All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Mister Mets]

Don't rule Biden out. Much like the 2020 election, it will likely be a matter of if there are any other candidates up for the job. if the other candidates don't inspire voters to turn out, then Biden might not have a choice in the matter.

Biden's in a tough spot.

He's older now than any former President, and any current governor.

His win was very narrow, and very specific to him. There isn't anyone else who simultaneously appeals to centrist voters and African-American voters as much as the Pennsylvania-born Senator who served as Vice President to the first African-American president.

His approval ratings have declined, and it's not clear it'll improve. It could very well be a response to temporary news cycle: the clusterfuck of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, Democrats in disarray over disagreements about massive spending bills, his son's suspicious art sales, and continuing disagreements about how to deal with Covid. Perhaps his approval rating will improve when Afghanistan is no longer in the news, the bills with popular spending items get passed, his family avoids scandals, and the figures on Covid improve (for example- the vaccine mandates seem to be having the desired effect of pushing stragglers to get vaccinated) and when Republicans screw up (it's arguably politically better for his election chances if Republicans take back congress and can be blamed for all the obstruction.)

How many defeated candidates have sought a rematch against the same opponent?

Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams ran for the office of president. Jackson won the election, but he didn't get enough electors to secure his victory. So the House of Representatives elected Adams. in 1828, Jackson sought a rematch against the President Adams and won.

William Henry Harrison ran twice against Martin Van Buren. Harrison lost to van Buren once in 1836 but won the rematch against him in 1840.

Grover Cleveland ran and lost the election to Benjamin Harrison. Four years later Cleveland sought a rematch against him and won reelection. He was the first and only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Richard Nixon lost to John Kennedy in 1960. But in 1968 he ran again but against a different candidate and won.

Gerald Ford didn't seek a rematch or a reelection. Jimmy Carter didn't seek rematch against Ronald Reagan or a reelection against a different candidate. George H.W. Bush didn't seek a rematch against Bill Clinton or a reelection.

It would be wise for Donald Trump to not seek reelection in 2024 but I doubt it.

I'm not a Trump fan, and I certainly don't think he should run again.

I suspect his ego will push him to do it again, especially considering he lost a close election and refuses to admit that he lost.

If he could win again and govern competently, it can define his legacy. I'm not sure he can succeed in either task. He's not going to govern better at 81 than he did at 73, especially that he actually managed to get worse as President, making serious errors on Covid in 2020 and then encouraging the capitol riot in 2021.

The best option for Republicans is to convince him that he can be the next Goldwater, someone who lost a presidential election but changed the party and influenced successors who knew how to sand down the rough edges.

[numberthirty]

Biden's in a tough spot.

He's older now than any former President, and any current governor.

His win was very narrow, and very specific to him. There isn't anyone else who simultaneously appeals to centrist voters and African-American voters as much as the Pennsylvania-born Senator who served as Vice President to the first African-American president.

His approval ratings have declined, and it's not clear it'll improve. It could very well be a response to temporary news cycle: the clusterfuck of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, Democrats in disarray over disagreements about massive spending bills, his son's suspicious art sales, and continuing disagreements about how to deal with Covid. Perhaps his approval rating will improve when Afghanistan is no longer in the news, the bills with popular spending items get passed, his family avoids scandals, and the figures on Covid improve (for example- the vaccine mandates seem to be having the desired effect of pushing stragglers to get vaccinated) and when Republicans screw up (it's arguably politically better for his election chances if Republicans take back congress and can be blamed for all the obstruction.)

...

Yep.

As much as I don't like it, whoever the Republican is could run the same sort of "I am the alternative to this..." campaign that Biden ran against Trump.

Biden would need to have a lot of things break his way for it not to be another tight race that could be a coin flip.

[worstblogever]

Biden's in a tough spot.

He's older now than any former President, and any current governor.

His win was very narrow,

7 MILLION VOTES, a larger margin than Obama won by in a record setting year. 306 electoral votes out of 270 needed.

"Narrow", indeed. Whatever lies you're required to tell yourself to keep your party registration.

[babyblob]

To be Honest I think the way things stand now Biden would have a tough spot to run. To be honest I thought for sure Harris would have had a bigger role in the White House thus far and kind of be groomed as the hier to biden but that does not seem to be happening. I dont know what Dem would be a good choice for Biden if he doesnt run in 24. I havnt really heard any names jump out in the news and such. To be honest right now I think he is backed into a corner to run despite his age.

