Dear Commons Community,

New York State’s Attorney General Letitia James issued a damning report yesterday that provided evidence that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo engaged in a pattern of unwanted touching, offensive comments and improper behavior toward at least eleven women. Her investigation has been going on for almost seven months. With the release of this report, a number of prominent political leaders including President Biden has recommended that Cuomo resign his office. 

A New York Times editorial (see below) reviews the Governor’s situation and concludes:

“Mr. Cuomo has always had a self-serving streak and been known for his political bullying. He also has used those traits to be an effective politician and, in many of his achievements as governor, won the public’s trust. What this report lays out, however, are credible accusations that can’t be looked past…. he needs to do the right thing and step down.”

Tony

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The New York Times

You Should Resign, Governor Cuomo

Editorial Board

August 4, 2021

Last winter, after the first wave of accusations of sexual misconduct and harassment by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York came to light, this board called for an investigation to run its course and for legal authorities to carry out the slow and careful work of separating allegations from evidence. At the same time, we questioned whether Mr. Cuomo could continue to serve as the state’s leader, given both the seriousness of the allegations and the collapse of political support among his allies in New York and Washington.

The answer, which came on Tuesday in the form of a thorough and damning report by the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, is a decisive no.

From the report, for which investigators interviewed 179 witnesses and gathered more than 74,000 pieces of evidence, two things are clear. First, Mr. Cuomo may yet face legal consequences for his alleged actions, which include a years long pattern of “unwelcome and nonconsensual touching,” “offensive comments” and other improper behavior toward at least 11 women, several on his staff.

Second, regardless of what may happen in a court of law, the governor has only one conscionable option left: He should resign.

Mr. Cuomo continues to deny that he did anything wrong, suggesting that all the women who have come forward somehow misinterpreted his touching and physicality in the same way. “I am 63 years old. I have lived my entire adult life in public view,” he said in a recorded video released shortly after the report came out. “That is just not who I am.” He failed to note that many of the allegations against him involve conduct that happened not in public but behind closed doors, in elevators or over the phone.

Most people would object to the behaviors detailed here, but the fact that it was coming from the most powerful person in New York State, often toward direct subordinates, makes it all the more disturbing. Anne Clark, one of the investigators, said at a news conference that in one case, a state trooper told them that while she and Mr. Cuomo shared an elevator, he “ran his finger from her neck down her spine and said, ‘Hey, you’” and that, in a separate incident, “she was standing holding the door open for the governor. As he passed, he took his open hand and ran it across her stomach from her belly button to the hip where she keeps her gun. She told us that she felt completely violated to have the governor touch her, as she put it, ‘between her chest and her privates.’”

The stories get worse, and the women who came forward to share them, even in the face of threats of retaliation, as detailed in the report, should be commended for their bravery.

The calls for Mr. Cuomo to step down only grew louder on Tuesday. Top Democrats, including President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, added their names to the expanding list of those who have come to see that it is untenable for Mr. Cuomo — among the nation’s highest-profile and most powerful governors — to remain in office.

Mr. Cuomo has always had a self-serving streak and been known for his political bullying. He also has used those traits to be an effective politician and, in many of his achievements as governor, won the public’s trust. What this report lays out, however, are credible accusations that can’t be looked past. As Ms. James said on Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo’s alleged conduct “corrodes the very fabric and character of our state government and shines light on injustice that can be present at the highest levels of government.”

If Mr. Cuomo cares for the well-being of the state and its citizens as much as he has said he does over the years, he needs to do the right thing and step down.

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times has a featured article this morning entitled, “The Delta Variant in Schools: What to Know.”  It reviews and answers a number of questions that parents and educators might have regarding the Delta variant and school safety.  A main point of the article is that schools are opening their doors to a different pandemic due to this variant and provides suggestions for how to think about risk. It is very helpful and is reprinted below.

Tony

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The New York Times

The Delta Variant in Schools: What to Know

By Emily Anthes

Aug. 2, 2021

Last week, in what was intended to be an internal document, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a stark admission: The highly contagious Delta variant had redrawn the battle lines of the coronavirus pandemic, necessitating new public health measures like universal mask mandates. Or, as the agency put it in the document, which was obtained by The New York Times, “the war has changed.”

The news came just as the first school districts were preparing to reopen; children in Atlanta and some of its suburbs head back to the classroom this week.

