Hey, it’s the end of the week. Let’s knock this out and clear the table for the weekend. It’s going to be hot and humid where it isn’t pissing down rain. Zhengzhou, China, got over 25 inches in 24 hours. That ain’t right.
Continuing with the drama that is the House Select Commission into the whys and whos of the Jan. 6 Great American Temper Tantrum, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said it’s all going down whether House Republicans want to play or not. As we discussed Wednesday, Pelosi rejected a couple of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s choices, namely Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana, for being outright insults to the whole process. Both men voted against verifying Joe Biden’s commanding victory over Trump this past November, with Jordan, in particular, is an especially loud lackey for the Big Lie.
The really funny part, though, is thanks to the participation of Colorado’s Liz Cheney, the committee will not only have a quorum but will also be bipartisan. So Pelosi basically told McCarthy to go screw, it’s going down whether he likes it or not. The laughably named House Freedom Caucus is calling for Pelosi’s removal, which probably wouldn’t happen even if McCarthy had the stones to try, and the Speaker hasn’t ruled out adding more Republicans to the committee on her own.
Again, I have no particular love for Madame Speaker but one does appreciate a good political rope-a-dope when one sees it. And brother, this one was just beautiful.
Moving on, the Republicans’ attempts to get in front of the worsening threat of the Delta variant of COVID-19 continue to move in starts and fits, not quite as successfully as one would hope. Understandable given how the intelligentsia spent the last year pooh-poohing the efficacy of the vaccine. Alabama’s irascible governor Kay Ivey blew her top at reporters when asked what she could do to get the Heart of Dixie on the ball. Right now, Alabama has the worst vaccination rate in the country, with just under 40% of the above-12 population having got the shot.
Ivey didn’t pull any punches, y’all. Noting that nearly 100% of the new cases were unvaccinated, she said those folks were “letting us down.” To be fair, Ivey’s been pretty good about encouraging Alabamians to get the shot, better than her neighbors anyway, but she sounds about at her wits’ end on this. “I can’t make you take care of yourself,” she said to reporters concerning the citizens’ reluctance to do the bare minimum.
Given the antipathy for any and all vaccines among the Base, one wonders how this will affect Ivey’s political future. She took office in 2017 following the resignation of Robert J. Bentley – who was run off due to charges of campaign finance fraud and fooling around with some strange – and has said she will run for a second term next year. Granted, a year is a lifetime even in statewide politics; who knows what the landscape will look like this time next year. Hell, who knows how much COVID will leave behind if and when it runs its course.
Let’s end with some good news. In a rather stunning move, the Cleveland baseball team announced it would change its name from the Indians to the Guardians next season. I say stunning because it stunned me; however, I don’t pay attention to Cleveland baseball. Anyhow, the announcement came today and the name was chosen due to some statues on Hope Memorial Bridge over the Cuyahoga River near the team’s current ballpark. Bob Hope’s dad designed the whole to-do, which is something. Most folks are down with the change, especially folks in Cleveland, and while some aren’t, of course, those people are generally a bunch of unpleasant dipsticks anyway, so who cares what they think.
Finally, a pair of Republicans in the Mississippi Legislature is working to revitalize the medical marijuana initiative. You’ll recall the state voted overwhelmingly in favor of introducing the good smoke for medicinal purposes thanks to the state’s initiative process. However, the asshole mayor of a white-flight Jackson suburb filed suit three days before the November election and the state Supreme Court scuttled the whole business, initiative process and all, two months ago on piddling terms that could’ve been addressed differently.
In any event, the Legislature has spent most of the summer trying to hash something out that the state’s citizens obviously wanted. The current leaders are Sen. Kevin Blackwell of Southaven and Rep. Lee Yancey of Brandon, who’re trying to get something arranged that’s close to what the initial Initiative 65 would’ve allowed. Earlier this year, the Senate tried to hash out a bill that would give the state slightly stronger regulatory control over both growers and dispensaries but could never come to an agreement. From what they say, the legislation pushed by Blackwell and Yancey would be similar. If all goes well, they’d like to get it done sometime in August but that would require Gov. Tate Reeves removing the thumb from his ass and calling a special session. Time will tell.
And that’s that, y’all. Stay cool or stay dry, depending, and enjoy the weekend.
Dear Y'all 