Monday, July 19, 2021

Health care officials in Mississippi are gearing up for the fourth wave of COVID-19 cases, figuring it’s an inevitability. We had 2,326 new cases over the week, double what we had all of the week prior. Mississippi’s vaccination level is among the lowest in the county, and the hospitals are figuring the Delta variant will be the booger here. It should be noted the Delta variant attacks younger people who were otherwise lightly affected by the previous surges but the virus has evolved in this direction. Good job, everyone.

After six months of fussin’ and fightin’, some movement is finally being seen on the Great American Temper Tantrum front. First off, Florida man Paul Hodgkins became the first person to be sentenced for his part in the Jan. 6 ruckus thrown at the U.S. Capitol by the spoiled brats who couldn’t accept reality. He pled guilty to obstructing an official proceeding, which is what they’re calling what those aforementioned brats did at the bare minimum. They were trying to stop the certification of electoral votes in the historic beatdown President Joe Biden gave Trump the previous November.

Hodgkins was photographed walking around on the Senate floor carrying one of those Trump 2020 flags. While he’s easily identifiable in the photos, it doesn’t appear that he’s one of the dipsticks that bragged about their doings on social media. He claimed to be “truly remorseful” for the damage he contributed to and not just because he got caught. He says he traveled to Washington, D.C., to support Trump in his butthurt over his loss and just got caught up in the whole “trashing the Capitol and threatening legislators” thing.

Generally, sentencing guidelines for such things call for 15-21 months and the Department of Justice recommended 18, mainly to send a message. His attorney argued for no jail time, insisting it wasn’t necessary because Hodgkins felt really bad about it, honest. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss gave him eight months in a federal pen plus two years of supervised release.

Yep. Moss says that since Hodgkins had no record and didn’t do anything but walk around the Senate floor, he wasn’t a threat. Plus, he’s white and middle-class, so too delicate to deal with the consequences of his actions, but the judge didn’t say that. Anyhow, this sentencing is thought to serve as a bell-weather for future sentencing of the whiny white folks who turned violent when the manager wouldn’t change the rules for them, and if anyone’s really surprised about this, they haven’t been paying attention.

In other Jan. 6 news, the select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 to-do – just what went on and who should catch hell – should start next week. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy announced the five Republican representatives who’d serve on the committee. House leader Nancy Pelosi is reviewing the choices but the general consensus is she’ll give it the greenlight.

The five representatives are Jim Banks of Indiana, Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, freshman Troy Nehls, and – because no one in the GOP wants this committee to accomplish anything – Jim Jordan of Ohio. Banks is the ranking Republican of the bunch but since the most dangerous place in D.C. is between Jordan and a television camera, I imagine he’ll take up most of the oxygen because that’s all he does. I mean, come on, he’s not a serious choice.

Granted, he’s not the only party stooge McCarthy put on there. Jordan, Banks, and Nehls are among the 139 House Republicans to overturn the 2020 results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Furthermore, Nehls and Jordan signed onto a Texas lawsuit that was intended to interfere with four other states’ election results. Again, one completely believes McCarthy wants this committee to be productive, certainly.

The committee is being run by my man Bennie Thompson, who represents the Mississippi Delta; plus Zoe Lofgren, Adam Schiff, and Pete Aguilar, all of California; along with Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and Elaine Luria of Virginia. Perhaps Pelosi’s most interesting pick for the committee is Liz Cheney of Colorado.

You’ll recall, Cheney’s the most conservative voter in the House and voted with The Former Guy 95% of the time. However, she earned the ire of the entire GOP because she thinks Trump has some responsibility for the gaggle of pissed-off honkies who kicked up that Jan. 6 fuss. For her disloyalty to the party lord, McCarthy stripped her of her position in House leadership. She’s become Public Enemy Number One for conservatives from sea to shining sea. While certainly an interesting choice, it remains to be seen if the two distinguished Representatives are pulling some political rope-a-dope or if Pelosi is nourishing a viper in her bosom.

On a final, humorous note, former Proud Boy grand wizard and full-time FBI snitch for several years Henry Tarrio pled guilty to burning a Black Lives Matter banner owned by the Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., two days before the Great American Temper Tantrum. He also pled guilty to attempted possession of large-capacity ammunition feeding devices; specifically, two rifle magazines stamped with Proud Boy labels. This is separate from a lawsuit from Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church that charges he destroyed some BLM material the same night.

Sentencing for today’s guilty verdict – which apparently he’s doing without legal counsel – is set for August 23. Fuck that guy.