Over the past year, there has been contentious debate over how much schools contribute to the spread of the virus and whether, and when, they should close. For some parents, teachers and officials, keeping schools open when a new, poorly understood virus was circulating seemed like an unacceptable risk. For others, however, it was school closures that posed the bigger danger — of learning loss, widening educational disparities and worsening mental health, not to mention the hardships for parents.

As the new school year begins, however, the C.D.C., the American Academy of Pediatrics and many other experts agree that reopening schools should be a priority.

“We are in a very different place than we were a year ago,” said Elizabeth Stuart, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We have very effective vaccines, we know a lot more about how to open schools safely, and we, I think, have a heightened awareness of some of the challenges that kids face when they’re not in in-person school.”

Just a few months ago, with vaccinations for those 12 and older proceeding at a steady clip and new cases declining, the stage seemed set for at least a partial return to normal.

Delta has thrown that into question. Much remains unknown about the variant, including whether it affects children more seriously than earlier forms of the virus. And with vaccination rates highly uneven, and most decision-making left up to local officials, the variant adds new uncertainty to the coming school year — and makes it even more critical for schools to take safety precautions as they reopen, scientists said.

“Delta, because it’s so contagious, has raised the ante,” said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University. “It makes all these details all the more important.”

Here are answers to some common questions.

What have we learned about the risk of transmission in schools?

Overall, studies suggest that — last year at least — in-school transmission was generally low when schools took basic precautions.

“When you have masks and even three-foot distancing, you are not going to see major outbreaks in schools,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Stanford Medicine and chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases. “There may be some transmissions, but they’re going to be pretty relatively infrequent.”

Studies in North Carolina, Utah, Missouri and elsewhere revealed that when schools layered several kinds of safety measures — some combination of masking, symptom screening, distancing, improved ventilation, virus testing, handwashing and dividing students into smaller groups — transmission rates in schools were even lower than they were in the surrounding community.

“It’s actually safer for the kids in school than it is for them to be home,” said Dr. Daniel Benjamin Jr., a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at Duke University.

These low rates may stem, in part, from the fact that children under 10 seem to be less likely to transmit the virus than older children and adults are. But another contributing factor is that schools are — or can be — controlled environments and may have stricter safety measures than the surrounding community, Dr. Benjamin said.

Outbreaks, however, have occurred in schools that reopened without good mitigation measures. Israel’s first big school-based outbreak, which ultimately infected 260 people, came during a heat wave, when officials temporarily lifted a mask mandate and students were crowded into air-conditioned classrooms.

How does Delta complicate the equation?

Roughly twice as transmissible as the original version of the virus, Delta has fueled a rise in infections and hospitalizations, especially in areas of the country where vaccination rates are low. Recent data suggests that people who are infected with Delta may carry a thousand times as much virus — which could make them more contagious and for longer — as those who catch the original version of the virus.

But many questions about the variant remain unanswered, including the precise risk it poses in a school setting. What is clear, however, is that Delta is already driving outbreaks in many American communities, which raises the risks for local schools.

“Schools are not islands and so if there’s a lot of community spread some of that spread is going to spill over into schools,” said Dr. Westyn Branch-Elliman, an infectious-disease specialist at Harvard Medical School.

In a study conducted before Delta was widespread, British researchers found that for every five additional cases per 100,000 people in a community at large, the risk of a school outbreak increased 72 percent.

The good news is that since the last school year started, the United States has authorized three highly effective vaccines for emergency use, and they are widely available to those 12 and older.

The vaccines are not flawless. Some fully vaccinated people will get breakthrough infections, which are generally mild and rare. And those vaccinated people who are infected with Delta can carry high levels of the virus in their noses and throats, which means they may be able to readily transmit it.

But vaccines provide strong protection against the Delta variant. They reduce the odds of being infected with the virus and guard against the worst outcomes, including hospitalization and death.

Schools with high vaccination rates are likely to have far fewer people who are infected with the virus and carry or spread it in the classroom.

“It’s our best tool for controlling the virus,” said Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina. “Even when it’s imperfect, it has huge impacts on reducing transmission and protecting people’s health.”

What does the C.D.C. recommend?

Initially, the C.D.C.’s guidelines recommended that unvaccinated people who were 2 or older wear masks in schools. And they strongly implied that vaccinated students did not need to be masked in the classroom.

