Daily-Dose

Contents

• From New Yorker
• From Vox
• From The Hindu: Sports
• From The Hindu: National News
• From BBC: Europe
• From Ars Technica
• From Jokes Subreddit

From New Yorker

• Georgia, Trump’s Insurrectionists, and Lost Causes - In the name of preserving democracy, the G.O.P. and its febrile leader have actually subverted it—and, thanks to Trump’s unhinged behavior, the world now knows it. - link

• What Should We Call the Sixth of January? - What began as a protest, rally, and march ended as something altogether different—a day of anarchy that challenges the terminology of history. - link

• Trump Must Be Held Accountable - Impunity has been the defining feature of Trump’s Presidency. If he remains unpunished, his antidemocratic, violent movement will persist in mainstream American culture. - link

• Trump Can’t Be Allowed to Escape Justice Yet Again - Despite all the outrage sparked by last week’s riot, the President has grounds for believing that he won’t receive any immediate punishment for openly inciting an insurrection. - link

• Sunday Reading: Waiting for the Vaccine - From The New Yorker’s archive: stories about the impact of vaccinations and the consequences of anti-vax propaganda. - link

From Vox

• How the US’s Covid-19 death toll compares to that of other wealthy countries -

  

If the US had Canada’s Covid-19 death rate, 225,000 more Americans would likely be alive today.

Despite Covid-19 surges in Europe, the United States of America’s extraordinary death toll remains among the worst in the developed world.

As of January 9, 2021, nearly 373,000 people have died of Covid-19 in the US, with a death rate of more than 1.1 per 1,000 people, according to Our World in Data.

While there are nations with higher death rates, this still puts the US in the top 20 percent for deaths among the world’s developed countries, with more than twice the death rate of the median developed country.

Some numbers to put that in perspective:

• If the US had the same death rate as the European Union overall, nearly 79,000 Americans who died of Covid-19 would likely still be alive (unless they died of other causes).
• If the US had the same death rate as Germany, more than 212,000 Americans who died of Covid-19 would likely still be alive.
• If the US had the same death rate as Canada, nearly 225,000 Americans who died of Covid-19 would likely still be alive.
• If the US had the same death rate as Australia, nearly 361,000 Americans who died of Covid-19 would likely still be alive. Fewer than 12,000 would have died, compared to the 365,000 who died in reality.
• If the US had the same death rate as Japan, nearly 363,000 Americans who died of Covid-19 would likely still be alive — and fewer than 10,000 Americans would have died of the disease.

As a result of Covid-19 surges in Europe, the US does look relatively better, compared to other developed nations, than in September. Back then, the US had seven times the death toll as the median developed country. That gap has shrunk massively — to two times.

That’s not because the US has done better but because Europe has done much worse. After managing to largely suppress the coronavirus over the spring and summer of 2020, Europe eased up over the late summer and fall, and saw huge surges as a result.

The European surge has engulfed even countries widely heralded as successful for their fights against Covid-19 — such as Germany, which has recently reported a higher daily Covid-19 death toll than the US.

But Europe is still doing better when you look at deaths since the pandemic began; it at least managed to suppress cases for a time — something the US hasn’t been able to do. One of the key reasons the US death toll remains so high compared to other developed nations is because America suffered a huge summer surge of Covid-19 that other places, including much of Europe, managed to avoid.

And there are some countries that have managed the pandemic well. That includes some European nations like Denmark, Estonia, Cyprus, Finland, Norway, and Iceland. But the biggest success stories are Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan — which have broadly adopted more aggressive government measures against the coronavirus than America.

In September, San Marino, Belgium, Spain, the UK, Italy, and Sweden led the US in Covid-19 deaths per million people. But Slovenia and Czechia now also pull ahead of America, while Spain and Sweden have fallen behind.

    <img alt="A chart of the Covid-19 death rate among several developed countries." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jTm0Lv2ZIRjdMMOjXnDw2TCyaEM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22226009/coronavirus_data_explorer__1_.png" />
  <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;time=2019-12-31..latest&amp;country=AUS~CAN~DEU~JPN~USA~EuropeanUnion~GBR~BEL&amp;region=World&amp;deathsMetric=true&amp;interval=total&amp;perCapita=true&amp;smoothing=0&amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;pickerSort=asc" target="_blank">Our World in Data</a></cite>

So why did the US fail so badly? A lot of this comes down to President Donald Trump. He pushed the country to reopen far too early and quickly, calling on states to “LIBERATE” their economies. He abdicated federal leadership and instead forced states, cities, and private entities to pick up the slack on a host of issues, particularly testing and, recently, vaccines. He downplayed the need for masks, outright mocking people, such as President-elect Joe Biden, for wearing them. The list goes on and on.

