22 November 20
What We Shoot For is a Stable Budget
RSN’s financial structure is built around addressing operating costs. We know how much we need and we aim for that. Once we cover the expenses we stop. The wild card is now long it takes. It could take 10 days. But it could also take 20 days, or more. Why is often a mystery.
It’s the same budget every month, without a need for windfall income. The key is avoiding serious downturns. That sounds easy, but it’s often brutally difficult.
This is a brutally difficult month.
Why is a mystery.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
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22 November 20
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The Washington Post Editorial Board | Abolish the Electoral College
The Washington Post Editorial Board
Excerpt: "The electoral college, whatever virtues it may have had for the Founding Fathers, is no longer tenable for American democracy."
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Medical staff attend to a patient infected with COVID-19. (photo: Thomas Samson/Pool/AP
US Coronavirus Cases Top 12 Million. An Expert Says Spread Is Now 'Faster' and 'Broader' Than Ever
Christina Maxouris, CNN
Maxouris writes: "The number of US coronavirus cases surpassed 12 million Saturday - an increase of more than 1 million cases in less than a week."
At least 12,085,389 cases have been confirmed, according to Johns Hopkins University data, and 255,823 Americans have died.
It's another horrific milestone in a month full of devastating Covid-19 records in the country. November already accounts for almost a quarter of all Covid-19 cases and 9% of deaths.
Almost every state has reported a rapid surge in cases, and nationwide numbers have been climbing much faster than ever before -- with the country reporting a staggering 2.9 million infections since the beginning of the month.
On Friday, more than 195,500 new infections were reported -- the country's highest for a single day, and far beyond what the nation was seeing just weeks ago. The highest number of single-day cases during the country's summer surge was a little more than 77,100 in July, Johns Hopkins University data shows.
The US on Friday also recorded its highest number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals on a given day: just over 82,100 -- according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Rising death rates typically follow rising hospitalizations. In just the past week, more than 10,000 US deaths have been reported -- nearly double the weekly death toll of just a month ago.
LIVE UPDATES: The latest on the coronavirus pandemic
The numbers offer just a glimpse at the devastation the pandemic has unleashed across American communities, with some cities ordering mobile morgues to handle the excess deaths, while hospitals in other parts have reported overwhelmed ICUs and exhausted staff.
In Texas, a team of 36 National Guard personnel were sent to El Paso to help the city cope with the surge of Covid-19 deaths, the Texas Division of Emergency Management said Saturday, and El Paso has found a central location for an additional morgue, according to Mayor Dee Margo.
Many are traveling for Thanksgiving despite CDC's recommendation against it
The virus is still running unabated in the US and the rate of rising cases is now "dramatically" different from what it was before, White House Coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
"This is faster. It's broader. And what worries me, it could be longer," she said.
Dr. Esther Choo, professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, said the real case count is likely to be "multitudes" higher than the 12 million reported because not enough people are getting tested.
Choo said she is particularly concerned by how quickly new cases are accelerating.
"So many states have test positivity rates above 20%, which means that we are vastly lagging behind in our confirmed cases," she told CNN's Erica Hill.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week urged against Thanksgiving travel, and against celebrating with anyone outside your own household, because cases are soaring. But health officials suspect many will visit family and friends and further spread the virus -- many times, without knowing it.
The CDC says in new guidance this week that more than 50% of Covid-19 infections are spread by people who exhibit no symptoms.
"I would say to those who are homesick...just hold the line," Dr. Chris Pernell, a public health physician at New Jersey's Newark University Hospital, told CNN on Saturday. "Hold on a little bit longer until we can get to the point in the nation where we know that the pandemic isn't accelerating. Otherwise it could be deadly."
AAA said it anticipates at least a 10% drop from 2019 in Thanksgiving travel -- the largest one-year decrease since 2008. But that still would be about 50 million travelers, about 95% of whom would go by automobile, AAA predicted.
Several people at Washington's Reagan National Airport told CNN this week that they felt safe enough to fly.
"I understand the risk that I'm taking, but I want to see my family," Yasmine Dehghani, who was flying to Connecticut, said.
With people increasingly getting sick, and others without symptoms seeking reassurance ahead of the holiday, long lines are forming outside testing sites around the country, appointments are filling up, and commercial labs are warning that their capacities are being stretched.
Health experts, however, stress a negative test result will not guarantee a person isn't carrying the virus to a Thanksgiving gathering, because a test won't necessarily pick up on fresh infections. An already-infected person could test negative, travel to a dinner days later and then spread the disease.
People who want to attend an indoor Thanksgiving dinner with a different household, experts have told CNN, should have planned to quarantine 14 days beforehand.
"If you do that properly, you don't need a test," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital, told CNN.
