Thumbing Noses 🌻🌻🌻

Freak Circuit: Though the January 6^th hearings have dented the Former Guy’s allure, so far at least those dents are no more than dings and he and his adherents remain out and about at various and sundry “conservative” fetes uttering despicable but very click worthy remarks.    Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz, who is somehow or other still out and about on the freak circuit despite all those allegations about his criminal predilection for teen girls took the stage to say that he doesn’t know what they’re worried about because all those women who advocate for abortion services are too fat and ugly to get pregnant, adding that they are built like “thumbs.”  When asked if he meant for those comments to be offensive, he doubled down and said yes.  Hillbilly guy JD Vance, the Republican nominee for the Ohio Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Rob Portman, said that people, especially women who would be better off procreating than seeking careers, should be willing to stay in unhappy marriages, even violent ones, perhaps because growing up in a violent, drug infused family was so good for him.  Then there’s Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate/January 6^th insurrectionist running to be Pennsylvania’s next governor, he’s openly cultivating anti-Semitic followers, paying Gab, the far right wing, hate-filled social media platform fancied by people like the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter, to build his base. In case there’s any confusion about where Mastriano and Gab stand, Gab’s CEO made it clear that he’s not interested in any Jewish supporters, even right wing ones by saying “ We don't want people who are Jewish. We don't want people who are, you know, nonbelievers, agnostic, whatever. This is an explicitly Christian movement because this is an explicitly Christian country…Ben Shapiro is not welcome in the movement unless he repents and accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior.” That’s a message that Georgia’s Margie Q who recently described herself as a Christian Nationalist can certainly live with.  In case you are wondering Christian Nationalism is a kissing cousin of National Socialism as in Naziism.  Then there’s Maryland, where the Republican Governor nominee Dan Cox, another 2020 election denier is so far to the right that the retiring, term limited out Governor Larry Hogan, also a Republican but a member of the almost extinct moderate Republican wing said that he won’t be voting for Cox in the general election. One more thing out of Pennsylvania, over the weekend Republican Congressman Glenn Thompson attended his gay son’s wedding, just three days after he cast his vote against the House bill protecting same sex and interracial marriage proving that it doesn’t matter what Republicans like Thompson believe in their hearts.  What does matter is that they are hypocrites, so desperate to cling to their seats that they’ll do anything to do so and if their votes hurt their own children or eliminate reproductive rights or have them teaming with White Supremacists or worse so be it.  By the way, the Former Guy is returning to Washington DC today to talk about law and order at an America First Policy Institute conference, one that will be attended by the usual coterie of Republicans and press enablers.  His planned appearance explains why Biden rasped out this dig yesterday” “You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-American.”

Viral Musings:  Though President Biden’s voice is raspy and he pallor seems a bit pastier than usual, he seems to be doing fine. He should be out of COVID quarantine soon, around the same time that Delaware Senator Carper emerges from his COVID isolation but before Senators Manchin and Murkowski, who both revealed yesterday that they are also COVID positive, emerge from theirs, assuming that is that they, like most who are vaxxed and boosted, and as necessary take Paxlovid, come out relatively unscathed.  The Senators’ COVID status is particularly relevant right now because Leader Schumer, who also recently had COVID, has plans to bring several key pieces of legislation up for vote and needs all hands on deck to get anything passed.  By the way, if you think you haven’t had COVID by now, you either probably had it and didn’t realize that your mildly scratchy throat wasn’t allergies or are extraordinarily lucky with an immune system of remarkable fortitude. According to the Bloomberg Prognosis newsletter, the good news is that if you’ve had the BA 5 variant and have a healthy immune system you are unlikely to get it again and if you’ve had one of the earlier sub variants of Omicron and are vaccinated you are somewhere around 80% protected from getting the BA 5 subvariant. But as we’ve learned coronavirus mutates deviously, so don’t let your guard down entirely and get ready to line up for another COVID vaccine in the Fall. Of course, COVID isn’t the only virus making it into the headlines these days, the World Health Organization has now declared Monkeypox a global health emergency.  The US has 3400 verified cases, and though most of those cases are being identified mostly in adult males, two young children have been diagnosed and, more significantly, there are probably many undiagnosed cases out there. No need to panic at this point.  Monkeypox is rarely lethal, there is a vaccine and there is treatment.  The problem right now has more to do with getting vaccine supply to where it’s needed most combined with a lack of adequate testing supplies. Expect to see increased availability of both over the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you are a member of the most vulnerable population consider some behavior modification for now at least until you manage to get one of those coveted shots.  That’s not a popular recommendation but it is a practical one.

Legally Yours:  It looks like the Department of Justice really is focused on the Former Guy and his cronies’ attempts to usurp the Electoral College votes.  Yesterday it was reported that Marc Short, former VP Pence’s former chief of staff, who has already testified before the January 6^th Committee, spent a few hours in front of a Washington DC Grand Jury last week as did Pence’s White House lawyer Greg Jacobs.  In Georgia, where District Attorney Fani Willis is also looking into the FG’s attempts to steal the election, a judge ruled that she can’t be involved in the case against one of her state’s phony electors, Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Burt Jones because she had headlined a campaign function for his Democratic opponent.  That’s the bad news, the good news is that she can continue with her case against the other 15 fake electors and can find someone else to pursue the case against Jones.  

Bread Crumbs:  it’s hard to really understand what’s happening in Ukraine as Putin continues to do what he does, make promises and then renege on them.  Late last week, he supposedly agreed to let Ukraine export grain through its Odesa port only to bomb the port after the agreement was “made.”  While we’ve all been focused on the cost of gas at the pump, the grain issue is a big one because Ukraine’s grain feeds a lot of the world, especially parts of Africa where people are already starving and also boiling because of the climate problem that some believe is just faux news but that the rest of us know isn’t.