SocraticGadfly: 3/10/24 - 3/17/24

March 16, 2024

Know the truth about Mike Rowe on RFK Jr's Veep list

"Dirty Jobs" Mike Rowe is in the running for one more dirty job, he told NBC, and that would be being on Robert F. Kennedy Jr's Veep shortlist, while also describing Bob Jr's whole vetting process.

More on Rowe, now. He's not an antivaxxer, it's pretty clear from that story.

But, he is a lot more, and not a good lot more, than he revealed otherwise in talking to Bob Jr.

 Meanwhile, Bob Jr., when Rowe basically called him out on that, reverted to the "just asking questions" schtick. Rowe then noted that he's done work for oil companies — 

“The funny thing through all of it was I, I must have reminded him a dozen times that I’m probably not your guy,” Rowe said. “We don’t agree on this. We don’t agree on that. Look, I’m in business with people in the energy business who he’s sued multiple times over the years. And he laughed and said, ‘Yeah, I know that. I just don’t believe I’m going to find anyone who agrees with me on every single thing. And I really like what you stand for.’”

Yeah, but, Bob. You have to have a certain amount of compatibility, unless you totally want to wear the hypocrite choke chain. Maybe you do.

More on Rowe otherwise. He may be a bit of a winger himself. 

Per New Republic, his "Dirty Jobs" don't include things like migrant farm labor or meatpacking — you know, the stuff where minorities, especially immigrants, predominate. Nor things like manual labor service jobs — you know, things like nursing home CNAs, etc. etc.

He's cozied up to the Kochs and done their work well

He's dirty, dirty, dirty on energy issues in general.

He's been interviewed by Reason, not once, not twice, but three times last year, and all by one of Reason's bigger nutters, Nick Gillespie.

Of those three interviews, the first has strawmen, like why kids don't work in high school. The reality is a mix of them being two busy and big biz cutting many of their types of jobs. Gillespie piles on with strawman questions.

The second is a podcast. Not wasting time, beyond what's likely strawmanning in the header. The third? Ditto.

Rowe has also been either grifty enough, or actual Religious Right enough, to work with Trinity Broadcasting. That includes working there with Dave Ramsey, who of course has his own special line of bullshit.

Rowe may not be a full-on Trumpy type, but he shows enough that he could be seen as halfway a kinder, gentler fellow traveler. In other words, pretty much mainstream modern Republican.

March 15, 2024

Democrats assemble anti-third party war room

I'm surprised they're this open about it, but there you are.

They've already got much of the MSM in their pocket, so don't know how much work they'll have to do.

I've written about Jill Stein myself already, for legit concern reasons, not for #BlueAnon Yashar Ali hitjob reasons. But, I'll defend her against #Russiagate bullshit, or other untrue stuff, per this from the top link:
“There is some Jill Stein hangover,” Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge, a Democratic opposition research group, said referring to the 2016 Green Party nominee who was seen as a spoiler in places like Michigan. “A lot of people, including me, regret that we didn’t go after her further.”
And, how much "further" can you go? "She's Putin's agent" was slander or libel, depending on spoken vs written, pure and simple. But, I have no doubt the proxy war warmongers will bring back "Putin's puppet" stupidity. After all, they revived Russiagate for the 2022 midterms, with the help of the New York Times. And Nancy Pelosi, the Goebbels of San Francisco, has already claimed that Putin is behind Palestinian protestors. (Will she switch that to China over the TikTok ban bill, which is, IMO, clearly a bill of attainder? Weirdly, those who voted against it and others talk about free speech, but nobody mentions the bill of attainder angle. Interestingly, the 15 Rethugs who voted against it are the most Trumpy, after his flip-flop.)

That said, I think Bob Jr., even if he is still likely to get more votes from Trumpers, or ex-Trumpers who aren't Project Lincoln types, is the top worry. No Labels appears to be No. 2.

The piece comes from NBC's longtime political hack, Alex Seitz-Wald. Clintonista hack, to be more specific. Anti-BernieBro. Expect puff pieces galore on the wonders of this war room as it starts up; expect hasbara.

March 14, 2024

Thoughts: Guernica's scrub of "From the Edges of a Broken World"

Here's the LA Times story (the NYT, and major Israeli papers have also written about it), how Guernica Magazine hauled down a piece by Joanna Chen, "From the Edges of a Broken World," still available at the Internet Archive. (This also shows what bullshit that lawsuit against the Archive was.)

