Rage, it's what's for dinner. Plus, the biggest protest ever.
The rage of those hit hard by shutdowns is 100% justified. Not because of the shutdowns themselves, which are vital, but because of the Congressional failure to help them out. It’s cheaper to convince people to load up their assault rifles and shout “Liberate” outside city halls than it is to boost government stimulus money to make them whole. Along with too many people, we’re letting too many businesses die. I’ve said from the beginning that the best idea I’ve heard during the pandemic is having the government pay restaurants to feed health workers and the increasing number of families who have moved from assembly lines to bread lines. Programs that do just that have been created across the country, but by nonprofits. It should have been done by the federal government. Jose Andres, whose organization has done as much as anyone to help restaurants and the hungry, lays it out in WaPo: “Lawmakers don’t have to choose between helping restaurants and feeding the hungry: Restaurants can feed the hungry, with federal support. There’s also no need to choose between paying farmers to destroy crops or supporting food banks: Farmers can be paid to supply the food banks … We know this model works. The organization I founded, World Central Kitchen, has put $135 million back in the hands of local restaurants to feed their communities. But nonprofits relying on private donations cannot begin to ramp up a national effort the way Congress can.” Congress knows exactly where the pain is. Instead of serving food to America’s hunger problem, the federal government has been serving rage.
+ Also from WaPo, two headlines that expose the two Americas experiencing this one pandemic. Stealing to survive: More Americans are shoplifting food as aid runs out during the pandemic. And, Plastic surgeons say business is up, partly because clients don’t like how they look on Zoom. Maybe America just doesn’t like what it sees when it looks in the mirror.
Trade v Mark
“The U.S. government and 48 states and districts sued Facebook Wednesday, accusing it of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors and seeking remedies that could include a forced spinoff of the social network’s Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services.” It’s hard to get 48 states and districts to agree on anything, but they, along with the federal government, seem to agree that Facebook is too big.
Three Grand Rapids
On Wednesday, “states reported 3,054 deaths from COVID-19—the highest single-day total yet.” The death toll is now at its worst with hope in sight.
+ “In Mitchell, the medical emergency helicopter, once a rare occurrence, now comes nearly every day, ferrying the growing number of people desperately ill with covid-19 to a hospital that might be able to save them. Sirens echoing through the empty streets of New York marked the pandemic’s first phase. Swirling blades of helicopters on the American plains is the soundtrack of a deadly fall.” WaPo: Covid-19 becomes personal in a South Dakota town as neighbors die and the town debates a mask mandate. (3,000 a day and we’re still debating about masks.)
+ It’s good to be the king. It’s almost as good being friends with the king. NYT: Trump and Friends Got Coronavirus Care Many Others Couldn’t. “If it wasn’t me, I wouldn’t have been put in a hospital frankly,” Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, told WABC radio in New York. “Sometimes when you’re a celebrity, they’re worried if something happens to you they’re going to examine it more carefully, and do everything right.” When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab ‘em by the prescription.
Rino Plasty
“Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate Electoral College votes in battleground states that Trump lost — a challenge dismissed by legal experts as frivolous and rebuked by state officials in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But the lawsuit is succeeding in bringing Paxton back into the embrace of the GOP at a time when his former inner circle has accused him of bribery and the FBI is investigating his dealings with a donor.” The ‘worst people doing the worst things’ tour continues.
+ “This is madness. We have a process. Recounts are appropriate. Going to the court is appropriate. Pursuing every legal avenue is appropriate. But trying to get electors not to do what the people voted to do is madness.” —Mitt Romney.
+ But Romney is an outlier and these attacks on elections could be the new normal. Ron Brownstein in The Atlantic: “There appears little chance that Trump will succeed in subverting Joe Biden’s victory. But Trump’s failure on that front has obscured his success at enlisting a growing swath of his party to join his cause—a dynamic that is already prompting new Republican efforts to make it more difficult to vote and raising concerns about the party’s commitment to the basic tenets of Western democratic rules and conventions, including the peaceful transfer of power.”
+ Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, “is under investigation by federal prosecutors in Delaware regarding several financial questions that have arisen as a result of his business dealings in foreign countries.” (Hunter Biden should say he can’t share details from his taxes because he’s currently under audit…)
That Didn’t Age Well
“Compounding the problem, Feinstein seemed to forget about the conversations soon after they talked, so Schumer had to confront her again. ‘It was like Groundhog Day, but with the pain fresh each time.’ Anyone who has tried to take the car keys away from an elderly relative knows how hard it can be, he said, adding that, in this case, “It wasn’t just about a car. It was about the U.S. Senate.” Jane Mayer in The New Yorker: Dianne Feinstein’s Missteps Raise a Painful Age Question Among Senate Democrats.
Farmers Market Economics
“In late November, what may have been the single largest protest in human history took place in India, as tens of thousands of farmers marched to the capital to protest proposed new legislation and upward of 250 million people around the subcontinent participated in a 24-hour general strike in solidarity. This massive people’s movement has gained attention worldwide and, moreover, forced the government to come meet the protesters where they are instead of just cracking down and brutalizing them, a first in the six years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule. To comprehend this moment, you have to understand the long plight of India’s farmers.”
Beats Boxing?
“If you’re getting the picture, this is purely a matter of lobbying. Much of a sport’s chances for inclusion hinges on impressing the IOC, and that can include glad-handing at ritzy events.” How Did Breakdancing Become an Olympic Sport? Stop, Hammer Throw Time!
Dog Days of 2020
“Toy poodle was the top trending dog in 2020. (Virtually non-shedding! Easily housebroken! Really smart! Who knew? Well, you … now.)” The always interesting, and particularly so in this particularly crazy year, Google Search Trends.
Pop Cult
“If we began lockdown in March by addictively binge-watching the darkly bizarre ‘Tiger King,’ by early winter we were transfixed by a different sort of animal: the graceful octopod of ‘My Octopus Teacher,’ extending her tentacles to make connections that seemed achingly poignant in a time when mere hugs between humans are taboo.” Pop Culture in (ugh) 2020, from the bizarre to the sublime.
Bottom of the News
“Sildenafil is the active ingredient … used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Trazodone is used to treat major depressive disorder.” Drugs recalled after ‘mix-up’ packages depression medication and e.d. drug together. (That actually sounds like a perfect cocktail while I’m waiting for my vaccine.)
+ Italian Man Walks 280 Miles After Argument With Wife to “Clear His Head.”
+ Humpback whale snapped during New York City harbor visit.
+ 11 Festive Facts About Hanukkah. (It usually lasts 8 nights. If the rest of 2020 is any indication, it will last 800 nights this year.)
