American Politics

[PVMonger]

PVMonger,

How could you possibly maintain the shots were ineffective? They were 95% effective at preventing infection before COVID started mutating. And 75% to 85% effective against hospitalization and death since.

I clearly said that Trump didn't set a good example and should have done more to encourage people to wear masks and social distance.

That said, you apparently don't understand the mentality of hard core Trump supporters. I do. I live and work among them. Trump won the county where I live by a 60% margin. The plurality of residents here are Hispanics and the majority people of color, so you can't attribute that to this place being a hotbed of white nationalism.

They are not sheep. Most were not going to base their decisions as to whether to wear a mask on Donald Trump. Trying to get some to wear masks would be akin to trying to take their guns. A lot didn't get vaccinated, even though Trump was encouraging that, the initial shots anyway..

Here are a few articles about COVID tests. The upshot is that contrary to your opinion that President Biden is to blame, there are many factors in play, not the least of which is the fact that manufacturers decided on their own to scale back production because of lack of demand. https://www.medpagetoday.com/special...clusives/95272 and https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/05/drug...across-us.html and, finally, https://www.statnews.com/2022/02/07/...-kit-shortage/#text=The%20 Supreme%20 Court%20 is%20 partly, Covid%2 D19%20 test%20 kit%20 shortage&text=Many%20 pharmacies%20 across%20 the, virus%20 that%20 causes%20 Covid%2 D19.

Remember the uproar over ventilators? Tests would have elicited the same response had production skyrocketed and demand plummeted resulting in millions of test kits having to be destroyed.

[PVMonger]

So what do you propose? Put price controls on the utilities and watch them all go bankrupt?

Evidently you don't remember the fiasco in Texas a couple of winters ago (when Buttface Cruz slunk off to Mexico) where people were getting surprise electric bills of $10,000+ because the Texas grid was as badly mismanaged as Texas politics.

[EihTooms]

The Inflation Reduction Act is not a legislative plan to tackle and tame the economic reality of "inflation. " That is what the Fed is currently trying to do to tackle Trump's Pandemic Supply Chain Destruction Inflation during Biden's historic economic recovery from it by raising interest rates and artificially inducing a mild recession, at most, in order to cool down Biden's roaring economy that is producing more higher paying jobs than there are current applicants to take them.

After all, nobody should want to reduce all forms of inflation. Some inflation in the economy is normal and healthy. I mean, how flat and dreary of an economy would we have had to endure for the past 172 years if houses were still selling for $50 or whatever they were in 1850?

No, a portion of that terrific legislation is designed to surgically target certain critical areas of necessity for most or all of us eventually whose prices have skyrocketed out of all affordability and beyond the ordinary rate of inflation. For example, for the first time Medicare can negotiate for lower drug prices, price caps on certain widely required drugs and so on.

It will no doubt accomplish its stated goals much better than Trump and the Repubs' godawful $2. 5+ Trillion waste of money December 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. LOL. Talk about a joke name. That one wound up producing a million fewer jobs in the three years with it than in the three previous years without it. And the vast majority of tax cuts for people who might have benefited from them evaporated over the next 2-3 years just as Trump was producing his Pandemic to wipe out millions of jobs anyway.

Of course, one of the most accurate predictors of that legislation producing highly effective results is that not one Repub voted for it. I was worried when 1-2 Repubs hinted they might vote Yes on it. Then they didn't, which was a great relief.

Some of the best and most effective legislation of all time passed with either very few or zero Repub votes. And, of course, some of the worst passed with few or zero Dem votes.

[Spidy]

...Saying that you have smthg in common with insects bcos you can only see binary is not name calling. I am attacking your message. Which was to call me a QaNon supporter bcos of your binary (your either with us or against us) view of the world. ...

Dude, I wouldn't loose any slept over it.

However, it obvious to many of us here, as to why your "bothsidesism" politics is seen as QAnon/Repubs dogma. Your posts are self-evident, no explanation need, for those who see clearly past any Repub rhetoric/dogma dressed up as "bothsidesism".

Let me put it like this. Wrongly or rightly, perhaps it's simply a case of, "He that lies with the dogs, riseth with fleas".

And BTW, me saying you have something in common with dogs and fleas, by no means, I'm I trying to insult you or call you names.

... Clearly I was mistaken. Maybe that's why your called Spidery.

Or for that matter, your political "dogma that lies with men with pointy hats and tiki-torches", is maybe why you're called JustTKKK.

[EihTooms]

Hi Tooms,

Well, if you believe in spurious correlations, you should go all in and put all your savings in USA Stock index futures. Every year in January, if an NFC team wins, go long, and if an AFC team wins, go short.

