May the Force Be With You 🌻🌻🌻

It’s Not About the Leak: Pushing the narrative that the issue is the leak rather than the stripping away of fifty years of reproductive rights, the right has started pointing fingers at potential leakers, targeting one of Justice Breyer’s law clerks, even though there’s no evidence that she is the source, and even going after incoming Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who since she isn’t seated yet has had no involvement in the upcoming decision but then again she is Black so there’s that?  Oddly enough, just about as many pundits believe the leak may have come from the right, perhaps even from Justice Alito, the author of the horrifying draft, an attempt to solidify what is believed to be his five vote majority. Notably, Alito has cancelled an upcoming speech because maybe he like the Former Guy fears tomatoes and pineapples?  Politico, where the leaked opinion first appeared has upped security over concerns that someone will go after its “traitorous” reporters. In addition, while confirming that the draft is genuine, an agitated Chief Justice Roberts announced an investigation into the source of the leak because Ginni Thomas coup colluding and using her marital influence isn’t a problem, but the leak is?  Worth noting, the general view is that though the leak was highly unusual, it wasn’t illegal.  Moving on from the leak, the issue to focus on is Reproductive Rights and what can be done to preserve them.  Supporters of choice are calling for Congress to pass a law guaranteeing nationwide access but to do that the Senate would have to first agree to a filibuster carve out because even if Republican Senators Murkowski and Collins sign on, the majority would fall far short of the sixty votes needed to pass any legislation.  Moreover, even if it did, a Republican controlled Senate would then do what they tried to do to the Affordable Care Act, so instead of attacking Senators Manchin and Sinema, who by the way is a long-time supporter of reproductive freedom but continues to oppose eliminating the filibuster, the left and everyone else who cares should focus their efforts on growing the Democratic majority in the Senate.  Did I mention that pearl twirler  Collins wants us all to know that none of this is her fault because Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lied when they assured her that they would respect the Roe and Casey precedents?  Left unsaid is that her so called gullibility was fed by lots of political contributions from Mitch McConnell’s PAC. Turning to the states, while far too many of them are poised to severely restrict access to abortion the second that the Supreme Court rules, three Republican Governors: New Hampshire’s Sununu, Massachusetts’ Baker and Vermont’s Scott all announced that they remain in the pro-choice category.

Oh Ohio:  The Former Guy’s guy, hillbilly author JD Vance won the Ohio primary and will be the Republican candidate for the open Ohio Senate seat.  The Republican field was fractured, and Vance only received 32% of the vote, but the Former Guy is taking his victory as confirmation that his power is once again ascending and sadly it probably is but Vance also benefited from a lot of tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s money and the fact that no one else in the race was all that impressive.  But let’s move on from Vance and focus on the upcoming race.  The runaway winner of the Democratic primary was Congressman Tim Ryan, a popular centrist who supports reproductive rights.  Though Ohio has moved to the right over the past few election cycles, its other US Senator is Democrat Sherrod Brown who won reelection in 2020 so we shouldn’t count Ryan out especially since the weaselly Vance is on record saying that he “really doesn’t care what happens in Ukraine” and more than 45,000 Ohioans claim Ukrainian heritage.  That was a long winded way of saying that if you are so inclined consider going to Actblue.com and donating to Tim Ryan’s campaign because with billionaire Peter Thiel financing Vance, Ryan is going to need all the help he can get.  

Viral Musings:  It’s not your imagination, COVID is on an upswing, here, there and everywhere.  It turns out that the BA2.12.1 variant is even more contagious than its predecessors and that those who came down with the earlier version, especially those who aren’t vaccinated and boosted are vulnerable to reinfection.  Yesterday Secretary of State Blinken’s office revealed that he is now COVID positive as is ABC journalist Jonathan Karl.  Both were at last weekend’s White House Correspondent’s dinner where Karl who sat at celebutante Kim and SNL Pete’s table and shook hands with POTUS received an award for excellence in presidential coverage.  As to Blinken, he says that he’s not considered a direct contact of the at least for now still negative Biden and to be fair, Blinken’s been all over the world lately so he could have contracted his COVID anywhere.  It’s not surprising that a few people who attended the correspondent’s dinner where everyone was vaccinated and, unlike the earlier Gridiron super spreader dinner, had to show a negative test to attend, turned up positive so it’s too early to say whether or not it was the super spreader that host Trevor Noah joked it could be.  Bottom line, don’t throw away those masks and consider wearing one when indoors, assuming that is that you don’t care about joining the at least once infected majority.  US COVID deaths are trending up again, and depending on whose statistics you look at we’re now very close to or have crossed through the 1 million mark.  

Still More:  A New York appellate court judge rejected a motion from the Former Guy to stay the contempt of court ruling against him requiring that he actually pay $10,000 per day in fines levied against him for failing to turn over documents to NYS Attorney General Tish James for her investigation into his business dealings. That said, I have no idea if he, or more likely some group of his gullible donors, are actually paying those fines. Earlier this week, FG Junior actually testified, remotely, in front of the January 6^th committee.  Reports are that he did not plead the Fifth which means that either he lied or that he confirmed the things that the Committee already knew about his behavior on and around insurrection day.  Junior’s cooperation makes those assertions by others in the FG’s orbit that they can’t testify due to presidential privilege awfully awkward.

Live Long and Prosper!