Megan Ranney/waPo:
Charlie Sykes/Bulwark:
Wait wait, there’s even more. Congressional action, news on the electors and Ivanka Trump, e.g.
Robert Shapiro/Washington Monthly:
David Rothkopf/Daily beast:
Jamie Dupree/substack:
Christian Paz/atlantic:
And don’t forget Boris Johnson.
Sunday Times:
We’re used to stress in the ER. But omicron has made our jobs impossible.
We can’t provide the right care at the right time anymore — and after two years, we’re exhausted from trying
As an emergency physician, I thrive in challenging situations. In the best emergency care, I work with my team to quickly stabilize a sick patient, create trust with them and their family, and then come up with a clear diagnosis and therapeutic plan. I think about what needs to be done today to make sure they’re safe — and what needs to be done tomorrow, or in a month, to keep them from coming back.
In pre-pandemic times, I was usually able to do this. The system sometimes worked against me, most often because a patient lacked the right insurance to get the tests and treatments they needed. And sometimes we struggled with an acute surge of patients. For example, on a rainy night, we’d get overwhelmed with folks who’d been in car crashes. During flu season, we’d be crowded with influenza patients for a week or two. These surges were frustrating but usually relatively short.
if youre still in line to write a tweet dunking on aaron rodgers, STAY IN LINE
— jonny sun (@jonnysun) January 23, 2022
Charlie Sykes/Bulwark:
Somebody Else Had a Lousy Week
Trump still wriggling
And please hold off on the “this-is-the-tipping-point” hot takes.
Nevertheless,
We’ve had a series of interesting developments this week, haven’t we?
In Georgia…
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is requesting a special grand jury to aid in her investigation of former President Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
In New York…
NEW YORK — The New York attorney general says her investigators have uncovered evidence that former President Donald Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of its golf clubs, skyscrapers and other property to get loans and tax benefits.
In the Supreme Court:
The court’s decision was a brutal, and personally stinging, loss for Trump. And the arguments his own lawyers advanced may have made the defeat worse.
Trump lost the case in virtually record time. He sued the committee and the National Archives on Oct. 18, lost in the district court on Nov. 9, lost in the court of appeals on Dec. 9 and lost in the Supreme Court on Jan. 19. And so, today, the Jan. 6 committee has hundreds of documents Trump desperately wanted kept under wraps.
It’s hard to lose in so many courts so quickly — unless, I suppose, you’re Donald Trump contesting election results. So much losing, you almost have to feel sorry for the former guy.
Wait wait, there’s even more. Congressional action, news on the electors and Ivanka Trump, e.g.
Robert Shapiro/Washington Monthly:
The Biden Jobs Boom Is Bigger Than We Thought
A look at the numbers.
When it comes to what’s been called the “Great Resignation,” there’s nothing new about Americans quitting their jobs to look for something better. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that from 2015 to 2019, an average of 38 million full-time and part-time working people voluntarily left their jobs per year—and that excludes retirements and layoffs. In 2021, those voluntary “quits” jumped to 47 million, the highest level ever.
The pandemic almost certainly played a role by inspiring workers to reconsider their life choices. But for most people, moving from ruminating to resigning requires confidence that they can find a good position somewhere else. That’s why huge numbers of quits only happen in a booming job market.
Debunking the notion that boosters don't reduce Omicron symptomatic infections. Another new study from Qatar shows they are halved https://t.co/cWKcvheuso matched >400,000 people with mRNA vaccines 2 vs 3-dose pic.twitter.com/LLew2mtDq3
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) January 22, 2022
David Rothkopf/Daily beast:
D.C. Is a Donut. There Is No Center in Washington Politics
Pundits blame progressives for Biden’s sagging approval ratings, but the left represents more of America than it does in Congress.
“Blame the left” is Washington’s latest craze.
It would not be surprising if it were just coming from the GOP. But scapegoating progressives is now an increasingly popular sport among Washington-based pundits—and even some Democratic Party strategists—trying to identify who or what to blame for President Joe Biden’s low poll numbers and the myriad struggles of his first year in office.
Unfortunately, these analyses are based on several fallacies. First, Biden’s poll numbers after one year in office, while undoubtedly sagging, are still substantially ahead of Donald Trump’s.
Next is the obvious but somehow underrated truism that poll numbers after one year in office are fairly meaningless. Comparisons to prior decades—when partisan politics weren’t nearly as divisive—are also not particularly useful.
Biden’s poll numbers cannot be attributed to any specific action he has or has not taken. In fact, it is highly likely that a combination of factors beyond his control—such as the emergence of a highly contagious and vaccine-resistant strain of COVID-19, and the GOP campaign to reject essential public health measures—has had more of an impact on his numbers than anything for which Biden is personally responsible.
