Less than three months ago 56% of Tory members in a CONHome poll said they backed Trump – politicalb

contrarian said:

Omnium said:

Supporting Trump in one matter doesn't mean that you have to support him in every matter.

The deeply windy seem to want to establish any alignment with Trump, ever, as a thought crime.

Trump was always going to be a ghastly president in most ways. The only surprise is that he actually managed to be good in some ways. At the time of his inauguration we were betting on just weeks of survival.

The American right is shattered and broken. Civil war awaits. The Georgia run offs showed they won't be winning again anytime soon.

The Democrats can do what they want. Its just a question of when the world works out it isn;t really a two party state any more, in the sense it used to be.

Steady the buffs!

Centrist Dem president. Tied senate. Slim Dem HoR majority. 6/3 Con skew on the SC. Tons of Rep state legislatures and governors.

It's hardly the October Revolution.

Theuniondivvie said:

Omnium said:

Supporting Trump in one matter doesn't mean that you have to support him in every matter.

The deeply windy seem to want to establish any alignment with Trump, ever, as a thought crime.

Trump was always going to be a ghastly president in most ways. The only surprise is that he actually managed to be good in some ways. At the time of his inauguration we were betting on just weeks of survival.

What was the one matter on which you supported him?

I think you mis-remember his inauguration, couldn't move on here for Trump will pivot, unremarkable centrist presidency, will be good friend to Brexit UK, respect the office takes.

I'm afraid there's a lot of truth in that.

Nigelb said:

Malmesbury said:

MarqueeMark said:

CarlottaVance said:

Another win for "socialised medicine":

https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1347211396388450304?s=20

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/arthritis-drugs-reduce-time-intensive-care-covid-160005216.html

A mortality drop by a quarter is an astounding result.

Official release -

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-patients-to-receive-life-saving-covid-19-treatments-that-could-cut-hospital-time-by-10-days

Again, it's a great demonstration of the benefits of having an infrastructure in place for conducting such trials (& also great that Actemra is a readily available treatment.)

Most things governments have tried to do from scratch in reaction to the pandemic have not worked out terrifically well.
If it's there (like with the vaccines) you can turbocharge it with government funding.

Worth recalling that the company that makes it was unable to show a benefit to its use last summer.
Shows what a difference well conducted clinical trials can make.

https://twitter.com/KrutikaKuppalli/status/1288471726230102018

Whoa. Did Boris Johnson actually just condemn Donald Trump for subverting democracy?

MaxPB said:

1.62m doses delivered so says the brigadier. At 1.29m on Sunday that's 0.33m from Monday to Wednesday, 110k per day since the start of the AZ jabs. Not bad but we need to be doing more than double that for Thursday to Sunday and to carry that momentum through to next week.

Another way of looking at - double the rate last week, it seems.

If so that is nice work.

Malmesbury said:

MaxPB said:

1.62m doses delivered so says the brigadier. At 1.29m on Sunday that's 0.33m from Monday to Wednesday, 110k per day since the start of the AZ jabs. Not bad but we need to be doing more than double that for Thursday to Sunday and to carry that momentum through to next week.

Another way of looking at - double the rate last week, it seems.

If so that is nice work.

Yes, but with two vaccine suppliers so we should have expected a doubling of the rate.

ydoethur said:

Whoa. Did Boris Johnson actually just condemn Donald Trump for subverting democracy?

ydoethur said:

Whoa. Did Boris Johnson actually just condemn Donald Trump for subverting democracy?

Sounded like it to me

AramintaMoonbeamQC said:

ydoethur said:

Whoa. Did Boris Johnson actually just condemn Donald Trump for subverting democracy?

He did. Shocked he was so candid, but it was needed.

I think he broke my jaw. There was a sharp pain as it hit the floor.

You’re right he needed to, but I never thought he’d do it.

Sandpit said:

kinabalu said:

WhisperingOracle said:

I wonder if Twitter has peformed an interesting manoeuvre on Trump. Twitter was his crucial, central conduit for 10 years, but apparently his reinstatement comes with particular non-inflammatory conditions. Without being able to subtly stoke his fires, and continue his 'struggle' in some way to supporters, he'll just looked humiliated ; so maybe faced with all sorts of stalemates, he's wondering off to Camp David to lick his wounds.

Could this be the spirit and shape of a possible post WH deal with the clan?

Avoid jail and bankruptcy. Avoid media and politics.

