Made-up murder claims, threats to kill Twitter, rants about NSA spying – anything but mention 100,000 US virus deaths, right, Mr President? “In their natural habitat, when chimpanzees become angry, they often stand up, wave their arms, and throw branches or rocks – anything nearby that they can get their hands on. When chimps are removed from the wild and kept in captivity, they experience stress and agitation, which can cause them to react in the same way – by …
Did someone contradict the shite he spouts? So not fair!
It kind of hard to contradict that much crap because there's so much of it spewed. His average Tweet Storm takes about 2 day for the press to analyze and rebuke it. If he'd spend the time doing his job instead of watching Fox and spewing, things might actually be better.
I don't see things changing but only getting worse. Various shrinks and psychologists seem to think he's into dementia, paranoia, and mental degradation. Seems like that might be true having had a family member hit by those issues.
With his killing of treaties, and general belligerence I hope that who ever has the launch codes won't give them to him.
>He murders the truth as much as he murders Americans.
There's more than one way to murder the truth.
I know the original article is an opinion piece but it does contain epic levels straw-manning.
For example: "The president currently has no power to shut down law-abiding websites in the US just because he disagrees with their speech."
Was this ever suggested by Trump? I think you'll find it is a figment of the writer's fevered imagination - perhaps projection?
What is at stake is Big Tech's platform vs publisher status, not whether its websites are up. If you offer a neutral platform, you aren't responsible for the content. If you edit the published content, you are responsible for it.
Big Tech likes to edit the content and claim it is a neutral platform - that isn't a truthful (or legal) position. It needs to decide which category it wants to fall into - either stop censoring or lose the platform privileges. They are free to do either, but the law does not allow both.
The size and power of Big Tech has protected it for so long that it feels entitled and above the law. I like tech so I'm hoping they opt for "platform" but these companies are so politically slanted, I'm not sure they would be willing to save themselves. They haven't complied with the law, and if it goes to the supreme court...
For example: "The president currently has no power to shut down law-abiding websites in the US just because he disagrees with their speech."
Was this ever suggested by Trump?
Yes:
"Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen."
That allowed the Caped Cockweasel to apply for election, and then you elected him. I have zero sympathy. None, nowt, zip. I thought that it couldn't get worse than Dubya. I thought that even Inbredistan couldn't beat electing Captain Cupboard...
And I shouldn't worry about the 100k of corpses it's already double that - and its academic anyway because Darth Dumbass has pulled out of Open Skies and is restarting nuclear weapon testing apparently. Have a look at Timeghost on YouTube about the Cuba Missiles - and imagine that today, the part of Kennedy will be played by Donnie Dickwit.. If he gets re-elected I give the human race 2 years.
America you are a fucking dangerous embarrassment, you are the telephone sanitizers of humanity, I hope you can contact the space aliens and fuck off to another planet, because you're going to find that you aren't wanted here.
Now where did I put that Novichok...
LOL, they outnumber you anyways...
Now if we could only get accurate US and China Death counts.
If you've just joined the game, the US numbers are mega inflated and the Chinese number are insanely under counted, but mobile incinerators really help with that.
What drives me nuts is the amount of uninformed opinions biased by politics, madness....
Not *all* of us voted for the orange headed shit gibbon but we got stuck with the fucker anyway. Lumping his ditractors in with his supporters is just as shitty as saying that _you_ supported Hitler because _you_ didn't do anything to stop him. How does the average Joe or Jill Q. Public show their desire not to be ruled by a moron? By not voting for said moron. The next step is to impeach said fuckwit. His supporters thwarted our attempts to hold him accountable. The next step involves armed revolution to enforce The Will Of The People said shitstain is supposed to represent.
He doesn't represent _me_, I refuse to take responsability for him, and I hope he's one of the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
"It's just his country's retarted voting system that allowed him to 'win'."
I think there's a second problem. The roles of head of state and head of government are combined. By the time the US became independent the separation was becoming established in the UK so it's difficult to see why the US took that step backwards. It's not as if you need a monarchy to have separate roles, plenty of countries have elected presidents as heads of state with a separate role of prime minister as head of government. Add in political appointments to the judiciary and you're left with a system with inadequate checks and balances and one in which that joint headship can be reached without the faintest taint of education as to such constitutional limits of power.
Actually I've been reading up on this recently. In the beginning of the US, the Presidency was actually the weakest of the 3 branches of government. It was designed to be little more than ceremonial (a little bit more powerful then that, but not much). Congress was supposed to be the strong one.
Over time though, the presidency has taken over way more powers than envisioned, and Congress is now little more than the president's little bitch.
There's a good webcomic series covering lots of topics based around constitutional law here: www.lawsandsausagescomic.com (written by a legal professor and his brother, who is a professional webcomic author), it does a good job of remaining quite neutral whilst giving the history of constitutional law...
According to the constitution as it was written yes. However, since then the presidency has taken over a lot of the presumed powers of the legislative branch.
Plus you just saw how well the legislative attempts at holding the presidency to account went.
Seriously i recommend you check out the webcomic i mentioned. It does a good job of explaining how the balance has changed between the 3 branches over the years.
I think there's a second problem. The roles of head of state and head of government are combined.
I think there's a third problem. The role of heads of states, and head of government.. Which is normal for politics. So everything is Trump's fault, from Charlottesville(D) to Minneapolis(D*), and on a fecal note, the problems with that in SF(D). Last bit possibly not helped by a spot of fraud on the part of their sanitation department. Or on the subject of US deaths, they're obviously Trump's fault. If he hadn't insisted that NY(D) send sick old people back to care homes.. No, wait, that was a local decision.
CDC reckons the mortality rate is running at <0.5%, but there must be ballot stuffing.. I mean postal ballots. Nothing ever goes wrong with those... No, wait-
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2018/11/15/florida-recount-updates-false-info-about-mail-in-ballots-investigated/
Last week, a top attorney in the Department of State wrote a letter to three Florida federal prosecutors that asked them to review "irregularities" related to mail-in ballots. The department included information that showed that voters were given the wrong deadline to fix any problems with those ballots.
...But four supervisors turned over information that showed the official forms were changed by Democratic Party operatives.
OK, so that is Florida, and they've always been a bit special. Hey, Chad! How's it hanging? And then of course, there's Twitter. The gift that keeps on giving-
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/28/donald-trump-twitter-failing-to-make-case-mail-in-ballots-not-subject-to-fraud/
Trump added, “tell that to your hater @yoyoel” referring to Twitter’s Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth, who falsely claimed that there were “actual Nazis in the White House.”
Roth apparently has a PhD in communications. It's not clear if he confused Nazis with Russians though. But Trump has gone and dun it with the Executive Order. Which is semi-Nuclear on the back of the US Copyright Office's report into how Google is messing up other bits of the DMCA.
I'm fairly certain it's not just the Orange One cursing Twitter at the moment. Obviously that includes lawyers who'll be salivating at the prospect of challenging the EO.
You remember the amount of Voter Fraud from the Dead and Illegals in 2016 right?
2 Million plus in California alone... they're still finding mail in ballots that were "lost" from that election...
Yeah, Killary won the popular vote, my ass...she was supposed to win by 95%.
