Pushing Placebos 

Tuckered Out: Reasonable people can have differing views on how far the US and NATO should or even can go to help Ukraine fend off another incursion from their land hungry regime rebuilding Russian neighbors but one thing we should all be able to agree on is that the host of the most watched nightly US cable show shouldn’t be Team Putin.  Nevertheless, that’s where Tucker Carlson is.  We don’t know what’s in it for Tucker, whether its all about ratings, money, an affinity for autocrats or whether he’s just seeking to bolster his political power broker position but we do know that Putin appreciates his support as Tucker’s pro-Russian segments aren’t just playing on Fox they’re also being featured prominently on Russian TV.  Of even more concern, Tucker’s fans, the same crowd that have bought into his anti-vaccine propaganda appear to be eating up everything he says about the Ukraine situation.  To that end, NJ Democrat Tom Malinowski reports that his office has been fielding calls from Tucker bros “upset that we’re not siding with Russia in its threats to invade Ukraine.”  The callers, are demanding that Malinowski support Russia’s “reasonable” positions, because apparently its reasonable for Putin to want as much of Ukraine as he can get his hands on?  Meantime back in the real world, Biden and our NATO allies are trying to bolster Ukraine’s defenses without engaging in any physical combat with Russia, a challenging goal hardly helped by Tucker and his fanbase. As to Tucker and his affinity for autocrats, he plans to return Hungary, one of his favorite destinations, to broadcast a few more of his shows because when not supporting Putin he’s all in on autocratic fascist types like Viktor Orban. Worth noting, a number of Republicans, including Mitch McConnell have actually been lending support to Biden as he confronts the gnarly Ukraine situation.  

Politics Unusual:  Congresswoman Margie Taylor Greene has weighed in on the Ohio Senate race where a number of Former Guy loving Republicans including FG acolyte Josh Mandel and one time Ohio party chair Jane Timkin are competing for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman.  Yesterday Margie Q bypassed them, instead endorsing Hillbilly Elegy author turned venture capitalist turned politician JD Vance.  Vance who unlike Mandel clearly has no Jewish Space lasers in his closet once compared supporters of the Former Guy to opioid addiction but no longer. He said he was honored to get her support, because who wouldn’t want Margie Q’s nod?  So far the Former Guy, who reportedly is so fearful of the consequences of supporting someone who doesn’t emerge on top that he’s considering endorsing more than one candidate per race has not endorsed anyone in Ohio.  On the Democratic side, though he is facing competition from a progressive candidate, moderate Congressman Tim Ryan will likely get the Democratic nod. Virginia’s new Governor, Glenn Youngkin, appears to be trying to outdo Florida’s Ron DeSantis these days. Not only has he banned the teaching of critical race theory in the schools, not that it was ever taught there, but now, taking a page from the East German STASI playbook, he’s asking parents and children to call his new “tip line” if they are taught any divisive subjects.  In other words if they are taught anything about racism or slavery they should turn in their teachers. Also, proving that elections really do have consequences, Virginia’s new Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares just fired University of Virginia’s legal counsel who is currently on leaving working for the House’s January 6^th Committee.  While it’s not unusual for new AGs to clean house, Miyares actions were undertaken a bit too quickly.  As to Florida, at the request of Ron DeSantis the state legislature is pushing forward a bill that would “prohibit making white people feel ‘discomfort’ when taught or trained about past discrimination in public schools and private businesses.”  It appears that the land of snowbirds is also filled with sensitive snowflakes.

On the Docket:  Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis’ request for a special grand jury to look into the FG’s “request” that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger find him the 11,000 votes he needed to overtake Biden has been approved.  Unfortunately, because justice crawls, the jury won’t be in place until the Spring.  As a reminder, Willis needs the special grand jury because her regular grand jury doesn’t have the power to hand down indictments and it’s fair to assume that her plan, or at least we hope her plan, is to indict a certain former president.  We learned yesterday via Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco that the Department of Justice is now looking into those “alternative” electoral college certifications that were provided by Republican officials from seven states to the National Archives. Those are the faux certificates that the FG’s team hoped would be counted by former VP Pence on January 6.   As to that seize the voting machine idea, it appears that it was originally concocted by a former Lt Colonel named Philip Waldron who worked together with former NY Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik on Rudy Giuliani’s crackpot team.  In other disturbing news, one time Speaker Newt Gingrich says that when or if the Republicans take over the House they should prosecute all the members of the January 6^th committee, because why not?

Viral Musings:  Pfizer is already testing its new Omicron focused booster on volunteers.  Florida’s DeSantis is really miffed over the FDA’s decision to pull Regeneron’s and Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody treatments out of circulation even though both  companies confirm that their products are ineffective against the Omicron variant that now makes up 99% of the coronavirus circulating in the US.  DeSantis who has played down the importance of vaccines and booster shots doesn’t care that the drugs don’t work, he just wants to keep giving them to his clueless constituents so he can say that he’s making them better.  No surprise that his unqualified for the job Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is totally Team DeSantis, insisting that his data “proves” that the withdrawn antibodies work even though he has no such data and they don’t work. At around 650,000 cases per day, Omicron infections are declining but deaths, mostly of the unvaccinated, remain high. Just under 3000 people died yesterday.