PBS Newshour and Marist have a poll out headlined as “Americans don’t agree on what to call Jan. 6 attack.” Unsurprisingly the actual details of the poll tell a somewhat different story, which might be summarized as “Republicans now mostly support the Jan. 6 insurrection.” The data show a less wishy washy verdict. About half the public, overwhelmingly Democrats and left-leaning independents, call it an insurrection while 25% says it was 1st Amendment-protected protest. The critical segment in the middle, 19% of respondents, agrees that “it was an unfortunate event, but in the past.” I’d call this the “not great but let’s not rock the boat” group.

Happy New Year! With Omicron sloshing around this great country, I’ve been asked by more and more people what mask they should be wearing. Or they have a health-compromised loved one and they’re asking for them. I’ve put a lot of time into researching this question – both as a journalist and a breather – and if you didn’t see it last week I put together a primer on the basics. You can read it here.

Back in 2016 there was a knowing social media go-to about how 2016 was the year from hell – one that would come to an end when Trump was defeated in November. Of course, that didn’t happen. It was followed by 2017, the beginning of Trump’s dismal and destructive presidency. Then there was 2020, a year of historic disruption, mortality, economic displacement and social chaos and unrest, which was to be followed by renewal in 2021. And well, here we are. We’ve run through a succession of ‘hell years’ beneath which rumbles a growing trepidation or assumption that maybe none of this stuff is the exception. Maybe this is just a downward trajectory with no snapback to something more normal, something more on a progress toward betterment.

On the eve of a new year where do we fall on this terrain of doomism?

I’ve spent the last couple days writing posts I’ve then set aside about what we’ve learned in two years about the CDC and FDA and whether they are, institutionally, up to the challenge of managing the crisis of pandemic response. To paraphrase Sonny Corleone, during a pandemic we need a wartime CDC. And it’s clear we don’t have one. The institutional apparatus designed for managing ‘ordinary’ infectious diseases, researching and improving care for chronic maladies simply isn’t designed for what we’ve confronted in the last two years.

A reminder: The Josh Marshall Podcast is on break the final week of the year. So no podcast today. Kate Riga and I will be back with a new episode on Wednesday, January 5th.

Don’t miss this remembrance of Harry Reid, who died yesterday at the age of 82, from Bill Dauster, former Reid Deputy Chief of Staff and longtime friend of TPM.

Here’s the Times obit. Here’s the obit from The Nevada Independent, the top instate political news operation and the folks who knew him best.

This is an uncharacteristic post. But I realize that a lot of people are looking for information like this. So I am sharing what I’ve learned on this topic.

For all the polarization and argument over masking, there’s much less discussion or guidance about what kind of mask you should wear. At the beginning of the pandemic any mask was better than none. High quality masks needed by health care workers and first responders were in short supply. But that hasn’t been the case for a very long time. High filtration masks are widely available at relatively low cost. And you should be wearing one.

Cloth masks are better than nothing. But that should not be your standard. Even if you’ve got it hostage-taking tight around your face it’s still providing much less protection than a real filtration mask. Surgical masks are fine. But a high filtration mask provides a much higher level of protection than those too. You now have the ability to give yourself a high level of protection even if you’re somewhere where others aren’t masking or aren’t masking well.

What’s A Good Mask?

Merry Christmas, everyone. (If you don’t celebrate, just let it roll over you.) I want to thank everyone who is a reader of this site and especially our over 33,000 members. You make all this possible and we really cannot thank you enough. I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their families, whether that’s an extended clan or just a special person in your life, and a day full of warmth and free of care.

You’ve likely seen a lot of reports in recent days about the disease severity of the Omicron wave. From some you hear increasing evidence that the Omicron wave is less severe, maybe much less severe, than previous COVID waves. Others claim there’s no solid evidence Omicron causes less severe disease. Who’s right? Some of the disconnect is differing degrees of caution. We’ve only known about Omicron for about six weeks. How much evidence do you need before you’re willing to say something is more mild, less lethal when probably hundreds of millions of people are about to get it and they need guidance about risk? But most of it is not that. Not anymore. Most of the seemingly contradictory claims are about different kinds of evidence and really different questions being asked.