The Pandemic Turns Out To Be Bad For Drunks And School Kids-- Who Could Have Imagined?

Back To School With Betsy And Donald by Nancy Ohanian

Reporting from Martin County on Florida's Atlantic coast yesterday, CNN warned that since Trump and his puppet governor, Ron DeSantis, stampeded Florida schools into opening prematurely last month, "the number of children under 18 who have contracted Covid-19 statewide has jumped 26%." DeSantis then tried hiding the data from the public. Before the opening there were 42,761 school aged kids with COVID-19. A month later, the number is 53,717. The rate of infection is even worse in Martin County than in the rest of the state. DeSantis is still hiding the results from the public.

Some say Katherine Norman's state Senate race is one of the two or three most important legislative races in Florida this year. Her opponent is top Trump /DeSantis ally, Joe Gruters, chair of the state GOP. Today, Katherine told us she finds it "incredibly sad to see Governor DeSantis and others like my opponent who campaigned by lying and deceiving the public so egregiously because of their loyalties to this administration. They have had to lie for this administration so many times they either don’t even mark it is significant, can no longer discern fact from fiction, or don’t care anymore as long as it is for political gain. My opponent, Florida Republican Party chair Joe Gruters lied to CBS news reporter Jim DeFede claiming Black Lives Matter protestors were armed and threatening the McCloskeys who spoke at the Republican National Convention. Deliberately inflaming the incident and amplifying it by alleging that BLM protestors were some how responsible for or an aggressive force in this instance is a deliberate attempt to smear the movement, which is peaceful and asking for basic compassion in response to police violence and justice in excessive force cases. I am not sure why anyone would try to take opposition to confronting racial bias in our communities or law enforcement agencies, or why an elected official would ignore the pain from constituents wrongly harmed. The blind loyalty to this administration has cost these elected officials connection with actual voters in our area and the issues that matter here. Voters can no longer trust the Florida GOP."

  Kind of related in a weird way, Washington Post reporters Rachel Weiner, Chris Alcantara and Andrew Ba Tran wrote yesterday how political pressures on weak and incompetent leaders are forcing bars and restaurants open, even though rates of infection in cities, counties and states that open bars immediately rises. New York City is opening restaurants for in-door dining and Florida started re-opening bars Monday. Our trio of Post writers reports that "One decision appears to be riskier than the other... States that have reopened bars experienced a doubling in the rate of coronavirus cases three weeks after the opening of doors, on average. The Post analysis-- using data provided by SafeGraph, a company that aggregates cellphone location information-- found a statistically significant national relationship between foot traffic to bars one week after they reopened and an increase in cases three weeks later... [T]here is not as strong a relationship between the reopening of restaurants and a rise in cases."

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of nearly 300 adults who tested positive for the coronavirus found that they were more than twice as likely to have dined at a restaurant in the two weeks before getting sick than people who were uninfected. Those who tested positive and did not have close contact with anyone sick were also more likely to report going to a bar or coffee shop. The same effect was not seen in visits to salons, gyms and houses of worship, or in the use of public transportation.

“You’re sitting there for a long time, everyone’s talking,” said Linsey Marr, an environmental engineer at Virginia Tech. “And that’s just a recipe for spread.”

Few states make their contact-tracing data available, but in two that do-- Colorado and Louisiana-- bars and restaurants are responsible for about 20 percent of cases traced to a known source. San Diego traced nearly one-third of community outbreaks to restaurants and bars, more than any other setting.

But Louisiana’s experience suggests bar patrons contribute more to the spread of the virus than restaurant diners. There have been 41 outbreaks tied to restaurants and the same number of outbreaks associated with bars, but bar outbreaks appeared to result in more infections, with 480 cases traced to those establishments compared with 180 from restaurants.

Marr said indoor dining can be reasonably safe in a restaurant operating at 25 percent capacity and with a ventilation system that fully recirculates air every 10 minutes. New York City’s policy will allow for only 25 percent capacity at first, with a scheduled increase to 50 percent in November if transmission rates remain low.

Still, Marr said, she “will not eat inside a restaurant until the pandemic is over.” As one of the first scientists to begin emphasizing that the virus was spread primarily by air, she has been concerned about indoor drinking and dining since March.

“People go to restaurants to talk,” she said, “and we know that it’s talking that produces a lot-- 10 to 100 times more-- aerosols than just sitting.”

Other countries facing outbreaks imposed stricter and longer shutdowns on bars and restaurants. Ireland has yet to open its pubs. Countries that did reopen bars and restaurants have, like American states, scaled back in the face of fresh outbreaks.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say that because U.S. policies vary by state and county, waves of closures and reopenings may have perversely led to more viral spread, as people traveled to enjoy freedoms not allowed closer to home.

The National Restaurant Association argues that restaurants are safe if they follow proper mitigation guidelines and that the industry has been unfairly maligned by the actions of an irresponsible few.

“Bars become particularly risky,” said Larry Lynch, who handles food science for the restaurant trade group. “Anybody who had been in bars knows that conversations get louder, people get closer.”

But, he said, “we haven’t seen... any kind of systemic outbreaks from people going into a restaurant that’s practicing what we ask them to practice.”

Lynch questioned the methodology of the CDC study, noting it covered only 295 people and did not identify the sources of transmission.

The American Nightlife Association, which represents the bar and nightclub industry, did not respond to a request for comment.

Kristen Ehresmann, director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division at the Minnesota Department of Health, agreed that when restaurants and bars abide by guidelines designed to reduce transmission, few cases of the coronavirus have been traced to those establishments.

But there are more than a few bad actors, she said: 1,592 cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, have been tied to 66 bars and restaurants in Minnesota. And in 58 other establishments, cases were reported among only staff members, resulting in 240 illnesses. One bar in St. Cloud, Minnesota, the Pickled Loon, was the only place visited by 73 people who got sick and was one stop among several for 44 other people.

“The bottom line is, we’re seeing a big chunk of our cases associated with these venues, and those cases go on to get other cases in other settings,” Ehresmann said. “We can’t ignore the impact.”

Iowa’s first big spike in coronavirus cases originated in the meatpacking industry. Then, says University of Iowa epidemiologist Jorge Salinas, came bars in college towns such as Iowa City, where he is based.

