Foul Spirits

Viral Musings:  Another week and the crazy goes on. New COVID cases and deaths remain high and another one of those anti vax conservative radio show hosts, a Coloradan named Bob Enyart, died yesterday joining the growing list of vocal vax deniers who should have known better but didn’t.  It’s not just conservative radio show hosts who decry vaccines, rapper Nicki Minaj turned down one of those coveted invitations to the Met Gala, refusing to meet its mandatory vaccination requirement.  In a series of tweets that immediately went viral she said that she might get vaccinated someday but only after she completes her own independent “research,” adding that her Trinidadian cousin’s friend got the vaccine and “became impotent” although the gruesome symptoms she described sounded a lot more like those associated with syphilis or some other STD rather than a vaccination side effect which probably explains why, according to Minaj, her cousin’s friend’s fiancée dumped him. Even those who don’t follow Twitter or rap are now up on Minaj’s TMI assertion as fish stick scion Tucker Carlson who is probably vaccinated but would never admit it repeated the icky “side effect” on his nightly show. By the way though Ivanka and Jared are both vaccinated, neither were at last night’s Gala, something about their invitations being lost in the mail but sister in law Karlie Kloss was there looking quite chic.  In other COVID news, it appears that Florida Governor DeSantis who early on was accused of directing then scarce vaccine supplies to rich Republican donors and condo communities is now leaning anti vax.  While slamming President Biden’s vaccine mandates he lent credence to the “mRNA vaccines change your DNA myth” being propagated by the anti-vax conspiracy set, anything to deflect from the miserable job that he’s doing in his state and his ongoing battle against face masking. Then there’s Mississippi Governor Tate Reeve who echoing many other Republican governors called vaccine mandates tyrannical, ignoring that his state has some of the most inclusive vaccine mandates for virtually all other contagious diseases.  His tyranny nonsense brings him in line with GQP Leader Kevin McCarthy, apparently a fan of polio, who spent his weekend tweeting “No Vaccine Mandates.”  All that aside, if former FDA commissioner, current Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb is right, Pfizer’s vaccine for the 5 to 11 year old set which will be a lower dose than the one’s adults and tweens have been receiving, will be approved  to go into arms early in November. Pfizer’s booster for adults is still expected to be approved by September 20 with Moderna’s and J & Js to follow.  Some, most notably those who recently departed the FDA, believe it’s unnecessary for most but their conclusions appear to be largely based on concerns about giving third shots to Americans while the third world goes without.  To be fair, that is a concern but the issue appears to be one of distribution capability rather than the availability of supply.

California Dreamin’:  It’s election day in California.  Voters are determining whether Governor Gavin Newsom should be recalled or allowed to stick around for the rest of his term.  It’s a two part vote.  First voters vote on whether or not Newsom should be recalled.  Then they pick from one of the many candidates running to replace him.  If a majority of those who actually vote want Newsom kicked to the curb then the candidate who receives the most votes becomes the new governor even if that candidate fails to get a majority of the votes.  The leading “replacement” contender appears to be Larry Elder another one of those anti vax conservative radio show hosts, albeit one who is still alive.  In addition to being anti-vax, Elder, who is Black, doesn’t believe that there is such a thing as systemic racism, is against gun control and opposes minimum wage requirements.  Ordinarily a candidate like Elder would stand no chance in winning the governorship in heavily Democratic California but he doesn’t need a majority to win, if voters vote to remove Newsom, an outcome that right now appears unlikely, Elder only needs more votes than the other candidates and right now he leads the large replacement field with about 24% of the vote.  Elder is already claiming election fraud and refuses to say that he will concede if he loses.  Sound familiar?  Get used to that because it appears it will be the Republican strategy going forward. Another one of those things that we can hold the FG responsible for.  That’s the FG who spent his weekend providing commentary at the very short Evander Holyfield-Vitor Belfort fight before going on to speak at a 9.11 Moonies/Unification Church event.  His words, not worth repeating, contrasted markedly from those of former President Bush who cast shade on the FG and his crowd this weekend, saying “we have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within. There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit.”

And More:  It’s fair to say that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was ugly, though it’s probably also fair to say that it was always going to be challenging and that the only way to avoid the withdrawal mess was to stay there indefinitely but nuance and balance isn’t a thing in Congress, on either side, so yesterday Republicans skewered Secretary of State Blinken about it.  And because irony is not dead, appearing at the University of Louisville McConnell Center Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected claims that decisions by the Supreme Court are driven by political views adding that the Justices are not political hacks.  Barrett who recently helped end abortions in Texas made that statement with Senator Mitch McConnell, who prides himself on only appointing said hacks to the Court, sitting by her side looking on with a smirk. Meantime, liberal Justice Stephen Breyer appears to be determined to wait until Republicans regain control before leaving the Court.  In other news, we’ll be hitting the debt ceiling soon and McConnell who relied on Democrats to raise the ceiling when he was in control of the Senate says he won’t help them do so.