Kraken Toys

“American” Voters:  As expected last night the Senate finally held its vote on voting rights legislation.  All 50 Democratic Senators supported protecting access to the ballot box but no Republicans joined them and since two, Senators Sinema and Manchin, refused to vote for modifying the filibuster the legislation went down in flames. For his part a gleeful Mitch McConnell said the quiet part out loud calling the “concern” about protecting voting rights “misplaced because if you look at the statistics African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as American voters.”  So there you have it Mitch and his cronies don’t consider Blacks to be Americans. Moreover, his facts about voter participation are wrong too.  According to the Brennan Center for Justice while voter participation was up in the 2020 election, disparities among races remained significant: 70.9 percent of white voters cast ballots while only 58.4 percent of nonwhite voters did with the nonwhite vote breaking down as follows:  62.6 percent of Black American voters, 53.7 percent of Latino American voters, and 59.7 percent of Asian American voters.  As to the impact of new voter suppression laws, if the Texas experience is any indication, and it likely is, around 40% of requests for absentee ballots are now being rejected due to new intentionally confusing requirements that make it difficult for people to correctly fill out request forms. The other big piece of political news last night was that Joe Biden “finally” held another news conference.  His failure to do so sooner was a subject of a lot of complaints by the press but probably something that most of the rest of us failed to notice given how often he appears in front of the camera.  The conference went on for a long time, so long that the press then complained about its length.  Anyway, for the most part Biden’s performance was fine unless of course you get your post game analysis from Fox or the NY Post, which called him out as “bumbling” and the conference an “utter disaster.”  Notably Biden didn’t make fun of any ethnic groups or disabled people, took questions from reporters from all sides of the aisle and failed to insult any of our allies, a problem for Murdoch owned media.  For his part the FG who was having a particularly bad day on the legal front screeched about Biden taking only softball questions, of course he did that right around the time that Biden was answered a question tossed his way by OAN, the right wing station that is in the process of being kicked off of Direct TV.  Getting back to Biden, he did respond to a question about the Russia-Ukraine situation with a bit too much candor when he said that Putin probably will move into the Ukraine, revealing that our NATO allies, all of whom are a lot closer to what soon could be the hostilities, aren’t all that unified about how to react to a “minor incursion.”  Later Press Secretary Psaki cleaned up those remarks by saying that the US and its NATO allies would respond to Russian aggression with a “decisive, reciprocal and united response,”  The days ahead are not going to be pretty. By the way, Fox pundit Tucker Carlson is firmly Team Putin believing that the Russians have every right to take over as much of Ukraine as they want.

The FG Papers:  Now onto a subject that’s more fun, well at least for people who not members or “friends” of the FG’s family.  Late yesterday the Supreme Court rejected the former president’s request to block around 700 pages of his White House records from being sent to the House January 6^th Committee.  The ruling, opposed by only Justice Clarence Thomas, cannot be appealed and since the National Archives guys are an efficient bunch when they want to be, reports are that some of those documents were shipped over to the Committee last night.  As to Justice Thomas, his opposition shouldn’t be surprising as it is highly likely that his wife’s name appears, or at the very least he fears that her name appears, in a few of those files. In a just world he would have recused himself from opining on the issue, but he is who he is and far too much about the current Court isn’t all that just. The January 6^th Committee has also subpoenaed a number of our other favorite characters from the kraken toys unit including Rudy Giuliani, Boris Epshteyn, Sidney Powell, Jennifer Ellis and far right/white supremacist figures Nicholas Fuentes and Patrick Casey.  In other news, we now know that former VP Pence knew about the apparently coordinated efforts by FG’s supporters in various swing states to supply alternative electoral college certifications as he consulted with the Senate Parliamentarian on how to handle them during what was supposed to be just a procedural Electoral Vote ratification on January 6.  One more thing on the Oath Keepers, the guys who’ve been indicted for seditious conspiracy, they had a stockpile that included 30 days of supplies and a cache of rifles and ammunition stored just outside of Washington DC.  Don’t all tourists to that?

The Big Apple:  Shifting to New York, on Tuesday night we learned more about Attorney General Tish James justification for subpoenaing the FG, Ivanka and Junior as part of her investigation into the FG family’s practice of fraudulently playing fast and loose with the valuation of assets. Among other things, it appears that the FG claimed that his Tower triplex residence was about 20,000 square feet larger than it actually is, not all that surprising since he routinely adds floors on the height of that building.  Also, the family business claimed that it was receiving $150,000 initiation fees at its Westchester golf club that it never collected, as well as that it had mansions that had not yet been built on one of his private estates. As to Ivanka, it appears that she served as the primary contact with the FG’s Deutsche Bank bankers, presumably the private banker who earlier reports say was introduced to the family by husband Jared. The current subpoenas don’t cover son Eric because he already spent some time with the Tish James team, not that he was all that helpful as it appears that he like indicted CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded the Fifth plus or minus 500 times.  Didn’t the FG once say that only mobsters plead the Fifth?           

Viral Musings:  Though Omicron cases are continuing to decline in the early US hotspots, nationwide the reported new daily case count remains around 800,000, an undercount since many people don’t report their cases.  The 7 day average death count is also high, just under 2000.  Florida’s Governor/FG nemesis/presidential wannabee Ron DeSantis, the anti-masker who refuses to admit that he has been boosted has a solution.  He’s opened a few more mono-clonal antibody sites across his state.  That might sound good but unfortunately two of the monoclonal infusions that the sites are providing are ineffective against the Omicron strain.  Maybe they are also providing urine chasers, the current treatment being pushed by the anti-vax loony contingent?  If you haven’t already, go to the impressively functional link  https://special.usps.com/testkits to place your order for four free home covid tests. Also, the government plans to provide free N95 masks from the national stockpile to anyone who wants one, details to follow shortly.       

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