Flu Gap

Infrastructure Week:  The bipartisan infrastructure bill has been signed into law and President Biden is traveling around the country, standing in front of dilapidated bridges, trying to explain to voters why it’s a really good thing to fix our crumbling infrastructure.  Meantime, the FG and his cronies in Congress are still going after those “RINOs” who voted for its passage .  At this point it’s unlikely that any of the targeted will be censured although the Republican’s Freedom Caucus wants to see that happen.  GQP Leader McCarthy knows that punishing those who voted for it isn’t a good idea but he’s also afraid of losing support from his right as that could jeopardize him winning the speakership if and when the Republicans win back the House, an increasing probability given the success of all their gerrymandering. Of course Margie Q who no longer has any committee assignments is pushing hard for NYS Republican John Katko who voted for the law to lose his ranking position on the Homeland Security Committee.  The clueless Margie wants that position to go to an FG loyalist from a threatened border state.  Apparently she doesn’t remember 9.11, nor does she know that NY is a border state. And of course, while the FG stews about Biden getting an infrastructure law passed when he never could, and Republicans attack those who voted for the law, Alabama Representative Gary Palmer, one of those Republican “no” voters has already started bragging to his constituents about all the money that his district will be getting as a result of the new law.  He won’t be the last no voter to take credit.  Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer are now focused on their next hurdle, getting the Build Back Better reconciliation bill passed.  Holidays are upon us, the debt ceiling limit will be running out again soon and there’s not much time left in the year so we’ll see what really happens next.

Betrayal: Turning to the FG, Jon Karl’s Betrayal book is now out.  It’s chocked with a lot of new factoids about the destructive and dysfunctional last days of the FG administration.  My personal favorite is that son in law Jared Kushner refused to intervene to stop the FG’s insanity because he was too busy working on Middle East peace or maybe just getting funding for his new investment fund to worry about all that.  Then there’s wacko lawyer Sydney Powell not to be confused with that other wacko attorney Jenna Ellis the campaign lawyer who is best remembered for sitting alongside Rudy at his Four Seasons press conference.  The really odd Powell who was once a respected US Attorney, was so convinced that former CIA Head Gina Haspel had been kidnapped and injured while trying to get one of those “vote flipping” machines back from Europe that she together with an equally unhinged Michael Flynn attempted to get Defense aide Ezra Cohen-Watnick to send forces overseas to bring her back. Even Cohen-Watnick, an FG loyalist who had managed to get a position high up in the Defense department because of his relationship with Flynn knew that was nuts so he refused.  Flynn called him a quitter and the two haven’t spoken since.  For her part Ellis was busy working on VP Pence, force feeding him a memo detailing how he could flip the election back to the FG. By the way Ellis whose previous legal experience included working traffic cases is far from a  Constitutional law expert. Naturally, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is implicated in a lot of this which goes far to explaining why he’s so afraid to testify in front of the January 6 committee. Then there’s Mitch McConnell, we may have him to thank for the FG boycotting the inauguration.  It turns out that Mitch didn’t want the FG there as he feared he would turn it into a sh-tshow.  When the FG found out that Mitch was working on banning him, he preempted the effort by announcing he wouldn’t attend.  Of course the FG is still out there being a disruptive force.  Last night he appeared with Pillow man Lindell.  He agreed with Pillow’s assertion that all voting machines used in 2020 should be burned and then went on with to slam his one-time VP again saying “It was very sad when Mike Pence gave those votes over. When you have more votes than there are voters, when you have other things that are so wrong.” Repeat the lie often enough…..

Human Resources:  A few more Democrats are throwing in the towel. Yesterday Vermont’s 81 year old Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior most member of the Democrat’s Senate contingent announced that he will not be seeking another term.  His decision isn’t all that surprising as he’s hardly a spring chicken and he had a serious health scare this year, one that could have ended up turning the Senate back to Mitch McConnell as Vermont has a Republican governor.   Peter Welch, Vermont’s lone Congressman, a Democrat, is eying Leahy’s seat.  If Independent Bernie Sanders endorses him, he’ll probably get the nod but nothing is certain right now.  On the Congressional front, California’s Jackie Speier also announced her plans to retire from her reliably Democratic seat.  She’s only 71, young by House standards, but she’s apparently ready to move on to spending time with her husband and probably something else closer to home. Speier, a Pelosi acolyte, survived the Jonestown massacre, not as a member of the cult but as an aide to Congressman Leo Ryan who was killed during the related airport siege so January 6^th was particularly resonant to her.  She isn’t going away quietly, she’s co-sponsoring a resolution to censure Republican Congressman Paul Gosar for threatening the life and limb of Biden and AOC.  In other news, the Wyoming Republican party has ousted the state’s one member of Congress, Liz Cheney, from their party.  The reliably conservative Congresswoman’s crime,  failing to kowtow to the FG’s forces. Beto O’Rourke announced that he’s running to be Texas’s next governor and everyone appears to be running for the Democratic nomination to be NYS’s next Governor.  That crowd includes current Governor Kathy Hochul, AG Letitia James, former NYC public advocate Jumaane Williams, and maybe even ousted Governor Andrew Cuomo.  As a reminder on the Republican side, it’s Suffolk County Congressman/FG supporter Lee Zeldin vs Rudy son Andrew which means it’s Lee Zeldin who must be enjoying the Democrats duking it out and hoping that the most progressive candidate emerges from the pile so that he can seal up the upstate, eastern Long Island votes. Also, with Letitia James focused on the governorship, yesterday the impressive Daniel Goldman, no relation, who represented the Democrats in one of the FG impeachment cases, announced that he’s running for NYS AG.    

Viral Musings:  Expectations are that the FDA will approve boosters for all adults by the end of the week, a recognition that the effectiveness of the vaccines wane after six months for everyone not just the elderly or the immune suppressed, that almost anyone can get them anyway, that many states and localities have already jumped the gun and that boosters raise effectiveness back up into the 90 plus percent area.  In other news,  Pfizer has submitted an emergency use authorization application for its COVID anti-viral pill Paxlovid.  Taken over several days the pill, appears to have an efficacy of just under 90% at preventing severe disease and death when taken within three days after the start of symptoms.  Merck already has it’s EUA application in for its drug which is about 50% effective and already approved for emergency use in the UK.  US COVID cases are trending upward again mostly among the unvaccinated and in colder areas but also among those who got their shots early and haven’t yet been boosted.  Depressingly flu cases are up too with something new on that front:  apparently there is now a partisan divide when it comes to getting flu shots with 68% of Democrats saying they’ve gotten one or plan to and only 44% of Republicans saying the same.  In past years that differential, 58% vs 54%, fell within the margin of error.