Ronald Reagan, both Presidents Bush, Bill Clinton+Barack Obama--Very different people with one thing in common. The people who respected them most were the people who knew them best+worked with them every day. Here's what President Trump's close advisors have to say about him...
Tonight's nail-biter provides yet another reminder that the African-American community is a core defender of pluralist democratic values in the United States.
North Carolina's stated reason for shutting down Sunday voting was that counties with heavy Sunday voting were disproportionately African-American, and that African-Americans tended to be Democrats. pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/7-29…
Please **do not** wear one of these buttons that says "I'm vaccinated. I'm not Republican," or any variation on such themes. These actively harm the vaccination effort. They undermines culturally-competent efforts to reach vaccine-hesitant communities, and will cost lives.
Many gunshot wound victims end up on SSI+Medicaid for essential services, and for the rest of their lives face a $2,000 limit on their countable wealth because some deranged individual tried to kill them.
The President doesn't do any of that. For all his money, power, and supermodel romances, he's not someone I envy for a single second. He seems spiritually empty in some profound and sad way. What does it profit a man to win the whole world if he never locates his own soul.
Replace Barack Obama with Hillary Clinton or John Edwards. You basically get ACA.
***Replace Harry Reid with Chuck Schumer or Dick Durbin. You basically get ACA.
***Replace Nancy Pelosi with basically anyone else: You probably don’t get ACA.
Many of us lived through this before, when politicians tried to ban terms like "anal sex," "injection drug use," "harm reduction," "condoms," and "homosexuality" from prevention education messages. Juvenile censorship insulted the intelligence of the American public+cost lives.
Trump officials are forbidding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using 7 words in official docs being prepared for next year’s budget: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” “science-based.”
washingtonpost.com/national/…
The NY AG suggests that the Trump Foundation is a comprehensive fraud. I fully believe this, but I am also truly puzzled. (thread). nytimes.com/2018/12/18/nyreg…
3:45am—I’m laying awake stabbed by memories of my unkindness to my mom decades ago, when I was a teen and my parents split up. A voice calls from across the hallway: “Sweetheart, can you help me out of bed to the walker? So sorry to wake you.” “It’s ok, Mom. I was awake anyway.”
Leon Lederman, an experimental physicist who studied subatomic particles, has died at 96 after selling his Nobel Prize for $765,000 at an auction to help pay medical bills. apne.ws/hhVpDHu
Sitting at breakfast this morning, I had a moment when I wanted to call my dad, just to check in about some trivial thing. Best to everyone who is grieving today.
Biden visiting the graves of his children on the day he is declared the next President of the United States. The 2020 script writers got one thing right.
Have any prominent Republican apologized or expressed sympathy in a straightforward way to Democrats for the Russian meddling on behalf of Donald Trump in 2016? Or addressed why Russia chose to support their presidential candidate?
Dad passed away peacefully early this morning, surrounded by people he loved+loved him. We miss you. May your memory be a blessing. Special thanks to Sharon+others at VNA Hospice of Cape Cod and to Comfort Keepers. They made it possible for Dad to spend his final time at home.
Reading conservative critiques of @nytimes 1619 project. As I try to understand African-Americans' reactions, I wonder how I would react if someone claimed Shoah was religiously divisive because it failed to center the narrative on the sacrifices made by Christians to save Jews.
I find someone who will help people get health coverage and who has protected millions of people from finance industry misconduct to be fairly likeable.
“Nobody got killed, nobody got robbed… This was not a big crime,” Giuliani told The Daily Beast, re alleged violations of campaign finance law. thedailybeast.com/how-jared-…
In a decade, today’s response to COVID among social conservatives and Republicans will be remembered the way we now remember their counterparts’ response and behavior in the early days of HIV/AIDS. Just tragic+leading to so many totally preventable deaths of our precious humans.
Arkansas state legislature made it “illegal for any state or local entity, including public hospitals, to require coronavirus vaccination as a condition of education or employment until two years after the Food and Drug Administration fully licenses a shot.”
My 88-yr-old mom admitted through the hospital ER this morning. My—vaccinated—sister not allowed to be with her. I understand the need for firm safety protocols. Not convinced we are making the right tradeoffs between safety, social support, and communication.
Serious question: I have to go to New York soon and I'm trying to figure out where to stay. I have heard it's disgusting and violent there. But is it like Walking Dead Season 1 or Season 4?
We are not self-important: we are important to the care of others
We are not anti-gun: we are anti-bullet holes in our patients
We consult with everyone but extremists
Most upsetting, actually, is death and disability from gun violence that is unparalleled in the world
Greatest sin of reddest state America--spurning Medicaid expansion. Greatest sin of bluest state America--constraining high-density housing development and thus failing to provide affordable housing for people who need it most.
