Darkness on the Edge of Town

Whirlwinds:  The top story of the weekend concerned the killer tornados that ravaged parts of six Southeast and Midwest states, particularly the rare quad state tornado that ripped through Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas.  It’s late in the season for tornadoes but then again weather patterns have grown more extreme, one of those nifty side effects of global warming that the right and their number one mouthpiece, Fox, like to mock and deny.  Notably Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was among the first to request aide for his state, that’s not surprising, it’s the thing that elected politicians are supposed to do.  The irony is that Paul, who voted against helping Puerto Rico deal with its weather related tragedies, generally opposes that kind of aid, citing it as just another socialist waste of money.  No surprise that the Biden administration is already helping, despite the fact that so many “red” states are the ones in need and also no surprise that unlike his predecessor he isn’t requiring that any of the relevant governors prostrate themselves in exchange. Getting back to Fox, the media outlet lost its one “real” journalist this weekend after Chris Wallace whose contract was expiring announced that he was leaving Fox News Sunday and Fox effective immediately. He’s on his way to CNN’s new streaming network. It’s fair to assume that Tucker Carlson downed some champagne with some of those fish sticks he inherited in celebration as Wallace’s departure leaves Fox firmly in his thrall.  Wallace’s departure is a loss for all of us because his Fox perch allowed him to book Republican politicians who wouldn’t appear elsewhere, getting them to admit to revealing things that they wouldn’t ordinarily say. For example, on Sunday Wallace’s guest was Senator Lindsey Graham who he skewered for supporting the FG’s deficit increasing tax cuts while attacking all those “expensive” paid for components of the still floundering Build Back Better legislation. By the way, the current Republican plan is to keep West Virginia’s Joe Manchin from supporting the legislation. To accomplish that they’ve gotten a hypothetical “score” from the CBO that “shows” the plan would increase the deficit if some of its provisions, particularly those involving child care, are extended beyond the term included in the BBB legislation. Spoiler, that’s only if they were extended without any offsetting rollback of some of the FG’s tax cuts.  Graham also criticized Mitch McConnell for helping Democrats implement their creative work around to get the debt ceiling raised, saying that it was far more important to kowtow to the FG than ensure that the country avoid default. Left unsaid, if the Democrats can get all their caucus on board, and that’s a big if, they could now use a similar solution to pass some voting rights legislation and whatever else they might want to do.  Chris Wallace isn’t the only one jumping ship, MSNBC’s Brian Williams is also seeking new pastures.  It’s not yet known where he’ll show up next, rumor has it he’s been talking to ABC and CNN.  If you have a chance, watch the video of his Thursday night signoff, he spared no words with his warning about the darkness facing our Democracy right now.    

Insurrection Update:  About that darkness, this weekend we also learned more about the nefarious coup activities that were going on after the election.  Though, as expected, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows failed to show for his scheduled testimony, the January 6^th committee went ahead without him, revealing the questions they would have asked him if he was in attendance.  Those questions focused on the information included in his book and in the trove of emails that Meadows, who is now suing both the committee and Nancy Pelosi largely because that’s what FG acolytes do when they’re stalling for time, provided the committee before he decided to stop cooperating.  The Meadows’ emails revealed how he was knee deep in helping the FG with his plot to overturn the election results as well as some more about the FG’s desperation to hang on to power.  For example Meadows helped with the outreach to Republican state legislators to try to get them to send alternative electors to Congress, advised that the National Guard should be used to protect those “nice tourists” who attacked the capitol on January 6, and even reached out to a number of sitting Republican Senators, reviewing with them the power point presentation about how they could overturn the election results.  That’s the same power point presentation that said the FG could declare a national emergency and take control of ballots and voting machines in swing state by citing unsupported and seriously wackadoodle claims that China and Venezuela had obtained control over the voting infrastructure in a majority of states. Oddly enough, Mike Pence, who’s out on the road these days trying to drum up support for his presidential run, and whose former chief aide Marc Short is cooperating with the January 6^th committee, really was the one who threw the wrench into the FG’s plans.  Not so oddly given the cast of characters who surrounded and continue to surround the FG, Philip Waldron the retired Army Colonel/current conspiracy theorist who distributed the power point presentation also appeared in Pillow Man Mike Lindell’s election “documentary,” or should I say mocumentary.  And because no one should forget about Jenna Ellis, the traffic court lawyer/faux Constitution expert who was with Rudy Giuliani the day his hair dye dripped down his face in the outskirts of Philadelphia she takes credit for some of the report’s conclusions as well.

Mock Court: Late next Spring, what remains of Roe v Wade will likely be overturned but for women in Texas the federal right to abortion established by Roe is already far gone.  Late Friday, by a 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court left Texas’ anti-abortion bounty law in place while granting abortion providers a small concession by allowing them to continue with some of their lawsuits, those against Texas licensing officials but not state court judges, court clerks or the state attorney general.  Suffice it to say the anti-abortion crowd is winning as women in Texas continue to have virtually no access to abortion services unless of course they have the means to fly the coop to another friendlier state.  Not mincing words, Justice Sotomayor said the decision will have “castatrophic consequences.”  Chief Justice Roberts, hardly a fan of abortion, but someone who seems to get stare decisis and who also fears for what’s left of the Court’s dwindling reputation, joined the three liberal justices in dissent saying that the “nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme court in our constitutional system that is at stake.”  Over the weekend California Governor Gavin Newsom took a shot at the conservative justices’ decision by tweeting if “SCOTUS is letting private citizens in Texas sue to stop abortion?!.... then we’ll let Californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets. If TX can ban abortion and endanger lives, CA can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives.”  Newsom has a good point, sadly it’s one that the conservative majority and probably even the Court’s liberals would never endorse.

Viral Musings:  We’re back to masking in public places in New York State. Omicron is likely to become the dominant variant in Europe over the next few weeks and what happens there usually happens here too.  The situation in South Africa seems to be improving which probably means that Omicron was there earlier than was previously known. Omicron really is more contagious than Delta, the previous super spreader king, but the jury is still out on its lethality. For now the belief – well hope – is that it is less likely to result in serious illness and hospitalization but it’s still too early to be certain.  Also, it’s looking more and more like boosters are needed to fend off the variant and that prior infection isn’t protective.  And in what looks like an admission that the FG’s administration has a lot to hide about how it handled coronavirus, former advisor Peter Navarro is refusing to cooperate with the House Oversight Committee. No surprise that he says he’s just following orders.

US Death toll: 800,000