GrubJab 

Anniversary:  Yesterday marked the sixth month anniversary of the January 6^th insurrection, the violent coup day that far too many Republican pundits and legislators claim was either a tourist stop, didn’t happen or, if it did, was committed by some combination of antifa and FBI informants. It did happen, and more and more of those who stormed the Capitol are being turned in by neighbors, amateur twitter sleuths and the like.  Tucked between countless articles on critical race theory, whatever that is, the NY Post reported today that the FBI “seized a fully constructed US Capitol Lego set” from one of those arrested “tourists,” along with a notebook containing instructions on how to create a hometown militia.  That charming “tourist” allegedly led rioters in “one of the most intense and prolonged clashes” against the Capitol police. Of course the Former Guy, the biggest instigator of them all is still out and about; he spent part of his weekend pushing the big lie, asserting repeatedly during an inappropriately timed trip to Florida that he did not lose the election, that it was stolen from him due to all that non-existent election fraud, adding just for the heck of it that everyone cheats on their taxes, at least everyone with lots of inherited money. As to that election, over the weekend it was revealed that Clint Hickman, a Trump supporting Republican who also took the responsibility of his position as chairman of the Maricopa County, Arizona Board of Supervisors seriously, rebuffed several calls from Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Republican chair Kelli Ward and the White House because he understood that they were trying to get him to claim that due to all those election irregularities that weren’t he would toss the county’s Biden winning election results.  By the way, that faux ninja cyber audit that was supposed to end months ago is still ongoing, perhaps the ninjas are waiting for a slow news day to release some ginned up outrageous claims about all the cheating that didn’t happen.

More Crazy:  Lots of other bizarre things happened over the  weekend news, two odd groups, well two that we know of, were caught doing things that they shouldn’t have been doing.  In Philadelphia about 200 masked members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front descended on the city's downtown Saturday night chanting "reclaim America" and saying the presidential election had been stolen. Proving that not all crazies and/or militias are white, eleven armed for battle members of the Rise of the Moors militia were arrested as they were travelling through Massachusetts on their way to Maine. The Moorish guys, mostly former military men, believe that they are an independent sovereign country, the Massachusetts police who arrested them after a long standoff do not agree.  In other news, despite President Biden’s warning to Putin, some Russians were up to their evil computer games again over the weekend.  A group that actually calls itself REvil completed what may turn out to have been the biggest ransomware attack ever on Kaseya, a “managed service” company that provides computer services to companies too small to have their own tech departments.  REvil is Russian based; though they’re not an official state actor they most likely could be controlled by Putin if he were so inclined.  It wasn’t just REvil, the Russian based Cozy Bear group who’ve been known to work with Russian intelligence, hacked the RNC.  Those are the same bears who were involved in a lot of 2016 election interference activities. JD Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy who once called the FG cultural heroin was not hacked but is acting like he was, he now regrets all the nasty but true things he said about the FG because he now wants his endorsement as he’s running for Rob Portman’s Ohio Senate seat.  Biden says that he’s got our cyber experts weighing possible responses to the Russian hacking not that we’ll necessarily know when he initiates any of them because the best counterattacks are frequently secret, at least for a while.  And lastly, at least for now, we are almost completely out of Afghanistan, our never ending war that maybe is finally ending.  Critics, many of whom wanted us out, are now whining about us leaving and they have a point in that the Taliban are taking over but sadly, beyond staying forever, there is probably nothing we can do about that.                                               

Viral Musings:  Last week we were told that the vaccines, all of them, were holding up well against the Delta variant.  Yesterday we were told maybe not.  That as yet verified update was based on preliminary data out of Israel where there were more than 400 new coronavirus positives yesterday, many among vaccinated individuals.  The good news is that most with those breakthrough cases are asymptomatic and that Israel’s seven day average COVID death rate is still zero, the bad news is that the Delta variant probably is more effective at evading the vaccine than we were told last week.  What’s not clear is whether the Israel data which has not yet been peer reviewed means much and/or whether the diminished, though still impressive effectiveness of the vaccine is due to the power of the Delta strain or whether it’s because the vaccine’s effectiveness is starting to wane, another one of those things we were told last week wasn’t happening. Given the conflicting information, if you’re living or visiting a high COVID positivity region, are in a crowded area, an elevator or are just risk averse go ahead and wear a mask especially when in doors.  As to Israel, a few weeks ago it was reported that the government was transferring some excess Pfizer vaccines to the Palestinian Authority, however, the PA decided to refuse the donation over what they say were concerns that the offered vaccines were approaching their expiration date. Apparently officials in South Korea don’t see that as a problem; to meet current demand they are taking the supply from Israel in exchange for a future delivery which Israel will use for boosters, if they prove necessary, and younger children when they become eligible.  In the mean time lots of Palestinians are going unvaccinated, showing once again why regional problems, even with regard to something as crucial as vaccine sharing, are so difficult to resolve.  Getting shots into the arms of resistant Americans, the 33% of US adults who haven’t even gotten one jab, is also proving difficult which is why Biden announced yesterday that this phase of his vaccine campaign will involve home delivery, Grubhub for shots. And parts of the country, particularly red states and counties really need to stick out their arms as their reticence is allowing the Delta variant to run amuck so much so that Missouri is now running short of ventilators.  A sadly familiar story.