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Cade Cothren, Republican Leadership and Bill Lee's Voucher Push

 — Author: Betsy Phillips — 
Glen Casada's former chief-of-staff is facing kickback charges — and it's highlighting just how messy GOP leadership is

MORE FOIA MEMOS: The Fed’s 2013 Treasury Default Memo. Just in Time for Another Round of Debt Ceiling Politics

 — Author: Nathan Tankus — Publication: Notes on the Crisis — 
MORE FOIA MEMOS: The Fed’s 2013 Treasury Default Memo.   Just in Time for Another Round of Debt Ceiling Politics

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The debt ceiling was unsuspended January 1st of this year which means the debt ceiling is back. According to now-former Treasury secretary Janet Yellen, they began using “extraordinary measures” to avoid hitting the debt ceiling as of today. As regular readers know, I’ve long commented on the absurd political economy of the debt ceiling. I’ve lodged successfully FOIAs and released multiple memos related to the topic. In fact, I’ve written so much about the debt ceiling. that I think it's worthwhile to simply provide a chronological list of all the previous pieces I’ve written in recent years. To start with, The Guardian piece is my most basic primer on the Debt Ceiling and the recurrent concerns about debt ceiling driven default. But all the pieces, especially my Politico Op Ed, are worth a look.

The Hidden Cost of America’s Infrastructure Spending Habits

 — Organisation: Strong Towns — 

Mitch McConnell’s Weak Case for American Empire

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

If you’re taking flak, you’re over the target.

The old World War II idiom certainly appears to ring true regarding President Trump’s plan to begin the much needed process of refocusing America’s foreign engagements. The subsequent tranche of articles decrying the alleged return of “American isolationism” by defenders of the crumbling American-led liberal international order should therefore not come as a surprise.

They tell us that failing to maintain a sprawling military-industrial framework of permanent alliances, defense guarantees, and logistical entanglements is akin to weakness—appeasement even—that will undermine U.S. national security.

Senator Mitch McConnell makes this exact argument in the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. The Republican senator’s lengthy article, “The Price of American Retreat,” is thorough and well-written. It articulates current challenges to U.S. hegemony on the world stage and identifies economic, political, and doctrinal elements of the U.S. force posture that are inadequate to the task of meeting those challenges.

The World Needs More E-Bikes! #ebikes

 — Publication: Not Just Bikes — 

Trump, Musk, Gaza, the Rise of Totalitarianism and the End of the US Empire

 — Author: Chris Hedges — 

Thanks for reading The Chris Hedges Report! This post is public so feel free to share it.

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Victim-in-chief

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

On this episode of After America, Allan Behm and Dr Emma Shortis discuss Trump’s inauguration, his radical agenda to reshape American life and the United States’ role in the world, and how Australia can respond.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 21 January 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Get your tickets for the Australia Institute’s Climate Integrity Summit 2025 now.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Allan Behm, Special Advisor in International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute

Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis

Show notes:

‘Trump promises a second term focused on immigration and nationalism – as well as revenge and retribution’ by Emma Shortis, The Conversation (January 2025)

01/20/2025 Market Update

 — Organisation: Applied MMT — 

Inauguration Day

 — Publication: Assigned Media — 
 

Today, Donald Trump is inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States of America. It’s important that we acknowledge and remember who Republican lawmakers and the incoming President have marked as their greatest enemy: the transgender community.

Resolve

 — Author: Heidi Li Feldman — 

It is the night before the second inauguration of Donald Trump as the President of the United States. I thought I would be agitated, but I am not. I am resolved. I feel a steely calm. I expect the coming Trump regime to be very bad, and I expect it will be worse than I can even anticipate. Yet I am as prepared for it as I can be: I fought hard as hell to avoid this, which means I have no regrets about my own role so far; I have been gathering as much reliable information as I can about what the Republican Fascists have in store for the country and the world; I have been slowly finding some organizations to follow and support because they seem to appreciate the gravity of the current moment and to be taking some concrete steps to fight back; I have been gathering my inner circle close to me and have been expanding my local activities and ties. I have also begun to figure out how to write some scholarship about legal topics without hiding or understating the precariousness of rule of law in the United States now and for the foreseeable future.

