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WIDE WORLD OF NEWS DAYBOOK
* Electors across the nation meet to pick the president and vice president.
* 8pm ET: Joe Biden addresses the nation from Delaware.
* Always: Donald Trump doesn’t concede (tentative-ish).
* Throughout the day: The hope, challenges, and pomp of vaccine distribution continue.
* Off and on: Congressional negotiators send signals that are 2 parts encouraging and 7 parts discouraging about budget and pandemic relief talks, as the Gang of Romney-Manchin introduces its new/final-like twin proposals in the afternoon and the ball goes to Mitch McConnell’s court.
* At some point: Nancy Pelosi and Steve Mnuchin have a conversation to compare notes and seek common ground (scheduled).
HOW DOES IT ALL END?
Biden wins, Trump loses, Pelosi-McConnell start direct talks, and the Gang of 500 thanks Romney-Manchin for their service to America.
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ESSENTIAL READING
* David Sanger on the alleged Russian hacks’ known knowns and known unknowns.
* The Washington Post seems to believe it did enough person-on-the-street interviews to determine in some manner that Republicans are not being deterred by claims of a stolen November election from voting in the Senate runoffs.
* The Wall Street Journal editorial board shows its full-spectrum place in the world with a lead editorial telling Donald Trump that it is time to give up, while Paul Gigot doubles down on the page’s previous op ed on Dr. Jill Biden, claiming the backlash is an organized Team Biden effort (thus ensuring the storm will continue).
* The Washington Post on the failure of the Biden transition to satisfy the party’s interest groups or senators with its process of picking/announcing nominees/appointees so far. (Politico has its own version of the same thing….)
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Among the most heartbreaking, exasperating, and exasperated emails I have gotten in 2020 are from Wide World of News readers who own small businesses.
While Congress remains gridlocked on more assistance, various slices of the American Dream have been cut down or remain in great peril.
Here’s one of the more recent missives I’ve gotten, from reader Toni Angelini Nagle of New Jersey.
I urge you to read it if you don’t think you have a strong enough sense of the need for all states to strike a proper balance between public health and the economy – and for DC to find a way to get some relief money out the door:
I've had a few opportunities to speak out and have passed before because I feared backlash. At this point, there is literally nothing left to lose.
My husband has been a proud restaurateur his entire adult life. I joined him on his venture 6 years ago and together, have since launched the Jersey Shore Party Shop and Starlight Cleaners & Tuxedo. All located on a busy highway caddy-corner from one another in the affluent Spring Lake community on the jersey shore.
My children were sent home from school on March 13th for "2 weeks" and as a family, we immediately went into "what can we do to help" mode. The party store sent balloons to first-responders, the dry cleaners discounted and expedited uniform processing, and our restaurant catered dinner for 100 hospital workers every Tuesday until May.
After 3 months we were told that there was no longer enough staff at the hospital to eat the food we were donating. We were hopeful upon hearing this that the indoor dining ban in NJ would be lifted soon. But, it persisted. We did everything we could to survive, including renting a tent for the catering facility for several thousand dollars a month. Never mind the thousands of additional dollars required to design an outdoor space in what had previously been a lackluster parking lot. We got through the warmer months at the restaurant by the grace of God and people willing to socialize as long as there was fresh air. The dry cleaning business plummeted as people working from home no longer required our services, but the balloon store persevered thanks to the drive-by festivities that quickly became popular.
Then the cold settled in and we were told that in order to heat the restaurant's outdoor tent, we would have to close all 4 sides. And if we closed all 4 sides, we could only utilize 25% of its capacity. So, away went the tent. Back in February of 2020, we had so much business booked for December that we had rented a third-party location as a backup space for last-minute clients. Today, instead of hundreds, we have a total of 6 parties remaining for the rest of the year. This is the month we normally squirrel away enough money for the seasonality of operating a catering facility all winter long on the jersey shore, but we have nothing but debt to carry into the new year. The dry cleaners is down 85%, no one is renting a tuxedo, and our balloon business is now painfully slow.
We are doing everything we can to survive the next few months for no other reason than we owe it to the employees that are still with us to keep fighting. I don’t know what the future holds for any of our locations but I know that we are fortunate enough to employ some of the hardest working, best people you'll ever meet and they keep us going. The pressure is immense and the cliff in front of us is steep.
Billions of already appropriated dollars are just sitting there because not one person in DC has missed a paycheck all year and they have absolutely no idea what is happening outside the bubble. Meanwhile, the mere mortal small business owners that politicians claim are the "backbone" of the country are on economic life support. Shame on every single one of them.
-- Toni Angelini Nagle
If you can contribute in some ways to helping our nation’s small businesses, including and especially family-owned ones, survive and thrive this holiday season, please do that.
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Want to join in a discussion of how to make American life more about grace than about hate?
Sing up here for my next virtual town hall on “The Presumption of Grace.”
It is being held via Zoom tomorrow (Tuesday) from 7:00pm-8:00pm Eastern Time.
Come dream optimistic with us about the future.
I will be speaking and then taking your suggestions and questions.