[4saken1]

A few years back I crunched some numbers to see how different states compare to one another, mostly to determine which Party does a better job at governing - Republicans or Democrats (spoiler: red states littered the bottom of the list, while blue ones were primarily those on top). Recently, I updated the statistics to see if and how things have changed, using the most recent data that I could find (all except inmates/capita, which is from 2018, are numbers from 2019 and newer). I also added more data that I had not previously considered. The categories that I looked at this time around are:

GDP/capita, debt as percent of GDP, federal funding as percent of GDP, percent of pensions funded, income adjusted to cost of living, unemployment rate, percent of households receiving food stamps, food insecurity rate, poverty rate, homeless rate, percent of population (over 25) with HS diploma, percent of population (over 25) with college degrees, teen pregnancy rate, divorce rate, suicide rate, murder rate, and inmates/capita.

The first image is a list of the 10 worst states in each of the 17 categories, with the red states that fared badly starting on the left and then moving to the right and continuing below with categories that blue ones didn't do well in. Note: there are 5 different color codes that I used in my graphic, very blue, blue, white, red, and very red. There are 10 states in each category, and thus only illustrate their partisanship relative to other states. The data I used for determining this is from FiveThirtyEight's analysis of how voters voted in their respective 2020 Presidential, Congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative elections.

WorstStates.jpg

Here is a list of the states which were among the worst states the most frequently, followed by how many times (out of 17) they were in the bottom 10:

New Mexico 13
Kentucky 12
Mississippi 11
West Virginia 10
Louisiana 10
Arkansas 10
Alabama 9
Oklahoma 8
Nevada 6
Arizona 5
Hawaii 5

The next image shows the top 10 performing states in each category, again with the categories that red states did well in on the left and the ones that blue states excelled at on the right and continuing below, .

BestStates.jpg

Here is the list of states that were in the top 10 most frequently and how many times they were in the top 10:

Utah 11
Minnesota 10
New Jersey 10
North Dakota 10
Massachusetts 9
New Hampshire 9
Connecticut 8
Nebraska 8
New York 8
Virginia 7

[Tami]

To be Honest I think the way things stand now Biden would have a tough spot to run. To be honest I thought for sure Harris would have had a bigger role in the White House thus far and kind of be groomed as the hier to biden but that does not seem to be happening. I dont know what Dem would be a good choice for Biden if he doesnt run in 24. I havnt really heard any names jump out in the news and such. To be honest right now I think he is backed into a corner to run despite his age.

It's only year one of their term in office. VP's have it hard no matter what. I think that this year there is too much at stake to not have Biden be the center of attention, to do the Presidential cheerleading to get people to get vaccinated, to get Congress to move on the bills, and so on.

This year, Harris is getting her feet wet, so to speak. If the Biden Agenda is passed, the COVID situation has somehow calmed down enough for life to return to some semblance of normal, if people can go back to work and employers can hire workers, then Harris can step up to more visible roles in areas like Immigration and whatever else she is getting involved with.

After that, it's up to her. She needs to learn how to be presidential, and to work at it.

[babyblob]

It's only year one of their term in office. VP's have it hard no matter what. I think that this year there is too much at stake to not have Biden be the center of attention, to do the Presidential cheerleading to get people to get vaccinated, to get Congress to move on the bills, and so on.

This year, Harris is getting her feet wet, so to speak. If the Biden Agenda is passed, the COVID situation has somehow calmed down enough for life to return to some semblance of normal, if people can go back to work and employers can hire workers, then Harris can step up to more visible roles in areas like Immigration and whatever else she is getting involved with.

After that, it's up to her. She needs to learn how to be presidential, and to work at it.

Biden is of course the face. But as old as he is I would have Harris out there now. Biden can cheerlead and push and Harris can also be going around to push things. Put her out there to push things for him. Covid is a great time to do it. Get her on tv with Biden and alone to push people to get the vaccine. As a POC she could be a huge person to help get the POC population get the Vaccine. I am just saying there are many things she can do right now while still giving Biden the spotlight and still get her face out there to raise her profile.

[numberthirty]

7 MILLION VOTES, a larger margin than Obama won by in a record setting year. 306 electoral votes out of 270 needed.

"Narrow", indeed. Whatever lies you're required to tell yourself to keep your party registration.

As yourself how many electoral votes Trump had when he won.

Both of those guys put a narrow win together, but Biden needed Trump actually face planting on handling a pandemic to do it.

Until a time when we start actually using the popular vote?

Both of them put a narrow win together.

