WSJ: Vaccine’s economic stimulus: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-covid-19-vaccine-would-boost-the-global-economy-but-not-all-at-once-11605087345 . This will be a rather slow shot in the arm.
WSJ: China’s vaccine exports: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vaccines-are-chinas-golden-opportunity-to-regain-global-trust-on-health-exports-11605082819 .
WSJ: Sputnik V: https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-says-its-coronavirus-vaccine-sputnik-v-shows-over-90-efficacy-11605095822 . Russian vaccine claims are a wait-and-see item.
The scientists behind the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/europe/biontech-pfizer-vaccine-team-couple-intl/index.html .
WSJ: The CEOs behind the Pfizer BioNTech and other vaccines: https://www.wsj.com/articles/pfizer-ceo-joins-host-of-executives-at-covid-19-vaccine-makers-in-big-stock-sale-11605139164 . Not as nice a story as the prior entry … the “potential for eroding trust”. Apparently saving lives through vaccination is only one of many considerations.
WSJ: Transition moves forward: https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-elect-joe-biden-plans-to-name-ron-klain-as-his-white-house-chief-of-staff-11605142810 . Klain’s experience as Ebola czar does indeed send a clear signal. Apparently saving lives through vaccination is the primary consideration for Biden, who has a lot more on his plate than the drug CEOs do.
State Department holding Biden messages: https://thehill.com/policy/international/525616-state-department-wont-give-biden-messages-from-foreign-leaders-report . What phenomenal childishness … More: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/11/politics/state-department-biden-messages/index.html .
James Lankford has had enough: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-republican-senator-said-hell-step-in-if-the-trump-administration-does-not-grant-bidens-transition-team-access-to-intelligence-briefings-by-friday/ar-BB1aVOHg?li=BBnb7Kz . Reality is beginning to penetrate the “Fake News Machine”.
A vaccine doesn’t mean normality any time soon: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/10/covid-vaccine-messaging-us-lags-experts-call-honest-talk-now/6160998002/ . End of 2021 seems in the ballpark, but the new normal is quite different from the prior version.
The White House election night party was indeed yet another superspreader event: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/11/covid-19-new-coronavirus-case-from-trump-white-house-election-party.html . Confirming earlier suspicions, the White House tries to defy reality in all dimensions. It still isn’t working.
WSJ: More on US hospital stress: https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-surge-strains-hospitals-once-again-11605100312 . The map is interesting. There is significant, border-to-border “rural access risk” everywhere from Georgia to Nevada, as well as Alaska.
Minnesota governor calls out SD governor: https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-st-paul-south-dakota-minnesota-kristi-noem-b227daf6139be0d6ccce2e80800356ae . And he is absolutely right. And there’s this: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-south-dakota-elections-campaigns-b922c257150cb723f738d2591524279b . She’s certainly following the Trump example. Who knew there was a swamp in South Dakota?
WSJ: More rigorous surveillance testing needed: https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-public-health-c31802fea6720906a9b9c2f913f9acb7 . Once again, a study reveals the obvious. And as we know, even substantial testing is not a prevention strategy. At least a switch will flip on in the White House on January 20 – hope the place is sanitized first. WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/asymptomatic-covid-19-cases-show-need-for-wider-surveillance-testing-study-suggests-11605132000 .
Masks protect everyone: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-11-11/cdc-masks-can-protect-wearer-from-coronavirus-too . Sigh. This is even more obvious than the last entry’s “information”. CDC’s messaging throughout the pandemic has been awful at best. CDC hasn’t been helped by bowing to pressure from the White House, although that doesn’t appear to be involved here. More: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/10/covid-vaccine-messaging-us-lags-experts-call-honest-talk-now/6160998002/ . This, however, is the White House’s responsibility (or lack thereof).
WSJ: A new COVID-19 flight risk: https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-extra-covid-wildcard-for-flying-during-winter-deicing-11605103200 . If you don’t fly through Chicago, Denver or Salt Lake City, coast-to-coast becomes tougher. The Trump enterprise can point to the benefits of global warming, though.
WSJ: COVID-19 bends Middle Eastern cultures toward Western practices: https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-prompts-gulf-countries-to-adopt-more-western-norms-11605103200 .
Merry COVID apocalypse?: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/11/us-prepares-for-worst-four-months-of-the-pandemic-as-it-stares-down-the-darkest-days-yet.html . Okay, deep breath. Readers here know how to protect themselves. Things will change on January 20, so we have less than 70 days to go of the current lunacy. It was hard to find anything to like in this article except accuracy, but “Diwali” was good. Diwali is the Indian festival of lights. For you older late-night TV fans, it reminded me of when David Letterman was infatuated with Daljit Dhaliwal, a British news presenter previously on World News.
If you remember, great, you’ll smile. I unfortunately couldn’t find a YouTube clip (from 2000?!), but here’s a British piece (with an opposing view): https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jun/23/features.review17 . The writer is apparently irritated that she was famous in the US but not in the UK, so not so famous to him. However, the writer perfectly describes the Letterman affair in the fourth paragraph. Well, except that Paul Shafer and the band accompanied Letterman’s song of love, which was just her name sung to “Feliz Navidad”.
How’s the murder hornet news? Terrifying: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/10/murder-hornet-nest-queens-washington . Let’s hope they did indeed get there in time. 200 QUEENS?!!! IN ONE NEST?!!!
WSJ: The problems of foreign ownership: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-proposes-new-powers-to-curb-foreign-takeovers-of-strategic-companies-11605097005 . This will not affect the Premier League, at least directly. (The Premier League is the poster child of foreign ownership, but apparently soccer is not a strategic industry.)