Admit it, PC culture got a kick in the ass that day and for good reason and it never expected it.
When will people learn who drives the media and why.
AC writes "You remember the amount of Voter Fraud from the Dead and Illegals in 2016 right?"
Well, no. Because the only "evidence" was your liar in chief, well, lying about it having happened. NO evidence has been found, by anyone who isn't in the business of creating fiction, that it actually happened.
So basically, people like you are part of the US's problem. Too many liars. Not enough fact checkers or people with the critical thinking skills of a dead newt.
That "retarded voting system" is why you have a country. How many States would have joined a union if they knew they would always be outvoted by a couple of large cities?
That "retarded voting system" is why you should be pushing to remove as much power as possible from the federal government and give it to the States, rather than centralising power at every opportunity in an effort to force the entire country to follow one path, for example, on the issue of gay marriage.
I'm sure the delegation of power away from the federal government was at the top of the agenda for Clinton and Obama, right?
Well, she barely won the popular vote, but OK. As for the "retarted" voting system, have a look at the 2016 US election results by voting district at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html#3.46/39.71/-89.28. Clinton won the districts colored blue and Trump the red. There is far more red territory than blue, but because the blue is primarily the metro areas and the red everything else, Clinton won the popular vote. In other words, the electoral college system worked exactly as designed. It is a big country. Think of it this way; Clinton won the most people, while Trump won the most communities. The US is a democratic republic, not a democracy. And there is no monarch to just appoint a head of state with no vote at all. based on the predominant party.
Voters did come out and vote for the other person (Hillary). She got more votes that Captain Trumpton. The problem was that those extra votes were in the wrong places due to the 18th/19th Century voting system used. It was designed back when it took months to cross the country (Native Americans permitting).
It is clearly not fit for purpose now but no Republican will dare to try to change it.
The electoral college system (as far as vote allocation... not talking about the actual presence of people known as electors here) is a reflection of how the primary unit of government in the US is the state, not the federal. The national popular vote is a nothing number because there is no national election; there are 50 state elections. The national popular vote is as meaningless as the total number of (goals, points, runs, whatever) scored across a series of games in your favorite sport. It doesn't matter who scored the most across all of the games; what matters is who won the most games. The game is the basic unit of sports, not the series, so the series total is just a statistic without any real meaning.
If each state had the same population, it would be easy to tally the various state elections-- simply have the winner of each state get their total of state votes incremented by 1. The states do not have equal populations, though, so the system we have weights it heavily by population, but not completely, in order to keep the urban areas in big states from being the only areas that anyone cares about.
It's not an outdated system. It's the only one that makes any sense in a federal system. The US is a federation of states, and we don't have a national government. We have a federal government (more akin to the EU than the government of any of the countries within the EU).
I don't think the US is repairable. Trump is a symptom, not the cause. I wish we could dissolve it and start again-- only I don't think it would just be one country the second time around.
Civil War 2.0
Blacks, browns, reds, yellows & anyone not white WILL NOT be freed at the end of this one, either. To this day, they are still being murdered in full view of society & our corrupt ruling officials. Nothing ever really is done. Satan knows time is reaching its end. Only going to get worse.
Eyes on God, everyone.
The Federal system looks increasingly feudal from here, with threats to withhold/withdraw federal funding to states with Governors that displease the Orangeutan, a bit like a old time nobelman would bestow or withdraw patronage.
I fear for friends over there and mourn the loss of a country that was once part of the great human democracy, now reduced to a level lower than farce (if that is possible)
The consequences of his period in office could resonate for generations.
The consequences of his period in office could will resonate for generations.
Yes, will resonate.
And it is not at all certain that the US will ever recover from this grotesque spectacle.
Without going into how many millions of people decided not to take the time to go and vote Democrat or voted for unelectable candidates, lets not forget that The Moron® gets away with every single one of the stupid/outrageous things he says/does because the senate majority (reined in by Slime Kings® McConnell and Graham) either applauds and cheers or turns a blind eye.
It is a sad, sad view from outside the US.
I wonder if its citizens can actually see it.
O.
If all people are equal why do some people have votes that count 3x the power of other peoples votes.
Electoral college is like a backdoor into power.
Democracy is about uniting as many people as possible for their shared benefit.
If you don't need to unite the majority of people, you can focus on winning only a minority of votes, then you only need to work for the interests of that minority. Democracy fails. Electoral college is a failure.
Like all backdoors, the 'good guys' imagine it will only be used by them, and they end up being used by the bad actors of the world. P0wned by Putin.
It's not an outdated system. It's the only one that makes any sense in a federal system. The US is a federation of states, and we don't have a national government. We have a federal government (more akin to the EU than the government of any of the countries within the EU).
Perhaps someone should explain that to the Austrians, since those poor benighted fools directly elect their president despite their country being a collection of nine federated states.
In fact, a bit similar to Germany (no coincidence) and Switzerland. Only the latter is a confederation, for all I know cantons can leave if they get fed up. And in the former the president is largely ceremonial, and the real power rests in parliament (aka Bundestag)
"Trump is a symptom, not the cause."
I caught a bit of US based news yesterday. I didn't get the whole story but I'm fairly sure I heard them say that a poll returned only 51% of people would accept a CV-19 vaccine. If true, I'd like to know what the question was, who did the poll and how they selected the respondents. If that was done properly with statistically reliable methods, then that is a terrifying result.
If true, I'd like to know what the question was, who did the poll and how they selected the respondents. If that was done properly with statistically reliable methods, then that is a terrifying result.
Yup. Depending on question, answer isn't neccessarily that terrifying. So chose from-
a) Would you be vaccinated with a vaccine that's undergone rigorous clinical testing and trials? Yes/No
b) Would you be vaccinated with a vaccine that was developed in 30days, tested on 10 people with a 50% success rate and may cause kidney and/or liver failure? Yes/No.
Some drug dealers aren't exactly covering themselves in glory this crisis..
They need the wages, they can't afford to take a day off to sit in line for hours to vote. Blame the people that block 'voting day holiday' bills, and blame the boofing twat that decimated the 'voting rights act' and blame the puppet that's currently blocking 'mail-in ballots'.
Hunger is a powerful driver. If you want them to vote, they shouldn't have to lose that wages and risk their jobs.
Republicans create and perpetuate this situation, Republicans are to blame.
Republicans are creating wave 2 of Corona Virus deaths to suppress the election, Republicans did those murders.
"They need the wages, they can't afford to take a day off to sit in line for hours to vote. Blame the people that block 'voting day holiday' bills, and blame the boofing twat that decimated the 'voting rights act' and blame the puppet that's currently blocking 'mail-in ballots'."
That sounds like there are not enough voting locations and/or they aren't open for long enough. Here in the UK they are open from 7am to 10pm which should cover most peoples working patterns. On the rare occasions there have been queues still there at 10pm, it makes headline news because it's rare. IIRC, last time that happened, laws were changed so that anyone who joins the queue before the polls close still gets to vote.
It has always puzzled me why US and UK elections are held on work days. Here in Oz, elections are always on a Saturday. ( Yes, voting is mandatory here, but you could still have the election on a weekend with voluntary voting).
