The evidence of things seen

 To quote the 2,000-year-old man, "There's something bigger than Phil."  Phil Valentine has been using his Nashville radio show to assure listeners that they don't need covid vaccine, but now that he is hospitalized and using a respirator, he appears to have changed his mind.  His family said in a statement, "He regrets not being more vehemently 'pro-vaccine,'" which is certainly backing into it.  Anyway, good luck to Phil from libtards who figured this out without getting sick first. 

It can't be easy, especially when people get contradictory advice from smart people like Sean Hannity.  On  Tuesday he told his audience, "It absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated."  On Thursday it was "I never told anyone to get a vaccine."  Did he get a call on Wednesday from Leader-For-Life Trump?  It would be pointless to speculate.

In response to Asa Hutchinson touring the state and trying to shove vaccine down people's throats (as the freedom-loving phrase it) Sarah Huckabee Sanders promised, "If I'm elected governor here in Arkansas, we will not have mask mandates, we will not have mandates on the vaccine, we will not shut down churches and schools and other large gatherings because we believe in personal freedom and responsibility."  Nor will we confiscate your Bibles and guns, she forgot to add.  And if enough Arkansans die, the vaccinated just might elect a Democratic governor.  You go think about that, Sarah. 

Other states are fighting covid the old-school Trumpian way, by fudging the numbers.  (Remember last year's "stop the testing"?)  Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, himself named for a disease, declared the virus emergency at an end for two weeks before reality caught up with him; while Florida, Iowa and South Dakota thought they could confuse residents and journalists by reporting numbers weekly instead of daily.  Florida is now experiencing 10,000 new cases a day, twenty percent of the national total, under the intrepid leadership of Ron "Don't Fauci My Florida" DeSantis.  The least he can do is move into a motel and let the governor's mansion be used as an ICU.

Some Washington Post writers have decided that the fourth wave "poses a new political threat to Biden and his agenda."  In a "Buck Stops Here" way they're certainly correct; presidents get the blame for everything that occurs while they are in office, although some of them demand only praise.   All right, one of them.  It isn't clear, though, what Biden can do to "put it behind him" short of holding people down and vaccinating them against their will, which is probably illegal.  The Trumpandemic is one of the hundreds of messes he inherited and one of the stubbornest.  If athletes won't even get the shot before their once-in-a-lifetime try for Olympic gold, how do you motivate Billy Ray Scratchcard who gets all his news from Tucker Carlson?  States have offered savings bonds, college tuition, donuts, beer, cash, with only limited success.  We can't give life-saving vaccine away, while countries like Guatemala and Argentina wait for the Sputnik-V they ordered from Russia and African countries can't even afford that.  The WaPo is concerned because a Republican pollster calls the Biden White House "lost and message-less."  What did they expect him to say?  What do they expect Biden to do?