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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The multi-billionaire who has ignored the first primary states

SystemSystem Posts: 11,017
edited February 2020 in General

imagepoliticalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The multi-billionaire who has ignored the first primary states now second place in the betting

On the eve of the first full primary, New Hampshire, the person who’ll become the stop Bernie contender has yet to emerge which is one reason why Sanders looks set to follow his tie in Iowa with a victory in New Hampshire.

Read the full story here


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Comments

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    kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 3,942
    I'm so far underwater on Bloomberg the Beatles just went by singing "yellow submarine".
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    2nd, like Sanders.
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    QuincelQuincel Posts: 3,949
    Much as I am convinced by that ad, I do worry that Clinton ran very similar stuff in 2016 and enough voters in enough places weren't bothered by it.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,721
    edited February 2020

    kle4 said:

    Now that Brexit is done the government and the Americans are beginning to tell the truth.
    https://twitter.com/sdonnan/status/1226907988444749825?s=21

    Ah, we're supposed to accept as truth things Trump advisers say now, that's good to know.

    You can believe whatever you wish. If you want to think he’s lying I have no problem with that whatsoever.

    I don't think that, I think it's probably correct, but that doesn't prevent me from noticing that certain sources of information are deemed automatically untrustworthy unless they say what we also believe to be true, when they suddenly become trustworthy. If you want to pretend that's not what happens, I have no problem with that whatsoever.

    That you seem to have assumed I did not believe what he said, when I did not say I did or not, rather makes the point that we assume people believe or disbelieve a source based on what we wish.
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    Lead now on BBC news: HS2 will go ahead.
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    Quincel said:

    Much as I am convinced by that ad, I do worry that Clinton ran very similar stuff in 2016 and enough voters in enough places weren't bothered by it.

    Yep. Not sure it works. A little bit clunky and I can see many of Trump's target base just seeing a load old old elite guys (filmed in Black and White) not speaking like they do.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,721
    eadric said:

    Jesus Christ this site is full of whiners.

    Well, no need to add it with that whine, is there?
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    I am not sure including Reagan in a campaign ad will help Bloomberg win Democratic primary voters and beat Sanders, would have been better saved for the general election if he won the nomination
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,721
    Go for it Democrats - no reason you should choose Democrats for the Democratic nomination.
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,231
    The adult in the room. But are Democrats really grown ups?
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,721

    Lead now on BBC news: HS2 will go ahead.

    I'm surprised. No really. I thought the blitz of negative press on it for the last year coupled with a bunch of newbie northern Tories coming out against it would sway Boris.
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    kle4 said:

    Lead now on BBC news: HS2 will go ahead.

    I'm surprised. No really. I thought the blitz of negative press on it for the last year coupled with a bunch of newbie northern Tories coming out against it would sway Boris.
    Another loss for Cummings.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,721

    kle4 said:

    Lead now on BBC news: HS2 will go ahead.

    I'm surprised. No really. I thought the blitz of negative press on it for the last year coupled with a bunch of newbie northern Tories coming out against it would sway Boris.
    Another loss for Cummings.
    A man discovering the fundamental truth that no matter how brilliant they are or what victories they achieve, no adviser is indispensible when the decision makers have to balance competing priorities?
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    Personally, I think I might just ignore Orange Man Bad stuff and instead try to present a positive vision of how a candidate can improve things.

    I really don't think anybody will change their mind over Orange Man Bad from yet another attack ad, given the likes of CNN is 24/7 attack ad on the big baby.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,721
    HYUFD said:
    Surely some of those polled for there have already ended their campaigns?
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    DadgeDadge Posts: 2,038
    afaict the final Ireland result is now looking to be FF 39, SF 37, FG 35.
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    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,917
    Oh fuck off Bloomberg
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    Dadge said:

    afaict the final Ireland result is now looking to be FF 39, SF 37, FG 35.

    FF and FG and a few Independents would have a majority then but SF would be a powerful opposition
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    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,331
    How did our Irish guest columnist's predictions turn out?
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    Nationally Sanders also now ahead for the Democratic nomination, albeit by less than in California

    https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1226947892964986881?s=20
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    speedy2speedy2 Posts: 981
    I think most of the money going to Bloomberg is from Bloomberg himself to boost his own odds.
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    viewcodeviewcode Posts: 18,722
    edited February 2020
    kyf_100 said:

    I'm so far underwater on Bloomberg the Beatles just went by singing "yellow submarine".