Tonight, I found myself remembering the hard times and serious challenges I have overcome in my own life, personal, professional, and political. This reminds me of my own values and the strength and courage I have to draw upon. I have also been thinking about those who have endured and struggled against dark political and social circumstances in the United States and elsewhere, historically and today. I am thankful for their examples and for a feeling of camaraderie and solidarity with them, across time and space.

Democracy Forward and CREW sue to stop DOGE

 — Author: Heidi Li Feldman — 


At 12:01 pm today, Democracy Forward and CREW filed a lawsuit, seeking a halt to DOGE unless and until it comes into compliance with law regulating “federal advisory committees.” Here’s the complaint. Democracy Forward spearheads legal actions for a consortium of pro-democracy groups, several of whom are named plaintiffs along with CREW. The suit shows the value of sophisticated pro-democracy legal actions, though of course with the federal judiciary and Supreme Court riddled with Trump minions, we can’t know if rule of law will hold.

At the heart of the complaint is the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), a 1972 law Congress passed to curb Executive Branch use of secretive and unnecessary “advisory committees.” Congress wanted to make sure that industry and special interests couldn’t unduly make or influence executive policy and operations. FACA imposes procedural and substantive requirements to ensure advisory committees are kept to a minimum; have a balanced membership reflecting all those likely to be affected by any agency working with a committee; and have defined and public objectives, budgets, and operations. By law, advisory committees must provide for public input and make their own records publicly available.

The U.N. Does Not Serve American Interests

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

One of the most critical questions of our time is whether the Westphalian system in which sovereign nation states remain the primary form of societal and political organization or if it will be replaced by some form of global government. The U.N. was formed to establish the latter, and unsurprisingly, it has devolved into a trade association for corrupt Third World governments. The time has come for the United States to reassert its status as a sovereign and independent nation and consider withdrawing from the U.N.

Essentially an attempt to revive the failed League of Nations under a new name, the U.N. was founded in June 1945 to prevent war by establishing a deliberative body which could resolve disputes in a peaceful manner. This was based on the belief that it was both feasible and desirable to establish a system where individual nations would depend on multilateral organizations instead of protecting their own national interests.

The adoption of the U.N. Charter was followed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which breathlessly declares it to be “a milestone document in the history of human rights.” It lays out “a common standard of achievements for all people and all nations,” including a list of “fundamental human rights to be universally protected.” Whoever wrote this platitudinous drivel was apparently unaware of Magna Carta or the U.S. Constitution.

“Much-needed” super changes should pass 

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

The changes would double the tax on super balances of $3m and over, from 15% to 30%.

The vast majority of Australians can only dream of retiring with a super balance of $3 million. Most people end their working lives with just a fraction of that.

While the superannuation system has enabled the likes of farmers and small business owners to place assets such as farms and properties into their super, the number of those who do that is small and most – if not all – do so as a way of reducing the amount of tax they pay.

This is not what the superannuation system was designed to do.

In the most recent financial year, the Treasury Department estimated the concessions of superannuation earnings and contributions cost the government $51.7bn in foregone revenue. This compares to the cost of the Age Pension of $58.9b.

The sad phenomenon of Australia’s unfunded excellence

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

If these companies were adequately taxed, federal and state governments would have more money to spend on healthcare, education, infrastructure and more money to spend on the arts.

When a local author publishes a book, they sign an agreement with a company for their work to be edited, designed and published, then sold to readers.

For each book sold, the author is entitled to a royalty or a share of the total revenue the publisher received for selling the book.

