buctootim

Yep but even Fox saying recounts usually change a few hundred votes, not tens of thousands.

Wisconsin for Biden. Now 248 to 214

Haha. I love it! The mail is mostly predictable and dull but the Express is politics by Catweazle, David Icke on crystal meth and the Dalai Lllama's lobotomy.

How's this for a theory - lifted from the comments section of the Express: "Joe Biden wins, Trump to make a deal with Pence, He is going to step down as President and let Pence be President until inauguration of Biden, and in return Pence as President will Pardon Trump and his family of their wrongdoings during his Presidency"

Every state has its own system and rules. Makes it very confusing, but also easier to convince people something untoward is going on.

It basically comes down to whether you are the sort of person who fact checks what you're told - or you simply believe stuff because you want it to be true and you like the person who is telling it to you.

Kanye West got 3,000 votes in Indiana, 7,000 in Minnesota. People are more reasoned than they're given credit for

Yep there was a lot of analysis last night saying how the Mexican latina vote in the SW states is overwhelmingly Democrat but the Florida latinas are made up of formerly wealthy refugees from failed socialist and communist regimes like Venezuala and Cuba and that Trump painting Biden as a Marxist bizarrely hit home with them.

Thats even more true of the Republicans. The Democrats simply chose somebody who was always not quite up to Presidential material and is now past it - thats something they can easily change. The Republicans have allowed Trumpism to take over their party and head off down a demographic dead end - on race but also appealing to older people without college degrees just as the country is becoming younger on average and better educated. A great interview with a former Republican senator last night describing how most of Republican Congress hate him and see him taking the party down a road to nowhere but Trump cronies now hold the party levers of power and most senators are so self serving they simply want to keep their heads down and hold onto their seats. .

Yep I'm counting Minnesota as Biden already. The states which realistically are in play are Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia plus one vote each from Maine and Nebraska.

Think Biden will get Arizona, Nevada and squeeze Georgia which will get him 260. Cant see where the other 10 come from though - unless the postal votes in PA do fall his way massively

There are probably going to be a myriad of lawsuits anyway, PPI will pale into insignificance. "you let covid into my mums carehome"; "you didnt provide adequate PPE at work"; "you made me work when goverrnment said stay home"; I caught covid on your train / plane / bus because you didnt do X"

There is also a correlation between being left handed and being President - Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama were, pretty amazing odds considering we're only 10% of the population. Out of luck this time.

Yep to be clear I wasn't defending the US healthcare system which is awful or referring to all employers. I was only referencing the charitable US employer we both worked for and who unusually covered all healthcare costs. It cost them a fortune, something like 28% on top of pay.

I can see the attraction of moving, if not permanently then semi permanently. Large American cities are mostly so so but there are some amazing small towns and villages in commuting distance with great free schools and healthcare provided by the employer with no co-pay. I've got an American friend who used to do exactly the same job as me for exactly the same money, except I was primarily UK based and she was US. We both commuted on the train for about an hour - me to Victoria London and her to Grand Central NYC. But her quality of life was so much better. Both our houses are worth almost the same amount - but I have a 1960s house on an estate in an okay but not beautiful Sussex village, she lives on the side of a lake on a 1 acre plot in a colonial in Katonah upstate NY. She eats great restaurant lunches everyday, I eat at Pret or Leon. She has a massive pension fund, I don't

Results pretty even so far

So why do they bother with the masks? Infection control is not either or - its a combination of measures. The more you deploy the more you drive down the new infection rate. The fewer you deploy the higher the rate. Are masks a complete answer? obviously not, but they're easy and don't restrict personal freedoms as much as other measures do. That said if the Government hadn't fucked up track and trace we wouldnt need as many measures of any sort.

“Don’t spunk £25bn on right wing cronies, let’s spend the money on the NHS instead“

For all other conditions NICE uses QALYS - Quality Adjusted Life Years Saved but that isnt happening for COVID. That means that instead of directing resources to where they will have most benefit we are re-orienting the NHS to focus on saving the life of a critically ill COVID patient, usually 80 years old + in preference to treating a 35 year cancer patient mother with two young kids. That is aside from all the economic and social turbulence / destruction.

Don't worry Whitey - if you've already made it to 71 you'll live till 84 and 7 months on average! https://www.annuityadvantage.com/resources/life-expectancy-tables/

Years ago I was employed at a health authority, one year out of university. The HIV epidemic hit and without any exaggeration I was given the current day equivalent of £50m to spend to provide specialist services - including prevention of transmission, outpatient clinics, a brand new inpatient ward and a hospice. When I asked for help or advice people just said 'theres no precedent, you'll just have to get on with it" . Seems like nothing much has changed.

Its worth trying tbf. It won't stop the virus but if we choose the right people it would make life worth living again...

The point sailing over your head again huh. Wales have had the local firebreaks in place for weeks which is exactly why they don't need the more draconian English national lockdown to be announced by Sir Boris the Brave

Haha. I don't always agree with your conclusions - but you do always take a reasoned view and cut through BS.