Of course, this system delivered us Scotty From Marketing, so is far from perfect, but still.
Difficulty in voting is a real problem, but a bigger one is voter apathy. Years of both parties attacking and vilifying each other convinced a lot of people that "they're all crooks". You know who loves that attitude? Crooked politicians, because they know apathetic people won't hold them accountable.
>he's one of the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Did he work for the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation? If so, your wish will come true as they were a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first agains the wall once the revolution came
Source - A copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica that fell through a wormhole in space.
> the orange headed shit gibbon
Haha! And they say orange is the new, er...
Seriously, can you imagine the tw*t-storm if someone used that description for the previous president?
Then there is impeachment... but oh dear, the voters are getting in the way! We'd better shoot them! Oh wait, we can't, because all our supporters voted for gun-control, on the basis that the government will keep you safe.
That's kind of the point of why they're trying to suppress mail-in ballots. If more people can vote safety and efficiently, they don't vote Republican. They (people) didn't vote for Trump.
Hence all manner of vote suppression. e.g. Kicking 14 million off voter rolls based on correlatives to who they vote for, closing polling stations in districts that vote Democrat, reducing voting machines at polling stations in Democrat districts. Voter challenging with intimidation groups. And now the Corona Virus wave 2.
https://www.salon.com/2018/10/23/stop-gop-voter-suppression-or-else_partner/
A reminder that Brett Kavanaugh did not get his Supreme Court appointment by legitimate process, and does not have the legitimacy that process would have provided. Moscow Mitch suppressing votes in the Senate does not make for a legitimate process. Anymore than Republicans suppressing votes in the country.
So if your parents die because Republicans are reseeding the Corona Virus, you know where blame lies and why they did it.
"So if your parents die because Republicans are reseeding the Corona Virus, you know where blame lies and why they did it."
They did it because locking down kills a lot of people too (and not just old people in nursing homes who already had one foot in the grave), in addition to killing the economy, countless small businesses, and putting us trillions more in debt. Did you think that for all of the people with mental illness or substance abuse issues, many of whom have found successful strategies for dealing with their issues, would be just fine after we put them under tremendous stress, taking away their jobs, taking away their psychiatrist, taking away their social supports, taking away their hobbies, taking away every damned thing they used to do to cope with their illness other than pills (and they may not be able to get those after they run out if no one will prescribe them), and doing it for months on end, was not going to kill anyone? Even people without any history of depression are reporting symptoms now, sometimes severe, so what do you think happens to those who were already in bad shape?
Why is it that only corona deaths matter, not all the deaths that our response to corona causes? What about all of the people who have not had treatment for other things that kill people every year, either because their doctor has closed or because they've been made to fear going to the doctor? Why are emergency room doctors asking where all of the non-COVID patients, the ones with heart attacks and such, have gone? Does COVID cure heart disease, or are people just putting off calling the ambulance until they die?
The real cruelty of all of this is that lockdowns, social distancing, masks, forced shutdowns of business, stay at home orders, and all of that stuff, does not actually save anyone from coronavirus. It merely delays the deaths. That's why the initial goal was to flatten the curve, which we did (and in the US, it turns out that it wasn't even necessary in the first place). Flattening the curve changes the shape, but not the area under the curve. Do you think that all of the measures taken actually eliminated the risk completely? That hasn't been shown in the stats of any country (not counting China, as you can't believe them if they say the sky is blue). Despite the measures, the cases have continued to rise. If you haven't had COVID, your time is coming. So is mine, so is everyone's.
If you merely reduce the odds of transmission, but R0 is still above 1, then guess what, everyone that was gonna get it is still gonna get it. The Swedish are the only country in the world that got it right. You almost did in the UK, but then your leaders lost their nerve. The Swedes are well on their way to the only actual thing that will end the death, and that's herd immunity. The death rates for this month or that month don't matter in the long term, because they will bottom out and have the death rate drop to near zero while the rest of the world's old people are still dying. Sweden is in it for the long haul, and they are going to have one of the lowest death rates of any country when this is finally over, not to mention all of the people who were not killed by lockdowns that would not have been in the COVID totals anyway.
"The real cruelty of all of this is that lockdowns, social distancing, masks, forced shutdowns of business, stay at home orders, and all of that stuff, does not actually save anyone from coronavirus. It merely delays the deaths."
Wrong. More people die who would otherwise have had an opportunity to be shielded by a vaccine. Also more people die due to complications with existing conditions or because medical responders cannot attend to them in time due to lack of equipment, over-stretched hospitals, and staff who have died from the disease.
Sweden didn't get it right. They have a massively increased death rate compared to their neighbouring states, and didn't manage to lift herd immunity noticeably.
The extra deaths and economic side-effects in the USA are because the pandemic exposed the basic cruelties and inequities in its economy and social services. Look at countries like Australia and New Zealand where the #deaths nationally approximates the numbers in a single building in the United States, and where rapid consensus between national and state leaders of opposing parties made rescue packages possible.
Look at countries sharing land borders with China (Vietnam, Mongolia) where the disease effect of the virus is vanishingly small.
Sweden didn't get it right. They have a massively increased death rate compared to their neighbouring states, and didn't manage to lift herd immunity noticeably.
Actually, Sweden thinks that killing mostly the old people and the immigrants is exactly "gettting it right", and that everyone else are just stupid and "behind the curve" and will soon follow the Swedish example of Glorius Enlightenment. They say so on TV every evening (while leaving out the "immigrant" part for being too obvious).
Only, we heard that song before in Europe and we are not impressed.
"Wrong. More people die who would otherwise have had an opportunity to be shielded by a vaccine."
Assuming we get an effective vaccine. If we do, then great, you were right and Updraft102 is wrong.
If however no vaccine can be found then to a degree Updraft102 is kind of right, a lockdown has only delayed the inevitable.
That's not to say we shouldn't have had any lockdown at all. Having the lockdown has surely ensured that;
a) If you need a ventilator, there is one available, and you don't die in a corridor
b) Doctors have had more time to get their heads round this and improve their treatment methods, meaning those up pick it up later in the curve have a better chance of survival.
A good article on the BBC showed the varying array of symptons this thing is presenting, can't find it though.
I've said it before here and other places, calling approaches right or wrong when we are still miles and miles and miles from the finish just seems daft. Is New Zealand going to keep its borders shut forever? Is Sweden going to achieve herd immunity through natural infection rates long before a vaccine?
To many ifs.
"The real cruelty of all of this is that lockdowns, social distancing, masks, forced shutdowns of business, stay at home orders, and all of that stuff, does not actually save anyone from coronavirus. It merely delays the deaths."
"Look at countries sharing land borders with China (Vietnam, Mongolia) where the disease effect of the virus is vanishingly small".
Probably because they practised all that shit you say is unnecessary, without needing to get out on the streets politicise mask wearing and hand washing.
@"locking down kills a lot of people too "
No it reduces deaths, road deaths in particular, we're also finding pulmonary disease is down (mask and distancing and hand washing also works for other diseases!).
