Jonathan Cohn at the HuffPost describes, in some detail, why vaccine requirements are, in fact, perfectly legal -- and highlights some of the libertarians who agree. I have so little patience for right-wingers these days that I was all ready to nitpick the libertarians' arguments, but that's my failing, because Jessica Flanigan, Jason Brennan, and Ilya Somin all argue their case much better than Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, and Elise Stefanik argue theirs. This would make a good Goofus and Gallant strip -- "Goofus runs around shouting about freedom all the time, while Gallant makes sure he doesn't infringe on others' freedoms."
D.C. District Court judge wonders why our Justice Department is letting some January 6 insurrectionists plead down to a misdemeanor. I didn't like the answer, either -- that the intent of a particular defendant can't always be nailed down so neatly, like any of them were there for any other reason than overturning the election. I'll admit I'd have snapped out on the defendant who said he was trying to overturn the election only to have his lawyer say that of course he wasn't there for that. That may be one reason I'm not a judge.
Some "moderate" Democrats are hot to get rid of the Sales and Local Taxes (or SALT) cap, which prevents folks from deducting more than $10,000 in SALT from what they owe on their federal taxes, and I gotta say I find both their priorities and their vehemence quite irritating -- and look how our "liberal" media won't call Reps. Gottheimer and Suozzi "extremists," though they have literally pledged to stop the reconciliation bill dead if they can't get rid of or raise the SALT cap. What a thing to take to the Pearly Gates! They claim rich folks who can't deduct large amounts of SALT taxes take their money to Florida and Texas, but I don't buy that any more than I did when Republicans argued for cutting rich folks' taxes -- it's the same old hostage crisis no matter who's taking the hostages.
Charlie Sykes reminds us that "(e)ven as many Republicans rail against mask mandates and spread skepticism about vaccines, GOP leaders have settled on one place where they take the spread of COVID very seriously -- the border." But of course -- for Republicans, everything is just a tool to be discarded as soon as it's fulfilled its purpose. And again: when liberals get "tough" on immigration; they get exactly zero support from the right -- not least because right-wingers can only get support by doing things like insisting the border is on fire.
When you hear that a "MAGA civil war" may be brewing between Trump's inner circle and Fox News, after Fox edited out yet more "stolen election" claims before uploading an interview with Mr. Trump to YouTube, just remember that it's all drama! It's all distraction! Right-wingers love looking like they're at odds, not just as a big possum game but as a way of deflecting criticism over marching in jackboot lockstep about everything. (You probably also noticed that the Fox host who conducted the interview, Dan Bongino, essentially conceded the point to the MAGA crowd, which tells you who's still the boss.)
Finally, former President Donald Trump opines thusly about the recent COVID spike: "Could you imagine if I were president right now and we had this massive attack from the coronavirus? If that were me, they would say, 'What a horrible thing, what a horrible job.' And I don’t ever hear that." Regardless of what Mr. Trump "hears," President Biden's approvals have fallen since COVID cases spiked, but we don't even need to speculate on what would have happened "if" this had happened while he was President, because every single day between November 10 and the end of Mr. Trump's Presidency saw more COVID cases than the 132,000-plus we saw on Friday, and Mr. Trump spent that whole time filing frivolous lawsuits against the election he lost by seven million votes and inciting an attempted coup. In a sane, moral, and decent society, we'd all be serving Mr. Trump a big glass of STFU; in this insane, immoral, and decadent society, our media will broadcast his less-than-worthless utterances again and again.
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