Immunity 🌻🌻🌻

Fist Bumps:  President Biden is back from his Middle East visit but instead of delving into the reasons for the visit, like securing oil supply during a war, working on regional peace and dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions and capabilities, the press spent the weekend focused on whether Biden greeting Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salaam/bone cutter with a fist bump was too friendly, adequately disrespectful or just a sign of times COVID.  That discourse just about sums up the reaction to everything Biden does, good or bad, his actions get disparaged and dissected by the press which seems desperate to see the Former Guy or an equally outrageous guy on center stage because of ratings, by the left most of whom would have preferred that someone else had been the Democratic nominee for president in 2020 and who don’t get that it takes more than 50 Senators to get much done, especially when two of those Senators are centrists with their own agendas, and by the right who, spurred on by the Fox, OANN and Newsmax media echo chamber, are growing further extreme.  And by extreme think abortion politics and guns.  On the gun front, the news out of Uvalde is gut wrenching, 376 law enforcement officials, couldn’t take down one shooter and still Republican politicians insist that getting rid of AR 15s and the like, or at the very least restricting their ownership, wouldn’t do much to prevent future mass shootings but that arming kindergarten teachers and doing something about doors would. Because so much that’s bad these days emanates from Texas it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of those more focused on door policies than the lives of elementary school children, has moved on from trashing reproductive rights to questioning the legality of same sex marriage, saying that the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling, the landmark decision that extended marriage rights to all, was wrongly decided because in his view decisions about who can and cannot get married belong to the states.  If that states’ rights argument sounds familiar it’s because it should, it’s part of the argument that the right used to dismantle reproductive rights, which is why it’s particularly ironic, or devious, take your pick that having killed access to abortion and dismantled reproductive health care in so many places, the right is now focusing on how to eliminate abortion federally, as in everywhere in the country, because that states’ rights argument only works for them when they want it to, the rest of the time, not so much. They’re beginning by focusing on ways to make it more difficult, maybe even illegal, for women to leave their states to obtain abortions elsewhere but also intend to push for abortion banning legislation should the Republicans ever have the House and Senate votes to do so.  As to those travel bans, they sound farfetched but then again, it wasn’t that long ago that the idea of states being able ban all abortions no matter the reason also sounded too dystopian to happen.  When not focused on fist bumps, the press, at least the mainstream press, has been covering stories about women suffering, coming close to death, unable to get appropriate treatment for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, not that any of that concerns politicians on the right several of whom believe that there is no such thing as an ectopic pregnancy, that all miscarriages are the fault of the mother and that children should be forced to carry babies to term. Maternal mortality in the US already ranks poorly when compared to developed countries, by next year that ranking will be even worse.  

 

January 6:  The next episode of this summer’s hit mini-series is scheduled for this Thursday during prime time.  Featured stars of the evening will include Matthew Pottinger, a former national security aide to the FG and one time Wall Street Journal reporter who is respected on both sides of the political divide and Sarah Matthews who served as deputy press secretary in the FG’s administration.  Both resigned just hours after the January 6 insurrection.  It’s expected that Matthews will verify much of what we learned from Cassidy Hutchinson while Pottinger will testify about the struggle to get the Capitol Hill onslaught under control despite the FG’s preference to let it rage on.  The hearing will mostly focus on that latter part, the FG’s failure to do anything to stop the insurrection.  In other related news, the increasingly despicable Steve Bannon was in court yesterday where juror selection began for his contempt of Congress trial.  In addition we learned that Fulton County DA Fani Willis sent out another subpoena last month, this one to Republican Congressman Jody Hice, one of those who attended a December 2020 meeting in the White House where strategies to overturn the election were discussed.  Also, via Rachel Maddow, we learned about a memo that Attorney General Garland distributed at the DOJ about six or so weeks ago.  That memo reminded his staff about that DOJ policy that no political indictments should take place in the run up to elections and that anything related to a presidential candidate had to be approved by leadership.  That’s not really a new policy, had it been followed, Hillary Clinton probably would be in her second term in office but still it rankles given the times, the FG’s crimes and his not so private statements that running again will immunize him from legal liability.       

Viral Musings:  Yes, it’s not your imagination, the BA 5 Omicron subvariant is here, there and everywhere.  Though most infected people, especially those vaccinated and boosted twice, are doing fine the sheer volume of the new cases is still having an impact, and some people are getting very sick, which is why hospitalizations are climbing again and when hospitalizations rise, deaths can follow. Virus Guru Fauci who had the virus and a rebound case not too ago revealed yesterday that he plans to retire by the end of Biden’s current term, not all that surprising given his age and how taxing his job has been, not to mention all the death threats he receives on a daily basis.  Monkeypox is out there too, don’t panic but do run any mysterious rashes or symptoms by your doctor, though it’s not clear that most of them are experienced enough with the virus to know it when they see it.  In any case, while the Monkeypox vaccine is still in short supply, it does exist and it works even for those who already have symptoms as long as it’s given soon enough so keep that in mind in the unlikely, well at least so far unlikely and let’s hope it stays that way, case that you are infected.