“It was very clear,” Salinas said. “We reviewed records for patients, and they all shared that common exposure of having been to a bar in the previous five days or so. Usually, the same bars that tend to be very crowded and very loud, rather than a place you just sit down to go and have a beer.”

He said those bars began closing not because of government intervention, but because so many staff members fell ill. By that point, the young people who got infected at bars had begun spreading the virus to an older population through family and work.

After about two months, the outbreak in Iowa City started to burn out. But then college students started returning to campus.

“It’s just a different group of young people but similar exposures-- going to bars, hanging out, going to large parties,” he said.

Remember this? Politicians don't seem to

He said an order from Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) closing bars in Iowa City and five other hard-hit counties was welcome but overdue. In the past two weeks, more than 1,000 young people in the region have become infected.

“Unfortunately, it’s late in the game,” Salinas said. “It would have been better if it had been done to prevent this rather than as a reaction to this.”

Politicians who favor an aggressive approach to containing the coronavirus have been hesitant to shut down bars and restaurants. Expanded federal unemployment benefits lapsed more than a month ago. Loans to small businesses are forgiven only if they can keep workers on the payroll, which is usually impossible while running at reduced capacity.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2.5 million jobs in bars and restaurants have been lost since February. Although that’s an improvement from the spring, many restaurant owners say they are barely hanging on.

“Winter is coming, and I’m staring down the barrel of the gun of what’s going to happen,” said Ivy Mix, owner of a restaurant called Leyenda in New York and author of the book “Spirits of Latin America.” Even when indoor dining reopens, Mix said she is not sure she and her staff would be comfortable serving enough people inside her Brooklyn restaurant to make a profit.

“This is almost like being thrown a deflated life-jacket-- the action and the symbolism is there, but the actual aid is not,” she said.

That’s why she says the only solution is federal legislation introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) that would issue $120 billion in grants to independent bars and restaurants. A Senate version would cover some chains as well.

“Eleven million people work for these independent restaurants,” Blumenauer said. “If we don’t do something, the evidence suggests that 85 percent of them are not going to survive this year.”

His office estimates that the legislation would more than pay for itself, generating $186 billion in tax revenue and unemployment savings. He said President Trump was receptive in a meeting with supporters earlier this year, but that in recent weeks the administration “has basically shut down meaningful negotiations.”

Arizona reopened indoor restaurants and some bars at the end of August, after a hasty spring reopening and more than 5,000 deaths.

“We really kind of reaped the whirlwind,” said David Engelthaler, a former state epidemiologist now at the Translational Genomics Research Institute. “A lot of that was driven by people going into bars and nightclubs, typically the 20- to 30-year-old set, interacting, socializing like they did prepandemic. And that just supported a kind of wildfire of cases.”

He said he thinks it is probably feasible to reopen restaurants at reduced capacity, but bars are a different story.

“One thing that all bars have in common is that they create a lowering of inhibition, and I think more than anything, this will cause the spread of covid,” he said. “We get more complacent, more comfortable, covid starts spreading.”

With temperatures still regularly topping 100 degrees in Arizona, the appeal of outdoor food and drink is limited. After a rapid May reopening led to a spike in cases and deaths, the state has just begun trying a more cautious approach.

Under Arizona’s new, more deliberate reopening, businesses must apply to reopen and bars must serve food to qualify. But Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist based in Phoenix, said it is unclear whether those requirements are sufficiently stringent.

“If you put out two items does that count?” she asked. “I just worry that we’re kind of all doing this at once.” She noted that more than 500 new cases a day continue to be reported in Arizona, about the same as during the first reopening: “We’ll see if we learn from our lessons.”

Last Friday, the Associated Press noted that the 2 maskless Dakotas are leading the country in COVID-growth. Each state has a moron governor, more concerned about Trumpist politics than keeping their citizens safe-- or even alive. "Coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation," reported the AP, "fueling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic... Amid the brute force of the pandemic, health experts warn that the infections must be contained before care systems are overwhelmed. North Dakota and South Dakota lead the country in new cases per capita over the last two weeks, ranking first and second respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.

COVID-Kristi

South Dakota has also posted some of the country’s highest positivity rates for COVID-19 tests in the last week-- over 17 percent-- an indication that there are more infections than tests are catching.

Infections have been spurred by schools and universities reopening and mass gatherings like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of people from across the country.

“It is not a surprise that South Dakota has one of the highest (COVID-19) reproduction rates in the country,” Brookings City Council member Nick Wendell said as he commented on the many people who forgo masks in public.

The Republican governors of both states have eschewed mask requirements, tapping into a spirit of independence hewn from enduring the winters and storms of the Great Plains.

The Dakotas were not always a hot spot. For months, the states appeared to avoid the worst of the pandemic, watching from afar as it raged through large cities. But spiking infection rates have fanned out across the nation, from the East Coast to the Sun Belt and now into the Midwest, where states like Iowa and Kansas are also dealing with surges.

When the case count stayed low during the spring and early summer, people grew weary of constantly taking precautions, said Dr. Benjamin Aaker, president of the South Dakota State Medical Association.

“People have a tendency to become complacent,” he said. “Then they start to relax the things that they were doing properly, and that’s when the increase in cases starts to go up.”

Health officials point out that the COVID-19 case increases have been among younger groups that are not hospitalized at high rates. But infections have not been contained to college campuses.

“College students work in places where the vulnerable live, such as nursing homes,” said Dr. Joel Walz, the Grand Forks, North Dakota, city and county health officer. “Some of them are nursing students who are doing rotations where they’re going to see people who are really at risk. I worry about that.”

Over 1,000 students at the states’ four largest universities (the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University and University of South Dakota) left campus to quarantine after being exposed to the virus, according to data released by the schools. The Sturgis rally also spread infections across the region, with health officials in 12 states reporting over 300 cases among people who attended the event.

But requiring masks has been controversial. In Brookings, opponents said they believed the virus threat was not as serious as portrayed and that a mandate was a violation of civil liberties.

“There are a lot of things we have in life that we have to deal with that cause death,” business owner Teresa Holloman told the council. “We live in America, and we have certain inalienable rights.”

