Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump loses his 25th court case, this one in front of the PA Supreme Court, who rules that Philadelphia handled observers within the law.

Meanwhile over in Federal Court Rudy Giuliani is spinning tales of vast conspiracies and how the observers had to use binoculars to see anything and humbly asks that the court invalidate all mail-in ballots received in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

[Dr. Strangelove]

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[Dr. Strangelove]

[Mike]

I’m pretty sure 99.9% of R politicians know this. Some of them are just standing on the sidelines until the clown is officially gone as to not piss off a large chunk of their base.

[froot loops]

If they don't do anything the clown isn't going away though, he is the 2024 nominee.

[lineygoblue]

Froot has a point. My wife and I made a grocery run today and in our area the Trump signs and flags have not been put away. Didn't see any Biden signs at all.

I think its highly likely that Trump will run again in 2024. He's not going away.

No other R will be able to get the votes he can get.

[Ghengis Jon]

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[Mike]

If they don't do anything the clown isn't going away though, he is the 2024 nominee.

I do have to admit: that would be great for ratings.

[iam416]

PDJT wants to play kingmaker. It wants to retain his influence in the R party and there's no doubt he'll have a huge voice. But, I'd be surprised if he runs in 2024.

In any event, that's pretty far down the road. Right now the issue is whether Georgia will pitch in to give us a firewall against the fucking wackjobs.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I've decided that testing million in the US for SARS-CoV-2 is about as useful as testing millions in the US for the common cold. Right, there will be a lot of positives, some folks who catch a cold are going to be miserable for a week or so but not may people are going to die from it. LOTS of + though .... a fuck ton of them so, let's not have gatherings and lets start shutting down businesses were people gather because, well, you might catch a cold!

And don't accuse me of minimizing the impact of COVID but think about that. I have no issue with listing the number of deaths and those numbers are substantial and should be taken seriously in fashioning responses to this particular pandemic but the focus on rising case numbers as a factor that will direct officials to fuck with the economy and our lives again is absurd.

So, what about hospitalizations you ask? These are rising and an indicator that officials deciding on such things have to do something, right? It depends. First, I've heard no hard data only reports that "hospitals are filling up, staff are stretched to the limit" and other subjective nonsense. Show me the numbers and then I'll tell you if we need to be restricting economic activity and personal mobility. I'll grant anecdotal reporting of ICU beds being reported as full ..... locally, not regionally and I've complained about this before. Regional hospitals coordinate bed space and staff. I've not heard any solid reporting that these systems are failing.

Here's the thing. The virus is going to keep burning through the immune naïve population..... and I'm not talking about getting to heard immunity as a pandemic response. I'm talking about the science of what viruses do. Back to the start: protect the vulnerable - which means the vulnerable taking responsibility for assessing their individual risks and protecting themselves; it doesn't mean government doing what is politically salutary and shutting shit down, such actions to have proven to be of minimal value to the PH and at huge costs. For the rest of us, act responsibly - most experts who understand epidemiology and human behavior have articulated the biggest factor in achieving some level of containment of viral spread is through shaping human behaviors in ways that are preventative.

So, turn off the news, advocate loudly to restrain officials from imposing restrictions without a strong basis for doing so and then only on local and granular data.

[Jeff Buchanan]

...... and BTW, Pfizer has announced it will be seeking an EUA for it's vaccine within a matter of days. I expect Moderna will make such an announcement soon. IOW, we'll probably have a vaccine on the street in a matter of weeks.

If you haven't been paying attention, Pfizer is making its distribution plans very public by testing the process in 4 states. As well, production is already underway for all the leading vaccines. Does that tell you anything? I'll let you decide.

[Ghengis Jon]

Georgia will at least split it's runoff elections, preserving GOP control of the Senate. It's rarely good if all three branches are controlled by one party and I think (hope) the public is wise enough to see that. Given that the election was more anti-Trump vs pro-Trump and not about policy, it wouldn't surprise me to see both elections go red. Down ballot voting seemed to be unaffected by the pick at the top of the ballot.

[iam416]

Buchanan:

Pfizer, A-Z, Moderna -- they were all into massive production on the assumption the vaccine will work. As you know. As was surely your point. Heh. I told my mom that back in summer when she was dubious of how long it would take to get a vaccine. "Well, mom, ginormous risk-adverse corporations are spending a fuckton of money manufacturing doses so that they'll be ready to go when it's approved, so...."

Of course, Cuomo doesn't trust federal government distribution. LMAO. Right now, Cuomo is actually in the conversation with PDJT for worse handling of this pandemic. And that's really saying something. What a total fucking asshat.

I'm not sure it's the common cold, but I'll share a positive anecdote (most anecdotes, of course, are OMG t was awful!). My wife's co-worker is 50-year old female, cancer survivor with at least one other co-morbidity. She spiked a fever on election night. It lasted a few days. She also lost taste/smell, which lasted a week. She was generally congested and coughy for about 10 days, but felt well enough to get back to work within a week. I'd assume she's now free and clear. Her husband also test positive and had no symptons.

[iam416]

Georgia will at least split it's runoff elections, preserving GOP control of the Senate. It's rarely good if all three branches are controlled by one party and I think (hope) the public is wise enough to see that. Given that the election was more anti-Trump vs pro-Trump and not about policy, it wouldn't surprise me to see both elections go red. Down ballot voting seemed to be unaffected by the pick at the top of the ballot.

Georgia is BLUE!!!!!

Heh. Well, Perdue beat Ossof pretty decisively and would have avoided a run-off but for the libertarian candidate. I think that race features the two stronger cadidates. The other race is more amateur hour, so it's hard to say how that one goes. But, I'd still bet on Loeffler.

Of course, the polls will show the Ds winning and the Media will run lots of stories on how Ossof and Warnock are energizing the base! and how they are the new face of southern democrats! and how they are models for how to turn the rest of the sun belt blue! And a lot of Ds will read all of this shit and think they're going cruise to an easy win.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Republican states like Montana, North Dakota, Iowa, and Wyoming have all instituted shutdowns, mask mandates, or some form of restrictions for the first time ever this week. I would think that we'd actually be more receptive to the idea of some restrictions now, knowing vaccines are coming soon.