Day 311…
Monday is Martin Luther King Day.
It’s like the punch line to a truly offensive joke. If what is going on all over this country wasn’t so horrifically tragic, I’d laugh.
We’re in the last weekend of this President’s term.
When somebody makes a musical about this maybe they’ll give the MyPillow CEO guy the intro to the finale. He visited the White House yesterday with six pages of conspiracy theory notes, met with the President for a few minutes, then met with some federal lawyers after a long wait and then was escorted from the grounds.
When the President won the election in 2016, he seemed as surprised as the rest of us. Without any political experience at all, he seemed to have no idea how to set up a government and how to run it. As he prepares to leave in 2021, he seems to have no idea how to set up a government and how to run it.
He will be able to point to tax cuts for himself and his wealthy friends as his sole unequivocal accomplishment after four years in office.
The Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar has, rather pointlessly resigned his office effective January 20. "Unfortunately, the actions and rhetoric following the election, especially during this past week, threaten to tarnish these and other historic legacies of this Administration."
Azar blames the slow rollout of the vaccine on Governors. He blames the FDA for not approving the virus sooner. In short, he blames everyone but the federal government and his own department.
On Tuesday, Azar announced that rather than stockpiling doses of the vaccine that were to be used for the second of the two shots required to achieve immunity, that the Administration would release them immediately. This new supply would significantly increase the number of people able to be vaccinated in a very short time. He announced that states should expand the eligibility requirement from those 75 and older to those 65 and older.
A health director in Oregon wrote to Azar demanding to know what was going on because he had just been told by the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed that there was no reserve of doses and that states had already received all there was. If this is true, he said, then it puts everyone who has already been vaccinated at risk of not achieving immunity with their second shot as well as creating a massive supply shortage in the face of a whole new swath of the population now being told that they can get the vaccine.
Yesterday Azar announced that, indeed, the US did not have a stockpile after all. He said, “We now have enough confidence that our ongoing production will be quality and available to provide the second dose for people. So we’re not sitting on a reserve anymore. We’ve made that available to the states to order.”
In the musical, Evita, Che sings a song during which a steady stream of Eva Peron’s lovers is shown the door as she trades them in for men in more powerful positions.
Perhaps a song structured like that would be effective in this musical. As one appointee after another tries to pull away from the growing fire and they flee for the door, the narrator can tick them off the list.
Goodnight and thank you Alex Azar
You've completed your task
What more can we ask of you now?
Please sign the book on the way out the door
And that will be all, if he needs you he'll call
But I don't think that's likely somehow
Oh, but it's sad when a love affair dies
But when we were hot, we were hot
I know you'll look back on the good times We've shared…
Incoming President Joe Biden has announced that the name Operation Warp Speed will be retired. He, along with a Department of qualified advisors, are formulating actual plans to combat the virus.
The Vice President called Vice-President-elect Harris yesterday and congratulated her on the election win. He also reportedly offered her assistance on the transition. While the President plans to leave Washington on the morning of the inauguration, the Vice President has signaled that he plans to attend the ceremony. This is probably as close to a concession that we are going to get.
The Vice-President has his eye on the future. From refusing to contest the results of the Electoral College vote, it’s clear what he views that future to be - one without the current President. His recent actions have made him as unpopular with the radical and weaponized right as some Democratic leaders are.
I’m no fan of the Vice President at all, but he is one of the few members of this Republican administration who seems to be trying to maintain our political norms. While the President meets with the MyPillow guy to discuss completely discredited nonsense, the Vice-President appears to be trying to fill the void.
It’s hard not to look at is actions as being anything but self-serving given his unfailing support of the President up until now, but at least it’s something.
There is no one, no one at all
Never has been, and never will be a lover, male or female
Who hasn't an eye on, in fact they rely on
Tricks they can try on their partner
They're hoping their lover will help them or keep them
Support them, promote them
Don't blame him, you're the same…
Since 9/11, the home-grown terrorist acts from the extreme fringes of the right have outpaced jihadist acts. More people have been killed from within forces within our country than have been killed from forces outside of it.
In the months and years to come, the Republican party is going to have to figure out what it is. Is it the extreme radical right or is it the loyal conservative opposition?
The GOP has been in real trouble ever since the rise of the Tea Party within their ranks, but the roots of their divide go back much further than that. It’s time for a reckoning. I think, and I hope, that we are going to see the party split as the more thoughtful and rational members of the party try to separate themselves from the radicalized mob.
They have only won their last two electoral victories because of the arcane vagaries of the Electoral College. They lost the popular vote both times. They need to start to appeal to a broader range of US citizens.
I think that that is what is behind the Vice-President’s recent actions.
“Oh but it's sad when a love affair dies
The decline into silence and doubt
Our passion was just too intense to survive”
The CDC is saying that the increase in the new UK variant of the virus is going to be the predominant version of COVID-19 here in the US by March. We are likely to reach 400,000 deaths by the inauguration. As this new mutation spreads so much faster, that number is only going to rise.
That’s what we have to concentrate on. We need to stop the spread of this virus. None of the other problems facing us will be solved until we do that.
We won’t get back to work.
We won’t be able to meet up with each other.
And we won’t be able to get back into our theatres to see any of the new work that is being written in isolation even as we speak.
My fervent hope is that we can get through this next week in relative safety and finally begin to concentrate on the real matter at hand.
The choice was yours and no one else's
You can cry for a body in despair
Hang your head because he is no longer there
To shine, to dazzle, or betray
How he lived, how he shone
But how soon the lights were gone…
We are meeting a friend for dinner tonight.
It would be nice if we could hug each other and not wear masks. It would be great if we could eat inside, maybe around a fireplace, and be annoyed by the noise of our fellow diners and not just their proximity.
More than anything, it would be such a gift to have to eat together quickly so that we could get downtown to catch a curtain.
Tonight, though, we will sit outside, wear our masks when the server comes, and keep some distance between us. And that will be fine.
In fact, it will be more than fine.
I can’t wait.
💕❤️yup, wear a mask, meet with friends, keep dreams alive....
🙏💫