North Dakota has 52 counties and South Dakota has 66. Trump only lost two counties in North Dakota (both basically Indian reservations). And of South Dakota's 66, Trump won 61. Trump won 62.96% of the North Dakota vote and 61.53% of the South Dakota vote. Only West Virginia, Wyoming and Oklahoma were more taken in by Trump's bullshit. (Kentucky and Alabama voters fell for the hustle more than South Dakota but slightly less than North Dakota.)

If There Was No Florida Democratic Party, It Would Be Easier For Democrats To Win

Last night I got an extraordinary e-mail from Alan Grayson. I don't think he sent it to anyone but me and I decided not to send it to anyone else, not even Adam Christensen, whose new video is directly above. This was Grayson's e-mail; you can read it at the same time Adam Christensen does:

I endorse Adam Christensen for Congress. I’ll tell you why, but first, a question. How many URLs are there? The answer is that, even if you limit yourself only to 10 characters or less (like www.absolutely.com), there are 141 trillion URLs. Lots and lots of choices. Adam’s campaign URL is ForTheManyNotJustMe.com/. Now, Adam could have chosen LobsterDinnerWithLobbyists.com-- remarkably, that URL is available. Or Adam could have chosen HowElseCouldIPossiblyMake174KPerYear.com-- also, somehow, available. But instead, Adam chose a URL that conveys why he is running for Congress: for the many, not just him. And, as it turns out, that is the most important thing in a candidate, because if you don’t start out with that in your heart, you’re sure not going to pick it up on the way. Good luck in FL-03, Adam. There’s only one right reason to run for Congress, and you’ve found it.

Moments after Alan sent me the endorsement, this e-mail arrived from Adam, who I had asked for a comment for this post. "We are on our own here. The Florida Democratic Party wrote off this part of the state a long time ago," he wrote. "In fact they haven’t done polling in the last 2 ½ years. What is crazy is that they have completely written off competitive and winnable districts along the way because they are 10-15 years behind when it comes to data analysis. They know less about the people living in Florida than Macy’s does. For instance in our race, there are 40-50,000 Hispanic and Latino voters that have never been asked to vote for either party. There are 40,000 independent and conservative women voters in the rural districts that are winnable. There are former felons that now have the right to vote. Florida will be won in the margins. The only way to flip Florida is to run up the score in places you know you can win and cut the margins in places you can’t. $150,000 is enough to make a +9 district in Florida competitive. $300,000 is enough to win. The Return On Investment for any donor is far better spent giving directly to the candidates-- not the party. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work for the economy and it doesn’t work in politics. Giving to the Florida Party so they can hand it to consultants is not a winning strategy. Fighting for every acre of land and putting candidates in every race-- IS."

Steve Bousquet's headline, Florida Democrats Go All Out For Historically Republican Legislative Seats is slightly, and I'm sure unintentionally, misleading. It gives you the idea that the Florida Democratic Party is trying to win Republican-held state legislative seats. That's a stretch. The Florida Democratic Party is worse than worthless. If they were just worthless they wouldn't be doing anything. Worse than worthless means they are actively sabotaging Democratic candidates, going so far as telling people various Republicans are their friends (or, in the case of state Sen. Gary Farmer, worse).

This should be an especially bad year for Florida Republicans. Trashing science and the advice of public health officials Trump and his puppet governor Ron DeSantis (R) and their puppet legislators in their puppet state House and puppet state Senate failed-- dismally-- to protect Fllorida from the pandemic... and more so than almost any other state. Yesterday, DeSantis infected 3,656 more Floridians with COVID-19, bringing the state total to 643,867. California and Texas have more cases-- but they also have a lot more people. When it comes to measuring how many cases there are per million people, only one state (Louisiana) beats Florida's 29,978 cases per million residents. It gets worse; Florida has-- by far-- the most active cases in the U.S., 535,536 compared to California's 372,054 and Texas' 88,420. Trump, DeSantis and their puppets in Tallahassee have killed 11,815 Floridians so far, including 60 more yesterday. There are 10 hot-spot counties right now, where new daily cases are out of control-- and those counties are I'm every part of the state. Yesterday's dozen worst counties for new cases:

• Miami-Dade +549
• Leon +327
• Hillsborough +281
• Broward +232
• Palm Beach +143
• Orange +139
• Duval +139
• Polk +127
• Gadsden +108
• Pinellas +96
• Alachua +89
• Volusia +87

Other counties with out-sized total case-loads include Lee, Osceola, Escambia, Collier and Manatee. Voters are ready to dump Trump and Republicans up and down the ballot. DeSantis is lucky to not be on the ballot, but many of his closest collaborators in Tallahassee are.

But the state Democratic Party in nowhere to be found in most races, telling candidates in winnable districts that they can't or won't help.

It was the Florida Environmental Caucus and 90 For 90 that have recruited the candidates, not the Florida Democratic Party, which has bullied and threatened candidates in attempts to get them, to drop out-- even if that means giving a Trump-Republican a free ride!

So far the Environmental Caucus/90 For 90 coalition has helped defeat one of the Florida Democratic Party's favorite GOP-backed anti-Semite, anti-gay crackpots, Kim Daniels, who lost her primary race to progressive champion Angie Nixon.

Fergie Reid runs 90 For 90 and Bousquet interviewed him last week. "Reid," he wrote, "says 90-for-90’s goal is to flood the zone with candidates and create enthusiasm. Many of them don’t have to win, he says; just be competitive and force Republicans to devote extra resources. From his vantage point, Reid says Florida Democrats are not trying hard enough. 'Democrats lose Florida by microscopic margins,' says Reid. '10,000 for Nelson, 30,000 for Gillum, 60,000 each for Sink and Crist. A hundred and some-odd thousand for Hillary Clinton against Trump. That’s nothing in Florida.'"

I spoke with Reid yesterday. He was adamant that there should be Democrats running in every House seat and in all the state Senate seats that are being contested this cycle. "The current Florida Senate," he noted, has 17 Dems and 23 Republicans. Dems need to flip 3 seats to share power in the Senate as the decennial gerrymander session approaches. If they have a 'seat at the gerrymandering table,' Dems have a chance to draw reasonably fair districts throughout the state. If Dems remain in the Senate minority, the Republicans will draw incredibly unfair districts, limiting the number of Dems that can be elected to the Florida congressional delegation, and the Florida state legislature.

