By now you must
have seen the cartoonish “golden idol” statue of the former president (DJT), dressed
in flip-flops and beach attire displayed at the Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC) in Orlando Florida. Several GOP wannabees are on the
schedule, Senators Lee (UT) Cruz (TX) Hawley (MO) Scott (FL) Cotton (AR) are
some of the speakers;
also on the list is former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump Jr.
as well as Florida Governor DeSantis.
Not attending, perhaps wisely, are former VP Mike Pence and former UN Ambassador
Nikki Haley. Haley is said to be on the
outs since she criticized the former president after the insurrection; Pence
declined an invitation to speak and is lying low for the time being. He, of course, understood that he would not
be the headliner, his former boss would perform that function. But, despite the
speeches from the senators and others, until the former president steps back
from his ‘will he or won’t he’ stance, none of them has a chance and will just
dangle, no matter how many demagogic speeches they make.
And, as might
be expected, the recently impeached insurrection instigator went against the
common courtesies usually shown to predecessors and attacked President Biden
for his policies. He reveled in the adulation shown by the CPAC followers in
the audience who have become members of the MAGA cult, along with others from
the GOP. They applauded his lies
about the previous election and cheered his hints at a possible third try for
the White House. Reason and truth had no place at this conference. He
encouraged further voter restrictions to keep elections from being stolen. It
remains to be seen whether he will take his followers on a road trip and start
campaigning, much as he did shortly after his 2016 election. It feeds his need for applause, but certainly
not the needs of this country for unity and stabilization.
I can only hope
that DJT will soon be otherwise occupied by litigation, both civil and criminal;
these were ignored during his presidency but now he will have to face the music,
especially since the Supreme Court refused
to deny access to his tax records to Federal prosecutors in New York. There are
also civil suits from women who claimed abuse or worse from him as well as
suits arising from the insurrection
where he may also have criminal liability. In the state of Georgia, the Fulton
County District Attorney has launched an investigation into his actions trying
to influence the counting of ballots; this is now on the horizon for a grand
jury review. Since he could hardly find attorneys to represent him for the impeachment
hearing, I wonder where he will now find legal representation. The crew
he had for the impeachment impressed few viewers but then given a pre-ordained
mostly deaf and mute Republican Senate, they did not have to.
Out in the real
world, the business of governing continues. President Biden flew to Texas to
review the FEMA actions toward recovery from the deep freeze, power, and water
problems suffered by those who lived in the area. It is becoming quite apparent
that the state must start to better regulate the maintenance of its power
supplies, insist on adequate insulation and winterizing and restructure the
payment of power bills from the approximately 70 separate entities providing
power there. Economist and consultant James Galbraith was quoted in the Business
Insider about these power issues. He
indicated that the lack of regulation led to fierce competition to provide the
cheapest power so necessary maintenance and upgrades were not done. The ability
to have redundancy and resilience were not built into the system, which was
then left without safeguards when stressed. The system of locking customers into
a fluctuating rate determined by the cost to produce power led to the
outrageous bills of over 10,000 dollars and more for a week’s power. That is a
ruinous rate and, even a state which dislikes regulation must see the need to
step up and fix the problem. Homes that were built without insulation or
protections for plumbing under freezing conditions, need to have better
building codes and some retroactive refits to avoid future mishaps such as the
broken pipes seen in this event.
In the House of
Representatives, the massive 1.9 Trillion-dollar COVID relief bill passed on a
mostly party-line vote, although 2 Democrats did defect. It is a broad bill
providing payments to families and to states and assistance to speed up
vaccines. It now goes to the Senate with the increase in the Federal minimum
wage rate of $15.00 per hour. The Senate
Parliamentarian has ruled that that clause is not appropriate in a revenue
bill, so it should not be allowed when the Senate votes. Since this bill is being presented under the Reconciliation
process to not need 60 votes but can pass with a simple majority, all
Democratic Senators are needed to be on board. The 15-dollar wage is a problem
for Democratic Senators Manchin (WV) and Sinema (AZ) who had protested this
change from the $7.25 Federal minimum wage, even though those upticks would be
phased in over several years. If the Senate removes this provision, some
Democrats are hoping that it could pass as a provision separately in the
future. This measure is a must-have for
many in the progressive wing of the party.
