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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 9:53:31 GMT -8
A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.
Fortune-tellers are often sick. It is rare to find a well medium.
The QOP: Where Being Arrested is a Badge of Honor
After leapfrogging to a new district to improve her re-election chances, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) participated in her first GOP debate on Thursday night before the Colorado primary scheduled for March 5.
As both the New York Times and Axios are reporting, it was at times contentious with John Frank of Axios writing that what transpired has all the signs of "a Republican primary that is devolving into a clown-car crash."
According to the reports, Boebert's decision to run in the more GOP-friendly 4th Congressional District was front-and-center in the debate with her rivals for the nomination calling her out as a carpetbagger.
In particular, State Representative Mike Lynch (R), who this week stepped down as the GOP minority leader in the statehouse, fired back at her after she brought up his DUI arrest by asking her, "Can you give the definition of 'carpetbagger' to me?"
With Boebert saying she moved to give her kids a "fresh start," she then added, “And this move is the right move for me and for them.”
According to the Times report, "At one point, candidates were asked to raise their hands if they had ever been arrested. Six of the nine candidates onstage raised their hands, to cheers and applause from the audience. Trent Leisy, a Navy veteran and business owner, high-fived Mr. Lynch and Ms. Boebert while their hands were raised."
The report notes that Boebert admitted to having been arrested only once over "a simple traffic violation that was unpaid," with the Times' Chris Cameron adding, "the local news media have reported at least two additional arrests. In one incident in 2015, Ms. Boebert told police officers who were arresting her that she 'had friends at Fox News' and that the arrest would be national news."
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 9:56:55 GMT -8
Dazed and Confused ... Drugged and Deluded
Former Republican pollster Lee Carter on Friday tried to put her best spin on former President Donald Trump's strategy of tanking a bipartisan border deal for his own political gain.
After playing video clips of Republican senators acknowledging that Trump is putting pressure on them to tank the deal, Carter argued that this kind of sabotage of bipartisan negotiations is exactly what many pro-Trump voters want.
"You look at the base who say... Trump is back, he's going to make sure we're tougher, we're getting better deals, the deal wasn't good enough, it wasn't strong enough," she said. "What they're trying to position this as saying is we're trying to do a tougher deal and we're going to say no to a deal that's going to tie this to Ukraine."
CNN political analyst John Avlon immediately interjected.
"That's utter B.S. and it's important to point that out to folks," he said. "Donald Trump is trying to stop this deal from happening so he can stop bipartisanship and Biden from getting credit, so he can campaign on the issue while it gets worse. He is playing on those supporters who care about the border as fools yet again."
Avlon emphasized that people in the media shouldn't unquestioningly accept what Trump voters happened to be feeling at a given time as a reality that needs to be respected.
"They're being drugged and deluded!" Avlon said. "That's important to point out."
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 9:59:24 GMT -8
The Latest News From GJ 9827d
The Hubble Space Telescope has observed the smallest planet outside our solar system to contain water vapor in its atmosphere, a "landmark discovery" that brings astronomy a step closer to characterizing Earth-like worlds.
At around twice Earth's diameter, planet GJ 9827d orbits a red dwarf star 97 light-years away in the constellation Pisces, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) said in statements on Thursday.
The team behind the finding are examining two scenarios: either the planet is a "mini-Neptune" with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere laced with water, or it's a warmer version of Jupiter's moon Europa, which contains twice as much water as Earth under its crust.
"The planet GJ 9827d could be half water, half rock," said Bjorn Benneke of the Universite de Montreal, who co-led the research. "And there would be a lot of water vapor on top of some smaller rocky body."
"Until now, we had not been able to directly detect the atmosphere of such a small planet. And we're slowly getting in this regime now," he added.
Over a period of three years, Hubble observed the planet during 11 transients, or events in which it crossed in front of its star.
During transients, starlight is filtered through the planet's atmosphere, allowing astronomers to use Hubble's instruments to analyze the patterns of colors (wavelengths), which revealed the telltale signature of water molecules.
Even if GJ 9827d has a water-rich atmosphere, its hot, Venus-like temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit (425 Celsius) would make it an uninhabitable steamy world.
Nevertheless, the Hubble discovery paves the way to future study of GJ 9827d and similar planets, especially by the James Webb Space Telescope, which can use its high resolution infrared images to look for more atmospheric molecules including carbon dioxide, and methane.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:01:10 GMT -8
Biden is Not Mr. Drill, Drill, Drill
President Joe Biden on Friday temporarily paused approval of new liquefied natural gas export projects, pending a thorough analysis of how shipments will impact global climate change.
The move, which follows a growing pressure campaign from climate activists, effectively freezes nearly a dozen LNG export projects currently in the pipeline, including the $10 billion Calcasieu Pass 2, or CP2, project on Louisiana’s coast. If built, CP2 would be one of the largest LNG export facilities on the planet.
In a statement announcing the decision, Biden said that the pause “sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time,” and allows his administration to “take a hard look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America’s energy security, and our environment.”
“While MAGA Republicans willfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis, condemning the American people to a dangerous future, my Administration will not be complacent,” he said, referring to supporters of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. “We will not cede to special interests.”