"There is one Senate Special Election this year," he emphasized, "replacing a GOP senator who resigned to pursue 'greener pastures.' That Senator won re-election in 2018, barely. He received an unexpectedly strong Democratic challenge from a first time candidate named Kathy Lewis. She got 46.5% of the district’s vote total, despite being outspent 12 to 1. Kathy Lewis is the Dem candidate again this year. She has name recognition and is well respected for her years of Florida Disability Rights Advocacy. The Democratic Senate Caucus believes that they can realistically flip 2 seats, Senate Districts 9 and 39, both in the eastern part of the State. Kathy’s district is Senate District 20, in the city of Tampa, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk counties. Kathy Lewis could flip the coveted 3rd seat for Senate Dems; but so far, they’re behaving as though they don’t want to flip this seat. WH !!!??? Kathy Lewis is Black, and she’s running in a White district. The party refers to these types of districts as “non-Minority Access” districts. The party doesn’t like Black candidates running in White districts. Oye Vey !! Is this 2020; or 1963 ?? If Kathy gets the necessary financial support from National small dollar donors, she’ll over-perform again, just as she did in 2018. Hit the thermometer below; send a serious message to the Florida Democratic Party and the Florida Democratic Senate Caucus. The Florida donation limit is $1,000."

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Joe Gruters-- fighting for his political life as environmental activist and working class champion Katherine Norman becomes better and better known to voters in Sarasota and Charlotte counties. Gruters, delusional says the Florida Republican Party is "going on the offensive... I think 2020 is going to be a phenomenal year for Republicans. We are very optimistic about our chances, and I am very happy to run, myself, on the coattails of the president of the United States." Trump's toxicity in Florida is likely to help defeat puppet incumbents like Gruters. I asked Katherine how her race is proceeding, even without any help from her own party. She was focused on the voters and on Gruters, not on the state party. As she told me recently, "more and more voters in traditionally red districts are reaching for competent leadership across the aisle. Republicans in Sarasota and Charlotte counties are revolting against Gruters, some leaning towards voting blue for the first time in their lives. As the mismanagement of Florida's coronavirus pandemic continues, we can expect to see increasingly positive polling for Biden in this state... I am deeply saddened for our six million Florida seniors who are locked in their homes, unable to hug or see their grandchildren, unable to fulfill the travel dreams of their retirement because of the complete mismanagement of coronavirus by Florida Republican leaders. Senator Gruters said that he expects the virus to get worse before it gets better. We should not have to accept this nonsense answer from our elected officials. Our citizens deserve leaders that respond to science and that have the basic decency to protect the most vulnerable in our population."

If The GOP Continues To Block Aid, States Like Florida Will Start Going Bankrupt

NPR issued a depressing report yesterday: States Are Broke And Many Are Eyeing Massive Cuts. One of the sticking points in coming to an agreement over the pandemic rescue package is that the already passed House bill, the $3 trillion HEROES Act, contains around a trillion dollars for state and local governments. The Republicans would like to see that come down a bit-- to zero.

NPR noted that the "pandemic could swipe roughly $200 billion from state coffers by June of next year... Record-high unemployment has wreaked havoc on personal income taxes and sales taxes, two of the biggest sources of revenue for states. Hawaii's and Nevada's tourism industries have crashed, and states like Alaska, Oklahoma and Wyoming have been hit by the collapse of oil markets. From March through May of this year, 34 states experienced at least a 20% drop in revenue compared with the same period last year.

With dwindling cash, cuts to education, health care and other areas are inevitable in many places. State leaders have described the situation as "unprecedented," "horrifying" and "devastating." Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, compared his state's budget cuts to the Red Wedding scene in HBO's Game of Thrones.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said, "Responding to this crisis has created a multiyear budget crisis unlike anything the state has ever faced before, more than three times worse than the Great Recession."

For example, so far that state has cut nearly $190 million from higher education. Programs designed to reduce crime in Baltimore also took a hit, as did foster care providers and public defenders.

And state leaders everywhere are getting nervous as the economy shows little signs of a swift recovery.

In March, Congress worked quickly to pass an aid package worth $2 trillion-- called the CARES Act-- which offered relief to state and local governments, individuals, small and large businesses, and hospitals affected by the coronavirus crisis.

But language in the law requires that funds go to expenses related to COVID-19 and not to plug holes in budgets, with few exceptions (though some state leaders have used creative accounting to make the money work the way they want it to).

Republicans and Democrats in states such as Maryland, California, Michigan, Iowa, Georgia, New York and Illinois have asked Congress for additional funds that they say are critical to stay afloat.

Others don't agree. Last week, more than 200 state lawmakers signed onto a letter from the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of conservative lawmakers, opposing further federal money for states. The letter reads, "The American people are being forced to make difficult but fiscally responsible decisions during the pandemic, and states need to do the same."

The Democratic-led U.S. House passed a bill to inject more money into states, but many Republican lawmakers say any new money has to be for items directly related to the virus, not to pay down deficits in the states.

California has gone as far as preparing a contingency budget: If additional federal money does not come through, the state will have to furlough state workers and slash funding for state universities and courts. It would also mean that K-12 school districts and community colleges won't receive nearly $12 billion in upfront state payments at a time when costs could be at an all-time high.

"The federal government has a moral, ethical and economic obligation to help support the states," said California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

Florida was one of the states hit hardest-- from the coronavirus itself-- and by the economic and financial side-effects. Sometime this week, Florida will cross the half million cases mark, something only California-- which has a much bigger population-- has done. Florida has 23,156 cases per million residents, worse than New York and New Jersey. The only states worse off are Louisiana and Arizona, although Mississippi is catching up. Florida reported 245 more deaths today, bringing the state total to a rapidly increasing 7,402.

In a state that depends on tourists, what happens when there are few to none? After months of stalling and insisting that lawmakers would not need to return to Tallahassee to balance the budget, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently approved the largest financial vetoes in Florida history, canceling out more than $1 billion in spending for the upcoming fiscal year.

The state's revenue shortfall has ballooned to nearly $2.1 billion since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Unemployment in the state has soared to Depression-era levels and Medicaid rolls have swelled. Only some of the cuts are being supplanted by federal relief funds.

Florida initially avoided worst-case scenarios but is now seeing a surge in coronavirus infections, mere weeks after attempting to reopen shuttered businesses. Democrats, locked out of decision-making, have railed against DeSantis. "Just lead, damn it. Just lead," said state Democratic Rep. Janet Cruz.