"Total US Deaths in March 2020 are Actually Down 15% from Average of Prior Four Years"
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/strange-total-us-deaths-march-2020-actually-15-average-prior-four-years/
If you're interested, there's a nice animated graph showing you the relative causes of death in the US:
https://ritholtz.com/2020/04/leading-daily-cause-of-death/
@"in addition to killing the economy, countless small businesses, and putting us trillions more in debt."
You realize none of that was necessary? You didn't need to print ~35% of the GDP to prop the stock market up? You didn't need to attack the dollar like that. Didn't need to hand all those new printed dollars to Trumps buddies. It would recover on its own as you finished the disease quickly.
You could simply have tackled the disease and you'd be opening up now with the disease controlled, like the rest of the world is. The rest of the world isn't collapsing financially. The rest of the world is laughing at Trump.
@"stay at home orders, and all of that stuff, does not actually save anyone from coronavirus. It merely delays the deaths."
To ~82 years average.
@"If you merely reduce the odds of transmission, but R0 is still above 1,"
So is MERS, so is SARS1, so is H1N1, pretending its impossible to tackle this disease when the rest of the world has, is pathetic. Pretending the USA cannot tackle it, when it tackled so many similar diseases before, is pathetic. USA is pathetic because Trump is pathetic.
Pathetic excuses.
"Why is it that only corona deaths matter, not all the deaths that our response to corona causes?"
This article demonstrates that for most age groups Coronavirus introduces the same risk as all other causes of death put together. All other diseases, traffic accidents, fire, murder, the lot. Take all those together, add in coronavirus and, if you're over 30 - 40 your chances of dying are doubled:
https://medium.com/wintoncentre/how-much-normal-risk-does-covid-represent-4539118e1196
"Sweden is in it for the long haul, and they are going to have one of the lowest death rates of any country when this is finally over,"
It looks as if this is not going to be the case:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-52757471/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52704836
Let's cut to the chase.
I'm from Australia - the part I live in solved it.
If you want to talk about lockdowns, etc
1. My health is more important than your business ....
2. What have you done for me ... lately?
Over
PS: Corona virus works best in failed systems like the USA
The combination of:
- naked capitalism (money is more important than people)
- stupidity aka "freedumb"
- a broken health system
ensures that corona virus will be endemic in the USA
Are we seeing "peak America"?
Goodbye
Lets even talk about lockdown, it's needed. The length is an issue economically, probably more so for American workers as the safety net of state supplied health care isn't great and as far as I understand furloughed workers are not covered by work insurance.
It's not great economically, it's likely to have a greater effect on the poor than the well off. But it is needed.
The thing I can't help notice though is every country that reacted fast, took corona virus seriously and generally speaking whose citizens just got on with following the rules. Their lockodwns are lessening, or have finished already.
The biggest Problem with American politics and one that I've never heard ANY American discuss is that you're stuck with a two party system. And lets face it a two party system is absolutely no better than a one-party system. With a two party system, you're either Us or Them, there is no room for compromise (unless there are adults present and lets face it that hasnt been the case in American politics for at least a couple of generations). With a two party system, the power gets entrenched in those two party's, they have a decided interest in maintaining that narrative, and working less on the will of the people and more on the will of the party's.
The perfect example of this - The Republicans started off as the party that represented the North, the African Americans and the immigrants. The Democrats started off as the party representing the South, the slave owners, the priviliged whites. In what other system could the two party's completely switch their support bases, and still hold all the cards?
A multiparty system is the only sort of system that works in a democracy - you need all points of view, all positions on the spectrum, AND a willingness to find middle ground. America, you just dont have that....
Well, that's pretty much the same as in the UK then...
Thing is, it's not the two-party system that's the cause. The two party system is actually is a almost inevitable result of a district based system. This raises the barrier of entry for a new party to join the fun pretty much beyond being reasonably possible.
If you look at the latest UK election results you'll see that the Conservatives got 56% of seats with just 43% of votes. In my mind that's not a majority...
But the worst stuff is at the bottom of the list. LibDem got 11 seats with 11.5% of the votes, while the SNP got 48 seats out of just 3.9% of the votes. Similarly, Plaid Cymru got 4 seats with 0.5% of the votes, while the Brexit party got nothing even though they got 4 times as much votes.
The UK clearly isn't as bad as the US yet, but the pattern is there. You might get somewhere with a strong regional party, but that is going to be inherently limited. Any alternative party based on a political position is going to be severely underrepresented. And similar to the US, the system hands full power to a party which isn't actually supported by the majority of the population.
I would say it is not the result of a district based system, but rather district-based combined with a first-past-the-poll voting system. It does favor a two-party system. For example, the USA is not a two-party system, otherwise. In fact, there were 13 minor parties that ran Presidential candidates in 2016. Most are either extreme left, extreme right, or totally special interest, but at least two, Libertarian Party and Green Party, ran candidates who received over a million votes each. The last to receive any substantial vote was the Reform Party candidate Ross Perot in the 1996 election (>8 million votes).
The barriers for a third party are high in a district-based first-past-the-poll voting system, but which two parties become dominant has indeed changed in the past in the UK and USA, so it is not completely impossible. The Labour Party came to power mainly due to the Liberal Party self-destructing, and something like that is certainly possible in the USA as well. Look at the factions that already exist in the major US parties.
I thought that it couldn't get worse than Dubya. I thought that even Inbredistan couldn't beat electing Captain Cupboard...
Yeah before we cast the first stone we have to address our own blonde elephant in the room namely Boris. And let us not forget that a majority of the UK population that voted did so for Bozzer. That's not true in the USA....
No, the UK population voted for the individual they wanted to represent them in Parliament; we do not vote for the Prime Minister (that's not how our system of democracy - and it is a system of democracy - works).
Clearly, in reality, a lot of people vote based on the party leader - that is, people vote for their representative based on who they hope will become PM, so they pick their representative purely on party allegiance.
in 2019, it seems that a lot of people also voted based on who they didn't want as PM.
I take your point and you're technically correct but.........If the rest of the country is anything like my constituency then that's not how the canvassers painted it. I was told by both the Labour and the Conservative lot that a vote for anyone but their candidate is a vote for the other party's leader. I came away with the impression that either:
I could vote for Jeremy or the blonde buffoon would win.
I could vote for Boris or the loony lefty would win.
I wasn't convinced I cared anymore at that point or that I wanted either of them in Number 10 but I still voted.
"I wasn't convinced I cared anymore at that point or that I wanted either of them in Number 10 but I still voted."
And as we've seen over recent years, and a few times over previous decades, sometimes the people are so fed up with both of the main parties and their leaders, enough protest votes can swing the government around, eg UKIP and the Brexit vote, the recent coalition government.
Fortunately we are still quite a way from the sort of two party system the US finds itself in, although we do seem to have fallen for the same effective choices of Dumb and Dumber for the eventual PM.
Not wishing to get too pot and kettle but the UK seems to be running a close second behind us. I think its got us beat in the deaths per 100,000 stakes, its got a dubious excuse for democracy running it and both the Conservatives in the UK and the Republicans in the US share common traits, consultantts and a general disdain for the great unwashed.
Jared's got more style than Dominic as well.
