The politics of rolling out the Covid vaccines, state Sen. Shannon Grove attends a New Year's Eve event with a largely maskless crowd of 2,500 and an anti-mask protest forces Trader Joe's to close early

Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this community such a special place. The views expressed here are strictly my own and do not represent any other company or publication.

 * ... VACCINATE VACCINATE VACCINATE: The stunted rollout of the Covid vaccines has drawn fire, and never more so than from Dr. Brij Bhambi, a local cardiologist and owner of Bakersfield Heart Hospital. Bhambi is fearful that doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are sitting on shelves due to the strict adherence to the established protocols of who gets it first. Still, Bhambi said the thrust should be "vaccination is vaccination" no matter who gets it. Said Bhambi: "Guidelines should not become

impediments to expanded vaccination. Vaccine should not sit in refrigerators and dosages should not be wasted in commitment to compliance.... The real scandal is not that some scattered healthcare worker or administrator 'broke in line.' That behavior is reprehensible. The real scandal is vaccine sits in freezers. The real scandal is that blind adherence to guidelines will compel trashing the unused vaccine. It is too late in the pandemic to double down on the blame game. Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate."

 * ... BAD FORM? So what did you make of state Sen. Shannon Grove attending a New Year's Eve church celebration where a mostly maskless crowd of 2,500 gathered to worship? Grove snapped a selfie at the concert - no mask - to celebrate the concert by Sean Feucht, an anti-lockdown pastor who has held similar rallies in defiance of the state crackdown. On Grove's Facebook page the response was overwhelmingly supporter, with a few exceptions like this one: "This was very reckless and playing with people’s lives!! Very few people wearing masks. I’m a Republican AND a Christian but you should respect your constituents enough to protect them." So what is your take? Is Grove a courageous leader defending our God given right to worship, or a clueless politician whose actions endanger others during a pandemic?

 *... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "A shark could swim faster than me, but I could probably run faster than a shark. So in a triathlon, it would all come down to who is the better cyclist."

 * ... TRADER JOE'S: Meanwhile the Trader Joe's in Fresno was forced to close Saturday after a group of anti-mask protesters tried to enter but were turned away. After a tense confrontation outside, in which maskless protesters were arguing with store employees, the store was locked and closed.

* ... WEDDING DAY: Congratulations to Connor McCarthy, son of Congressman Kevin McCarthy and wife Judy, who married Emily Norris over the weekend. Below, the happy couple poses with Connor's sister, Meg.

 * ... MEMORIES: Check out this old photo from the Highway 99 Facebook page group. It is dated 1928

and said this: "Infamous deadman curve. On the left can be seen some of the daylighting that was done in 1924 to help improve the line of sight. Not much room to speak of... making it a daunting prospect especially at night. Also known as the 'junkyard' for all the cars and trucks that went off into the canyon."

The ugly mixture of politics and social media spill over to Facebook, Sheriff Donny Youngblood weighs in on marijuana and lamenting the growing hopelessness in our society

 * ... MCCARTHY: If there are two things that don't mix, they are politics and social media. That ugly recipe was on rare display this week when a Kern County teacher, Shannon M. Barnes, posted a picture of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy having lunch in Santa Monica and implying he was "toasted" drunk. That triggered a flurry of reactions, with Kevin's wife Judy Wages McCarthy

weighing in to defend her husband. "Whether done by a child or an adult, bullying is wrong," she wrote, adding her husband doesn't even drink.  "I didn't post a lie about someone being drunk in public. Instead this person posted a lie about my husband being drunk in public. Why? Divisive politics. Stop. Please. Take responsibility." Barnes later took down the original post (only after the Democratic Women of Kern asked its members to come to her aid because of "a lot of hate from little Kevin's fan base," but the responses didn't stop there. Even Connor McCarthy, Kevin and Judy's son, weighed in, posting a long and thoughtful response and saying the picture was taken while his father was celebrating his daughter's 21st birthday party. He added: "In all honesty I found the first post pretty hilarious. I've only seen him drink alcohol three times in my entire life.

* ... MARIJUANA: Nobody is watching the county debate over marijuana closer than Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, who has not hid his distaste for the idea of legalizing the drug. "I will follow the law," he told me on KERN NewsTalk this week. Youngblood's fear: even if the state and county impose regulations on pot shops, an underground market with even more powerful cannabis may flourish. Meanwhile, Youngblood said the mountains of Kern County remain hotspots for illegal marijuana farms cultivated illegally on private property.

 * ... ROAD CONSTRUCTION: Here's some good news for local drivers: the city has completed its renovation and repaving of California Avenue between H and Oak streets. The project, a major headache for folks who live in Oleander, was thankfully completed before students returned to Bakersfield High School.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: Coffee does a good job of waking you up but accidentally dropping your phone on your face does an even better job."

 * ... OVERHEARD: At Cafe Med recently a young married woman is confiding in her girlfriend: "We get along great. I just tell him what he wants to hear and most of the times he isn't listening anyway."

 * ... SPOTTED: A local teacher expressed this lament on social media: "I prefer the homeless downtown to any jerk in a lifted truck. They are friendly, more interesting, and don't look at you like you're a freak.:"

 * ... CHRIS ARNADE: Chris Arnade is a former Wall Street banker who spent the past two years traveling the country and spending time with the least fortunate among us. His last stop on his cross country sojourn: east Bakersfield. Some of his observations include these: "If you are at the bottom of a system that those at the top claim is fair/just... well their claim is pretty much intended to be humiliating.... The word I keep coming back to, what I see in so many 'back-row' communities, is humiliation. And as a result, a desire for respect... If that small chance is missed it means a lifetime of feeling looked down on. Because America is a meritocracy, so it was clearly your fault... For many getting out requires threading narrow needle of opportunities starting from an early age. You must do everything right. No mistakes."

