Republicans were already at odds with reality long before Trump took control of the party

Republicans were already at odds with reality long before Trump took control of the party

Paul Krugman writes: President Trump’s continuing attempts to overturn an election he lost decisively more than a month ago is, like so much of what he’s done in office, shocking but not surprising. Who imagined that he would go quietly? What some people may not have been fully prepared for is the way Trump’s party as a whole has backed his dangerous delusions. According to a survey by The Washington Post, only 27 Republican members of Congress are willing to…

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The data economy is facing a social reckoning

The data economy is facing a social reckoning

MIT Technology Review reports: Each innovation challenges the norms, codes, and values of the society in which it is embedded. The industrial revolution unleashed new forces of productivity but at the cost of inhumane working conditions, leading to the creation of unions, labor laws, and the foundations of the political party structures of modern democracies. Fossil fuels powered a special century of growth before pushing governments, companies, and civil society to phase them out to protect our health, ecology, and…

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The hidden carbon footprint of influence-peddling businesses

The hidden carbon footprint of influence-peddling businesses

Bloomberg reports: For an invisible, odorless gas, carbon dioxide turns out to be somewhat straightforward to track. Businesses now routinely report their carbon dioxide emissions in three categories: Scope 1 for the direct burning of fossil fuels in generators, facilities, and vehicles; Scope 2 for purchased energy, such as electricity or heat; and Scope 3, the most complicated, for supply chains and customers. For as much CO₂ as that system covers, it’s still incomplete. Many businesses pollute very little themselves…

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The Covid-19 vaccines were designed almost a year ago

The Covid-19 vaccines were designed almost a year ago

David Wallace-Wells writes: You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public in an act of scientific and humanitarian generosity that resulted in China’s Yong-Zhen Zhang’s being temporarily forced out of his lab. In Massachusetts, the Moderna vaccine design took all…

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Leading Covid-19 vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna decline invitations to White House ‘Vaccine Summit’

Leading Covid-19 vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna decline invitations to White House ‘Vaccine Summit’

STAT reports: Both Pfizer and Moderna, the two major drug manufacturers likely to receive emergency authorizations for a Covid-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, have rejected invitations from President Trump to appear at a White House “Vaccine Summit” on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the event’s planning. The Trump administration has openly feuded with Pfizer in recent weeks over its involvement in Operation Warp Speed and the timing of a data release showing its vaccine to be highly…

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The pandemic’s final surge will be brutal

The pandemic’s final surge will be brutal

Whet Moser writes: In the spring, during the first COVID-19 surge in the United States, the rising death toll reached a sobering peak in April—a seven-day average of 2,116 daily deaths. This past weekend, the seven-day average of U.S. deaths from COVID-19 broke that record twice, at 2,123 on Saturday and 2,171 yesterday, according to the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. Yesterday, the seven-day averages for all four of the primary metrics that the COVID Tracking Project follows—tests, cases,…

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Former Alabama senator warned, ‘We messed up,’ just before he died from Covid

Former Alabama senator warned, ‘We messed up,’ just before he died from Covid

NBC News reports: A former Alabama state senator died of Covid-19 last week at age 78, officials said. Former Sen. Larry Dixon, a Republican who also served as the executive director of the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, died from Covid-19 on Dec. 4, the board said in a statement on Friday. Dr. David Thrasher, a close friend of Dixon and a pulmonologist in Montgomery, told NBC News that Dixon’s wife, Gaynell Dixon, told Thrasher that his last words to…

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The suburbs helped elect Biden. Can they give Democrats the Senate, too?

The suburbs helped elect Biden. Can they give Democrats the Senate, too?

The New York Times reports: President Trump bet his re-election on a very specific vision of the American suburb: a 2020 edition of Mayfield from “Leave It to Beaver” in which residents are white, resent minorities, and prioritize their economic well-being over all other concerns. The bet fell far short. Mr. Trump lost ground with suburban voters across the country. And particularly in Georgia, where rapidly changing demographics have made it the most racially diverse political battleground in the country,…

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Whatever it gets called, Trump really is attempting a coup

Whatever it gets called, Trump really is attempting a coup

Zeynep Tufekci writes: Much debate has ensued about what exactly to call whatever Trump is attempting right now, and about how worried we should be. It’s true, the whole thing seems ludicrous—the incoherent lawsuits, the late-night champagne given to official election canvassers in Trump hotels, the tweets riddled with grammatical errors and weird capitalization. Trump has been broadly acknowledged as “norm shattering” and some have argued that this is just more of his usual bluster, while others have pointed out…

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Is anyone on Earth not an immigrant?

Is anyone on Earth not an immigrant?

Kelly Slivka writes: Human beings tend to be fascinated with their beginnings. Origin stories are found across cultures, religions, ethnicities and nationalities — and they are all deeply important. These stories tell people where they come from, how they fit in and how everyone fits together. One of these stories, of course, is the story of human genes, and it’s a story anyone with human DNA shares. As scientists find more ancient human DNA, sample more modern DNA and develop…

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In 2020, disinformation disseminated by social media, broke America

In 2020, disinformation disseminated by social media, broke America

BuzzFeed reports: Disinformation and its fallout have defined 2020, the year of the infodemic. Month after month, self-serving social media companies have let corrosive manipulators out for dollars, votes, and clicks vie for attention, no matter the damage. After an initial showing of unity as the coronavirus pandemic hit North American shores, people in the US became divided over basic scientific facts about COVID-19. Then, after a horrified country watched George Floyd take his last breaths as a police officer…

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‘Existential peril’: Mass transit faces huge service cuts across U.S.

‘Existential peril’: Mass transit faces huge service cuts across U.S.

The New York Times reports: In Boston, transit officials warned of ending weekend service on the commuter rail and shutting down the city’s ferries. In Washington, weekend and late-night metro service would be eliminated and 19 of the system’s 91 stations would close. In Atlanta, 70 of the city’s 110 bus routes have already been suspended, a move that could become permanent. And in New York City, home to the largest mass transportation system in North America, transit officials have…

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Trump’s Operation Warp Speed promised a flood of covid vaccines. Instead, states are expecting a trickle

Trump’s Operation Warp Speed promised a flood of covid vaccines. Instead, states are expecting a trickle

The Washington Post reports: Federal officials have slashed the amount of coronavirus vaccine they plan to ship to states in December because of constraints on supply, sending local officials into a scramble to adjust vaccination plans and highlighting how early promises of a vast stockpile before the end of 2020 have fallen short. Instead of the delivery of 300 million or so doses of vaccine immediately after emergency-use approval and before the end of 2020 as the Trump administration had…

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How Joe Biden’s digital team tried to tame the MAGA internet

How Joe Biden’s digital team tried to tame the MAGA internet

Kevin Roose writes: Last April, when Rob Flaherty, the digital director for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, told me that the former vice president’s team planned to use feel-good videos and inspirational memes to beat President Trump in a “battle for the soul of the internet,” my first thought was: Good luck with that. After all, we were talking about the internet, which doesn’t seem to reward anything uplifting or nuanced these days. In addition, Mr. Trump is a digital powerhouse,…

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