A politics piece should make clear how society organizes itself to allocate finite resources, blunt internal and external threats and adjudicate disputes. Should you say that paraphrase of a long-ago American Government and Politics class sounds too abstract or academic, I say: Fair!
So for this installment of The Each day 202, listed here are 4 significant politics stories that don’t necessarily fit the normal inside-the-Beltway definition of a “politics” story.
President Biden says the pandemic is over but covid just isn’t. For the needs of this column, let’s have a look at my colleague France Stead Sellers’ reporting on the general public health problem that’s long covid — a panoply of symptoms that linger stubbornly months after infection.
A Scottish study of nearly 100,000 participants “found that between six and 18 months after infection, 1 in 20 people had not recovered and 42 percent reported partial recovery. There have been some reassuring features to the outcomes: Individuals with asymptomatic infections are unlikely to suffer long-term effects, and vaccination appears to supply some protection from long covid.”
Frances noted the federal government estimates that between 7 million and 23 million Americans are affected by long covid, including 1 million who cannot work.
This poses some difficult questions for policymakers about easy methods to manage the possibly wide-ranging effects — not only health, but things that rely upon health, like employment and education, and the economic effects each to individuals and society broadly.
How will we respond? That’s a political query.
Privacy (or lack thereof)
“The approaching dystopia might be a strong public-private partnership.” That’s what I used to say on my old radio show (“The Big Picture,” RIP) at any time when I did a segment on the best way private technology firms, continuously with government officials, eroded Americans’ private spheres.
My colleague Geoff A. Fowler reported Wednesday on the “surveillance nightmare” created by snoop-and-scoop Amazon devices in your property. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
“Amazon says it doesn’t ‘sell’ our data, but there aren’t many U.S. laws to limit the way it uses the data,” Geoff wrote. And numerous customers longing for convenient technology don’t wade into the fine-print details of what their devices find out about them.
Echo speakers. Ring doorbells. Fire TV or Omni TV. Kindle or Fire Tablets. Smart lights, switches, or shades connected to Alexa. Halo bands. Amazon sells a lot of devices that collect an incredible suite of knowledge about you.
So, for instance: “Police have made tens of hundreds of requests for Ring video clips, and Amazon has handed footage to police without owners’ permission not less than 11 times this yr. (Amazon says it reserves the precise to reply to emergency police requests after they relate to matters of life and death.)”
That’s before the entire debates about your neighbor’s Ring devices effectively surveilling you.
Alex Jones and disinformation
My colleague Joanna Slater reported Wednesday on the Connecticut jury that ordered Infowars founder Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion in damages to families of Sandy Hook shooting victims, retribution for years of lying that the massacre was faked and grieving parents actors, leading to threats of violence against bereft mothers and dads.
“Jones is a reckless purveyor of conspiracy theories and a distinguished supporter of former president Donald Trump, who has returned the praise. ‘Your status is amazing,’ Trump told Jones in late 2015 as he ramped up his campaign for the presidency. ‘I won’t allow you to down.’”
Joanna also noted how “[i]n 2018, YouTube, Facebook, Apple, Spotify and Twitter all removed Jones from their platforms, saying he violated their policies against abusive and harmful content.”
It’s that second part that’s boiling over into politics. The problem of content moderation is popping into one of the volatile and toxic debates. Within the hours after the jury finding, a few of Trump’s most devout acolytes were arguing on Twitter that Jones was a victim of political persecution. And the Supreme Court could soon take up efforts to gut the rights of website operators to not host disinformation.
That is the simplest one to know as a political story. Water-sharing arrangements amongst states that rely upon, say, the Colorado River, seem more likely to collapse over time as cities, towns and farms compete for H2O in increasingly dire drought conditions.
It’s a public policy nightmare unlikely to unravel itself. And it has far-reaching ramifications for food production, for hydroelectric power, for cities attempting to sustain themselves.
Use less water? Sure. But who? When? How much? For the way long? That’s … you guessed it … a politics story. Just ask J. J. “Jake” Gittes.
Parkland school shooting jury spares gunman death penalty in 2018 massacre
“A jury Thursday sentenced Nikolas Cruz to life in prison for killing 17 people at Majority Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, sparing Cruz from a death sentence after his lawyers argued he had a troubled upbringing including allegations his biological mother abused drugs and alcohol while pregnant,” Tim Craig reports.
Today’s Jan. 6 hearing: Recent evidence to indicate Trump was warned of violence
“The likely final public hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is predicted to focus on newly obtained Secret Service records showing how President Donald Trump was repeatedly alerted to brewing violence that day, and he still sought to stoke the conflict, in line with three people briefed on the records,” Carol D. Leonnig and Jacqueline Alemany report.
Follow The Post’s live coverage of the hearing here
Prices rose again in September; markets poised to tumble on sign of upper rates of interest
“Inflation sped up in September in comparison with the month before, rising 0.4 percent, despite policymakers’ work to bring down higher prices which have weighed on American families and businesses,” Rachel Siegel reports.
Social Security advantages to rise by 8.7 percent in 2023
“The change will affect about 70.3 million Social Security beneficiaries, including roughly 8 million Supplemental Security Income recipients. The adjustment will increase monthly Social Security checks by about $145 per 30 days on average, in line with AARP, which represents seniors,” Jeff Stein reports.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
Documents reveal nonprofit’s plan to downplay abortion within the midterms
“A fundraising proposal and other internal memos prepared by Independent Women’s Voice were obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with The Washington Post. They illustrate the fear amongst conservatives that latest restrictions on abortion could hurt the GOP’s probabilities of retaking control of Congress. Additionally they reflect the hunt amongst conservative groups to develop strategies to neutralize the difficulty for abortion rights supporters who otherwise lean Republican,” Isaac Stanley-Becker reports.