But last week, because of concerns about Delta, the C.D.C. revised its guidelines, recommending that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in schools this fall.

The agency recommends a layered approach to Covid precautions, suggesting that schools combine several mitigation measures and encourage everyone who is eligible for vaccination to get vaccinated.

But the guidelines also leave many decisions up to local officials, who are told to make decisions about when to tighten or loosen restrictions based on data about local case and vaccination rates.

What about states that ban mask mandates?

Some states, including some currently experiencing major surges — including Florida, South Carolina and Texas — are making it harder for schools to put protective measures into place. Those three states, as well as a handful of others, have either banned or sharply curtailed universal mask mandates.

That does not necessarily mean that schools in these states will all have huge outbreaks, and even schools that do may see mostly mild or asymptomatic cases. But districts that open without safety measures in place are taking a real risk, Dr. Benjamin said.

“Here’s another way to put it,” he said. “When I grew up, I got away with riding in the back of a pickup truck all the time. But that does not make children riding in the back of pickup trucks good national policy.”

Given the patchwork of policies and uneven vaccination rates across the country, experts said they would not be surprised if school safety varies widely this fall. “I do think that there will be risks of infections when school districts decide to not follow any recommendations,” Dr. Maldonado said.

As the pandemic continues to evolve, schools and officials will need to make complicated decisions based on local conditions, including when to insist on certain precautions and when it is safe to lift them.

“We need to be making nuanced decisions about what to do in schools,” Dr. Branch-Elliman said. “But that’s a much harder public health message then the polarized ‘Schools are safe’ or ‘Schools are unsafe.’”

What about unvaccinated elementary school students?

Although the exact timeline is unclear, vaccines for some children under 12 could be authorized before the end of the year. Until then, however, elementary schools will open with essentially none of their students vaccinated. (Children who are participating in the trials may have received the shots.)

Research shows, however, that the virus is much less likely to cause severe illness in children. They are not entirely protected; a small number of children may develop a rare but serious inflammatory condition, and some children with mild infections may experience long-term symptoms.

There is not yet good, solid data on how Delta affects young children, but there is no evidence that Delta is specifically targeting them.

Still, because a large number of adults have been vaccinated, children may make up an increasing share of Delta cases. The variant’s infectiousness may also mean that more children contract the virus. There is also some emerging evidence that the variant is causing more severe disease in adults.

Given these observations, and out of an abundance of caution, it is particularly important for schools with young, unvaccinated students to take other precautions, including universal masking, experts said.

In schools or districts that do not have mask mandates, parents can provide some degree of protection by ensuring that their children, at least, wear masks to school, Dr. Maldonado said.

And adults can help protect younger children by getting vaccinated themselves. “The single most important thing any community can do in order to reduce the risk in schools is for the entire community to be vaccinated,” Dr. Schaffner said.

Dear Commons Community,

Giuliani is currently struggling under a mountain of legal fees as he attempts to fend off a major federal investigation and answer a $1.3 billion lawsuit. Trump, meanwhile, isn’t pitching in a dime to help him according to New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman.

Giuliani’s supporters are “aghast” that Trump isn’t helping out, according to Haberman, given that many of his activities were carried out on Trump’s behalf to push the former president’s “Big Lie” of a rigged election.

But helping Giuliani is “problematic” for the former president (and definitely for his bank account), and Giuliani should have known better than to undertake some of his activities, sources told Haberman.

The Washington Post also reported early this year that Trump had shut out his attorney, even though Giuliani had traveled the country promoting Trump’s tale of a stolen election. Trump was unhappy with Giuliani’s demand for $20,000 a day in fees, and “privately expressed concern” about some of Giuliani’s moves, sources told the newspaper then.

Not only was Trump refusing to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, but he told aides that all reimbursement requests for travel and other expenses needed to go through him, according to the Post.

Giuliani, who has been suspended from practicing law in New York and Washington, D.C., for his questionable activities, is currently embroiled in a massive $1.3 billion lawsuit filed against him by Dominion Voting Systems. 

The suit accuses Giuliani of defamation through a “viral disinformation campaign about Dominion” made up of “demonstrably false” allegations, in part to enrich himself through legal fees and a podcast. Giuliani’s fact-free attack on Dominion was part of his and Trump’s baseless narrative about a rigged election. 