The primary determinant of whether the economy performs well or poorly over a 4 or 8 year period is whether the USA went through a recession. If you kick out the recessions and the recoveries, I bet you wouldn't see much of a correlation between GDP growth or real household income or whatever and the party of the president. There are exceptions, like Reagan's second term, Clinton's second term, and, for median household income and wages (but not GDP), 2019. Please note that, perhaps coincidentally, no one party controlled government during these periods. The presidency and at least the House were controlled by different parties.

So, when you boil it all down, the question is when were the recessions? You're clearly blaming COVID and the 2020 recession solely on Trump. You appear to be blaming the collapse of the housing market and the consequent 2008/2009 recession solely on George W. Bush. As well as the collapse of the internet boom. George H. W. Bush is responsible for the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent increase in oil prices. And then of course there was the most diabolical of Republicans, Ronald Reagan. He too was responsible for high energy prices. And stagflation and the Fed's actions to control it.

It's so simple isn't. It's like you said, they're Republicans, and "that is what they do for a living. It is the only thing they do, know how to do and want to do. " Nuke the economy. Satan has hardened their hearts.

There is nothing "spurious" about the correlation between the POTUS and economic results.

The POTUS runs for election on a set of largely economic propositions. In addition to Executive Orders, they then present that agenda to Congress, often outlining specific details to be included in a budget and tax policy. They can and often do lobby individual members of Congress to move legislation negotiations in the direction they want. When placed on their desk they can and often do request a revision to legislation before signing or exercise their veto powers.

Add the incomparable Presidential Bully Pulpit and Fed Chair appointments and a POTUS can easily be more responsible for the economic direction and results than any other federal entity.

The most common denominator in the major economic downturns and job losses of at least the past 100 years is the Party that was in the White House when it started. It was the Repub Party. Every time.

The most common denominator in starting the major economic expansions and jobs creation during that same timeframe has also been the Party in the White House. It was the Dem Party. Every time.

You think that is a spurious correlation?

I used to think the same thing. Pre Reagan. I was an ignorant, ill-informed Bothsider back then. I even stupidly voted for Reagan in 1980. Yes, I was that ignorant and ill-informed.

In my defense, we did not have nearly the consistent pattern to review and consider in 1980. Sure, we had Hoover's Great Repub Depression, Eisenhower's triple Recessions and one of the worst jobs creation records ever. Not really enough data to come to an inevitable and unavoidable conclusion.

However, by the middle of Reagan's first term and noting every Repub vs Dem results before and since over the past century, whooboy, it is now impossible to ignore; Economic disaster, huge balooning deficits accomplishing nothing and skyrocketing unemployment and / or massive job destruction is the Repub Party / s agenda and goal. It must be. No other way to explain the pattern. They can't all be that blundering and incompetent, can they?

You know, it turns out not every player at a crap table has their chips placed on the Pass Line or the Come Bar banking on the shooter to make his point rather than not making it and crapping out. So too it turns out one of the major Parties does not see economic success for the country as its ticket to election victory, power and personal wealth. If they did, they would all be Dems and govern that way.

Besides, wiping out millions of jobs and flushing billions and trillions down the shitter with nothing to show for it is so much easier than creating millions of jobs and improving people's lives for the money. The latter is hard work and you really need to know what you're doing. With little glory and reward for it. It requires a rare dedication to Public Service. So that's why lazy, increasingly addle-brained former Dems like Reagan and Trump switched to the Repub Party when they pursued a career in politics.

[ScatManDoo]

Yes, I know. But you didn't answer my Q.

From my point of view.

Your question was irrelevant.

[EihTooms]

For the first time since last year the FUX News Poll shows Dems have surged ahead of Repubs on the Generic Congressional Ballot question, 44% to 41%, a huge swing in their favor since April, June and July:

https://www.pollingreport.com/2022.htm

And, yes, the Dem advantage momentum continues in the Poll of Polls version of that question on the RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight sites.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep...vote-7361.html

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...eneric-ballot/

Now, it should be pointed out that kind of momentum only mattered in the past before the Repub Party decided their one and only current and future potential winning election "platform" and campaign strategy is to pack state and local ballot collecting and vote counting entities with Big Liars, Election Denying Repub QAnon loons proud and loud about their intentions to announce Repubs as the "winners" of every election going forward no matter what the actual votes were.

So that's a problem.

[JustTK]

I believe that every woman have complete ability to choose to have a safe and legal abortion if she so chooses.

Yes, I know. But you didn't answer my Q.

[Tiny 12]

MSNBC and CNN are the worst. They can not report anything positive about the Biden administration, Biden policies or the economy because there isn't anything positive so they have to keep reporting on January 6, abortion and Trump raid. They along with democrats think their audience is stupid and will ignore the Biden failing presidency. And who are these networks audience? Yes democrats and the networks consider them stupid. Biden presidency was a disaster in 2021 and worst in 2022. Good news is that it is lower than every other president in history so it can't get much worse next year. America is suffering by Biden incompetence. And yes some idiot will reply to this post and blame Trump for Biden incompetence.

