Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
If you think you are having a bad day just remember, Trump is watching Biden’s Inaugural stage being built on the White House North lawn.
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) November 20, 2020
At least *we* have something pleasant to anticipate, come January. Rip off the damned bandaid, dude!
Late Night Open Thread: Prolonging His Own MiseryPost + Comments (140)
Biden, top Democrats lay groundwork for multibillion-dollar push to boost U.S. broadband https://t.co/YhBw1s57Ed
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 20, 2020
… Party leaders are mulling a wide array of proposals that would extend the availability of broadband in hard-to-reach rural areas, raise Internet speeds for American households, assist families who are struggling to pay their Internet bills and provide more funding to schools for computers and other equipment. Many Democrats say they are bullish about their prospects, believing they can shepherd a series of record-breaking investments at a time when the resurgent coronavirus is forcing Americans to work and learn from home again.
Their first major opportunity could come as part of a new coronavirus stimulus package, a top priority for Biden as he prepares to enter the White House in January. The president-elect previously endorsed a House-passed relief bill that includes $4 billion in emergency funds to help low-income Americans stay online in a pandemic that has left tens of millions out of work and strapped for cash. Biden also reaffirmed his commitment to universal broadband on Tuesday as part of a broader preview of his economic-recovery agenda.
Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), a top Biden ally who led a broadband task force this year, said he “absolutely” expected the president-elect to move aggressively on the issue within his first 100 days in office. He acknowledged this week that lawmakers “still expect to get some opposition from Republicans” on additional spending, but he expressed optimism that the inequalities brought to light by the worsening coronavirus pandemic might spur Congress to act.
“Broadband in this century must be treated as electricity was in the 20th century,” Clyburn said…
Saturday Morning Open Thread: More Good Ideas from the Biden TeamPost + Comments (260)
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, 73% of those polled agreed that President-elect Joe Biden had won the election. But when asked specifically whether Biden had 'rightfully won,' Republicans showed suspicion https://t.co/RI93qv60Q2 pic.twitter.com/1wavN1RojV
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 19, 2020
At some level, Republicans know perfectly well that their guy lost the popular vote, just as he did in 2016. (And as Bush did in 2000, for that matter.) Rather than accept the fact that they’re in the minority (dreadful word!), they choose to insist that only rigging and cheating can win the White House. Ergo, when it’s plain a Democrat has more votes, well…
Late Night Open Thread: The Self-Protective Projections of GOP ArsonistsPost + Comments (116)
Ed Yong, who has done really excellent work throughout the pandemic, has a tragic, terrifying piece up at The Atlantic just now, “The Hospitals Know What’s Coming.”
The story focuses on one institution, the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. It’s a major center of excellence, and as Yong reports was uniquely well-placed to deal with an epidemic:
After the SARS outbreak of 2003, its staff began specifically preparing for emerging infections. The center has the nation’s only federal quarantine facility and its largest biocontainment unit, which cared for airlifted Ebola patients in 2014. They had detailed pandemic plans. They ran drills. Ron Klain, who was President Obama’s “Ebola czar” and will be Joe Biden’s chief of staff in the White House, once told me that UNMC is “arguably the best in the country” at handling dangerous and unusual diseases.
But, as Yong meticulously reports, no amount of preparation can overcome a broad-based failure of basic public health measures.
In the past two weeks, the hospital had to convert an entire building into a COVID-19 tower, from the top down. It now has 10 COVID-19 units, each taking up an entire hospital floor. Three of the units provide intensive care to the very sickest people, several of whom die every day. One unit solely provides “comfort care” to COVID-19 patients who are certain to die. “We’ve never had to do anything like this,” Angela Hewlett, the infectious-disease specialist who directs the hospital’s COVID-19 team, told me. “We are on an absolutely catastrophic path.”
While cities like New York or Boston have many big hospitals that can care for advanced strokes, failing hearts that need mechanical support, and transplanted organs, “in this region, we’re it,” [critical care Dr. Dan] Johnson says. “We provide care that can’t be provided at any other hospital for a 200-mile radius. We’re going to need to decide if we continue to offer that care, or if we admit every single COVID-19 patient who comes through our door.”