If they’re lucky, the rights will sell internationally, and the book will be available around the world. In each territory, on each sale, the author will receive a small cut.

When Australia allows fossil fuel companies to extract resources without paying royalties or even any tax, it would be like local authors giving their finished manuscripts to companies such as Penguin Random House or Allen & Unwin and not expecting to see any money from the sales of books sold locally.

It would be like those companies, who profited off local book sales not paying any tax.

Aside from failing to collect adequate tax, Australia also offers generous subsidies – including over $14 billion in fossil fuel subsidies across state and territory governments in 2023.

Meanwhile, Australia provides a fraction of the funding which organisations and individuals need to make art.

How Disruptive Climate Campaigners use Mainstream Media

 — Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — 

Introduction

How should direct action campaigners use mainstream media? Here are 2 case studies from Australia – Blockade Australia and Disrupt Burrup Hub. This article is part one of two on the role of media in the strategies of Australian direct action climate groups. Read Part 2 – How Disruptive Climate Campaigners use Social Media.

If no one reports on your blockade of fossil fuel infrastructure, was your disruption effective?

The grassroots of the climate movement often deploy nonviolent direct action as a tactic. Activists target fossil fuel companies and projects in order to reduce emissions and cause cost and delay for big polluters. But it’s not just about material disruption. Most of the time, direct action practitioners are also trying to spread a message. For that, they rely on traditional media, including newspapers, radio, television, and online news websites.

Activists often use the amount and sentiment of media coverage they receive as key metrics of an action’s success –

How Disruptive Climate Campaigners use Social Media

 — Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — 

Introduction

How can direct action campaigners use social media? Here are 2 case studies from Australia – Blockade Australia and Disrupt Burrup Hub.  This article is the second installment in a two-part series focussing on the role of media in the strategies of Australian direct action climate groups. Read part one on traditional media here.

In the 21st century, social media has been utilised for political ends by a diverse range of actors. For example, progressive activists used Twitter to organise and network during the Arab Spring uprisings and Occupy protests of the early 2010s.

More than a decade later, tech billionaire Elon Musk bought the same platform and renamed it as X. He transformed it into a key component of a right-wing online media ecosystem that was a key contributor to Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection. Clearly, social media platforms can be both powerful and volatile.

TWIBS: Nancy Mace Wants to Fight Jasmine Crockett

 — Publication: Assigned Media — 
 

At a House Oversight Committee meeting, Nancy Mace willfully misinterpreted the words of Representative Jasmine Crockett and then… ask her to step outside? If a handshake nearly took her out, I’d hate to see what an actual fight would do to her!

The Case Against Birthright Citizenship

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

Before the Coronavirus pandemic gripped the American consciousness in early 2020, America was seized by a pandemic of another kind: a hysteria among the nation’s elites over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. The frenzy generated by the progressive-liberal press, Hollywood radicals, progressive politicians (both Democrat and Republican), the minions of the Deep State, academics, and law professors was unprecedented.

It was driven, for the most part, by the Trump Administration’s attempts to curtail illegal immigration by the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy for illegal border crossers; significant restrictions on asylum policies; the use of the National Emergencies Act to shift funds allocated for other purposes to build a border war; the use of the “remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers while their claims are evaluated; and the end of the long-standing “catch and release” policy.

But nothing engendered as much hysteria as the president’s bare suggestion that, in 2018—the year of the sesquicentennial of the adoption of the 14th Amendment—the policy of granting automatic birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens born in the United States should be ended.

Discount Window Stigma After the Global Financial Crisis

 — Organisation: Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Publication: Liberty Street Economics — 

Understanding Rising Treasury Yields: Debunking the Macro Bear Narratives

 — Organisation: Applied MMT — 
Understanding Rising Treasury Yields: Debunking the Macro Bear Narratives

Treasury yields have been climbing steadily, particularly on the long end of the curve, sparking renewed chatter from macro bears who see this as the harbinger of an impending crisis. If you’ve followed my content for a while, you won’t be surprised when I say: this isn’t the disaster they’re hoping for. Let’s break down why yields are rising, debunk some common macro bear arguments, and explore the dynamics behind this shift.