The dilemma Democrats face—the dilemma many others in US politics face alongside us—is how to punish+deter GOP for violating key norms+basic decency w/o accelerating the downward spiral of polarization+institutional dysfunction. No one has a great answer to this one.
Every veteran journalist now writing about Senator Warren's Native American issue should be asked: "In 2016, did you write more words about the Clinton emails than you did about the Trump Russia links+Foundation stories?" Key follow-up: "What did you learn from that experience?"
So far, 1,002 nursing home staff workers are reported to have died from COVID. To put this in perspective, in 2019 the most dangerous occupation was logging worker, with annual risk of 98/100,000. Nursing home staff work is running about double that, in a far larger workforce.
According to government data covering up to October 18: 1,002 nursing home staff+61,765 residents are reported to have died from COVID 19. During the last week reported--Oct 11-18--32 staff members+1,530 residents were reported to have died from COVID. github.com/haroldpollack/cov…
I was just in an Uber and the very wise driver said “Make Election Day a national holiday like they do in other countries, and the Republicans will never win another national election.
Man—one of the dumbest talking points in American politics is to troll current Democrats about the supposedly unacknowledged fact that southern segregationists were Democrats pre-civil-rights-era.
As I read fairness/distributional critiques of $10k SL forgiveness, I'm reminded that my family received larger tax savings through our 529/ESAs. Unlike the well-targeted Biden SL forgiveness plan, 529/ESAs dispense almost all $$-benefit to upper-middle-class+affluent families.
As policymakers relax formal mandates, I’d ask students+colleagues to continue to mask-up+distance. This respects our peers+colleagues who may be vulnerable/immunocompromised, or who have caregiving roles that require protective measures. It’s a basic form of respect for everyone
This occurred while epidemiologists and data scientists were frantically combing the nursing home data seeking ways to identify outbreaks and slow pandemic spread. Totally unacceptable. wsj.com/articles/cuomo-advis…
Hard one. GPS navigation apps. Obv these rely on the satellites in place, but still. Excellent camera phones. Podcasts. Particular pharm advances have been pretty great—the best cancer immunotherapy and the new HCV treatments.
Here's what does surprise me: There are literally no good works performed or even the President's obsessions or pet causes pursued by this Foundation at all. forbes.com/sites/danalexande…
Vincent lost a race in an act of kindness. That’s just the kind of man he is. Sec. DeVos would cut support for Special Olympics--and for other equally-worthy, more vulnerable things too. That's just the kind of person she is. This administration can't end a moment too soon. (3/3)
If I could have one single sentence in a reconciliation bill to improve policies for Americans with disabilities, it would be to raise the countable asset limit for SSI TO $50,000, permanently indexed to inflation. Why we didn’t do this in ACA...I will never know.
Brad DeLong captures the sentiment of many of us center-left policy wonks who spent much of our careers proposing reasonable policies that required or at-least presumed responsible center-right partner. We're kind of done with that, in light of experience vox.com/policy-and-politics/…
Because losing an award is so much like millions of people losing their health insurance or fearing deportation at the hands of a demagogue. nitter.app/carney/status/83608832…
Medicaid expansion is the single most important measure to address the opioid crisis. So logic dictates: If one opposes Medicaid expansion, there’s no point in bragging about having a strong policy to address the opioid crisis.
I worked off my end-of-night nervous energy by finding some Nevada voters and helping them to cure their ballots. mobilize.us/nvdems/event/354… Beats hitting refresh on Twitter any day.
Actually we're the party that elected first African-Amer Pres who insured 20m ppl+had fewer scandals in 8yrs than Trump had <inauguration. nitter.app/kfile/status/875410669…
White House is responding to the opioid crisis by cutting budgets, sidelining D+R experts in favor of an ad hoc group of political operatives w/no organizational capacity, no expertise in opioids, no experience in public management. I don’t understand any of this.
.@realDonaldTrump’s nominee for UN Ambassador, Heather Nauert, has played a pivotal role in major diplomatic events, including:
-Traveling to 26 countries
-Traveling with @SecPompeo on every State Department-led trip
-Providing vital support during the historic Singapore summit
You just passed a health plan that would raise nongroup insurance premiums for low-income 64-yr-olds by $12,000/yr, and cut Medicaid by 25%. nitter.app/HouseGOP/status/871471…
Woke up today sick over that SCOTUS case. A state that can’t be trusted to allow a condemned man the comfort of clergy in his final hours perhaps shouldn’t be trusted to end human lives in the first place. Even the life of this man, who committed an unspeakable atrocity.
Not sure what people thought to accomplish w/this antisemitic vandalism. I can hardly think of a better way to alienate most Americans—not to mention the large proportion of Jews concerned about the Palestinian plight+who are concerned about antisemitism in the current moment.
