Thursday February 25, 2021
Before we get to the real stuff going on let me give a shout out to Moscow Mitch. When asked about the Coronavirus $1.9 T package he did a great shuck and jive. See, over 70% of the population like the package and over 60% of Republicans like it, kind of makes it hard to vote against doesn’t it? Not for Mitch and da gang! Oh no.
Let’s break it down, because this is classic McConnell obstructionism:
“Everybody likes getting a check” (Whoa, dude right on!)
“However, there are signs the economy is doing better” (The corner is about to be turned. Watch out!)
“We want ‘targeted’ relief…” (Love that buzzword ‘targeted’! What does it mean? It means Mitch is going to figure out a way to not give YOU a check.)
“Once the ‘American People’ learn what else is in the package…” (Yeah? Like what? Why aren’t you specific? Oh, because they like everything and you got nothing?)
“We are looking forward not backward.” (Did you do that with your huge tax cut package? I bet you did. Filled your political coffers nicely didn’t it?)
To sum up. When McConnell was asked about the relief package he didn’t answer whether he was going to support it, because he won’t. He sniped at unspecific details and used stock phrases to try and sound like he was doing his darnedest to be a good overseer of not spending too much, something that never occurs to him when he has the power.
Okay, moving on. J&J are closer to getting their vaccine approved. It doesn’t require the deep refrigeration like some of the others, and it’s one shot. Moderna is working on vaccine tweaking for the variants. Numbers are coming down. Amazing what happens when you have a leader taking responsibility and developing a national response.
But the big news will be what the intelligence community is supposed to release today on the killing of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khasshoggi. President Biden spoke yesterday with the King of Saudi Arabia, not his son, who is reputed to have ordered the execution. No doubt, what the intelligence community has will point directly to the crown prince, known as MBS. What I’m wondering is will they also show that Jared, who was in constant communication with MBS, gave the crown prince confidence that nothing would happen if he killed and hacked Jamal to death?
The adjective used the most with Satan is “transactional.” I’m never sure what that word means. The dictionary defines it as relating to doing business, especially buying and selling. It seems to mean with Satan that he was willing to give up anything to get the deal. When MBS met Jared the reports were that he was stunned at “how transactional” Jared was. Does that mean that as long as Jared got whatever he wanted he didn’t care if that meant you can kill a U.S. citizen who is a Washington Post reporter and the U.S. won’t do anything?
There were also two great clips coming from yesterday’s review of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s management of the Post Office. He was appointed by Satan. He wasn’t on the original list of those being considered. He had no experience in postal stuff, as was evident when Katie Porter questioned him. He held stock in a company that competed with the post office and once he got in immediately started doing whatever he could to destroy the post office’s ability to deliver mail. Since he has been in office on time delivery of mail has fallen much like the Covid numbers. That is to say like the slope of a double black diamond. Quite a feat. You can’t say he hasn’t managed the Post Office, because he has. It was Trump’s intention and his henchman has been dutifully carrying it out.
This led to two exchanges yesterday in the House oversight committee’s hearing with DeJoy. I don’t know what DeJoy did or said, because he wasn’t the main attraction. I understand he was his smiling truculent self. But first off was a Massachusetts Congressman who followed a Georgia Congressman. (Dem following Republican.)
The Georgia Congressman said that the mail was being delivered at a very high percentage in terms of the ballots for the last election. The Massachusetts Congressman said he found this very interesting because not that long ago the Georgia representative had voted to overturn the results in two state elections for President based on the idea that the mail in ballots were not legit.
This was only the opening salvo. Then Jim Jordan got his turn. You really don’t have to listen to Jordan because it’s the same act. He sits there hunched over slightly, goofy sarcastic smile on his smug face, no jacket, no mask, and he says inane things. Disgusting things.
When his time was up it was time for Gerry Connolly to speak. To say he ripped Jordan a new one would be appropriate. He said he would not be lectured by on bipartisanship by someone who voted to overturn the election. He also pointed out that the idea that the election was unfair was a Republican idea promulgated by the past president, not a Democratic idea as proposed by Jordan.
Here’s a snippet of those exchanges:
Okay, we’ve got two more pieces of information for ya:
1) The Biden administration has been able to reunite slightly over 100 kids separated from their parents by Stephen Miller*. That leaves about 500 kids still to be reunited.
*Stephen did not personally do it, but I bet he would have liked to do so. He had Immigration do it for him.
2) The girl who stole the laptop from Nancy Pelosi’s office has been identified as the woman dancing in a video that is chock full of white supremacist slogans, signs, and Nazi stuff, including ending with a Hitler salute and words underneath praising Hitler. The laptop has not been recovered.
PS Rock of Joy
Excellent synopsis. As always!