In comparison, other leaders around the world have taken Covid-19 more seriously — embracing social distancing, testing and tracing, masking, and, when necessary, more extreme measures like lockdowns. Even with the recent surge of the coronavirus, many countries across Europe have reacted quickly and aggressively by imposing lockdowns, slowing the spread of the virus. The US, by comparison, has by and large remained open, with some states still not requiring masks.

Clearly, not everything has gone perfectly in Europe and other parts of the world. A lot of people and places have screwed up their response to the coronavirus, showing that it’s no easy challenge.

But when the numbers are added up, the US remains an extraordinary failure in its handling of Covid-19.

• The attack on the Capitol may have also been a superspreader event -

  

Lawmakers may have been exposed to the coronavirus during Wednesday’s riot.

Congress’s attending physician warned House members on Sunday that they may have been exposed to the coronavirus last week, after evacuating from the House chamber when pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the US Capitol.

In an email, attending physician Dr. Brian Monahan wrote that, after evacuating to “a large committee hearing space,” members “may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.”

“Please continue your usual daily coronavirus risk reduction measures,” Monahan goes on to say in the email, and “obtain an RT-PCR coronavirus test next week as a precaution.”

Monahan’s warning is especially stark in the context of a video obtained last week by Punchbowl News — a new news outlet started in early 2021 by a handful of Politico alums — that shows evacuated House members unmasked and in close quarters with each other.

In the video, one lawmaker — Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat — can be seen offering other members masks, but many turn down the offer.

“While I was disappointed in my colleagues who refused to wear a mask, I was encouraged by those who did,” Rochester said in a Friday tweet after the video became public. “My goal, in the midst of what I feared was a super spreader event, was to make the room at least a little safer.”

It’s unclear if the room in the video is the same one Monahan’s email warns was the location of a potential coronavirus exposure, but the footage, combined with the email, raises the alarming possibility of a Covid-19 outbreak on Capitol Hill.

Since Wednesday, at least one House member — Republican Rep. Jake LaTurner of Kansas — has announced that he tested positive for Covid-19, though it is again unclear if LaTurner is the person with a coronavirus infection referenced in Monahan’s email.

LaTurner, a first-term member of Congress, confirmed in a tweet that he tested positive on Wednesday night — the same day the Capitol was attacked.

“Congressman LaTurner is following the advice of the House physician and CDC guidelines,” a tweet from his official account said, “and, therefore, does not plan to return to the House floor for votes until he is cleared to do so.”

There also are obvious coronavirus concerns about the mob of largely maskless pro-Trump insurgents who swarmed the Capitol on Wednesday. Many of these insurrectionists were in close contact with members of the Capitol Police while lawmakers evacuated.

“You cannot keep distance if you’re trying to leave a very intense and dangerous situation,” one expert in respiratory virus transmission, Seema Lakdawala, told the New York Times last week. “You’re weighing the risk of your life over the risk of getting a virus at that moment.”

Also of concern is that if the events of Wednesday result in additional Covid-19 cases — or even morph into a superspreader event, though there is currently no evidence that has occurred — Congress is a particularly vulnerable population.

In particular, age is a significant risk factor for cases of severe Covid-19. According to Mayo Clinic, about 80 percent of US deaths from the virus have been people age 65 and older — and the average age of House Democratic leadership in the 116th Congress (the 117th Congress began just last Sunday) was 71. The average age of the entire Democratic caucus in the previous Congress was 58, and for the Republican conference, 57.

One fact that could help limit any potential spread, however, is that many members of Congress — including the top-ranking members of each party in the House and the Senate — have already received the the first of two Covid-19 vaccinations, hopefully lessening the risk of an outbreak. As Vox’s Kelsey Piper has explained, “getting just one dose still reduces a person’s chances of getting Covid-19 by 80 to 90 percent, at least initially.”

