US Politics: The Motorcade of Madness

[Martell Spy]

So, apparently Trump tried, and failed, to give a major address to the nation. I'm not sure what they are doing, but apparently the White House has a bit better control of Trump than the doctors at the hospital did. Not sure how this fits with Trump's desire not to be "dominated" at all times.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

3 hours ago, Week said:

Thanks Professor.

No problemo, buddy.

1 hour ago, karaddin said:

@Simon Steele my mom was on dexamethasone while dying from an aggressive brain tumor and the difference it made to her peace and comfort was night and day. When the doctors tried to get her off it (because of dependency - wtf? She was dying, it's been 5 years and I'm still furious) she was in agony and not really there. However when taking it what pain she had left was actually managed by the pain killers and it didn't seem such a bad way to go compared to other cancers I've seen in my family.

So yeah, I'm understanding being angry at things that might cause people to decide yet another drug that alleviates suffering shouldn't be used ever because some people might use it inappropriately. It's not like there isn't already a huge push to reduce painkiller access for chronic pain patients across both our countries. And you know people like him will still have access to everything they want even if their example gets it taken from everyone else.

I'm really sorry to hear about your mom and how difficult it was. My son was on it for his cancer treatment--and it wasn't great, but he needed it, and 10 years later he's suffered no long-term side effects (which are mostly a concern when people are taking doses for long periods of time). When things are so bad as with your mother, I can't understand at all why there is a fear of dependency. 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Guess I wasn't the only one who had issues with it: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/opinion/biden-trump-election.html

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

3 hours ago, Ormond said:

Rand Paul already had Covid-19 back in March, so I especially hope he does NOT catch it again -- not because I have any better feelings about him than others that have been mentioned, but because if he can catch it again now that might have bad implications for the effectiveness of any vaccine. 

Morning.

Don't mean to cause any panic, but I thought there are documented cases of reinfections with Corona, which also apparently leads to heavier symptoms than the first turn. At least I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Tillett (U. Nevada) et al have sent a paper to the lancet, which had not been published at the time. I read about that late August, early September I think. No idea, whether the paper has been published by now, or whether it was rejected. Ah, well, you can look for it yourself, if you want to obsess about it.

Anyway, that would also be in line with another more anecdotal article I read about Germany's presumed patient 0 showing, well, zero signs of a previous corona infection several months after he was first diagnosed.

4 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

And do you know how most corticosteroids make me feel? Medrol dosepack is bad enough, but anything injection is:

”Doctor, you are really hot. No, seriously, don’t be so modest.”

Heyyyy!!! I’m home!!!! Let’s clean the house with Tina Turner on FULL VOLUME!!!”

”wooooo!!!!! Paaaaaarrrrtay”

Somehow, I still find the involvement of Tina Turner music to be the most disturbing bit I've read in recent US politics threads, including the Twitter feat of the POTUS.

[Mudguard]

5 hours ago, Ormond said:

Rand Paul already had Covid-19 back in March, so I especially hope he does NOT catch it again -- not because I have any better feelings about him than others that have been mentioned, but because if he can catch it again now that might have bad implications for the effectiveness of any vaccine. 

There have been over 35 million confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection worldwide so far, and we are now about 9 months into the pandemic.  If it turns out that immunity is short lived, we will start to see many people get reinfected in areas where the virus is still present.  Given how widespread it is and how easily it infects people, we would start seeing thousands of people get reinfected if immunity was lost.  I would not worry about reading about isolated cases.  There could be a number of reasons to explain away an isolated case (testing error, immunocompromised individual, etc).  So far there hasn't yet been an indication of reinfection on a large scale.

Eta: First indications would likely be in widespread reinfection of frontline health care workers who have high risk of reexposure.  Haven't heard that this is happening, and I assume it would be all over the news if it was.

[Impmk2]

3 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

There have been over 35 million confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection worldwide so far, and we are now about 9 months into the pandemic.  If it turns out that immunity is short lived, we will start to see many people get reinfected in areas where the virus is still present.  Given how widespread it is and how easily it infects people, we would start seeing thousands of people get reinfected if immunity was lost.  I would not worry about reading about isolated cases.  There could be a number of reasons to explain away an isolated case (testing error, immunocompromised individual, etc).  So far there hasn't yet been an indication of reinfection on a large scale.