Why Are Yields Rising?

At its core, rising yields boil down to one thing: investor expectations. Specifically, expectations for future growth and inflation are now higher than they were just months ago. As markets anticipate stronger economic performance, this is being priced into the long end of the yield curve.

But there’s more to it than just investor sentiment. Understanding this phenomenon requires addressing two pervasive myths propagated by those forecasting doom: the “debt crisis” narrative and the “lack of demand for treasuries” argument.

Debunking the Debt Crisis Myth

One popular theory among macro bears is that the U.S. is on the brink of a debt crisis, fueled by the notion that our national debt is unsustainable. This view ignores some fundamental principles of monetary and fiscal policy in the United States.

Australian leaders urge President Biden to pardon Julian Assange

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

Mr. Assange was released from custody in June following a 14-year legal battle which only ended when he was forced to plead guilty to a charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified documents.

The signatories to the letter say Mr. Assange’s conviction should be set aside, and he should be granted a Presidential pardon, a power often exercised by US Presidents in their final days in office.

“Mr. Assange’s recent conviction under the United States Espionage Act sets a deeply troubling precedent for press freedom globally,” the letter states, adding that the deal which forced him to plead guilty in exchange for his freedom sets a “dangerous precedent (and) endangers journalists worldwide, whilst simultaneously undermining both Australia and the United States’ longstanding commitment to press freedom and democratic accountability.”

The signatories include independent MPs Zoe Daniel, Helen Haines, Monique Ryan, David Pocock, Kylea Tink and Andrew Wilkie, as well as senior members of the Human Rights Law Centre, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and The Australia Institute.

Last year, the Biden administration brought the pursuit of Julian Assange to an end. But his prosecution still sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom globally,” said Dr Emma Shortis, Director of the International & Security Affairs Program at The Australia Institute and a signatory to the open letter to President Biden.

Riley Black on Dinosaurs and Queerness

 — Publication: Assigned Media — 
 

Assigned media interviews author and paleontologist Riley Black.

The American Mind Podcast: The Roundtable Episode #250

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

Big Tech Turns Red | The Roundtable Ep. 250

The Ceasefire Charade

 — Author: Chris Hedges — 

The Great Dumbing Down of American Education

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

America’s universities may be a disgrace, but the deeper problems with our education system lie with grades K-12. Higher education still ranks as a U.S. strength that other countries might admire—but our grade schools might even be inadequate for poor, developing countries.

The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as The Nation’s Report Card, found that barely a quarter or less of students are proficient in reading, and even less are proficient in math, geography, and U.S. history. U.S. 4th and 8th graders are performing worse not only compared to East Asian countries, but also to such places as Poland, the U.K., South Africa, Turkey, and Sweden, all of which have boosted their scores.

Some of this can be blamed on the pandemic, but not all of it can. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between pre-pandemic 2019 and 2023, the average score for 4th graders on standardized math tests dropped by 18 points, while scores for 8th graders declined by 27 points. Overall, some 40% of all U.S. public school students fail to meet standards in either math or english, up 8% from pre-pandemic levels.

Anti-COVID groups distribute masks and air purifiers faster than LA government amidst fires

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

On Monday, January 13, Mayor Karen Bass tweeted that hundreds of thousands of N95 masks would be made available across the city of LA at libraries, senior centers, and recreation centers. The tweet came nearly a full week after the fires began to consume entire neighborhoods on January 7, and six months after Mayor Bass herself proposed a mask ban for protestors during this summer’s sustained COVID surge. (She went on to catch the virus herself mere days later.)

As local Long COVID activist Angela Vázquez put it, “government has finally entered the chat”.