Au contraire. They're in business to make money, and they do that by appealing to left-of-center voters, who watch their commercials. So why would they slam the Biden administration?

Besides, Trump is so much more entertaining. I find myself watching a lot more MSNBC and CNN these days than Fox, for that reason, their coverage of Trump.

[Tiny 12]

Am I the only one that sees that charging people exorbitant amounts for electricity is wrong, especially when they had no control over the situation?

So what do you propose? Put price controls on the utilities and watch them all go bankrupt?

[Tiny 12]

Don't tell any Mainstream Media pundits about this:

Wholesale prices fell 0.1% in August amid inflation fears

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/14/prod...ndroidappshare

From your link:

"On a year-over-year basis, headline PPI increased 8. 7%, a substantial pullback from the 9. 8% rise in July and the lowest annual gain since August 2021. ". So I guess you could have just as well said, "Wholesale prices rose 8.7% in August amid inflation fears."

Yes, gasoline prices are down from their peak. Grocery prices are up 13.5% YoY though. Scott Brave, lead consumer-spending analyst at market research company Morning Consult says, "We have yet to see a peak in food inflation. And the longer that goes on, the higher it gets, the more difficult it becomes for lower-income individuals in particular to afford those price increases. ". The workingman's being left behind.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/we...ar-11663097731

To be fair, I'm busting your balls. The CPI on a MoM basis in August was only up 0.1%, and was flat in July from the previous month. Previously, since 10/31/2020, it had been running in the 0.6% to 1.3% range except for April. So maybe inflation is about to moderate. The market didn't like what it saw yesterday though, with the Dow down about 1200 points. I suspect that's because most of the decline in CPI was from gasoline prices, and other items kept rising. I'm not sure whether those numbers are seasonally adjusted.

[Tiny 12]

Am I the only one that can see Biden disaster presidency. Biden and White House celebrating their $500 billion giveaway inflation fighter and inflation soars upward.

Hilarious isn't it. The "Inflation Reduction Act. " It has nothing to do with inflation and everything to do with pork. Green pork.

[Tiny 12]

"I don't think Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden would have gotten the shots in peoples arms nearly as quickly." But you don't know, do you? Nobody has complained about Operation Dork Speed. What I have complained about is Repubs complaining about how the vaccines are ineffective without blaming the guy who was in charge. That's Donnie the Dumbass by the way. After all, creating a vaccine in quantities large enough for distribution is a construction problem. And Donnie the Dumbass is a construction genius according to him. How many commercial construction contracts have been signed in the past 50 years that didn't include a performance bond. None.

"A good part of the reason death rates are higher for the USA is because of the people, not Trump." BS, plain and simple. Many folks in the US (mostly trump supporters) didn't want to wear masks because Donnie the Dumbass didn't wear a mask. Rather than setting an example by saying something like "I hate wearing a mask but it is necessary to help prevent the spread of this disease", he refused to wear a mask and effectively told his idiot supporters not to wear one. Had Donnie the Dumbass done that, I guarantee that virtually every single one of his sheep would have done so. The same goes for every other decision and statement about COVID that Donnie the Dumbass made. He, and you, forget the power of words and actions. Especially his words and the actions of his sheep. That's the real problem here. Donnie the Dumbass was so wrong about COVID and what to do about it that it colored the actions of virtually every one of his supporters.

"Once we knew we had a pandemic on our hands, we should have spent crazy money on quality masks and tests in my opinion." Just exactly where should we have purchased masks and other PPE? Most PPE was made in Asia and China and other countries snapped up PPE. We were paying crazy prices for PPE because it was literally a dog-eat-dog competition. And what tests? Did Donnie the Dumbass tell the CDC to get off their dead asses and use tests approved by the WHO? Nope. Donnie the Dumbass didn't have a clue, other than to state that he was a fucking genius and understood all this virus stuff. So we didn't have an effective test for months. But who told the American public (in mid-March 2020 as I believe) that "1700 Google engineers are working on an application that will tell you where to get a test"? Yep, the same Donnie the Dumbass. Google had to say the next day that Donnie's Rose Garden press conference was t he first that they had heard of such an effort. But did Donnie the Dumbass' cultists believe Google? Nope.

Your entire post could have been restated simply "People are going to do whatever they're going to do so don't blame trump". Horse hockey. Donnie the Dumbass was overmatched by this virus. He didn't understand, and still doesn't understand, that his words and his actions were gospel to his idiot supporters. He told his supporters, by his actions, not to wear masks. He told his supporters, by his actions, not to socially distance. He told his supporters to oppose lockdowns. He told his supporters to shove lightbulbs up their asses. He told his supporters to inject disinfectant. He told his supporters to take unproved drugs (invermectin and hydroxychloroquine) to cure COVID. He did all of those things. Imagine if he'd have told the truth?