This is your not-so-friendly school librarian here to tell adults to let kids read what they fucking want. Graphic novels, comics, audiobooks, fanfic, whatever. It's all "real" reading.
— Alex Brown ? (they/them) (@QueenOfRats) January 21, 2022
Jamie Dupree/substack:
JANUARY 6. As the special House panel investigating the Capitol Attack asked one of Donald Trump's children to answer questions, the committee on Thursday shed more light on the pressure Trump was putting on Vice President Mike Pence to illegally swing the election away from Joe Biden.
PHONE. The morning of Jan. 6, Trump spoke to Pence by phone from the Oval Office. Listening to Trump was Pence's National Security Adviser - Army Gen. Keith Kellogg - who confirmed that Trump belittled Pence for refusing to block electoral votes from certain states won by Biden.
PENCE. In snippets of testimony released by the panel, Kellogg said Trump's message to Pence was, 'you're not tough enough.' The General said that after the call ended, Ivanka Trump turned to him and said, "Mike Pence is a good man," seemingly supporting his refusal to help her father.
IVANKA. The details came in an 11 page letter sent to Ivanka Trump, as the panel asked Trump's daughter to voluntarily answer questions about what she saw and heard that day.
WHITE HOUSE. Meanwhile, another text exchange showed the worry inside the White House about the Capitol violence, and Trump’s refusal to denounce it. "Is someone getting to (Trump)?" read a text to an unidentified White House staffer. "Someone is going to get killed." The staffer said Trump was not listening. "It's completely insane."
"Effective immediately, the Secretary of Defense shall seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records." But first, let's discuss Biden's going home on weekends. -- political media.
— Mark Elliott (@markmobility) January 22, 2022
Christian Paz/atlantic:
The TikTok Doctors and Nurses Debunking Pandemic Lies
On a platform rife with falsehoods, a cohort of doctors and scientists have stepped in to correct them.
As the first wave of coronavirus shutdowns began, an epidemiologist named Katrine Wallace joined TikTok to combat her boredom and isolation. Wallace, a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, watched as the viral dances and humor of “quarantine” took over the app, but she told me that she didn’t consider making any kind of video herself until the app’s algorithm began showing her coronavirus conspiracy theories.
“At that point in time, it was like the conspiracy that the disease wasn’t even real, like it was all something to throw the election, that everything was miscoded, that it was really the flu and we were pretending it was something else,” she told me. “Naively, I thought to myself, Well, I’m just gonna fix this on this app.”
With all of 20 followers, Wallace dropped her first video on August 2, 2020: a minute-long explainer walking viewers through how COVID-19 death certificates are filled out. The video racked up nearly 100,000 views in a few days. Less than two years later, “Dr. Kat, Epidemiologist” (as she’s known online) now has 250,000 followers. Her more recent videos explain which COVID tests to take and when, how to use the federal government’s new at-home testing portal, and why “Flurona” (being sick with flu and COVID and the same time) isn’t a doomsday sign. She’s wrapping up a series explaining common techniques that anti-vaxxers and COVID skeptics use to mislead audiences, and often partners with the many other science communicators who have joined TikTok since the pandemic started.
NEW: Florida Republicans have advanced a “don’t say gay” bill that would ban teachers from talking about LGBTQ+ topics in schools. It would allow parents to sue schools for infringing on their “control of their children.”
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) January 22, 2022
And don’t forget Boris Johnson.
Sunday Times:
Will Boris Johnson run out of road?
Pursued by angry MPs and a wily Dominic Cummings, and paranoid about his own staff, a volatile prime minister is approaching the cliff edge
Dan Rosenfield, the No 10 chief of staff, called a meeting of parliamentary private secretaries (PPSs) — the backbench MPs who work as assistants to ministers. Many of them had won their seats in Johnson’s landslide two years ago.
What happened next left Rosenfield astonished and the prime minister on notice that even those on the government payroll might not stick with him, should the rebels succeed in forcing a confidence vote this week.
One after another the PPSs — the lowest rung of government office — expressed their displeasure at the chaotic mess that is Johnson’s operation. At least three called for senior resignations.
Labour’s Keir Starmer calling for greater support for Ukraine against Russian aggression in @Telegraph. Not something Corbyn would be doing. After many years of division over foreign policy — Syria, Brexit — there is now an emerging consensus on China and Russia in Parliament. pic.twitter.com/G6p5eHFxqn
— Ben Judah (@b_judah) January 22, 2022