Trump's tone-deaf billionaire comportment weirdly reminds me of Rod Blagojevich. Old-style machine politics weren't always pretty, but there were niceties and rules. You didn't shake down the children's hospital for campaign cash. That's what the concrete contractor was for.
Getting my second Moderna vaccine. A bit concerned about the side effects. For the first dose, I got a flat tire on the way home, then transmission problems. Allegedly unrelated. Really wondering if I’ll have other power train issues, or maybe the AC—hopefully just for a day/two.
I am really having a hard time with billionaires using their resources, expertise, talent, platform+organizational connections to shoot themselves into space when they could be putting their shoulders to the wheel to fight COVID-19 around the world+thereby save millions of lives.
One huge, huge missing element in the COVID-19 response: A systematic strategy to engage social workers to address the enormous immediate needs of millions of Americans in everything from food security and social isolation to end of life care.
Sure--you might use your foundation to skirt a few rules about estate taxes+corporate governance. But it's a real thing. You're proud of it. You enjoy it. You don't use it to pay your kid's $7 Boy Scout dues, or make your foundation an embarrassing joke. medium.com/@JordanArizmendi/…
Here's what we liberals would like from Republicans calling for unity: Acknowledgement that everyone who voted for/defended President Trump/sat out 2020 were wrong to do so. If folks don't wish to do that, please don't ask us for good-faith gestures.
wsj.com/articles/sen-susan-c…
The phrase "SSI's $2,000 countable asset limit" induces narcolepsy in a "University of Rochester to keep name" way. That's too bad, because the limit hasn't increased since 1989. Raising it may be the single best thing we can do to help disabled Americans democracyjournal.org/argumen…
Years ago, my bro-in-law Vincent ran a Special Olympic race in upstate NY. He took off at the starter’s gun, only to see a panicked and overwhelmed competitor, standing frozen at the starting line. Over the screaming protests of his mom, he ran back and took the girl's hand.(1/3)
Mr. Musk--That is an extremely juvenile+disrespectful tweet. As someone who commands a huge public platform+controls billions of dollars in personal+corporate resources, you might use this moment to consider how to interact with others in a more substantive+respectful way.
Everyone who condemns cancel culture (and the sometimes genuinely illiberal strains of left discourse) should be asked one simple question: Did you defend Colin Kaepernick when he was the subject of obvious economic+workplace retaliation for expressing his unpopular views?
Colin Kaepernick won. When he started, just one athlete refused to stand for national anthem. Now, just one athlete refuses to kneel during anthem. In course of weeks, a complete collapse of hallowed American ritual.
The latest reveal by the NY Post is a series of texts that portray Joe Biden ... as a concerned, loving dad comforting his struggling son.
nypost.com/2020/10/16/texts-…
"After several months, Trump made clear he was not interested in reviewing a personal copy of the written intelligence report known as the PDB..." wapo.st/2nOdSjI
This sentence says so much—just not about Dr. Biden: “As for Biden, she has spent a lot of time teaching remedial English to slow learners in community colleges.”
Every one of them has a genuine passion for something, even if that something seems pretty silly or frivolous to us. Maybe they're passionate about liver cancer because their wonderful nanny suffered from it. Maybe they want to give $50 million to the Pollack cat leukemia center.
The Children's Hospital was why you did it all. That's what you genuinely felt good about, bragged about to the grandkids. Same deal for sharp-elbowed billionaires. Their philanthropy genuinely matters to them. It's how many wish to be remembered after they are gone.
We researchers do various fund-raisers involving the top 0.01%. Some are saints. Some are jerks. Some are devotees of Gwyneth Paltrow's latest potion. Some are moved by world hunger. Others want their name on the dorm where they met their bae or whatever. news.yale.edu/2015/05/11/150…
Another thought: maybe we all should be a bit more forgiving of Hillary Clinton, and the stumbles that caused her narrow 2016 loss. Many millions of Americans admire Pres Trump, or don’t regard his defects+misconduct as deal breakers. Not good. Not right. The way things are.
Unless you are in the small group specifically medically contra-indicated, get your flu shot. It is an obligation of citizenship to protect the vulnerable among us.
Obituary posted for Draven Alexander Findeis, age 12, died from complications of flu Dec. 26, 2018, "In lieu of memorials, the family encourages everyone to get a flu shot in memory of Draven." goo.gl/nf5Mga
My hardest phone call, the morning Dad died, was to my mom. They split 45 years ago. Dad’s been w/my stepmom 42 years. He remained the love of Mom’s life, father of her two children. Love+grief come in so many forms: Each profound, each deserving of our honor, compassion+respect.