    Speaking seriously: is there any chance whatsoever he'll get the nom? Even Trump had the courtesy to go thru the primaries. The last person I can think of who disdained the early primaries was Rudi Guliani, and by the time he deigned to stand he was dead. Is there any polling info that indicates Bloomberg will win anything? I'll look it up myself but I'm stuck on a shitty train and my feet are freezing.
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    tysontyson Posts: 6,050
    Pulpstar said:

    Oh fuck off Bloomberg

    how much is Bloomberg worth to you?
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    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,331
    Pretty good ad for decent floating centrist voters. But are there enough of them? There's an implicit assumption that democracies are a Bell curve, with most people in the middle What if that's not always true?
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    viewcodeviewcode Posts: 18,722
    eadric said:

    It beggars belief that the Democrat Party is incapable of nominating a sane, decent younger person who can then defeat a demented fool like Trump,

    American politics is diseased.
    Don't be silly. It's the best politics that money can buy. Dollars, roubles, whatever: they ain't prejudiced. Well, mostly not prejudiced. (Adopts Carrie Henn voice). Mostly...
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    speedy2speedy2 Posts: 981
    edited February 2020
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    DadgeDadge Posts: 2,038
    HYUFD said:

    Dadge said:

    afaict the final Ireland result is now looking to be FF 39, SF 37, FG 35.

    FF and FG and a few Independents would have a majority then but SF would be a powerful opposition
    Some in FF/FG are quite dispirited and calling for a SF govt. I agree with you though that they'll pull themselves together and carry on somewhat as normal, albeit with a new PM. I think the political risk is actually greater now for SF, because people will be expecting an effective left-wing opposition, but there are likely to be major spats between the left-wing parties.
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    viewcodeviewcode Posts: 18,722

    How did our Irish guest columnist's predictions turn out?

    Pretty well. If a FF+SF govt is formed, he will have won all his bets.
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    speedy2 said:
    It's a massive worry. I am not quite panicking yet, but it does not look good at all.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
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    If the BBC is about to be closed down, how did they get a massive exclusive on HS2?
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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,962

    speedy2 said:
    It's a massive worry. I am not quite panicking yet, but it does not look good at all.
    Just how many patients did those two doctors meet while they were infectious?
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    Dadge said:

    HYUFD said:

    Dadge said:

    afaict the final Ireland result is now looking to be FF 39, SF 37, FG 35.

    FF and FG and a few Independents would have a majority then but SF would be a powerful opposition
    Some in FF/FG are quite dispirited and calling for a SF govt. I agree with you though that they'll pull themselves together and carry on somewhat as normal, albeit with a new PM. I think the political risk is actually greater now for SF, because people will be expecting an effective left-wing opposition, but there are likely to be major spats between the left-wing parties.
    Indeed, hopefully divisions will bring them down
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    RobD said:

    speedy2 said:
    It's a massive worry. I am not quite panicking yet, but it does not look good at all.
    Just how many patients did those two doctors meet while they were infectious?
    7 mins per appointment is the average iirc. Several days of that...
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    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    Panic...I never panic me.....


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    BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 7,988

    Quincel said:

    Much as I am convinced by that ad, I do worry that Clinton ran very similar stuff in 2016 and enough voters in enough places weren't bothered by it.

    Yep. Not sure it works. A little bit clunky and I can see many of Trump's target base just seeing a load old old elite guys (filmed in Black and White) not speaking like they do.
    Hopefully they are in a minority. If they're in a majority we are all screwed.
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    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,331
    viewcode said:

    kyf_100 said:

    I'm so far underwater on Bloomberg the Beatles just went by singing "yellow submarine".

    Speaking seriously: is there any chance whatsoever he'll get the nom? Even Trump had the courtesy to go thru the primaries. The last person I can think of who disdained the early primaries was Rudi Guliani, and by the time he deigned to stand he was dead. Is there any polling info that indicates Bloomberg will win anything? I'll look it up myself but I'm stuck on a shitty train and my feet are freezing.
    Well, he's not boycotting the primaries, just skipping the first few, presumably in the belief that the others will fight each other to a standstill and voters will say "Oh, ffs, isn't there someone else?" It's not looking an entirely implausible strategy.
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    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
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    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited February 2020
    I see the government have lost in the courts again, this time over deportations to Jamaica.
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,231

    Pretty good ad for decent floating centrist voters. But are there enough of them? There's an implicit assumption that democracies are a Bell curve, with most people in the middle What if that's not always true?

