MLB Deadline

A lot of you have been ALL over me like a collapsed tent…

Looking for comments and assessments on Major League Baseball trade deadline yesterday.

It was unlike any I can recall…

I’ll talk more about it once the dust settles, in the coming days.

The names were so big, the transactions so rapid, that it will take some time for the contents/players to clear and to know who had gone where and for what.

Suspense looms…

ALL I’ll say about my Red Sox, at this moment – they were very, very cautious; and they’ve dropped three of their last four.

‘WAR HAS CHANGED’

I know I’m NOT the only one that has picked up on this matter over the last 36 hours.

The Washington Post and the cable networks broke the story, or at least parts of it, Thursday night – through a leak to reporters at the WaPost.

This ‘leak’ was a document, in the form of an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) slide presentation, shared within the CDC, and which fell into the hands of the WaPost.

It captures the struggle of the nation’s top public health agency to persuade the public to embrace vaccination and prevention measures, including mask-wearing, as cases once again surge across the country, and that the latest research suggests vaccinated people can spread the virus.

The Delta variant appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox.

According to this internal federal health document it argues officials must “acknowledge the war has changed.”

Then, why didn’t they??!

We got it through a ‘leak.’

WHY???????????????????

The point I’m making is this: Such “behavior of F-E-A-R” from the nation’s top public health agency to persuade the public to embrace vaccination and prevention measures, including mask-wearing, is exactly why the country, as I type this morning, is still less than 50% fully-vaccinated.

Many who are NOT just have NO FAITH and CONFIDENCE in the the CDC, and more to the point, in the folks running the show.

As I’ve said before, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky appears to be out of her depth!!!

The agency must move the goal posts of success into full public view, NO matter what the science is telling us.

We’re dealing with a vicious moving target…

Tragically, the trouble is better than 40% of the our population denies there’s even a target, moving or NOT.

h/t: Johns Hopkins University.

THE AUDIT’S OVER, Donnie

According to a memo released yesterday, the Justice Department advised the Treasury Department to turn over “the former guy’s” tax returns to the House panel that has sought them since 2019.

Trump had broken with four decades of tradition from presidents and major-party presidential candidates by NOT voluntarily releasing any tax returns, and has argued that Dems seeking them were engaged in a political fishing expedition to make him look bad. 

Good boys NEVER have to be concerned about such things, Donnie!

The Treasury Department must turn over six years of Trump’s tax returns to House investigators, the Justice Department said in a legal opinion, that most likely paves the way for their eventual release to Congress and potentially to the public [giddy up!!!].

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has dealt a sharp legal blow to a yearlong campaign by Trump to keep his tax information secret, reversing a Trump administration position that had shielded the documents from Congress.

Ah, the good olde days of Jeff and Billy…

Dems on the Hill, who said they aim to examine the IRS’s presidential audit program and Trump’s conflicts of interest, hailed the decision as a victory for congressional oversight powers and for national security.

CONFLICTS of INTEREST?

Should be listed as Trump’s primary occupation.

The Office of Legal Counsel gives legal advice to the executive branch; its opinions typically decide an agency’s legal position, but they are NOT binding in federal courts. 

h/t: Brennan Center for Justice and National Constitution Center.

“… leave the rest to ME”

Ambrosia for the mind!

Donald John Trump pressed senior Justice Department officials in late 2020 to “just say the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me” and Re’Trump’lican lawmakers, according to stunning handwritten notes that illustrate how far Boy Orange was willing to go to prevent Joey Biden from taking office.

In one December 27th conversation, according to the written account, acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen told Trump that the Justice Department “can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election.”

The notes, taken by Justice Department official Richard Donoghue, were released to Congress this week and made public yesterday – further evidence of the personal pressure campaign Trump waged as he sought to stay in the White House.

Trump replied that he understood but wanted the agency to “just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,” according to the notes written by Donoghue.

This is NOT surprising at ALL, at any level, to the old Lobsterman, that after his election loss there would NO limit to what Trump might do to retain power.  And, it shouldn’t be to any rational individual!