Further to this, waning immunity to the virus itself wouldn't necessarily be the death-knell to the development of a effective vaccine. There are various methods to heighten & prolong the immune response to an antigen. 

[rotting sea cow]

5 hours ago, Ormond said:

Rand Paul already had Covid-19 back in March, so I especially hope he does NOT catch it again -- not because I have any better feelings about him than others that have been mentioned, but because if he can catch it again now that might have bad implications for the effectiveness of any vaccine. 

Wait, wait, wait.

There are two different things

PCR positive twice means that the virus is replicating in the upper respiratory tract. It is unclear that the current vaccines frontrunners will be able to prevent that, but they will certainly prevent the disease.

Having COVID-19 twice is a completely different thing. It means that the body is unable to recognize the virus and thus cannot mount an adequate immune response.

 

[Castellan]

3 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

So, apparently Trump tried, and failed, to give a major address to the nation. I'm not sure what they are doing, but apparently the White House has a bit better control of Trump than the doctors at the hospital did. Not sure how this fits with Trump's desire not to be "dominated" at all times.

You freaked me out, I hadn't heard this so googled: 

EEeek! https://www.seattletimes.com/business/trump-wants-to-return-to-oval-office-may-address-nation-on-tv/

A complete mad rant on prime time TV would be a good way to wipe his chances out, hopefully. 

[Fragile Bird]

It’s 6:45 am and I just turned on my phone to see a story saying that the Democratic hopes for a senate majority might be dashed because Cunningham has been sexting a woman not his wife.

FFS.

[IheartIheartTesla]

Thats pretty old news (as in last Friday lol). Not sure if it will actually impact votes in this hyper partisan era.

[Week]

6 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

Guess I wasn't the only one who had issues with it: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/opinion/biden-trump-election.html

 

Did you even read the opinion piece before posting it?

Quote

‘Stop telling Joe Biden what to do’
As Mr. Pfeiffer himself notes, taking a combative approach to Mr. Trump may not be as effective as common sense suggests: Some political science research has found that voters respond more to positive messages about Mr. Biden than to negative messages about Mr. Trump, about whom most Americans have already made up their minds.

“For Biden to have a shot at the landslide victory he’s aiming for, he needs to win over the people who already dislike Trump, but aren’t yet sold on Biden,” Sarah Longwell writes at The Bulwark. “So a classy move — like pulling your negative ads while your opponent is in the hospital with a life-threatening disease — absolutely could help make people like you more.” 

Quote

And if attacking Mr. Trump was politically inefficient before, it might be even more so now that the story of his illness is saturating the news. “In a role reversal,” Marc Caputo writes for Politico, “the president who mocked his rival for being weak and hiding ‘in his basement’ is stuck in isolation under doctors’ supervision while Biden jets off to states like Michigan on Friday and Florida on Monday, with the battleground map all to himself.”

[...]

All that being said, the Biden campaign can’t stop other political organizations from pillorying the president, and is perhaps even depending on them to do so. After vowing last weekend to “continue to prosecute the campaign against a Trump second term and work to defeat the Republican senators who enable him,” the Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump conservatives, cut a new social media ad Monday highlighting the negligence that led to the outbreak in the White House.

Where do you find support for your opinion that pretty much everyone here has disagreed with? (including the article you posted)

[Week]

Profiles in courage -- Martha McSally

 

[Varysblackfyre321]

45 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Thats pretty old news (as in last Friday lol). Not sure if it will actually impact votes in this hyper partisan era.

It doesn't appear to be honestly.

Nor should it.

[Maithanet]

I drove to a cabin in WV this past weekend, and on the way I counted political signs once I got on the highway (so the three Biden signs I saw in my neighborhood do not count).  Traveling in the backwoods part of MD and WV for almost an hour, I saw 14 Trump signs and 2 Biden signs.  That is frankly, much fewer Trump signs than I expected.  I remember traveling in rural Virginia in 2016 and it was like 100 to 4 Trump vs Clinton signs.  Anecdotal, obviously, but I consider it an indication that Trump fatigue is affecting part of Trump's base as well.  They'll probably still vote for him, but the novelty is wearing off. 

