


RE: Who knows the answer?
"IDK who started this quote war. Maybe it was me. But policies matter a lot more."
Funny, it was the quotes that mattered when you caught Harris making a mild misstatement of fact.
"Trump halted flights to and from China. Way too late, but he stopped them, under pressure from Democrats not to."
Yes, it was far too late. By the time he did anything, the disease had spread far beyond China, and the reason some Democrats opposed it is because by that time, a ban would have been totally ineffective, and merely punitive.
"Trump signed hugely opulent bills to pay people to stay at home and not work early during the pandemic, and later to keep business from laying people off."
OK, and so did every other civilised country. Furthermore, he initially balked at providing family assistance and small business payments, preferring (surprise!) payroll tax cuts and targeted assistance to specific industries over broad-based payments.
"Trump initiated Operation Warp Speed to massively accelerate vaccine production, accelerating the approval process and taking the risk off vaccine makers. Becuase of this, the Biden administration had all the tools it needed to work with by spring of 2021."
Again, other countries were doing the same thing. Why would he NOT pour massive funds into fighting a virus that would ultimately kill over a million Americans?
"Trump encouraged people to take the vaccines when a lot of Republicans were telling people not to. He has stayed pretty consistent on this point."
So, vaccinations were important in controlling the spread of the disease? Then why did he not place any restrictions whatsoever on domestic travel by unvaccinated people, as did many European countries, and Asia-Pacific nations who suffered vastly fewer deaths than the US?
Yes, policy matters. The only policies I've heard from the Trump machine so far in the run-up to this election are to reduce taxes on the wealthy, punish women obtaining abortions, deport legal immigrants and US-born citizens, and refuse to accept defeat and therefore, the will of the American people.
You definitely should ignore his insufferable character and vote for these policies.
RE: Who knows the answer?
The US vaccines were far more effective than those in any other country, except possibly England. Harris has not achieved any sort of success worth discussing, yet white liberals keep telling me that I should vote for her because I am closer to her complexion than to Trump's. Maybe they should vote for Trump because they are white.
RE: Who knows the answer?
Message edited:
"The US vaccines were far more effective than those in any other country, except possibly England."
Even more reason to mandate restrictions on the movement of those who refused due to lunatic bravado, belligerent stubbornness, and addiction to insane conspiracy theories to take them, thus ensuring not only a huge percentage of their number died, but they spread the disease to others, including the elderly and health-compromised.
That's the #1 reason the US had the highest number of COVID-19 deaths of any country, and the second per capita.
"Harris has not achieved any sort of success worth discussing..."
It's acknowledged that it's pretty hard for VPs to make a name for themselves, since most of what they do is behind the scenes. She has, however, been very active on issues such as reproductive rights and voting rights. At least 99% of her work has not been in self-promotion and self-protection, unlike some other prominent political figures, who have achieved even less that is worthwhile.
Yes, policy matters. One party has them, the other has "a concept of a plan", whatever that might mean.
RE: Who knows the answer?
Kamala Harris on reproductive "rights"? She is a butcher, supported by the slaughter of babies and the sale of their organs. From my perspective, there is a special place reserved in hell for her.
>> That's the #1 reason the US had the highest number of COVID-19 deaths of any country, and the second per capita. <<
I dunno what drugs you are taking to make that sort of claim. It's a totally bogus statistic. Even if you omit India and China who completely cooked their books, the US isn't even in the top 10 per capita. Plus it's a dumb thing to even compare on a national basis, when age, gender, generics, climate, and strain virility are more significant factors than policy. If you still want to make this claim, put your data out there so I can shred it.
RE: Who knows the answer?
Message edited:
You disputed it, you put up.
Furthermore, if you'd been paying attention over the years, you'd know I'm not in favour of abortion on demand. And I'm probably far from the views of most liberals on the subject, to be honest. However, you asked what she had done. Her party has taken a position that is supported by, it would seem, the majority of women in your country. She has worked tirelessly to do what she promised to do.
On the other hand, your hero simply washed his hands of the matter, agreeing with the Supreme Court he appointed that it was a matter individual states should decide. What a gutless performance. Too chicken-shit to take a position, so he offloads the responsibility. Actually, he went from "pro-choice" in the 1990s to "pro-life" later on to win the evangelicals, and now that he has seen the strength of support for "pro-choice", he's toned down his stance a lot. Typical of him, though - spineless.
Furthermore, if you'd been paying attention over the years, you'd know I'm not in favour of abortion on demand. And I'm probably far from the views of most liberals on the subject, to be honest. However, you asked what she had done. Her party has taken a position that is supported by, it would seem, the majority of women in your country. She has worked tirelessly to do what she promised to do.
On the other hand, your hero simply washed his hands of the matter, agreeing with the Supreme Court he appointed that it was a matter individual states should decide. What a gutless performance. Too chicken-shit to take a position, so he offloads the responsibility. Actually, he went from "pro-choice" in the 1990s to "pro-life" later on to win the evangelicals, and now that he has seen the strength of support for "pro-choice", he's toned down his stance a lot. Typical of him, though - spineless.
RE: Who knows the answer?
Re: Covid stats, go here and sort by the last column (deaths per million). You'll see the US comes in at 15. It’s necessary to read this however with a major caveat. Poor countries massively underrepresented Covid deaths while the US had incentive to over-report them. For example, it is widely known that India had deaths many times beyond what they reported. I know this is true from reports in northern India. They may have had 2-10 million deaths. China, we'll never know, but this study estimates 1.4 million deaths in a single winter, so they might have had 10 million or more deaths overall.
