Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Justice gets a temporary stay

[Brexiter]

WaPo:

Appeals court temporarily bars release of Trump White House records to House Jan. 6 committee

Capping days of legal drama, the appeals court rocketed consideration of the case through federal courts in Washington. While granting an injunction pending further order, the court set a schedule that signaled it would act swiftly to decide whether to withhold records while an appeal is pending. If it declines, the documents would be released, effectively mooting the case in a victory for the House.


Trump could still appeal to the Supreme Court, and a ruling keeping records secret could work to his advantage if litigation is prolonged through the November 2022 midterm elections, when Republicans hope to take the majority in what is now a Democratic-led Congress.


The scheduling order was issued by Judges Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who also will hear the case. All three were nominated to the bench by Democratic presidents and Jackson is a recent nominee of President Biden.

While the delay will irk people, Millett, Wilkins, and Jackson is a way better panel for the Select Committee than the Tatel, Rao, and Walker hydra that some folks were tentatively forecasting. https://t.co/wa4ytfKQXI

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) November 11, 2021

Perry Bacon Jr/WaPo:

Have Democrats reached the limits of White appeasement politics?

The Democratic Party, to its credit, has remained committed to civil rights. It wants to be aligned with people of color. But Democrats also want to win elections in a White-majority country. So, party leaders for decades have informally adopted a strategy of White appeasement — by which I mean they have frequently taken actions, often subtle, to demonstrate to White Americans that they aren’t too tied to civil rights causes and people of color. Sometimes this means Democrats taking a stance on a racial issue to align with views of moderate and conservative White people; other times it is Democrats avoiding a stance on a racial issue for the same reason. The Democrats’ White appeasement is their countermove to the Republicans’ White grievance…

What might such an alternative look like? Democrats could embrace more non-White candidates like Obama and Warnock, in part because they are likely to be more knowledgeable about race-based issues such as critical race theory and therefore better able than White candidates to combat GOP grievance tactics. They could emphasize that lots of ideas that are often lumped in the “civil rights” or “Black” bucket, such as voting access, integrating schools by class and race, and reducing police killings, will benefit large numbers of White people, too, particularly those with lower incomes. They could become even more closely aligned with the labor movement, as there is evidence that union membership pushes White people to be more supportive of policies that benefit people of color. They could, instead of sidestepping issues such as critical race theory when Republicans bring them up, take them on directly.

This is a very good piece, with a detailed analysis of Virginia school issues.

let me know when Republicans cancel a single Trump fundraiser or reject a single Trump endorsement over this https://t.co/GdxtLtUMTs

— Christian Vanderbrouk (@UrbanAchievr) November 12, 2021

Kyle Kondik/NY Times::

How Likely Is a Democratic Comeback Next Year?

Democrats hoped that this year would be an exception. By trying to focus the electorate on Donald Trump, they sought to rouse the Democratic base. This approach would also avoid making elections a referendum on President Biden and his approval ratings, which have sagged after months of struggles with the Afghanistan exit, Covid, gas prices, inflation and congressional Democrats.

In other words, Democrats hoped that the usual rules of political gravity would not apply. But we should not be surprised that the familiar force endured.

Policy advocates & "strategists" of all stripes have an incentive to downplay the pattern @kkondik notes. If Dems lose midterms b/c that's what parties in the White House do then maybe advocates' & strategists' hobbyhorses aren't so important? 1) https://t.co/VFVdcg3Dj5

— David Karol (@DKarol) November 11, 2021

Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:

How Democrats can shake voters loose from the GOP coalition

The latest Pew Research Center poll divides the partisan electorate into eight subgroups, with four on the Republican side. While these groups on the right may not seem like particularly rich targets for Democratic outreach, Democrats would be foolish to write these voters off entirely…

Those last two groups — the Populist Right and the Ambivalent Right — warrant further attention from Democrats. Their huge margins of defeat in rural areas, most recently in Virginia, suggest the party should at least try to reduce antipathy among these voters. Even raising doubts about the GOP would be helpful in contests in which Republicans count on maximizing turnout among rural White voters.

Putting this up for reference: the US economy looks overheated right now, but real GDP is still below where you would have expected from the pre-pandemic trend (assuming 2% growth). Presumably supply-chain plus Great Resignation pic.twitter.com/v7GdXo9lGX

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 11, 2021

Monmouth:

Biden’s Plans More Popular Than President

President Joe Biden’s big spending plans on infrastructure, support programs, and climate change remain broadly popular even though he personally does not. The latest Monmouth University Poll finds that many Americans feel that Biden has been unable to deliver on his promise to get Washington working and there has been an uptick in views that he is not helping either the middle class or the poor. Republicans and independents are more likely to blame the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in Congress for the foot-dragging on the Build Back Better plan. Among Democrats in the general public, though, which wing of the party is at fault depends on where on the ideological spectrum one sits. The poll also finds vast differences in public opinion on messaging around race curriculum depending on how the issue is framed.

SCOOP: The day after Columbine shootings, top NRA execs, PR experts, lobbyists scrambled on conference calls to strategize. Over 2.5 hrs they laid out the playbook of the NRA after mass shootings for the next 20+ years. I have the secret tapes.https://t.co/uwZYoP7jnF

— Tim Mak (@timkmak) November 9, 2021

Max Burns/The Hill:

The GOP's moral postmodernism

The GOP’s crackdown on critical thinking is a problem, but that loyal policy comes with an even darker side. Embracing Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) win-at-any-cost ethos, the Republicans will dutifully tolerate even the most appalling personal and professional conduct from “loyal” members. That’s bleak for the right, but it’s devastating for good government.

Wed just in: +1.33M doses reported admin over yest total, incl 403K newly vacc and 719K add'l doses/boosters. We estimate that by the end of today over 900K 5-11 y/o's will have gotten their first dose. One of those is my 5 y/o who got his last night (he's doing great)! ??

— Cyrus Shahpar (@cyrusshahpar46) November 10, 2021

Des Moines Register:

USDA to invite Ottumwa JBS pork plant to speed up processing lines in 'limited trial'

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday it will invite nine U.S. pork processing plants — including a JBS plant in Ottumwa — to increase line speeds in a trial to determine if they can boost production without risking worker and food safety.

Previously, the Biden administration had said it would not fight a March court ruling that struck down a Trump-era rule change allowing U.S. pork processing plants to speed up their production lines. The administration said the 2019 decision had failed to properly consider worker safety.

But on Wednesday, the Agriculture Department said it had decided to hold a "limited trial" to collect data to share with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The trial, lasting up to a year, could guide future processing rules, Kate Waters, the department's spokeswoman, said in a statement.

…

Zach Corrigan, a senior attorney at Food & Water Watch, a Los Angeles environmental group, denounced the move.

"With this decision, the Biden administration is caving to industry pressure ... and puts industry profits over protecting the safety of our food supply," Corrigan said.

This process, of the outbreak moving between regions within the US, has been one of the most reliable & ignored parts of the pandemic. Cases start going down in one region & everyone acts like it’s over. No, it’s coming for your region next. https://t.co/3FPsdWbzEi

— Dr Ellie Murray, ScD (@EpiEllie) November 11, 2021

Nature:

COVID antiviral pills: what scientists still want to know

Drugs like molnupiravir and Paxlovid could change the course of the pandemic if clinical trial results hold up in the real world
But little is known about how well the drugs will work, and how easily they could be used in the places that need them most. Nature looks at five key factors that could determine how the new COVID-19 antivirals shape the course of the pandemic.

They are very promising but no substitute for vaccines… and require timely testing to be effective. You can’t use them early if you don’t know whether you have COVID.