The Race For 2024

[Jimmy Higgins]

So in the latest Siena/NY Times poll, Trump leads DeSantis on "Getting Things Done" by over 40 points.

I think DeSantis is a deplorable opportunistic asshole who doesn't believe in a word he says, but he has gotten a lot of bad stuff done with his control of the Florida Government. Trump? He signed off on a massive corporate tax cut. No repeal for health care, no replacement for health care, no infrastructure bill (which is like one of the easier things to get passed), just massive annual deficits (before COIVD-19), and then he signed off on one good Covid-19 thing and then helped get his supporters killed or hospitalized with Covid. Trump accomplished almost nothing good in the White House other than fuck our Democratic traditions and potentially our democracy in general. And he probably pardoned a turkey, while his "wife" turned the White House into The Shining one Xmas.

 

[TomC]

RFK Jr. has just been given a warning by the powers that be.

RFK Jr. Denied Secret Service Protection by DHS

I don't understand.
A long shot candidate won't get his security provided by the taxpayers.

Given the history, I understand his concerns. But it's entirely his choice at this point. And it's not like he'll suffer much paying for his own security.
Tom

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

RFK Jr. has just been given a warning by the powers that be.

RFK Jr. Denied Secret Service Protection by DHS

Don't worry, the free market will come to his rescue!

 

[TomC]

 2024 United States presidential election

Mentions some other declared candidates in the two major parties.

Democratic:

• Joe Exotic, convicted felon, businessman and media personality; independent candidate for president in 2016[90]

He sounds like a positively ideal candidate.

It does make me wonder.
How does a private individual become a candidate on a political party ticket?

Political parties are private organizations. If the DNC didn't agree that Joe Exotic is eligible for a slot in the Democratic primary, why does he think he is?

Also, for a good time, Google Joe Exotic. If he's who I think he is, he's totally a hoot!

Tom

 

[lpetrich]

Which Republican Will Drop Out Of The 2024 Primary First? | FiveThirtyEight

(Nathaniel Rakich): To recap, Monica (Potts) picked Hutchinson and Trump, Geoffrey (Skelley) picked Hurd and Ramaswamy, I picked Pence and Suarez, and Elliott (Morris) picked Burgum and Haley.

Prorated receipts (highlighted): DeSantis, Burgum, Trump, Ramaswamy, Scott, Christie, Haley, Suarez, Pence, Hurd, Hutchinson

Who’s A Serious Candidate For The Republican Nomination, And Who’s Just Dreaming? | FiveThirtyEight

• 9: Trump, Haley, Scott, DeSantis, Pence
• 8: Christie
• 7: Hutchinson
• 6: Ramaswamy
• 5: Burgum, Suarez
• 3: Hurd, Johnson, Binkley
• 2: Laffey, Elder, Stapleton

Six Republican Candidates Appear To Have Qualified For The August Debate | FiveThirtyEight

 2024 Republican Party presidential debates and forums
The first debate will be held in August 23, 2023 - Milwaukee, WI
Will qualify:
Burgum, Christie, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Scott, Trump

Don't currently qualify:
Elder (sigs: 50%, polls: 0), Hurd (sigs: 20%, polls 2/3), Hutchinson (sigs: 28%, polls yes), Johnson (sigs: 75%, polls 0), Pence (sigs: 18%, polls yes), Suarez (sigs: 10%, polls 1/3)

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

But face it: the economy is doing fairly well, although the rising interest rates are a shocker for the young folks who saw mortgage rates lower than any I'd ever seen.

I'm not convinced it is actually that good. The rising interest rates are only part of it. I just renewed both my homeowners insurance and my auto insurance, and both of them had gone up significantly. The reason is that the prior inflation had increased repair / replace costs significantly. Of course these aren't in the "basket of good" so they naturally don't count, but inflation does have a nasty habit of continuing long after it is "over".

I mean, yes, it is better than the horrible year when idiots thought you could defeat a cold virus by shutting down the whole economy. But if the basis of "doing fairly well" is "compared to the Covid lockdowns", that's not a great comparison.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Will these debates even matter? Each "debator" will get a few minutes to spew a few same old, same old rhetoric, which will change nothing. All it will do is call attention to who couldn't get enough support to get on the stage and spew canned nonsense. The only possible paricipents in question of real interest will be Christie and DeSatanist. To see how mentally unbalanced pudding Ron gets and how vicious Christie gets towards Trump.

