Tweet, Tweet

🌻🌻🌻:  Lots of death and destruction but not enough for Vladimir Putin who, unhappy about the progress of his invasion now has his “Baghdad Bobs” threatening to use nukes and talking openly about invading and destabilizing Moldova, the small EU friendly country that sits on Ukraine’s southwestern border with Romania to “liberate” the Russian speaking people of its Transnistria region.  Little about that disturbs Kentucky Senator Rand Paul who yesterday, while questioning Secretary of State Blinken during his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested that Russia’s reason for invading Ukraine and slaughtering all those Ukrainians could be admirable ones.  Paul said “you could argue the countries they (the Russians) have attacked were part of Russia,” so if they want them back who are we to question them? The visibly disgusted Blinken retorted that it was the “fundamental right” of countries that bordered Russia to decide their own fate. Remember that neighbor who bashed Paul in a dispute over sloppy gardening, his attack becomes a bit more understandable every day.  As to countries deciding their own destinies, one of Putin’s reasons for invading Ukraine was to prevent the expansion of NATO membership. While Ukraine won’t be joining anytime soon, it looks more and more likely that two NATO holdouts, Sweden and Finland, will, largely because they now want to be covered by NATO’s “all for one and one for all” Article 5 collective defense provision. Also, Putin is now cutting off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria because he’s not all that happy with their support for Ukraine either.  

Homefront: Kevin McCarthy, who has proven that he’ll do anything to remain on track to become the Speaker of the House, continues to watch his career goals circle the drain.  Newly released tapes and texts from that trove that he shared with the January 6^th committee before he stopped cooperating with them reveal that Kevin knew the Former Guy was attempting a coup and that he feared that some of the members of his Republican caucus including panhandle putz Matt Gaetz and Alabama’s Mo Brooks were acting and speaking in a manner that made them a menace to others and to democracy.  Those revelations have now earned Kevin the wrath of the way too influential Tucker Carlson who last night called him a “puppet of the Democratic Party” and no “better than an MSNBC contributor.”  He went on to warn that McCarthy or "one of his highly liberal allies" would likely become Speaker of the House if conservatives didn't "get their act together right away."  Ironically, the “liberal ally” the fish stick scion appears to be referring to is none other than NY Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who many think is the source of the leaked tapes. Tucker is scheduled to speak at the conservative Family Leader Council this summer in Iowa, something that Republicans aspiring to become president routinely do.  Scary right?  By the way Kevin isn’t the only in trouble right now.  North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn who alienated many of his Republican colleagues when he suggested that they were into orgies, got caught trying to board a commercial flight with a gun …. again.  Yes, like speeding without a license, Cawthorn is a multiple gun offender.  He’s got a contentious primary coming up and it’s looking more and more likely that he will not be his party’s choice to represent his district in the midterms.  Getting back to Kevin’s trove of texts, in addition to revealing that he knew that the FG was all in on couping, they also reveal just how disgusted Mitch McConnell was with the FG, that former Energy Secretary/Texas Governor Rick Perry was all in on helping with the coup, that aide Jason Miller was the one who suggested claiming that the MAGA guys and gals attacking the Capitol were Antifa activists in drag and that Margie Q who last week testified that she knew nothing about those calls for the FG to impose martial law, texted about it although, in her defense she called it Marshall Law.  

Viral Musings:  Add Vice President Kamala Harris to the COVID positive list, a group that now also includes Senators Ron Wyden and Chris Murphy.  The VP reports that she’s asymptomatic and that she only learned of her positive status from a routine test.  She is now taking Pfizer’s Paxlovid, the anti-viral that is now widely available and that you too should consider in the event you end up in the positive category, assuming of course your doctor signs off and that you don’t have any pre-existing condition that would make it a bad choice for you.  According the CDC, more than half of Americans show signs of a previous COVID infection, including three out of every four children. The CDC found that signs of past infection rose dramatically between December and February, when the more contagious Omicron variant surged through the country.  Additionally, the CDC estimates that these days there were three infections for every reported one so those numbers indicating that positivity in NYS is up to 9.30%, take that with a grain of salt, it’s far higher.  The good news is that hospitalizations remain relatively low, the bad news is that they are rising, up 9%  countrywide during the past week.  So maybe wear a mask on planes and in elevators and other congested areas even if mask wearing isn’t mandated.

Twitter:  Even if you aren’t a user, you will probably be affected by what’s been going on at Twitter.  In summary, Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX fame who is worth about $274 billion, is buying the company for $44 billion, with plans to take it private and loosen up it’s tweet moderation rules.  It’s widely expected that Musk will invite the FG back onto Twitter, giving him back the microphone he lost when he was kicked off after the insurrection.  The FG asserts that he won’t go back on Twitter because he’s committed to his new platform Truth Social, of course last week during a rally in Georgia, the FG couldn’t even remember Truth Social’s name so there’s that.  Anyway, the FG probably is contractually obligated to Truth Social, but it’s not clear that Truth Social will continue to exist if the Elon Musk deal makes it to closing.  As to making it to closing, its worth noting that Musk leveraged his Tesla stock to pay for the acquisition and that as a result Tesla has lost value.  Some business reporters have suggested that if Tesla stock continues to sink, Musk’s Twitter purchase might not go through.  That would depress the right who is psyched about being able to go back on Twitter to spread COVID and election misinformation and would also distress former Twitter head Jack Dorsey who stands to gain $1 billion but would make the left happy.  Only time will tell.  Just a few months ago Elon promised to spend some of his money on solving world hunger, if things don’t work out with Twitter he could go back to making the world a better place.  Well probably not.