Florida. Golf for Snr and Jnr. Charity work for Ivanka. Melania finds a man her own age who will allow her to be the woman she wants to be.

It’s the sensible thing for everyone to do, just let him walk away into the sunset.

Let Pence informally look after the fort for a few days, then Biden’s sworn in and the world can move on.

Keeping DJT front and centre for years, as various groups come for him, will both give him the attention he craves and let his supporters keep their anti-establishment grievances.

I’m not holding my hopes up, but let’s see what happens.

No-one has the power to do such a deal, and it would be absurd to do an informal deal with a man who has been in court over 3500 times anyway. No way would he stick to it.

Malmesbury said:

MaxPB said:

1.62m doses delivered so says the brigadier. At 1.29m on Sunday that's 0.33m from Monday to Wednesday, 110k per day since the start of the AZ jabs. Not bad but we need to be doing more than double that for Thursday to Sunday and to carry that momentum through to next week.

Another way of looking at - double the rate last week, it seems.

If so that is nice work.

Talk of exponential weekly growth is now good news!

MarqueeMark said:

kinabalu said:

rkrkrk said:

kinabalu said:

rkrkrk said:

kinabalu said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Sandpit said:

YBarddCwsc said:

Sandpit said:

To be fair to Jo Brand (yes, I know) it was a pre-recorded programme, so it was up to the editor which jokes made the cut and which stayed between the live audience and the participants.

Anyone who’s ever attended a recording of HIGNFY or Mock The Week knows that there’s an awful lot of well-over-the-line jokes told in these settings, that no-one expects to actually be aired.

I prefer Jo Brand to the endless minor public school, Oxbridge wankers doing what passes for comedy on R4. And, of course, I don't think Jo was recommending it as a course of action. She was looking for a gag & did not think.

There is a long tradition of throwing flour or eggs or rotting vegetables as political protest.

And, of course, a well-aimed egg can cheer the hearts of millions.

But, even joking about throwing acid takes the cheeriness away.

Very true. It was in poor taste and landed badly, but that’s what comedians do. I’m not sure she ever expected it to air, but the editors and the BBC thought it was fine.

Which tells us a lot more about the BBC, than it does about the comedian.

Frankie Boyle’s infamous “Princess Diana Joke” on MTW wasn’t seen for several years after it was recorded, was finally released only on an 18-rated outtakes DVD, never shown on TV.

Serious question...Who is a really good stand-up these days? That has the material, can judge a room, take on the hecklers etc? So many of the regulars on these panel shows are very poor live comedians.

The best I have seen in the past few years is Ross Noble, but because so much of it is improv, he can also miss badly as well. Far too many that were ok, have a bit like Scott n Paste, been driven made by Brexit and can only do Brexit is shit, Orange man bad stuff, and you can feel it in the audience people don't want that. Its divisive and you can only hear so many ways of they are shit jokes before you have heard them all.

I saw Mark Watson 18 months ago, and he had at least the sense to have twigged nobody wants that and came out and said you guys pay your money to have a night off from the real world, so I am not doing anything fights over Brexit, instead this show is all about something much more depressing my divorce.

I used to like Mark Thomas live, but how he is much older, he doesn't really have the tales to tell about all his experiences on joining crazies on a protest. His show about his wife beating dad who loved opera and died a horrible death although not his funniest work, was incredibly moving.

I saw Stewart Lee a few years ago, he was very funny. I've not seen Kevin Bridges live but the bits of his shows I've seen on YouTube etc look good.

Nipping in to share with this great site full of great people with impeccable taste one of Lee's greatest hits. If he were Pulp this would be Common People. I know you've seen it but it will slay anybody who hasn't -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a17duTUK6qw

Honestly I don't really get it... everyone (left wing) tells me how funny Stewart Lee is and how clever he is... but he's merely moderately amusing to me.

When I saw him live, he had absolute mastery over the audience, but I didn't actually spend that much time laughing.

A lot of people who aren't left wing like Lee. But of course humour is a personal thing. For me, he has it all. The delivery is skilled and forceful. He's charismatic. The material is clever but doesn't sacrifice laughs to be that way. He's on a mission to crease you up and if it makes a point fine. It's not the other way around, which is a trap some lefty comics can fall into.

Who does do it for you then?