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

How Brazilian cities are nurturing transformative capabilities

 — Organisation: UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) — 
Source: Natalia Blauth on Unsplash

By Anna Goulden

Structural autonomy, political support, and a balance of skills have been key for cultivating the transformative capabilities required to solve public policy problems in Brazilian city governments. This blog explores lessons learned from our research with three city governments in Brazil and what other governments looking to strengthen their capabilities can learn.

São Paulo City Hall, Recife City Hall and Niterói City Hall were studied to help identify how Brazilian city governments conceptualise and deploy their transformative capabilities. The research forms part of developing the Public Sector Capabilities Index which aims to create a first-of-its-kind global tool for measuring and developing city government capabilities.

The Election at the End of the World

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

As natural disasters grow more and more frequent, causing devastating destruction, and making cost-of-living more expensive, the two major parties in Australia seem happy to be talking about the nuclear nothing-burger, while sweeping coal mine extensions under the rug. This week on Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss what the next election might look like in the face of climate change.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 16 January 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @grogsgamut

Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek

Show notes:

‘Australians should be angry about another year of climate inaction. But don’t let your anger turn into despair’ by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (December 2024)

Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions

First Nations and Multicultural Voices from the Climate Movement

 — Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — 

Introduction

This research is grounded in the principles of justice and equity, values that resonate globally. I acknowledge and honour the activists and changemakers in Palestine, Syria and West Papua who, even amidst overwhelming adversity, continue to fight for freedom and equity—an enduring reminder of the power of collective action and unity.

Globally, climate change disproportionately impacts marginalised communities due to systemic, economic, geographic, and social barriers. Their voices, however, continue to be underrepresented in decision-making processes and policy. 

First Nations and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities in Australia bring invaluable knowledge, lived experiences, and place based strategies to the forefront of climate action. However, systemic barriers, including funding constraints, lack of representation, discrimination, and rigid Western understandings of ‘climate’, hinder their full participation and leadership in climate action spaces and organisations.

Based primarily on interviews, conversations, and other research, this resource examines the work and stories of incredible First Nations and CALD climate leaders in Australia. Four of their stories can be accessed below.

2024: Year in Review

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

Hello all,

And thank you so much for being a part of The Gauntlet.

A year ago today, I’d never have imagined being where I am now. I was working a full-time job, freshly “recovering” from my first COVID infection, writing The Gauntlet on the side. Unfortunately, like millions of other people around the world, I would never fully recover from that infection. I would never fully return to full-time work.

Like rain on your wedding day and the no smoking sign on your cigarette break, I was the Long COVID reporter who developed Long COVID. Both entirely expected and unexpected. Both as prepared as one could be and as unprepared as one always is.

As weeks passed, I poured the little energy I had, and all my good hours on all my good days, into writing about the COVID crisis. It had already been my passion; now it was my life. And as I wrote more consistently, this community surprised and supported me. My paid subscriber number consistently rose. I began to hope that reporting could be more than a side-project done in off-hours, but could, in fact, be my job.

This year, thanks to you all, my dream has started to become a reality.

Some of my (and your) favorite stories this year:

Biden's USDA Let H5N1 Spread. Now Bird Flu is a Loaded Gun in Trump's Hands

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

H5N1 need not be circulating in dairy cows. It could and should have been eliminated months ago. It still might be with aggressive action.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration hasn’t made any serious attempt to halt the virus, nor does it look likely to take the kind of bold action needed now. But that will hardly surprise anyone who has paid attention to the unprecedented illness normalization and public health vilification that has occurred since 2020.

