Brie-fing: The Left Got COVID Wrong, and So Did I

An INCREDIBLY humbling podcast from The Daily...

This morning, The New York Times slapped my left-leaning, science-trusting ass upside the head with their episode on The Daily today, titled “Were the Covid Lockdowns Worth It?”

White House, the executive mansion of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

The host speaks with two political scientists, Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee, who did a couple years’ research and wrote a book detailing the U.S. response to Covid so we might be more prepared in future. Their conclusions, backed by rigorous data analysis, make a compelling case for the exact OPPOSITE conclusion of what I personally expected:

The Left got it wrong about Covid, and so did I.

Back in the heyday of the pandemic, I was one of the many liberals who were absolutely INFURIATED at the Right’s intolerance of the scientific recommendations; I thought they were being selfish, and short-sighted, and careless with peoples’ lives. With my whole chest, I made videos on TikTok that bashed conservatives who were in public refusing to wear a mask.

For the record: I don’t regret all of them. Some of the conservatives went way too far and, frankly, acted like assholes to people just trying to do their job… Still, by the time the episode had concluded, I had to accept there was a strong possibility that I was indeed… wrong.

It’s ironic that the MAGA base seems to loathe the New York Times, because they just made the very best case against liberals that I’ve ever heard. I might listen to the episode a second time just to make sure it sticks.

Okay, it’s 11:03am. The Times also has live updates that run the whole day, so we’ll use that first to get caught up:

• Social Security numbers and other pesonal details were included in the Kennedy files released this week.

  • 64,000 pages of FBI files were released, and it looks like they may have not been properly vetted, because they accidentally released the personal information and social security numbers of some people involved

    • William A. Harnage, 71, learned his Social Security number was released to the world from a reporter after the story came out

• The U.S. turned away a French scientist over his views on Trump’s policies, France says.

  • Phillippe Baptiste, minister for higher education and research: “Freedom of opinion, free research and academic freedom are values we will continue to proudly uphold… I will defend the possibility for all French researchers to be faithful to them, in compliance with the law, wherever they may be in the world.”

• The National Treasury Employees Union says at least 35 unionized employees at the Federal Housing Finance Agency have been put on leave in the past two days. Earlier, multiple board members at Fannie and Freddie were let go.

• Administration officials believe a Trump order allows immigration agents to enter homes without warrants

  • Unclear whether they’ll actually implement this plan, but it sounds like they’re making the case for not following the 4th amendment, and that’s rather fucking scary imho

11:45am, moving to BBC News:

• Trump to order dismantling of US education department

  • It’s expected to keep the office of civil rights and student loans up at the federal level. Completely eliminating it would require 60 votes in Congress, very very unlikely.

    • Even if it’s not closed down though, the administration could permanently alter it, the same way they did USAID

  • Expected sometime this afternoon

• Ukraine and Russia to hold parallel talks next week

  • Taking place in Saudi Arabia… US-Russia talks will happen there the same day, then Ukrainian officials will talk with the US as well

  • Volodomyr Zelenskyy: Russia “must stop making unnecessary demands that only prolong the war.”

  • Russia wants all Ukraine allies to end assistance, guarantee Nato membership will never be granted to Ukraine, and more.

• Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv as Israel renews Gaza ground campaign

  • No injuries, but it’s the first time they’ve fired back since Israel restarted the war.

  • More than 500 Palestinians have been killed since Tuesday including 200 children, with at least 85 more deaths last night.

I’ll check in a little later. Happy Thursday!