Popular vote (majority) was AGAINST the crap slinging liar ape. Electorate voted him in. System created along with staggered congressional terms so the Repubs & Dems control who wins & loses. This country has not been a true democracy since the bill of rights was signed. Back then they used ropes & whips to choke black folks. Now it is cops boots & knees.
We have one legal chance to dump him. I have been kinda of wishing he would become his own statistic by joining the 100,00 plus stat of those murdered by him & his fellow Repubs. Satan is protecting him. And we may need to have an armed revolt when this crazed A-hole tries to cancel the election in November. Our country could do with a good house cleaning. God will not destroy the District of Columbia. Not for a little while. Once his peace plan is law between Israel & Palestine, then the beginning of the end starts & he becomes totally useless to all.
The final clock has started & even he can feel it. Sad truth is that every choice we are offered is corrupt, bought & paid for from birth. The world must reach the brink of destruction & only idiots like the politicians of the USA & the world can do that.
Enough about the immediate future. Writing about it & the crap slinger has created a desire in me to load up on bottled water, Trump paper, canned beans & rubbing alcohol. Gonna mask up & make a store run.
God help & protect us.
But they do care how he says it. His voters want him to "say it like it is" and as long as he keeps doing that, they'll ignore that he's now the person with most responsibility for the way things are. America got the government it deserves. See also Britain - whose per capita Covid-related death rate is (currently) significantly higher.
In Britain, Johnson was managing to ride the tide of criticism about deaths, PPE and care homes. It was the Cummings saga that made the government so pathetically ridiculous that only the most head-banging Brexiteers have been able to keep a straight face: Johnson is now a burst balloon. There's not much point attacking Trump on his record - voters aren't that interested. Given that he daily courts humiliation, it's difficult to suggest that as an effective alternative, though.
Just a point - there is really almost no point at doing comparisons between countries on deaths per capita as every country is doing their counting very differently.
Take for example, Belgium which has the highest deaths per capita. Thats primarily because in Belgium any death where a person had similar symptoms, even if they werent tested before they died is being counted as a covid death.
Compared to say America or Russia, where ONLY those people confirmed to have had Covid BEFORE they died are counted to the Covid death toll. Meaning the actual death rate is much higher, but is hidden.
England was doing something similar where it was only counting people who died in hospitals. Until it got called out on this, now the count is "probably" more accurate.
Doing a comparison of my land is better than your land is just bullsh&tting, because your most times comparing Diabetes and Hepatitis. They're both shit you dont want, but you have to treat them completely differently.
Total deaths per capita will be a good measure, eventually. ONE THE TOTALS ARE IN.
Belgium is near the end. It nearly has control of the virus now. They had only Wave 1 and won't open till its controlled, so no Wave 2.
Wave 1 + Wave 2 > Wave 1
Countries that have multiple waves of infection will inevitably end up with more dead. It just takes longer to arrive at the total.
there is really almost no point at doing comparisons between countries on deaths per capita
It depends what inference you're attempting to draw.
That the UK has a higher per-capita death rate on any reasonable measure is pretty indisputable at this point and has been since the start of the epidemic since the US is a couple of weeks or so behind the UK curve.
All I wanted to point out is that at this specific moment in time, the UK government has a bigger public health failure to explain than the US government. I have no idea where the US and UK will end up in excess mortality terms and even then it's not clear that an overall number for the US is useful given the variation in the approach of different States.
One of the troubling signs in the latest UK analysis is that there's not much significant regional variation, suggesting that there had been a widespread geographic spread before the lockdown. That's a mistake the US government has, in principle, had the opportunity to avoid and possibly still could mitigate.
I think that the data analysis to-date is interesting, but until underlying cause is understood then it doesn't really mean much. BAME people seem to be more likely to die; this might be because they are generally poorer and unhealthy and/or because they are discriminated against and/or because of genetics. The UK's death rate looks higher than other countries'; this might be because we have managed it badly and/or because we count the numbers differently and/or because Britons have underlying health issues which some other countries don't. Etc..... I hope that in the aftermath we don't forget to do the detailed analysis and that whatever analysis is done isn't skewed to meet an agenda - as Warm Braw above notes.
Luckily for the US they don't need to waste their time on any such analysis because Trump will decree that the US has the lowest death rates and the reason they are so low is all down to the way he has managed it.
According to John Campbell (look on YouTube), one (additional) explanation could be that darker people are generating even less vitamin D in N European winters than caucasians. Lack of D gives weaker immune system.
The guy was called racist for suggesting it...
@ Warm Braw - It seems you havent really understood my comment, based on your statement "That the UK has a higher per-capita death rate on any reasonable measure is pretty indisputable at this point...".
Actually i dispute it quite a lot.
But just to get back to the comparison example. Let me give you an example of what i was talking about. Lets say that Germany declares that based on its figures Germans drink less beer per capita then Americans. You might look at that and think, hmm that doesnt sound right, but they've got figures, it must be right. Well what if it turned out, the Germans were only counting beer brewed in Bayern (Bavaria if you will). No international brews, no beers from other states. Whilst the Americans were counting all beers regardless of where there brewed. Naturally, the figures are going to look very different then if both were counting all beers from everywhere, or both counting just beers from Bayern.
This is why you cant use the figures for death per capita. As i said, places like Belgium are counting any deaths that could be attributed to Covid whether comfirmed by test or not, as Covid deaths. The US is only counting Covid deaths where people tested positive before they died in a hospital. Everything else counts a natural death.
The UK, started off doing the same but got called out on it, and now includes all deaths where the patient is confirmed to have had Covid. That means there still counting less than the Belgians, but counting many more than the Americans.
They're not counting the same things, so you can cant use the figures to make any sort of reasonable comparison.
The Economist compared excessive deaths between countries and got to the estimate that Germany had got 92% of COVID deaths registered whereas Britain was missing quite a lot.
Of course this ignores secondary variations from COVID, such as heart attacks not treated, less traffic accidents, less respiratory problems, ...
"Of course this ignores secondary variations from COVID, such as heart attacks not treated, less traffic accidents, less respiratory problems, ..."
Likewise, things like demographics, population density etc. On the other hand, if each country uses it's own methods consistently, what you can compare is the graphs and trends which can show the effectiveness of actions.
The Beeb sometimes displays three versions: deaths with a +ve Covid test, deaths with Covid on the death cert regardless of tests and total number of deaths over and above the typical level. Not surprisingly they are ranked in magnitude in that order. The last, it should be added, takes into account any such effects as other diseases not being treated and less fatalities due to RTAs.
It's not indeed a competition in deaths, but it should not become a competition in excuses either, the British now in the lead in that respect in Europe, for some reason. Right now there is a clear correlation between deaths and the way countries reacted, those with a slow and confused start leading, like the USA, Britain and Sweden.
There is also the "excess mortality", data that compares what is going on now in different countries compared to previous years without the virus.
It's quite revealing and you find it here:
https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps
This is not over yet and it's no time to boast about anything for anybody or to come up with any silly explanations.
A world wide stat you find also here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/mapping-spread-new-coronavirus/?itid=hp_hp-banner-low_web-gfx-death-tracker%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
Would not have written this article on behalf om some Chinese propaganda organisation, he would notice the US numbers of Corona casualties are significantly below the European average.
