Summer Breeze 🌻🌻🌻

Guns, Guns, Guns:  While the team of Senators working on gun legislation continued trying to patch together something watered down enough to get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, Matthew McConaughy the actor and gun owner who grew up in Uvalde and who for a brief moment teased running for Texas Governor, gave a seriously impassioned and quite impressive speech from the White House press room, part of his effort to push for rational gun policy.  Kudos to him for trying.  However, if the accusation that he was just grandstanding from a member of the White House press contingent, from Newsmax this time, is indicative of the intransigence of the right and it probably is, his laudable effort will do nothing to move the gun obsessed who according to Republican Minority Whip Senator John Thune need their assault rifles for “legitimate reasons” like to “shoot prairie dogs.” Given Thune’s need for AR 15s to kill vermin, the Senate talks are focused only on addressing school safety, setting standards for safe gun storage, providing some federal support for mental health programs and incentives for states to create red flag laws to remove guns from potentially dangerous owners. The talks also included some possible expansions to federal background checks for younger people seeking to buy guns rather than limiting sales to them because don’t all teens need AR 15s?  Anyway, don’t count on all of this making it into the proposed legislation assuming that there is any.  

Midterm Madness:  There were a bunch of primaries yesterday and a notable recall referendum.  On the primary front, the results in California which holds “jungle” primaries rather than single party ones,  were probably the most newsworthy.  In the Los Angeles mayoralty election very, very rich real estate developer Rick Caruso who was a Republican, then an Independent, and now professes to be a Democrat edged out Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass. Neither received 50% of the vote, setting them up for a runoff in November. By the way Caruso who was endorsed by those important social influencers Kim Kardashian and Snoop Dog spent around $40 million on his primary run, Bass reportedly spent less than $500,000.  In San Francisco, the apparently too prison sentencing reform minded District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled by voters who despite the city’s liberal leanings blamed him for the city’s recent crimewave which probably has more to do with pandemic related behavior than his policies but hey someone needed to take the heat.  By the way, Boudin whose parents were 60s radicals Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert knows a lot about growing up with incarcerated parents but maybe not enough about building support for policy change in a tough environment.  In Montana, which is gaining a House seat due to census related redistricting, Ryan Zinke, the former Montana Congressman, who before becoming the Former Guy’s first Secretary of the Interior, the cabinet position he lost over credible accusations of corruption, is locked in a still too close to call race against his even more right wing opponent. In South Dakota, voters rejected a proposition that would have required a 60% votes to pass any Medicaid expansion legislation, pushing back against Republicans, including Governor Kristi Noem who easily won her primary.  Kristi and her crowd are concerned that the electorate will vote for the expansion in the fall and as evidenced by her pandemic policies she’s not that into health care for all.  As to the will he or won’t he run again FG, the news for him was mixed as a number of those candidates he wanted to see sent packing over their votes for things he despises, like the January 6^th committee appear to have held their own against candidates he supported.

Must See TV: The first January 6^th Committee hearing is set to be televised tomorrow night but don’t try to find it on Fox “News” as the station won’t be airing it because that’s how they roll.  Instead Fox is sending it to their Siberia station, Fox Business, because almost no one watches it, especially at night.  In an effort to get their message across to the masses the January 6^th Committee has retained former president of ABC News, James Goldston, who also served as a producer for 20/20, Nightline and Good Morning America to help with their presentation. His work won’t be easy, there is so much to cover and still so much more emerging on a daily basis.  Yesterday, more of kraken lawyer John Eastman’s emails were released to the Committee and we also learned that a staffer for the FG’s presidential campaign instructed Republicans planning to cast electoral college votes for the FG in Georgia despite Biden’s win operate in “complete secrecy.” In an email obtained by The Washington Post the staffer appropriately named Robert Sinners, asked the faux electors for their “complete discretion in this process….Your duties are imperative to ensure the end result — a win in Georgia” for the FG.  Just another reason that the Fox poohbahs including Tucker and Hannity as well as Republican leadership want to sweep all of this under the carpet.

Viral Musings:  Count Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg among the infected, he along with at least 15 others who attended a Mackinac Island (Michigan) business conference last week have now tested positive. At least so far Governor Whitmer who was in attendance appears to be fine. On the vaccine front, it looks like we’re about to get another one as the Novavax vaccine is nearing final approval by the CDC.  That’s significant because the Novavax vaccine does not rely on mRNA technology and may prove palatable to those who fear the newer technology, well maybe. On the Monkeypox front, because of course there is now a Monkeypox front, the CDC is playing a masking advisory game again.  Earlier in the week they advised masking when traveling to countries with Monkeypox because though it’s mostly spread by physical contact it can also be airborne, but then removed the warning because “it caused confusion.”  Does any of this sound familiar? Blowing through the Jasmine in my mind.     

RIP Jim Seals