Apples and Honey 

Welcome to 5782:  The year is new but the problems remain, except for rape that is, well at least according to Texas’ Governor Abbott.  Yesterday while signing his new restrictive election law, the one that gets rid of all that fraud that isn’t, Abbott said that Texas women shouldn’t be concerned that the state’s new vigilante abortion law doesn’t include exceptions for rape and incest because he’s going to end rape in Texas.  It’s fair to assume that Abbott has no credible plan to do anything about rape and sexual assault where according to FBI statistics Texas ranks 15^th in the nation.  Don’t be surprised if his “plan” involves recategorizing a lot of those rapes as consensual acts.  As to the new Texas abortion law, last week by a 5 to 4 vote with Chief Justice Roberts, hardly a champion of reproductive freedom,  joining the minority who as Justice Sotomayor put it were “outraged by their conservative colleagues’ breathtaking disregard for precedent,” the Supreme Court let it go into effect.  The conservatives “believe” that the whole vigilante thing which encourages anyone, anywhere to sue anyone who abets any abortion that takes place after six weeks is just too hard to tackle right now but really they love the idea of making it almost impossible for women to control their own destinies.  By the way, in case you are wondering, Maine’s Senator Susan Collins who assured us that Justice Brett Kavanaugh would uphold precedents related to reproductive rights criticized SCOTUS’s decision saying the law was “extreme” and that they shouldn’t have left it in place, the same response she’ll likely have when they kill Roe v Wade altogether something that is looking more and more likely to happen during the upcoming term when they rule on the constitutionality of Mississippi’s no abortions after 15 weeks abortion law.  To be fair, not that this court seems all that into fairness, it’s highly likely that the Texas law will ultimately be ruled unconstitutional because as crafty as it is, endorsing vigilantism is probably not the such a good idea even for the likes of Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Coney Barrett but that’s unlikely to be providing much solace to women currently in need of services and anyway, their action is probably their way of “softening up” public opinion, making us all think that we should be “relieved” when they toss Roe to uphold the Mississippi law. On the just a little a bit positive side, a number of corporations have stepped up to help Texas women.  Uber and Lyft say they will pay the legal fees of any drivers sued under the new law, Go Daddy has de-platformed a vigilante website run by Texas Right to Life as has their replacement host who also wants nothing to do with them and Match and Bumble, both based in Texas, are setting up a fund to help affected women but sadly most of corporate American is turning a blind eye because that’s what they do.  Also of note, a trip to Mexico, this morning’s 7.0 earthquake in Acapulco aside, might be in the offing for some as yesterday Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion.

Storm Clouds:  The right and the much of the mainstream press are still all twisted in knots over Afghanistan so much so that the NY Times actually criticized President Biden for mentioning the loss of his son Beau while consoling family members of the soldiers who were killed during the terrorist attack outside of Kabul airport.  Of course that’s the same NY Times who helped doom Hillary Clinton with countless #ButHerEmails stories so they’re being very on brand.  That’s not to say that the Kabul attack and the resulting loss of lives and injuries weren’t awful, but really, going after a guy who is still mourning the loss of a son to brain cancer, they must really miss the Former Guy.  For the record, most of the country seems happy that we’re finally out of Afghanistan, they’re just not happy about the messiness of the withdrawal and that messiness, avoidable or not, is taking a toll on Biden’s popularity ratings which have, at least for now, taken a hit. Makes you wonder if the generals got the Former Guy to put the brakes on his withdrawal plans by telling him that the process would be a ratings crusher.  Anyway, it’s well worth noting that more Americans, 63 and rising, were killed by Hurricane Ida, which likely explains why Biden is trying to pivot to the ills of climate change, a real problem that needs more attention and aggressive funding but also one that the right hates to focus on because of their fossil fuel industry backers. 

Viral Musings:   The 7 day average of new US COVID cases is hovering around 170,000, it’s fair to assume that number will be up this week, the result of Labor Day travel and related frolicking.  Yesterday there were more than 2000 new US deaths, 650 of them in Florida where Governor DeSantis continues to treat the virus as his most important constituent.  Boosters are coming for those who got shots last winter or in the early spring with later groups to follow. As in almost everything related to the vaccines, Pfizer boosters will be approved before the Moderna or J & J ones with the latter two likely approved by the time that any of their recipients reach the 8 month time period.  The Biden administration is taking some heat for getting out ahead of the FDA on boosters but judging by the number of people who have already gotten their extra jabs, the criticism is mostly academic, flying over the heads of the booster friendly crowd and irrelevant to those who have been only recently jabbed or who aren’t planning to ever get vaccinated.  The FDA is due to meet on September 17^th to evaluate Pfizer’s booster data, at the FDA’s request that review will include a presentation from Israel’s Health Ministry on the results of their booster rollout.  Assuming the meeting goes as planned, Pfizer boosters will be rolled out beginning on September 20 as previously indicated. By the way, the Pfizer and Moderna boosters given thus far to the “Immune suppressed” and the concerned others who have lined up to get them are the same as the second dose shots.  That said, the WSJ reports that Moderna has asked for approval to lower the dose of their third shot, but it’s not clear that the FDA is on board for them to do that.  In any case, though the mRNA producers have tested Delta specific shots, at this point according to Pfizer’s CEO they don’t appear to be more effective than the original version so the boosters will not be Delta specific.  It remains unclear as to when shots will be rolled out to the younger set, some are suggesting that kids won’t get shots till the end of the year while others are saying that shots will be available sooner.  Stay tuned. 

L'Shanah Tovah to all because who doesn’t want to get wishes for happiness and sweetness twice every year!