Opinion | Joe Biden's Approach: Speak Softly, and Carry a Big Agenda (by Ezra Klein)
It wasn't a week ago I was on Twitter angry that we haven't gotten stimulus relief checks delivered yet. This opinion piece was a good reminder that there is more going on than just those checks. Biden and his team are pushing hard in a number of ways that would, each individually, potentially be presidency defining.
Ezra highlighted this first paragraph on Twitter, where I found the link to the article, but it's actually the second paragraph that I found most insightful and something to keep in mind regarding my own biases. It's something that people have to remember amid the craziness of Texas opening up fully for the pandemic - it wasn't the individuals in that state who made that decision, it was the governor and his leadership. Will many agree? Absolutely. But not everyone. And not even all Republicans.
A few pieces of political science research are shaping my thinking here. In 2012, Stephen Nicholson, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, published an interesting paper called "Polarizing Cues." In it, Nicholson asked people their opinions of proposed housing and immigration policies, sometimes telling them that Barack Obama supported the policy and at other times telling them that George W. Bush or John McCain supported the policy. What he found was that opinions didn't much change when people heard that a political leader from their own party supported a bill. But opinions changed dramatically when you told them a political leader from the other side supported a bill — it led to sharp swings against the legislation, no matter the underlying policy content.
When I called Nicholson to ask him about the paper, he gave an insightful explanation for the results. Humans tend to see diversity in the groups we belong to, and sameness in the groups we mistrust, he said.
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The finish line is in sight, and I am so angry that Texas has decided now is the time to stop finishing the race.
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$1.9 Trillion Covid Relief package passes Senate with VP Harris casting tie-breaking vote
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Definite upside of Covid forcing work from home: It is easy enough to do some not-immediate cooking during lunch. I just whipped together a quiche after my last morning meeting wrapped up.
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Tokyo WILL host the Olympics
It's a less troubling thing now that the vaccines have begun to roll out, but it is still hard to believe we will see the Olympics this year. If it happens, I will be very excited at the prospect of working from home and watching day-long broadcasts.
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George Takei with the stone cold take and reminder that the GOP lives "Rules for thee, not for me"
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Florida makes bid for Olympics if Tokyo backs out
That sounds like a terrible plan. And I say that as an Ex-Floridian.
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Tolkien pub the Lamb & Flag is to close after 450 years
Pour out a pint friends. It makes sense to close it, and legally the university has to. I'm sure once the Pandemic is over and restaurants and pubs can return to business someone will open it in a new location, but... it won't be the same. As a Tolkien fan I'm sad I was never able to make it over and see it, though I'm sure the atmosphere isn't the same as when Tolkien and Lewis were there.
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A Stanford survey and study published in December suggests work from home will stick
Abstract: We survey 15,000 Americans over several waves to investigate whether, how, and why working from home will stick after COVID-19. The pandemic drove a mass social experiment in which half of all paid hours were provided from home between May and October 2020. Our survey evidence says that about 25 percent of all full work days will be supplied from home after the pandemic ends, compared with just 5 percent before. We provide evidence on five mechanisms behind this persistent shift to working from home: diminished stigma, better-than-expected experiences working from home, investments in physical and human capital enabling working from home, reluctance to return to pre-pandemic activities, and innovation supporting working from home. We also examine some implications of a persistent shift in working arrangements: First, high-income workers, especially, will enjoy the perks of working from home. Second, we forecast that the post-pandemic shift to working from home will lower worker spending in major city centers by 5 to 10 percent. Third, many workers report being more productive at home than on business premises, so post-pandemic work from home plans offer the potential to raise productivity as much as 2.4 percent.
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The Pandemic Year Marked a Turning Point in Climate Change
No, it didn't. We just showed that when we do less as a planet, it does what we want it do in regards to lessening the damage we're doing on the planet.
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How Many Microcovids Would You Spend on a Burrito?
Far from reasonable for a lot of people, just found it an interesting idea to read about and consider.
We have vaccines now, and an end is in sight. But even optimistic projections put us at least six months from widespread inoculation. In the meantime, the pandemic is as bad as ever, and people still need to make decisions about how to behave. Even the clearest advice—wear a mask, stay 6 feet apart, avoid indoor gatherings—doesn't address many of the subtle situations in which we find ourselves. Olsson's response was to calculate her way through our collective apathy and disillusionment, treating the virus not as an abstract and unknowable risk but one that could be measured and tamed until a vaccine eliminated it.
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Beginning in May, the four members of Ibasho's new Covid subcommittee began to develop a system for weighing and budgeting viral risk. Olsson called their risk points microcovids, in a tip of the hat to Howard, and one microcovid equaled a one-in-a-million chance of catching the virus. They pulled epidemiology papers from Google Scholar and gathered around the table in the hearth to go through the data. The first step was to impose a top-line risk budget that would anchor all of their calculations. They debated this question at length. Olsson floated the idea of 10,000 microcovids per person per year—the equivalent of a 1 percent chance of catching Covid. But what was the actual cost of 10,000 microcovids? By their estimations, for people their age, a 1 percent chance of getting sick was about as risky as driving, which was something they did without thinking. And besides, they figured, if other people who could stay home kept to a similar budget, the hospitals would not overflow. The virus might even disappear.
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Japan reportedly is going to cancel the Olympics due to Covid
Makes total sense, but still very sad to see one of these global moments officially be canceled because of this fucking disease.
Update: Now reports are coming out denying this report. We'll have to wait and see what fully happens.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger on Facebook:
I said this to someone in the comments, but I think a lot of you need to hear this.
I always say you should know your strengths and listen to the experts. If you want to learn about building biceps, listen to me, because I've spent my life studying how to get the perfect peak and I have been called the greatest bodybuilder of all time. We all have different specialties.
Dr. Fauci and all of the virologists and epidemiologists and doctors have studied diseases and vaccines for their entire lives, so I listen to them and I urge you to do the same. None of us are going to learn more than them by watching a few hours of videos. It's simple: if your house in [sic] on fire, you don't go on YouTube, you call the damn fire department. If you have a heart attack, you don't check your Facebook group, you call an ambulance. If 9 doctors tell you you have cancer and need to treat it or you will die, and 1 doctor says the cancer will disappear, you should always side with the 9. In this case, virtually all of the real experts around the world are telling us the vaccine is safe and some people on Facebook are saying it isn't safe.
In general, I think if the circle of people you trust gets smaller and smaller and you find yourself more and more isolated, it should be a warning sign that you're going a rabbit hole of misinformation. Some people say it is weak to listen to experts. That's bogus. It takes strength to admit you don't know everything. Weakness is thinking you don't need expert advice and only listening to sources that confirm what you want to believe.
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Dr. Fauci to lead U.S. delegation at WHO meetings as Biden plans to reverse Trump withdrawal
I can't handle this logical and sane news that is flooding out of Washington D.C.
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