Dara O'Briain is my favourite. I've seen Dara live a few times and always enjoyed it.
When 40%+ is audience participation, I feel like even seeing the same set multiple times is great.
I also like panel shows more than the next man. This I found hilarious (particularly Dara's final burn).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HYxJp02W1w

Yes, I found that funny. Totally different sort of thing from a Lee riff. Not political. Ensemble repartee. All of it - and them - sharp.

Could never happen now - an all-bloke line-up.

I don't mind seeing all blokes and we can go back there once the old ways are safely interred and not at risk of creeping back.

ydoethur said:

AramintaMoonbeamQC said:

ydoethur said:

Whoa. Did Boris Johnson actually just condemn Donald Trump for subverting democracy?

He did. Shocked he was so candid, but it was needed.

I think he broke my jaw. There was a sharp pain as it hit the floor.

You’re right he needed to, but I never thought he’d do it.

Oh come on now. You know he does the right thing, after exhausting every other option.

Sandpit said:

kinabalu said:

WhisperingOracle said:

I wonder if Twitter has peformed an interesting manoeuvre on Trump. Twitter was his crucial, central conduit for 10 years, but apparently his reinstatement comes with particular non-inflammatory conditions. Without being able to subtly stoke his fires, and continue his 'struggle' in some way to supporters, he'll just looked humiliated ; so maybe faced with all sorts of stalemates, he's wondering off to Camp David to lick his wounds.

Could this be the spirit and shape of a possible post WH deal with the clan?

Avoid jail and bankruptcy. Avoid media and politics.

Florida. Golf for Snr and Jnr. Charity work for Ivanka. Melania finds a man her own age who will allow her to be the woman she wants to be.

It’s the sensible thing for everyone to do, just let him walk away into the sunset.

Let Pence informally look after the fort for a few days, then Biden’s sworn in and the world can move on.

Keeping DJT front and centre for years, as various groups come for him, will both give him the attention he craves and let his supporters keep their anti-establishment grievances.

I’m not holding my hopes up, but let’s see what happens.

There's not the slightest chance that DAs in various states don't go after him.

Getting the first conviction against Donald Trump would get you a seat in Congress - maybe even a chance at a Senate seat.

Getting another conviction against Donald Trump would be worth a *state* house seat at the minimum.

Impressive Presser on Vaccinations overall

If we hit the 15/2/21 target it will be very impressive

Early warning of spin though PM says 1.3m already done 1.26m according to Army Bloke

Multiple references to "offers" rather than in arms

Please tell me we arent going to arrive on 15th at "13m offers made", or appointments offered"

Sounds like as with testing a political target makes spin more important than facts.

13m people vaccinated will be very impressive.

6m vaccinated but 13m offers not so much.

Good answer from the NHS guy on those GP surgeries haven't got any vaccine doses. We make a big deal out of the one or two we hear about but really almost all of them have got it which we don't hear about

ydoethur said:

Whoa. Did Boris Johnson actually just condemn Donald Trump for subverting democracy?

He smashed it! I'll be out tonight "clapping for Boris"!

Seeing the military guy on the podium, I was thinking Johnson should come out in fatigues.

bigjohnowls said:

Impressive Presser on Vaccinations overall

If we hit the 15/2/21 target it will be very impressive

Early warning of spin though PM says 1.3m already done 1.26m according to Army Bloke

Multiple references to "offers" rather than in arms

Please tell me we arent going to arrive on 15th at "13m offers made", or appointments offered"

Sounds like as with testing a political target makes spin more important than facts.

13m people vaccinated will be very impressive.

6m vaccinated but 13m offers not so much.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

1,296,432 first doses as of 3rd Jan (Sunday)

ydoethur said:

He really isn’t pulling punches tonight, is he?

‘Those people standing outside Hospitals saying Covid is a hoax, I think they need to grow up.’

The trouble is, these are the people that think Piers Corbyn is the voice of reason, they won't listen to Boris.

noneoftheabove said:

MrEd said:

kle4 said:

Much as being prevented from holding office again would be appropriate, as the days unfold I find it hard to think enough people will want to impeach Trump. What's the easiest path? Assume that his power and reputation will fade in 2 weeks, so it's not worth it.

There is a difference for the Republicans in saying you want to get rid of Trump and getting him actively impeached to bar him from running for office again. Many Republican Senators know entirely well that would mean they would face the ire of the Trump supporting base in their states. If you look at the Republican Senators who are probably the most consistently "independent" - Romney, Collins and Murkowski - they each have the luxury of not been dependent on a constituency of Trump supporters.