    That’s the point that was made by Curtice to Rory. He was in the middle of the curve on Brexit but everyone else was at the extremes.
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    Oscar viewership right down apparently....no idea why people don't want to tune in to be lectured to by a load of actors.
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    Quincel said:

    Much as I am convinced by that ad, I do worry that Clinton ran very similar stuff in 2016 and enough voters in enough places weren't bothered by it.

    Yep. Not sure it works. A little bit clunky and I can see many of Trump's target base just seeing a load old old elite guys (filmed in Black and White) not speaking like they do.
    I think it works very well in itself, but it might be preaching to the converted.
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    eadric said:

    .... What an expense of spirit in a waste of shame....

    A wonderful, wonderful sonnet.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    edited February 2020

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages (the mortality rate is currently less than 2%) and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
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    viewcodeviewcode Posts: 18,722
    eadric said:

    viewcode said:

    eadric said:

    It beggars belief that the Democrat Party is incapable of nominating a sane, decent younger person who can then defeat a demented fool like Trump,

    American politics is diseased.
    Don't be silly. It's the best politics that money can buy. Dollars, roubles, whatever: they ain't prejudiced. Well, mostly not prejudiced. (Adopts Carrie Henn voice). Mostly...
    America is such a smart, mighty, magnificent, resourceful country, yet it has maybe the most dysfunctional politics in the western world.

    Has there ever been such a disjunct?
    It's not really dysfunctional. It proceeds on time, the rules are observed, its selection process is very transparent. Trump took the Presidency without cheating, has mostly acted within the law, and will cease to be President in January 2021 or 2025 depending. His Presidency, although boorish and nepotistic and cruel, is not as bad as - say - Nixon's was, and is a paragon of virtue compared to the Russian or Chinese. Every Western democracy has its quirks and features and despite the current gibbon-in-chief, the US is not that bad and considerably improved from that period where black people were routinely denied the vote, jobs (and, in some horrific cases, breath). I think because we focus on it in such detail we ignore other countries and so miss their regrettable excesses.
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    GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,078
    I’m cautiously happy with the decision to build HS2 and invest in local bus services. The sooner this happens the better.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,721
    HYUFD said:
    That is funny, although with all the mocking of 'brit-takes' of the election it has left me wondering why other countries are allowed to speculate or comment on other countries' elections at all, since presumably a french take or german take or american take on someone else's elections would be just as wrong.
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    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    Nor is a death rate of about 2% from a virus that shows every sign of becoming as virulent as the common cold. But if it does prove to be as uncontainable as it seems to, such that we're all eventually exposed to it, it would still mean something in the order of 1.5 million deaths in the UK alone.
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    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    Whilst I admire your sang-froid in the face of comparisons with the Black Death, surely the trouble, from your point of view, is that it would disproportionately wipe out elderly, and therefore Tory, voters.
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    speedy2speedy2 Posts: 981
    eadric said:

    It beggars belief that the Democrat Party is incapable of nominating a sane, decent younger person who can then defeat a demented fool like Trump,

    American politics is diseased.
    They don't have a "sane, decent younger person".

    To become President is both easier and more difficult than PM.

    It takes years to find a person of actual talent and ideas and organise a political operation of major size to support him, Trump took 36 years from the moment he decided he wanted the job until he got it.

    And luck, if Lehman Brothers hadn't collapsed Obama wouldn't have been President.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,721
    edited February 2020

    Quincel said:

    Much as I am convinced by that ad, I do worry that Clinton ran very similar stuff in 2016 and enough voters in enough places weren't bothered by it.

    Yep. Not sure it works. A little bit clunky and I can see many of Trump's target base just seeing a load old old elite guys (filmed in Black and White) not speaking like they do.
    I think it works very well in itself, but it might be preaching to the converted.
    My initial reaction was 'that's a good goal, but why are you one to deliver it?' Sure the problem it identifies is one that appeals to the likes of me, but does it identify Bloomberg as the solution?
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    Pulpstar said:

    Oh fuck off Bloomberg

    My thoughts exactly.