More than a dozen staff for the all-volunteer mag (about) resigned before it was taken town, on grounds it was too Zionist. Here's what fueled the outrage:

I phoned friends to find out how they were doing. Some had sons serving in the army in the south; others were struggling to keep going. A neighbor told me she was trying to calm her children, who were frightened by the sound of warplanes flying over the house day and night. I tell them these are good booms. She grimaced, and I understood the subtext, that the Israeli army was bombing Gaza.

Italics (reversed here) about "good booms" are in the original. (No idea if that was Chen's original idea, or an editorial decision.)

Thoughts below.

I've read the piece. It's arguable it has some degree of Zionism. I think the intensity of the reaction was over the top, but the reaction itself, I do not. To me, I don't see the problem so much in what's in the story itself as what's missed in the framing. In other words, Chen talks about working for "Road to Recovery," but says nothing, at least in this piece about how and why the government of Israel has made Road for Recovery necessary. She does later note "harassment by Israeli settlers" of West Bank Palestinians, at least, which is not nothing. But, I have no idea where she stood on BDS. (More on that below.) I have no idea if she had any involvement with protests against the Israeli government.

So, I think I would have to more agree than disagree, at a minimum, with this:

In her critique of the essay, April Zhu, former senior editor for interviews, wrote the essay starts “from a place that ostensibly acknowledges the ‘shared humanity’ of Palestinians and Israelis, yet fails or refuses to trace the shape of power — in this case, a violent, imperialist, colonial power — that makes the systematic and historic dehumanization of Palestinians ... a non-issue.”

That's not a strident reaction. Maybe others are more so, but hers is not.

I do see, per Twitter links at the LAT piece, a bigger problem — and a greater degree of Zionism — in the smears launched against the protestors.

Other writers accused activists who attacked Chen’s essay of “bareknuckled antisemitism” and Guernica of “taking its cue from Joe McCarthy and MAGA book burners.”

McCarthyite? Really? No, that would be Bari Weiss and a fair percentage of other signers of the infamous Harper's letter. Ditto on a fair chunk of that fair chunk being MAGAts.

That said, per this Atlantic piece, Guernica's hands aren't free of past blood itself, even if it didn't run the particular offensive Alice Walker items in its pages. On the other hand to that, author Phil Klay seems to decry only one side of intolerance on the issue, and not the tweets I saw.  And, there's no claim that any of Walker's seemingly anti-Semitic poems or thoughts were run by Guernica. So, a partial red herring, or hand-waving, even if not total. And, if you want to go there, anyway, Phil Klay and others? Have you stopped reading T.S. Eliot? I did a decade ago.

(Update, March 29: Yesterday, Klay penned a new Atlantic piece, titled: "U.S. Support for Israel's War Has Become Indefensible." As Jeet Heer said on Twitter, if you've lost The Atlantic [tho not all The Atlantic is lost, I know], who's left?)

Speaking of poems, she has published four books of translation. All are from Hebrew, from Israeli Jews. So, while she translates both Hebrew and Arabic for conversational and other needs, she's only done it in Hebrew for book-length professional reasons. (She has one book since then, and the Jewish Book Council has more, including noting her Hebrew translation to English. So, any Arabic translating is only Arabic → Hebrew and daily conversational level? If not sold a bill of goods, maybe I've been mispresented one?

Contra Chen not serving in the IDF as a badge of bona fides? Lots of Israelis dodge IDF service, not even counting the ultra-Orthodox types that get exempted. Nowhere that I have read are we told WHY she didn't serve.

And, contra Jonathan Adler at Reason, this is not cancel culture, certainly not compared to original cancel culture queen Bari Weiss. Adler's a never-Trumper type Republican business libertarian, Federalist Society guy, etc. Anti-BDS. Clearly anti-BDS and wrong about it being wrong.

"They'll know you by your enemies" is not always a cliche.

And, per Idries Shah's twosider quote?


Many things in life don't have "complete" solutions, no matter if someone with a utilitarian "view from nowhere" sees every side. And, sometimes, while there are more than two sides, the additional sides get squeezed. Maybe, to look at it fractally, the third and additional sides are only 0.25 sides or something.