There is a much wider issue namely that impeaching Trump and barring him from office would be a spectacularly bad idea but that's for a much longer post and I need to feed the dogs.

Pipe bombing the rnc headquarters will have got some senators thinking pretty hard.

It should have alarmed every thinking Republican in Congress and many others as well.

ydoethur said:

OldKingCole said:

68 arrests in the US so far, according to BBC. Wonder what the charges will be. IMHO they should throw the book at them, at least for initial public consumption. Can always be reduced later.

Fifty thousand bucks apiece for the damage, for starters.

Could be. I was thinking of really nasty charges, threatening the lawmakers, Vice President (or something) which carry severe sentences, such as felony.

kinabalu said:

WhisperingOracle said:

I wonder if Twitter has peformed an interesting manoeuvre on Trump. Twitter was his crucial, central conduit for 10 years, but apparently his reinstatement comes with particular non-inflammatory conditions. Without being able to subtly stoke his fires, and continue his 'struggle' in some way to supporters, he'll just looked humiliated ; so maybe faced with all sorts of stalemates, he's wondering off to Camp David to lick his wounds.

Could this be the spirit and shape of a possible post WH deal with the clan?

Avoid jail and bankruptcy. Avoid media and politics.

Florida. Golf for Snr and Jnr. Charity work for Ivanka. Melania finds a man her own age who will allow her to be the woman she wants to be.

No deal is better than a bad deal. Lock him up and throw away the key.

AramintaMoonbeamQC said:

ydoethur said:

He really isn’t pulling punches tonight, is he?

‘Those people standing outside Hospitals saying Covid is a hoax, I think they need to grow up.’

The trouble is, these are the people that think Piers Corbyn is the voice of reason, they won't listen to Boris.

Well, in fairness, if you told me to listen to the voice of reason and coupled the name of Boris Johnson to it, I would normally ask for whatever you were smoking.

But he’s saying the right things here, for once.

isam said:

kinabalu said:

isam said:

kinabalu said:

@isam

These "mates" are all you, right?

You're just being self-deprecating, pretending it's someone else coming up with the gems.

No need to answer. Eye know.

Neither were me, no! Couple of funny f*ckers but I don’t think they’d last long on here

I suppose they're a bit "trad" and would possibly need rebuking from time to time if they came on here.

If they knew how much of a politics nerd I was I doubt they’d still want to be my mates. I’m prob the most left wing of them

You should be careful not to let compartmentalization (good) become double life (bad).

You're the most left wing of your mates? Bloody two shoes! That's a tough crowd.

ydoethur said:

AramintaMoonbeamQC said:

ydoethur said:

He really isn’t pulling punches tonight, is he?

‘Those people standing outside Hospitals saying Covid is a hoax, I think they need to grow up.’

The trouble is, these are the people that think Piers Corbyn is the voice of reason, they won't listen to Boris.

Well, in fairness, if you told me to listen to the voice of reason and coupled the name of Boris Johnson to it, I would normally ask for whatever you were smoking.

But he’s saying the right things here, for once.

Stephens is much better at propping Boris up than the Dangerous Brothers (Whitty and Vallence).

https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1347236552318087168

Theuniondivvie said:

Omnium said:

Supporting Trump in one matter doesn't mean that you have to support him in every matter.

The deeply windy seem to want to establish any alignment with Trump, ever, as a thought crime.

Trump was always going to be a ghastly president in most ways. The only surprise is that he actually managed to be good in some ways. At the time of his inauguration we were betting on just weeks of survival.

What was the one matter on which you supported him?

I think you mis-remember his inauguration, couldn't move on here for Trump will pivot, unremarkable centrist presidency, will be good friend to Brexit UK, respect the office takes.

I'm not sure I told you I did.

There's little point in conversing with you, so I won't.

Black_Rook said:

Malmesbury said:

Gaussian said:

IshmaelZ said:

Malmesbury said:

Fairliered said:

Mortimer said:

Gaussian said:

52,618 cases. Increasingly looking like the rise has been stopped.

I had a Christmas theory - combination of doom mongering, tightening restrictions in some areas, and closure of work/school etc would outweigh limited Christmas mixing.

My theory is that closing schools will be the biggest reason for the rise stopping.

I don't think the rise has stopped. What has happened is the Christmas effect has unwound.