 

[Toni]

But face it: the economy is doing fairly well, although the rising interest rates are a shocker for the young folks who saw mortgage rates lower than any I'd ever seen.

I'm not convinced it is actually that good. The rising interest rates are only part of it. I just renewed both my homeowners insurance and my auto insurance, and both of them had gone up significantly. The reason is that the prior inflation had increased repair / replace costs significantly. Of course these aren't in the "basket of good" so they naturally don't count, but inflation does have a nasty habit of continuing long after it is "over".

I mean, yes, it is better than the horrible year when idiots thought you could defeat a cold virus by shutting down the whole economy. But if the basis of "doing fairly well" is "compared to the Covid lockdowns", that's not a great comparison.

Sadly, we lacked appropriate leadership during the beginning and the height of the pandemic and indeed, effective means of investigating and stopping it had been curtailed before the pandemic started. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? If we had truly gone on lock down early in the pandemic then likely the direct death toll would have been significantly less and the toll to the economy and to people's lives would have been lessened as well. Instead, we had a hypocrite who had access to the latest/best treatment and detection and made good use of those all the while spewing nonsense about injecting bleach and taking ivermectin--neither of which he made use of himself.

This tragedy is not confined to our borders but extended world wide. Rather than endure some pain for a short bit of time, it was decided to try to avoid the pain entirely, if you were white, rich, politically connected and had access to the very best available that worked for you. Too bad for ordinary people.

Yes, after decades (!!) of low inflation, people of your generation (making an assumption here) are getting to deal with a bit of the higher inflation and interest rates that people of my generation grew up with and dealt with during our young adult years. So sad that everything isn't perfect for our little princes and princesses. Everybody must grow up sometime.

It's not that I am immune to the effects of inflation. I'm retired. I'm not going to be earning more money. I'm just glad my kids were smart enough to take advantage of low interest rates while they were low and purchase their homes at rates I never dreamed of.

 

[Elixir]

Will the existence of cooperating co-conspirators bear on these debates? These latest indictments is obviously based on dead red MAGAts. Will that make any of them more willing to take on their supposed competitiion?

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

But face it: the economy is doing fairly well, although the rising interest rates are a shocker for the young folks who saw mortgage rates lower than any I'd ever seen.

I'm not convinced it is actually that good. The rising interest rates are only part of it. I just renewed both my homeowners insurance and my auto insurance, and both of them had gone up significantly. The reason is that the prior inflation had increased repair / replace costs significantly. Of course these aren't in the "basket of good" so they naturally don't count, but inflation does have a nasty habit of continuing long after it is "over".

I mean, yes, it is better than the horrible year when idiots thought you could defeat a cold virus by shutting down the whole economy. But if the basis of "doing fairly well" is "compared to the Covid lockdowns", that's not a great comparison.

Sadly, we lacked appropriate leadership during the beginning and the height of the pandemic and indeed, effective means of investigating and stopping it had been curtailed before the pandemic started. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Yes

If we had truly gone on lock down early in the pandemic then likely the direct death toll would have been significantly less and the toll to the economy and to people's lives would have been lessened as well.

Or the economy would have been in even greater shambles than the partial lockdown produced. We gave in to fear and panic and damaged our country as a result. Well, I didn't give in to fear and panic, but was accused of wanting people to die by those who thought fear is a virtue.

Instead, we had a hypocrite who had access to the latest/best treatment and detection and made good use of those all the while spewing nonsense about injecting bleach and taking ivermectin--neither of which he made use of himself.

The lockdowns were administered by the states. Still I do remember ivermectin, I remember "Yay, ivermectin doesn't work, that means we can jeer at Trump when he said it showed initial promise. Even though this means more suffering my side benefits."

This tragedy is not confined to our borders but extended world wide. Rather than endure some pain for a short bit of time, it was decided to try to avoid the pain entirely, if you were white, rich, politically connected and had access to the very best available that worked for you. Too bad for ordinary people.

Rather than endures a bad cold, it was decided to avoid it by locking everyone down in the biggest example of wealth privilege I have seen in my life. Too bad for the ordinary people.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Will the existence of cooperating co-conspirators bear on these debates? These latest indictments is obviously based on dead red MAGAts. Will that make any of them more willing to take on their supposed competitiion?

Hey Elixir, you forgot to explain the gas ovens.

That also explains his recently-expressed love for gas stoves.