    Can't he theatrically quit the stage and declare he's going to spend the rest of his life living as a mermaid, or something?
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,231
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages (the mortality rate is currently less than 2%) and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    Nothing like less than the number. Less than the proportion maybe.
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    Pulpstar said:

    Oh fuck off Bloomberg

    My thoughts exactly.

    Can't he theatrically quit the stage and declare he's going to spend the rest of his life living as a mermaid, or something?
    So, we are left with Buttigieg.
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    tyson said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Oh fuck off Bloomberg

    how much is Bloomberg worth to you?
    Over three big ones
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    Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,820
    edited February 2020
    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    .... What an expense of spirit in a waste of shame....

    A wonderful, wonderful sonnet.
    Actually, for me the sonnet is somewhat too dense, like much of Donne. Exquisitely intelligent yet slightly laborious and thorny as poetry

    I prefer the easier lyricism of someone like Housman.

    But that one line is genius.
    It is dense. But:

    perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
    Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
    Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight,
    Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
    Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait


    .. is pretty damned good!

    As is the rest of it, for that matter. The breathless build up to the last two lines.. brilliant.
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    tysontyson Posts: 6,050

    tyson said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Oh fuck off Bloomberg

    how much is Bloomberg worth to you?
    Over three big ones
    There is plenty of time for him to bet his way out of that one........

    The disaster of Iowa is leading inexorably to Bloomberg as the Dem Nom

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    glwglw Posts: 9,549
    edited February 2020
    eadric said:

    viewcode said:

    eadric said:

    It beggars belief that the Democrat Party is incapable of nominating a sane, decent younger person who can then defeat a demented fool like Trump,

    American politics is diseased.
    Don't be silly. It's the best politics that money can buy. Dollars, roubles, whatever: they ain't prejudiced. Well, mostly not prejudiced. (Adopts Carrie Henn voice). Mostly...
    America is such a smart, mighty, magnificent, resourceful country, yet it has maybe the most dysfunctional politics in the western world.

    Has there ever been such a disjunct?
    Americans who are critical of the country and the state of politics still tend to act as though government was essentially perfected when the Constituion was ratified, and that all it needs is either a few tweaks, or better adherence to the rules.

    Even the few Americans who think the way America is governed is deeply flawed generally think America is exceptional and that every American could live the American Dream with a new way of governing.

    The idea that America might merely be a leader amongst broadly liberal and democratic states, and that the American period of preeminence is ending, is something that almost all Americans reject.
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    viewcodeviewcode Posts: 18,722

    Pretty good ad for decent floating centrist voters. But are there enough of them? There's an implicit assumption that democracies are a Bell curve, with most people in the middle What if that's not always true?

    I have this private theory, which one day I will have to write up, that if a distribution is bimodal (it has two peaks) then people will select the middle, despite little evidence.


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    viewcode said:

    Pretty good ad for decent floating centrist voters. But are there enough of them? There's an implicit assumption that democracies are a Bell curve, with most people in the middle What if that's not always true?

    I have this private theory, which one day I will have to write up, that if a distribution is bimodal (it has two peaks) then people will select the middle, despite little evidence.


    You mean.. an option that's not available?
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    speedy2speedy2 Posts: 981

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    Whilst I admire your sang-froid in the face of comparisons with the Black Death, surely the trouble, from your point of view, is that it would disproportionately wipe out elderly, and therefore Tory, voters.
    Given that young healthy Doctors also die from it I think the virus doesn't disciminate age, politics or how powerful and rich the individual is.

    Microbes don't follow orders.

    How many Kings have died from them.
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    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,592
    RobD said:

    speedy2 said:
    It's a massive worry. I am not quite panicking yet, but it does not look good at all.
    Just how many patients did those two doctors meet while they were infectious?
    It is more concerning that such seemingly slight contact has spread it, via this fellow. How about other passenger on his flight from Singapore and from Geneva.

    This is going to be a hard one to contain.
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,231

    eadric said:

    .... What an expense of spirit in a waste of shame....

