Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/op eds.

Robin Givhan has a beautiful essay in the Washington Post, saying what so many of us feel now.  Here's a small sample:

"As the country waited for ballots to be counted, it was Biden — not the occupant of the Oval Office — who was reassuring people that this democracy was intact, that the system was working and that the center would hold. He was the voice of calm optimism in the midst of tumultuous times.

"When he became president-elect late Saturday morning, he did something far more herculean than accepting responsibility for a worsening pandemic and a struggling economy. He removed a terrible, suffocating weight from the back of this nation. For the more than 74 million Americans who voted for him — and surely even for some of those who did not — Biden’s election allowed this country to laugh, to dance and to breathe. He cracked open a space where the light could shine through. Indeed, his victory caused people to weep in joyful relief as they became aware of the heaviness that had afflicted their hearts, after they’d suddenly been relieved of it." 

Tim Alberta, in a long piece about "the election that broke the Republican Party," includes one facet of the election where a cowering party that was lashed to their cult leader's incompetence paid for it painfully:

Did we really think the president worked so diligently these past eight months to create an environment conducive to allegations of mass voter fraud, only to stop short of alleging mass voter fraud? Of course not. Even if the president had been swept in every swing state, and by big margins, he was always going to cry foul. That he lost such close contests — and lost them in a style so unfamiliar to so many voters — only made his reaction all the more inevitable. [snip]

To recap: The president scared his own voters away from voting by mail, resulting in lopsided Democratic margins when those ballots were counted; and Republican lawmakers in several key states refused to allow those ballots to be counted early, resulting in delays that created an early mirage of the president winning because the votes tallied first were those most favorable to him. Trump has good reason to resent those mail votes: They made the ballot box more accessible; they created the illusion that victory was possible; then they shattered that illusion in agonizing fashion, every incremental dump of returns amounting to a slow twist of the knife.

Fact:

 

Joe Biden will be the 1st candidate to win 51% of the vote against an incumbent president since... FDR.

— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) November 8, 2020

 

Meanwhile, on the pandemic front,

The United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally on Sunday, as the third wave of the COVID-19 virus surges across the nation.

The grim milestone came on the same day as global coronavirus cases exceeded 50 million.

The United states has reported about a million cases in the past 10 days, the highest rate of infections since the nation reported its first novel coronavirus case in Washington state 293 days ago.

The country reported a record 131,420 COVID-19 cases on Saturday and has reported over 100,000 infections five times in the past seven days, according to a Reuters tally.

The U.S. latest reported seven-day average of 105,600 daily cases, ramped up by at least 29%, is more than the combined average for India and France, two of the worst affected countries in Asia and Europe.

Some good news, however, that's sure to amp up COVID Donnie's paranoia about the pandemic being used as a political tool against him:

Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic.

The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said an early analysis of the results showed that individuals who received two injections of the vaccine three weeks apart experienced more than 90% fewer cases of symptomatic Covid-19 than those who received a placebo. For months, researchers have cautioned that a vaccine that might only be 60% or 70% effective. 

The Phase 3 study is ongoing and additional data could affect results.

You may recall that Der Spiegel cover from 2017, with COVID Donnie holding the head of Lady Liberty that he'd just severed?  Here's their update:

German Der Spiegel’s take on outcome of #USElection2020 on right below.
Trump cover from 2017. pic.twitter.com/qTkCXVx7CK

— Theresa Fallon (@TheresaAFallon) November 7, 2020

 

If you haven't already been there -- first, shame on you! Now you can redeem yourself by going right to Infidel 753's link round- up for the best collection of links to interesting, informative, stimulating posts from around the Internet.