Elections have consequences, and there’s no better manifestation of that, and of the current public-health divide in the nation, than on the floor of the GOP-back-in-charge Virginia House of Delegates.
Maybe there are a few outliers, but it looks like all 52 Republicans are going mask-free during the sessions, while the 48 Democrafts are masked up, most in the latest version that is supposed to keep us all safe while making us look like albino ducks.
It’s virtue-signaling from both sides, of course. Perhaps a little more ostentatiously sanctimonious on the Democratic side, as often is the case, but let’s stop pretending this has much if anything to do with public health. In the age of omicron, it really is hard to see how, in the big picture, it really does.
GOING ‘VIRTUAL’ AGAIN: My super-secret source among Fairfax County Public Schools teachers (elementary-school level) reports that the recent effort by the school system to save a day by going “virtual” during the snow-that-wasn’t event of Jan. 20 was something of a mixed bag.
She reported that, of the students in her charge who showed up online, some either left in the middle of the (half) day of instruction, or turned their screens off so the teacher had no idea if they were there or not.
Helluva way to run a railroad, FCPS. But the important thing to the superintendent (if he hasn’t checked out mentally already) and top brass is that they got another four hours toward meeting the absolute minimum amount of time students must spend in school this year.
Alas, “absolute minimum” is probably the maximum students can expect.
CIRCLING BACK TO THE LEGISLATURE: A couple of bills I’m watching from local delegates have subcommittee or committee hearings this afternoon. I am expecting them to be dispatched to the political promised land, never to be spoken of again, but you never know.
In their honor, how about some Chuck Berry doing his delicious “Promised Land”? There are lots of good covers (including one from Elvis), but you can’t beat the original, particularly when delivered live.
Looks like a young, beatnick-y Chuck Todd on bass behind lyricist extraordinaire Chuck Berry, who with this song created a sly civil-rights anthem that most people didn’t recognize as such.
But talk about undemonstrative; the Belgians in this audience looked about as happy to be there as they were when the Germans dropped by for a visit (and occupation) in 1940. 🙂
- Scott McCaffrey