☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Wednesday, November 3, 2021 ☙ STACKED 🦠

Republicans sweep elections all across the country as voters get to say how they feel about lockdowns and masks; San Fran mandates shots for kids; Alachua defies Florida; Fauci says something true ...

Good morning C&Cers! Happy Wednesday. Today’s roundup includes: the tipping point looks a lot closer after the national election results last night — especially in Virginia and Pennsylvania; pro-Covid-lockdown pols hang on to New York City; San Francisco mandates injections and passports for kids; Alachua County raises the stakes by locking in masks until next year; Fauci lets something true slip out on CNN; Italy revises its Covid death toll; Florida may consider whether to opt out of OSHA; and California ports show small signs of smartness.

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🔥 Is it tipping yet? In what lefty pollster Larry Sabato called a “bloodbath,” Republicans swept Virginia’s elections last night. The GOP handily won the Governorship (Glenn Youngkin), the Lieutenant Governorship (Winsome Sears), and the Attorney General’s office (Jason Miyares). Republicans also gained four Virginia house seats, leaving them two members shy of a majority. In the House of Delegates, Republicans now have a majority.

There are historic elements to the win. Republican Winsome Sears, a former Marine, became the first black female Lt. Governor in Virginia’s history. Jason Miyares is the state’s first Cuban-American Attorney General.

This development shows some pretty deep problems for pro-lockdown, anti-parent Democrats all over the country. Virginia is a deep blue state. Current Governor and cozy Clinton confidante Terry McAuliffe had been described as “unbeatable.” Just yesterday, Biden confidently predicted McAuliffe’s win, in a state he won easily one year ago. But according to White House officials, Biden declined to take McAuliffe’s call last night after the election.

This all reminds me of that iconic scene in the westerns where the reinforcing cavalry comes galloping in over the ridge to save the day at the last second, just as the bad guys are smashing in the fort’s gates. I think Virginians are about to get some reinforcements to save their kids. Virginia, welcome to the free-state coalition!

Biased polling pundit Larry Sabato and the trashy corporate media blamed the Dems’ losses in Virginia on “racism.” What else could it be? Even though McAuliffe is ivory-white and Sears is black and Miyares is hispanic. You see, if they weren’t so racist, racist parents would have voted for the white guy, not the black lady. Voting for the black lady is totally racist. Or something. Science, I guess. It can do anything.

McAuliffe spent his last day campaigning with Randi Weingarten, the lily-white teachers’ union superstar. Oops. By contrast, in his victory speech, Youngkin said, “We’re going to introduce choice within our public school system.” There are still districts in Virginia where schools are shuttered. For safety. You think Youngkin’s message might have resonated with a few parents?

The Hill quoted former Clinton official and CNN commentator Van Jones about the results. “I think that, you know, the Democratic Party, I mean, everybody that I’m talking to tonight, there’s a — this is a big, big wake-up call. I think people took Virginia for granted,” Jones said. I’ve been saying for months that the dems have been governing like they don’t care about winning the next election cycle. I guess this is what happens.

Oh. FYI. Fox called the election for McAuliffe, right before Youngkin actually won. So.

🔥 In the Pennsylvania elections, Republicans swept all the contests except one or two that are too close to call. Conservative wins included ALL the state’s judicial elections, two house seats, Pittsburgh’s mayorship, and Philadelphia’s district attorney seat.

Do you think harsh Covid policies could have anything to do with how the elections turned out? Or in Virginia, could the Loudon County School Board disaster have something to do with it? You know, the one where the school board covered for the cross-dressing boy who raped a girl in the girl’s bathroom? And then when the dad went down to the school board to complain about the morally reprehensible coverup, the school board ordered the cops to arrest him for lying? But he wasn’t lying? Actually the school board was lying? That disaster.

🔥 In Texas, Republican John Lujan easily flipped traditionally-Democrat Texas House District 118. Biden had won the district +14.

🔥 Dems held on to a few hollowed-out wastelands. Democrat Eric Adams won the New York City mayoral race, replacing outgoing de Blasio and promising to uphold all de Blasio’s Covid policies. He’s also promised he is going to solve the mushrooming crime problem in the Big Apple by yanking the guns away from law-abiding citizens. His theory is that once the criminals see that victims can’t fight back, the crooks will be totally demoralized and probably head for a different city where people still have some fight left in them. Or something. It’s hard to follow that man’s logic. Good luck, New Yorkers. Florida is super nice this time of year, just saying.

💉 Yesterday, San Francisco became the very first jurisdiction in the WORLD to mandate EUA injections for all 5-11 year olds. Eight weeks following availability of the drugs, kids aged 5+ must prove they’re “fully injected” to dine in a restaurant with their family, take swimming lessons, et cetera.

In a sane world, the public officials ordering these mandates would be arrested. But San Franciscans live in an insane world. What do you want to bet that the officials passing these policies don’t have kids and never intend to have any?

🪳 In an interview on CNN yesterday, an anchor was pressing Fauci to say if he’d taken a Covid test recently. He said — and I am not making this up — “there’s no reason for me to take a test. I have no symptoms.”

Very interesting.

Fauci doesn’t need a test. What a ridiculous idea. But YOU — you need to test EVERY SINGLE WEEK, symptoms or no, to come to your job or go to school. See how this works?

🔥 After being CLEARLY told by the appellate court that it was breaking the law, Alachua County’s School Board voted 3-2 last night to continue forcing masks on defenseless elementary kids until next year, 2022. I am not making that up. The members who voted in favor of masks were: Tina Certain, Rob Hyatt, and Leanetta McNealy.

So far, the school board has been told it’s breaking the law by the Department of Health, the Board of Education, the Governor, the Attorney General, and an appellate court. But they know better. They have a school board attorney.

🔥 Italy’s National Health Institute has adjusted its Covid death toll. It was 130,000. The revised, corrected figure is: less than 4,000. So.

Remember, Italy was the place where the U.S. media was printing photos of hospital hallways clogged with bloody, overspilling gurneys. And then we found out the media lied and was using recycled pictures from a decade-old story.

🔥 Last week, Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson issued a joint statement following the Governor’s call for a special session. There was an under-reported gem among the items they mentioned in the memo. The lawmakers questioned whether “now is the time for Florida to withdraw from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and establish our own state program. We believe that by doing so, Florida will have the ability to alleviate onerous federal regulations placed on employers and employees.”

If Florida opts-out of OSHA — perfectly legal — it will put a dagger in the heart of Biden’s plan to mandate vaccines on all Florida employers with over 100 workers. And it will simultaneously REDUCE regulation of private businesses. That would be a major political coup. Let’s do it!

🔥 The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach quietly changed a long-standing rule last week that forbade stacking more than one shipping container. In other words, you could only put one container on top of the first one, and that’s it. The rule was intended to keep the ports looking pretty, because some loopy California lawmakers thought stacked containers look ugly or something. Containers are DESIGNED to be stacked six high, whether empty or full. That’s how they stack them on the ships.

Anyway, they quietly revised the rule, which now lets the ports stack containers five high, clearing the way for a LOT of ocean-bound ships to unload their cargoes and get back under sail. They just couldn’t agree to six. That would be too ugly, or something.

I’m not sure how to take it. It was incredibly dumb to have the two-stack rule in the first place. It was smart to change the rule. Until the yards fill up, this will help with a lot of the backlog. SOME progress, I guess.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

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