I grew up in an Italian household where everyone loudly disagreed, and I listed to quite a bit of sports talk radio in NY. As "uncivil" as both of those things can be, there was comfort in knowing that if you were right, you could pump your fist & laugh, but if you were wrong... ...if you were wrong, you swallowed your pride (your feelings didn't matter because you were incorrect), you took your ribbings, and you acknowledged your defeat. And maybe moved on to argue the next point.

1/ Unlike in past elections, where most of the country shifts marginally to one candidate or another, this one saw a hardening of the electorate. @nprpolitics @nprpolitics @NPR Map by @shmcminn
npr.org/2020/11/18/935… 2/ Blue areas became bluer and red areas become redder for the most part. (We note that results are still coming in in NY, so the red dots in NYC/LI may change.) The one place where some persuasion was evident was in D-leaning suburban areas, like outside Philadelphia and Atlanta

1/ The 9/11 Commission wrote about the national-security threat of slow transitions/lack of cooperation during one. Since national security is one of the three legs of the GOP stool, you'd expect they get the risk & vulnerability Trump is exposing ALL Americans to right now: 2/ From the report:

"Since a catastrophic attack could occur with little or no notice, we should minimize as much as possible the disruption of national security policymaking during the change of administrations by accelerating the process for national security appointments. ...

1/ Super-high turnout is because of a couple things:

1. TRUMP. He has been a polarizing president -- either love him or passionately hate him, and he turned out the vote, for him and against; ... 2/ 2. MAIL-IN BALLOTS. States, like CO/WA that have been virtually all-mail have very high participation rates. That went national this year for the first time. ...

I'm not sure who needs to hear this, but here goes... final election results are NEVER known on Election Night. All the votes are NEVER counted by and on Election Night. SOMETIMES, and not always, can the broadcast networks and the AP call presidential elections on Election Night. That's because they have ENOUGH of the vote to know which direction the state is going or, in the AP's case, if the other candidate doesn't have a path left to win.

“The president never downplayed the virus” — Trump’s press secretary.

Let’s recap:
1/ Feb. 10: “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. hope that’s true. But we’re doing great in our country.” 2/ Feb. 11: “In our country, we only have, basically, 12 cases and most of those people are recovering and some cases fully recovered. So it’s actually less.”

Thread: #Coronavirus is not the flu. Here's how they differ, per @NPR's @Pien_Huang:

1. COVID-19 is novel, and that means there's no vaccine and it's unclear how it will manifest
2. CV infects 2-2.5 people vs. 1.3 with the flu... 3. 20% of CV patients are serious enough to go to the hospital, 10x the flu
4. Hospital stay for COVID is 2x as long as flu
5. 8% get the flu. Some estimates are 25-50%, possibly up to 80%, could get CV w/o drastic actions taken...

Here's what we know now that the notes of the Ukraine call have been released:

1. Giuliani, the president’s personal atty working for Trump’s personal benefit, was pressing Ukraine to investigate the Bidens in private, overseas meetings. One, he says, was set up by State Dept 2. The Ukraine president brought up Giuliani to Trump, meaning it got to his level. He says, "...and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine." Ukraine NEEDS U.S. $, and Trump knows that. He criticized Obama this wk for sending pillows & sheets

The stories of what @realDonaldTrump did and what @JoeBiden did with regards to Ukraine aren't even close to the same. Let's look at how: 1. Trump brought up a political rival and, if the WSJ story is true, he was pressuring a foreign leader, not only ACCEPTING foreign intervention on his behalf, like many in his campaign did in 2016 from Russia, but ASKING for it.

Tweeting out series of tweets I hope help clarify timeline of what happened bw Trump camp & Russia bw Jan-July (through the conventions) 2016. This is based on court filings & @NPR reporting, building on this great timeline from @MilesParks @tamarakeithNPR npr.org/2017/10/31/537… Jan. 14: Cohen emails Putin’s office for help on Moscow project
Jan. 16: Cohen emails Putin’s office again, asking for a different high-ranking Russian official

1/ Reading through the executive order on family detention that @realDonaldTrump signed, there's another fight brewing, again related to the Flores Settlement but in reverse. 2/ Flores was brought as a class-action suit against the government and immigration officials because human-rights advocates didn't like how detained children were being treated. It took 12 years to settle (1985 to 1997).

1/ Blaming cyber bullying on the president when it comes to kids is "ridiculous," Sarah Sanders says. That seems to be a bit of denial. OK... thread... 2/ TEXAS: White Texas teens chant ‘build that wall’ at Hispanics during high school volleyball match
washingtonpost.com/news/early-lea…

1/ .@realDonaldTrump is upset that @amazon, believes, gets a favorable deal on postage. But let’s count the ways he has benefited from tax breaks for his businesses or those associated with him from just a very cursory Google search: 2/ (1) @nytimes: Hotel Carrying New Trump Brand Secures $6 Million Tax Break
mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/bus…

1/ There IS data on whether immigrants commit more crime -- and they don't. We fact checked this in 2016 when he gave his immigration speech 2/ In fact, multiple studies show this: washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-co…