    A wonderful, wonderful sonnet.
    My son is sitting his higher English in a couple of months. He is at private school but at no point in his 5 years of secondary education has he studied a Shakespeare play or sonnet. Last year they were required to “analyse” the doggerel of Jackie Kay, friend of the First Minister. It’s really appalling. It’s not an education, it’s dogma.
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    eadric said:

    It beggars belief that the Democrat Party is incapable of nominating a sane, decent younger person who can then defeat a demented fool like Trump,

    American politics is diseased.
    It's way too early to draw that conclusion. The voters have two jobs, eliminating Biden for age and Bernie for age and excessive moonbattery. They're already partway through job 1, and Bernie's support seems to max out at about 1/3, so I expect they'll be able to handle job 2.
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    glwglw Posts: 9,549
    edited February 2020
    kle4 said:

    That is funny, although with all the mocking of 'brit-takes' of the election it has left me wondering why other countries are allowed to speculate or comment on other countries' elections at all, since presumably a french take or german take or american take on someone else's elections would be just as wrong.

    I don't think I have ever had a conversation in the real world about the politics in the Irish Republic in my entire life. We simply do not care about the country and what goes on there.
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    DavidL said:

    eadric said:

    .... What an expense of spirit in a waste of shame....

    A wonderful, wonderful sonnet.
    My son is sitting his higher English in a couple of months. He is at private school but at no point in his 5 years of secondary education has he studied a Shakespeare play or sonnet. Last year they were required to “analyse” the doggerel of Jackie Kay, friend of the First Minister. It’s really appalling. It’s not an education, it’s dogma.
    This Kay? Never heard of her, until five minutes ago, when this tweet arrived and then you posted:

    https://twitter.com/JackieKayPoet/status/1226951900962131975
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    eadric said:

    I'm not denying it is good!

    You can see Shakespeare writing it on an Elizabethan desk in Shoreditch or Borough, after some terrible gay liaison or ill-advised adultery. The furrowed brow, the scratching quill, the pregnant thoughts, and then the sound of the apple girls crying their pippin wares beyond the leaded window.

    Marvellous

    It seems rather a strange thing to say, but Shakespeare's sonnets, despite their fame, seem to me rather neglected, apart from a handful of the best-known ones. How many people know 'The expense of spirit..', or 'Being your slave..'?
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    On topic 24% is a ridiculous number, somebody is obviously giving away money to make his candidacy look more likely than it is. It's a public service to take it.
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    eadric said:

    It beggars belief that the Democrat Party is incapable of nominating a sane, decent younger person who can then defeat a demented fool like Trump,

    American politics is diseased.
    It's way too early to draw that conclusion. The voters have two jobs, eliminating Biden for age and Bernie for age and excessive moonbattery. They're already partway through job 1, and Bernie's support seems to max out at about 1/3, so I expect they'll be able to handle job 2.
    Certainly hope so on 2nd. On 1st, seems I was wrong and OGH was right. Too old.
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    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,592
    edited February 2020
    eadric said:

    viewcode said:

    eadric said:

    viewcode said:

    eadric said:

    It beggars belief that the Democrat Party is incapable of nominating a sane, decent younger person who can then defeat a demented fool like Trump,

    American politics is diseased.
    Don't be silly. It's the best politics that money can buy. Dollars, roubles, whatever: they ain't prejudiced. Well, mostly not prejudiced. (Adopts Carrie Henn voice). Mostly...
    America is such a smart, mighty, magnificent, resourceful country, yet it has maybe the most dysfunctional politics in the western world.

    Has there ever been such a disjunct?
    It's not really dysfunctional. It proceeds on time, the rules are observed, its selection process is very transparent. Trump took the Presidency without cheating, has mostly acted within the law, and will cease to be President in January 2021 or 2025 depending. His Presidency, although boorish and nepotistic and cruel, is not as bad as - say - Nixon's was, and is a paragon of virtue compared to the Russian or Chinese. Every Western democracy has its quirks and features and despite the current gibbon-in-chief, the US is not that bad and considerably improved from that period where black people were routinely denied the vote, jobs (and, in some horrific cases, breath). I think because we focus on it in such detail we ignore other countries and so miss their regrettable excesses.
    For me US politics is really dysfunctional, inasmuch as it does NOT benefit the average American, who - these days - enjoys or endures a working life which is significantly inferior to the average life of a western European, despite the USA being a markedly richer "country".

    That is the essence of dysfunction.
    The problem for middle Americans is this little graph of changes in wealth, with out the redistribution of European countries.

    https://twitter.com/nickreeves9876/status/1226983582259871750?s=19
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    speedy2speedy2 Posts: 981
    viewcode said:

    Pretty good ad for decent floating centrist voters. But are there enough of them? There's an implicit assumption that democracies are a Bell curve, with most people in the middle What if that's not always true?

