Twenty Years

Taking No Prisoners:  President Biden has moved into the take no prisoners stage of the battle against COVID and the covidiot set.  Yesterday, he announced a series of new provisions include mandates for federal workers and contractors to get vaccinated or else.  The mandates affect those working in Medicare and Medicaid funded health care facilities too. Biden also announced that the government would be teaming with Walmart, Amazon and Kroger to expand the availability of affordable, at cost COVID tests.  His objective is to protect the vaccinated and the vulnerable from the idiocy of the unvaccinated. Los Angeles gets it, their school system followed by announcing that all students 12 or over will have to be vaccinated, a mandate that is likely to spread to other school districts.  Of course a number of political idiots, including some of Republican governors with presidential ambitions and pundits who know better responded by attacking the “fascist” directives because despite the fact that the public supports mandates they see this as a wedge issue on steroids even though many of them are vaccinated and in the case of Fox, their companies already have mandates in place.  As to one of those other wedge issues, Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department announced that they are suing Texas over their new abortion ban law asserting that the law effectively denies women the right to obtain their constitutionally protected right to abortion.  Again, reproductive rights, including the right to obtain an abortion, are popular with a majority of the country but provide great fodder for those with higher political ambitions because of the energy of the anti-abortion set.  As to Afghanaistan, the most recent wedge issue, more folks, including US citizens were flown out to safety yesterday.

9.11: To commemorate the 20^th anniversary of September 11, Biden will be attending ceremonies at all of the locations where the planes crashed that dreadful day. Former Presidents Obama and Bush will join him at the World Trade Center site.  Though the FG initially had no plans to do anything suitably reverential it has now been announced that he will traipse through the WTC after the current and other former presidents depart.  That visit was added to his schedule at the last minute likely to blunt the significant amount of blowback he’s been getting for his prior commitment, his “job” providing ringside commentary for what he describes as a huge fee at a Hollywood, Florida exhibition boxing match featuring Evander Holyfield scheduled to take place in the evening.  By the way, the FG’s eldest son wants us all to note how young and robust he looks these days.  You know who also looks a lot better?  North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who appears to have gotten some kind of weight loss surgery or the like.  Maybe they share the same surgeon? Anyway, Junior’s comments on his father’s “robust” look may be another clue that the FG is prepping himself for another run at the Oval Office. Whether he is or isn’t, he continues to do his meddling thing.  Yesterday he endorsed Harriet Hageman who is running against Liz Cheney for her Wyoming Congressional seat. He took the opportunity to slam Cheney as a “warmonger,” “RINO” and “the Democrat’s number one provider of soundbites.”   An uncowed Cheney responded by tweeting: “Here’s a soundbite for you. Bring it.”   As to sound biters, the Democrat’s real number one is probably West Virginia’s Senator Joe Manchin, who together with Arizona’s Sinema continues to assert that there’s no way he’ll vote for Biden’s $3 trillion plus human infrastructure bill unless a trillion or so is shaved off.  So far Biden and Majority Leader Schumer are swatting Manchin and Sinema’s comments away.  Only time will tell who prevails, my guess is that despite the House progressives’ assertion that they’ll hold up all infrastructure legislation unless they get all of what they want, there will be a compromise of some sort.  Maybe.    

Human Resources:  Biden has been ridding the government’s advisory boards of the FG’s last minute appointees.  To that end he fired the last minute additions to the Pentagon Advisory Board.  Among others, that group includes Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer.  Both responded about as well as could be expected.  Alternative facts Kellyanne actually called the firings a “break from political norms,” as if her guy didn’t shatter norms regularly.  Anyway the firing of political appointees happens, a lot. Citing his “military” service as an occasional weekend public affairs officer, Spicer said his expertise which includes dancing or something like that in purple shimmery attire would be sorely missed and that firing him was unconscionable.  Both are talking about suing.  Good luck with that.  On a more serious note, the Biden administration withdrew the nomination of  David Chipman to serve as the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).  Chipman’s nomination was going nowhere largely because of his extensive relevant experience included working as a gun control advocate. Sigh.  Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio turned himself in to start his 5 month jail term.  The FBI has circulated new surveillance clips of the unique sneaker wearing guy who placed those bombs outside of the DNC and RNC on January 6^th and the Capitol police are putting up barriers again in anticipation of another visit by those lovely “tourists” who plan to come back to Washington DC to “praise those nice folks” who are being “persecuted” for their participate in the insurrection.

170,000 new COVID cases yesterday

3200 deaths, 1296 in Florida