Finally, this also reinforces the thoughts I wrote a week ago about "Didn't you used to be David Rieff?"

Texas Progressives offer primary wrap, more

We'll start this with a primary wrap.

The vouchers wingnuts affected SBOE races as well as Texas House races. That's even when Strangeabbott endorsed incumbents. That said, per links on a Kuff post, whether it's SBOE incumbents or House incumbents losing, I have no sympathy, as you benefited from dark money, lies and half-lies before yourselves.

Rethuglicans outpaced Democraps by a 5-2 margin in Texas primary voting. Maybe having Genocide Joe topping the primary ballot, with ConservaDem Colin Allred No. 2, didn't help, contra the likes of ConservaDem commenter Greg Summerlin.

At the Monthly, Forrest Wilder offers a big-picture overview of the GOP side of the primary. He correctly notes that Phelan has served as more of a "speed bump than a guardrail" against the Abbott-Patrick-Dunn steamroller. But, even that could disappear. And, with that 5-2 primary differential, not be replaced. 

The Texas Signal gave their primary recap. 

The Observer counts the Republican bodies after their grim and bloody Primary Day, with a scathing take on Abbott's lies on his "anti-endorsements" as well as the response lies by some of the rural House Republicans he targeted.

Off the Kuff has some initial thoughts on the 2024 primaries, and evaluated the polls that were done before them.

Beyond his submitted posting, Kuff separately lists SEVENTEEN state House districts he thinks Dems have some odds of swinging. Sure, as soon as Gilberto Hinojosa's demographic wave hits.

==

Kenny Boy Paxton, in his role as Tex-ass AG, not in his personal role, lost again in court last week, this time over a Biden immigration program. The Trumpy federal judge ruled he didn't have standing.

Is anybody shocked that a former cop turned PI whitewashed the Uvalde Police Department? That said, per a commenter on Kuff's post about this? If any of the bitching Uvalde parents pulled the lever for Abbott and other Rethuglicans? Look in the mirror first.

Xcel Energy admits it screwed the pooch in the Smokehouse Fire but claims it's not LEGALLY responsible, as in, it denies it was negligent. Uh, sure, and I can't believe company lawyers even let the initial statement go forward; I would have kept radio silence longer. State law requires utilities be prepared for emergencies. This, from the Trib, is key:

Even without knowing the fire’s exact cause, experts say the Panhandle fire shows utilities need to be ready for more extreme weather. This could be a challenge in a state where discussing climate change is often taboo.

That said, California law is probably more stringent on the climate change issue than it is here in Tex-ass, and that hasn't stopped PG&E from having its lines start all sorts of fires there.

SocraticGadfly offers up a variety of thoughts on the SCOTUS ruling in Trump v Colorado. 

Stace gives his view on President Biden's South Texas support. But after the SOTU, he also gave a few thoughts on Biden's "illegal" flub. I was going to comment on the latter, that Biden's regret wasn't real. I passed, knowing I'm the only real non-duopoly leftist in TPA. But, Stace, in the former, looks at Mando Perez-Serrato only as Latino. Kuff at least looks at his Palestinian support, although he doesn't comment on it. And, Stace talks about the "Abandon Biden" in Michigan, apparently  unaware it was higher yet in Minnesota and higher than that yet in Hawaii.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project says take Republicans at face value when they say they'll take democracy.

Law Dork digs into the drag ban at West Texas A&M. 

The Austin Chronicle analyzes Travis County DA Jose Garza's primary win.  

Grits for Breakfast tries to make sense of where criminal justice reform is now. 

Nonsequiteuse reminds Harris County that it gets to (and has to) vote twice in May. 

Josh Cohen, known as Ettingermentum on Twitter, offers a wrap on why Trump is doing ... er not too badly? (And he's right; Trump is winning the election, per polls, except the weird Quinnipiac.)

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is buying up private data about you and me left and right.

==

We will wrap with observations on a trio of pieces from the most recent "Weekend Link Dump" from Charles Kuffner, since I sometimes crib from there for my own version of the weekly Roundup.

First, the just weird. Kuff posts stuff without comment, and I'm taking silence as assent. He's some sort of "population growther." (The piece is wrong by not looking at climate change, which we can't "growth" out of, for starters. Interestingly, per the tagline at end, philosopher friend Massimo Pigliucci's sometime co-author Maarten Boudry, but for different reasons, is also a growther. And, I've got a breakout for a separate blog post.)