    I have this private theory, which one day I will have to write up, that if a distribution is bimodal (it has two peaks) then people will select the middle, despite little evidence.


    I joke that the distribution of voters resembles a bosom.

    But they don't select the middle, rather what they assume what the middle is among themselves, that's why there are 2 big peaks with a small one in between them.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    Whilst I admire your sang-froid in the face of comparisons with the Black Death, surely the trouble, from your point of view, is that it would disproportionately wipe out elderly, and therefore Tory, voters.
    It would spread most in left leaning urban centres
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    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    Whilst I admire your sang-froid in the face of comparisons with the Black Death, surely the trouble, from your point of view, is that it would disproportionately wipe out elderly, and therefore Tory, voters.
    It would spread most in left leaning urban centres
    Good point. That's all right then.
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,231

    DavidL said:

    eadric said:

    .... What an expense of spirit in a waste of shame....

    A wonderful, wonderful sonnet.
    My son is sitting his higher English in a couple of months. He is at private school but at no point in his 5 years of secondary education has he studied a Shakespeare play or sonnet. Last year they were required to “analyse” the doggerel of Jackie Kay, friend of the First Minister. It’s really appalling. It’s not an education, it’s dogma.
    This Kay? Never heard of her, until five minutes ago, when this tweet arrived and then you posted:

    https://twitter.com/JackieKayPoet/status/1226951900962131975
    Yes I think that will be her.
    This was one https://m.poemhunter.com/poem/my-grandmother-s-houses/

    Gibberish.
  • Options
    speedy2speedy2 Posts: 981
    Foxy said:

    RobD said:

    speedy2 said:
    It's a massive worry. I am not quite panicking yet, but it does not look good at all.
    Just how many patients did those two doctors meet while they were infectious?
    It is more concerning that such seemingly slight contact has spread it, via this fellow. How about other passenger on his flight from Singapore and from Geneva.

    This is going to be a hard one to contain.
    The biggest mistake was to evacuate people from China.

    The chances of one of the evacuees to be have been infected without symptoms and infecting everyone on the plane was a risk not worth taking.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    speedy2 said:

    eadric said:

    It beggars belief that the Democrat Party is incapable of nominating a sane, decent younger person who can then defeat a demented fool like Trump,

    American politics is diseased.
    They don't have a "sane, decent younger person".

    To become President is both easier and more difficult than PM.

    It takes years to find a person of actual talent and ideas and organise a political operation of major size to support him, Trump took 36 years from the moment he decided he wanted the job until he got it.

    And luck, if Lehman Brothers hadn't collapsed Obama wouldn't have been President.
    He would just by a closer margin
  • Options
    Wicklock finished

    Last 3 elected

    Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly
    Fine Gael’s Simon Harris
    Green Party’s Steven Matthews

    Sligo-Leitrim's last 2 seats go to

    Fianna Fáil’s Marc MacSharry
    Fine Gael’s Frankie Feighan

    Cavan-Monaghan is the only constituency on going


    FF Smith B +834 8946
    FF Smyth N +1370 8186
    FG O'Reilly TP +853 8050
    FF Gallagher +629 6882 Eliminated

    2 seats to be filled. So it will be 2 FF
  • Options
    kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 3,942
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages (the mortality rate is currently less than 2%) and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    On the plus side, it would sort the housing crisis right out... not to mention old-age care - and CO2 emissions would drop. Perhaps it should stand for election? Seems like a fairly popular platform.
  • Options
    edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,149
    edited February 2020
    Did we do the Quinnipiac favourability ratings?

    https://twitter.com/Brand_Allen/status/1226998667183316992?s=19
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    Nor is a death rate of about 2% from a virus that shows every sign of becoming as virulent as the common cold. But if it does prove to be as uncontainable as it seems to, such that we're all eventually exposed to it, it would still mean something in the order of 1.5 million deaths in the UK alone.
    Flu kills people every day, coronavirus or not and again running around like headless chickens panicking remains the worst possible reaction and will just spread it further
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,231
    kyf_100 said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages (the mortality rate is currently less than 2%) and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    On the plus side, it would sort the housing crisis right out... not to mention old-age care - and CO2 emissions would drop. Perhaps it should stand for election? Seems like a fairly popular platform.
    I had meetings with 2 actuaries today selecting which one would take over the pension administration. My suggestion that the Coronavirus was an actuarial dream didn’t go down quite as well as I’d hoped.
  • Options
    speedy2speedy2 Posts: 981
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    Whilst I admire your sang-froid in the face of comparisons with the Black Death, surely the trouble, from your point of view, is that it would disproportionately wipe out elderly, and therefore Tory, voters.
    It would spread most in left leaning urban centres
    So it could infect everyone in Parliament, the Civil Service and the Financial world, since London is a left leaning urban centre.

