All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

Throughout the history of the United States, nearly every President presided over some kind of war or military action.

Just thought I'd throw this out there.

[PaulBullion]

You love to see it, Part Deux:

Candace Owens has been banned from Twitter for spreading dangerous lies about Covid-19.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Which war exactly are you addressing, Rosa?

Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau.

---

The coalition’s genocide in Yemen would not be possible without the complicity of the U.S. This has been a bipartisan presidential effort, covering both the Obama and Trump administrations.

[Tami]

Tara Reade now says she submitted “an intake form” rather than a complaint.

This story keeps changing.

I suspect that Reade was undercut by Biden saying he wanted all personel records from that time period to be released. So now she is switching tactics to try and get access to the papers in the UoD archives. She probably thinks that, since the UoD is refusing to release them, there is no way to prove what she is saying is false.

Releasing the papers does place the UoD employees at risk during the Pandemic, but what does she care?

I suspect that the UoD might have no choice but to make the documents public earlier than planned.

[PaulBullion]

Tara Reade now says she submitted “an intake form” rather than a complaint.

This story keeps changing.

Maybe she canceled her appearance on FoxNews to finally figure out what really happened to her before she talks to the media.

[Tami]

Yeah, the U.S. is an evil country.

There are lists like this for nearly every nation on the planet, throughout history.

[InformationGeek]

MEANWHILE, back other topics at hand, this should be a fun one for WBE. He just got done profiling Robert Hyde, who claimed to be surveilling the US ambassador to Ukraine at one point? Well, he just dropped out.

Poor WBE. If he just held off a few days, he could have put that info in!

[PaulBullion]

Texas is now a toss-up state.

texasinplay.jpg

I don't REALLY think we will see Biden get Texas' electoral votes... but it's close enough so the GOP will have to spend money there that they could have used on Florida instead.

[A Small Talent For War]

I'm not quite following you.
If they didn't create it, they got it from samples outside the laboratory. That means the virus was out there already and likely to spread.

If this specific virus was in the lab, though, and then got out, that would be important to identify. That's a very different cause than anything natural.

The question is if due to lax biosecurity, the lab allowed contamination to get out into the general population through an employee who came into contact with it. Apparently, questions have been raised before about the security procedures of the lab and the Chinese governments refusal to allow independent review of the lab.

So, the virus could be naturally occurring, but there is a chance that improper containment was the direct cause of this outbreak. It's not unusual as accidental contaminations from labs have caused disease outbreaks here in the US and other countries, so it's a reasonable line of inquiry for any investigation since identifying lapses in security are important. From the reports in the news, this lab was only a few miles from the wet market initially identified as the point of origin and its employees went to that market. So, if there is a security problem, this isn't the only virus that can get out of that lab.

It's not necessarily likely, but there is a lot of circumstantial evidence so it's not ridiculous either despite protestations by the Chinese government - who also ordered original samples of the virus destroyed during the initial cover-up making it even harder to find the source.

[PaulBullion]

MEANWHILE, back other topics at hand, this should be a fun one for WBE. He just got done profiling Robert Hyde, who claimed to be surveilling the US ambassador to Ukraine at one point? Well, he just dropped out.

Poor WBE. If he just held off a few days, he could have put that info in!

I love this part:

"I thought we were playing," Hyde said. "We just had some colorful texts, had a few pops way back when I used to drink, and it's kind of unfortunate that the left ought to get their panties in a bunch."

Along with Trump's claim of sarcasm, will the "Just kidding" defense be used more often now?

[TheDarman]

Texas is now a toss-up state.

texasinplay.jpg

I don't REALLY think we will see Biden get Texas' electoral votes... but it's close enough so the GOP will have to spend money there that they could have used on Florida instead.

I think it is difficult for the GOP if this allegation against Biden doesn’t stick. It ended up bringing new attention to Trump’s own accusations, which are far more numerous and damning. And he has been botching his overall response to the virus. A state like Texas has been moving towards being a swing state for a while now. It might not go this year, but, as you said, Republicans are going to have to fight like they haven’t had to in a generation to keep it under Trump. And there might be slippage as a result.

[PaulBullion]

Does anyone know an electoral college map site other than RCP? Their bias is so ridiculous.



This is their current list of "toss ups".

The "leans Trump" column includes SC, where Trump is currently polling +4


The toss-ups include Michigan (Biden +5.5), Nevada (Biden +4), Pennsylvania (Biden +6.5), Arizona (Biden +4.4) NM (Biden +8!!), and even Maine and Colorado (Biden +10 in both).

They are not using the same standards to decide which states are leaning, and which are toss-ups. Sure, historical data plays a role - but they are supposed to be a polling aggregation site.

[TheDarman]

Does anyone know an electoral college map site other than RCP? Their bias is so ridiculous.



This is their current list of "toss ups".

The "leans Trump" column includes SC, where Trump is currently polling +4


The toss-ups include Michigan (Biden +5.5), Nevada (Biden +4), Pennsylvania (Biden +6.5), Arizona (Biden +4.4) NM (Biden +8!!), and even Maine and Colorado (Biden +10 in both).

They are not using the same standards to decide which states are leaning, and which are toss-ups. Sure, historical data plays a role - but they are supposed to be a polling aggregation site.

Yeah. I don’t really think so. I use 270 to Win from time to time, but they end up being equally as frustrating—if not more so. I wonder if they are really being conservative and trying to give Trump some kind of incumbency advantage or if they are using what happened in 2016 to try to over represent Trump’s chance relative to polling. Either way, it seems to underestimate polling corrections and, more generally, how comfortable people are to state support for Trump now that he is president.

[jetengine]

Joe Biden is not Emmett Till.

This is an absolutely disgusting comparison.

Go back to Carnation Twitter, we deal with facts here not shills. You've been given the facts and you've ignored them repeatedly.

[worstblogever]

Does anyone know an electoral college map site other than RCP? Their bias is so ridiculous.



This is their current list of "toss ups".

The "leans Trump" column includes SC, where Trump is currently polling +4


The toss-ups include Michigan (Biden +5.5), Nevada (Biden +4), Pennsylvania (Biden +6.5), Arizona (Biden +4.4) NM (Biden +8!!), and even Maine and Colorado (Biden +10 in both).

They are not using the same standards to decide which states are leaning, and which are toss-ups. Sure, historical data plays a role - but they are supposed to be a polling aggregation site.

I agree with TheDarman about 270 to Win.