GI Jane?!?!  🌻🌻🌻

Slap Downs:  Full disclosure, I didn’t see any of the movies that were up for Oscars, but I watched the ceremony anyway to see and hear the nominated songs performed.  Shout out to Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell for their winning Bond song.  I am assuming by now you know that the most ridiculous moment of the evening wasn’t Amy Schumer aloft in a Spiderman suit but was Will Smith slapping and cursing out presenter Chris Rock.  I’ll leave it to you to figure out what that was about, check out either Australian or UK TV to see an unbleeped version, but will instead repeat a comment I saw from Philadelphia Congressman Brendan Boyle on Twitter who said: “Well, now you know why we had to get him out of Philly to go live with his aunt and uncle in Bel Air.”  Violence is never good, and Smith’s took away from his Oscar win.  On the topic of violence, over the weekend things continued to deteriorate in Ukraine because even if the Ukrainians are doing better than expected better is relative when people are dying or being turned into refugees. President Biden finished up his trip to Europe where he met with President Duda of Poland and warmly embraced refugees while also hobnobbing and eating with some American soldiers.  He gave a great speech, one that belongs right there with Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall,”  but then threw in an unscripted remark at the end that causes a major kerfuffle, saying what a lot of us are thinking that “Putin cannot remain in power.” By the way, it turns out that Reagan’s “tear down this wall” was also unscripted.  The White House almost immediately walked Biden’s comment back, saying that he wasn’t pushing for regime change, though let’s be honest, everyone kind of would love to see regime change. The press went bonkers and just about every Republican politician hammered Biden for saying what they’re thinking.  Mean time alternative universe occupier, the Former Guy, you know, the one-time real estate investor who probably still hopes to build a tower in Moscow insists that Ukraine “would never have happened” had the election not been stolen from him, adding something about how NATO wasn’t worth much but he would have snapped his fingers and gotten in back in place even if he had already walked from the coalition, something that John Bolton said he planned to do at the beginning of his second term.   The FG made those remarks while speaking in Georgia at a not very well attended rally in support of Senate candidate/former football player Hershel Walker and one time Senator David Perdue who is primarying Republican Governor Brian Kemp who the FG once liked but now hates because he refused to overturn the 2020 election.  Recognizing that standing firm with the FG on election fraud is a must to keep his endorsement, Perdue is now asserting that his loss to Senator Ossoff was also due to the big steal.  Of course, since it was Georgia, Margie Q was also in attendance, spouting some bigoted and ignorant stuff, this time about the need to prevent Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband from using women’s bathrooms. Also, all Republicans see no problem in Clarence Thomas ruling on election related cases despite his wife’s insurrectionist behavior but that quite a few more including Senator Ben Sasse can’t find their way to voting for Judge Jackson because of course.     

Viral Musings:  Karine Jean-Pierre who subbed for Press Secretary Jen Psaki after she had to cancel her plans to join Biden’s travel entourage over her COVID positive test, has now tested positive.  Secretary of State Blinken who as least so far has not tested positive, is now avoiding people because an official he came in contact with on his follow up stop to Israel has tested positive.  The party line is that since Biden was not considered one of Jean-Pierre’s close contacts and Blinken’s encounter happened after he left Biden’s side, the President is in the clear.  That’s nice, but anyone watching TV this weekend knows that Biden had plenty of opportunity to have made his own contact.   Maybe the WH doctors have him on IV antibodies, or some other wonder drug? Oy. As to the rest of us, the NY Times reports that the FDA is expected to authorize a fourth shot this week.  The shot will be made available to those over 50 who are four months out from their booster. However, the FDA and CDC aren’t going to give a formal recommendation, instead they are going to leave it up to individuals to make their own decisions. By the way, since the votes weren’t there, no additional COVID money was included in the recently passed funding package.  The government is running out of COVID funds which could impact the availability and cost of things like shots, tests and anti-virals.