Despite calls to roll back reopenings, DeSantis is holding firm, saying, "When you have a virus that disproportionally impacts one segment of society, to suppress a lot of working-age people at this point, I don't think would be very effective."

Florida progressive Katherine Norman

The Republican controlled state legislature is hoping voters don't notice that they aren't doing anything to help mitigate the catastrophe. I asked some of the sharpest Democrats running to replace them in November, like Katherine Norman, who is running for the state Senate seat currently held by Joe Gruters, co-chair of Trump's reelection campaign and chairman of the Florida Republican Party. "Florida's elected officials and long time Trump sycophants are banking on our complacency," she told me this morning. In my race in Sarasota and Charlotte County most people I speak to don't even know who our State Senator is. Little do they know. While the Florida GOP leaders operate to advance this administration on single voter issues to the detriment and neglect of constituents in District 23 and all Floridians, they also drive us toward the complete devastation of this entire nation, toward the existential crises of climate change and the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. While we hold moments of silence for the over 7,100 Floridians dead from COVID-19, Joe Gruters goes door-knocking. Taking group photos maskless, fistbumping volunteers building a red army in Tampa. How could any responsible leader in a COVID epicenter go door knocking while interacting in a group maskless? What could possibly motivate an elected official to risk the literal lives of citizens? Joe Gruters' entire career centers around his total and complete idealization of Trump."

"When we choose to endorse an individual versus ideals, policies, and vision, it is a dangerous slippery slope." Norman continued. "We must hold individuals and especially elected officials accountable for their actions. We cannot decide to endorse an individual that fails to live up to the standards they purport to represent. If elected officials do not live up to their promises, even within one's own party, they should be held accountable. This should be a normalized, accepted, and even promoted part of the political process. Our local leaders should be loyal to our districts, our counties, our communities. They should represent our values. This has been part of my experience in the Democratic Party as a candidate for the Florida Legislature. At the sometimes detriment of unity, the Democratic Party is inclusive, allowing for everyone to have am equal voice. This means we judge and evaluate the morals of many different perspectives which can lead to more diverse opinions within our party. I am incredibly proud of this facet of the Democratic Party. Democrats seek to be the party that strives for ideal human rights-- for one, for all. We do not strive for blind loyalty. We are the party of the people. Unfortunately, when Gruters sold out in late 2014, he decided to choose blind loyalty either because he is completely and utterly selfish, happy to exploit the political process to his financial gain, or because he is too completely ethically vacant and inept that he doesn't actually realize how devastating this administration's actions are. Either way this is a dangerous individual happy to claim to represent constituents' values while not fit to be representing the interests of constituents anywhere. How can he represent Sarasota and Charlotte County when he is forced to represent Trump?"

Jared West, also a progressive Democrat running against an entrenched Trumpist incumbent, told me that morning that "According to Rep. Sam Killebrew (HD41), he’s proud of the state budget and Florida is in a good place. But then again, he also voted against having a special session to fix unemployment, expand Medicaid, and auto enroll Floridians in vote by mail. He also spent 80+ days during this crisis ignoring his constituents and hiding in his multi-million dollar home and not speaking about or helping at all. He left paper unemployment applications outside of his locked district office-- that’s the extent of what he’s done to help during this crisis. And he won’t do anything else, because he’s so deep in bed with businesses. He’s raised over $50,000.00 and only one donation of $250.00 is from a person, but he does have over 6 donations of $1000 from Walt Disney World, and donations from predatory companies like Amscot. He doesn’t care about the people of Florida, and as his constituents lose homes and 25% (pre coronavirus) are food insecure, he hasn’t done a damn thing to fix it."

Anselm Weber is running strong for an open red-leaning district in southwest Florida. He told me that whichever of the two Republicans who will face him after their primary "has made his whole campaign about supporting the Trump agenda without any attention given to Floridians facing eviction, low wages, or who have lost health insurance. They chickened out of a League of Women Voters' forum with me, probably because they knew I would give massive pushback against their ludicrous 'plans.' They would rather us go back to work while putting the working class through massive health hazards than do basic relief measures. It is desperation mode in the sunshine state, yet the state and the GOP would rather do socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for low income residents."

Progressive Democrat Joshua Hicks is running in a northeast Florida state House district that includes all of Nassau County and part of Duval. He told me that "Earlier this year, when the coronavirus was starting to impact Florida, my opponent, Cord Byrd, had an opportunity to place people over politics. He had an opportunity to support a special Legislative Session that would have addressed the ongoing crisis going on in Florida. With so many Floridians struggling right now, especially small businesses and those who lost their jobs at no fault of their own, he had an opportunity to place the district first. He failed. My opponent voted against a special session to expand Medicaid, address Florida's broken unemployment system, and protect the right to vote during the pandemic. This was just the latest example of Cord Byrd’s failed leadership in District 11. He pays lip service to constituents, but when it comes to working on concrete solutions which provides the people immediate relief, he says no. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s about helping families who are struggling at no fault of their own. We have an economy that’s devastated. Unemployed workers and small businesses still need relief. We’re in the middle of a global health crisis and uninsured Floridians need healthcare. Sadly, my opponent only cares about what's best for him, not the people he represents. That's why I'm running to beat him this November. We need someone in Tallahassee who will place the people first and address the issues that matter most. It's time we 'cut the cord' on Cord Byrd in Northeast Florida."

Mayhem In Florida, As Trump And DeSantis Drag The Republican Party Down With Them

In their most recent polling, Change Research found that "preference for Democratic leadership on COVID-19 is clear when you see voters’ reactions to the way their governors are handling COVID-19. Republican Governors who have listened to the President on COVID-19 are underwater in the handling of the virus, while majorities approve of the way their governor is handling the outbreak in states governed by Democratic Governors." They were looking across a spectrum of half a dozen battleground states:

You will quickly notice that the two states with the most horrific COVID-collapses, Arizona (23,907 cases per million Arizonans) and Florida (21,901 cases per million Floridians), are the two with Republican governors-- Doug Ducey and Ron DeSantis, both arch-Trumpists-- and that their disapproval rankings are through the roof. The Change Research polling memo pointed out that "As the U.S. nears record hospitalizations, serious concerns about coronavirus reach 77% nationally (+4 over the past two weeks) and remain 71% in the battleground. Within the battleground, serious concerns increased a few points across the Rust Belt and decreased a few points across the Sunbelt, but serious concerns remain highest in Florida (76%)." They also make the point that the failures of GOP governance are threatening Trump's reelection and Republican election prospects down-ballot. They point to Senate races in North Carolina, Michigan and Arizona where Republicans are losing. But the now widely despised Gov. Ron DeSantis is not on the ballot this year and there are no state-wide races in Florida. Democrats running further down-ballot, however, are seeing tremendous energy building for their candidacies to flip red districts blue-- both in congressional and state legislative races.