I wasn’t referring to any of you Deplorables.

Someone once said, I can’t remember who, “We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”

What really angers me about this latest news is these phone conversations took place on 12/27, ten full days before the 1/6 insurrection; WHY THE F didn’t Rosen and Donoghue release this vulgarity to the public/press/media IMMEDIATELY??!!??!!

Wet bamboo sticks and dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DARKNESS DESCENDS

We’re facing a resurgence…

The new Delta strain of the virus requires, according to the CDC, that we go back to wearing masks inside in public places where the virus is surging, even if we’re fully inoculated.

Over the last 72 hours, Re’Trump’licans, FOX and countless Red State Deplorables have seized on the issue as another opportunity to politicize !!! public health.

House Minority Leader Kevin “Toad-Man” McCarthy has responded to the new CDC recommendation, as well as to Biden’s address yesterday, with the type of unhinged hyperbole Deplorables have perfected, “The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.”

Aunts and uncles, NEVER underestimate the staying power of a fool!!!

Rest assured, Re’Trump’lican politicizing of public health will get worse if the Delta variant continues to surge.

Those eager to exploit the virus’s resurgence – the knuckle-draggers, know-nothings, Trump wannabes, vilely ambitious political upcomers, FOX and similarly cynical entertainers – are ALREADY barking about “personal freedom” threatened by “socialism.”

The investigation into the attack on the US Capitol on 1/6 is added evidence of how far the Re’Trump’lican party has descended into opportunistic thuggery.

Re’Trump’lican leaders don’t want the public to know about their specific members of Congress who were almost certainly involved in the 1/6 travesty – either directly or indirectly.

Those ‘usual suspects’ include: Representatives Jim Jordan, Mo “Armor-Vest” Brooks, Paul “Open-Wide” Gosar, Matt “What Room?”Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Andrew Biggs and McCarthy himself.

Something in the way she moves
attracts me like no other lover
something in the way she woos me
i don’t want to leave her now
you know i believe and how
Somewhere in her smile she knows
that i don’t need no other lover.

h/t: Beatles.

GREAT…now what’s ahead??!

As of June, our economy was officially back and fully recovered from the pandemic.

Although…

A recent surge in COVID cases may threaten new uncertainty ahead.

The economy grew at an annual rate of 6.5% in the second quarter as ‘limited’ vaccinations and unleashed consumer spending added momentum to the recovery.

For the first time since the pandemic took hold, economic output eclipsed its pre-pandemic high, after adjusting for inflation.

Second-quarter growth fell short of economists’ forecasts.

Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal estimated that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services made in the US, would grow at an 8.4% annual rate in the April-to-June period.

The highly contagious Delta variant poses an increasing risk to the economic outlook in addition to businesses needing workers; supply-chain distribution issues still NOT being under control; and, yes, I’ll say it, INFLATION. 

Listen, I’m off to do my part…

Two sausage biscuits with, I think I’m going with strawberry jam this morning, at the Golden Arches.

I love this country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Full-Court Press for the AGES

More and more is seeping through the “dry wall of secrecy.”

The 45th president lived on the phone in the waning days of his residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Washington Post, with its band of merry men and women, through published books, as well as day-in/day-out reporting, has been/is painting the travesty known as Boy Orange‘s ‘house of cards.’

FULL DISCLOSURE: I just finished I Alone Can Fix It, by Carol Leonning and Phil Rucker; loved it.

But, I digress…

The latest reporting by the folks at WaPost indicates that Trump burnt up the phone lines with his then acting attorney general, Jeffery Rosen, crying about the Big Lie – voter fraud and alleged improper voter counts.

It seems that the Orange Menace mounted a pressure campaign that would have made Nolan Richardson smile.

Rosen, according to the Post, told few people about the phone calls, even in his inner circle.

But…

There are notes of some of the calls that were written by a top aide to Rosen, Richard Donoghue, who was present for some of the conversations.