What rising cases and hospitalizations mean for the country
The rising numbers have brought some hospital systems to their knees and prompted state leaders to take action to help curb the spread.
At least 24 hospital leaders warned the American Hospital Association they are experiencing staffing shortages, Nancy Foster, the association's vice president for quality and patient safety policy, said. Those concerns have been raised in states including Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and North and South Dakota, all of which have recently seen infections climbing, she added.
And those shortages are hard to fix when pulling from a workforce of health care employees "justifiably experiencing a significant emotional and physical toll due to the impact of the pandemic," Foster said in a statement to CNN.
And in rural parts of the country, the challenge is often greater.
Of about 2,000 hospitals considered to be rural, about 1,700 have 50 beds or fewer and about 1,300 of them have 25 beds or fewer, according to Tom Morris, associate administrator for rural health policy in the federal government's Health Resources and Services Administration.
"People in hospitals will not do well when they're as crowded as they are becoming right now," Choo said.
"We're not talking about large facilities. We're not talking about a lot of ICU capacity," Morris said during the National Institutes of Health rural health seminar." In a lot of these hospitals, they're able to offer an ICU of one of two beds."
Responding to the crisis, multiple governors this week announced new measures to combat the surging infections and relieve strained hospital systems.
California's governor issued a limited stay-at-home order for the counties in the state's most restrictive tier, saying nonessential work and gatherings must stop between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Minnesota's governor announced a "four-week dial back," which among other measures placed new limits on social gatherings and ordered bars and restaurants to takeout and delivery services only.
A statewide curfew went into effect Thursday in Ohio, lasting from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The Navajo Nation, which reported its highest number of daily cases Friday, is also currently under a "stay-at-home lockdown" that began earlier this week.
There is good news, too
The good news? Experts say promising vaccines are on the horizon and until then, there are things the American public can do to help hold down the virus.
Those include wearing a mask, social distancing, avoiding crowds and washing hands regularly. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected this week about 65,000 lives could be saved by March 1 if 95% of Americans wore masks.
And according to new research published Friday by the CDC, masks worked to slow the spread of the virus in parts of Kansas. The state's governor signed an executive order on July 2 that made masks mandatory in public places. The majority of the state's counties opted out of the order, but about two dozen opted in or created their own mask mandate.
The CDC and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment looked at case trends the month before the mandate and for the month after the mandate and found that in the 24 counties that required people to wear masks in public, there was a net decrease of 6% in cases. Meanwhile, in counties without the mandate, the disease continued to surge, with a net increase in cases of about 100%.
And soon, there could be more reinforcements in the battle against Covid-19.
The US Food and Drug Administration on Saturday authorized Regeneron's antibody cocktail to treat Covid-19 in high-risk patients with mild to moderate symptoms. It is one of the treatments President Donald Trump received when he was hospitalized.
On Friday, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted an application to the FDA for emergency use authorization for their Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Earlier this week, Pfizer said a final analysis of the Phase 3 trial of the vaccine showed it was 95% effective in preventing infections, even in older adults, and caused no serious safety concerns.
While the application for EUA is "encouraging," the Infectious Diseases Society of America stressed Friday that a transparent review of Pfizer's data is still needed.
And if the vaccine is given the green light, "clinical trials and data collection must continue," Dr. Barbara Alexander, president of IDSA, said in the statement.
"Measures that include wearing masks, frequent hand washing, maintaining physical distance and restricting the size of gatherings will remain crucial," the statement said. "Finally, new federal funding must be provided for widespread, fair and equitable vaccine distribution in addition to campaigns to build vaccine confidence."
Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)
Senate Republicans Signal Opposition to Sanders' Nomination as Labor Secretary
Carl Hulse, Yahoo! News
Hulse writes: "Sen. Bernie Sanders, the progressive Vermont independent, has emerged as a contender for labor secretary in President-elect Joe Biden's administration, a prospect that would suit his ambitions of being a warrior for working Americans - and one that makes some Senate Republicans very uneasy."
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Judge Merrick Garland, right, was nominated by President Barack Obama to the US Supreme Court in March 2016 after the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, but was subsequently blocked from hearings by Senate Republicans. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Merrick Garland Is Reportedly One of Biden's Attorney General Candidates
Brendan Morrow, Yahoo! News
Morrow writes: "Judge Merrick Garland is reportedly under consideration to serve as attorney general in President-elect Joe Biden's administration."
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Jair Bolsonaro. (photo: Evaristo SA/Getty Images)
Brazil's Recent Election Was a Blow to Jair Bolsonaro
Ana Carvalhaes, Jacobin
Excerpt: "The political situation in Brazil remains quite reactionary, even after Jair Bolsonaro's party lost ground in Sunday's election. But the far-right president's violent agenda took a hit - and that's worth celebrating."
