Election takeaway:
"Voters in key races rejected that Republican position,"
whatever it was, as too extreme.

No sugar coating it, they got trounced for their extremism

"Virginia Dashes Youngkin’s Hopes of a G.O.P. Takeover, and Maybe More"
nytimes.com/2023/11/08/us/…
Liberals Win A Majority In Battleground Virginia School Board Racehuffpost.com/entry/liberals…

Republicans are floundering, trying to settle on an issue that revs up their base like Roe/Dobbs does for Democrats.

• Title 42 reversal is a bust so far with video on the networks documenting a drop in numbers (the issue is a serious one, the politics are politics of fear). • The Hunter Budin/Weaponizing committees are a bust, with the overhyped leaked documents leading nowhere except Q style conspiracies: "my best sources are disappeared!"

• The Republican-initiated debt ceiling crisis? They never read The Ransom of Red Chief, I guess.

“I think that the New York case is much stronger than people perceive it to be,” [John] Dean told me yesterday. “We really don’t know the contents of the indictment, and we really won’t know for a much longer time the evidence behind the indictment.” @RonBrownstein theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

Local paper suggests focus on crime was misplaced and might have backfired

Our local GOP ran awful ads trying to make the case, eg that Dick Blumenthal was trying to kill your kids with fentanyl - awful in production value as well as content

Whatever you think of Biden, history will recognize both the historic midterm win and the political instincts he brings to the table many take for granted.  How many politicians stay quiet when they need to stay quiet? Hint: it’s not about them if they are not running.

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1591637179062788098

Trump's document handling looks even worse today than it has from the beginning of the Mar a Lago story
nytimes.com/2022/08/22/us/… Mike Turner looks even more like a partisan stooge today
businessinsider.com/gop-lawmaker-s…

it's amazing to me that 'pardon trump' pieces all came out at the same time all of them bad, btw

Public health has no constituency. That’s gonna catch up to them in a big way in a pandemic.

Who said that? Me in 2007 to CDC and HHS.

https://twitter.com/timrequarth/status/1505910084408291332

There was even a time where the agency attempted to reach out to business, faith community, bloggers and the medical sectors for public planning beyond what the agencies themselves could do.

For a time, Mike Leavitt (HHS secretary) had his own blog (Today that would be substack)

you get the impression from the NY Times that Russia is winning this war (the stories are better than the headlines, a lot of "stalled" and "stalemate")

Yet.... you get the opposite impression from twitter

https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1504935429770027008

CDC: containment as a strategic choice is off the table (and has been for a while)

Rest of us: well, what about mitigation?

CDC: uhm.. we’ll get back to you on that sometimes we tell people 'hey, read the room". get real about what's going on.

well, CDC did.

And they said "look you're not getting vaxxed and wearing masks, let alone higher quality masks, so at least do this"

They're not wrong. But the big problem isn't them.
It's us.

the thing folks have to digest:
yes, follow the hospitalization numbers for COVID

But also factor in staff shortages as those who live in the community are affected by the community (think airline flight cancellations due to staffing issues) consider the most vulnerable (unvaxxed children, dialysis patients etc

https://twitter.com/DemFromCT/status/1475817489435172869

it is more important than ever to articulate that the reason to get fully vaxxed/boosted is to stay out of the hospital

with Omicron it won't stop you from getting a flu like illness

https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1475441847971586051

and if/when you do get a flu like illness from COVID, a strategy:

https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1475138732424822789

We don’t want to close everything down and we don’t want to close schools. So get vaccinated and do responsible things indoors.

(Mask because it makes sense, and upgrade your mask if you can,. Oh, and improve ventilation. And stay home/get tested if you are sick) Biden admin can help by getting their act together on testing (more, free, provided)

Rs vote yes so that they can vote no next week
news at 11

https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1469088210362023938

no kidding
they voted for a temp rules change allowing a bare majority to vote for averting the debt limit.
That way Ds can pass it next week without them but they can claim to have voted no on raising the debt limit.

Why do they *want* to do that?

They want it weaponized

heroism, fog of war, helping our allies, realism

wars are messy and don't end well.
politico.com/news/2021/08/3…

https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1432311663789805573

the "I wish I had known" thread, a sub genre
wsbtv.com/news/local/gwi… nbcwashington.com/news/coronavir…

here's some coronavirus news from the last day or so
1. @maggiemfox (an experienced and reliable health reporter, btw) cnn.com/2021/07/07/hea… if you like papers

https://twitter.com/amymaxmen/status/1412869295202127873

democracy on a knife's edge
1. @Bencjacobs
nymag.com/intelligencer/… 2. @CatieEdmondson nytimes.com/2021/07/05/us/…

Your morning cardinal Finch fest

for those who think Jan 6 is over, we know what we need to know, nothing to see here
1. nytimes.com/2021/06/15/us/… 2.

https://twitter.com/JoshDorner/status/1404780377672237057

This is noisy bird city today
The red bellied woodpecker got quiet while eating But not these guys