Fascinating Reading: Senate Republicans acted unanimously yesterday to block President Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic relief bill. With Vice President Kamala Harris, the bill is moving forward to debate by a vote of 51-50.

  Republicans complain that the bill is full of pork, items unrelated to the Covid crisis. It is, and they’d load it up the same way if they were in charge.

  As a further delaying tactic, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin insisted on a full reading of the 628-page bill, which began immediately and dragged into the early hours today. He tweeted, “If they’re going to add nearly $2T to the national debt at least we should know what’s in the bill.”

  Johnson needed to have someone else read it for him.

Conspiracy Theory: Followers of QAnon failed to take over the Capitol yesterday and re-install Donald Trump as president. Sadly, for anyone hoping for a pandemic diversion, they didn’t even try.

  The House cancelled business yesterday in the face of the threat, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it wasn’t a big deal, they didn’t have a lot to do anyway.

  The Capitol Police have asked for a 60-day extension for some of the 5,200 National Guard members activated in the District of Columbia during and after the January 6th insurrection. If approved, it would keep Guard troops on duty through May. The Guard is manning a security perimeter around the Capitol that also includes miles of fencing.

  In another development, CNN reports that federal investigators are examining links and communications between January 6^th Capitol rioters and some members of Congress in the days around the insurrection. The communications themselves are not necessarily an indication of wrongdoing. The investigators want to know whether anyone in Congress actually aided the insurrection.

Viral News: The US is administering about 2 million Covid-19 vaccines a day, exceeding President Biden’s goal of 1.5 million. He has promised that 100 million Americans will get the vaccine by April 30^th, his 100^th day in office.

  As of this morning, 54 million Americans have been vaccinated, just over 16 percent of the population.

  Also among the vaccinated are the great apes at the San Diego Zoo, which are considered too precious to lose. Four orangutans and five bonobos have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine made specifically for animals. 

Side Effects: Unlike the great northeast blackout of 1965 that produced a baby boom, post-pandemic births are expected to drop by 300,000 despite people having to stay home without much to do. Unemployment rather than too much time together seems to be the major factor. The NY Timesreports that there’s  “a well-documented link between changes in income and births: When income increases, people often expand their families; when people experience job or income loss, they have fewer children.”

  Another pandemic effect is a change in how people hurt themselves. Sports and playground injuries have plummeted. Injuries involving fireworks, bicycles, skateboards, chainsaws, and home power tools have spiked. 

  Despite the changes, The Washington Post reports, about the same number of people are going to the emergency room … it’s just the reasons that have changed. 

New Yawk Nooz: The situation isn’t good for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who’s facing a pandemic scandal and sexual harassment accusations at the same time.

  Aides to Gov. Cuomo re-wrote the statistics involving Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes to make the situation look less, dire, The NY Times reports. The aides last June saw a report that included 9,000 nursing home deaths and hid the number.

 J. David Goodman and Danny Hakim write that, “The central role played by the governor’s top aides reflected the lengths to which Mr. Cuomo has gone in the middle of a deadly pandemic to control data, brush aside public health expertise and bolster his position as a national leader in the fight against the coronavirus.”

  On the personal front, former Cuomo aide  Charlotte Bennett described creepy encounters with the much-older governor to CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell. “I thought, he’s trying to sleep with me,” Bennett said. “The governor is trying to sleep with me. And I’m deeply uncomfortable and I have to get out of this room as soon as possible.” 

Neanderthal Thinking: In the age of political correctness and racial sensitivity, there’s been a rush to defend Neanderthals after President Biden said the removal of mask mandates in Republican states is an example of “Neanderthal thinking.”

  A reader of The NY Times wrote a letter saying, “President Biden unfairly besmirches the Neanderthals, who were in the business of inventing tools for survival, not rejecting them.”

   Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who doesn’t believe in evolution and therefore could actually be a Neanderthal, told an interviewer, “Neanderthals are hunter-gatherers, they’re protectors of their family. They are resilient. They are resourceful. They tend to their own. So, I think Joe Biden needs to rethink what he is saying.”

  Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted that, “President Biden’s use of an old stereotype is hurtful to modern Europeans, Asians & Americans who inherit about 2% of their genes from Neanderthal ancestors. He should apologize for his insensitive comments and seek training on unconscious bias.”

  Rubio appears to have more Neanderthal genes than the average politician.

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