If you look at the graph below, and use the huge peak on 29th to "fill in" the "hole" around Christmas, we are still on an upward trend.

"Oh We've survived it, The Great War, From 1914 to 1917."

If the rise in cases has been stopped, the situation is only awful. If cases continue to rise further despite the lockdown, it's catastrophic. A drop in cases next week would be good to see, especially as the data will be more directly comparable with this week.

It is very hard to tell at this point - lockdowns take a while to kick in.

I would strongly doubt we will get to a fall next week - we might hope for a levelling off.

Cases aren't going to fall. Lockdown will slow the catastrophe down but, as we appreciate from all the banging on about R that we've heard over the last ten months, so long as R>1 they'll keep going up and up and up relentlessly.

The hospital system in London appears to be a week or two from collapse and the Plague is radiating steadily outwards from the South-Eastern corner of the country. Here in North Herts we've now got it as bad as South Wales. Remote and rural North Norfolk is almost as bad as us. The thing is totally out of control and it's only a matter of time before it's ripping through the whole country and we have the very sick (not just Covid ventilator candidates, but RTA's, cardiac and stroke cases, and all the others) wheeled out into tents in hospital car parks, doped to the eyeballs and left to die quietly, whilst the medics try to save the less seriously ill. The vaccination programme will come soon enough for a lot of the very old and healthcare workers, but it's going to be far too slow to spare the other victims.

We'll be thigh-deep in corpses by Easter, the product of a tsunami of Covid cases and the resultant saturation of healthcare, where there are so many patients already that anyone else who turns up can't be treated, or somebody already being cared for has to be thrown out to make room. I'm not sure whether the Plague will end up killing quite as many people as the Second World War, but it could be a close run thing.

As I've been saying for months, never assume the nightmare can't get any worse. Because it can, and it probably will.

And finally, a swan in Kettering has adopted a family of kittens. Over to you Bruce!

Scott_xP said:

https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1347236552318087168

Thanks in part to Johnson's "Save Xmas" policy.

Evening all

A day on from the most extraordinary of scenes though of course exactly what happened at the Michigan State House so it's not as unprecedented as it would seem.

Oddly enough, I think yesterday could work well for the GOP over time - the conservative American commentariat have gone oddly quiet. The pro-Trump lobby are now blaming Mitch McConnell and calling for his head - I suspect he'll step down now he is Minority Leader.

The eight Senators who opposed the election result (including Cruz and Hawley) now look marginalised but while that will help Schumer and Biden pursue a more centrist agenda, the House remains polarised with 2/3 of the GOP Caucus still seemingly unwavering in their support for Trump.

Some are secure - others may face significant primary challenges from insurgent centrists and yesterday will give the latter a boost. The question then becomes if the Trump lobby start losing the battle for the GOP soul whether they will pack their bags and form a third group as happened in 1912. DJT is no TR but he has his acolytes who support him not the GOP.

It's never easy to lose - to realise you have been personally rejected by the electorate and it's arguably scant gratitude for the life you have committed to public service. I thought both John Major and Gordon Brown, oddly enough, comported themselves with great dignity after their defeats - Major's speech outside No.10 the day after his humiliating defeat ranks for me as one of the finest and most honourable of farewells.

Trump's grudging, mean-spirited approach stands in stark contest but then Trump is a business man, not a politician. His culture is different and he doesn't view victory or defeat the way most politicians do. I think, were he to lose office in 2024, Boris Johnson's resignation speech would be a tour de force - I'm looking forward to it.

https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1347236392926064641?s=20

Sky news - going negative for a change

Black_Rook said:

Cases aren't going to fall. Lockdown will slow the catastrophe down but, as we appreciate from all the banging on about R that we've heard over the last ten months, so long as R>1 they'll keep going up and up and up relentlessly.

The hospital system in London appears to be a week or two from collapse and the Plague is radiating steadily outwards from the South-Eastern corner of the country. Here in North Herts we've now got it as bad as South Wales. Remote and rural North Norfolk is almost as bad as us. The thing is totally out of control and it's only a matter of time before it's ripping through the whole country and we have the very sick (not just Covid ventilator candidates, but RTA's, cardiac and stroke cases, and all the others) wheeled out into tents in hospital car parks, doped to the eyeballs and left to die quietly, whilst the medics try to save the less seriously ill. The vaccination programme will come soon enough for a lot of the very old and healthcare workers, but it's going to be far too slow to spare the other victims.

