Don’t
make a vaccine mandatory
The surest way to create fear and resistance to a coronavirus
vaccine is to make getting it mandatory. That’s what Virginia Commissioner of
Health Dr. Norman Oliver said he plans to do, if and when a vaccine becomes available,
under state law that can be invoked in a public health crisis. I personally
believe the Food and Drug Administration and other authorities will not approve
a vaccine before it is carefully tested for effectiveness and possible side
effects. Still, it’s not surprising that people would be at least a little wary
about a new vaccine that will be the fastest-developed one in human history. These skeptics will be not reassured if
they’re told that a giant pharmaceutical company says it’s safe and government
bureaucrats demand they line up for a shot. It would be far wiser and more
effective to engage in a campaign of public persuasion and let those eager to
be vaccinated go first. Their experience and testimonials will be powerful
endorsements during the many months in which the country is producing enough
vaccine doses to immunize anyone who wants one. So why coerce people? We’ve got
enough public paranoia out there already.
--Jim Geraghty, nationalreview.com
What a Biden
economy would look like
*****If you’re wondering what a Biden presidency would
mean for the economy, look to Biden’s last financial crisis. In 2009, as vice
president, Biden approached the crisis from a middle-class, Rust Belt
viewpoint, aggressively pushing for an auto bailout while championing tighter
restrictions on banks and arguing against Wall Street in key debates. While
today’s situation is obviously different from the Great Recession, Biden sees
“common threads” that could help him pursue an agenda focused on addressing
income inequality and promoting public works. His top priority is a massive
$3.5 trillion infrastructure, manufacturing and clean-energy program that
appears likely to grow substantially if he is elected. He plans to pay for the
program by raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and
increasing taxes on wealthy real-estate investors. In the wake of the pandemic,
Biden has edged away from the moderate economic approach he advocated last
year, but he is still not likely to embrace punitive demands from the Left.
--Jeffrey
Taylor, Bloomberg.com
*****There is nothing moderate about Biden’s tax plan. For taxpayers with income above $1 million,
Biden wants to tax capital gains as ordinary income. Combined with an
upper-income tax increase, that would make top capital gains tax surge from the
current 20 percent to 43 percent, exceeding the rate in every one of the 10
largest economies. We are not going to compete with China by adopting tax
policies that discourage those who are best able to invest, take risks, and
start companies.
--Mark
Bloomfield and Oscar Pollock, Wall Street Journal
*****Certain industries are sure to be in Biden’s
crosshairs. Trump’s fight to lower drug prices will likely be carried on, meaning
potential headwinds for Big Pharma. And energy and environment-sensitive
industries such as oil and gas production could underperform under a Democratic
administration. But the naming of Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential
nominee might actually be good for Big Tech because of her
ties to Silicon Valley.
--Anne
Sraders, Fortune.com
*****For the first time in a decade, Wall Street donors
are actually giving more to Democrats than to Republicans. Trump still has friends in finance, but many
investors have soured on his management style, which makes it hard for them to
make long-term plans.
--Jim
Zarroli, NPR.org
Deliberately accelerating climate
change
Trump administration officials know
they may only have a few months left in office so they’re doubling the pace of
their efforts to despoil the environment and accelerate climate change. Interior
Secretary David Bernhardt [has] announced he will open the pristine wilderness
of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling—a goal long
sought by the oil industry. The week before, the administration removed
regulations on oil and gas companies’ leaks of methane—a very potent greenhouse
gas—at drilling sites. These pro–carbon emissions policies come at a time when
Earth’s climate is getting undeniably hotter, with soaring temperatures setting
new records from Phoenix to Washington, D.C.
So why promote more emissions now?
The lobbyists, grifters, and far-right ideologues who fill this
administration’s top jobs are acutely aware they may be returning to oil
companies and private industry come January, and are trying to do everything
possible to advance their interests. If Trump loses, the 10 weeks between the
election and the inauguration will probably bring a long list of horrors on the
environment, as well as on immigration and health care. Reversing the damage
done in this dark period may take a long time.
--Paul
Waldman, Washington Post
QAnon: Now in the GOP mainstream
With
racist conspiracy monger Marjorie Taylor Greene headed to Congress, Republicans
are becoming the QAnon party, Greene won a House primary race last week in a
deep-red Georgia district—making her a general election shoo-in—despite being
an avowed follower of QAnon, an online “cult” that believes President Trump
leads a secret effort to expose and imprison a network of “deep state” child
sex traffickers. She’s spoken of a “global cabal of Satan-worshiping
pedophiles” and calls Q, a supposed U.S. intelligence official who posts
anonymous clues on far-right message boards, a “patriot.” More than 50
congressional candidates promoted QAnon this year, including Jo Rae Perkins,
Oregon’s GOP Senate nominee. After Greene’s victory, Trump called her “a future
Republican star” and “a real WINNER!”
--Max Boot, WashingtonPost.com
*****Most
political parties have an outlandish fringe that marinates in paranoia. The
spread of QAnon, however, “shows that the Trump-era GOP has weakened antibodies
against kookery.” Q appeals to Trump supporters in particular because it
promotes “a radical distrust of traditional sources of information.” Trump and
his sons retweet QAnon accounts, and his former national security adviser
Michael Flynn is a pledged member.
--Rich Lowry, Politico.com
*****Greene’s
nuttiness goes beyond Q. She’s an Islamophobe who insists Barack Obama is a
Muslim; traffics in anti-Semitic tropes; and claims no plane crashed into the
Pentagon on 9/11. “Ultimately, Trump avoids disavowing QAnon fanatics” for the
same reason liberals tolerate the anarchists attacking Portland and other
cities: “They want the votes.”
--Jeremy Beaman,
WashingtonExaminer.com
“The Mystery of
Charles Dickens”
*****Charles Dickens was a knot of contradictions. In A.N. Wilson’s new book, a “sprightly work
of reinterpretation,” the great 19th-century novelist comes across as a man
who, cramming multiple lifetimes into one, continually maneuvered between
different identities. He co-founded a women’s charity but was monstrous to his
wife. He never forgave his mother for forcing him into child labor but hid that
personal history from his own children. Wilson, a prolific author himself,
paints Dickens as a cruel, oversexed egotist but focuses on that dark side with
the ardor of a fan. His aim is an examination of the mysteries of Dickens’
character, and the fundamental mystery for Wilson is how a man he finds
atrocious could have spoken to him so deeply.”
--Jeremy Beaman,
WashingtonExaminer.com
*****As
Wilson analyzes Dickens, he leads the reader by the hand, like one of the
ghosts in “A Christmas Carol,” to visit various moments in the writer’s
life. We see Dickens first on his dying day, which allows Wilson to build a
circumstantial case that the 58-year-old’s heart failed during sex with his
mistress before he was secretly transported home. We will also see him at 12,
working in a shoe-polish factory while his parents are in debtor’s prison. We
see him onstage at the height of his fame, ecstatically acting out the scene
from Oliver Twist´when the burglar Bill Sikes beats a prostitute to death.
Wilson invokes the term “a divided self” to explain Dickens, but the diagnosis
is only partly satisfying.
--Cordelia Jenkins, Financial
TimesIIi
*****It’s
the way the case is made that enthralls. In the final chapter, Wilson reveals
that he first latched onto Dickens’ novels as a student regularly beaten by a
sadistic boarding school headmaster who was aroused by the violence. Dickens
wrote about such worlds, which made Wilson’s endurable. Because he has brought
passion and a restless curiosity to this project, it often reads as more than a
Dickens portrait; it reads often more like something written by Dickens.
--Robert Douglas-Fairhurst,
Spectator (U.K.)
