How, then, do we overcome their built-in advantage?

They have their right-wing propaganda machine that has had decades to take root.

Sinclair is the biggest owner of local stations, which it has been steadily buying up since the 90s. According to this article, research has shown that local stations spent more time covering national politics and showed a rightward shift in said coverage after Sinclair acquired them. And it is buying more each year. News 3 in Vegas is my local Sinclair station.

With Fox News still a top player in the MSM, OAN and Newsmax gaining steam, Sinclair-owned TV stations blasting GOP talking points, right-wing religious leaders and radio personalities spewing bile to their big audiences, and Facebook having a serious right-wing disinformation problem that it has not shown an eagerness to confront, is it any wonder we feel we are hearing very little from our Democratic leaders?

Poor messaging is the most commonly cited reason for the loss, but where are the solutions?

I'm rather sick of seeing or hearing overly broad statements such as "we suck at messaging" and "we are being out-messaged by the Republicans" from Democrats or people of the liberal persuasion. These are incredibly lazy arguments that have proven to be popular in liberal circles as poor substitutes for thoughtful discussion.

1. We are communicating our agenda and vision.
2. We don't have Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, right-wing religious leaders, and a slew of right-wing talk radio programs to help spread our message and carry water for us.

If the argument is that we are not communicating effectively enough, then the most important consideration is, what practical steps should we be taking right now to more effectively communicate our vision to voters? What are key practical takeaways from this failed campaign that will help future campaigns? These are the types of discussions we should be having, not 500 variations on "we suck at messaging".

Funeral directors and other employees in the business of dealing with bodies

are the forgotten frontline workers. We laud the nurses, doctors, and EMTs - rightfully so - but people like the funeral director who posted that comment in r/HermanCainAward deserve just as much acknowledgment, praise, and financial support.

Cries of help from him and people like Caitlin Doughty (an LA funeral home owner with a popular YouTube channel) have been going largely unnoticed because the general public still gets squicked out by the thought of death and dead bodies and consider people who chose career paths that involve close contact with dead bodies to be creepy weirdos to be avoided. Unfortunately, government officials at all levels seem to share in that sentiment.

I wonder if our near-daily exposure to images of people in hospital ICUs and body bags will help to change our attitude towards death for good. I have no doubt children have been asking more questions about death in the past 18+ months than they had been before, which has forced parents and teachers to find ways to answer them. If we as a society stopped treating death and dying as a taboo topic, we might, perhaps, stop being so cavalier about taking unnecessary risks with our safety and health in the name of "freedom".

From what I have read

The Australian government has long been frustrated with the French contractor Naval Group over the latter's foot-dragging on the $90 billion submarine contract.

A Feb. 2021 article from ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) goes into more detail on this deal:

According to this article from Bloomberg, this deal was made all the way back in 2016.

France had initially offered to sell Australia diesel-powered submarines that Australia did not want - either that or Australia wanted diesel-powered subs at first, only to have changed its mind later. France was running behind in supplying the nuclear-powered submarines Australia had requested, so the latter backed out of its agreement in favor of entering an alliance with the UK and US, angering France.

If I may offer my opinion on this, I believe the French are acting huffy over losing this lucrative arms deal, although I do question why the US had kept France in the dark about this new deal until almost the 11th hour. I do hope there was a good reason for that, and most of all, I hope that we can quickly smooth over these tensions.

Former CCSD police officer arrested, accused of threatening to shoot Sisolak, Biden, his supervisor

I take it you haven't gone to The Hill's YouTube channel, then.

Just a small selection of their video uploads, all with thumbnails and titles that would make the National Enquirer and other tabloid rags blush with envy:

- "Nicki Minaj HITS BACK At MSM Over Vaccine Comments, CALLS OUT White House for LYING About Invitation"

- "Krystal Ball: In Leaked Audio Biden CAUGHT Admitting He Won't Do Anything as President"

- "Krystal Ball: Bill Gates is LYING TO YOU On Vaccine Patent Protection"

- "Rose McGowan BLASTS Oprah support of 'SICK power structure' by associating with Weinstein, Simmons"

- "Kim Iversen: Newsom's 'Virtue Signal' Mandates, Israel Cases SPIKE as Country Requires THIRD Jab"

- "Harvard Scientist: GALILEO Project Proves Humans Can NO LONGER Ignore Possible ALIEN Existence"

- "Katie Halper: Obama Scales Back 60th Birthday Bash After Backlash; Twitter FAWNS Over Fmr Prez"

- "JUST IN: Dan Crenshaw TORCHES Pelosi in blistering House speech"

- "State Dept. SCRUBS Data on Military Weapons ABANDONED in Afghanistan From Official Websites"

I don't know about anyone else here, but this doesn't exactly scream "respectable" or "unbiased" to me.

U.S. Working 'Every Single Day' To Help Those Who Want To Get Out, Says WH - MSNBC

Biden inspired my signature. n/t