WSJ: Revisiting “too big to fail”: https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-transition-chief-proposed-limiting-size-of-biggest-u-s-banks-11605090600 .
WSJ: European banks and the COVID-19 cliff: https://www.wsj.com/articles/european-covid-19-relief-supports-banks-apparent-resilience-11605090804 .
WSJ: Automation comes to India: https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-spurs-indians-to-replace-their-household-help-with-appliances-11605096003 . This will send many Indians back into poverty.
WSJ: Biden and the Fed: https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-bidens-election-means-for-the-fed-11605090602 . The Fed is currently 4 Republicans, 1 Democrat, 2 seats open. If the Republican nominees are not confirmed, the Fed would still be 4-3 majority Republican until February 2022. Appointing Lael Brainard as Treasury Secretary does not alter this result. The appointment could help Biden’s relations with the Fed. Brainard could then be appointed to head the Fed in 2022.
Evidence-free fraud claims face backlash: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-virus-outbreak-general-elections-elections-4060823b211ce91959b26f46efb73636 . The Trump campaign and its allies are so far 0 for 10 in court challenges. There is simply no claim out there that would change the election results even if true.
WSJ: So far the circus won’t leave town: https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-is-trumps-legal-strategy-try-to-block-certification-of-biden-victory-in-states-11605138852 . There is no legal strategy. We are just waiting for the temper tantrum to end. Trump continues his own focus toward his media future, so we are waiting for a Republican spine. It has been a disturbingly long wait.
Old Senate faces: Thom Tillis is re-elected in North Carolina, after Cunningham conceded: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-senate-elections-sex-scandals-north-carolina-53bce00325ae1183cfd01cc5111e0a2c . Cunningham may have blown the Democratic Senate majority (and his personal life) over a sexting scandal. And Dan Sullivan will be returning from Alaska: https://www.vox.com/2020/11/11/21536040/senate-2020-results-alaska-dan-sullivan-winner . WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-keeps-alaska-senate-seat-as-attention-turns-to-georgia-11605119433 . This makes the Senate 50R-48D pending the two Georgia runoffs.
Senators up for re-election in 2022: Further to my note yesterday, older senators up for re-election include 3 Republicans: Chuck Grassley of Iowa, age 87, first elected in 1980; Richard Shelby of Alabama, age 86, first elected in 1986; and Roy Blount of Missouri, age 70, first elected in 2010. The races expected to be most competitive are Arizona (Kelly, D), Florida (Rubio, R – running), Georgia (the 2020 winner of Loeffler/Warnock), North Carolina (Burr – retiring), Pennsylvania (Toomey, R – retiring) and Wisconsin (Johnson, R): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_Senate_elections#Potentially_competitive_races .
WSJ: The smaller Democratic House majority: https://www.wsj.com/articles/smaller-house-majority-poses-headaches-for-democrats-11605132137 . WSJ writes the Republican wish list. The Democrats will have no trouble passing legislation in the House. Mitch McConnell and the Senate is the problem. The discussion of reconciliation highlights the importance of the Georgia runoffs. The nature of the Biden presidency is on the line. This is true at least until 2022, and then Biden is likely viewed as a lame duck.
WSJ: New Congressional faces: https://www.wsj.com/articles/congresss-new-faces-include-ex-astronaut-citadels-first-female-grad-11605106196 . For once, a helpful reader comment! It mentions the legal geniuses who pointed guns at St. Louis protesters and then spoke at the RNC. They were pointing their guns at, among others, Cori Bush. Her district is 49% black, 41% white, 10% other.
I wonder why WSJ doesn’t mention that Nikema Williams’ district, formerly John Lewis’ district, flipped Georgia for Biden?: https://www.vox.com/2020/11/6/21552796/john-lewis-georgia-district-joe-biden (great photo of Stacey Abrams). More on Stacey Abrams: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/credited-boosting-democrats-georgia-stacey-abrams-looks-january-n1247281 .
You may know of Stacey Abrams’ organization, Fair Fight. I wrote to Dom Kelly at Fair Fight inquiring about registering voters in Georgia, and he was kind enough to respond (and quickly!). Fair Fight is not currently registering voters in Georgia, but he referred me to the organization Abrams founded in 2014, The New Georgia Project, which is.
Here is the Fair Fight link to actions for the January election: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivURsjHiT0VKU6f8F7uQ3P6pm7hAFlVHUIczb35s3eo/edit . Here is the New Georgia Project’s home page: https://newgeorgiaproject.org/ . Remember, Biden won Georgia. Democrats can do it again. To do it consistently, Stacey Abrams has the right idea: Help everyone vote. As you know, there are no ads on this website. I consider this an opportunity to invest in democracy. Thank you for reading.
The Georgia runoff: The only polling I’ve seen has both Republicans up, Perdue by 4 and Loeffler by 1. And the pollster is not considered to be of high quality: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/ .
WSJ: An economist lost in space: https://www.wsj.com/articles/want-a-coup-abolish-the-electoral-college-11605134162 . While as you know I studiously exclude WSJ opinion pieces, this one is ridiculous. One of the few things abundantly clear from the US Constitution is that states run elections. Abolishing the Electoral College does not in and of itself change that. The piece’s byline made me wonder if it’s the sarcastic wit of the brilliant Steve Landesberg, but as he died in 2010, that’s not the answer. An economist should not be writing about legal matters. It is a disgrace that WSJ published this.
WSJ: The Pope and sex abuse: https://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-promises-to-root-out-sex-abuse-citing-case-of-defrocked-u-s-cardinal-mccarrick-11605100257 . Sigh. WSJ is slowly catching up to my note yesterday. The important addition here: “St.” to John Paul II.
Veterans Day: “In valor there is hope” – Tacitus, Roman senator and historian (56-120 AD).