All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Kirby101]

Nah. If you look pool by poll within each pollsters, he's gone down sharply with Rasmussen and Gallup, gone down a little with yougov and politico, has held about steady with Reuters. If there is a slight uptick in the poll of polls, it's just that those pollsters with a more generous house effect for Trump have had the more recent polls. But he is trending down for them, too.

I do look. Up in Harris, up in Rasmussen, up in YouGov. Generally up from two weeks ago.

Not a great deal and statically neutral, but you would think with they way he has screwed the pooch, he would be down below 40% by now. Not up.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...ex_cid=rrpromo

[Mister Mets]

Right now, Asian children are getting beaten up for being Asian, Asian women are getting yelled at in the street. Whatever blame China has to bear, Trump's weird strategy is hurting real Americans. But you go on defending that. We see you.

We can simultaneously do three things.
- We can recognize the shortcomings of the Chinese government, and try to avoid joining their propaganda, since they're trying to blame Americans for causing the virus.
- We can recognize the mistakes of the American government, and the Trump administration.
- We can recognize that racism against Asian-Americans is bad, and do our best to discourage it, and to advocate for prosecution in any hate crimes.

Right now, Trump would love to focus on the problems of the Chinese government. And it helps him when many in the liberal media are branding much of the criticism as racist and beyond the pale, as this pushes the critics of the Chinese government to defending themselves, which keeps the focus off of Trump's screw-ups..

Nations weren't unprepared because "racism" they were unprepared because they assumed....

A. China could contain it.
B. That maybe it had more to do with Chinas shittier health conditions (lung based disease on a nation 80% smog and heavy smokers with lots of old people ? Yeah thats going to go badly)
C. Incompetent governmentds going "We dont need to spend THAT much really ?" only for them to go "Oh shit we DO" because many right wing nations had slashed healthcare consistently, happy to let private deal with any issue.

The United States had the specific mistake of believing that we could handle testing without resources from other governments, and various bureaucratic delays (IE- a refusal to turn an existing flu study into a coronavirus study because they did not have the consent of the people in the flu study).

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/u...ng-delays.html

Does anyone else think Joe Biden has been awefully quiet lately?

You'd think as the presumtive Democratic nominee he'd be all over this crisis given it's happening during an election.

He doesn't need to give a speech every day.

Given how fast a crisis is moving, commentary on the day to day problems wouldn't be helpful and might provide ammunition against him.

I do look. Up in Harris, up in Rasmussen, up in YouGov. Generally up from two weeks ago.

Not a great deal and statically neutral, but you would think with they way he has screwed the pooch, he would be down below 40% by now. Not up.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...ex_cid=rrpromo

Most people don't watch day to day news. Even in the crisis, I would expect the typical American to care more about what they should do than talking heads noting Trump's mistakes. So it's rare to see sudden changes in approval rating.

[PaulBullion]

Nah. If you look pool by poll within each pollsters, he's gone down sharply with Rasmussen and Gallup, gone down a little with yougov and politico, has held about steady with Reuters. If there is a slight uptick in the poll of polls, it's just that those pollsters with a more generous house effect for Trump have had the more recent polls. But he is trending down for them, too.

Trumps disapproval (red) and approval (black) over the past 30 days. No signs of improvement.

[Kirby101]

Different from 538 aggregate. Hope yours is right. But the fact he is still over 40% is disturbing.

[XPac]

The thing to remember is that November is still a LONG ways away. So Trump still has plenty of time to either rally or make things worse. Plenty.

It is important to note though that this Trump has shown an uncanny ability to dig himself out of holes. Like him or not, he probably shouldn't be underestimated in that regard.

[Kirby101]

The thing to remember is that November is still a LONG ways away. So Trump still has plenty of time to either rally or make things worse. Plenty.

It is important to note though that this Trump has shown an uncanny ability to dig himself out of holes. Like him or not, he probably shouldn't be underestimated in that regard.

Absolutely, since he can win even though he will lose the popular vote again.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The thing to remember is that November is still a LONG ways away. So Trump still has plenty of time to either rally or make things worse. Plenty.

It is important to note though that this Trump has shown an uncanny ability to dig himself out of holes. Like him or not, he probably shouldn't be underestimated in that regard.

While that's true, it can't be ignored that Trump had help, a LOT of help that's kept him above ground. From a disgustingly cowardly and compliant Republican Party that's circled the wagons for him since day one of his presidency to his fanatically, even rabidly loyal base that believes he walks on water and can do no wrong, Trump remains in power today because of those particular factors. Trump has been bulletproof from jump street, and yeah, his chances of winning a second term aren't as far fetched as people would think, despite his horribly hamfisted response to the coronavirus crisis.

[Bruce Wayne]

Nah. If you look pool by poll within each pollsters, he's gone down sharply with Rasmussen and Gallup, gone down a little with yougov and politico, has held about steady with Reuters. If there is a slight uptick in the poll of polls, it's just that those pollsters with a more generous house effect for Trump have had the more recent polls. But he is trending down for them, too.

