Bucha, Bucha, Bucha

🌻🌻🌻: Bucha is located near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, something most of us didn’t know until this week.  Now we know and tragically, the town will forever be associated with the shocking pictures of its dead residents, tortured and bound by Russian troops before being shot to death.  Those pictures are so horrific that many media outlets have chosen to intentionally blur them to avoid stressing out viewers, a disservice to all and an insult to those who died as their brutal murders should stress us out, serving as a warning that those things that should fall into the “never again” category keep happening again and again. Of course, after President Zelenskyy gave another one of his moving speeches, again to the United Nations, Russia’s representative responded disingenuously claiming that the scenes out of Bucha were staged, “criminal provocations by Ukrainian soldiers and radicals,” those imaginary Nazi hordes that the Russians went to Ukraine to fight. Only the criminal part of his statement was right. It’s not just the Russians, a number, mostly on the American right have also been pushing the crisis actor theme, with a few on Twitter alleging that the bodies had to be fake citing their “neat” spacing on satellite pictures.  Utter nonsense of course, but then a lot of the same people remain under the influence of the last president, the one who not so long ago referred to Putin as a genius for invading Ukraine in the first place.

The Supremes: Also utter nonsense was Senator Tom Cotton’s assertion yesterday that Judge Ketanji Jackson who is expected to be confirmed to the Supreme Court within days would have defended Nazi warm criminals if only she had been given the chance.  Yes, Senator Cotton went there but we shouldn’t be surprised as many of his colleagues have spent the past few weeks branding Jackson as a pedophile. Keeping with that theme, Q queen Margie three names slammed Senators Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney and Susan Collins as “pro-pedophile” after the three Republicans announced that they would be supporting Jackson’s nomination. That Collins who dismissed Margie Q’s statement as “ludicrous and typical” supported Jackson wasn’t surprising, she tends to give presidents a lot of leeway on their court nominations and since she was recently reelected she faces no pushback at home unlike Murkowski who is up for reelection this year in a pro-former guy state.  While Murkowski’s decision to support Jackson wasn’t surprising, it’s was a harder one for her to make as the Former Guy is actively supporting her primary opponent as retribution for her impeachment vote. Romney’s is somewhat surprising because he didn’t support Judge Jackson during her earlier confirmation, but good for him for deciding to come down on the right side of history again. It’s not clear why so many Republican senators believe that they have to double down on their vote against Jackson by also attacking her character on made up culture issues but it’s the path they’ve chosen.  After all, did you have Republicans attacking Disney and telling voters to not take their kids to the “happiest place on earth” on your 2022 Bingo card?

Politics Unusual:  Lisa Murkowski isn’t the only politician being targeted by the Former Guy.  He’s doing his best to unseat as many of those “traitors” who voted against him.  One of those politicians,  Michigan Congressman Fred Upton announced yesterday that he’s throwing in the towel and will not be running for reelection.  Upton was respected on both sides of the aisle and sadly his departure leaves another opening for another loony candidate to slip in, someone along the lines of Sarah Palin, who announced that she’s running for the seat vacated by the death of Alaska’s sole Congressman Don Young.  Of course, the Former Guy immediately endorsed her and between his endorsement and her name recognition she stands a good chance of winning in the very crowded special election.  Worth remembering that after Palin won reelection as Governor she stepped down because she wasn’t all that interested in doing the job. No one, except maybe Sarah, thinks that being a member of Congress is more exciting than running a state.  Or then again, maybe she’s just into it because she wants to see if she can get more attention than Margie Q and anyway her plans to become a media star have fizzled.  Speaking of things that have fizzled, Truth Social, the Former Guy’s wannabee Twitter company appears to be circling the drain.  The social platform is still not very functional and has lost its internal counsel and two of its senior technology professionals, not that they were all that competent at their jobs.  Even the Former Guy hasn’t been posting on Truth Social, a problem for the company’s investors but maybe not a problem for him because with Elon Musk now having bought his way onto Twitter’s board it may be just a matter of time before the FG is allowed back onto Twitter. That would be just in time for the midterms and only two years before what may be his next presidential run.  By the way FG Junior has posted on Truth Social but daughter Ivanka has not but, maybe she was too busy preparing for her testimony before the January 6^th committee.  She testified, without being subpoenaed to do so, for eight hours yesterday and though we don’t know what she said, reports are that she did not take the Fifth.

Viral Musings:  Wastewater doesn’t lie and it’s telling us what we kind of already know, that the BA 2 variant is all over the Northeast and just as what happens in Europe eventually happens here, what happens in the Northeast moves to the heartland. NYS positivity has moved up to 3.43%, far from historical highs but still moving in the wrong direction especially when you consider that official positivity rates mean less these days as more people find out that they’re positive through unreported home tests than ever before  Also, state hospitalizations which had been trending downward inched up a bit yesterday, though its too early to know if that’s a trend or a one day blip. If you are eligible, consider following President Biden and VP Harris’ example by getting boosted again now unless you had a very recent case of omicron. According to CDC Director Walensky  "If you've had omicron disease in the last two or three months, that really did boost your immune system quite well,” and you can “wait another two to four months” before getting a second booster. As to that booster, speaking from personal experience, if you had a reaction last time, you shouldn’t be surprised if you have one again with the 4^th shot.  Not fun.  As to the next shot, the one we will all probably be advised to get in the fall, FDA advisors have started to discuss what formulation will be best, a new one or more of the same.