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Outbreaks of H5N1 in agricultural animals are concerning; however, they’re also something governments across the globe have been successfully handling with aggressive elimination tactics for decades.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

Before I ever contracted SARS-COV-2, I had already learned all I could about COVID and Long COVID. I spent my days scouring the internet for new research papers, googling scientific words I didn’t know, and listening to the stories of patients who’d been sick for a year, then two years, then three. I launched this site in late 2022, a year before my fir…

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CDC infection control body rejects the science on airborne transmission

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

For many disabled and immunocompromised people, hospital settings are a significant threat to health and safety. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nosocomial- or healthcare acquired- SARS-COV-2 infections have been an additional risk for sick and vulnerable people seeking care. As of today, there have still been no updates to national-level guidance to reflect that SARS-COV-2 was determined to be airborne in 2021.

In 2020, such a risk was to be expected; hospitals were overwhelmed with patients, PPE was in short supply, proper isolation wasn’t always possible, and public health guidance about transmission was confusing and, it turns out, incorrect. Early on, the WHO confidently and wrongly asserted that COVID was not airborne; this decision led national health bodies to advise against full airborne precautions in healthcare.

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Post election rundown w/ Walker Bragman

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

A couple weeks back, Walker and I worked together on an election post-mortem that focused on Biden’s decision to dismantle COVID protections and social programs while ignoring its ongoing toll. You can read it here. Today, we discussed this article and more, as we face down the incoming Trump administration’s anti-science cabinet picks.

Brunch, Interrupted

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

This week, The Guardian reported that the 1.5 degree climate target agreed upon at the 2015 Paris talks is now “deader than a doornail.”

This will come as little surprise to the public, which has watched as loathsome politician after grinning salesman after equivocating lawyer has steered us ever closer to catastrophe as years and promises fade.

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, please become a free or paid subscriber!

Decades ago, upwardly mobile people in the West were living in a happy delusion. As the Greed-is-good 80s gave way to the Dotcom 90s, the ruling class sold their vision of the future: a rising tide lifts all boats. More money for me means more money for all. Let’s all get rich and happy.

How COVID Helped Trump Win

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

This piece was written in partnership with The OptOut Media Foundation, which publishes the Important Context newsletter

On Wednesday morning, November 6, many Democrats woke up to a country they felt they barely knew. Donald Trump, a man they reviled, was once again the president-elect of the United States, having triumphed over Vice President Kamala Harris.

Observers had expected the election to come down to the wire, drawn out over days before a winner could be determined. But that did not happen. The final tally was 312 electoral votes for Trump to just 226 for Harris. The Republican had even won the popular vote by millions and his party recaptured the Senate, won most of the governorships, and also held the House of Representatives. 

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Pretending to be Well

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

In December 2023, I went to the Emergency Room for the first time since the pandemic began. I went reluctantly, because I knew there would be no airborne infection control. For years, I’d been an advocate working on COVID and Long COVID issues, and I knew all the ins and outs of the political battles to avoid acknowledging airborne transmission. I knew that, although the WHO had finally, belatedly, admitted that COVID hung in the air for hours and transmitted like smoke, this fact was not reflected by infection control guidance anywhere.

Like most COVID-aware people, I knew the ER was the most dangerous place for a person avoiding COVID; packed to the gills with infectious people, staffed by medics with incorrect ideas about transmission, and the one place you were most likely to fall unconscious or be unmasked against your will. Occasionally, a medically vulnerable person was even put on a psych hold for trying to avoid infection.

But like many COVID-aware people who are also disabled or suffering from Long COVID (a large percentage of them), I was now finding avoiding medical care impossible.

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Solid Ground

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

A few years ago, I learned that a person who is drowning doesn’t appear to be drowning. A drowning child generally won’t flail wildly and scream for help; instead, you’ve got to look for the silent kid. All the remaining energy of a drowning person is being used to keep themselves above water, until nothing remains.

When I’m having my better days, I’m able to write. Not just here on Substack, but on twitter, on Instagram, on every fresh newborn Bluesky and ancient moldering Facebook. Occasionally, reluctantly, I make a TikTok video, although I dislike being on camera. When I’m working on a reported piece for The Gauntlet, I’ll have dozens of tabs open- studies, articles, commentary from researchers, my twitter bookmarks (chock-full of more studies, articles, commentary from researchers). In my way, in all the ways I know how, I’m trying to get some help.