Congress has been spared the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic

Despite the risk factors on Capitol Hill, Congress has thus far been spared the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. As of mid-December, 49 members across both chambers had tested positive for Covid-19, though that number has since grown, and there have been no deaths among serving members.

However, Representative-elect Luke Letlow, 41, died of the coronavirus in late December, just days before he was set to be sworn in as a member of the 117th Congress.

Even elderly members of Congress, such as Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, 87, who tested positive in November, have come through the experience in good health, though Alaska Rep. Don Young, also 87, said on Twitter after surviving the virus that “very frankly, I had not felt this sick in a very long time.”

That’s in sharp contrast to the plight currently facing the country at large: Overshadowed by Wednesday’s insurrection on Capitol Hill, the US on Thursday reported the single highest one-day death toll of the pandemic with 4,112 deaths.

On Friday, the US also recorded 300,000 new cases in a single day for the first time ever, reporting 300,594 cases. On average, the country has reported 253,958 new cases per day over the last seven days, according to the New York Times.

The broader US vaccine rollout is also well behind pace, with only 5.9 million people vaccinated as of Thursday, far short of the 20 million the Trump administration said would be vaccinated by the end of December.

It’s possible the tide will turn in the near future: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said last week that though the initial vaccine rollout has stumbled, “I believe that we will pick up momentum as we get beyond the holiday season into the first couple of weeks in January.”

And President-elect Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated in 10 days, has pledged a large-scale vaccine effort to get “at least 100 million Covid vaccine shots into the arms of the American people” within his first 100 days in office.

To do so, Biden has said he will make a somewhat controversial change to the US distribution strategy, releasing all available doses at once. Both vaccines currently authorized for widespread use in the US require two doses, and the Trump administration had chosen to hold back doses to ensure those who get their first dose are guaranteed to have a second available when they’re scheduled to receive it.

But even if the US vaccination effort improves in weeks to come, right now the pandemic is tearing through the US all but unchecked — and Wednesday’s events could have left Congress more vulnerable than ever to the virus.

• Top Democratic lawmaker says an impeachment vote will come this week -

  

House Majority Whip James Clyburn said Trump will likely face an impeachment vote by Wednesday.

Democrats have been working rapidly to prepare articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump — and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) told Fox News Sunday a vote on those will come “probably Tuesday, maybe Wednesday.”

Punchbowl News co-founder and Capitol Hill veteran John Bresnahan reported Sunday that the House will hold a brief session Monday. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), who helped draft the articles of impeachment, tweeted that the articles would be introduced at this session and that, as of Sunday afternoon, they had 200 cosponsors.

The House move to begin impeachment proceedings comes in response to Trump’s role in inciting a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol last Wednesday, with the goal of stopping, delaying, or interfering with congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election. The articles of impeachment draft that has been made available addresses this by accusing Trump of “incitement of insurrection.”

But the final articles may also address earlier efforts Trump made to overturn the results of the election. Clyburn told CNN’s State of the Union that he thought a series of phone calls in which Trump cajoled and threatened Georgia state election officials in an effort to have them overturn the state’s presidential vote results “is impeachable and I think it should be brought into the discussion.”

Some Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) discouraged their party from pursuing immediate impeachment charges, saying that focusing on quickly passing legislation at the start of the new administration and confirming Biden’s Cabinet should take precedence.

“We have to put our government together quickly — that’s the most important thing we should do,” Manchin told the Washington Post Friday. “We don’t need any more political theater.”

Addressing these concerns, Clyburn indicated to CNN that House Democrats may sit on impeachment until after President-elect Biden’s first 100 days have passed, giving priority instead to the new president’s policy agenda.

Clyburn said figuring out the best way to balance impeachment with the beginning of Biden’s term will ultimately fall to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but said he would suggest, “Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we will send the articles sometime after that.”

Regardless of when the House might deliver any potential articles, there is likely to be some delay on the Senate side. Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) circulated a memo to his GOP colleagues laying out a potential schedule should the House immediately send articles of impeachment to the upper chamber. In it, McConnell writes that a trial wouldn’t begin until January 19 at the earliest, a day before Trump is supposed to leave office.