Second, the half-wrong. Kuff posts a piece from a Kos staffer (not just a momma's basement contributor) claiming there is no constitutional requirement for a State of the Union response.

I had to do two comments, because I misread, and because I'm naturally suspicious of the duopoly-based Kos, and I thought the guy was first talking about SOTU itself.

Yes, there's no constitutional requirement for a response. But, SOTU itself has become ever more politicized, especially since the start of live broadcasting it on teevee. Let future presidents go back to the Jefferson-Taft idea of submitting a written report, and then call out anybody in media who gives a live video response time. Besides that, no REAL opposition — Greens, Libertarians, PSL, etc. — ever is given a live response time at all, so fuck off Kos.

Third, Kuff pays to read a subscribers-only newsletter from Zionist Josh Marshall, founder of Talking Points Memo? Nuff ced.


March 13, 2024

Partial punch-pulling on the dunes sagebrush lizard

At the Monthly, a Kaley Johnson has a story about A&M herpetologist Lee Fitzgerald battling the oil and gas industry to get the dunes sagebrush lizard protected as an endangered species. But, it's missing a fair amount, that doesn't really get into all the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Yea, it mentions folks like the Railroad Commission as part of the battle. (I have more, about RRC head Wayne [Not a] Christian's strident opposition to listing last year.)

It ignores former Comptroller Susan Combs fake protection shenanigans.

It TOTALLY ignores national-level US Fish and Wildlife Service stinking to high heaven on this issue. (It does mention USFWS dropping its Endangered Species Act proposal, but not WHY.) It ignores USFWS' ultimate boss, Dear Leader's first Interior Secretary, Kenny Salazar, aiding and abetting that. That, in turn is important because on federal lands, ie, the New Mexico portion of the Permian Basin, "Environmentalist Joe" has green-lighted more federal oil leases than did Donald Trump. (The story does mention Dear Leader himself essentially throwing shade on lizard protection.)

It also doesn't discuss how FWS is really less an environmental agency and more a "gun and rod" group.

The Monthly story isn't bad, overall, but, until it can suss out where FWS currently stands, it's incomplete. That said, I sadly think Fitzgerald's pessimism is warranted.

(I Tweeted my old link to the Monthly, and Johnson, but with the low signal-to-noise ratio, have yet to hear back. So, I posted on Hucksterman as well; can't even find a "contact" link on their web.)

Related? High Country News has not one but two stories on Joy Nicholopoulos, who retaliated against Gary Mowat in this; the second is directly related to that. Wait, there's a third about her gutting aplomado falcon protections in New Mexico, and (shock me) doing so for largely political reasons.

Add this further into the mix: Funding cuts to FWS (along with BLM and USFS).

Jesse the Body or Aaron Rodgers as Bob Jr's Veep? Tis to laugh — but what about Mike Rowe?

Seen via Red Satan, the New York Times reports that Mr. Dudebro Antivaxxer and fake Green Ventura are on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vice-presidential shortlist.

UPDATE: And, per an extension to the header, we have a third known commodity. "Dirty Jobs" Mike Rowe is in the running for one more dirty job, he told NBC, while also describing Bob Jr's whole vetting process.  

And ye fucking gads. I can't wait to say more.

But, I shall. Apparently CNN didn't get everybody, or else they had a second page on their chyron that Mike Rowe missed. Rumor has it that he's already got a winner, and it's Nicole Shanahan, main funder of his nutters antivaxxer Super Bowl commercial. Tweet thread here.

Per a tweet by Rowe of seeing himself on an airport terminal teevee? Bob Jr's other nondenied candidates are:

Snake-oil salesman Tony Robbins. Who said no after Bob Jr. reportedly asked TWICE.

Antivaxxer attorney Tricia Lindsay (that's what lobbying for "medical freedom" is, per this YouTube).


Back to the original.

Red Satan focuses on Rodgers, wondering how he'd square running for office while trying to run the Jets offense at the same time. Fair enough question. Does he have ego enough to think he can pull it off? You bet he does.

Ventura? Further confirms what I said four years ago that he was a fake Green. Also, per the shenanigans behind trying to get him the Green nomination then, though he's making the right noises, I don't see him as running as No. 2 to anybody.