Progressive Democrat, Adam Christensen, is running for the north-central Florida congressional district-- utterly ignored by the DCCC-- that Ted Yoho is abandoning. "Republicans," he told me yesterday, "are now spending money in places they’ve never had to worry about before. They are scared and we love to see it. They have also been forced to change their messaging. We are watching them eat their own, double down on their Trump support, and mindlessly attack members of the 'squad.' We are also watching them switch their marketing because they are losing support with women across the board, following the Ted Yoho attacks on AOC. Their typical style of politics is not working and they are flailing, trying to find anything that will stick."

This is an example of what passes for GOP campaign literature in Florida

Progressive Democrat, Katherine Norman, is taking on Republican Party chairman Joe Gruters for a pivotal state Senate seat in Sarasota and Charlotte counties. Although the Democratic Party is desperate to win back the state Senate, they are giving Gruters a free pass and ignoring Norman's inspiring grassroots. She forwarded an e-mail to me from Gruters yesterday that pointed out that "Trump’s path to victory this November runs right through Florida... but some polls show that he may be behind Joe Biden in the Sunshine State. On top of this, we’re $18,774 behind on our July fundraising goal with just 48 hours to go."

Norman, who offers a message of compassionate, transparent leadership with a focus on world-class healthcare and a scientific approach, told me that "more and more voters in traditionally red districts are reaching for competent leadership across the aisle. Republicans in Sarasota and Charlotte counties are revolting against Gruters, some leaning towards voting blue for the first time in their lives. As the mismanagement of Florida's coronavirus pandemic continues, we can expect to see increasingly positive polling for Biden in this state... I am deeply saddened for our six million Florida seniors who are locked in their homes, unable to hug or see their grandchildren, unable to fulfill the travel dreams of their retirement because of the complete mismanagement of coronavirus by Florida Republican leaders. Senator Gruters said that he expects the virus to get worse before it gets better. We should not have to accept this nonsense answer from our elected officials. Our citizens deserve leaders that respond to science and that have the basic decency to protect the most vulnerable in our population."

Joshua Hicks is running across the state from Katherine-- a Nassau and Duval House district-- held by gun-fanatic Trumpist Cord Byrd. "Voters are tired of politicians who place supporting one person over the many," he explained last night. "They are tired of people, like my NRA-backed opponent, who are more interested in supporting a twitter President, than their own constituents here at home. The more people I talk to-- Republicans, Independents, and Democrats-- the same message becomes clear: they want leaders in Tallahassee who will look out for them, their issues, and their needs. We don't need 'fake leaders' in Tallahassee who look out only for themselves and their egos. I'm working to turn Northeast Florida blue because we need leaders in the Florida Legislature who will stand up for and support the people, our values and our needs here in the district."

Headlines around Florida are looking more and more like this one from the Herald-Tribune yesterday-- DeSantis’ popularity plummets amid widely-panned coronavirus response-- where political editor Zac Anderson connected DeSantis' sinking poll numbers with how voters are judging his failures in responding to the pandemic crisis and, specifically, his ideologically-motivated and utterly boneheaded refusal to impose statewide public health mandates.

While the pandemic has boosted the reputations of many governors – both Ohio Republican Mike DeWine and Massachusetts Republican Charlie Baker have sky high approval ratings - DeSantis has been accused of standing by and doing little to halt the march of the virus in his state, allowing Florida to become a global hotspot.

As the virus has raged out of control, DeSantis has closed bars but taken few other steps to contain the virus. He repeatedly played down the explosion of new cases, at first attributing it to more testing and then arguing that the big increase in cases isn’t such a big deal because many of those infected are younger and less likely to get seriously ill.

Then, when hospitalizations and deaths also began to spike, he questioned the death numbers. When Florida began notching daily records for new deaths this week he dismissed it as a “lagging indicator” and said he is hopeful because hospitalizations and new cases appear to have stabilized, even as they remain at exceptionally high levels.

DeSantis has rejected a statewide mask mandate and refused to further rollback the reopening effort. His administration is even talking about getting bars and breweries open again, while continuing to urge schools to reopen.

...DeSantis was known as an ardent conservative before he ran for governor, and his coronavirus response mirrors the views of many GOP base voters and President Donald Trump, his political benefactor.

During his time in Congress, DeSantis was a member of the hard right Freedom Caucus who attracted attention for staunchly defending Trump on television.

Trump later endorsed DeSantis in the GOP primary for governor, which sealed his victory. He owes his political fortunes to Trump and has followed the president’s coronavirus playbook of elevating economic concerns above health risks.

But that strategy is collapsing around him, just like it has for Trump, who reversed course and began wearing a mask after deriding them and pulled the plug on holding the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, another sign that Florida’s coronavirus outbreak has reached alarming levels.

Besieged by critics who say he has taken a reckless approach to the virus that is costing lives, DeSantis has shifted his tone and has been less cavalier and more realistic about the dire situation the state is in. He hired a new communications director, which could be a sign of a new approach.

He may be tired of headlines like this one on CNN’s website: “Florida’s governor just can’t seem to get it right on coronavirus.”

“If there’s a face of the botched handling of coronavirus in the United States-- other than President Donald Trump, of course-- it’s that of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis,” wrote CNN editor-at-large Chris Cillizza.

...After ending Florida’s lockdown in May and enjoying relatively low numbers of new cases in May and early June, DeSantis took a victory lap, saying the state’s delayed lockdown was prudent. He slammed the media and public health experts, saying they pushed a false narrative that the state could be swamped with new cases that would overwhelm the health care system.