Giuliani is also being investigated by the FBI for his activities on behalf of certain officials — and Trump — in Ukraine. He was part of Trump’s strategy to hold up Congress-approved military aid to Ukraine to pressure officials to launch a baseless investigation into Joe Biden that led to the former president’s first impeachment. 

Audio of conversations released in June revealed Giuliani repeatedly suggesting to Ukrainian officials that the nation could have a “better relationship” with the U.S. if the country’s president would open a Biden probe in 2019. 

In an interview Friday on NBC New York, Giuliani called the investigation “lawless” — and said everything he did was on behalf of his client, Donald Trump.

“I am more than willing to go to jail if they want to put me in jail. And if they do, they’re going to suffer the consequences in heaven,” he declared.

A New York state appellate court in June said Giuliani would be temporarily barred from practicing law in the state for making “false and misleading statements” about the 2020 election, pending further investigation into his behavior. 

“The seriousness of respondent’s uncontroverted misconduct cannot be overstated,” the court said in its 33-page decision. “This country is being torn apart by continued attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election.”

As others have found out, Trump has no loyalty to his toadies and this includes Giuliani.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned yesterday (see video above) that more “pain and suffering” is on the horizon as COVID-19 cases climb again and officials plead with unvaccinated Americans to get their shots.

Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, also said he doesn’t foresee additional lockdowns in the U.S. because he believes enough people are vaccinated to avoid a recurrence of last winter. However, he said not enough are inoculated to “crush the outbreak” at this point.

Fauci’s warning comes days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed course to recommend that even vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the delta variant is fueling infection surges. With the switch, federal health officials have cited studies showing vaccinated people can spread the virus to others.

Most new infections in the U.S. continue to be among unvaccinated people. So-called breakthrough infections can occur in vaccinated people, and though the vast majority of those cause mild or no symptoms, the research shows they can carry about the same amount of the coronavirus as those who did not get the shots.

“So we’re looking, not, I believe, to lockdown, but we’re looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we’re seeing the cases go up, which is the reason why we keep saying over and over again, the solution to this is get vaccinated and this would not be happening,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.”

According to data through July 30 from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. rose from 30,887 on July 16 to 77,827 on July 30. The seven-day rolling average for the country’s daily new deaths rose over the same period from 253 on July 16 to 358 on July 30, though death reports generally lag weeks after infections and even longer after hospitalizations.

Currently, 58% of Americans 12 years and older are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC’s data tracker.

However, people are “getting the message” and more are rolling up their sleeves amid the threat of the delta variant, according to the director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Francis Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that vaccinations are up 56% in the U.S. in the last two weeks.

Louisiana, which has the most new cases per capita among states in the past 14 days, has seen vaccinations up threefold over that period, Collins said.

“That’s what desperately needs to happen if we are going to get this delta variant put back in its place, because right now it’s having a pretty big party in the middle of the country,” Collins said.

Collins also said that even with the prevalence of the delta variant, the shots are working “extremely well” and reduce a person’s risk of serious illness and hospitalization “25-fold.” The guidance for vaccinated people to start wearing masks indoors again in certain places with worsening outbreaks, he said, is mostly meant to protect unvaccinated and immunocompromised people.

The CDC has also recommended indoor mask-wearing for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status.

When Fauci speaks – we listen!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Florida yesterday broke a record for current hospitalizations set more than a year ago and had 10,207 people hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

The previous record was from July 23, 2020, more than a half-year before vaccinations started becoming widespread, when Florida had 10,170 hospitalizations, according to the Florida Hospital Association.

Florida is now leading the nation in per capita hospitalizations for COVID-19, as hospitals around the state report having to put emergency room visitors in beds in hallways and others document a noticeable drop in the age of patients. As reported by the Associated Press and local news outlets.

In the past week, Florida has averaged 1,525 adult hospitalizations a day, and 35 daily pediatric hospitalizations. Both are the highest per capita rate in the nation, according to Jason Salemi, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida.

The hospitalizations and increasing cases have come as the new, more transmittable delta variant has spread throughout Florida, and residents have returned to pre-pandemic activities.

“The recent rise is both striking and not-at-all surprising,” Salemi said in an email late Saturday.

