Fauci
The featured photo is Dr. Anthony Fauci at a U.S. House committee hearing yesterday. On Today this morning Hoda Kotb and NBC’s Halle Jackson referred to Dr. Fauci as the face of the U.S. government response to COVID-19 back in 2020 and 2021. I disagree with Hoda’s and Halle’s characterization.
Let’s go back to the early days of the pandemic here in the USA. First there was a task force headed by Vice President Mike Pence. Then Donald Trump wanted the limelight and held his bizarro press conferences. Then they brought in Dr. Deborah Birx as the response coordinator. Even punkarse son-in-law Jared Kushner put his mug out there declaring that the country would be rocking in July of 2020. Nope.
I would characterize Dr. Fauci as the U.S. government’s sacrificial lamb during the pandemic response. He was out there trying to clean-up Trump’s rants and misinformation when VP Pence and Dr. Birx wouldn’t. Dr. Fauci became the target of science deniers like U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and other nut jobs.
Over a million folks in the US died of COVID. Without warriors like Dr. Fauci who were out there trying to let the American people know what the facts and the truth were it easily could have been 2 million plus die.
Thanks, Dr. Fauci.
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Yesterday was the first day of early voting in person for the Harris Central Appraisal District (HCAD) Board of Directors runoff election. Here is from Off the Kuff:
Here’s your Day One report for the runoff. It’s fair to say that the voters, fresh off of last week’s primary runoff, have yet to catch up to the present situation. A grand total of 3,130 votes have been cast so far, of which 1,428 were in person and 1,702 were by mail. This is not great for the Democratic candidates in the runoff, as mail votes have been an increasingly significant part of the Democratic GOTV strategy. That said, there’s usually much more of a lead-in to the start of mail voting, so we may get an oddly-shaped curve for the daily rate of return of these ballots. That will be something to keep an eye on. Over 38K mail ballots were sent out for this election, which is right in line with the total number sent for the first round in May. There’s room for a lot of growth here, is what I’m saying.
I will have a deeper dive into early and mail voting patterns from recent elections tomorrow. I will get out ahead of this a little to say that if you are a Democrat, the best thing you can do right now to affect the outcome of this election, beyond voting yourself, is to join an effort to call the regular Dems who have a mail ballot for this election and get them to fill it out and stick it in the mail ASAP. Don’t sleep on this, the final day to receive the ballots is Runoff Day on June 15. Let’s get that number up.
Commentary is also concerned about Democrats voting in this election. The last day to vote early is Tuesday, June 11. The election is being held on Saturday, June 15. Go vote, please.
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Michael Richards who played “Kramer” in “Seinfeld” just came out with a memoir and was interviewed this morning by Hoda on Today. Back in 2006, Richards had a meltdown at a comedy club and dropped a few N-bombs that were caught on film. He pretty much fell out of the spotlight and exited the stage for the past 17 years or so. I wonder if he ran into Al Roker and Craig Melvin on the Today show set this morning.
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The Astros won last night. Dollar Dog Night is this evening. Yummy!
