Party Time?

Viral Musings: First the good news,  the US women’s gymnastics team accumulated quite a few medals this weekend.  Suni Lee won the all around gold and the uneven bar bronze while her teammate Mykayla Skinner, who was only able to compete because the GOAT Simone Biles dropped out, won the vault silver and, spoiler alert, this morning Jade Carey won the floor exercise gold.  Moreover as of now Biles plans to compete on Tuesday in the balance beam finals.  Now the not so good news, the Delta coronavirus variant continues to run amok through the US, especially in places where vaccination rates are low. The 7 day average of new cases is just under 80,000 and the 7 day average death count is 362, low when compared to the peak but climbing.  Though the lion’s share of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated, the vaccinated have become infected as well though to a far lesser degree.  Though those breakthrough cases are still the exception and most of them result in asymptomatic or less severe cases, the press loves reporting them and so does everyone else. That reporting combined with confusing messaging from the CDC, not to mention leaked documents of internal discussions, is making the problem seem worse than it is, or at least worse than it has been so far, which isn’t to say that it’s not a problem. Mask mandates are back in high virus zones, congested areas and everywhere where people are virus wary though they remain controversial with the usual set of delusional agitators who seem to believe that wearing a mask is worse than getting intubated until, of course, one of them gets intubated.  Then  there is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who despite the fact that cases and related hospitalizations in his state are at record levels and represent one fifth of all the country’s cases took time out of his busy campaign schedule to issue an executive order banning mandatory school mask mandates. Don’t assume that DeSantis will be penalized for his virus failure, just a few months ago despite evidence to the contrary, Politico and a number of other media outlets that should have known better cited his superior virus management skills.  The CDC should consider tapping into DeSantis’ public relations team because they could use some better spin doctors. Texas’ Governor Abbott may want to call in some PR experts too, his state’s death count now exceeds New York’s, shocking when you consider than New York was ambushed and Texas had plenty of warning.   On the booster front, Israel has started contacting their 60 and over crowd, telling them to start lining up for third shots and Germany’s health minister wants to offer an mRNA booster to the very elderly and people with weakened immune systems starting in September.  He also wants to start vaccinating 12 to 17 year old’s who to date have not been eligible for jabs in Germany.  Here in the US vaccination rates are climbing back up as a number of vax avoiders appear to either be scared by rising infection levels, responding to private sector mandates and/or want to get the $100 being offered up in various locales. 

Human Resources:  Proving that Republicans aren’t the only ones who are tone deaf former President Obama will be holding a 500 person 60^th birthday celebration at his home on Martha’s Vineyard this week. The festivities will be outside, everyone will be vaccinated and tested and the Obama’s will have a COVID Coordinator on site because doesn’t everyone, but still the optics aren’t pretty even if the outcome will probably be okay.  That said Obama’s messaging smells less awful than what’s been coming out of GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s mouth.  Speaking at a Tennessee fundraising event attended by 1500 likeminded Republicans, McCarthy who will become Speaker after the midterms if, as predicted, the Republicans win back the House, said that “it will be hard not to hit Nancy Pelosi with a gavel” when he takes over. Responding to criticism about his remarks, McCarthy who voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and who doesn’t seem all that interested in getting to the bottom of who motivated those “nice tourists” who called for Pelosi’s head on January 6^th said he was just joking because as we all know joking about bashing women is okay and on brand.  One person who might agree with that is former football player Hershel Walker.  The Former Guy, and a number of other Republicans not named Mitch McConnell think Walker would be the logical candidate to challenge Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock who is up for reelection in 2022.  Walker has a history of wife abuse, has a checkered business past, isn’t a resident of Georgia and says he’s been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder  but given his race the FG, who shares a lot of Walker’s traits, believes that he’d be the perfect candidate to trounce Warnock.  Besides the association with football worked in Alabama where former coach/current Senator Tommy Tuberville beat Doug Jones and aren’t all southern states like all Black people the same? Then there’s Oklahoma where despite all the pushback that Margie Q got for equating vaccine mandates with Holocaust events, a post on the state Republican Party’s official Facebook page features a picture of a yellow Star of David with the word “unvaccinated” on it while urging people to call the lieutenant governor and ask him to call a special session to prohibit employers from requiring employees to get vaccinated. Getting back to the Former Guy and his big election lie, at the end of last week via contemporaneous notes taken by a member of then acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen’s team that were provided by the Justice Department to Congress we learned that when Rosen refused to announce that the November election results needed to be tossed because they were riddled with fraud, the FG told him  “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen.” By R congressmen think Mo Brooks and Gym Jordan and the like and maybe even Senator Lindsey Graham who tried to get Georgia to decertify their election results. Though they’re not released yet, Merrick Garland’s Justice Department told the IRS that they should release the FG’s tax returns to the House Ways and means Committee.  Unfortunately, a federal judge gave the FG’s team until this Wednesday to challenge the Justice Department’s decision.    

More:  The text of the bipartisan infrastructure plan is out.  Progressives are stressing because a number of moderate Democrats are likely to crimp their plans, hemming in the size of the really huge reconciliation package that they want to see passed at the same time.  And Democrats are also fighting over the best way to extend the expiring virus eviction ban with everyone pointing the responsibility for the extension at someone else.  Welcome to August.