Especially gas ovens.
Yikes.

What a strange comment. Could you explain it in more detail?

Yes, could you explain that in more detail? Inquiring minds want to know.

Sure. Happy to disabuse you of your lack of information that fails to make it to your right wing bubble.

your refusal to answer will be yet more evidence about how I don't answer questions.

Here’s my answer, and evidence that you ask stupid questions out of ignorance.

How Gas Stoves Became the Latest Right-Wing Cause in the Culture Wars

No, that's gas stoves. You meantioned gas ovens when you refused to elaborate. And you still refuse to elaborate.

Perhaps you switching back from ovens to stoves is a right wing conspiracy. Wait, that would make you the right wing conspirator.

Where's that harpy chorus that screeches every time I don't answer a question immediately? This was first asked on June 25th on Page 25. That is 37 days and 10 pages, beating every "record" I have allegedly set.

 

[Toni]

But face it: the economy is doing fairly well, although the rising interest rates are a shocker for the young folks who saw mortgage rates lower than any I'd ever seen.

I'm not convinced it is actually that good. The rising interest rates are only part of it. I just renewed both my homeowners insurance and my auto insurance, and both of them had gone up significantly. The reason is that the prior inflation had increased repair / replace costs significantly. Of course these aren't in the "basket of good" so they naturally don't count, but inflation does have a nasty habit of continuing long after it is "over".

I mean, yes, it is better than the horrible year when idiots thought you could defeat a cold virus by shutting down the whole economy. But if the basis of "doing fairly well" is "compared to the Covid lockdowns", that's not a great comparison.

Sadly, we lacked appropriate leadership during the beginning and the height of the pandemic and indeed, effective means of investigating and stopping it had been curtailed before the pandemic started. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Yes

If we had truly gone on lock down early in the pandemic then likely the direct death toll would have been significantly less and the toll to the economy and to people's lives would have been lessened as well.

Or the economy would have been in even greater shambles than the partial lockdown produced. We gave in to fear and panic and damaged our country as a result. Well, I didn't give in to fear and panic, but was accused of wanting people to die by those who thought fear is a virtue.

Instead, we had a hypocrite who had access to the latest/best treatment and detection and made good use of those all the while spewing nonsense about injecting bleach and taking ivermectin--neither of which he made use of himself.

The lockdowns were administered by the states. Still I do remember ivermectin, I remember "Yay, ivermectin doesn't work, that means we can jeer at Trump when he said it showed initial promise. Even though this means more suffering my side benefits."

This tragedy is not confined to our borders but extended world wide. Rather than endure some pain for a short bit of time, it was decided to try to avoid the pain entirely, if you were white, rich, politically connected and had access to the very best available that worked for you. Too bad for ordinary people.

Rather than endures a bad cold, it was decided to avoid it by locking everyone down in the biggest example of wealth privilege I have seen in my life. Too bad for the ordinary people.

Cold? Bad cold? Millions of people do not die of a ‘bad cold.’

I understand your tea part proclivities but I didn’t realize you lived in an actual bunker.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Cold? Bad cold? Millions of people do not die of a ‘bad cold.’

Actually colds do kill people, every year.

Most sources only track the flu, but here's an interesting one.

Cold virus killed 100,000 children globally in 2019

That's just the children. Covid, being a rhinovirus, is a cold virus and not a flu virus. This particular rhinovirus impacted the old disproportionately and ignored the young likewise.

It is difficult to get good sources on rhinovirus cases per year. Most articles either mention influenza or Covid, and the statistics taken in 2020 were shown to be inflated.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Well over a million died. And many did not but suffer varying degrees of long term covid.some of these long covid cases are crippling, including causing long term mental deterioration. Maenwhile, grinning morons like Texas governor Braindead Abbott got laws passed mandating businesses, government agencies and schools could not mandate mask wearing or covid vaccination. Abbott's death panel! But Abbott owned the libs!

.....
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving, are suing the Biden administration to end mask mandates on planes.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, argues that the mandate imposes a “restriction on travelers’ liberty interests” and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not have the authority to introduce such a blanket preventive measure.
...

Dang! Us Texans is so smart!. Freedumb!

Texas sues CDC to stop mask mandates on planes

The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, is the latest in a string of measures to limit coronavirus safety measures.

www.texastribune.org

 

[Toni]

Cold? Bad cold? Millions of people do not die of a ‘bad cold.’

