Blinking Contests

Politics As Usual:  President Biden’s poll numbers continue to tank, a bigly problem when you consider that the FG, who is no longer on the Forbes 400 richest billionaires list largely because he never deserved to be but also because he would have been better off if had he liquidated his assets and reinvested the proceeds in mutual funds during his term, is waiting in the wings, ready to resume his presidency.  Yesterday, in one of his increasingly unhinged Twitter alternative statements the FG actually claimed  “that the real insurrection happened on November 3rd, the Presidential Election, not on January 6^th” which he went on to call “a day of protesting the Fake Election results." As to those claims and his almost successful coup, today’s NY Times provides more details about just how hard the FG and his loyalist flunkies tried to get Department of Justice leadership to “find” that nonexistent election fraud for him. Suffice it to say, the FG really did try to replace then acting AG Jeffrey Rosen with a loyalist flunky.  Additionally, it turns out that even Pat Cipollone, his last White House counsel and Cipollone’s top aide Patrick Philbin were ready to resign if the FG went forward with what they called a “murder-suicide pact.”  So basically, we were just a few marginally ethical attorneys away from a successful insurrection.  The FG also continues to issue candidate endorsements, picking candidates based on their level of loyalty to him and him alone.  Yesterday he actually endorsed one of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s challengers.  That’s notable because Baker, who hasn’t yet decided whether to run for reelection, is widely popular in his state, a notable accomplishment for a Republican.  Should the moderate Baker decide to run again, he would probably win, in fact, for him the FG calling him out as a RINO is a good thing.  Moving on to the most devious guy still in office, yesterday Mitch McConnell blinked; after spending weeks saying that neither he nor any of his fellow Republican Senators would support the raising of the debt limit he put an offer on the table to raise it.  That’s good but not great as the offer he’s proposed is only a short term fix, one that was likely spurred by all the US Corporate leaders who made it clear yesterday that pushing the country into default would result in a “catastrophic” recession.  One of those leaders, JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, said that some damage has already been done by the threat of default as financial companies have already started positioning themselves for the worst.  Democrats are likely to take McConnell up on the short term solution while they continue to battle internally over their infrastructure legislation and decide whether or not to raise the debt limit  via reconciliation; even eliminating the filibuster is back on the table. In other FG related news, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, estranged strategist Steve Bannon and Defense Department aide Kash Patel all seem to be ignoring the subpoenas they received from the House January 6 committee.  Scavino appears to be altogether MIA.  Expect a clash of sorts soon.  Something may be up on the Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz front too.  His former BFF, Joel Greenberg has asked his judge to delay his sentencing, again, saying that he’s still cooperating with the Feds and Gaetz actually said yesterday that he deeply regrets his association with Greenberg and that it was fair for his constituents to evaluate him based on the company he kept. Of course, he doesn’t want them to hold a grudge even if he ends up indicted.      

Shooting Star:  Yesterday was a big day in Texas.  The gun happy state was the site of another school shooting, sad but not much of a surprise given how easy it is to go full Rambo in a state where the Governor and the state legislature prioritize the unborn over the living.  As to that priority, late yesterday a Federal Judge in Austin put a hold on the state’s 6 week abortion ban, ruling that the controversial law that the Supreme Court had unconscionably let stand in the dark of night on procedural grounds had “from the moment” it went into effect, unlawfully prevented women from exercising control over their own lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution.  Concluding that the US Justice Department had standing to sue, in a rather lengthy and detailed ruling the judge went on to say that “This court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right.”  That’s good news but not the end of this handmaid’s tale, as the State of Texas has already said that it will appeal the to the very conservative Fifth District Court of Appeals and then on to the Supreme Court which is widely expected to curtail reproductive rights significantly by the end of the year not with this case but with a Mississippi case as it’s weapon of choice, or lack of choice as the case may be.   

Viral Musings:  Daily deaths remain above 2000 but new cases continue to decline in the US.  However,  we are far from out of the woods as the 7 day average remains above 100,000 and, unfortunately, far too many are still unvaccinated.  One positive note is that vaccine mandates appear to be working.  Though too many press reports continue to go with ledes about those quitting in protest of vaccine requirements, the reality is that those quitters represent a very small percentage of those subject to the mandates.  Most when pressed to make a decision between employment and a jab are getting their shots. United is no longer the only US airline with a vaccine mandate, others including  JetBlue, American and Southwest have jumped on board the vax train.  Though we aren’t there, yet, our Canadian neighbors to the north announced yesterday that all commercial air travelers to Canada, passengers on trains between provinces and on cruise ships will be required to present proof of vaccination starting October 30. Oh Canada!!  On the jab front, a number of countries are considering cutting the two shot mRNA series back to one shot for young adults over concerns about those rare cases, mostly in young men, of myocarditis. To be clear, those cases are rare and almost always mild.  Hong Kong has made the decision to go with one shot but, and this is a big but, they have also done a great job at containing COVID so the risk of disease is very, very low there right now which influences their risk benefit analysis.  They don’t have to contend with the kind of internecine/politically motivated spats that we deal with here like the one in Idaho where the rogue Lt Governor is trying to undo the few mandates in place in that state. Also worth noting, some of the countries making this decision have been dispensing Moderna shots to teens; in the US, Moderna, which contains a higher dose than the Pfizer series, has not even been approved for those under 18. Lastly, the shots being evaluated for the younger set, including Pfizer’s next up shots for those 5 to 11  will contain a fraction of the adult dosage.