But now many Florida hospitals have significant numbers of coronavirus cases, straining their capacity. The system hasn’t been overwhelmed yet and Florida still has significantly fewer deaths than other hard-hit states such as New York, but Florida’s total virus cases recently surpassed New York’s caseload and the early predictions made by public health models look more prescient now.

...Just 41% of Florida voters approve of the governor’s job performance in Quinnipiac poll, down from 53% in April. The poll also found that 79% of Floridians believe face masks should be required in public, 62% think it’s unsafe to reopen schools and 61% believe DeSantis reopened the economy too quickly.

Just 37% of Floridians approve of how DeSantis has handled the coronavirus response, compared with 59% who disapprove.

That spells trouble for a politician who will face reelection in two years and is viewed by many as a harboring presidential ambitions. DeSantis’s reputation has taken a big blow, and it could sink further.

The next big test for the governor comes this month when schools are scheduled to reopen in many parts of the state.

Right now that looks like a daunting task rife with risks for students, teachers, parents and the broader community. If it doesn’t go well, many people may blame DeSantis.

And that was a news report! You can probably imagine what the editorials look like. In fact, you don't have to imagine; here's one from the Sun-Sentinel Friday: Help us out, Gov. DeSantis. We’re dying here. The editors are asking DeSantis to get over his ideological proclivities and finally mandate "a sensible and long-overdue statewide mask requirement... With each passing day, COVID-19 continues to careen out of control in Florida. A record 216 deaths were reported Wednesday. That broke the previous record of 191 deaths, reported just Tuesday. 'The numbers are not stabilizing,' Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry told the Sun Sentinel’s Lisa Huriash on Tuesday." [Saturday the Florida COVID death report-- for Friday-- was 256, another record, bringing the total to 6,843. Every family notification should be accompanied by an apology signed by DeSantis.]

Help her out, governor. Help us all out. Far better that you require people to wear masks in public than to continue fostering conditions that will force another shutdown.

Your refusal to impose a mask order-- a requirement now in effect in 32 other states-- is out-of-touch with the mainstream. A new Quinnipiac poll found 79 percent of Floridians support a mask requirement, including 60 percent of Republicans. If that’s not a mandate, what is?

...On Tuesday, police arrested a local Plantation gym owner who thinks a local mask ordinance violates his personal freedoms and doesn’t apply to him. So like a high schooler who sneaks out at night, he let customers huff and puff mask-free. But as Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes made clear Monday in upholding Palm Beach County’s mask ordinance: “We do not have a constitutional right to infect others.”

Some people, like the gym owner, need a governor to take away the car keys. The rest of us need you to do more to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. For almost all of us now know someone who has either gotten sick, or died. And we’re scared.

...A lot has been learned about the coronavirus over the course of these five long months, including this: When it comes to masks, asking nicely doesn’t always work.

The science is clear: Face coverings reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus and can save lives.

Issue a mask mandate, governor. If you can wear one in public, so can we all.

According to a report by a trio of Politico writers yesterday, campaign contributions are flooding into state Democratic parties, including Florida's. This is good and bad. The good part is obvious; the bad part is the state parties are, overwhelming and certainly in Florida, run by hacks with littleton no ability how to spend the money to do any good. Money would be much, much better spent sending it directly to candidates-- especially in Florida, where incompetent leaders Terrie Rizzo and Juan Peñalosa-- dictated to by narrowly-focused state elected leaders like Gary "ruled by his dick" Farmer-- are more adept at sabotaging Democratic candidates than doing them any good. In his own defense, Peñalosa, the state executive director, a failed campaign operative and lobbyist for a GOP firm, said "Every discussion I have with donors focuses on what the party, and only the party, can do-- building volunteer infrastructure, protecting the vote and doing year-round coalition building. Because, if the state party doesn’t have the resources to do that work, our candidates begin the race three feet behind the starting line."

That sounds good but the Florida Democratic Party has been completely inept at accomplishing anything, other than strengthening the Florida Republican Party. And, they are still refusing the give Florida state legislative candidates access to vote files in their districts even though their demands for payment have been met by state Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Nikki Fried. Please don't even consider contributing to the sloths at the Florida Democratic Party-- think Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her ilk of self-dealing rooks and scoundrels-- and give directly to the candidates on the front lines, like the men and women you'll find by clicking on the 2020 Florida thermometer above.

I spoke with one of Florida's most admired elected officials, who defined what many people see as exactly what's wrong with a hopelessly mismanaged and incompetent, and nearly useless, state party:

• The complete absence of anything resembling a widely shared agenda.
• Identity-politics division.
• No effort to organize resources.
• Enormous corporate power arrayed against it.

And here I thought that the enormous corporate power had purchased the state party apparatus and was using it against progressives.

Who Is The Biggest Drag On Republican Candidates In Florida-- Trump Or DeSantis?

Lambchop by Nancy Ohanian

Yesterday's Quinnipiac poll of Florida voters, released just as the U.S. crossed the 4.1 million case load, must have left White House heads exploding. Trump's overall job approval is way underwater-- 40% approve and 58% disapprove. (When it comes to his handling if the pandemic, it's even worse-- just 37% approve.) And Trump is dragging down the Florida GOP with him. They're all underwater. DeSantis' job approval is just 38%, while 57% disapprove. Rick Scott's approval is down to 41%, with 44% disapproving, similar to Marco Rubio's 40% approval/44% disapproval. Lucky for them, none of them is up for reelection in November. Democrats running against entrenched GOP incumbents in the state legislature are seeing the opportunity. I asked some of the progressive candidates in Republican-held districts in different parts of Florida.

Jared West, a candidate for state House in the northeast Polk County district held by knee-jerk Republican Sam Killebrew. "We’re fired up in district 41,' Jared told me this morning. "My opponent spent over 80 days ignoring coronavirus, the unemployment crisis, and what’s happening here that is hurting everyone so much. People see right through it. We’re tired of our community need falling on deaf ears. We’re tired of people not working for us, but for special interests instead. And I’m going to flip this district."

Katherine Norman is running for state Senate in the 23rd district, mostly Sarasota County with a slice of Charlotte. Her opponent is the notorious Joe Gruters, a wily extremist right-winger, former co-chair of the 2016 Trump campaign in Florida and now chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Norman is looking forward to the contest. "When elected officials are more interested in their own personal gain than the interest of their constituents it will always come to light eventually. This pandemic has made this clear. Gruters, DeSantis, and other Florida GOP Trumpists have brought the utterly misguided loyalty to the current administration at the expense of Florida's citizens to light. This pandemic and our government's response will be remembered Nov. 3rd. The lives we have lost will never be forgotten and we are working harder than ever for accountable leadership in their names."