If you're going to blame one person for Covid deaths, blame Xi Jinping. If you're going to blame a second, maybe it's Fauci, who lied to Congress about gain of function research. It was known for years that China had poor containment procedures at its Wuhan lab. I can't be bothered to pull up those articles at this moment but you can look it up on your own.
As for poor African countries, you can imagine the lack of reporting capability even if the governments were not actively suppressing the information. Keep in mind that counties with older median ages are at higher risk, as well as non-Caucasian, male, diabetic.
Re: Trump on abortion: I doubt Trump has moral principles. He is not "pro-life". He is pro whatever suits him. However on this one particular issue, I say his position is not spineless, but principled and consistent. This may be the only time I refer to Trump with those adjectives. He didn't tone anything down, if you listened to his debate against Harris. It is the same position held by Reagan and it's the same thing that the anti-abortion political platform has been advocating for decades: returning the decision to the states. It was an ultimate goal that on aggregate seemed likely to reduce abortions the most and de-federalize the issue, and de-federalizing is consistent with conservatism.
To push Trump for more than the reversal for RvW is a mistake. In order to not lose the greater war of public support for choosing life, it has always been necessary to have limited legal goals on abortion. Life from conception can be a strong religious conviction, but with natural miscarriage so common, federally criminalizing 100% of first-trimester abortions before a brain and nervous system have even started to develop is excessive. And even in the second and third trimester there need to be exceptions for terminal fetal conditions.
Harris and Walz on the other hand both have 100% ratings from the National Abortion Rights Action League for their support of abortion any place, any time, no questions asked. That's why my writing portfolio is full of attacks on her.
RE: Who knows the answer?
There is apparently a huge amount of disagreement regarding COVID-19 stats. John Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center clearly puts the US at number two on the list worldwide.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
Click on Deaths Per 100,000 population on the first chart.
But seriously, why are you comparing the US to India and poor African nations, where large portions of the population only have access to terrible medical facilities? You are the one who pointed out the US is better than everyone, especially with regard to the development of Coronavirus vaccines.
Isn't it odd then, when we compare the per capita deaths from COVID-19 for the countries that are represented by regular contributors in this forum, with similar levels of medical expertise and accessibility, we see the following (deaths per million of population, according to your chosen site's statistics):
United States 3099
Australia 407
New Zealand 0.2
Canada 1111
United Kingdom 2688
Although it was not the sole factor, the increased vigilance of the Biden administration contributed to a marked decline in Coronavirus deaths compared to that in force under the chaotic mismanagement by Trump.
Arguing for state implementation of abortion control is ridiculous. How does (on the one hand) the right of a fetus to live, or (on the other) a woman's right to control her own reproduction vary according to what state a person happens to live in? It's simply a ploy to enforce a desired outcome. And, say what you will, on this issue as so many others, Trump is a hypocrite who changes his spots according to whatever he thinks will get him the most votes.
RE: Who knows the answer?
The seriousness of Covid was not known when it first started. If you want to slather praise on Biden for Covid, just consider that the heavy lifting had already been done on vax development. Your John Hopkins stats are not magic. They are whatever each country chose to report. In the US, if anyone died and they happened to have Covid, we said their death was from Covid even if they had 10 other things. Our overall mortality was about 18% higher in 2020 and 2021. The US also had excess Covid mortality because we have a grotesque rate of obesity, at around 40%. Covid discriminates against obesity and diabetes: A rise in the obese adult population by 1 percentage point explains a 1.5 percentage point rise in mortality due to Covid for high income countries. Covid also discriminates against Black and Latino populations (though you will see some overlap with corresponding obesity rates there) with 1.6x mortality vs. Caucasians.
I think I've done enough talking about Covid. If you want to toot your horn about Australia, go ahead.
I doubt an abortion ban in the US would ever pass. Not sure what you wanted Trump to do that he could actually accomplish. Like every Republican president, he re-instituted the Mexico City policy. Nomination of good SCOTUS judges is the main thing the President can do. Looks to me like the judges he put in were intellectually up to the task. If you want to call him a hypocrite, I really don't care. I am mainly interested in the policies and outcomes. America is generally a mess because we have states rights. I happen to think that's largely a good thing.
RE: Who knows the answer?
I did not say I wanted Trump to initiate an abortion ban. What I said was it would be good if he didn't switch sides every time he was losing, and showed an ounce of conviction and principles. But we both know that is beyond him.
Also, it's a bit laughable to say I want to toot my horn about Australia, when I've done no such thing. You'll find that generally we don't feel compelled to think and constantly repeat the mantra that we are the biggest, the best, the bravest, the smartest. We leave that up to others.
I simply showed that one country, in spite of being technology leaders when it comes to medical research, fared far worse in a global pandemic than other countries with decent medical systems. And that result is largely down to the efforts of one man, and was reversed when that man was no longer in a position to call the shots.
RE: Who knows the answer?
Message edited:
What do you think Trump should have DONE differently in regards to Covid based on what we knew at the time? And how would that have turned out? Or maybe a better question would be, what would Hillary have done differently in 2020?


Shoes On the Danube Bank
Write a Bob: The 1944 -1945 massacre of 20,000 innocents
Write a Bob: The 1944 -1945 massacre of 20,000 innocents
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Knives Bared
An assassin stalks where sunlight never fell...
An assassin stalks where sunlight never fell...
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