#ButHerEarbuds

Seasons Greetings: Facing the end of year rush and Rudolph’s pull, Congress moved one big step closer to raising the debt ceiling and passing the defense authorization act.  Getting the debt ceiling deal agreed to took some heavy lifting and creativity but knowing that being responsible for pushing the country into default is not the best way to win elections, Mitch McConnell signed off on a deal with Democrats that involved the Nancy Pelosi controlled House passing what is supposed to be a one time work around that will allow the Senate to raise the debt ceiling with the barest of majorities. Biden’s Build Back Better remains up in the air, though Senate Leader Schumer insists he’ll get it passed before Christmas break, not that anyone else thinks that’s likely to happen. While all the Congressional maneuvering was taking place President Biden was having a phone summit with Putin, trying to convince Vlad that he would suffer bigly if he moved to invade Ukraine over the holiday break or anytime thereafter.  Given Putin’s build up on his border with Ukraine an invasion is a real possibility, especially since he’s pulled off some Ukraine land grabs before.  Biden’s likely talking financial penalties not war but the stakes are high so the situation could get really messy and since mess and disarray seems to be something that some Republicans love, a few of them including no one’s favorite Senator Ted Cruz continue to stand in the way of the confirmation of most of Biden’s State Department, national security and Ambassadors because why would we want diplomats in place with peace in jeopardy? Cruz claims that he’s holding them all up over Biden’s decision to remove sanctions on the Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany, but really he’s probably just doing it because he loves the attention, national security be damned.   On the international front, it’s not just Russia that’s causing problems, China is also acting up, saber rattling over Taiwan, the island they want back, and continuing to trample on the human rights of the Muslim Uyghurs.  Then there’s the problem of Peng Shuai, the female tennis player who has just about disappeared after alleging that she was sexually assaulted by a senior Chinese party official.  As a protest against all that human rights trampling the Biden administration announced that while our athletes will still be allowed to participate in the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, our diplomats won’t be in attendance.  Yesterday, Australia announced that they are following suit.  Suffice it to say, China’s President Xi is not pleased.

Reindeer:  On the domestic front, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who didn’t show up the first time he was called to testify in front of the House January 6^th Committee but then said that he would show up to avoid being cited for criminal contempt  has announced that he’s back to not showing up.  Meadows who whined something about changing his mind because the House Committee weren’t playing fair because they “went behind his back” by going after his phone records really changed his mind because the Former Guy is squeezing his cojones, to the extent he has any, over his book.  That’s the book where Meadows provided details about the FGs bout with COVID and how he knowingly exposed more than 500 people to the virus.  Apparently doing a tell all book is okay but testifying before Congress is a violation of executive privilege, at least according to Meadows.  For his part Roger Stone, another one that the committee has called in now says that he, like lawyers John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark, will plead the Fifth, an acknowledgement that they all have lots of criminal deeds to hide.  And why not pull that delaying tactic, the frequently red nosed Steve Bannon’s trial date has now been set for July, which while earlier than Bannon wanted, is still late enough to make it highly likely that he’ll skate until there is a new Congress, one controlled by either Kevin McCarthy, Gym Johnson or maybe even “Speaker” FG, if Matt Gaetz gets his way.

Cows:  One person who won’t be there for all that fun is California Congressman Devin Nunes who announced that he’ll be stepping aside at the end of the year to become the CEO of the FG’s new media company. Nunes made his announcement about a minute after it was revealed that the company and the SPAC (special purpose acquisition company)  that is facilitating it going public are being investigated by the SEC over conversations they may have had back when they weren’t supposed to be canoodling.  The SEC is also asking questions about the identify of the investors who are shoveling an additional $1 billion into the fledgling company, maybe looking into how many of them are relatives of the Saudi royal family?  In case you are wondering Nunes, who claims to be a dairy farmer, has no experience in managing a tech company but has sued a number of them as well as a cow, or a person pretending to be a cow.  Nunes’ decision to leave the House is odd given that he was up for the Chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 2022.  That said, he may have been concerned about winning reelection because his “safe” district was likely going to be redistricted and then there’s all that money that he was probably promised by the FG who always meets his financial obligations, well not really.  Speaking of redistricting, it looks like some additional Democratic leaning voters are going to be tossed into the NYS’s mostly Republican leaning Staten Island district which explains why moderate Democrat/veteran Max Rose who lost his one term seat to Republican Nicole Malliotakis in 2020 announced that he’s running again.  Malliotakis who voted against confirming Joe Biden’s electoral win took heat from a lot of people in her party including the FG for voting for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.  She’s been trying to have it both ways, we’ll know soon enough if that strategy is working.  Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the “controversy” about VP Kamala Harris and her earbuds.  Yes, her earbuds.  Politico, which was recently taken over by right leaning German publishing company Axel Springer, ran a “major” expose yesterday about how she shuns blue tooth in favor of wires.  Apparently Harris believes, correctly it turns out, that blue tooth buds are less secure.  To repeat, Harris who has endured countless stories about her staff turnover is now being criticized for her choice of ear buds.  Count me among those who think that this has a lot to do with her being a powerful woman, of color.         

Viral Musings:  Omicron is sprouting up everywhere but at least for now Delta remains the current problem especially here in the US where new cases are up again (7 day average just under 120,000) as are deaths (1700 plus yesterday). Preliminary indications are that the Omicron variant is less lethal than earlier ones, but since hospitalizations and death are lagging indicators it’s still too early to be sure whether that’s the case or wishful thinking.  As to vaccines, a small study out of South Africa indicates that the Pfizer vaccine, the one they examined, isn’t as effective at protecting against Omicron.  Pfizer acknowledges that but also say that two doses will still prevent a lot of disease while adding a booster does provide good protection against the new variant. The conclusion for now, get boosted ASAP because that third shot is more important than ever.