If the impeachment process leads to a Senate trial, it is not clear Democrats will have the 67 votes needed to convict Trump; after newly-elected Georgia Democrats Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are sworn in as senators, Democrats will have a slim one-vote majority in the chamber (with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking 51st vote).

There are two Republican senators, Sens. Pat Toomey and Lisa Murkowski, calling for Trump’s resignation, but so far, no GOP senators have said they would vote to convict him.

In the House, there does seem to be enough support for a successful impeachment — beyond the draft article’s 200 cosponsors, over 220 Democrats in the chamber have publicly indicated support for impeachment proceedings.

If impeached, Trump would become the first president in US history to be impeached twice.

Democrats argue Trump needs to be impeached — even if he leaves office before a Senate trial

Given possible delays in the Senate, Trump’s removal from office via a Senate conviction seems unlikely before his term expires on January 20.

A more rapid form of removal could come through the vice president and the Cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment — which allows those parties to depower a president deemed unfit for office.

But Vice President Mike Pence decided against invoking the 25th Amendment earlier this week, despite reportedly facing pressure to do so from some Cabinet members. According to CNN, Pence has chosen to keep that option in his back pocket in case Trump’s behavior worsens in his term’s final days.

As Vox’s Andrew Prokop has reported, Democrats initially hoped Pence would lead a removal through the 25th Amendment. Now that it is clear that isn’t going to happen, Democrats are arguing they have no choice but to proceed with impeachment.

Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that “every minute” that Trump remains in office “represents a clear and present danger,” adding she hopes that Congress can bar Trump from holding office again through the impeachment process.

Several prominent Republicans, like Trump allies Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), have argued against impeachment, calling instead for “healing and unity” after the insurrection. But Ocasio-Cortez pushed back against that rhetoric Sunday, saying “The process of healing is separate and in fact requires accountability ... because without it, it will happen again,” she said.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) echoed Ocasio-Cortez in comments to CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, saying that “there can only be reconciliation with repentance.”

Essentially, Democrats are arguing that impeachment, even if done after Trump leaves office, will make it clear that incitement of an insurrection by federal elected officials is a line that must never be crossed again.

From The Hindu: Sports

• Victory Parade, Race For The Stars, Demerara, Pirate’s Love and Sanctuary Cove impress - Victory Parade, Race For The Stars, Demerara, Pirate’s Love and Sanctuary Cove impressed when the horses were exercised here on Monday (January. 11).

• Unacceptable, upsetting: Rahane on racist abuse at Sydney Test; Paine backs him - CA has also promised strongest possible action against the offenders, which includes the possibility of them being banned for life from the SCG.

• Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma announce birth of baby girl - Kohli took to Twitter to make the announcement, both in English and Hindi

• Australia, India retain top-two spots in WTC standings after draw in 3rd Test - India's remarkable show saw them stay marginally ahead of third-placed New Zealand in the WTC points tally

• Aus vs Ind Third Test | I let the team down: Australia skipper Paine on dropped catches - Paine said he was below par behind the stumps after India held on for a draw in pursuit of 407

From The Hindu: National News

• CDS Rawat reviews security situation in Ladakh amid border standoff with China - The move comes in the backdrop of his visits to Dibang Valley, Lohit sector and Subansiri valley near the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh.

• Covid-19 | Govt. places purchase order with Serum Institute for 11 million doses of vaccine - Each dose of the vaccine has been priced at ₹200 and with GST of ₹10 it would cost ₹210.

• Two made-in-India COVID vaccines more cost-effective than others in world: PM Modi - Public representatives are not part of the 3 crore corona warriors and frontline workers to be vaccinated first, Mr Modi said.

• Coronavirus | IMA endorses safety, efficacy of both vaccines cleared by India - Get vaccinated voluntarily, it requests members. Good protective levels of antibodies have been found to develop with them, it says

• Govt. should focus on incidents like Bhandara, says Fadnavis after security downgrade - State government's decision to scale down his security cover will have no impact, the former CM said.

From BBC: Europe

• Storm Filomena: Spain races to clear snow as temperatures plunge - Extra measures are taken to distribute Covid vaccines amid fears the snow could turn to ice.

• In pictures: Storm Filomena hits Spain as Greeks bask in heatwave - Spain has seen heavy snow and plunging temperatures, while in Greece it is unusually warm.