Also the percentage of patients with Corona who died because of it is lower than in Europe, giving a good indication about the effectiveness of medical staff in helping patients to survive.
President Trump is right about influential digital platforms, where people exchange information, they should not be allowed to suppress free speech since it is unconstitutional. If they only want to allow leftist content they should move to China. Censorship is big business there and Corona wise it is the most healthy country in the world according to CCP statistics.
Looks like a case of anti-logic...
You want the government to control what digital platforms are allowed to post?
Sounds like you want to live in an authoritarian country, where the government controls what can and can't be said. Especially if it's criticizing the prez himself.
Somewhere like China, citizen.
It's interesting that he flies off the handle on Twitter about Twitter because Twitter dares to add a fact check to one of his tweets. Twitter hasn't even removed any of his tweets as far as I know, just added a link. Maybe he was expecting a Fat Cheque instead. Now that Fox News has turned against him what's left? Or is the HydroxyChloroquine making him more paranoid than normal?
My youngest nephew flies off the handle and makes threats against dictionary companies when it's pointed out he's used the wrong spelling of a word. To be fair the not yet ten year old also threatens me for correcting him with it.
The appropriately titled Naive said "the percentage of patients with Corona who died because of it is lower [in the US] than in Europe"
Given the difference in the way each country counts it's COVID-19 deaths and between their testing regimes, and that we're part way through it, it's as likely that your wrong as right.
It's true that, in the absence of vaccines, the vulnerable will be safer the sooner herd immunity arrives.
Perhaps a truly enlightened society would deliberately infect the non-vulnerable while having the vulnerable shelter for a few weeks... or would they have ramped up track and trace... what I'm trying to say is that only a few countries will be able to say they got it right and it's not the US or the UK (my country) so crowing that you're less shit than a dog shit ain't impressive.
"Perhaps a truly enlightened society would deliberately infect the non-vulnerable while having the vulnerable shelter for a few weeks"
Unfortunately, you need to be able to identify the "vulnerable" properly and accurately. In the case of CV-19, do you want to be the one going around deliberately infecting people who might have undiagnosed issues that will cause them to die? People have died who, according to what we thought we knew, should not only have survived, they should probably have not ended up in hospital in the first place. It needs not just an enlightened society, but much, much better diagnostics and testing than we have currently. After all, Sweden tried something akin to what you suggested and it appears it didn't work.
they should not be allowed to suppress free speech since it is unconstitutional.
Nope. The constitution only regulates GOVERNMENT suppresion of free speech (and waddayou know, exactly what Uncle Donny is probably up to). Corporations, being NOT THE GOVERNMENT (yet), can do more or less what they like, including asking any "free speakers" to buy their own lawn and soapboxen to speak from!
Twitter haven't suppressed what Trump has been able to say, they've merely added a flag to point out that what he's spouting may not be grounded in any kind of fact at all.
He's still free to say what he wants, but that doesn't meant that anyone else has to take it as gospel. What's really wound him up is that he might not be able to post a bunch of lies any more without it being openly called into question.
"Twitter haven't suppressed what Trump has been able to say, they've merely added a flag to point out that what he's spouting may not be grounded in any kind of fact at all."
And even if they did suppress his speech, it's a win for the Free Market and Capitalism ! Why would you want to add more regulations?
President Pence? That is a lot scarier than the noisy shit slinging orange buffoon who is currently falling out of his tree.
The quiet ones are often more dangerous, this one is a fundamentalist christian who believes in the book of revelations, what could be more dangerous on earth than a leader with his finger on the big red button who believes he is saved for eternity?
I would sooner watch a freak show than a fireball thank you very much.
"That’s another good thing about Bush being gone, man, cos for the last 12 years with Reagan and Bush, we have had fundamentalist Christians in the White House. Fundamentalist Christians who believe the Bible is the exact word of God, including that wacky fire and brimstone Revelations ending, have had their finger on the fucking button for 12 years."
[Eyes roll back in head]
“Tell me when Lord, tell me when. Let me be your servant Lord.”
- Bill Hicks, Revelations
The thing is, though, that I'm not sure Pence could be elected; I don't think he'd have the "I'm as batshit crazy as you" vibe that Trump energizes his base with. Sure, he'd get the evangelical death-cult votes, but without the "very fine people" in the alt-reich getting the belly rubs that Trump has given them and Pence hasn't (AFAIK( they won't be as eager to vote for him.
He's really just not as good at blowing that dogwhistle as Trump is.
Remember in the US it doesn't matter how the people vote - it's how the electoral college in each state votes. In most states there is nothing saying they have to go along with the popular votes.
Of course that would probably end up in the supreme court - chosen by the current president
If, as Chivo suggested, Trump blows a gasket, Pence won't need to be elected as he is the Vice Prez. He would step into the orange slippers and have the other fundamentalist nutjob Pompeo holding his hand and pulling CIA strings.
Even more scary, according to the current Whitehouse succession list is if Trump and Pence blew gaskets, next in line is Nancy Pelosi, she may be on the other team but she is an ankle biting old harridan and damn near as scary.
Compare Pelosi to Thatcher and then tell me who is a competent, experienced woman.
I didn't agree with much of her politics but watching her in action was an education in politicking. So no, I am not afraid of competent, experienced women, a female president might be a good thing for the US but I wouldn't vote for either Nancy or Hilary.
Trump is a product of the US has believing their own hype. Their proudest achievements - democracy, the constitution, and the separation of the legislature, executive and judiciary - have proved powerless to reign in a spoilt tin-pot wannabee idiot. He lies, breaks the law, ignores scrutiny, fires the people employed to check his power, employs his cronies, uses his position to make more money,....., etc., and, apparently, there is absolutely nothing that the people can do to hold him to account.
The USA is a country which boasts of its democracy, where gerrymandering is rife and states routinely implement measures to disenfranchise opposition voters. I expect him to get another four years.
How long before he tries to get round the 22nd Amendment or doing a Putin as its called.
Long live the glorious leader of the Free World !
Not sure why its called that, he's getting more and more like someone you would cross the street to avoid. I already would avoid him and i have fairly low standards.
Would you mind backing up that assertion, that Trump has discussed repealing term limits? Can you show some sources for that? Such comments would be huge news, and frankly I've not seen anything along those lines anywhere.
I wouldnt put it past him to try it on at some point. But id expect that would get people on both sides of the aisle of congress pretty upset. And that would make it big news. So frankly im calling bollocks on that one...
"Would you mind backing up that assertion, that Trump has discussed repealing term limits? Can you show some sources for that?"
It was one of those comments that he throws out at random, and he followed it up over a couple of days in his usual fashion:
Step 1 - Make outrageous comment.
Step 2-A - If no one responds, double down and start the "Well, a lot of people are saying that..." comments, or;
Step 2-B - If it gets pushback, claim that he was:
i - only joking, or;
ii - doing it to show up how unfair the [press | liberals | Democrats in Congress | other countries' leaders] are to him (and, by extension, to America).
Here's at least one instance:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-jokes-about-running-for-third-term-in-2024/
Yeh true.
