F**king Mondays: Defund Twitter, McCarthy's Woes, And A Vaccine Success Story

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Elon Musk, Twitter troll

Welcome to the latest edition of “F**king Mondays!” In the roundup today:

Defund Twitter

Elon Musk, who is definitely not a Russian asset, tweeted this after the US cut funding for Ukraine:

This might be highly amusing for the billionaire conspiracy theorist, but it isn’t so funny for the Ukrainians being blown to pieces by Russian artillery. If Musk believes it really is that hilarious, he could send his hilarious meme to the Ukrainian women gang raped by Russian soldiers, or to the families of children killed in schools by Russian bombs. They’d no doubt find his mockery of their leader who risked his life to defend his country hysterical.

At this point, Musk should be considered a serious threat to global security. He has already directly undermined Ukrainian war efforts by thwarting an attack on Russia by refusing to activate his Starlink satellite network in Crimea's port city of Sevastopol, and now he is spreading anti Zelensky propaganda on his personal social media platform. I’m not saying the government should take his new toy away, but everyone with a conscience could stop paying him $8 month to use it.

Democrats basically control the House

Kevin McCarthy is in a very, very tight spot. Reports Politico:

After relying on Democrats to keep the government funded Saturday, the GOP leader is expected to need them to bail him out again, as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) vows to trigger a conservative-led effort to oust him this week.

Some House conservatives predict there are at least a dozen GOP members ready to support a so-called motion to vacate against McCarthy, according to conversations with multiple House Republicans. While one House conservative said they know of at least seven guaranteed votes for the measure, others predicted there are as many as 24 who could ultimately support it.

That will push the House into new territory this week — a rare instance in which the minority dictates a course of action in the chamber — as Democrats weigh whether to step in to shield McCarthy. The speaker will need 218 votes to keep his job. Some Republicans and Democrats believe they could round up enough votes to keep him in power — at least in the short term — but it is not a given.

McCarthy won his speakership by doing a deal with the extremist wing of the MAGA party. He has now turned his back on them, so his position as House Speaker is about as secure as a lawyer on Donald Trump’s legal team. McCarthy is now entirely reliant on the generosity of Democrats, and they are going to make him squirm. McCarthy must have known this was the price he was going to have to pay to climb the party ranks, but as the humiliation factor increases, one wonders what his breaking point will be.

All hail mRNA vaccines

Contrary to the shrieking of anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists, mRNA vaccines have proven to be an astonishing success story. Via the BBC:

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to a pair of scientists who developed the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines.

Professors Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman will share the prize.

The technology was experimental before the pandemic, but has now been given to millions of people around the world to protect them against serious Covid-19. The same mRNA technology is now being researched for other diseases, including cancer.

Will everyone who refused to get vaccinated on the basis that mRNA technology wasn’t safe pledge not to use it if they get cancer? My guess is almost certainly not. We were extremely lucky that Covid-19 was a relatively benign virus with an extremely low fatality rate. Had the mortality rate been akin to that of the Ebola virus, one suspects the anti-vaxx crowd would have been a lot quieter (and probably because they would be dead). Vaccines save lives, and now we have better ones with fewer side effects thanks to the innovations of great scientists like Kariko and Weissman.

History of The Banter

I noticed a huge spike in traffic to The Banter over the past two weeks and discovered much of it was from an episode of The Banter Roundtable podcast from 2021. The show was about how we all got started in political journalism and well worth listening to if you haven’t already. It’s a really fun discussion with lots of hilarious stories (and one about Bob Cesca’s early career as a Republican pundit), so if you’re new to The Banter Newsletter please check it out!:

The Banter Roundtable Special: How It All Began

See you next week!

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