Hurricanes, Lasers and Microchips 🌻🌻🌻

Midterm Madness:  The results of yesterday’s West Virginia and Nebraska primaries are in, it was a split decision for the Former Guy, the once and possible future president/tweeter who according to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper believes that the Chinese were responsible for all the hurricanes that hit the US on his watch; something to do with Jewish space lasers perhaps?  In Nebraska, the FG endorsed candidate Charles Herbster who had been accused of sexual misconduct by eight women failed to secure the Republican gubernatorial nomination, losing to Jim Pillen who will face Democrat Carol Blood in the general election.  The FG had campaigned for Herbster, urging his followers to ignore the credible allegations against him arguing that Herbster was the most innocent human being ever and that the allegations, like those against him, were just more fake news and, anyway, why should being a repeated sexual harasser be disqualifying for a Republican? Apparently, some voters in Nebraska were concerned enough to toss Herbster aside.  But don’t get too excited, winning candidate Pillen who, given Nebraska’s ruby red status, is expected to glide to victory in the general election, is no prize. The picture on his website depicts him armed with a rifle and talks about his opposition to the horrors of critical race theory, migrants on the border, socialism, particularly with regard to medical care, and, naturally, he equates abortion with murder.  In West Virginia where, as a result of population losses revealed in the 2020 census, the state is losing one of its Congressional seats, the FG’s candidate, Congressman Alex Mooney won his primary, trouncing fellow Republican Congressman David McKinley.  McKinley, who was endorsed by West Virginia’s Republican Governor Jim Justice as well as purple Senator Joe Manchin was one of the Republicans who had voted for President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure legislation and as we know despite all his infrastructure weeks, the FG is against infrastructure funding especially if he can’t take credit for it.  In addition, McKinley voted to certified Biden’s election win and supported the creation of the House January 6^th Committee, both bigly no-no’s to the vindictive FG.  Mooney on the other hand voted against the infrastructure legislation, election certification and investigating the insurrection so naturally he had the FG's full support.  There will be five more state primaries next week including particularly interesting ones in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where Mehmet Oz’s FG endorsement has so far given him only a small bump up in the polls. 

The Empire Strikes: Also worth following is the clusterf-ck going on in New York State.  As a result of court rulings, the state still doesn’t have a new redistricting map, forcing a rescheduling of its Congressional primaries from June to late August.  An added complication is that NYS is about to have two empty House seats to fill, which likely will require a special election before the Congressional primaries.  That’s because facing sexual harassment charges of his own, yesterday Republican Congressman Tom Reed who had already said that he wasn’t running for re-election, announced he is stepping down before his term ends while NYS Governor Kathy Hochul, who stepped up to her position after Andrew Cuomo was forced out over his bad behavior, has tapped Democratic Congressman Antonio Delgado to replace her Lieutenant Governor Benjamin who was forced to step down over his public corruption charges.  The map fight in NYS is particularly important because Democrats had hoped to gerrymander their way into gaining a House seat even while the state lost one.  That could still happen as there is never a dull day in the Empire.  

Viral Musings:  On the subject of New York, COVID hospitalizations are at 2369.  A far cry from where they were at peak points in the pandemic but also substantially higher than the 821 level  of early April.  Nationwide, reported new daily COVID cases are closing in on 100,000 again, particularly notable given that with widespread home testing so many cases don’t get reported.  It’s fair to assume that as cases of the newest Omicron variant spread into the heartland,  hospitalizations and even deaths, which now stand above 1 million by everyone’s count, will continue to climb.  To be clear, vaccinations combined with boosters are helping stem the severity of cases but even a “minor” case of COVID is a buzz kill.  As to people with COVID right now, add Stephen Colbert who appears to be having a COVID rebound, whatever that is, and NBC’s Craig Melvin, his wife and his two young children.  Melvin, like his co-host Savannah Guthrie, called into the COVID sick list this week.  And it’s not just comedians and TV celebrities, vaccine expert Dr Peter Hotez, Dean of the Baylor School of  Medicine, is also on the COVID relief list, as is another COVID expert, Chair of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco Bob Wachner and his wife.  Bill Gates too, as apparently (bad joke alert) joining with George Soros to insert “tracking chips” into the arms of the world didn’t protect even him from infection.  The good news is that all the adults are fully vaccinated and boosted and none appear to be seriously ill.     

Don’t toss your masks, better yet wear them in elevators and high trafficked areas.