Religious Establishment

Teflon: Since we all need some good news, here’s some.  American journalist Danny Fenster who had been sentenced to serve eleven years in a Myanmar jail for acting like a journalist was freed this morning.  Details are still coming out but it looks like his release was due to the work of former US Ambassador Bill Richardson.  Not so lucky is Steve Bannon who was finally indicted on Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress.  Unfortunately his case has been assigned to an FG appointed judge so Teflon Bannon who is due to turn himself in today could end up skating, again.  That said his indictment probably caused some anxiety for former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who failed to show up for his scheduled testimony on Friday.  Word is that that Meadows may now be trying to see if he can provide written testimony, likely because he believes it would allow him to avoid an indictment while making it harder for him to get caught lying.   Of course the  FG responded to Bannon’s indictment by calling the country a “radicalized mess” though naturally he didn’t mention that he was the source of that radicalization nor did he have anything to say about his other BFF, Michael Flynn who told his fans that “if we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God and one religion under God.” So much for the First Amendment and that whole prohibition against establishing a religion thing.  Bizarrely enough, Josh Mandel who Jewish and is running and at least for now leading the pack of those seeking to get the Republican nomination for the Ohio Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Rob Portman, responded to Flynn’s statement by tweeting “we stand with General Flynn,” because when you are vying for the FG’s endorsement why not sell your soul to the devil?  Mandel’s more well-known competitors for that coveted FG endorsement are the Peter Theil funded author of Hillbilly Elegy fame JD Vance who appears to be flailing and Jane Timken former chair of the Ohio Republican Party but it’s one of his lesser known ones Mark Pukita who got a lot of attention last week after he defended some ads where he asks “Are we seriously supposed to believe the most Christian-values Senate candidate is Jewish?” by saying “all I did in an ad was pointed out that Josh is going around saying he's got the Bible in one hand and the constitution in the other. But he's Jewish, everybody should know that though, right.”  Let me repeat he’s attacking Mandel for being Jewish.  There are lots of reasons to go after Mandel, that shouldn’t be one of them.  Getting back to Bannon, the indictment doesn’t appear to have crimped his style, this weekend he told his podcast listeners that all Hell would break loose this week after the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict comes in.  That  exhortation probably goes far to explaining why Wisconsin’s Governor announced plans to call out the National Guard. 

Politics As Usual:  As to the FG, ever self-centered he called Chris Christie around the time the former NJ Governor was suffering with COVID and getting last rites to make sure that he wouldn’t be holding him responsible for catching the virus.  Though it would be nice to ignore the FG, that would be foolish as he continues to do all he possibly can do to be a disruptive force. Anyone who doesn’t think that he is working to return to the Oval Office is delusional, probably as delusional as his pillow man Mike Lindell and one religion only Flynn, who undoubtably would end up back as National Security Adviser or in an equivalently important position if the FG gets his wish. Over the weekend, the Mango Maniac called for "good and SMART America First Republican Patriots to run primary campaigns against Representatives Tom Rice, John Katko, Don Bacon, Don Young, Fred Upton (challenge accepted), Andrew Garbarino, Peter Meijer (challenge accepted), David McKinley (challenge accepted), Nancy Mace, Jaime Herrera Beutler (challenge accepted) and Chris Smith?"  Their crimes, they either voted for the infrastructure legislation or something equivalently awful in his eyes.  He also once again attacked Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski who he called the “disaster from Alaska.”  Murkowski, who is expected to be one of the few Republicans planning to show up today for Biden’s signing of the bipartisan infrastructure bill because it’s popular in her state, announced that she’s running for reelection over the weekend.  Biden needs the good press that maybe, just maybe he’ll get at the signing as the main stream media is focused on inflation and his sinking poll numbers. VP Harris could use better press too.  CNN’s weekend hit piece was nasty and odd. Odd because the contents seemed like more of an indictment of the Biden team than of her but the headline slammed her.  Shifting back to inflation, Larry Summers who’s been talking up inflation ever since the passage of the cash infusing virus recovery legislation, is bullish on both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the as yet unpassed Build Back Better legislation.  He says neither will contribute to inflation but both will achieve long term improvements.   That’s a message that he needs to share with West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who appears to be getting cold feet, again.        

Viral Musings:  While he still sees a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warns of a post-holiday spike in new COVID infections and with the 7 day average of new cases already above 80,000 his warning may already be a reality.  To that end a number of states, including California, Colorado and New Mexico have already made boosters available to all adults.  From a practical matter boosters are available to most who want them right now since the categories for who qualifies are so broad, still officially opening up getting a booster to all combined with better messaging is one way to keep new cases down. It working in Israel where cases remain low.