Today’s Edition: 1 in 100.
December 14, 2021
[An audio version of this newsletter is here.]
Tornadoes in Kentucky.
Before turning to the political news, I offer my condolences to the families of victims of the tornadoes in Kentucky. I know that many newsletter readers live in Kentucky. I hope that you and your families are safe and that your homes are intact.
The Pandemic.
As the death toll of the pandemic approaches 800,000, a startling statistic emerges: One out of every one-hundred Americans over the age of 65 has died from Covid. That is a staggering and unforgivable loss of life that could have been reduced by hundreds of thousands but for the politicization of the pandemic by Republicans. If only we had known in the first months of the pandemic that it would strike down 1 in every 100 older Americans, everything would have been different. Oh, wait. The Trump administration did know that the pandemic would ravage congregant living facilities that serve as home to millions of older Americans. But the administration temporized and prevaricated, alternating between a Darwinian approach of “allowing nature to take its course” and promoting unproven remedies based on junk science.
Those grievous missteps were followed by partisan propaganda that undermined public confidence in highly effective vaccines. The avoidable loss of life, particularly among older Americans, is a scandal of immense proportions that has receded into the background. More Americans over 65 have died of Covid (580,000) than the number of American soldiers killed in battle in WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan, combined. We cannot let that tragedy repeat itself. We cannot let the voices of conspiracy and quackery prevail. We cannot let a deadly pandemic become normalized because cynical politicians see an opportunity for partisan advantage. Most importantly, you cannot let your guard down. Get vaccinated and get a booster.
I have hesitated in writing about the Omicron variant because of the paucity of good data given its recent emergence. But trends are emerging in early studies of Omicron. One important point is emerging: Booster shots provide a significantly increased level of protection against Omicron infecion. See the excellent (and understandable) discussion regarding Omicron in Katelyn Jetelina’s blog, “Your Local Epidemiologist | Katelyn Jetelina | Substack.” Jetelina writes,
On Friday, the UK Health Security Agency released a comprehensive report in which they compared 56,439 cases of Delta to 581 cases of Omicron from Nov 27 to Dec 6, 2021. Vaccine effectiveness against Omicron infection was 30-40% after two shots of Pfizer. After a booster, effectiveness increased to 70-80%. This is nothing short of phenomenal.
Do not let your guard down. If at all possible, do not make exceptions based on friendship, family, convenience, social pressure, or exhaustion. We have lost 1 in 100 older Americans. We must act like that is an ongoing national emergency. Because it is.
Justice Gorsuch sets new low for judicial hypocrisy.
On Friday, Justice Gorsuch found that—gosh darn it!—the Supreme Court was just powerless to protect women in Texas against a law that was intentionally designed to deprive them of a recognized constitutional right. On Monday, Gorsuch dissented from the Court’s refusal to review a New York vaccine mandate that contained no provision for a religious exemption. See The Hill, “Supreme Court declines to block NY health worker vaccine mandate.”
In his dissent, Gorsuch argued that the Court should have granted review and provided injunctive relief to health care workers who refused to get vaccinated on religious grounds. His arguments in favor of judicial review should apply with equal force to the Texas effort to intentionally deprive women of a constitutional right. In his dissent, Gorsuch rose to the defense of freedom of religion, as follows:
We assess requests for temporary injunctive relief under a familiar standard that focuses, among other things, on the merits of the applicants’ underlying claims and the harms they are likely to suffer. In this case, no one seriously disputes that, absent relief, the applicants will suffer an irreparable injury. . . . This Court has held that “[t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.
As a result, where “official expressions of hostility to religion” accompany laws or policies burdening free exercise, we have simply “set aside” such policies without further inquiry.
Well said. If only Gorsuch had applied that same standard to the protection of rights guaranteed to women by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights. Be prepared for more double standards from the Court in the near term.
Manchin, again.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised a vote on Biden’s Build Back Better agenda by Christmas. Manchin has yet to confirm that he will support the bill. Biden has met with Manchin twice in the last week to persuade him to support the bill. Manchin is claiming that his hesitation comes down to fear of inflation. Per The Hill,
“Manchin pumped the brakes on Biden’s bill earlier Monday when he told reporters that the latest inflation numbers suggest rising prices are “not transitory” and “alarming.”
Manchin’s concern over inflation is a smokescreen. He voted for a defense bill last week that was four times more expensive than the Build Back Better bill—and Manchin did not say a word about inflation. Although the causes of inflation are complicated, the major factors have little to do with federal spending, but rather, monetary policy (set by the independent Federal Reserve) and macroeconomic factors in the national and global economies. See Paul Krugman in NYTimes, “Don’t Let Inflation Anxiety Undermine Our Future.” In other words, Manchin is either a hypocrite who simply opposes spending on social programs or he doesn’t understand what causes inflation.
But. . . . we are in this position because Democrats failed to beat Susan Collins and Joni Ernst in 2020—both of whom were vulnerable. Biden should make the best deal he can with Manchin, declare victory, and then focus on expanding the Democratic majority in the Senate in 2022. It could be worse; but for the last-minute victories of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, we wouldn’t be in a position to pass the “Manchin-lite” version of the Build Back Better bill. Let’s be thankful for what we can achieve and continue the struggle. At this point, further delay will simply erode Biden’s favorability numbers further. Time to move on.
