Brandon Who?

Failed Action:  Over the weekend the Washington Post provided frightening detail about the overwhelming amount of intelligence that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies saw and then failed to act on in the run up to the January 6^th insurrection.  Among that information  was a December 20 tip to the FBI that supporters of the FG were discussing online how to sneak guns into Washington to "overrun" police and arrest members of Congress, social media postings specifically targeting Mitt Romney for his impeachment votes and posts calling on the FG’s supporters to “please be in DC armed on the 6th. You might have to kill the palace guards.  Are you okay with that?” The WaPo article is particularly chilling because it shows how close the FG and his mob supporters and came to succeeding with their violent coup. Sadly, its becoming increasingly obvious that FG isn’t going away anytime soon. Over the weekend he attended a World Series game in Atlanta.  It was  bad enough that he and co-conspirator Melania enthusiastically participated in the offensive “tomahawk chop” chant and that he lied about being there at the invitation of Major League Baseball (he wasn’t) but what’s really concerning is that his appearance was less about baseball and more about showing his support for Herschel Walker who is likely to be the Republican’s candidate to run against incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock for Georgia Senate. As a result of the FG’s support, Walker, the one-time football star who initially appeared to be a weak candidate given his history of spousal abuse, his questionable business dealings and questions about his Georgia residency, now has the support of a lot of mainstream Republican politicians including Mitch McConnell who at first wasn’t supportive of his candidacy but now has come back in line with the FG’s line as he always does.  Clearly, Walker is only in the mix because the FG figures it will take a Black guy, one with a football pedigree, to peel off enough votes to beat another Black guy and sadly he may be right.  While the Georgia Senator race will be a 2022 event, the Virginia gubernatorial race between super rich Republican Glenn Youngkin and former governor/Democratic stalwart Terry McAuliffe takes place tomorrow. The election is expected to be a nail biter.  Youngkin has been trying to have it both ways, he’s avoided appearing in public with the FG but with a wink and a nod wants the FG’s supporters to know that the two are really quite simpatico.  Virginia may seem to be more blue than red these days but the state has a habit of “pendulum swinging,” meaning that they tend to vote in governor candidates whose party is not in control in Washington; that history combined with Biden’s slip in popularity bodes well for Youngkin and not so good for things like reproductive and voting rights. Also not so good for reproductive rights, the far too conservative Supreme Court is due to hear arguments about that restrictive Texas abortion law today.

Human Resources:  Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Congressman who together with Liz Cheney has been one of the Republican party’s few to speak out about the FG and the danger he poses to Democracy will not be running for reelection.  As a result of redistricting, his seat is expected to be combined with the seat of another incumbent Republican.  Given Kinzinger’s outcast position in the party, despite his reliably conservative voting record, he faced an uphill battle winning a Republican primary in the newly shaped  district.  Though he’ll be around to continue to work on the House’s January 6th committee through the end of 2021, Kinzinger’s departure from Congress provides another indication of how powerful right wing/FG forces have become and of continued polarization.  On the Democratic front, Press Secretary Jen Psaki will be working from home for the next ten days or so.  Last night, in a detailed press release, she revealed that she’s tested positive for COVID.  The fully vaccinated Psaki says that she learned that she’d been exposed to one or more “positive” family member earlier in the week which is the reason that she didn’t travel with Team Biden to Europe.  She’d tested negative ever since before coming up positive yesterday.  She also reported that the last time that she saw President Biden was Tuesday and that the two were outside, fully masked and separated by more than six feet. CNN reports that Biden, who is regularly checked tested negative this morning.  Brandon Brown is a NASCAR driver, but that’s not why his name is now on the lips of a lot of Republicans so when you hear “cheers” accompanied by fist bumps from people saying “let’s go Brandon” they aren’t thinking NASCAR but instead mean for you to “hear” FU Biden. Americans jeering presidents is nothing new, but what is new is that a number of Republican politicians who wouldn’t say FU in public have joined in the hate revelry with at least one wearing a “let’s go Brandon” facemask on the floor of Congress.  No surprise that Ted Cruz is one of those Republicans jeering, but a lot more surprising that Mitch McConnell’s press secretary has retweeted the message as well.  Also quite disgusting and alarming, a Southwest Airlines pilot broadcasted the phrase at the end of one of his flights, something that is now being looked into by the airline only because of all of the attention that it received rather than concern that one of their pilots showed such poor judgement.    

Viral Musings:  On Friday, the FDA gave emergency use authorization to the Pfizer COVID vaccine for 5 to 11 year-olds.  The CDC is expected to follow suit tomorrow.  After that it will be all about logistics, getting the vaccines and children sized needles into the hands of providers around the country.  That process is expected to take a few days so while some shots could be going into kids arms midweek, in most places the jabs won’t be available until next week.  On the vaccine front, the news continues to highlight all those municipal workers who refuse to get jabbed but the real story should be that many have responded to the mandate. In NYC over 90% of municipal workers have gotten at least one shot, including 84% of the NYPD.  Unfortunately fire department numbers are lower in part because their anti vax union head has been out encouraging members to defy the mandate. That said, the NYFD says that reports that they are shuttering lots of fire houses over staffing shortages are not true.  Politics and anti vax sentiment aside, some of the reticence to get vaccinated may come from the belief that prior infection provides adequate protection from another case of COVID.  Bad news, it does not.  A report from the CDC published on Friday shows that, contrary to some wishful thinking and an earlier anecdotal study out of Israel, COVID vaccines provide much more protection than natural immunity. People who had COVID are 5.49 times more likely to get another case of COVID than vaccinated people who were not previously infected.  That’s an important message to share with anyone you know who thinks that a prior early infection is protecting them from getting sick.