Florida state House candidate Joshua Hicks, a progressive, not a garden variety Democrat, told me that people he talks with in his Republican-leaning district in northeast Florida "are exhausted by the chaos and are tired of politicians who put blind party loyalty above what’s in the community’s best interest. Independents and moderate Republicans, especially women, are abandoning President Trump in droves and those are the voters that my campaign is focused on. They care about stopping coronavirus spreading, expanding healthcare access, addressing climate change, and stopping gun violence. Instead of working on those kitchen table issues, my opponent, State Rep. Cord Byrd, has been doing everything he can to set himself up to win future Republican primaries for higher office, while placating Trump’s ego. During the height of the recent peaceful civil rights protests against systemic racism and police brutality, my opponent was holding a boat parade for Donald Trump, with supporters flying confederate and QAnon flags. To this day, he has not made a statement on George Floyd or ending systemic racism."

Joshua said that Byrd has made matters worse by being conspicuously absent all during the pandemic. "In a selfish and irresponsible move," he told me yesterday, Byrd "attended a fundraiser where a lobbyist attendee tested positive for COVID-19 and where no one was wearing masks. Then he attended an RNC Host Committee event with Vice President Pence, again not wearing a mask or social distancing. He still hasn’t made a statement about his testing or quarantine status, even though other GOP politicians from the same events have done so. In short, my opponent would rather please Donald Trump than do what’s best for his constituents. The poll numbers by Quinnipiac shouldn't be surprising-- we have a real opportunity to flip this red seat if my campaign has the resources to take advantage of collapsing approval of Donald Trump and the Republican party at large. People are fed up and this November, they'll make it known at the ballot box if we out work and out organize every politician who puts Trump before people."

Near the southern tip of the state, Bob Lynch is running to replace another right-wing power-monger, Daniel Perez, who's in line to become House Speaker in 2024-- if Perez manages to beat Lynch and if the Republican majority doesn't get swept away in the anti-Trump tsunami. Lynch is counting on beating Perez and watching the Republicans' majority dissipate. "This is not a year where we should be listening to the traditional handicapping of state legislative races," he told me today. "The catastrophic incompetence of the Trump and DeSantis’ administration has brought our state to the brink of ruin. We’ve had more Floridians die of COVID-19 than every single hurricane in the state’s history combined. Where the hell is the state House? Where is Danny Perez? Why is the state legislature not doing anything to hold these people accountable and save lives and jobs? Because all of the Republicans are complicit, especially the ones in future leadership roles. Anyone who is only looking at so called 'winnable' races based on outdated metrics is missing the big picture and an opportunity for real change in the state of Florida. And it is precisely races like mine that donors should be focusing on because the return on investment is much higher and the capital required is far lower. I will continue to hang Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis around my opponent's neck like a millstone because he is responsible for enabling their incompetence and corruption. People relying on PVI or past breakdowns are living in a different reality. The situation is really bad here and we are entirely controlled by Republicans at the state level. No excuses."

Anselm Weber is running for the Florida House as well, across the state from where Lynch is running, in Lee County, where the pandemic has been picking up virulence. Today Florida reported 12,444 new cases statewide and another 278 in Lee County, bringing the county total to 14,046-- a ghastly 13,794 still active. Weber told me that he thinks DeSantis' and the other Republicans' crashing poll numbers across the state "provide enormous opportunity for everyday Floridians to hear a new perspective. My opponents, Jason Maughan and Adam Botana, are running on the 'Trump agenda' which is short for 'let's not do anything for working people and use the working class as sacrificial lambs to get the economy up and going again.' It is truly pathetic, their 'leadership' during this time, and Floridians need to have representatives who have their back during this crisis. We need to cancel rent and home payments in the short term, and provide universal healthcare, affordable housing, unions and livable wages for the years to come for the working class."

Florida's new coronavirus cases again topped 12,000 yesterday-- bringing the total beyond 400,000 more than any country in Western Europe, including more than any of the countries with much bigger populations than Florida. Florida's population is 21.5 million.

• Germany (pop- 83.8 million)- 205,142 confirmed cases (672 yesterday)
• U.K. (pop- 67.9 million)- 297,146 confirmed cases (769 yesterday)
• France (pop- 65.3 million)- 179,398 confirmed cases (1,062 yesterday)
• Italy (pop- 60.5 million)- 245,338 confirmed cases (306 yesterday)
• Spain (pop- 46.7 million)- 317,246 confirmed cases (2,615 yesterday)

The disparities are staggering. It doesn't take much deep thinking to see that whoever is making the decisions in Florida is getting it really, really wrong.

At Bloomberg News yesterday, Jonathan Bernstein offered some ideas about what the Republicans will be up to after they lose both the White House and Senate (and more House seats). Trump gave a little preview in the tweet (above) after he tried blaming Democrats for GOP disarray and dysfunction. Cooperation will not be on the menu. "After a round of recriminations," he wrote, "the next two years are reasonably predictable: Republicans would react to unified Democratic government exactly the way they did in 1993 and 2009-- and arguably in 1977 and 1961 as well. They’d mount as much obstruction as they could in Congress, while charging the incoming administration with malfeasance. Outside of Washington, expect more Tea Party-type rallies, blaming Democrats for the high levels of unemployment they inherited and claiming their plans are socialist overreach. Expect partisans to rile up resentment the way they did in those years as well… There might be some talk about the long-term demographic challenges the party faces, but most will soon conclude that their main mistake was not being conservative enough. There will be no serious discussions within the party of the real problem: They can’t govern. The reason this is easy to predict is because, as the party sees it, the Bob Dole Republicans in 1993-1994 and the Mitch McConnell Republicans in 2009-2010 were totally successful. Compromise is a trap, in this view; the way to recover is to oppose the Democrats flat-out."

Sad that Biden is unlikely to accomplish anything to make anyone happy-- other than just fumigating the White House and the Executive Branch. And Schumer's Senate will be run by a Democratic majority but a very, very conservative one. The Democratic establishment has set the table for another 2010-like electoral donnybrook in 2022.