January 6th Committee releases texts from Mark Meadows.
Rep. Liz Cheney read texts sent to Mark Meadows on January 6th. The texts were sent by Fox News personalities Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Laura Ingraham, who pleaded with Meadows for Trump to tell the insurrectionists to stop their assault on the Capitol. The Fox News personalities realized that Trump was “destroying his legacy” by allowing the assault to continue unabated.
Rep. Cheney read the texts aloud as the House Select Committee voted to refer Mark Meadows to the DOJ for criminal contempt. Good. The assertion of executive privilege by Mark Meadows is baseless. The tougher the Committee is on high-profile figures like Meadows and Bannon, the more cooperation they will get from lesser luminaries in the Trump firmament—like Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short. See CNBC, “Pence's former chief of staff cooperating with Jan. 6 committee.”
“Today’s Edition Podcast” interview with Jessica Craven of Chop Wood, Carry Water.
As announced earlier this week, Today’s Edition Newsletter is launching a weekly podcast that will focus on readers who are helping to defend democracy. I frequently direct readers to the daily newsletter Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Craven. Her newsletter always contains topical information on how readers can engage to help make a difference now. Jessica’s website provides information on how to contact your congressional representatives and suggested talking points for when you reach their answering machines.
The podcast interview with Jessica Craven will be live to users of the Callin app on Saturday, December 18, 2021, at 11:00 AM. If you download the Callin app, you can join the conversation live. The episode will be recorded, and a link will be included in next Monday’s newsletter. Anyone who receives the newsletter will be able to listen to the recorded podcast merely by clicking the link in the newsletter. Download the app here. (The app is currently available only on Apple devices; an Android app is coming soon.)
Hope you can join us!
Concluding Thoughts.
Several readers sent notes expressing what can only be described as exhaustion in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Whole Woman’s Health. They described their involvement in the fight for reproductive rights in the 1960s and 1970s and worried that it would take another 50 years to recover from the damage the current Court will inflict on reproductive rights. Those feelings are completely understandable, and I have no easy answers. But as I told one reader, she should be confident that new generations of Americans are ready, willing, and able to continue their struggle. But I also urged her not to give up. Now, more than ever, we need the experience and leadership of the women who achieved the landmark victories in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
We face a daunting challenge, and we must be steely eyed in our acceptance of reality. A reader sent a link to a TED Talk by Kathryn Kolbert titled, “The end of Roe v. Wade -- and what comes next.” Kolbert argued (and won) Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the Supreme Court in 1992. In short, there aren’t any easy answers and there isn’t only one answer—but there are answers that will help protect the reproductive rights and health of women. Rather than looking at the fight to regain the protections of Roe as a single win/lose battle, we must recognize that progress will once again be incremental and hard-won—but it can be won. Don’t give up. Focus on what is achievable now, while keeping our eyes on the horizon. We will win. It is just a matter of time.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Forms of exhaustion abound in the people who have been standing up to (paying attention to) the systemic, legalized cruelty of some of our leaders during the pandemic.
Two thoughts come about this exhaustion.
One: That a good deal of the transgressions we are living through and are witnessing cause moral injuries. These transgressions are actions and positions that we had thought were beyond the pale, that no civilized, reasonable, people, would ever do those things. But we are far past the belief that we have shared standards of decency, and honesty. When we watch people with political power, such as our former president, and current governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, lie to their people and mandate policies which undoubtedly result in deaths during this pandemic.
Those of us who watch the news, or read newspapers have no doubt that people are and have been dying because of the policies of some leaders during the pandemic.
Aside from the horrific number of deaths caused, the stressing of our medical system, and many other quantifiable effects, invisible damage is also done. I call this invisible harm a moral injury. It is a moral injury to see wrong being done, legally, in an ongoing way. And to not see enough being done to stop it.
Moral injuries unbalance our sense that the world we live in is basically good. They bruise our trust that we will continue as a “good enough” nation.
Two: Those people in power, like our former president and the two governors mentioned above, who made certain that some of the people whom they govern would die and will die, those ones who are causing moral injury, are holding the people of their states, and all the rest of us Americans who are witnesses to this, under a moral siege.
A siege is a strategy of war.
Laying siege is a starving and exhausting of a trapped population, over time. The trapped people are forced through fear and deprivation to capitulate or surrender.
This moral siege is intended to demonstrate the power and intentions of those leaders. And it is also meant to discourage those being led by them, from believing that their leaders care about their well-being.
What I am calling moral injury and moral siege are not new to our country. Indigenous peoples and people of color, as well as women of every color, know moral injury and moral siege intimately.
I am never so exalted as when I am persecuted, or similar words to that effect. Roe vs Wade is one of the most important generational markers in the fight for human rights, but it isn’t the only one, and many of us were born into a world without it. Last night I watched a documentary on “1917”, the darkest year of World War One. Multiply the number of Covid deaths by five or six, and you have the casualty numbers for just that year of the war. Get the cameras off of Manchin and help Stacey Abrams win; increase our margin in the House and Senate; refuse to be drawn in to fear, intimidation, and retaliation: these are actions to which I can dedicate myself. We shall overcome.