How many of his sheep who were indicted for the January 6th insurrection said in effect "I was there because trump told me to be there".

PVMonger,

How could you possibly maintain the shots were ineffective? They were 95% effective at preventing infection before COVID started mutating. And 75% to 85% effective against hospitalization and death since.

I clearly said that Trump didn't set a good example and should have done more to encourage people to wear masks and social distance.

That said, you apparently don't understand the mentality of hard core Trump supporters. I do. I live and work among them. Trump won the county where I live by a 60% margin. The plurality of residents here are Hispanics and the majority people of color, so you can't attribute that to this place being a hotbed of white nationalism.

They are not sheep. Most were not going to base their decisions as to whether to wear a mask on Donald Trump. Trying to get some to wear masks would be akin to trying to take their guns. A lot didn't get vaccinated, even though Trump was encouraging that, the initial shots anyway.

The majority of the Trumpsters don't do what Trump tells them to. Rather, Trump does what they want him to. Trump in his heart is a Democrat. Earlier on, when he was a registered Democrat, he implied he had no problem with partial birth abortion. And he favored a wealth tax, like what Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have proposed. When Republicans were formulating the 2017 TCJA (the tax cut act), Trump wanted to raise taxes on higher earners. He probably figured that would win him votes in 2020, and since he doesn't pay income taxes anyway, it was no sweat off of his back. Gary Cohn, a Democrat and his chief economic advisor, had to talk him out of it. He said something like, "Mr. President, you can't raise taxes. You're a Republican. " Trump just basically says whatever he thinks will help him with Republican voters. If he hadn't changed parties and had run for president as a Democrat, he would have said and done things that were pleasing to Democrats. You might have been one of his supporters, but I doubt it, you seem too smart.

Onto PPE. Yes PPE was in short supply in the months after COVID hit. But by December of 2020, I could buy KN95 masks in large quantities for $0. 27 a piece. (I checked the ads in my email.) And the majority of deaths in the USA occurred after 2020, after Biden came into office. The Biden administration didn't do very much with masks. To much fanfare, it distributed 25 million around February of 2021. Then it waited until the first part of 2022, after Omicron had hit, to make another 400 million available to Americans. Yeah, I agree with you, Biden didn't do a very good job with that. It's refreshing to hear you actually say something negative about the leader of your tribe.

And the tests. Yes, like Tooms and the economy, I guess you can blame the CDC's failure to provide tests early in the epidemic on the Republicans. Well, at least Trump had an excuse. He didn't want a lot of tests out there because he figured that would make the official number of COVID cases higher, and that would reflect badly on his administration. The public health bureaucracy and / or the Biden administration in 2021 and the first part of this year were just incompetent. You couldn't find tests when Omicron hit. And tests are important. You test positive and you staid home. Or if you're at risk of hospitalization from pre-existing conditions, you got monoclonal antibody treatment, or now Paxlovid. But tests were nowhere to be found.

As to detergent, HCQ, etc. , I agree. That was pretty stupid. I don't recall Ivermectin being discussed during Trump's time in office. I don't doubt that they're saying that on MSNBC though, as it fits into the theory that all Trumpsters are sheep.

Apologies, I'll get around to your other replies when I get some time.

[Cali Guy]

No you are not the only one. Any intelligent person will tell you the reason those idiots keep talking about Trump is to try to distract everyone from the reality of the worst president in history. CNN and MSNBC do it all the time. They can't talk about Biden because there is nothing positive about his presidency. Do you really think that Americans care about Trump when they can't afford to eat, pay their bills or fill their tank? They didn't have these issues during Trump presidency. They damn sure aren't blaming Trump or past presidents for Biden inflation.

MSNBC and CNN are the worst. They can not report anything positive about the Biden administration, Biden policies or the economy because there isn't anything positive so they have to keep reporting on January 6, abortion and Trump raid. They along with democrats think their audience is stupid and will ignore the Biden failing presidency. And who are these networks audience? Yes democrats and the networks consider them stupid. Biden presidency was a disaster in 2021 and worst in 2022. Good news is that it is lower than every other president in history so it can't get much worse next year. America is suffering by Biden incompetence. And yes some idiot will reply to this post and blame Trump for Biden incompetence.

[ScatManDoo]

I would honestly like to hear why you think the foetus of a rape victim deserve less rights than the foetus of a non-raped female.

I believe that every woman have complete ability to choose to have a safe and legal abortion if she so chooses.

A child becomes her burden to bear, so she deserves her choice.

Pro Choice.