    And don't forget you have to canvass ang campaign for the Local Elections, how many people would you meet and shake hands along the way ?
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited February 2020

    DavidL said:

    eadric said:

    .... What an expense of spirit in a waste of shame....

    A wonderful, wonderful sonnet.
    My son is sitting his higher English in a couple of months. He is at private school but at no point in his 5 years of secondary education has he studied a Shakespeare play or sonnet. Last year they were required to “analyse” the doggerel of Jackie Kay, friend of the First Minister. It’s really appalling. It’s not an education, it’s dogma.
    This Kay? Never heard of her, until five minutes ago, when this tweet arrived and then you posted:

    https://twitter.com/JackieKayPoet/status/1226951900962131975
    Isn't the Guardian a bit too right wing for a Communist? All that talk of posh restaurants and exotic holidays all a bit bourgeoisie?
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,955
    OK... Thoughts on the US Primaries.

    Bloomberg is a sell here.

    Why?

    Because while things are going exactly as he would like, it is next to impossible for him to get 50%+1 of the elected delegates. Simply, even if he were polling 30% come Super Tuesday (and he won't be), then he'd have to get a staggering 60% of the delegates post ST.

    And to even get to this position, he needs to more than double his current national poll score.

    If there is a brokered convention, it's hard to see how he gets the nomination. He's hardly loved by rank and file Democrats (his "unfavourables" are really, really high).

    So...

    That brings us around to what is going to happen. Mayor Pete will be pleased to have reversed his decline with the CNN tracking poll, which sees him edge up one point - but he's still well behind Sanders. He needs a strong showing tonight, and then a win in Nevada... And then he needs his national polling to reflect the results of the first three states. Possible. But really hard.

    Sanders needs a win tonight, and then needs Warren to depart the race leaving the Left track open to him, while the moderates remain split. Possible, certainly. But hard.

    Biden needs to be able to say "I'm the comeback kid!" Which means he really
    needs to beat Klobuchar and Warren and ideally Buttigieg. If he could make it to second, then - with South Carolina still to come - he's in great shape. But there's little sign that he will.

    Klobuchar needs to overhaul Buttigieg, and then become the moderate choice. That means she needs to perform in Nevada... even though she has no infrastructure there. That's even harder.

    Warren seems to be the value here. She's acceptable to the majority of Democrats in a way that Bloomberg and Sanders are not. But she needs to perform well today. She can't come fourth or fifth.
  • Options
    I wonder if any Dem inevitably ends at 43/50, and it's just a matter of the right-wing half of the country finding out that they're a Democrat.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    speedy2 said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    Whilst I admire your sang-froid in the face of comparisons with the Black Death, surely the trouble, from your point of view, is that it would disproportionately wipe out elderly, and therefore Tory, voters.
    It would spread most in left leaning urban centres
    So it could infect everyone in Parliament, the Civil Service and the Financial world, since London is a left leaning urban centre.

    And don't forget you have to canvass ang campaign for the Local Elections, how many people would you meet and shake hands along the way ?
    I don't shake hands canvassing and if it was a major outbreak by then it would be leaflets only
  • Options

    Wicklock finished

    Last 3 elected

    Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly
    Fine Gael’s Simon Harris
    Green Party’s Steven Matthews

    Sligo-Leitrim's last 2 seats go to

    Fianna Fáil’s Marc MacSharry
    Fine Gael’s Frankie Feighan

    Cavan-Monaghan is the only constituency on going


    FF Smith B +834 8946
    FF Smyth N +1370 8186
    FG O'Reilly TP +853 8050
    FF Gallagher +629 6882 Eliminated

    2 seats to be filled. So it will be 2 FF

    So the three main parties will be neck and neck:

