Nay, Neigh, Nyet

Mailing It In:  It’s Friday but we still don’t know whether Mehmet Oz or David McCormick will be Pennsylvania’ Republican Senate candidate.  With around 8700 mail-in votes still uncounted Oz has a very slim 1124 vote lead over McCormick.  Unless one of the two garners a significantly disproportionate share of the remaining votes, a mandatory recount will be triggered making it likely that a winner won’t be declared until early June.  Of course the Former Guy isn’t interested in any of that; he’s insisting that Oz just declare himself the victor and move on because that worked out so well for him?  The McCormick side, which includes many of the same FG aides who questioned both the validity of mail-in votes in 2020 and Biden’s victory, wants to wait until every ballot is counted particularly since many of them come from his home county. For his part Oz hasn’t declared himself the winner, yet, but he has said some of the quiet part out loud, thanking Fox pundit Sean Hannity for providing him with so much valuable campaign advice during their daily calls.  As to saying quiet stuff out loud Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp who is currently in autocratic leader Viktor Orban’s Hungary for this year’s “American” Conservative PAC conference weighed in on both the imminent overturning of Roe v Wade and Replacement Theory by saying banning abortion is a good thing since it helps with the “great replacement” and will result in the birth of more of “our people.”  I shudder to think what his plans are for the forced pregnancies that lead to more babies who aren’t white evangelicals.  Then again, judging by yesterday’s House vote, we kind of know what his party’s plans are.  Yesterday 192 Republicans, including all of GOP leadership, voted against providing $28 million to the FDA to help address the current baby formula shortage because while fertilized eggs matter to them, actual babies, particularly poor ones don’t.  That said, they’ll all continue to harp on the formula debacle because it makes for a good political talking point, especially if they let it fester.  Unfortunately for them between getting Abbott’s plant up and running again, importing banned by the revised NAFTA agreement formula from overseas, and allowing WIC (women, infants and children) food stamp beneficiaries increased buying flexibility, the formula problem will be resolved soon, though not soon enough for those currently in a bind. By the way Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz believes that families who use WIC benefits are not “hard-working Americans” and shouldn’t have access to more baby formula.  Apparently Herr Putz, whose district includes lots of members of the military doesn’t know or care that many of those financially stressed families are WIC beneficiaries.  Getting back to fertilized eggs, Oklahoma is gearing up to ban abortions from the moment of fertilization.  Their new law will take a page from Texas, allowing state residents to sue those having or abetting an abortion because isn’t that what good neighbors do and doesn’t every state need period police?

Primary Colors: Next week there will be primaries in Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia where the FG has basically abandoned former Senator David Perdue, the gubernatorial candidate he endorsed over current Governor Brian Kemp, something to do with polls that show Kemp leading Perdue by 32 points and the FG not wanting to be associated with another loser.  To be clear, Kemp is as conservative as they come and a whiz at voter suppression, the FG hates him because he refused to overturn the result of the 2020 election. To that end, the interesting Georgia race to watch is the too close to predict one between incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused to find those 11k votes that the FG asked him to dig up, and his challenger Congressman Jody Hice, who voted against certifying Biden’s victory and who promises that he’ll get to the bottom of all that fraud that wasn’t making sure that no Democrat ever “steals” another statewide election again.  Needless to say, Hice has the FG’s full endorsement.  In Alabama, where, as a result of the impending retirement of Republican Senator Richard Shelby, a Senate seat is up for grabs, Congressman Mo Brooks, who had the FG endorsement before he lost it when it became clear that he was lagging in the polls, is going to lose.  The likely Republican winner will be Katie Britt who, absent any as yet undisclosed accusations of child molestation, will cruise to victory and on to the Senate because Alabama is as red as you get.

Human Resources:  Elon Musk whose takeover of Twitter remains in jeopardy has been tweeting a lot, as in tons, of weird stuff lately, peculiar even for him.  First he tweeted “in the past I voted Democrat because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.” Then because saying that he was moving to the “replacement theory” party not because he doesn’t want to pay more in taxes but because Democrats weren’t kind enough wasn’t sufficiently Orwellian, he tweet warned that an onslaught of “political attacks” against him would be forthcoming.  Well, late yesterday we learned what he meant by “political attacks.”  Apparently his SpaceX company paid one of his former flight attendant’s $250,000 to settle a sexual misconduct case in 2018.  The case which we are learning about now only because a friend of the flight attendant, who isn’t talking because she signed one of those non-disclosure agreements, has come forward with the details.  The case involved Musk flashing his private parts at the flight attendant during a massage,  promising to buy her a horse if she provided him with a “whole body” experience.  Apparently, having massage skills is a Flight Attendant requirement in Musk world not surprising given that frequently published photograph of Musk with Jeffrey Epstein abettor Ghislaine Maxwell.  Though he’s not been accused of sexual harassment, it looks like the House January 6^th Committee has pictures of at least one Republican Congressman, Barry Loudermilk, giving some “constituents” or insurrectionists posing as constituents a tour through the Capitol on January 5^th.  That’s significant for two reasons: first, because of pandemic restrictions Capitol tours were suspended at that time, and, second, Loudermilk had previously denied giving such a tour.  It wouldn’t be a reach to assume that the January 6^th Committee has many more implicating pictures that they’re about to share.  Speaking of implicating, there’s also be reporting about the ongoing investigation into all things Hunter Biden and how he resolved his tax liability. No doubt that Hunter’s business dealings are questionable but maybe that’s not why they’re getting so much attention.  It’s as good a time as any to mention the $600 million that Javanka booked during the FG presidency and the recent $2 billion capital commitment that the Saudi wealth fund made to the not so qualified Jared’s investment vehicle  

🌻🌻🌻 The $40 billion aid package for Ukraine passed the Senate yesterday by a vote of 86 to 11.  Despite Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saying that voting against the package would be a mistake because “anyone concerned about the cost of supporting a Ukrainian victory should consider the much larger cost should Ukraine lose” all 11 naysayers were Republicans including: Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, John Boozman of Arkansas, Mike Braun of Indiana, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. Some of them are presidential wannabees, some are just placating the FG, one is Rand Paul, and then there’s Tuberville who might not even knew what he was voting against.