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

New NIAID Director Scared of Masks

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

This week, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Jeanne Marrazzo, sat down with Stat News to discuss succeeding Anthony Fauci amid public concerns over ongoing H5N1 and mpox outbreaks.

The conversation yielded a staggering admission from Dr. Marrazzo as she downplayed risks of a bird flu pandemic:

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Fear Itself

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

There’s a feeling when you leave a movie theater, especially in the middle of the day, especially if the movie was particularly dark, strange, or frightening. You emerge from pitch blackness into sunlight, blinking, half-dazed and confused, your mind lingering in the eerie places you’ve just visited.

If a film is especially compelling, you might feel suspended between realities a bit longer. In the grocery store an hour later, watching people pick apples from among apples, you may feel like you’ve returned from Another Place, that you are not so much Of this world, but merely Watching it.

I haven’t been in a movie theater since 2019, but I have that same feeling quite often nowadays. The horror movie I can’t dislodge from my mind is the pandemic; the limbo between theater and reality is this strange interlude we call “Back to Normal”.

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The Gauntlet x Important Context

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

Hello!

This week, Substack introduced a new feature, live video.

As a little experiment, Walker Bragman and I tried it out with a wide-ranging, informal chat about our reporting. (My cat Beatrice was also a guest star, and repeatedly attempted to destroy the camera).

We’re hoping to do more of these in the future, depending on whether it’s something our audiences enjoy.

If you find this conversation fun/useful/something you’d like to see us do again, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to The Gauntlet here:

Subscribe now

You can also check out Important Context here, and subscribe at this link.

As always, thanks so much for your support as we work to increase the reach of our research and writing.

All the best, and happy weekend,

Julia

People can't make "risk assessments" without knowing the risks

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

Last week, Jason Gale of Bloomberg put out an excellent piece about post-COVID brain damage, titled “What We Know About Covid’s Impact on Your Brain.”

The piece is broad and draws on dozens of studies to paint a concerning picture of Your Brain on COVID. It’s not the first piece to do so in the mainstream press, but it’s one of a small handful over nearly half a decade. Gale’s piece gathers evidence pointing to increased risks of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, cognitive impairment, worsening of previous psychiatric conditions, and significant drops in IQ.

The piece goes on to mention viral persistence, immune system disruption and blood clots as linked to the cognitive impacts of COVID- all three are key targets of ongoing research into Long COVID. It’s a wonderful summary to help people get a picture of the enormous amount of research pointing to brain damage following COVID.

It also begs the question: why is the public learning potentially life-altering information about a virus they’ve almost certainly contracted multiple times now from the economics section of Bloomberg? (Or from The Gauntlet, for that matter?)

What would an adequate COVID response look like?

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

The problem is stark: we have unmitigated transmission of a deadly and disabling virus, in all public spaces, with zero plan to bring it under control.

We’re seeing millions of infections in each wave, and multiple waves a year; an unsustainable health burden on an already strained healthcare system.

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The tyranny of "normal"

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

As our governments and media pushed us back into virus-laden offices and schools, they did so under the banner of “back to normal.”

“Normally”, in the US, people do not automatically receive paid sick leave.

“Normally,” in the US, people are not entitled to work from home, no matter if their job can be done remotely.

“Normally,” in the US, vaccines, medications, healthcare of any sort; none of it is provided by the government for free.

And “normally,” people do not look out for one another, protect the vulnerable by participating in collective measures, or work together to improve social outcomes by perceiving themselves as part of a larger whole.

All of the early pandemic-era measures were emergency measures; stop gaps to keep the healthcare system from collapsing entirely. But once the state had what it wanted- enough breathing room for its institutions to remain functional, if barely- it scrambled to snatch away what it had distributed, both materially and philosophically.

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