Favorites November 2nd 2021

Nate Cohn @Nate_Cohn

Update at nearly 1500 precincts: Youngkin is still on track for victory, running a ahead of what he needs across basically every dimension worth looking at. But it's worth noting just how close things are to 'expectations,' which is simply shifting the 2020 result to the right

Thermostatic electorate strikes again: elect a one party to the presidency, the opposing party gets a boost across the board. The implications for 2022 and beyond are not great, especially considering Trump was probably not helping the Republicans as a whole.

Dr. Rob @Rob_Tarzwell

So what did the investigators find? The brain metabolism of the 14 individuals with cognitive symptoms from #LongCOVID was indistinguishable from normal population controls. This is really fantastic news. It means that the coronavirus does not cause permanent brain damage.

Seems like good news

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

India is now a de facto U.S. ally. This is very good, and it shows that U.S. diplomacy has not been entirely asleep at the wheel.

warontherocks.comIndia Is Not Sitting on the Geopolitical Fence - War on the RocksIn early 2019, Gen. David Petraeus and S. Jaishankar, now India’s external affairs minister but then in his private capacity, appeared together on a

Also good news

Axios @axios

NEW: The FEC has ruled foreign donors can finance U.S. referendum campaigns, opening the door to foreign spending on fights over high-profile policy issues, Axios has learned.

trib.alFEC allows foreign money in U.S. referendum campaignsForeign donors can now allowing them to support ballot committees.

We already have enough problem with out-of-state funded CA referendums, out-of-country will be even worse. We really just need to get rid of CA's referendum system.

Donald Schneider @DonFSchneider

Here's the average annual cost or year 1 cost of D policy priorities. Retroactive SALT repeal comes in as 2nd most expensive annual priority behind CTC, nearly 3X what is devoted to climate change.

Jake Sherman @JakeSherman

The five year salt relief is retroactive

Retroactive SALT cap repeal is such a dumb idea. I mean, it's going to give me a bunch of money, but it'll still be dumb. I really don't think the Democratic party should move in this direction.

Kim-Mai Cutler @kimmaicutler

Honestly, a little terrified of what this means. @SFBART had one of the highest fare recovery ratios in North America prior to the pandemic. Now what?

They don't expect to reach 80% of where they were previously until the end of the decade!

urbanmountain @urbanmountainv

Fences Kill Walkability Three examples from my Mountain View apartment hunt last week

jisaacstone.comFences Kill WalkabilityRemoving fences to improve walkability

There are some good walkability opportunities by offering incentives for property owners to allow pedestrians to walk through their parking lots.

Amsterdam, 2017