We'll be thigh-deep in corpses by Easter, the product of a tsunami of Covid cases and the resultant saturation of healthcare, where there are so many patients already that anyone else who turns up can't be treated, or somebody already being cared for has to be thrown out to make room. I'm not sure whether the Plague will end up killing quite as many people as the Second World War, but it could be a close run thing.

As I've been saying for months, never assume the nightmare can't get any worse. Because it can, and it probably will.

You're not exactly Professor Pangloss, are you Ms Black_Rook?

You are right that the nightmare is going to get worse in the immediate future, but it should then start getting better quite quickly, for two reasons. Firstly the lockdown and the closure of schools is going to slow down the spread, and secondly we have already vaccinated 1.3 million of (mostly) the most vulnerable, with many more due to be vaccinated in the next couple of weeks. Those two factors should begin to slow down the hospitalisations, and subsequently the deaths, to a marked degree from around four weeks' time. By Easter the death rate should be right down since the most at-risk groups will have been vaccinated.

OldKingCole said:

Theuniondivvie said:

Getting a 'well, it's her loss' vibe here.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1347174660157353984?s=20

Referred to earlier. Thanks for posting. She was CROSS!

What is worrying about that is the Dr H was filmed, made her ;point, and she's been cut from that published.

https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1347238035453313025

Well that was upbeat and it was certainly scathing of the people claiming hospital wards are not full.

I'm not sure the brigadier actually told me much, but he certainly made me want to stand to attention and salute the flag against my natural instincts. I bet he is brilliant at motivating his troops.

Malmesbury said:

Endillion said:

bigjohnowls said:

Impressive Presser on Vaccinations overall

If we hit the 15/2/21 target it will be very impressive

Early warning of spin though PM says 1.3m already done 1.26m according to Army Bloke

Multiple references to "offers" rather than in arms

Please tell me we arent going to arrive on 15th at "13m offers made", or appointments offered"

Sounds like as with testing a political target makes spin more important than facts.

13m people vaccinated will be very impressive.

6m vaccinated but 13m offers not so much.

Rounding to one decimal place is "spin" now? Bit harsh.

The number of vaccinations (people, 1st jab) as of Sunday was 1,296,432 - https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

Unless no vaccinations have been given in the UK since Sunday, it's well, well over 1.3 million

The difference is probably that not all vaccinations have been delivered via the Army logistics effort.

Indeed that link says the figures still as at Sunday

Appears to relate to people too lets hope they dont change the definition

https://twitter.com/SollenbergerRC/status/1346982504088154113?s=20
https://twitter.com/followgoosehead/status/1347195897650819072?s=20

contrarian said:

MrEd said:

contrarian said:

Omnium said:

Supporting Trump in one matter doesn't mean that you have to support him in every matter.

The deeply windy seem to want to establish any alignment with Trump, ever, as a thought crime.

Trump was always going to be a ghastly president in most ways. The only surprise is that he actually managed to be good in some ways. At the time of his inauguration we were betting on just weeks of survival.

The American right is shattered and broken. Civil war awaits. The Georgia run offs showed they won't be winning again anytime soon.

The Democrats can do what they want. Its just a question of when the world works out it isn;t really a two party state any more, in the sense it used to be.

The problem for the Democrats is that they are not really unified either. What united the AOCs and the Conor Lambs was getting rid of Trump.

I think this piece in The Atlantic is correct - having won control of the Senate be a classic case of be careful what you wish for:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/problem-50-50-senate/617565/

Republicans like Romney would have enormous difficulty persuading Trump supporters to vote for them, even if the latter still had confidence in the integrity of the US electoral system.

Millions don't have that confidence.

This means the dems are going to win all of the key contests.

Unless the saner Republicans move to the left to take centrist votes back off the Dems.
Leave the Trumpists stewing in their own far-right filth.

OldKingCole said:

ydoethur said:

OldKingCole said:

68 arrests in the US so far, according to BBC. Wonder what the charges will be. IMHO they should throw the book at them, at least for initial public consumption. Can always be reduced later.

Fifty thousand bucks apiece for the damage, for starters.

Could be. I was thinking of really nasty charges, threatening the lawmakers, Vice President (or something) which carry severe sentences, such as felony.

Trespass and entering a restricted government building without authorization are absolute basic misdemeanour charges. Some lawyer was on the box yesterday, listing felonies, but they all where rather verbose and not easily remembered by someone who does not study the arcane laws relating to federal property and procedings.

