6 months later, we can see the consequences of far too many leaders across America who were not responsible, from the White House to state houses.
Governors ignored or dismissed the science.
As in 1918, businesses & churches resisted mask mandates & closures.
Deaths followed. Image
If you need a laugh along with a way to score risk, @xkcd’s chart remains relevant: xkcd.com/2333/ Singing in church, going to a bar or restaurant, party, or cruise are high.

It’s congruent with how epidemiologists score risk. ImageImage
When the @nytimes asked epidemiologists how they were living, this is what they said nytimes.com/2020/12/04/ups…
Key takeaway: avoid crowded indoor spaces where people are not wearing masks.
Bars, churches, restaurants, malls, holiday parties are high risks for super-spreader events ImageImage
“when you put on that mask, you're protecting yourself from other people, but mostly you're protecting them from yourself. You're doing the altruistic, loving thing of saying, 'I'm going to protect people from me.'”-@NIHDirector, to our Christian neighbors apple.news/AtY5Q_AqaRZSyf… Image

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More from @digiphile

5 Dec
…Our protests & marches to indoor pleasures.
Grim-visaged death hath smooth’d his dark shroud;
And now, instead of heart attacks & cancers
To fright the souls of fearful Americans,
He capers nimbly indoors
Borne by the promiscuous breathing of our youth
But we, that are not used to pandemic restrictions,
Nor bade to mask our plagued breaths;
We, that are rudely cramped, and in want of love’s tragedy
To dance before a wanton ambling nymph;
We, that felt curtail’d of our fair proportion,
Cheated of life by a dissembling cretin
Sickened, uninformed, sent before our time
Into this breathing world, alternative facts made up,
And so lame and irrational
That dogs bark as they halt by them;
Why, we, in this bleak time of plague,
Have tried to vote away the crimes,
Hoping to drive away shadows with the sun
Read 5 tweets
5 Dec
This the first official use of @Twitter’s new fleet feature by a mayor or governor that I’ve seen.
I don’t see a way to link to @MayorBowser’s fleets.

Will @Twitter archive fleets for @verified government accounts, @TwitterGov?

Any cities & states memorializing ephemeral media? ImageImageImageImage
The fleets by @MayorBowser feature key links:
🔬DC’s coronavirus website for free at-home testing (!) & help with rent:
coronavirus.dc.gov/rent

🎁shopping local: ShopInTheDistrict.com

🍱ordering food: DCToGoGo.com

A reminder of how new features can have civic uses ImageImageImageImage
In a sense, mayoral fleets about COVID testing, help with rent, holiday shopping, & food are fantastic: it’s meeting people where we are, online.

It’s using social media to connect us to services.

I talked with @carolynlawson about this a *decade* ago:
Read 7 tweets
22 Nov
SCOTUS had upheld the constitutionality of state & local health authorities enforcing codes in a pandemic, from masks to closing churches or bars: americanbar.org/news/abanews/p… Once an emergency is declared, they have power to restrict liberties & enforce mandates.

This is subversion:
Typhoid Mary showed a limit for individual liberty.
In 2020, SCOTUS upheld state restrictions: “Our Constitution principally entrusts “[t]he safety & the health of the people’ to the politically accountable officials of the States ‘to guard & protect.’” supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf…
“While protestors in 1918 fought against the hated mask, their act of gathering, which was at the time entirely legal, was helping to spread the disease." time.com/5830265/1918-f…
The leaders who do not learn from American history doom their constituents to repeat it.
Read 5 tweets
22 Nov
+💯@brianstelter for calling out @potus @vp @presssec for not holding press conferences & avoiding questions. Public servants are accountable to the public. Regular press briefings are part of the transparency that arms us with the info essential to self-governance in a democracy
Today, @JimVandeHei told @ReliableSources about how @axios governs the speech of its staff on social media & TV: they can’t “pop off” on Twitter, or tell @BrianStelter about their views.

Was this the apotheosis of the “view from nowhere” on a Sunday morning show, @jayrosen_nyu?
The behavior of members of media is irrelevant to the obligation of the officials.
In a healthy democracy, press conferences are not a privilege or treat to be doled out at the discretion of those in power to favored reporters.
This isn't like state TV in an authoritarian regime.
Read 7 tweets
21 Nov
Congress appropriated funds for @Transition46 @GSAEmily refuses to release. @SpeakerPelosi & @RepMaloney should subpoena her & @FEC @EACgov commissioners to testify Monday as to the “apparent” winner.
No President-Elect should be crowdfunding a transition.
The 116th Congress tolerated a President:
1) taking emoluments in violation of the anti-corruption clause of the Constitution
2) obstructing justice
3) interfering with CDC in a pandemic
4) lying about public health, national security, & now election integrity

Historic failures.
There is ample precedent: Articles of impeachment for Nixon.
House should have investigated Trump’s unprecedented corruption, created a public record through inquiries for each count, referred crimes to DoJ, & sent on to the Senate for a trial.
Attacking democracy is impeachable.
Read 4 tweets
20 Nov
Dear @senatemajldr @ChuckGrassley @SenatorRomney @SenJohnThune @RepLizCheney @GOPLeader @SpeakerRyan @SpeakerBoehner @GovLarryHogan @MassGovernor, VP Cheney, & President Bush: was the 2020 election a “hoax” with widespread fraud, or the “most secure election ever,” per @CISAgov? ImageImageImage
All 50 of the Republicans @Reuters interviewed said the election was rigged or illegitimate. reuters.com/article/us-usa…
20 said they’d accept Biden as POTUS.
Trump’s Big Lie worked, after 5 years of delegitimizing government, media, & any official or politician who contradicted him. ImageImageImageImage
“The truth is that even if Trump’s would-be coup looks like a con, even if it seems to be a clown show that’s surely doomed to fail, it must still be taken seriously as long as it is happening”-@sbg1 newyorker.com/news/letter-fr…
Why?
79% of Republicans believe his Big Lie about fraud ImageImage
Read 5 tweets

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