It takes several days for infected people to show symptoms, a dozen more for newly diagnosed cases to wend their way to hospitals, and even more for the sickest of patients to die. These lags mean that the pandemic’s near-term future is always set, baked in by the choices of the past. It means that Ricketts is already too late to stop whatever UNMC will face in the coming weeks (but not too late to spare the hospital further grief next month). It means that some of the people who get infected over Thanksgiving will struggle to enter packed hospitals by the middle of December, and be in the ground by Christmas.
“We need to be clear with the American people about what to expect”
President-elect Joe Biden outlines his plan for tackling the Covid crisis in the US https://t.co/VVJu36MLxx pic.twitter.com/5Dpefv6C17
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 19, 2020
Friday Morning Open Thread: President-Elected Biden Continues To ImpressPost + Comments (310)
The Twitter warning labels are getting better. pic.twitter.com/1kD7JTd8OJ
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) November 16, 2020
Late Night Open Thread: Call It the Betty Cracker AmendmentPost + Comments (78)
Right now, the experts I follow on Twitter seem equally divided among
There are also some more or less rational attempts to look at deadlines and the actual intentions of the various state officials.
I try to stick with the last, and what I see there is that the election will be decided fairly. With a few exceptions, like those two in Michigan, election officials and secretaries of state are doing their jobs with integrity.
Ignoring today’s clown show (what kind of hair dye dissolves in sweat? Shoe polish?), the courts are doing their job. The Trumpies are something like 1 – 30, and the one was solely on procedure.
With every unit that confirms the election results, the Trumpies have one fewer avenue to pursue. Events are closing in on them. Republican legislators in several of the swing states have stated they have no intention to go against the will of the voters.
Trump is following one of his customary gambits: sue and sue and sue until the other party runs out of money. His presidency has, in effect, been the infliction of an abuser on the country, and we are reacting to that. We are extremely sensitive to his actions, and we would just like them to stop. This is the end of the abuse, and Trump is reacting as abusers do. He can’t sue the American public, but he will try to keep the punishment going.
The legal fight is going against Trump.
The bureaucracy (with the sad exception of Emily Murphy) is standing on the side of law and order.
An article in Politico this morning said that Biden’s organization will ramp up public opinion for starting the transition. And, sure enough, the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, good Republican organizations, called today for the certification of the transition. I suspect we will see more calls with every day that passes. The purpose is to pressure Republican members of Congress to pressure Trump.
I’m not fond of predictions, but it’s hard for me to see how Trump is doing himself any favors with any but the most extreme members of his party, perhaps 10% of the population. He will hurt Republican chances in the Georgia senate elections.
The Republican members of Congress who are sticking with him (most of them) should be shunned by all decent people. This whole business is making me think about the virtues of the practice of shunning. We have only one party now that wants to govern the country. We will have to deal with that.
For now, there is so much crazy that it’s hard to think about how things should be. Joe Biden has had literally thousands of people thinking about that since the spring, and he has plans. He is not allowing Trump to derail those plans.
We need to start the transition ASAP, but so far the consequences are not as dire as some make them out to be. Biden’s people have experience in government, and he’s got all those plans. The transition teams are probably focusing on what they can: mainly personnel choices. What they will learn when they have access to the civil servants in the agencies, who want to do a good job, is exactly how broken things are. That is the basis from which they will have to start.
The progress on the logistics of getting a vaccine produced and distributed is probably the most important area in which the transition teams need to be involved. But even there, it’s likely changes will need to be made.
So I see this period as something to be gotten through with my sanity intact, which means not getting involved in whether it’s a coup or an autogolpe or which Michigan official is more likely to break under Trump’s pressure. I’m pulling back to look at the bigger picture, and that looks like the country will get through this. If you feel like you need to do something, help campaign in Georgia or call your Republican members of Congress and tell them what you think.