I hope you are right. Because the coronavirus seems to be a ripe rally around the flag/9-11 moment for Trump plus those checks in the mail can easily turn the election in his favor.

[Jack Dracula]

Fourth. Inhofe, Loefler, Burr and now Ron Johnson? Di-Fi apparently did it too over on the Democratic side. These needs a thorough investigation. Fat chance Barr's DOJ will do one, but hopefully the FBI will take the initiative.

I beleive the DOJ established a rule after the impeachment that any future investigations into sitting politicians or their families would need clearance from Barr's office first.

[PaulBullion]

I beleive the DOJ established a rule after the impeachment that any future investigations into sitting politicians or their families would need clearance from Barr's office first.

I do love that Twitter made #Burrisma trend for the Burr/Loeffler scandal.

[Jack Dracula]

If things get as bad as it seems they will, who would want to be President of the United States? Seems a lot of grief and not much glory. Certainly not a job that Donald Trump would want to have.

It depends on how much money your friends and family are making as a result of your influence. The Trump family will continue to reap the rewards of his four years in office for decades.

[PaulBullion]

If things get as bad as it seems they will, who would want to be President of the United States? Seems a lot of grief and not much glory. Certainly not a job that Donald Trump would want to have.

Trump knows there is a chance that leaving office (and Barr being replaced by, say Kamala Harris) would turn him from the unindicted co-conspirator he already is to an indicted co-conspirator. His fear will keep him from resigning.

[worstblogever]

Matthew Lusk

Welcome to what is the 846th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Matthew Lusk, who currently is the only Republican candidate running to try and flip Florida’s 5th Congressional District red in the 2020 elections, with the deadline to file coming in on April 24th, 2020. For any Republican candidate, winning in Florida’s 5th would be a challenge, what with its partisan lean being a +12 Democratic in the Cook Partisan Voting Index.

But Matthew Lusk is not just any Republican. He’s a known Qanon conspiracy theorist, believing that there’s a secret “deep state” running the country consisting of cannabalistic, Satanic pedophiles who are running child sex trafficking rings for either their own entertainment or extra cash, depending on what kook you listen to. Among the issues listed on Lusk’s campaign website is “Q”. During an interview with the press to announce his run for office, he flipped over signs while loading them in his vehicle to show off to those present, showing signs reading “Matthew Lusk for Congress”, or “Putting America First” (which is in and of itself echoing a white nationalist slogan). He then flipped over a sign with a big black letter “Q”, chuckling, “You never know when you’ll run into somebody interested in Q.”

We’re not reaching on this, as in November of 2019, Lusk proudly wrote a letter to the Orlando Sentinel confirming he believed in the conspiracy theory, and touting that “Q candidates are taking over the Republican Party in order to clean it up. The days of the smoke-filled Masonic Lodge meetings are over. Average Joe and Jane citizen are taking our Country back. Globalist beware, you are no longer welcomed in the Republican Party.”

Lusk continued:

“Q is fighting a rogue element of the Catholic Church vying for world power. I don’t believe in the Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. True, there are a lot of corrupt Jews in banking, but there are just as many corrupt Anglos. If the Zionists are as powerful as some detractors believe, Zionists would have retaken all of the holy land in the 1800s. ... The conspiracy is fascist in nature, corporations welded in unholy matrimony with government and Jesuit espionage.”

We’re hoping that this time next year, we will have no further updates on this moron, and he’ll just f*** off back to his basement to believe the craziest s*** the right-wing media feeds him and not do anyone any harm.

[shooshoomanjoe]

trump wants state government to refrain from releasing unemployment rates until the federal government releases their unemployment rate.

The Trump administration’s Labor Department sent an email to state officials this week asking them to report new unemployment claims only in “generalities” to avoid spooking financial markets, The New York Times reported.

The email on Wednesday asked state labor authorities to only “provide information using generalities to describe claims levels (very high, large increase)” until the Labor Department releases the total number of national claims next Thursday.

“States should not provide numeric values to the public,” Gay Gilbert, the administrator of the department’s Office of Employment Insurance, wrote in the email shared with the Times. The message noted that the figures are closely tracked by financial markets judging the strength of the economy.

Unemployment claims have been skyrocketing as thousands are laid off from jobs amid the spread of coronavirus. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin reportedly warned senators that unemployment during the pandemic could hit 20% without a financial rescue package.

Georgia did not release exact figures. State Labor Department spokeswoman Kersha Cartwright told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the state was not yet ready to reveal specific numbers — though she did not mention the memo.

New claims were so numerous that the state’s unemployment website was clogged, said Cartwright, adding: “We are seeing as many claims filed in a day as we usually see in a week.”

[Jack Dracula]

Trump knows there is a chance that leaving office (and Barr being replaced by, say Kamala Harris) would turn him from the unindicted co-conspirator he already is to an indicted co-conspirator. His fear will keep him from resigning.

It really seems to be a rule in Washington that if a shift in power occurs after an election, the party coming into power won't prosecute the outgoing President for what we'd think are illegal actions. I could see where it would set a dangerous precedent.
How W. Bush and Cheney are still walking around free is mind-boggling.