Monday, September 21, 2020

9-21: “You can’t argue with them, you can’t talk sense into them”; Trump loses ground with white voters

—Inside Higher Ed 
     Marshall University has placed a professor on administrative leave after a video circulated on social media of her making inflammatory comments about supporters of President Donald Trump. The video showed biology professor Jennifer Mosher in a virtual class session discussing a recent indoor Trump campaign rally where few attendees were wearing masks, The Herald-Dispatch reported. “I’ve become the type of person where I hope they all get it and die,” she says in the video. “You can’t argue with them, you can’t talk sense into them.” 
     The university responded with a statement Friday. 
     “The university does not support or condone the use of any of its educational platforms to belittle people or wish harm on those who hold differing political views,” it said. “The professor was removed from the classroom yesterday and is on administrative leave, pending an investigation.”

When it comes to race relations, the left and the right are miles apart -- We know there’s a difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to views on race relations, but just how far apart they really are is eye-opening According to a survey from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, racial inequality is a top three issue for Democratic voters. But it does not even crack the top 10 for Republicans. Eugene Scott in the Washington Post$ -- 9/21/20 

What California’s COVID approach could teach the country if Joe Biden wins -- Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom share the same basic COVID-19 philosophy: The government must focus on fighting the virus before the economy can recover. Sophia Bollag and Lara Korte in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/20/20 

UC San Diego trying to avoid the coronavirus chaos that has upended SDSU -- San Diego State University is reeling from a calamitous outbreak of COVID-19. Is the same thing about to happen at UC San Diego? The answer will begin to emerge this weekend as 7,500 undergraduates start to move into meticulously cleaned dorms on the sprawling La Jolla campus for the start of the fall quarter. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/20/20 

With resistance to face masks and scorn for science, President Trump and many of his supporters are pushing a alternate reality before the election 
—NYT 
     This mix of denial and defiance runs contrary to the overwhelming evidence about the spread and toll of the virus, and it is at the center of Mr. Trump’s re-election effort as early voting begins in Minnesota, Virginia and other states. It is an outlook shared among his most loyal supporters and pushed by many of his allies in the political and news media establishment. 

—NYT 

—WashPo 
     Nurses and doctors depend on respirator masks to protect them from covid-19. So why are we still running low on an item that once cost around $1? 


—WashPo 
     “There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants, or in fitness classes),” the agency says. “In general, indoor environments without good ventilation increase this risk.” 

—Politico 
     The CDC is now warning that the coronavirus spreads most commonly through the air and is more contagious than the agency had previously suggested. 
     The new advice, which the CDC released quietly on Friday, comes as the country prepares for flu season and cooler fall and winter weather that will likely drive many people to spend more time indoors. 
The danger arises when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks or breathes, emitting droplets and particles that can travel farther than 6 feet and are especially dangerous in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation, the agency says. 
     The CDC now specifically cautions that choir practice, restaurants and fitness classes or any indoor environments without good ventilation increase a person's risk of catching the virus…. 

The president is running well behind his 2016 pace with the demographic that sent him to the White House. 
—Politico 
     In Minnesota, where the contest between Trump and Joe Biden had seemed to tighten in recent weeks — and where both candidates stumped on Friday — a CBS News/YouGov survey last week had Trump running 2 percentage points behind Biden with white voters, after carrying them by 7 points in 2016. Even among white voters without college degrees — Trump’s base — the president was far short of the margin he put up against Hillary Clinton there. 
     It’s the same story in Wisconsin, where Trump won non-college educated white women by 16 percentage points four years ago but is now losing them by 9 percentage points, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll. In Pennsylvania, Biden has now pulled even with Trump among white voters, according to an NBC News/Marist Poll. 


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