Federal health data released Saturday showed that Florida reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19, the state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic. The latest numbers were recorded on Friday and released on Saturday on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. The figures show how quickly the number of cases is rising in the Sunshine State: only a day earlier, Florida reported 17,093 new daily cases.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has resisted mandatory mask mandates and vaccine requirements, and along with the state Legislature, has limited local officials’ ability to impose restrictions meant to stop the spread of COVID-19. DeSantis on Friday barred school districts from requiring students to wear masks when classes resume next month.

Florida’s Democratic agriculture commissioner, Nikki Fried, who is seeking to run against DeSantis for governor, on Sunday urged unvaccinated Floridians to get the shots. She said she was heartened by a recent uptick in vaccinations in the state.

“We are already behind the curve and in a worse spot every time the numbers come out,” Fried said at a news conference in Tallahassee. “This surge is and will impact every single one of us.”

Throughout Florida, from Jacksonville to Miami to Tampa, hospitals have become overwhelmed.

Barry Burton, the Pinellas County administrator, told the Tampa Bay Times that some local hospitals are already having to divert ambulances to different locations because of capacity concerns.

If Florida officials such as Governor DeSantis do not take more aggressive precautionary measures, this is going to get worse before it gets better.

Tony

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the Capitol Police testifying before the House  committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.   Credit…Oliver Contreras for The New York Times

Dear Commons Community,

Maureen Dowd in her New York Times column this morning takes a shot at the Republicans who considered themselves “the law and order party”  but who completely abandoned the police who defended the Capitol on January 6^th.   Here is an excerpt:

“When it came down to it, the question of whether Republican lawmakers in the House would side with Donald Trump or the police who risked their lives defending them, it wasn’t even a close call for the law-and-order party.

The G.O.P. overwhelmingly stuck with Trump, perpetuating his sick mythology about a day we all saw with our own eyes. Twenty-one House Republicans even voted against awarding congressional gold medals to the police officers who responded on the day of infamy…

…The heart-rending police testimony [at the Congressional hearing earlier this week] was dismissed by most Republicans and Fox News as “political theater.” What gall by a party that claims to have the backs of men and women in blue.”

She concludes:

“Trump turned Republicans upside down like a snow globe, and suddenly the party that loved to rah-rah for family, morals and religion was in the grip of a thrice-married, grabby, foul-mouthed Tartuffe. The party that prided itself on supporting those in uniform, the F.B.I. and C.I.A. had to go along with Trump’s crooked ways and Deep-State vilification of the F.B.I. and the intelligence community.

We’re still learning the extent to which President Trump tried to strong-arm the Justice Department into helping him purloin the election. As the Times’s Katie Benner reported Friday, as late as Dec. 27, Trump called officials at Justice and, according to their notes, told them: ‘Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me,” assuring them that his congressional allies would help.’

The story is chilling because it shows that Trump was not merely thrashing about on his throne. His plan to reverse the election was more orchestrated and sinister than we knew.’

Trump, the Republicans and the media especially Fox News who support him and his lies, are a disgrace to the country and weaken its democratic foundations.

Dowd’s entire column is below.

Tony

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The New York Times

Why Do Republicans Hate Cops?

July 31, 2021

By Maureen Dowd

Opinion Columnist

WASHINGTON — It was, I must admit, a virtuoso performance by Sean Hannity.

Not since the sheriff in “Blazing Saddles” put a gun to his own head and took himself hostage has anyone executed such a nutty loop de loop.

Opening his show Tuesday night, Hannity gave a monologue defending the police (and lacing into the usual suspects: Hunter, Kamala, Hillary, Nancy, the summer riots, gun violence and unvaccinated illegal immigrants). “Attacks on law enforcement are never and should never be acceptable ever, not at the Capitol and not anywhere,” he declaimed.

Yet Mr. Pro Police had nary a word for the four police officers who had appeared before Congress that morning to describe going to “hell and back,” as a Washington police officer, Michael Fanone, put it, as they relived the scarring, desperate hours of Jan. 6 when they were attacked by Trump’s mob (and Hannity’s viewers).

When it came down to it, the question of whether Republican lawmakers in the House would side with Donald Trump or the police who risked their lives defending them, it wasn’t even a close call for the law-and-order party.

The G.O.P. overwhelmingly stuck with Trump, perpetuating his sick mythology about a day we all saw with our own eyes. Twenty-one House Republicans even voted against awarding congressional gold medals to the police officers who responded on the day of infamy.

