Sanders vs. the VA

https://twitter.com/PaulRieckhoff/status/1234712531299643393?s=20

Here’s hoping this tweet is soon irrelevant (meaning: here’s hoping Bernie fades).

Paul Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) Tweeted:

False. Sanders worked with John McCain to pass a massive, emergency, damage control bill after they were all asleep at the wheel. And when pressed by McCain, Sanders folded. Opening the door to the biggest privatization expansion in VA history. More: https://t.co/U3pKIt2GHe https://t.co/GdWQ5Qo5k5

Italy doing a good job testing for coronavirus

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1234826307944505345?s=20

Go, Italy!

David Frum (@davidfrum) Tweeted:

As @anneapplebaum notes: Italy’s numbers are high in great part because the Italians are doing a good job testing their people fast, accurately, and for free.

America’s numbers seem low not because US is exempt, but because US is testing late, slow, and expensively https://t.co/FY7uvW41Fb

New Nigerian words in English

https://twitter.com/doctorcdf/status/1234086060998696960?s=20

https://twitter.com/WinnieNgozi/status/1234080417818578944?s=20

(@WinnieNgozi)

This:

Dr. Christian DeFeo (@doctorcdf) Tweeted:

@KGuilaine The only way English will be a truly international language is if there are international contributions to it. This is not a cause for distress but rather celebration.

The soft power runs the other way. (I.e., it’s English that has the “soft power”. Also, why are we using the word “power”?) The “lingua franca” (ha!) is going to pick up new words, of course.

Winifred Ngozi Okocha đŸŒ» (@WinnieNgozi) Tweeted:

Nigerian soft power has been increasing. Nigerian English like ‘next tomorrow’ is in the OED loool.

“Oxford lexicographers updated the dictionary with 29 Nigerian words, recognising the “unique & distinctive contribution to English as a global language”.” https://t.co/kxCLBCGswB

That being said: yay, new words! (Now I just have to understand them.)

Also: wow, Nigeria has 200 million people? That is NOT chump change.

Election Update: Biden Surges In South Carolina

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/election-update-biden-surges-in-south-carolina/

«It’s certainly odd that Biden, and not Sanders, would have gotten a bump out of a state where Sanders won nearly twice as many raw votes, but that’s what it looks like. Perhaps it is the manifestation of establishment backlash against the suddenly-real prospect of Sanders becoming the nominee.»