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Sunday Song: Jimi Hendrix | All Along the Watchtower
Jimi Hendrix, YouTube
Excerpt: "'There must be some kind of way out of here,' said the joker to the thief."
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Pollution from a factory. (photo: Science Focus)
A Destructive Legacy: Trump Bids for Final Hack at Environmental Protections
Oliver Milman, Guardian UK
Milman writes: "Donald Trump is using the dying embers of his US presidency to hastily push through a procession of environmental protection rollbacks that critics claim will cement his legacy as an unusually destructive force against the natural world."
Administration finishing off regulatory moves to lock in drilling, loosen wildlife protections and roll back pollution standards
Trump has yet to acknowledge his election loss to president-elect Joe Biden but his administration has been busily finishing off a cavalcade of regulatory moves to lock in more oil and gas drilling, loosened protections for wildlife and lax air pollution standards before the Democrat enters the White House on 20 January.
Trump’s interior department is hastily auctioning off drilling rights to America’s last large untouched wilderness, the sprawling Arctic National Wildlife Refuge found in the tundra of northern Alaska. The refuge, home to polar bears, caribou and 200 species of birds, has been off limits to fossil fuel companies for decades but the Trump administration is keen to give out leases to extract the billions of barrels of oil believed to be in the area’s coastal region.
The leases could result in the release of vast quantities of carbon emissions as well as upend the long-held lifestyle of the local Gwich’in tribe, which depends upon the migratory caribou for sustenance. Several major banks, fiercely lobbied by the Gwich’in and conservationists, have refused to finance drilling in the refuge but industry groups have expressed optimism that the area will be carved open.
The administration is also opening the way for drilling around the Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, considered a sacred area by the native Navajo and Pueblo people who live near the New Mexico site and has targeted a linchpin environmental law, known as the National Environmental Policy Act, to allow more logging and road-building in national forests.
Trump has previously shrunk federally-protected areas as part of an “energy dominance” mantra that the president claims will bolster the US economy.
Meanwhile, safety rules for offshore drilling, put in place after the disastrous 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, are being watered down. The risks of a catastrophic, unrestrained spill are highest in the Arctic, where retreating sea ice is encouraging some fossil fuel firms to move into a region largely devoid of clean-up and rescue infrastructure.
The Trump administration is is also maintaining air quality standards widely condemned by experts as being insufficient to protect communities from sooty pollution that comes from cars, trucks and heavy industry. Many cities in the US are riven with environmental injustices, where poorer communities of color are routinely placed in proximity of industrial plants, highways and other sources of pollution.
The regulatory rampage extends to creatures from the skies to the prairies to the oceans – fines for people who kill migratory birds are being reviewed while the US Navy has been given latitude to inadvertently harass endangered whales with noise from explosions and speeding vessels during war game exercises along the west coast.
A plan to slash protections for sage grouse across the US west has been finalized, placing the habitat of the once-common bird, about the size of a chicken and known for its flamboyant mating dances, at risk. “These guys are hellbent on turning over the last refuges of the vanishing greater sage grouse to drilling, mining and grazing,” said Michael Saul, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s disgusting, transparent and illegal.”
The actions of the exiting administration will have “extremely damaging environmental consequences”, said Richard Revesz, a professor of environmental law at New York University. “Trump’s counterproductive actions have allowed the climate crisis to intensify and put the health of many Americans, especially in the most vulnerable communities, at risk by ignoring threats from pollution,” he added.
The scorched earth approach of Trump’s final months will further exacerbate a four-year legacy where climate policies have been dismantled, clean air and water rules scaled back and legions of demoralized federal government scientists sidelined or decided to quit.
“The Trump administration spent four years assaulting every protection for our air, water, lands, wildlife and climate,” said Jill Tauber, vice-president of litigation at Earthjustice, a non-profit law organization.
Leah Donahey, legislative director at the Alaska Wilderness League, added: “No administration has been worse for our environment or our nation’s public health than this one.”
Biden will be able to reverse some of Trump’s actions and has vowed to limit drilling on federal land as well as to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, which the incumbent has removed the US from. Biden has called the climate change an “existential threat” in the wake of a year of fierce wildfires in California and a record number of hurricanes in the Atlantic, but his ambition to pass sweeping climate legislation hinge upon a US senate that, with looming special elections in the state of Georgia, appears likely to remain in Republican control.
Any successful remediation of the rollbacks will also have to survive as flurry of lawsuits, with the US supreme court now titled decisively in a conservative direction. All of this will soak up time during a period where scientists say planet-heating emissions must be cut rapidly to avoid the worst ravages of the climate crisis. “Trump’s legacy on environmental issues will be less about lasting policy changes,” said Revesz, “and more about lost time and missed opportunities.”
