to play as he knows a lot about all those allegations about the questionable and still unexplained expenditures associated with the FG’s Inauguration, things that some of the FG’s kids might have done, just another reason that the mood at Bedminster might be glum right now.  Of course a glum FG is dangerous.  In addition to golfing and guiding GQP Leader McCarthy on who to pick for the House Committee on the January 6^th Insurrection, he’s giving lots of thought as to who to endorse to run against current nemesis Wyoming’s Liz Cheney in that state’s Republican primary.  As to the January 6^th  Committee, McCarthy’s picks include five white guys, two named Jim: Jim Banks of Indiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Troy Nehls of Texas.  Obviously Gym Jordan was chosen because he can be relied upon to be loud and disruptive.  Together with Banks and Nehls, he voted against recognizing the results of the 2020 election, obviously another qualifying attribute. It’s not clear whether Speaker Pelosi will seat all of McCarthy’s choices or try sending him back for a redo.    

Viral Musings: Remember when we were celebrating that the US count of new daily cases of the coronavirus was down to around 12,000 per day, forget about that, the new case count was up to 62,000 yesterday. While the virus, almost completely the Delta variant these days, is mostly infecting, hospitalizing and knocking off the unvaccinated, the super contagious Delta is also showing up among the vaccinated.  A number of vaccinated Olympians, at least six members of the Texas Democratic squad hiding out in Washington, a member of Congress, a member of the White House Staff and a member of Speaker Pelosi’s staff have all tested COVID positive, and those are just the ones we know about, the House physician’s office and Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirm that there have been other positives.  The good news, so far, is that most, though not all, of those in the halls of government showing up positive are asymptomatic and none of them appears to be getting ill.  Also good, it appears that neither the Speaker nor VP Harris who both met with the Texas contingent have been affected. A few more Republican officials as well as a few at Fox appear to finally be taking the virus seriously.  Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Congressman who is second in command of the Republican House contingent finally got his first Pfizer jab in front of a camera over the weekend, Mitch McConnell who has been team vax from the start once again repeated advice that people should get vaxed and Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox, another Republican, is out there telling people to ignore the ignoramus anti vax set and to get jabbed. Though Tucker Carlson still isn’t on board, his colleague Sean Hannity admitted on air that he’s gotten his shots and that “after consultation” with their doctors his viewers should too.  Fox, of course, has implemented an internal “passport” program, allowing those who are vaccinated to bypass otherwise daily health screenings before entering their premises. Apparently those passports aren’t a communist plot after all.  Last night the New York Times reported the that the J & J one shot wonder isn’t doing as good a job at building up antibodies against the Delta variant, suggesting once again that recipients of the J & J shot consider getting another shot, anyone, as a booster sooner rather than later.  As to boosters, the CDC appears to be moving closer to recommending them for those who got their shots early on: health professionals, organ transplant recipients and the older set.  We should expect to hear more on the subject shortly.  Lastly, virus guru Fauci has just about had it with Senator Rand Paul, one of the unvaccinated.  Paul continues to blame Fauci for having a hand in creating COVID 19.  Yesterday during Congressional testimony Fauci responded to Paul’s accusations by calling him out as a know nothing liar. Count me as #TeamFauci       

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