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/SollenbergerRC/status/1346982504088154113?s=20
https://twitter.com/followgoosehead/status/1347195897650819072?s=20

I do love these 'how it started...how its going' memes.

Scott_xP said:

https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1347197262909366272

Conversation between client and attorney, somewhere in the US, 2021:

Client: ‘Did you file any case on behalf of Donald Trump?’

Attorney: ‘Yes.’

Client: ‘You’re fired.’

TimT said:

OldKingCole said:

OldKingCole said:

Theuniondivvie said:

Getting a 'well, it's her loss' vibe here.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1347174660157353984?s=20

Referred to earlier. Thanks for posting. She was CROSS!

What is worrying about that is the Dr H was filmed, made her ;point, and she's been cut from that published.

Hearing the horror stories in the US about the roll out programme (distribution seems to be working well, delivery jabs not so well), from this distance, it appears the UK is doing well. And the US is doing well at 3.5m compared to Germany, who is doing well compared to France, who point to the Netherlands as doing worse ...

Yes, we should be agitating for vaccination to be as rapid, effective and prioritized as possible, but in as complex a process as vaccinating the entire population, there will be SNAFUs along the way. Little point locking ourselves into an unnecessarily negative doom spiral.

Indeed:

https://twitter.com/emmagf/status/1347221881385062400

Black_Rook said:

Malmesbury said:

Gaussian said:

IshmaelZ said:

Malmesbury said:

Fairliered said:

Mortimer said:

Gaussian said:

52,618 cases. Increasingly looking like the rise has been stopped.

I had a Christmas theory - combination of doom mongering, tightening restrictions in some areas, and closure of work/school etc would outweigh limited Christmas mixing.

My theory is that closing schools will be the biggest reason for the rise stopping.

I don't think the rise has stopped. What has happened is the Christmas effect has unwound.

If you look at the graph below, and use the huge peak on 29th to "fill in" the "hole" around Christmas, we are still on an upward trend.

"Oh We've survived it, The Great War, From 1914 to 1917."

If the rise in cases has been stopped, the situation is only awful. If cases continue to rise further despite the lockdown, it's catastrophic. A drop in cases next week would be good to see, especially as the data will be more directly comparable with this week.

It is very hard to tell at this point - lockdowns take a while to kick in.

I would strongly doubt we will get to a fall next week - we might hope for a levelling off.

Cases aren't going to fall. Lockdown will slow the catastrophe down but, as we appreciate from all the banging on about R that we've heard over the last ten months, so long as R>1 they'll keep going up and up and up relentlessly.

The hospital system in London appears to be a week or two from collapse and the Plague is radiating steadily outwards from the South-Eastern corner of the country. Here in North Herts we've now got it as bad as South Wales. Remote and rural North Norfolk is almost as bad as us. The thing is totally out of control and it's only a matter of time before it's ripping through the whole country and we have the very sick (not just Covid ventilator candidates, but RTA's, cardiac and stroke cases, and all the others) wheeled out into tents in hospital car parks, doped to the eyeballs and left to die quietly, whilst the medics try to save the less seriously ill. The vaccination programme will come soon enough for a lot of the very old and healthcare workers, but it's going to be far too slow to spare the other victims.

We'll be thigh-deep in corpses by Easter, the product of a tsunami of Covid cases and the resultant saturation of healthcare, where there are so many patients already that anyone else who turns up can't be treated, or somebody already being cared for has to be thrown out to make room. I'm not sure whether the Plague will end up killing quite as many people as the Second World War, but it could be a close run thing.

As I've been saying for months, never assume the nightmare can't get any worse. Because it can, and it probably will.

It's worse than you think. The morphine supply will run out as well.

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/SollenbergerRC/status/1346982504088154113?s=20
https://twitter.com/followgoosehead/status/1347195897650819072?s=20

The stupidity of some people. The utter stupidity.

AramintaMoonbeamQC said:

WhisperingOracle said:

Among all the grim Covid news and everyone at home, at least the Trump silence continues. Like the relief of sitting in a silent church again rather than a noisy street, even if you're not religious, for some reason.

I'm enjoying a few days off from him, will this be what it is like after Uncle Joe gets sworn in?

We can just watch Trump getting chased around the globe by the authorities, like OJ.

Be like a global game of "Hunted", where any sightings of him get phoned in to Channel 4....