They couldn’t countenance “the Pelosi sham commission,” as moderate-turned-lunatic Elise Stefanik — Liz Cheney’s Eve Harrington — told Hannity. Its only purpose, Stefanik said, was “trying to shame over 70 million Americans who were standing up for constitutional and election integrity issues.” Besides, she said, in another moment of utter fatuity, “Republicans are focused on the facts.”

The heart-rending police testimony was dismissed by most Republicans and Fox News as “political theater.” What gall by a party that claims to have the backs of men and women in blue.

Laura Ingraham even gave awards — “Best Exaggerated Performance,” “Best Political Performance” and “Best Performance in an Action Role” — to the police who recounted their terrifying battles with the mob. “They came across as political actors,” Ingraham said. “That doesn’t help anything. We want the police to be just the police.”

Even as Ingraham was describing as “actors” those cops who faced danger, Erin Smith was trying to get the death of her husband, a veteran Washington patrolman — the second officer to take his own life after the insurrection — reclassified from a suicide to a death in the line of duty.

After he was hit in the head with a metal pole during the rampage, he fell into a dark depression, his wife told The Times. On the way to his shift, he pulled his car off the George Washington Parkway and killed himself with his service weapon.

More than casting the police who told their stories as drama queens and fabulists, four House Republicans, representing the dregs of Congress, turned up at a Washington jail on Thursday to shine a light on the plight of suspects detained in the Jan. 6 insurrection. One of them, Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, hailed them as “political prisoners.”

Since when do Republicans care more about criminals in jail than the cops who put them there? Since when do they coddle domestic terrorists?

Since Donald Trump.

A new report in The Daily Beast shows how the fish rots from the big orange head. The Beast reports that Trump has been leading his party’s efforts to recast what happened on Jan. 6 and has been belittling some police heroes, using a vulgar slur for a woman’s anatomy that we’ve famously heard him use on tape; he’s also rebranding Ashli Babbitt, a rioter and an Air Force veteran from California who was killed that day, as a martyr to his cause.

It’s more of Trump’s tough-guy posturing. Indeed, The Village People’s “Macho Man” — which Trump shimmied to at his rallies — was the insurrection’s soundtrack. How rich that Cadet Bone Spurs, who spends his days watching himself on TV and puttering around in a golf cart, belittles cops who bravely took beatings from the mob he sicced on them. It’s gobsmacking how easily Republicans swap their values for Trump’s voters.

He turned Republicans upside down like a snow globe, and suddenly the party that loved to rah-rah for family, morals and religion was in the grip of a thrice-married, grabby, foul-mouthed Tartuffe. The party that prided itself on supporting those in uniform, the F.B.I. and C.I.A. had to go along with Trump’s crooked ways and Deep-State vilification of the F.B.I. and the intelligence community.

We’re still learning the extent to which President Trump tried to strong-arm the Justice Department into helping him purloin the election. As the Times’s Katie Benner reported Friday, as late as Dec. 27, Trump called officials at Justice and, according to their notes, told them: “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me,” assuring them that his congressional allies would help.

The story is chilling because it shows that Trump was not merely thrashing about on his throne. His plan to reverse the election was more orchestrated and sinister than we knew.

Could he actually have used the government to overthrow the government and become dictator perpetuo?

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday, I posted on the long—term concerns of COVID-19.  My colleague, Ray Schroeder from the University of Illinois at Springfield, alerted me to a Lancet study that appeared in ECLinical Medicine conducted by Adam Hampshire and a team of researchers in the United Kingdom.  The research compared cognition in people who had been infected and treated for COVID-19 versus those who had not using a battery of tests (see graphic above).  A summary of the findings were:

“People who had recovered from COVID-19, including those no longer reporting symptoms, exhibited significant cognitive deficits versus controls when controlling for age, gender, education level, income, racial-ethnic group, pre-existing medical disorders, tiredness, depression and anxiety…

… Finer grained analysis of performance across sub-tests supported the hypothesis that COVID-19 has a multi-domain impact on human cognition…These results accord with reports of  ‘Long Covid’ cognitive symptoms that persist into the early-chronic phase.”

The researchers recommended that further research with longitudinal and neuroimaging cohorts to plot recovery trajectories and identify the biological basis of cognitive deficits in SARS-COV-2 survivors.”

In sum, COVID-19 can have long-lasting cognitive effects that will be with those infected for years to come.

Tony