Coronavirus

Don’t let this relatively Fauci-free week fool you. The Biden administration is still laser-focused on the coronavirus. In fact, as reporters waited anxiously to ask the President about stranded American civilians in Kabul and Afghans falling from Air Force planes, Baghdad Biden stumbled through a teleprompter address about vaccines and left without taking a single question. America is back! In his brief remarks, the President assured the American people that he would stand tough against the Taliban. Oops sorry, scratch that. The President assured us that he would stand tough against Republican governors. See, these red state politicians are 'setting a dangerous tone', according to Joe.

I lost my invitation and, besides, the pilot of my private plane was on holiday, so I had to miss the intimate, scaled-back get-together that Barack Obama convened to celebrate his 60th year gracing our planet with his awesomeness. I didn’t feel too badly, though — no paralyzing waves of 'FOMO' — because all my friends in the media made me feel I was almost there. There were all those leaked snaps and videos, for one thing, showing the Prez dance-dance-dancing the night away, nary a mask in sight. In truth, that was the one thing I liked about this obscene, Gatsby-esque spectacle. The Obamas, and presumably their guests, had been vaccinated.

Most people told me it would never happen. And so I prepared myself that after almost a year and a half of shouting for answers and accountability from New York’s 56th governor, I would probably never see the day Andrew Mark Cuomo would step down, or be forced to leave office. But, now, it is finally happening. The headlines speak of Andrew Cuomo’s career coming to an end. On Tuesday, Attorney General Letitia James’s office released the results of an extensive investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The results were devastating and disgusting.

Masks and COVID tests are here to stay for kids returning to school in LA. On Thursday, the Los Angeles School District announced it would require all students and employees returning for in-person instruction to wear a mask while on the premises and participate in weekly COVID testing. These terms will apply to vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals alike. At the height of the pandemic, Los Angeles County had the highest concentration of COVID deaths and hospitalizations in the state despite strict mask mandates. At the time of writing, Gov. Gavin Newsom has not reissued these requirements despite new worry from the CDC over the Delta variant. His recall election is just weeks away, and a recent poll indicates the race is tightening.

A few days ago, I woke to find myself awash in new recommendations from the CDC. Apparently, because of the dreaded Delta variant, everyone once again has to wear masks in 'high-transmission areas’, even if they’re vaccinated. I looked at the map: 'high-transmission areas’ currently seems to mean almost everywhere but Chicago and Philadelphia, two cities where I once lived but don’t live now. ​This seemed fishy to me. I’m vaccinated. I love being vaccinated In fact, I gorged on cheeseburgers for a week in March to nudge my BMI over 25, so I could get vaccinated early. Meanwhile, the same people who are now expressing ‘rage at the unvaccinated’ were busy lecturing us about ‘vaccine equity’, which didn’t actually turn out to be a problem in the United States.

Underpaid and over-opinionated: Republican House staffers are not putting up with a new mask mandate. On Tuesday, the US House attending physician reinstated a draconian mask mandate amid the Delta variant's ‘rise’ — about 50 new cases per 100,000, scary stuff. The order follows the new CDC guidance which tells vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals to wear masks indoors and out. ‘For all House Office Buildings, the Hall of the House and House Committee Meetings, wearing of a well-fitted, medical grade, filtration face mask is required when an individual is in an interior space and other individuals are present,’ said Dr Brian Monahan in a memo released Tuesday. In order to enter the House chamber, lawmakers and their staff will be required to wear face coverings.

Marjorie Taylor Greene held a press conference late last week. It took place inside, meaning the Jews with the space laser must have been at red alert once again. The raison d’être for Greene’s shindig was to announce that she’d been banned from Twitter. Which raises the question: what do I have to do to get arrested in this town? I recently reactivated my own Twitter account after a blessed hiatus and I would give anything to be banished from that cesspool. How do you get hoosegowed? Apparently all you have to do is what everyone else on Twitter is doing: Greene was banned for spreading ‘COVID misinformation’.

Listening to the testy exchange between Sen. Rand Paul and St — er, Dr Anthony Fauci the other day, I couldn’t help but think both of these famous lines from Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Marmion’: ‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!’ ...and also this excellent ‘completion’ by J.R. Pope (‘A Word of Encouragement’): ‘But when we’ve practiced for a while, How vastly we improve our style!’ Sen. Paul began by reminding the ubiquitous doctor of Section 1001 of the US Criminal Code, which makes it a felony, carrying a prison term of up to five years, for lying to Congress.

I didn’t meet Davell Gardner Jr. Yet his photo — and the bubbly personality it captures — will forever remain etched in my mind. The picture shows a baby with fuzzy curls; trusting, happy eyes; a beaming, gap-toothed smile. His chubby, loaf-like baby hands remind me of my own kids’ hands, which I often can’t help kissing or blowing raspberries on. There he is, crawling on his dad’s belly, enjoying one of the last playtimes of his life. On July 12 last year, a convoy of three cars pulled up in front of a residential building on Pulaski Street, in Brooklyn. Suspecting potential gang activity, officers in an NYPD cruiser flashed their lights, and one of the cars, a Volkswagen Jetta, sped away. The cops gave chase, exactly as the gangsters had hoped they would.

Last week, Texas Democrats fled the state on a chartered plane to Washington DC, maskless with a case of Miller Lite in tow, to a chorus of whoops and cheers of our national media. As Texas attempts to pass new election integrity legislation, or to Democrats and our media writ large, ‘voting restrictions’, Texas Democrats decided to object to the Senate filibuster, by participating in a filibuster. They were doing the rounds on CNN and MSNBC, appearing on morning shows or being celebrated on them (The View). The irony of celebrating a minority party as ‘brave’ few for mucking up the legislative process was apparently completely lost on our journalistic elite.