Shutdown Diary
Let's lead off with the latest Washpo statistics:
It's been over a week since my last journal post, but in the interim I had my second Pfizer shot a week ago. I had some mini-discussions over my miscellany posts last weekend. I did get hit hard with side effects the next day (Saturday) spending most of the day in bed, no meal except a bowl of thin soup. I pretty well lost maybe 6 pounds to dehydration, but nearly all of it came back on by Monday.
So now I'm part of the national stats but only the fourth sibling in my family of 7 (despite being oldest) to be vaccinated. I'm not happy how Maryland handled this thing; if Johns Hopkins hadn't offered me a spot, I would probably still be waiting for my first shot. Now comes word Maryland will open up eligibility to all adults and even more, a local sports complex has just been designated a mass vaccination site by the governor. I want everyone to be protected ASAP, But communication generally sucked with almost no information on pharmacy partners, etc. People older than me were getting vaccinated last week with me which leads me to wonder if even more at risk remain unvaccinated.
A couple of stories I'm following: are we approaching a vaccine wall, as those of us anxious to be vaccinated are serviced, but short of the 70-80% needed for herd immunity? And up to 40% of Marines are reportedly balking at vaccination; I did see a recent DoD email suggesting the command can't order vaccination. Another interesting note is that one or 2 MLB baseball players were scratched from the lineup because of vaccine after effects like I suffered last Saturday.
Regarding the numbers above about half the new cases are concentrated in 5 states: MI, FL, PA, NY and NJ. But we are seeing the statistics stabilizing and I think the high penetration of vaccine available to the at risk population is beginning to have an impact, at least in mortality statistics. Falling tests are a good sign, but at this point, I don't see a new wave with the ongoing vaccine rollout. That doesn't mean the virus is less contagious or worrisome. But herd immunity is improving and vaccinations will mitigate the contagion.
I'm Finding the Biden Administration Annoying
I now laugh at the memory that I thought I would run out of material early in the Obama Administration. But this posturing that Biden is "open-minded" and willing to "compromise" is bullshit Take the infrastructure boondoggle; a huge percentage of this is not what most people commonly understand as infrastructure; a lot of this is green energy pork, Internet spending and other partisan spending priorities. The idea of getting Republicans to agree to give back hard-won globally noncompetitive business tax increases is laughably absurd; most of us agree users should pay their fair share of infrastructure costs but the taxpayer should not subsidize the costs. And it's not clear how big businesses are responsible for all the costs of infrastructure, the implicit assumption.
And so the Biden Administration has tried to shift the burden of justifying the costs disingenuously to its opponents while hyping what I call the "magic mushroom hypothesis", that in the end infrastructure improvements pay for themselves (just do a quick Google search, and you'll find at least a dozen articles claim such, just in their titles alone). Democrats are not alone in their delusion; one Alaskan GOP senator even threatened to resign if he didn't get his earmark for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. Of course, Trump himself had eyed infrastructure spending as a priority for his administration, and just like Trump had opened the door to the multi-trillion COVID-19 relief follow-up bill by arguing $600 wasn't as good as $2000, Trump unwittingly started a bidding war against his conservative allies.The Biden progressives are just playing the old game of divide and conquer.
Cato Institute's Chris Edwards notes:
The key to infrastructure policy is recognizing that the private sector owns most of it. In 2019, the nation had a massive $40 trillion in nondefense, nonresidential fixed assets, which is a broad measure of infrastructure. The private sector owns 65% of it, including power stations, freight railways, pipelines, factories, broadband networks, and much else. State and local governments own 30%, including highways, schools, and airports. The federal government owns just 5%, including dams, postal facilities, and other assets.
Edwards points out that we need to consider the opportunity costs of Biden's anti-business tax financing, including financing the private sector needs to improve its own infrastructure. Never mind, e.g., Elon Musk's own Starlink initiative which has started to deliver broadband speeds at a competitive $100/month to rural areas without the massive investment in laying out fiber, etc., all without Biden's funding.
The first rule of public policy should be, "First, do no harm." I have an issue with the idea of progressive (versus flat) income tax schemes, which increase the marginal costs of additional income. This is over and beyond the idea of taxing income.
I wouldn't say Biden's partisanship (including his debunked take on the Georgia election reforms) and economic illiteracy are a surprise; there are reasons I voted against both him and Trump. But it's demoralizing. He's still in his political honeymoon period (which Trump never had), running in the double digit net approvals. I think he's being given the benefit of a doubt following Trump's toxic personality And the Trumpkins don't have a clue; they are mostly fixated on Biden's south border issues, eager to expose hypocrisy. I don't know if or when we'll have a new Rick Santelli moment or a resurgence of a Tea Party moment.
Entertainment
I'm still getting used to how Peacock is now the exclusive vendor for WWE Network content. Maybe I wasn't paying attention but originally I was confused why USA Network was showing sitcom reruns Thursday night instead of the second half of the NXT PPV event. A quick Google search led me to the discovery it was streaming on Peacock (Premium). My initial direct vocal commands didn't get there; i had to hand-navigate from the WWE menu. It wasn't the first time I watched Peacock this week; they also showed the 2020 and 2021 "Hall of Fame" inductions (there is no physical Hall; apparently you get a nice ring). There are things like celebrity inductees, as if cameo appearances at events mean as much as in-ring performance.
As to the NXT PPV, they took the men's and women's championship belts off Balor and Shirai, which leads one to speculate if they're going to be promoted to the main rosters (RAW or Smackdown). or will feud to regain their titles. I'm actually surprised they haven't moved Adam Cole up yet or promoted the Undisputed Era onto the rosters, but booking Cole into a faction dispute loss could be the spring he needs. Lots of rumors of Lynch and/or Rousey returning, not to mention Bayley has been off TV for a while since her feud with Sasha Banks. I always thought they would book Asuka vs. Lynch to regain the title she surrendered on becoming pregnant with beau Seth Rollins' child. It may also mean they don't appear on Mania but on the RAW after Mania. I wouldn't be surprised if both Asuka and Banks are booked to job their titles.
So Mania Night 1 is tonight, with a quasi-live audience. The biggest match will be McIntyre trying to regain his title from monster heel Lashley. I'm still looking for WWE to reintroduce Brock Lesnar to feud with Lashley; will they do it here, costing Lashley the championship and setting up a match at SummerSlam? The smart money says McIntyre regains, but who's his next heel challenger? It could be Edge turns from a failed challenge to Reigns with his new heel persona. Could Balot or Cole step up?
The other match I'm interested in is the Styles/Omos. I've never understood why WWE took the titles off the Hurt Business (and can't help wondering if that was all a work) it's clear the New Day are keeping the belts warm for Styles/Omos (Styles' monster bodyguard). I don't think Omos is experienced enough to feud with McIntyre; maybe a feud down the line with Strowman. I'm mostly interested in how they book Omos during the match.
