“It’s a little too quiet” - US Politics February 2021

I don't disagree with you substantively, caek; it would be amazing if we could get everybody vaccinated first, but the public schools in Maryland are going back long before that will be possible.

yeah it is not good.

But there is a lack of political will to make anything at all better for kids who attend public school, especially to the extent that they are poorer and browner than the kids of elites, so I don't have much faith that that will all of a sudden change. It's not a new problem.

horse <3

When I taught in Baltimore county, a richer and more privileged system than Baltimore city, I paid for my the printer paper I made handouts on, and we had perennial ant infestations and HVAC breakdowns etc etc etc.

hi harbl!!!

I currently know one local school employee, she reports that our towns system is requesting that workers use their own efforts to find and sched full vaccination. She is very frustrated that there is little consistent current planning or scheduling at all. Just bulletins to call particular public or commercial entities to inquire.

Same with Baltimore county; they weirdly asked faculty and staff to indicate their interest in being vaccinated and then told them they would play no role in helping to coordinate vaccination.

the fractal chaos of federalism is perhaps not the optimal system in which to respond to a pandemic

btw i got my 10 year green card this morning!

yeah if the federal government could shower money on public schools as it coordinates the vaccine rollout directly, i would be all for going back. (nb, i am already back).

xp congrats? sorry about our country!

We’ve relied on imports all along— can you fix us pls?! (congrats)

especially to the extent that they are poorer and browner than the kids of elites

The US commitment to public education extends just as far as it helps businesses make money by supplying the kind of labor force businesses want to employ. US businesses are happy to under-employ and underpay a sizeable poor and oftentimes brown labor pool. So, that's what the education system delivers. On the whole, this is not the fault of teachers. (NB: My wife and both my parents were teachers, as well as a large percentage of my extended family.)

hi, hs!!!

There is a lot of speculation and talk that it's an unofficial move on the teacher's part to push reopening off further but, as with most rumor and speculation, it's hard to know what is real.

This is a contemptible tactic & messaging unless 30% of the staff are genuine virus deniers or anti-vaxxers, which I guess is possible depending on the community? Why did those 30% of people miss their appointments? More info is called for.

I'm excited about this NYT feature about Bronx volunteers going door to door to sign up their neighbors: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/08/nyregion/covid-vaccine-public-housing.html

hello io!

xps

Congrats caek!!!

i got my 10 year green card this morning!

fabulous news, caek!

So y'all should read this profile about Andrew Gillum. Looks like he and his wife are navigating his bisexuality.

This is a contemptible tactic & messaging unless 30% of the staff are genuine virus deniers or anti-vaxxers, which I guess is possible depending on the community? Why did those 30% of people miss their appointments? More info is called for.

I mean, the whole thing is a mess. All I know with a high degree of certainty, since it came directly from someone involved in setting up the appointments, is that, for whatever reason, 30% of the teachers didn't show up for their appointment. Beyond that, it's all guessing and speculation because, apparently, there was no vehicle for the teachers to provide a reason or any feedback (which is why my friend was frustrated, since there is no "why" to dig into). So, naturally, with the absence of more info about why they didn't go, it's allowed an already highly contentious issue to spiral out even further into accusations, speculation and pure rumor.

Congrats, caek!

it's extremely american to say something is impossible, and ignore the fact that other countries have managed to do it.

I mean... the US itself has managed to do it! It's not like schools are closed nationwide. Lots of schools are in-person and I just don't think the evidence is there that they're contributing meaningfully to spread.

On the other hand, there is something deeply unpleasant about affluent parents who work from home saying "I don't have to go to work in person, but the people who pack chicken into cans for my lunch do, so why shouldn't teachers have to?"

On the third hand, the pain parents of younger children are going through is *real*, and their needs *should* be prioritized over a lot of other things. It frustrates me that school systems are starting to say (correctly in my view) "health risks to children are minimal, teachers aren't yet vaccinated, we can park your kids in the school building to do their Zoom classes so you can have a 6-hour break from parenting and kids can see their friends in person and we'll get the teachers back in the classroom as soon as they're vaccinated," and lots of parents are like "no, the point is that teachers shouldn't get the same luxury to work at home that I have."

eephus do you have data on the question of whether schools are contributing meaningfully to spread? I can't really figure this out, and I have gone looking for numbers.

Looks like he and his wife are navigating his bisexuality.

It looks like they've been navigating his bisexuality all along

btw i got my 10 year green card this morning!

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, February 8, 2021 2:28 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

One of us! One of us!

When I say "I don't think the evidence is there" I'm making a kind of metaclaim that because there are big differences in school opening policies, if school openings were driving spread, we *would* be able to figure it out. But it's not a very strong argument, I know.

I think there's pretty good evidence that college openings *did* drive local spread, but also pretty good evidence that the spread wasn't actually happening in classroom buildings but because of outside socialization -- that counts for me as evidence that you can open school without the school itself being a spread locus, but of course there's the very hard to assess question of "if school's open in person, do parents take that as a signal that everything's fine and go out to dinner inside with their kids and their friends after school" -- and I have to admit that is a definite maybe

I see. Yeah, at my school, there are whispers that many of our seniors are socializing maskless in their free time with parental sanction, so now that we’re all back together in school, some teachers understandably feel uneasy.

Scariest part of the school day is lunch, definitely, from a psychological perspective at least.

Scariest part of the school day is lunch, definitely, from a psychological perspective at least.

some things never change

Lol

RIP

Democrats are choosing teachers unions and special interests over the well-being of our students.

