Rudolph's Red Nose

Ho, Ho, Ho:  Am writing today’s note mostly to wish everyone happy holidays. I was hoping to have good news about a NY indictment of that certain FG but though it could still happen, there’s nothing new to report there, yet.  That said, the House’s January 6^th Committee has gifted us with a few bold subpoenas and interview requests which explains why Ohio wrestler Jim “Gym” Jordan who was knee deep in insurrection and communicated quite frequently with his bestie the FG in the run up to and on coup day is looking even more dazed and acting more obstreperous than usual. Gym and his crowd were all in on torturing Hilary Clinton over Benghazi and her emails but suddenly they don’t believe that Congress, or at least anyone not on their side in Congress, has the right to investigate them which explains why Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Scott Perry, who pushed for the FG to upend his Justice Department, is also refusing to cooperate. Don’t be surprised to see any of them join Mark Meadows and the rest of the FG crowd in suing the Committee, Nancy Pelosi and anyone else they can.  Roger Stone, another one called in to testify, sued but had his suit thrown out almost immediately and will probably try again since the whole idea is to stall as much as possible.  With the January 6^th anniversary on the horizon, the FG has broadcasted plans to deliver a celebratory speech from Mar a Lago.  Could be his soliloquy includes an announcement that he’s running in 2024? Ugh. That would upset Ted Cruz who believes that since he almost won the nomination in 2016 it’s his turn this time.  Double Ugh. In other political news, the Democrats are still trying to pull Build Back Better out of agony of defeat status.  BBB killer Senator Joe Manchin, who Republican Leader Mitch McConnell keeps trying to flip, did participate in Chuck Schumer’s Democratic caucus call this week, a sign that he might not be ready to hand the Senate over to the Republicans right now.     

Viral Musings: On the Omicron front, it’s everywhere, almost completely pushing Delta out of the picture.  So far most infected boosted infected people, and who doesn’t know more than a few, have had varying degrees of cold symptoms. Not fun, but if that’s as bad as it gets, not horrible, and this year a good explanation for Rudolph’s nose being red.  A lot of the experts say given Omicron’s contagiousness, infection is inevitable so if you are fully vaccinated and get a scratchy throat don’t panic but do stock Kleenex, drink lots of fluids and hibernate. If you are not vaccinated, what were you thinking???  Pfizer’s highly effective antiviral Paxlovid, which involves taking pills for five days starting shortly after infection, was approved yesterday but since initially the pills will be in short supply and reserved for high risk individuals don’t count on them getting you out of a case of Omicron over the holidays.  Speaking of supply issues, those COVID home tests remain hard to come by and if you like me stocked a few this summer, the ones you have may not work all that well as their shelve lives are rather short, at least that’s what today’s Wall Street Journal reports.  One more thing to look forward to, yesterday the Supreme Court scheduled a hearing on Joe Biden’s large employers and health care workers vaccine mandate for January 7.  We’ll soon learn if the Court’s conservatives care more about the safety of the unborn than the living, as if we don’t already know their view on that with regard to some other things.     

Have a very Merry Christmas!  Outdoors or with windows wide open.