People die from mass shootings, a spin doctor needs to figure out how to also blame that on Trump... oh wait maybe not a good example.
People die from lack of health care, a spin doctor.... wait, another bad example, let me try again.
People die from Asbestos related cancers, a spin doctor needs to, .... oh shit, the Russian asbestos legalization, fuck... I can do this!
People die from bad nutrition.... fuck fuck fuck.
People die from swallowing poison fish tank cleaner now you can't blame that on Trump can erm..... seriously? There's gotta be something!
I can do this, I can honestly I can. I can find a death he hasn't had a hand in and cite false equivalence. Really I can!
John McCain, war hero, Republican Senator, died of brain cancer, and it had nothing to do with Trump. THERE! Find a way to blame that on Trump!
John McCain's death had nothing to do with Trump so by extrapolation, all those dead Covid people had nothing to do with Trump! MAGA!
And why is his response 'piss poor'? He restricted travel from China in January. he did the same to the EU when they had mass positives. He was called a racist for the China restrictions. BTW - the US has a Bill of Rights that limits the royal decrees the EU and Britain are used to. Also BTW - do you notice that in the US the Covid hot spots are all in areas governed by Democrats? I know - facts hurt liberals. Man up and grow a pair.
And why is his response 'piss poor'? He restricted travel from China in January. he did the same to the EU when they had mass positives. He was called a racist for the China restrictions. BTW - the US has a Bill of Rights that limits the royal decrees the EU and Britain are used to. Also BTW - do you notice that in the US the Covid hot spots are all in areas governed by Democrats? I know - facts hurt liberals. Man up and grow a pair.
So he closed the borders to China and Europe earlier in the year. He did that All for a virus that the CDC stated had a 0.4% mortality rate. Your words not mine:
way to ignore the actual facts. Live as a coward all you want. Cower in your house, wear your state approved mask, wash your body with bleach, whatever. All for a virus that the CDC stated had a 0.4% mortality rate.
So on the one hand you say this potentially deadly virus is so bad that borders had to be closed to stop people bringing it in to the USA. On the other you appear to be having a go at people for being scared of this virus.
Either:
Mr Trump was right to close the borders because this is a highly infectious potentially deadly disease.
Or
Mr Trump was wrong to close the borders because this virus has a seriously low mortality rate.
Which is it?
Ignoring the issue for a month, talking it down, not pushing various federal agencies to prepare. Bleach and unproven remedies.
When D voting areas have higher infection rates it is likely due to being denser populated.
As a contrast, consider Angela Merkel who is also the political head of a federal state. But she is a scientist.
Are you arranging them by the colo(u)r of the stripes or the width of the stripes?
Can't wait for him to close twitter down, then wonder why nobody is listening to him anymore. A bit like a 5G mast burner wondering why t'interwebs is broken.
<singing> Hey Mr Tangerine man, play a song for me...
Brilliant writing Kieren. Some of my US pals are just too wearied and saddened to comment.
"Crap-flinging has become a regular response"
He called it a super-duper missile.
Actually, Andrew has just taken a pop at No.10's nudge unit psychofugue.
Subtle, but definitely /r/politics drivel.
[I notice his avatar is 1979 Orlowski. Not a criticism, ageing sucks big time, only slightly better than the alternative. Someone took a good photo of me in 2004, I looked happy and passable, lived off it for a decade. But it was not me.]
I'd give this a Reg Rant score of 97/100. Points deducted for lack of bad language, but otherwise coherent, and at least checked for spelling errors.
However: IT Angle? El Reg is supposedly an IT outlet, not a political opinion one. Yes we Commentards often rant about political matters in the forum, but that's generally in response to some (at least outwardly) IT-related story.
Danny 2 - while I agree with you regarding social media being IT related, I also agree with Batfink (Why, yes, thank you, this fence is very comfy).
The IT issue was covered in a personnel tech story yesterday ("Twitter ticks off Trump...").
This opinion piece could just of easily have been in the Guardian, the Times or on Politco.eu.
Now, El Reg's house, El Reg's rules, and if we don't like it, we're all free to leave, but this article seems unnecessary and self-indulgent (with an element of playing to the mob).
I've already congratulated it, defended it and applauded it. Can't roll that back.
I've been locked down since Feb 5th with two awful elderly parents because I knew what 'pandemic' and 'novel' meant. Pulled two of my own teeth.
Haven't had any internet access for two days, which was kind of the cherry on top of lockdown. Can't get to my pain medication. I'm a ball hair away from a murder/suicide pact. It's just nice to vent here, and see other people venting.
In short, pro-mob, if they socially distance.
Joking, ta for yer concern though.
The day I can call my dentist then my mental health will be just fine.
I'm a partial anarchist, could never commit because nobody had plans for an anarchist dental school.
I've quit good jobs to see him, longest professional relationship in my life.
I would have married any dentist who would have accepted, but nobody who saw my mouth would have. And I dated a surgeon. Who needs a surgeon? Dentists are the key workers.
I am the reason Americans joke about British teeth.
Not all my fault, my mum used to feed me sugar sandwiches. White bread, white sugar.
What? Is the Twatter in Chief spouting drivel again? Why does anyone listen to that irrelevant moron? Tell him to go ahead, shut down Twatter, close Farcebook, push the damned Big Red Button. Nobody cares any more. Wake me up when the world comes to it's senses and finally elects human beings as heads of state rather than the current crop of self-serving, self-aggrandising, selfish people.
Luckily his big red button on his desk only orders a butler to bring a coca-cola.
Nobel peace prize for whichever Whitehouse aide thought up that.
As far as I know if he wanted to order a nuclear attack there are two scenarios that can occur.
The first is Overt
If the USA (or possibly another NATO country) is attacked overtly with Nuclear Weapons. That is to say NORAD or Fylingdales etc. have tracked where the missile(s), bomber(s) etc. came from. Then the President can authorise an attack on his own.
The second is Covert
If the USA is attacked covertly with Nuclear Weapons. That is to say NORAD or Fylingdales etc. have seen nothing to indicate any missile attack etc. Then the President cannot authorise an attack on his own. In that scenario the two man rule applies and any order for the release of Nuclear Weapons must be confirmed by SecDef as part of the National Command Authority. If SecDef is not available then another authorised person must confirm the order.
So Mr Trump can't just blow up anywhere he fancies just because he fancies it. I heard somebody talking about it in detail on the radio in the run up to the last US election.
It's worth remembering that the standard response of any politician faced with the consequences of their own ineptitude is to find some foreign enemy to blame. "Chinese virus" fits right into this pattern.
What's unusual about this one is that he started this sort of behaviour in his initial campaign - Mexican walls & all that. Thank goodness no politician in the UK would resort to such tactics.
I think it's just author nowadays. Actually I think it always was.
I was outside Pippa's flat in 2006, sleeping and listening to the BBC World Service, expecting her to join me for an action against a Mel Gibson statue, and two drunk guys attacked my car while I was in it. As you do.
And I froze for a minute, because WTF?
I had a big hammer on the passenger seat, because, well I already explained, so I picked it up and gave chase. They had a minute head start on me. I really couldn't catch them on foot but I really could have thrown the hammer and hit one.
