Favorites December 16th 2021

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

These reports paint Xi Jinping as a mercurial, arrogant micromanager -- the kind of leader who is good at scaring everyone into saying he's a great leader, but who is bad at actually managing an organization.

Fergus Hunter @fergushunter

Rare insights here into the inner workings of the Chinese government under Xi Jinping. "No one dares to say anything, even if the instructions from the great leader are vague and confusing about what to do,” one official told @joshchin. Fascinating read. https://t.co/dM9THQeO4e

Apparently the reporting is that Xi is personally responsible for China continuing with the COVID-Zero strategy.

Adam Gurri @adamgurri

Exactly right @mattyglesias slowboring.com/p/omicron-upda…

While COVID-Zero isn't possible, it's also not a good idea to pretend like we can't do anything. We need to continue with our most effective interventions (and abandon the ones that don't make sense anymore). There is also recent discussion about using hospitalization counts instead of case counts to judge current severity in a region.

Maggie Haberman @maggieNYT

It is stunning how late in the pandemic this is happening >

City of New York @nycgov

BREAKING: @NYCMayor announces New York City will distribute free at-home #COVID19 tests, KN95 masks and more. Tune in: https://t.co/c8hM1lvCwo

This is also good policy, I can't believe California with it's massive budget surplus last year didn't do this.

Colin McMillen @mcmillen

Just found out that on December 1st, the US finally got an officially confirmed ambassador to Canada — a position which was vacant from January–October 2017 and August 2019–November 2021.

Well, at least it's not like our relationship with Canada is super important /s

Lakshya Jain @lxeagle17

For all the good this trifecta has done, the failure to act on Puerto Rico statehood because of “imperialism” concerns among the left will be one of the biggest missed opportunities in a generation. If they pass this up now, they won’t get it for at least another 5-10 years. https://t.co/jcLaqATBFE

Matthew Klein @MattKleinOnline

In our highly polarized Congress, Puerto Rican statehood is a rare issue with real bipartisan support. This is a map of House members who have cosponsored H.R. 1522 to admit it as a state. Admitting PR is good for our democracy and theirs. Baffling that Dems haven't acted on it. https://t.co/o1fHtvWcTN

I really don't understand the argument against making Puerto Rico a state as some sort of kindness to the residents of the territory, they have to political power right now, generally speaking that’s bad for them.