Oh, and yes, "Jesse the Body," because I remember well from 2020 that his dudebros hate that.

Maybe he's using the new press notices to try to triangulate to get No Labels' prez nomination?

In addition? Don't forget that vice-presidential shortlists are an exercise in political PR. 

Also, per that "shenanigans" link, it's when I lost the last shred of respect for the GP. More here from 2021. Well, the last shred before realizing that Jill Stein was running as a three-time retread who hasn't divested her 2016 oil, tobacco and defense stock-laden mutual funds.

As for Bob Jr? If he's looking for younger voters, he'd be FAR smarter to go with Rodgers. Let us note that, in an election cycle where many voters are worried about the age of both duopoly candidates, Ventura is himself a few years older than Bob Jr and in his 70s. (Bob Jr. just turned 70.)

That said, the degree to which the DNC instantly bashed it is a sign of being afraid.

Per this piece, it's interesting that Tulsi Gabbard, Rand Paul and Andrew Yang were all contacted and all said no. Andrew Yang? He's a Zionist supporter, yeah, but not an antivaxxer. Rand Paul's still a loyal Republican. Why either were contacted, I don't know. Tulsi? Maybe a bit more of a shot there, but speaking of vice-presidential shortlists, I think she's still smoking the crack that says she MIGHT be on Trump's. Update: Fucking Tony Robbins? Is he the Veep candidate to make Bob look sane?

As for Veep qualification levels? With Kamala is a Cop and her various babblings as Biden's wingman (except when she wanted to do a mild bit of semi-truth telling on Gaza and Team Biden cut her off), the DNC doesn't have a lot of complaining room.

That said, Rodgers is also a Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist. That's one thing I'm pretty sure Ventura also is not. Update: Rodgers is saying "taint so," and also in an update at the original link. Could this be #BlueAnon operatives? The first source CNN cited, Pamela Brown? Veteran MSM journalist. Daughter of John Y. Brown and Phyllis George. John's daddy was a Democratic congresscritter. His one son, III, was Kentucky Secretary of State as a Dem. Given that Democratic national talking heads have already promised a robust effort against third-party and independent candidates .... and we'll just leave that there. (My thoughts on that here.)

Since the second source has anonymity, I don't know if they have a possible political angle or not. But, the fact that they've been allegedly been harassed before? Discomfiting if true.

Update: Rodgers is also a conspiracy theorist about weirdly "esoteric" (within the conspiracy theory world, that is) things.

March 12, 2024

With Green Party candidates like this ...

File this under "cluelessness from the field":

As I responded on Twitter, that's an optical scan ballot. The scanner will most likely file 13 it without a glance. If the scanner does flag a human elections official, THEY will file 13 it without a glance. They won't read it. And, this is a Green congresscritter. Oh, I also told him to look again at Jill Stein. Guy's probably a former Berner, like Pat the Berner, still a step behind in the parade.

March 11, 2024

State of the Union thoughts: Genocide Joe, Ill Eagles, vaxxes

First, the steak: 

Wallbuilder Joe claims he regrets calling an Ill Eagle an illegal. No he doesn't, but at least some #BlueAnon will drink that Kool-Aid. Good fucking doorknob, folks; his speech was fed into a teleprompter, and didn't involve slapdash writing before that. Something like a SOTU has a whole team of speechwriters workshopping multiple drafts, and getting feedback from the president after each draft. 

Biden totally meant to say that. Its use was not quite a "dogwhistle," but it was in the same neighborhood as a political figure of speech. His only regret is how much pushback he's getting; I'm sure he expects his faux regret to tamp that down. 

Also going up later this week at the Texas Progressives Roundup? Stace gave a few thoughts on Biden's "illegal" flub. Stace appears to take at face value Wallbuilder Joe's "regret." I was going to comment there, but passed. Especially with Brains out of the TPA, I know I'm the only non-duopoly leftist there.

But that's not the worst, as far as follow-up to the speech.

From that same interview with Jonathan Capehart linked above:

Asked on Saturday about whether he has a “red line” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid Israel’s actions in the Israel-Hamas war, Biden suggested that some steps Netanyahu could take would be going too far. 
“What is your red line with Prime Minister Netanyahu? Do you have a red line? For instance, would invasion of Rafah, which you have urged him not to do, would that be a red line?” Capehart asked. 
“It is a red line," Biden said, adding, “but I’m never gonna leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical.”