    FF 38
    SF 36
    FG 35
    Greens 12
    Lab 6
    SD 6
    SOL-PbP 5
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983
    edited February 2020
    kyf_100 said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    I really hope that this post ages well.
    Even if a quarter of Europe's population died of coronavirus that would still be less than the number that died of black death in the middle ages (the mortality rate is currently less than 2%) and panic still would not help, basic hygiene, sanitation and strict quarantine would
    On the plus side, it would sort the housing crisis right out... not to mention old-age care - and CO2 emissions would drop. Perhaps it should stand for election? Seems like a fairly popular platform.
    Even on a worst case scenario of a 2% death rate that would make barely zero difference to the 40% who do not own homes and very little difference to the need for old age care or climate change
  • Options
    DavidL said:

    I had meetings with 2 actuaries today selecting which one would take over the pension administration. My suggestion that the Coronavirus was an actuarial dream didn’t go down quite as well as I’d hoped.

    You have to bear in mind the old adage that actuaries are professionals who switched career because they found accountancy too exciting.
  • Options
    edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,149
    edited February 2020
    rcs1000 said:


    If there is a brokered convention, it's hard to see how he gets the nomination. He's hardly loved by rank and file Democrats (his "unfavourables" are really, really high).

    Would there be a legal way to offer any delegate who votes for him 10 million dollars?
  • Options
    TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052
    My book is neutral on Bloomberg but I just can’t see him winning popular support.

    He’s like a shorter version of Ross Perot.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,592
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    speedy2 said:
    Panic never helps anything, it just makes it worse.

    910 deaths globally is still hardly black death
    Nor is a death rate of about 2% from a virus that shows every sign of becoming as virulent as the common cold. But if it does prove to be as uncontainable as it seems to, such that we're all eventually exposed to it, it would still mean something in the order of 1.5 million deaths in the UK alone.
    Flu kills people every day, coronavirus or not and again running around like headless chickens panicking remains the worst possible reaction and will just spread it further
    This is not the Flu. The rate of transmission is perhaps twice that of flu, and the mortality probably 10 times.

    https://twitter.com/V2019N/status/1226881330681483266?s=19
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,231

    DavidL said:

    I had meetings with 2 actuaries today selecting which one would take over the pension administration. My suggestion that the Coronavirus was an actuarial dream didn’t go down quite as well as I’d hoped.

    You have to bear in mind the old adage that actuaries are professionals who switched career because they found accountancy too exciting.
    Yes, I’d forgotten that.
  • Options
    Gabs3Gabs3 Posts: 836
    rcs1000 said:

    OK... Thoughts on the US Primaries.

    Bloomberg is a sell here.

    Why?

    Because while things are going exactly as he would like, it is next to impossible for him to get 50%+1 of the elected delegates. Simply, even if he were polling 30% come Super Tuesday (and he won't be), then he'd have to get a staggering 60% of the delegates post ST.

    And to even get to this position, he needs to more than double his current national poll score.

    If there is a brokered convention, it's hard to see how he gets the nomination. He's hardly loved by rank and file Democrats (his "unfavourables" are really, really high).

    So...

    That brings us around to what is going to happen. Mayor Pete will be pleased to have reversed his decline with the CNN tracking poll, which sees him edge up one point - but he's still well behind Sanders. He needs a strong showing tonight, and then a win in Nevada... And then he needs his national polling to reflect the results of the first three states. Possible. But really hard.

    Sanders needs a win tonight, and then needs Warren to depart the race leaving the Left track open to him, while the moderates remain split. Possible, certainly. But hard.

    Biden needs to be able to say "I'm the comeback kid!" Which means he really
    needs to beat Klobuchar and Warren and ideally Buttigieg. If he could make it to second, then - with South Carolina still to come - he's in great shape. But there's little sign that he will.

    Klobuchar needs to overhaul Buttigieg, and then become the moderate choice. That means she needs to perform in Nevada... even though she has no infrastructure there. That's even harder.

    Warren seems to be the value here. She's acceptable to the majority of Democrats in a way that Bloomberg and Sanders are not. But she needs to perform well today. She can't come fourth or fifth.

    I feel the most likely path is none of those. Bernie wins New Hampshire with Pete second and Warren third. Nevada is Bernie then Warren. South Carolina is Biden by a mile. Klobuchar drops out but everyone else stays in. Who gets the nomination then?
This discussion has been closed.