State investigation fueled flawed understanding of delays during police response in Uvalde
“Visual evidence from the scene, while limited, indicates the issue was not simply one incompetent school police chief, or officers who knew higher, but didn’t take motion. The available footage shows high-ranking officers, experienced state troopers, police academy instructors — even federal SWAT specialists — got here to the identical conclusions and were detoured by the identical delays the varsity police chief has been condemned for causing,” the Recent York Times‘ Robin Stein and Alexander Cardia report.
Hundreds of Georgia voters’ eligibility challenged before election
“This yr, the eligibility of tens of hundreds more voters has been contested under a provision of last yr’s election law that permits any resident to challenge the qualifications of an infinite variety of voters inside their county,” the Atlanta Journal-Structure‘s Mark Niesse reports.
- The numbers: “County election officials have to this point rejected most voter eligibility challenges, including 22,000 in Gwinnett County, 15,000 in Forsyth and 1,350 in Cobb County this month. Across Georgia, about 65,000 voters challenges have been filed this yr, with over 3,000 of them upheld, in line with a count by the voting rights organization Fair Fight Motion.”
Dems’ real midterm prize: Command of the judicial wars
“For greater than 20 months now, Democrats have OK’d their judicial nominees with almost no obstacles and kept pace with President Donald Trump’s big confirmation numbers, despite holding the narrowest Senate majority possible. But as they confront the potential lack of unified government control and prepare for legislative gridlock to resume between the House and Senate next yr, continued sway over Biden’s nominations could also be Democrats’ most tangible asset should they hang on to the upper chamber,” Politico‘s Burgess Everett reports.
U.S. and Mexico reach agreement on plans for Venezuelan migrants
“Biden officials announced the plans after reaching an agreement with Mexico that may allow U.S. authorities to send some Venezuelan migrants back across the border, while expanding opportunities for others to hunt legal entry through an application process abroad,” Nick Miroff and Kevin Sieff report.
Saudi Arabia sharply rejects U.S. criticism of oil production cut
“Saudi Arabia responded Thursday to a barrage of criticism from the USA over a call by the Saudi-led oil-producing cartel and its allies to chop production, saying the choice was based solely on ‘economic considerations’ while denying it was ‘politically motivated’ against the USA,” Kareem Fahim reports.
Oregon is suddenly in jeopardy, and Joe Biden desires to help
“Biden’s appearance this week on the campaign trail in Oregon says as much about Democrats’ struggles within the reliable blue state because it does about his own careful approach to the midterms,” Politico‘s Christopher Cadelago and Zach Montellaro report.
GOP-led states urge judge to dam Biden student debt relief plan
“U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey heard arguments Wednesday on a motion filed by six Republican-led states looking for a preliminary injunction to halt this system until a ruling is made on the complete lawsuit. The judge wrapped the two-hour hearing without issuing a call but told attorneys to expect to listen to from him soon,” Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports.
Biden views China as an even bigger challenge than Russia
“President Biden still views China as probably the most consequential geopolitical challenge to the USA despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and his threats to make use of nuclear weapons, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday,” John Hudson and Karen DeYoung report.
Voter registration deadlines across the country, visualized
“Voters in greater than half of the states might want to register before Election Day to forged a ballot within the 2022 midterm elections. The Post has compiled this list of registration deadlines to allow you to participate,” Nick Mourtoupalas, Kati Perry and Eugene Scott report.
Judge clears way for Trump to be deposed in defamation case
“A federal judge has denied a request by former president Donald Trump to pause proceedings in a defamation case brought against him in 2019 by an creator who said he raped her in a department store dressing room many years ago,” Shayna Jacobs reports.
“The choice clears the best way for Trump, who denies the claim, to be deposed as scheduled next week.”
What’s left for the Jan. 6 committee?
“Beyond shutting down the committee, what else might a Republican-controlled House of Representatives do about Jan. sixth? Last month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy released his blueprint of what he’d do as speaker. Called a ‘Commitment to America,’ it cynically identifies ‘A Government That’s Accountable’ as a primary objective and guarantees ‘real scrutiny’ of ‘Biden’s Justice Department labeling parents as ‘domestic terrorists’ — a vague swipe on the Department of Justice’s prosecution of tons of of primarily white men for his or her actions on Jan. sixth,” the Bulwark‘s Kimberly Wehle writes.
“If elected speaker, McCarthy may even feel pressure to initiate bogus proceedings to impeach President Joe Biden.”
Today in Washington (times eastern)
Biden is in California today.
At 2:15 p.m., he’ll speak in regards to the bipartisan infrastructure law on the LA Metro D Line Extension Transit Project in Los Angeles.
Biden will speak at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser at 10:45 p.m. in L.A.
What does it cost to boost a toddler?
“Raising a toddler is dear. From the day your baby is born until the day they turn 18, your loved ones will spend about $310,605 — or about $17,000 a yr, in line with a latest Brookings Institution evaluation of knowledge from the U.S. Agriculture Department,” Abha Bhattarai, Dan Keating and Stephanie Hays report.
Wish to get more specific? The Post has developed a calculator to estimate how much your household would spend on a toddler.
Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.