• Covid: 'Most dangerous time' of the pandemic, says Prof Whitty - The warning from England's chief medical officer comes as seven mass vaccination centres open.

• Beny Steinmetz: Mining tycoon in Swiss trial over Guinea deal - Billionaire Beny Steinmetz denies alleged corruption over a huge iron ore deal in Guinea.

• Europe's slow start: How many people have had the Covid vaccine? - As countries look to quickly vaccinate people, BBC reporters explain what's happening across Europe.

From Ars Technica

• A “no math” (but seven-part) guide to modern quantum mechanics - Welcome to "The curious observer’s guide to quantum mechanics"–featuring particle/wave duality. - link

• New York City proposes regulating algorithms used in hiring - Bill would require firms to disclose when they use software to assess candidates. - link

• Amazon cuts off Parler’s Web hosting following Apple, Google bans - The app will need to find new Web hosting by Sunday or go offline. - link

• The immune system and COVID: It’s still confusing - Antibodies may help, inflammation may hurt, but immunosuppressants are irrelevant? - link

• What to expect from the first-ever virtual CES - Some big players are missing, along with over half of last year's exhibitors. - link

From Jokes Subreddit

• My 7 yr old just made this one up: What do you say when a dinosaur farts? -

  That was a blast from the past!

  submitted by /u/lazynessisawesome
  [link] [comments]

• My wife asked me to put ketchup on the shopping list. -

  Now I can’t read any of it.

  submitted by /u/Po1sonator
  [link] [comments]

• My wife often uses the promise of sex as a way to get little jobs done around the house. -

  The plumber told me.

  submitted by /u/Cecil_the_wonderdog
  [link] [comments]

• A man playing on a new golf course got confused as to what hole he was on. He saw a lady playing ahead of him, so he walked up to her and asked if she knew what hole he was playing. She replied, “I’m on the 7th hole and you’re a hole behind me, so you must be on the 6th hole.” -

  He thanked her and went back to his golf.

  On the back nine, the same thing happened and he approached the lady, again with the same request.

  She said, “I’m on the 14th, you are a hole behind me, so you must be on the 13th.”

  Once again, he thanked her.

  He finished his round, went into the club house and saw the lady sitting at the end of the bar.

  He went up to her and said, “Let me buy you a drink to show my appreciation for your help.”

  He started a conversation and asked her what kind of work she did.

  She said she was in sales and he said he was in sales also.

  He asked what she sold.

  She replied, “If I told you, you would only laugh.”

  “No, I wouldn’t.” he said.

  She said, “I sell tampons.”

  With that he fell on the floor laughing so hard.

  She said, “See, I knew you would laugh.”

  “That’s not what I’m laughing at!” he replied. “I’m a toilet paper salesman, so I’m STILL one hole behind you!”

  submitted by /u/honolulu_oahu_mod
  [link] [comments]

• So, This is a very famous joke from my country ,I hope to see the response -

  A conference for who the best actor in the world was held, Actors from all around the world came to take part in the competition.There were many qualifier rounds but then only 5 actors remained in the finals.

  The final contest was decided to be a manual cow milking competition. The rules were simple, The one to milk the most milk from their respective cows won the competition.

  The actors were from Nepal (the place where the joke is from), India (A neighbouring country so it is used), USA (Land of Chuck Norris), UK and China.

  They were each given a cow and 1 hour of alloted time to milk the cow.

  The competition started and then ended soon.

  Then the judges went on and checked how much they each milked.

  They went and checked UK's representative (Michael Caine). He only milked 10 ltrs. of milk.

  Then they moved onto China's Jet Li. Using his martial arts technique, he milked an astonishing 20 ltr. of milk from the cow.

  Then Rajnikant (Indian counterpart of Chuck Norris,ask indians they'll tell) patted Li on the back and showed them he had milked 25 ltrs.
  Chuck Norris was already laughing at them. For he had milked 30 ltrs. of milk

  Now, The judges moved onto Rajesh Hamal (He's the Nepalese counterpart to Chuck Norris). When they looked into his bucket, They were astounded. He had only milked 1 ltr. of milk

  They declared Chuck to be the winner and later interviewed everyone.
  When it was Rajesh's turn, they asked " Why only 1 ltr?"
  To which he replied "Those mfers gave me a bull"

  submitted by /u/Spandan-N
  [link] [comments]