The CDC says schools can safely re-open if proper precautions are taken.

What are we waiting for? pic.twitter.com/1dqLlxzZMU

— Ron Wright (@RepRonWright) February 5, 2021

Icymi: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rep-ron-wright-has-died-covid-19-his-office-announces-n1257026

well, yeah

Congress members got the vaccine back in December and he could have been vaxxed but he chose not to: "A spokesperson for Wright told The Texas Tribune the congressman had not yet been vaccinated but had plans to do so in “the near future.”"

— International Immobiliare Accountant (@adamTHX1138) February 8, 2021

need a six-foot needle for that

it's extremely american to say something is impossible, and ignore the fact that other countries have managed to do it

Well, yeah (times a million) but this is also a talking point that I get tired of hearing.

The gravity is different on the moon. So I would weigh less there. But I don't live there, so this factoid doesn't have much practical value unless I could relocate the moon's gravity to the United States.

Similarly, "what Americans refer to as 'left' would be centrist or center-right in much or the rest of the world."

Well, okay, but unless/until we can relocate Europe's political gravity to the U.S. it's about as useful as knowing about the gravity on the moon.

The systems and institutions governing and bounding what is and is not possible in U.S. politics (just for fun, let's call them "Mitch") exist. Until we change them, no amount of pointing at Sweden and saying "why can't we be like THAT?" Will be effective.

sure it is, if you're making the point that (let's say) "Mitch" is in fact the sole reason

or suggesting that "Joe" might have a significant role

i'm not saying the problems are tractable at the level of, e.g. taiwan[*] or that becoming some particular technocratic utopia via constitutional amendment would be a worthwhile goal to spend energy pursuing.

i'm saying that other countries that have failed their their most vulnerable residents to this extent are at least having a debate in which they look elsewhere to see what they could do differently (or even just to make the case that their outcomes are not optimal).

i get that there are systems (joe/mitch, the senate, the consitution, federalism, governors, whatever) that constrain how much improvement is possible. but i've never lived anywhere where even comparing the outcomes elsewhere to those here is so rare. it's barely part of the conversation here, other than "we're not like X".

this is true of every topic of course, not just covid response.

[*] although in the particular case of opening schools i do think the fact that we can print the world's reserve currency might just allow us to improve some of the problems we're talking about, and saying "we're not like X" is a cop out.

Leavin', leavin', on the midnight train to Georgia:

Legal experts said Trump’s phone calls may have violated at least three state criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, and intentional interference with performance of election duties. The felony and misdemeanor violations are punishable by fines or imprisonment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-georgia-investigation-exclu/exclusive-georgia-secretary-of-state-opens-investigation-into-trumps-efforts-to-overturn-election-idUSKBN2A82HO

Sic, that just relocates the problem rather than solving it.

What are the intermediate steps between the nation we have and the nation we want?

Like, how do we get from here to something more like Sweden (or whatever)?

It's not helpful to continually say "why can't we be more like Sweden (or whatever)" without defining the intermediate steps

It depends on whether the point is to keep the focus on the non-rhetorical "why" maybe?

^^^ the point is to undermine American exceptionalism. There’s no law of nature that makes it impossible for us to have social democracy or a basic social safety net.

EXACTLY.

this is a couple of weeks old but just reading it now. https://newrepublic.com/article/161013/dont-worry-joe-manchin

Which is why the threat to a successful first Biden term isn’t the power of Senator Joe Manchin. It’s the potential power of a gang of “moderate Democrats” teaming up to sabotage his agenda by handing veto power to “moderate Republicans.”

A senator like Manchin has a fairly simple calculation to make: Do popular things and avoid doing controversial things. The challenge for liberals in Congress and the White House is to convince him that good things would be popular. Centrist Democrats in safer seats, on the other hand, want to do things they know would be unpopular (especially among Democratic voters) without being blamed for it.

The worst-case scenario, then, is that Democrats bow to Mitch McConnell and preserve the filibuster not simply because they worry about what some future Republican majority might do but precisely because an influential group of moderates want to exploit it to grab total power over the congressional agenda.

this doesn't seem like a threat for the stimulus, but it's coming.

also i like this

Manchin has openly signaled that he will be easy to negotiate with. After making headlines for seemingly opposing $2,000 Covid-19 relief checks, he clarified that he would be OK with them if they were means-tested a bit more—but what he really wants is $4 trillion in infrastructure spending.

A moderate senator asking not for a “revenue-neutral” bill but for more spending on economic stimulus and billions of dollars in infrastructure investment is what is known as a good problem to have. As those who remember Barack Obama’s first presidential term could tell you, this is not how things used to work.

Impeachment II: The Impeachening.

whew

House Democrats will move ahead with a coronavirus stimulus package that would keep the existing income limits for Americans who receive stimulus checks, while tightening eligibility for higher-earning Americans — a major win for progressives.

The plan, which was unveiled Monday night, would keep $1,400 stimulus checks flowing to Americans making up to $75,000 a year — rather than the $50,000 threshold that some moderate Democrats had proposed. It would, however, tighten eligibility for those making over $75,000 as an individual — a higher-earning group that previously qualified for smaller checks.

now let's do $2,000 monthly backdated

and get the delayed $600 sent

lord, even that was very hard enough for them though, the manchins et al must be clenching their ass cheeks so hard right now that they're going to need a break for a few years.

i wish they would subpoena trump and interrogate him

Yeah, give 'im the hose, Muggsy! Make him talk!

good morning!