Also, there was a poll yesterday of WV that found Trump ahead by 18 points.  Considering he won in 2016 by more than 40, that's actually a pretty terrible poll.  If that is correct, it's quite possible that Trump won't be able to achieve the stunning margins he pulled off in rural OH and PA, and that would be a big deal. 

[Ormond]

9 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

Carried into the political realm...a sort of 'Junkie' President (for want of a better term) making increasingly deranged decisions in the 'high' phase.  At this point, I start to wonder if Trump might not arbitrarily 'declare victory' late election night REGARDLESS of the actual vote tallies to that point and act accordingly.  People object, he screams 'fake news' and strongly hints the likes of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers should start busting heads.

Unfortunately, someone as extremely narcissistic as Trump does not have to be on drugs at all for the above to be a very possible scenario.  One of his biographers said as much on CNN this morning. 

[Varysblackfyre321]

29 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I drove to a cabin in WV this past weekend, and on the way I counted political signs once I got on the highway (so the three Biden signs I saw in my neighborhood do not count).  Traveling in the backwoods part of MD and WV for almost an hour, I saw 14 Trump signs and 2 Biden signs.  That is frankly, much fewer Trump signs than I expected.  I remember traveling in rural Virginia in 2016 and it was like 100 to 4 Trump vs Clinton signs.  Anecdotal, obviously, but I consider it an indication that Trump fatigue is affecting part of Trump's base as well.  They'll probably still vote for him, but the novelty is wearing off. 

Also, there was a poll yesterday of WV that found Trump ahead by 18 points.  Considering he won in 2016 by more than 40, that's actually a pretty terrible poll.  If that is correct, it's quite possible that Trump won't be able to achieve the stunning margins he pulled off in rural OH and PA, and that would be a big deal. 

That seems to be an outlier poll;https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/west-virginia/

[Maithanet]

Just now, Varysblackfyre321 said:

That seems to be an outlier poll;https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/west-virginia/

SurveyMonkey polls are not worth looking at.  And other than that, there hasn't been a poll of WV since January.  This poll may be an outlier, but we have no way of knowing unless another couple of firms want to poll WV (which I don't expect). 

[Fez]

9 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

Carried into the political realm...a sort of 'Junkie' President (for want of a better term) making increasingly deranged decisions in the 'high' phase.  At this point, I start to wonder if Trump might not arbitrarily 'declare victory' late election night REGARDLESS of the actual vote tallies to that point and act accordingly.  People object, he screams 'fake news' and strongly hints the likes of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers should start busting heads.

Certainly possible. But the more Biden is up, the more I think that most everyone just ignores him; e.g. if Fox News is accurately reporting the vote totals and making the same state calls as the other networks that'll make a big difference. He'd certain have some Proud Boy-esque folks who respond to any calls to the streets, but there really isn't that many of those people. Not enough to disrupt things if the vast preponderance of institutions agree that Biden won.

And I think all recent stories about White House operations to contain COVID internally prove once again that these aren't competent people. There isn't any secret, ready-to-go plan to seize power. There are tons of expensive GOP lawyers to try disrupting counts in the courts, but those only help in the very tight margins. Not a Biden +14, or even Biden+6, national environment.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Not sure if it has been posted here yet, but Facebook is officially banning all QAnon platforms from its site. 

[Maithanet]

Does anyone else feel like the Democrats are missing a real opportunity to pick up a senate seat in Texas?  There was a poll that came out today with Cornyn up just one 47/46.  And that's with Hegar still getting virtually no national support and being (relatively) unknown in Texas.  I get that investing in Texas is a lot more expensive than trying to win in KS, MT or SC.  But given how important flipping the Texas House is, I would really hope that Democrats would make a push for Hegar as well.  It certainly makes more sense than sending more money to defeat McConnell in Kentucky (it's not happening people!)