Don’t be shocked, if those notes appear in the hands of some those “profiles in courage” living, and crawling, around the halls of Congress.

ALL the while, it appears like there’ll be yet another lawsuit by the tangerine-tainted wannabe dictator to file papers in court to halt such a handover; how many legal maneuvers would that make?

Can’t keep the total straight…

When will the TAPES surface?!!??!

DEFIANCE in the ABSURD

As we ALL are aware, this week, the rattled CDC recommended that vaccinated Americans in Coronavirus hot spots around the country go back to wearing face coverings indoors.

The roar will be heard for weeks…of complete and defined refusal.

States, counties and local townships have ALREADY started filing lawsuit-after-lawsuit indicating NO WAY, Jose.

Those trying to get people to wear face coverings again in the middle of a Climate Changing summer are encountering two ignorant reactions: defiance and hostility.

Herd immunity has gone the way of Madonna‘s first hit.

Four Re’Trump’lican governors, Greg Abbott of Texas, Doug Ducey of Arizona, Brian Kemp of Georgia and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, signaled their opposition to the recommendation.

Nine states – Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas – had ALREADY banned or limited face mask mandates, leaving cities and counties with few options to fight the virus spread.

“It’s an inconvenience and it’s annoying,” are the cascades of whining coming from creatures existing in an alternate universe.

So is DEATH!!!

WHERE ARE WE??!

A recent CBS/YouGov poll asked Americans if they approved of the actions of those who forced their way into the Capitol on 1/6.

Most said that they strongly disapproved of the attack.

However, among Re’Trump’licans, only about 4 in 10 said they strongly disapproved – with a quarter saying they approved of the insurrectionists’ actions.

More than half of Trump voters said that it was fair to describe the attack as an example of “patriotism” or of “defending freedom.”

Planet of the Apes has been certified.

Darwin and Delta variant??!

Probably my microchips talking…

As ‘lead-off testimony’ began yesterday at the House 1/6 select committee hearings, a band of crazies took the occasion to demand justice – are you sitting down??! – for the domestic terrorists who took up arms against the U.S. government on that horrific day.

America’s most insane dentist, Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) proclaimed at a scheduled news conference, “These are political prisoners who are now being persecuted and bearing the pain of unjust suffering.”

Gosar was making reference to those individuals awaiting trial for their roles in the insurrection.

NEVER to be out-done by moronic conduct, Representative Louis Gohmert (R-TX) jumped in, “We have political prisoners here in America.”

Welcome to 21st century America: NO accountability; NO honesty; NO mature trust; and, z-e-r-o shame.

VEXING CONFUSION

It is clearly apparent that “breakthrough infections” – when vaccinated people get COVID-19/Delta variant – have changed the topics of mandates and caution dramatically just in the last month.

They’ve happened to the New York Yankees to golfer Jon Rahm [for the second time in less than 2 months] to the White House to the remote parishes of Louisiana.

The scale of breakthrough infections remains unclear.

Are they a significant reason that cases are now surging in the US – enough reason for vaccinated people to be concerned??!

Or, are breakthrough infections rare exceptions that receive over-reactive attention??!

It’s the old Lobsterman’s sense that NO one seems to be able to provide the slightest clue.

However, that will NOT stop me from saying to one and ALL, “GET A F!#KING SHOT IN THE ARM!“

There are parts of the country that would benefit most from a new crackdown on COVID-19 – including more frequent mask wearing – that said, these are the same spots least likely to follow CDC guidance.

Many of these communities of “stupid” have been rejecting the advice of medical experts for days, weeks and months – on BOTH masks and vaccines.

Sadly, yesterday’s latest CDC guidance won’t change that.

The CDC said that only those vaccinated people living in “an area of substantial or high transmission” should do so – go back to wearing masks in indoor settings – and published a map online showing which areas qualify.

Allow me to flush out the reality of the moment…

Such guidance/recommendation(s) is/are beyond the CDC’s control.

The country was polarized long before COVID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!