Another concern
for the President is the slow walking of his nominees through the senatorial
hearing process. To many Democrats, the
attacks on nominees
of color by the Republicans are unprecedented. To those outside DC, you might not see it but
the TV lobbying by attack groups such as Heritage Foundation and other right-wingers
is unrelenting. They are airing smear campaigns against Neera Tanden, CEO of
Center for American Progress and aide to President Obama on the ACA (Director,
Management and Budget), Vanita Gupta, Attorney, former Obama DOJ head
for Civil Rights (Associate AG), Congresswoman Deborah Haaland (Secretary
of the Interior), Kristin Clark, current President of the Lawyers Committee
for Civil Rights (DOJ head for Civil Rights Division), and former
Congressman Xavier Becerra (Secretary of HHS).
Many of the
complaints against these nominees are certainly petty and were not issues when
Republican nominees had some of the same issues. Becerra is criticized because he is not a
physician, neither was the latest HHS secretary. Tanden is criticized for her
tweets – did anyone ever read the Twitter feed of the former president? Several
male persons approved by a majority of Senators under the former president had
many damning tweets but were not openly criticized. It should also be noted
that not only are all of these persons of color but all, except Becerra, are
female. Granted, there have been some
minorities approved, General Lloyd Austin and the UN Ambassador Linda Thomas
Greenfield, both African American, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas (Hispanic), to be certain, but those are small numbers. Those abysmal
hearings and slanted remarks against accomplished candidates as well as the
attacks on Dr. Rachel Levine (HHS – a pediatrician who is transgender) by
Senator Rand
Paul have not demonstrated any sense of brotherhood or humanity by the
Republican senators.
What has happened
to the tradition of allowing a president his nominees, unless they were woefully
unqualified? The administration is standing behind all of these nominees, so I
hope they will all each be approved by the full Senate. Manchin, again, is a hold-out here; he claims
to be off-put by Tanden’s tweets. I doubt, however, that there will be many
cross-party votes, so all we can do is hope that they all get through this currently
unfair process.
*****************************************************************************************************
This week The
CDC and FDA evaluated the Vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson and
approved it for immediate release. Four million doses are expected to be released this week with more production next
month. This vaccine only requires a
single vaccination as opposed to Moderna and Pfizer, which are two doses. Current
counts
indicate that more than 72 million vaccines for 14.6 % of the population have
been administered in the US so far. That
pace is ahead of President Biden’s goal of 100 million doses in 100 days, so we
may yet reach the goal of more complete coverage by the summer. Maryland has
increased its vaccination percentage to 14.6% but remains in the lowest third
of state totals. Case totals have
decreased by 28% over the last two weeks nationwide.
COVID
stats: from NY Times 2/28/21
US total cases:
28,622,900. New cases: 50,925
Total deaths:
512,979. New Deaths: 1,129
Maryland
Cases: Total cases: 381,272 Total new cases:
836
Total
deaths: 7,856. Total new Deaths: 18.
****************************************************************************************************
And in late
news today, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo
has been accused by two women of harassment and unwanted sexual advances over
the past few years. The State Attorney
General will investigate. The oft combative Governor apologized saying he
was sorry if his remarks or actions were considered inappropriate, but stated
that he had never made any advances toward either of the two women. He is also
embroiled in a situation over the counting of COVID nursing home deaths and
aggressive actions toward others regarding reporting those numbers. Stay tuned, as they say!
And finally,
the panda
cub climbs a tree and falls out of it – but Mama bear is close behind to offer
comfort!
“Til next week –
peace!
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