 * ... OUR COUNTRY: And Jim Milledge added this about the economic disparity in our country: "I am not homeless, but I can give you an example or two of why we are in financial trouble. The haves are growing by leaps and bounds. Example: I am retired from ATT. I have not received an increase in my pension for almost 20 years. At the same time, the CEO for ATT has a total compensation package that exceeds 25 million a year. The haves have forgotten the have nots. Second, we need to give people a hand up, not a hand out. Many of the poor are generation poor. They need to help themselves or we will have to carry them for eternity."

Breakfast at Milt's Coffee Shop with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the remarkable Connor McCarthy

 * .... MCCARTHY AND RYAN: Accompanied by our own Rep. Kevin McCarthy, House Speaker Paul Ryan is making a swing through California to raise money for House Republicans. Early

Monday morning, as a light rain fell on Bakersfield, I drove to Milt's Coffee Shop off Olive Drive to have breakfast with Ryan, McCarthy and McCarthy's son, Connor.
 There was no breaking news here, no stop the presses moment, just an opportunity for McCarthy and his guests to start the day at a signature Bakersfield landmark while entertaining diners who greeted Kevin on a first-name basis.
 Over a breakfast of coffee, omelettes, fruit and Milt's famous hash browns, Ryan and McCarthy talked candidly about the Republican and Democratic debates - a "time of anxiety" as McCarthy put it - and the role of the House leadership in providing  a "foundation of substance" for pushing the country forward no matter who is the next president.
 Are they frustrated and concerned about how the debates have reflected the Republican Party? Of course, but as Ryan noted, "we don't have any control over that. We have to concentrate on defining ourselves and be a place of ideas."

 And what about GOP front runner Donald Trump's much publicized comment that Ryan would "pay a big price" if the Speaker would not work with Trump? Ryan downplayed it, saying he laughed aloud when he first heard it and added that he had since talked to Trump on the telephone this weekend.
He said that Trump seemed to "walk back"  the threat a bit but did not elaborate.
 Ryan, at 165 pounds as fit as he appears on TV, said the House was moving forward with a "clarifying mandate" based on five principles: economic growth and tax reform, replacing Obamacare with a better alternative while addressing entitlement spending; dealing with poverty and moving people from welfare to work; national security; and finally reclaiming the separation of powers that has been undermined by the extensive use of executive powers.
 If it sounds like the 1984 Contract with America under then Speaker Newt Gingrich, it is but both Ryan and McCarthy are reluctant to frame it in that manner, seeking to put their own stamp on a House initiative to bring the country together.
 "We need to go on the offensive," Ryan said, setting out core Republican goals that any nominee - even Trump - could work with. Ryan said he reviewed the five-point strategy with Trump during the telephone call and Trump seemed okay with it.
 And what about the Political Action Committee that was created to draft Ryan as a presidential nominee in the event of a brokered convention? "My lawyers have disavowed it," he said. "We sent them a letter and asked them to cease and desist."
 Ryan condemned Trump earlier this week for refusing to disavow the Ku Klux Klan, but the Republican leader has sought to remain neutral in the race. He said he had met Trump several years ago but only chatted with him for a minute or so.

 * ... CONNOR: Politics aside, the highlight of my breakfast was chatting with and getting to know Connor McCarthy, who will graduate this year with a degree in philosophy from Georgetown University. Connor is engaging, wickedly smart and carries the confident swagger of youth. His first job after graduation: he will be working for the $4 billion venture capital firm of Andreessen Horowitz in Menlo Park near Silicon Valley's famous Sand Hill Road. Not a bad start for a Bakersfield boy who always hits up Milt's when he is back in town.

 * ... RYAN: The Speaker, who was Mitt Romney's running mate in the last election, counts as his mentors the late Congressman Jack Kemp, a moderate who co-sponsored the Kemp-Roth tax cut in 1981. Ryan called Kemp not only a mentor but a huge influence on his own political philosophy.

 * ... SEA ISLAND: McCarthy has just returned from Sea Island, Ga., where he added the American Enterprise Institute conference that included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Napster founder Sean Parker and entrepreneur Elon Musk. While there McCarthy discovered the wonders of a small shack on St. Simons Island called Southern Soul Barbecue.

 * ... FITNESS: At 46, Ryan is a fitness nut who often worked out with McCarthy in the House gym. His father died of a heart attack at 55 and it drives Ryan to put a high priority on his health. In Bakersfield, he stayed at the downtown Marriott ("Marriotts have good gyms" he told me) and showed up for breakfast after an intense 40 minute workout doing multiple reps of the p90x workout. McCarthy gave up p90x and now has a personal trainer.

 * ... HOUSE OF CARDS: Does Ryan watch the Kevin Spacey HBO series House of Cards, a political thriller based in Washington and full of deceit, sex and mayhem? "Not a chance," he told me, saying Washington can appear bad enough to outsiders without a TV drama making it worse.    McCarthy, on the other hand, was shadowed by Spacey when the series was getting under way and remains a fan of the show.