Dude, it's not a red line precisely because you just told Bibi that crossing it doesn't matter.

The lies become more tissue-thin by the day. And, once again, they're most tissue-thin on Gaza. I know BlueAnon wants to believe these lies because they're scared and desperate.

After the SOTU, per NY Mag, Biden claimed he had a plan to decouple himself from Bibi. Let's put that in the context of the Capehart interview. He may indeed play to decouple from Bibi, but that problem isn't "Bibi." It's the majority of Israel. It's the totality of Bibi's government, and, any more, a large chunk of Labor and its allies as well. This is like claiming to decouple from Trump while doing business as usual with the rest of the Republican party. Or take the sanctions on settlers mentioned later in the story. This would be like imposing sanctions on a small group of Russians but not the Russian government. And, if the Biden White House is actively pushing Benny Gantz as an alternative to Bibi, it's pretty morally vacuous. As for the idea that Biden really will recognize Palestine? If Bibi, OR Gantz, calls his bluff, we'll see just how true that is. Once again, see "BlueAnon and lies."

Beyond that? Yeah, Marjorie Taylor Greene heckled Biden, despite Mini-Me Speaker Mike Johnson's imploration not to do that. But, was there anything related to Gaza? Did Rashida Tlaib do an #AbandonBiden and not show up at the SOTU? No. Tlaib walked out on Trump in 2020, but not now. And, folks, that tells you what will likely happen with the movement in October and November. They'll scuttle back to Genocide Joe. Most will try to avoid active sheepdogging for him, as polls show that folks like Democratic senator and governor candidates are running ahead of Biden himself in many states.

Next, the side dishes.

Dan Rather and some assistant try to spin the SOTU. Yeah, it was great, if you're in the left hand of the duopoly, a Cold Warrior 2.0 or a Nat-Sec Nutsack. Not so great if you're someone who questions American exceptionalism. Not good at all if you're a Palestinian who wishes Genocide Joe's love for freedom and promoting it extended to them.

Rather wasn't alone. The usual suspects, like Joyce Alene, who was even worse on that point by directly saluting Biden for being Genocide Joe comes first. Second is Chuckling Charlie Pierce, who deals with the Genocide in Gaza and the SOTU slant by ... simply ignoring it. (Rather did that, too.)

From the GOP-tilted side, tho not actually talking primarily about the SOTU, at the New York Slimes, Ross Douthat ponders the issue of how Biden's unpopularity is mystifying. And, he has not a word about Gaza, either, or how Biden's popularity has fallen more since he became, or made himself into, Genocide Joe. (On Twitter Saturday, I told him to do the 2+2 math.)

Kuff posts a piece from a Kos staffer (not just a momma's basement contributor) claiming there is no constitutional requirement for a State of the Union response.

I had to do two comments, because I misread, and because I'm naturally suspicious of the duopoly-based Kos, and I thought the guy was first talking about SOTU itself.

Yes, there's no constitutional requirement for a response. But, SOTU itself has become ever more politicized, especially since the start of live broadcasting it on teevee. Let future presidents go back to the Jefferson-Taft idea of submitting a written report, and then call out anybody in media who gives a live video response time. Besides that, no REAL opposition — Greens, Libertarians, PSL, etc. — ever is given a live response time at all, so fuck off Kos.

And, everything from the start down of this post is why America's talking heads are idiots and why I'm glad I did my duopoly exit on presidential voting at the start of this century.

And now the digestif:

Although he overblows his personal involvement, and "Operation Warp Speed" was a dumb name but unsurprising from the man who created "Space Force" as another part of militarized America, nonetheless, former president Donald Trump did have some hand in getting COVID vaccines to the general public so quickly. And, the mRNA vaxxes are indeed being used for other things. And, he's boasting about all that again after being told by his advisors to drop it because the MAGAts are highly anti-vax. As far as one respondent claiming Trump was lied to? No, you, and most the others, are probably lying in the first place, and personally know not a soul who was adversely affected by the vaccine, and almost certainly don't know a single person who was severely affected. This won't help Biden but will help Bob Jr.

Finally, the after-dinner entertainment:

Katie Britt, class clown and liar. Make that self-admitted liar.