[numberthirty]

It's only year one of their term in office. VP's have it hard no matter what. I think that this year there is too much at stake to not have Biden be the center of attention, to do the Presidential cheerleading to get people to get vaccinated, to get Congress to move on the bills, and so on.

This year, Harris is getting her feet wet, so to speak. If the Biden Agenda is passed, the COVID situation has somehow calmed down enough for life to return to some semblance of normal, if people can go back to work and employers can hire workers, then Harris can step up to more visible roles in areas like Immigration and whatever else she is getting involved with.

After that, it's up to her. She needs to learn how to be presidential, and to work at it.

She needs to just show up, for starters.

Think what you want about the Post's slant, but no one has come out to challenge the accuracy of this headline.

https://nypost.com/2021/10/09/harris...n-immigration/

Harris hits up NJ bakery as officials meet with Mexico on immigration

[worstblogever]

As yourself how many electoral votes Trump had when he won.

Both of those guys put a narrow win together, but Biden needed Trump actually face planting on handling a pandemic to do it.

Until a time when we start actually using the popular vote?

Both of them put a narrow win together.

I know you hate that Hillary won the popular vote, and it's telling to that fact that you started bleating about 2016. But in that year Trump BARELY won multiple swing states WITH Russian help, whereas Biden won several comfortably, and won Georgia in a surprise without any. (And Russia was helping Trump again.)

2020 wasn't even close.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Biden's not doing a good job but, IMO, Americans have poor memories during election year.

[Mister Mets]

7 MILLION VOTES, a larger margin than Obama won by in a record setting year. 306 electoral votes out of 270 needed.

"Narrow", indeed. Whatever lies you're required to tell yourself to keep your party registration.

You may want the popular vote to determine the winner of the presidential election but that doesn't make it so.

The tipping point state was narrow. There is some hypocrisy in suggesting that I'm a liar for looking at election laws as they are rather than how you would want them to be.

[Tami]

Driver who tried to hit people with vehicle is attacked by citizens and dies

A motorist who drove onto a Southern California sidewalk Saturday outside a business that had just turned him away was attacked by customers and declared dead at the scene, authorities said.

His vehicle nearly hit several pedestrians, and when it came to a stop, customers pulled him out and "a physical altercation ensued," the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

The motorist, whose name was not released, crashed twice after driving onto the sidewalk, but no pedestrians were injured, the department said. His cause of death will be determined by the Los Angeles County coroner.

The events unfolded just after midnight in Hawthorne, a city near Los Angeles International Airport.

"Hawthorne Police officers saw the driver lying on the ground, suffering what appeared to be blunt force trauma," the sheriff's department said. "Paramedics provided life-saving measures, but he was pronounced deceased on scene."

Sheriff's Lt. Hugo Reynaga told the Daily Breeze the driver had been ejected from the business for being a nuisance, argued with someone on his way out and intentionally tried to hit people with his vehicle.

Reynaga said multiple people who were involved in pulling the man out of the vehicle were interviewed by authorities at the scene before being released.

[Tami]

Woolly mammoths could walk the Earth again by 2027 if CRISPR startup succeeds

You've heard of startups building computer chips, delivery drones and social networks. One called Colossal has a very different goal: bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction by 2027 using CRISPR, a revolutionary gene-editing technology.

The plan isn't to re-create true woolly mammoths but instead to bring their cold-adapted genetic traits, which include small ears and more body fat, to their elephant cousins, creating a hybrid that can wander the tundra where mammoths haven't been seen for 10,000 years. Colossal's co-founders are Chief Executive Ben Lamm, who started five companies before this, and George Church, a Harvard Medical School professor with deep CRISPR expertise.

[worstblogever]

You may want the popular vote to determine the winner of the presidential election but that doesn't make it so.

The tipping point state was narrow. There is some hypocrisy in suggesting that I'm a liar for looking at election laws as they are rather than how you would want them to be.

Republicans are "looking at election laws" because they're trying to move the goalposts so they can "win". They've said it out loud.

I'm not suggesting you're a liar. You were lying about the election being close, which is only slightly better than the talking heads in your party lying and claiming the election was "stolen". You got caught and I presented the facts.

I'm not letting Republicans control the narrative. On account of all the lying. And knowing as a party they're lying. (Steve Scalise just lied on Fox News about the election being Ffraudulent this morning. Party leadership.) Maybe you're better than Giuliani and Sidney Powell and Trump, because there won't be e-mails to prove it... but I'm pretty sure you know.