Freedom: People fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with some exceptions, no longer need to wear masks or keep a social distance from others indoors or out, the CDC announced in what amounts to a bell of freedom for a pandemic-restricted country.

  “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” said  Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a White House news conference.

  The exceptions include public transportation, airplanes, and hospitals.

  The announcement caught a lot of people from state governments all the way down to small businesses by surprise. Americans will still have to follow state, local, or business regulations regarding masks. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he’s not going to immediately lift restrictions and neither is the State of California.

  The CDC’s new advice signals a return to normalcy even though the pandemic lingers. Only a third of the country is fully vaccinated. Daily administrations of vaccine are down about 40 percent from their peak. So even while people return to normal, they won’t know who in the maskless public has not been inoculated.

  Just one example that tells you this isn’t over, Comedian Bill Maher has tested positive for COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated. He said he “feels fine” but decided to halt the taping of his talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher.” 

 Ground War: In an escalation of an already violent flareup this week, Israel has deployed ground forces to fight Palestinian militants in the Gaza strip.

  Israeli announcements were conflicting, at first saying they had sent in ground troops, and then saying they had not. But they have deployed tanks and artillery while readying three brigades of troops for action.

  The immediate aim is to destroy the tunnel system built by Hamas militants.

  Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel this week and Israel has responded with a nearly-constant aerial bombardment. Entire buildings have been reduced to rubble. Violence between Arabs and Israelis has spread into the cities of Israel as well.

Ransom: Colonial Pipeline paid roughly $5 million in Bitcoin to internet ransom hackers to get the system going again, The NY Times reports. They paid a hacking group known as DarkSide, which is believed to operate from Eastern Europe, and possibly Russia.

  The hackers had crippled the computers for the pipeline system leading to a brief fuel supply crisis and spiking prices from Texas and Louisiana through the southeast and all the way north through New Jersey.

  The 5,500 hundred mile pipeline web was coming back online throughout yesterday. “They should be reaching full operational capacity as we speak, as I speak to you right now,” President Biden said at the White House. “That is good news. But we want to be clear: We will not feel the effects at the pump immediately. This is not like flicking on a light switch.”

The Spin Rack: Congressional Republicans are insisting that an investigation of the January 6^thCapitol insurrection should include an examination of left-wing violence, even though the rioters were red hat Trumpies. Some are trying to re-write history. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia described the riot that led to four deaths and 140 injuries as looking like a “normal tourist visit” to the Capitol. — Speaking of the insurrection, an active-duty Marine Corps major has been arrested and charged for with assaulting police officers during the attack on the Capitol. — A former Florida tax collector embroiled in a sex scandal with Rep. Matt Gaetz is expected to plead guilty in federal court Monday in a deal that requires him to cooperate with investigators. Bad news for Gaetz. Federal investigators have been inquiring whether Gaetz broke federal sex trafficking, prostitution, and public corruption laws and whether he had sex with a minor.

Representative Democracy: Congressional nutjob Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia marched to the offices of ideological opposite, New York’s Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, for a confrontation, only to find the door locked.

  Standing in  the hallway Greene called out, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I’m an American citizen. I pay your salary through the taxes that you collect for me through the IRS because I’m a taxpaying citizen of the United States.” 

  She said, “So you need to stop being a baby and stop locking your door and come out and face the American citizens that you serve.” Greene goes on “If you want to be a big girl, you need to get rid of your diaper and come out and be able to talk to the American citizens.” 

  The citizens of Georgia must be so proud.

-30-