Actually colds do kill people, every year.

Most sources only track the flu, but here's an interesting one.

Cold virus killed 100,000 children globally in 2019

That's just the children. Covid, being a rhinovirus, is a cold virus and not a flu virus. This particular rhinovirus impacted the old disproportionately and ignored the young likewise.

It is difficult to get good sources on rhinovirus cases per year. Most articles either mention influenza or Covid, and the statistics taken in 2020 were shown to be inflated.

Covid 19 is not a rhinovirus nor is it an influenza virus. Honestly, where on earth have you been for the last 3 years???????

I am aware that children die of what are often minor illnesses for adults, such as colds, but generally because of some other complicating condition, such as a compromised immune system. I am also aware that some routine childhood illnesses affect adults much more harshly than children. But that has nothing at all to do with Covid 19, which is a different kind of virus than a rhinovirus, an influenza virus or any of the viruses that are responsible for common childhood illnesses.

I'm glad you yourself have only been inconvenienced to the extent that the pandemic has caused you a rather nasty outbreak of outrage. Best cure: stop watching Fox and NewsMax.

Not everyone is so fortunate. I lost a family member to Covid19, which he contracted by....attending the funeral of someone who had died of Covid19.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Cold? Bad cold? Millions of people do not die of a ‘bad cold.’

Actually colds do kill people, every year.

Most sources only track the flu, but here's an interesting one.

Cold virus killed 100,000 children globally in 2019

That's just the children. Covid, being a rhinovirus, is a cold virus and not a flu virus. This particular rhinovirus impacted the old disproportionately and ignored the young likewise.

It is difficult to get good sources on rhinovirus cases per year. Most articles either mention influenza or Covid, and the statistics taken in 2020 were shown to be inflated.

Wow! Colds KILL! Flu KILLS! In Texas thanks to the GOP it is illegal to mandate masks or vaccinations at places of work, government agencies or schools! Flu season is a happy time in Texas!

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

SARS-CoV-2 is in
Kingdom: Orthornavirae
Phylum: Pisuviricota
Class: Pisoniviricetes
Order: Nidovirales
Family: Coronaviridae
Genus: Betacoronavirus

Rhinovirus is in
Kingdom: Orthornavirae
Phylum: Pisuviricota
Class: Pisoniviricetes
Order: Picornavirales
Family: Picornaviridae
Genus: Enterovirus

Influenza is in
Kingdom: Orthornavirae
Phylum: Negarnaviricota
Class: Insthoviricetes
Order: Articulavirales
Family: Orthomyxoviridae

While it is true that Covid isn't a Rhinovirus, it is a cold virus, and is more closely related to the cold virus than either is to the flu virus.

Toni, I am glad that you finally agreed that the common cold can kill. That is more of an admission than you want to admit. It puts the fact that some people died from Covid into greater perspective.

Personal anecdotes aside, it wasn't nearly as deadly as the Branch Covidians wanted us to believe.

 

[Toni]

SARS-CoV-2 is in
Kingdom: Orthornavirae
Phylum: Pisuviricota
Class: Pisoniviricetes
Order: Nidovirales
Family: Coronaviridae
Genus: Betacoronavirus

Rhinovirus is in
Kingdom: Orthornavirae
Phylum: Pisuviricota
Class: Pisoniviricetes
Order: Picornavirales
Family: Picornaviridae
Genus: Enterovirus

Influenza is in
Kingdom: Orthornavirae
Phylum: Negarnaviricota
Class: Insthoviricetes
Order: Articulavirales
Family: Orthomyxoviridae

While it is true that Covid isn't a Rhinovirus, it is a cold virus, and is more closely related to the cold virus than either is to the flu virus.

Toni, I am glad that you finally agreed that the common cold can kill. That is more of an admission than you want to admit. It puts the fact that some people died from Covid into greater perspective.

Personal anecdotes aside, it wasn't nearly as deadly as the Branch Covidians wanted us to believe.

Bullshit. Fucking bullshit.

Which part of the internet did you earn your Ph.D. in virology? Or was it in taxonomy? Do you even know what taxonomy is????????????

Humans homo sapiens

Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates

Gray Wolves canis lupis

Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Lots of noise, very little signal.

Normal for a Branch Covidian.

 

[bilby]

Covid, being a rhinovirus

Covid is a coronavirus. That's what the Co part of the name actually means.

FFS.