And this is gradually going through my mind, weighing it all up, and stop. Accept the car damage from two drunken idiots rather than kill one of them and become a murderer.
Now if I had two hammers that story might have ended differently.
But I really can throw a hammer, I'm a Scot. We practice as children.
I was given a Soviet Russian tank commander goggles, hat and dagger as a child. A fair few trees, well they probably survive to a degree. But I was cool as....in my defence I was a child. The two games were 'Japs and Commandos' or 'Cowboys and Indians'.
I invented 'Soviet Assassin''. Nobody but me was cut or shot. Aye, I had a rifle too.
Anyone with two braincells to rub together can see it doesn't make sense to quote raw numbers of Covid deaths. Raw numbers are meaningless in a country of 300 million compared to other countries of far far less.
Currently many other countries are thrashing the US for covid deaths, proportionately.
And also since it will be the >percentage< total AFTER the pandemic is over that is more meaningful, and even then one needs to account for other factors.
Since by far the majority of victims have had less than a year to live even without Covid19, those and other victims should be removed from the stats when apportioning blame.
"Since by far the majority of victims have had less than a year to live even without Covid19, those and other victims should be removed from the stats when apportioning blame."
Wow, now THAT needs a citation. I mean primary source, not some politically leaning media source/
..and how is that a refutation of what I wrote? It's evidently the case that 40,000 deaths from the UK of 70 million smashes 100,000 deaths from the US 300 million as a proportion.
Let's just help you with this as you evidently don't get percentages. Or your reasoning is based purely on emotional blackmail (which is, after all, the main reason for the lockdown instead of a quarantining of the vulnerable).
40,000/70,000,000*100 = 0.057%
100,000/300,000,000*100= 0.033%
.....so double the rate. Capiche?
Engage braincell.
Sorry to bore you but I have a half dozen stories on this subject. This is the most recent. Local kids were throwing stones across a garage roof and hitting the cars on the other side. I don't want to be a disciplinarian or adult so I just asked them why. Their football was on the roof and they were trying to knock it off.
Recklessly, with very bad throws..
I asked them why they just didn't climb up and retrieve it, apparently they can't climb. So I hoisted one South African Celtic wean up, and then he expected help down. I was reluctant because sad.
I told him just to dreepy down. He said he didn't know the word 'dreepy', and none of his friends knew either.
Bit of a kick.
So lets see. 100K out of a country with 325+M population. You people seem to be seriously mathematically challenged. 100K over 4 months - when the country routinely averages 1M due to heart disease/cancer annually. But no one has ever - in the history of the world - stated that liberals can understand math. Your entire purpose is to promote fear and terror over those that can't figure out the math for themselves.
This post has been deleted by its author
way to ignore the actual facts. Live as a coward all you want. Cower in your house, wear your state approved mask, wash your body with bleach, whatever. All for a virus that the CDC stated had a 0.4% mortality rate.
If this virus isn't so bad why is the White House taking so many precautions around the President and Vice President?
So lets see. 100K out of a country with 325+M population. You people seem to be seriously mathematically challenged. 100K over 4 months - when the country routinely averages 1M due to heart disease/cancer annually. But no one has ever - in the history of the world - stated that liberals can understand math. Your entire purpose is to promote fear and terror over those that can't figure out the math for themselves.
What about if it's 100k of Republican voters? I mean it's not like your risk of dying is increased by obesity BBC Health News now who do we know who could stand to lose a few pounds?
Members of my family have had the virus and it isn't pleasant at all. I've got a relative who's an NHS doctor and I'm seriously worried they might catch it still.
The orange clown will soon be gone, and he is now in panic mode because he has suddenly understood that he is about not to get a second term.
Still I hope at least the US Army keeps a tight look at him as this guy has absolutely no shame at all.
There are clips from him back in time, on YouTube, where he is able to form complete sentences and has not painted his face orange, but have you ever seen him good heartedly laughing at himself or anything like a sound normal person.
My home stage, California, is physcially and economicaly on a par with the UK. The US itself is quite diverse with states like ours being quite 'normal' compared to the outer reaches of what are sometimes termed 'the flyover states'. Unfortuantely, the way that the political system is set up means that a relative minority of the population gets to choose the Federal government; that minority is entrenched in the GoP dominated 'red' states and sytematic attacks on the electoral system has entrenched it, making it very difficult to dislodge.
To give you some idea of the scale of the problem, Trump became the President due to a majority of 50,000 votes in three states. Overall the vote count, the so-called popular vote, gave Hilary Clinton a win by over three million votes. This is bad enough but then the process of packing the courts wiith unqualified but idologically sound judges has proceeded apace and the GoP dominated Senate has blocked any attempt by the House to exercise oversight. Its a nasty situation. But then things aren't any better in the UK. The system is skewed, its not really democratic (you get to vote for one MP every five years)(Whoopee!). There isn't even the semblance of Constitutional protections and a Bill of Rights in the UK, ther's just custom and practice, a process that's favored a small ruling elite since 1066. The only thing to be said in the UK's favor is that shorn of Empire its now a small, relatively ineffectual state that can't do the kind of global scale damage that our government can do.
British democracy died in the 1980s when a truculent (Labour) GLC was summarily replaced (before an election, no less) by 'managers' selected by the central governemtn from outlying (Conservative) councils. Say what you will about the US, if you tried to pull that stunt here you'd be tied up in the courts for years. Its something our Dear Leader has yet to understand -- he ducked or flunked his civics classes at high school so hasn't a clue what a President can and cannot do. He only gets away with what he does because a bunch of GoP politicians enable him -- they recognize a useful idiot when they see one.
> There isn't even the semblance of Constitutional protections and a Bill of Rights in the UK
Apart from the Bill of Rights 1688, that is.
That being the model that the US used to write their Bill of Rights.
Yes, the UK constitution draws a certain amount on custom and practice - it makes for a constitution that can be changed when it needs to be, but is in practice, generally quite effective.
The UK have had quite a few changes to our system of government since 1066, not the least of which was the British Civil War (more commonly called the English Civil War, but given the events in Scotland and Ireland, 'British' is more accurate), as a result of which, we lopped off the head of our (former) King, tried being a republic, didn't much like it and imported a new King (from the Netherlands, and then later from Germany).
Oh, and incidentally, the UK isn't small - it's mid-sized (at least in terms of population; in terms of economic, political and diplomatic influence, it's medium-large sized)
To be clear: Scarborough didn't kill anyone.
Perhaps the Drumpf is still upset about being called a Russian agent for 3 years without any sign of Twitter (or Facebook or Youtube) doing any fact-checking? We saw the entire Democratic Party, vast chunks of the "Intelligence Community" and 90%+ of the mainstream media push this "fact", then just shrug when it came to nothing. And no one seemed to care about how weak it made the USA look to its enemies.
You know how you're not supposed to say the name of the bad guy in Harry Potter, as just doing so only gives him more power?
That's why I call the current CEO of America "It".
No offense (and hopefully no relation) to the *other* creepy clown with that same name, or the wonderfully hirsute cousin from the Addams Family...
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