The U.S. is the largest exporter of LNG, a planet-warming fossil fuel that a recent study from Cornell University determined has a larger greenhouse gas footprint than burning coal.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:04:24 GMT -8
Why Did They Do This?On Thursday, the U.S. government sold the Federal Helium Reserve, a massive underground stockpile based in Amarillo, Texas, that supplies up to 30% of the country’s helium. Once the deal is finalized, the buyer — which will likely be the highest bidder, the industrial gas company Messer — will claim some 425 miles of pipelines spanning Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, plus about 1 billion cubic feet of the only element on Earth cold enough to make an MRI machine work. Regulatory and logistical issues with the facility threaten a temporary shutdown as it passes from public to private ownership, and hospital supply chain experts worry the sale could have serious consequences for health care down the road — especially when it comes to MRIs. To be sure, a Federal Helium Reserve shutdown wouldn’t mean that MRIs would suddenly power down across the country, said Soumi Saha, senior vice president of government affairs at Premier Inc., which contracts with helium suppliers on behalf of 4,400 hospitals in the United States. “But we are stressing about this shortage. From a health care perspective, MRI machines are the No. 1 concern.” The U.S. just sold its helium stockpile. Here’s why the medical world is worried.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:15:53 GMT -8
Unfortunately, there is No Vaccination to Protect People From Stupidity.
A serious outbreak of measles in England could grow to tens of thousands of cases, health experts there have warned, as Europe grapples with a spike in the highly contagious disease.
The U.K. Health Security Agency said Friday that since October, there have been 216 confirmed cases and 103 probable cases in the West Midlands region, an urban part of England centered on the city of Birmingham, where around 80% of the cases were recorded. That’s higher than last year’s total of 209 measles cases and the 2022 tally of 53.
Last year, the government warned that a measles outbreak in London could lead to between 40,000 and 160,000 cases there if the vaccination rate did not improve. The rate in England has been falling for years due to misinformation and declining community health budgets.
Around 89% of children in England have received their first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine dose by age 2, according to the state-run National Health Service — down from 93% a decade ago. The World Health Organization considers 95% the necessary threshold to maintain herd immunity.
If There Were a Stupidity Vaccine, These People Would Be too Stupid To Get Vaccinated.
According to the CDC 20% of measles cases lead to hospitalizatin in the US. 1 in 1,000 lead to inflamation of the brain. 5% of children will get pneumonia. 1 or 2 out of every 1,000 children will die.
Unvaccinated people put babies too young to be vaccinated at risk.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:17:57 GMT -8
Remember All those Prenant Women Who Were Afraid to Get the COVID Vaccine? They Decided to "Play It Safe".
Just over four years since Covid emerged, it has become increasingly clear that infections in pregnant mothers can lead to serious health risks in infants.
The latest finding: Babies born to mothers who had Covid during pregnancy had "unusually high rates" of respiratory distress at birth or shortly thereafter, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications.
The authors defined respiratory distress as having at least two out of four symptoms: a slow breathing rate, pale or bluish skin, flaring nostrils or a retraction of the chest with each breath.
The study enrolled 221 pregnant women with Covid — mostly Black or Hispanic women in Los Angeles. None of the nearly 200 babies studied, who were born between April 2020 and August 2022, tested positive for Covid at birth. Around 17% were diagnosed with respiratory distress — higher than the average among newborns, which estimates put around 5% to 7%.
"The average duration of a hospital stay for these infants was about 24 days. They were quite sick," said Dr. Olivia Man, the lead author of the study.
Other effects of Covid during pregnancy, according to prior research, include an increased risk of severe illness and death for the mother, preterm birth, stillbirth and neurodevelopmental issues in the first year of a child’s life.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:20:23 GMT -8
The QOP Love Democracy, Just As Long as the Voters Don't Get to Decide.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:21:51 GMT -8
The "Crisis" at the Border is Overblown. The Crisis in Ukraine is Not.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:25:24 GMT -8
Most Will Vote For Him
Almost all Republicans will vote for Trump this fall
Ignore recent exit polls to the contrary. Minds will change by November.
Civiqs’ daily tracking polls, for example, show that only about 60% of Republicans had a favorable opinion of Trump in late January 2016. Trump’s GOP support climbed up to the low-90s after he defeated Clinton. There it held steady throughout presidency; his current favorability rating among Republicans is now at or near 80% in both Civiqs’ data and in FiveThirtyEight’s polling average.
It’s not surprising, then, that Trump is beating Biden by over 80 percentage points among Republicans (86% to 4%) in this week’s YouGov-Economist poll. Nor is it a surprise that his GOP support was even stronger in Quinnipiac’s December polling, where 93% of Republicans preferred him in a head-to-head trial heat against Biden.
The anomalous results out of New Hampshire, by contrast, fit a familiar pattern in which responses to exit poll questions “are mainly post hoc rationalizations,” as political scientists Brendan Nyhan and James Stimson have explained. That is, many of Haley’s supporters were likely reaffirming their primary votes by saying that they won’t support Trump in November.
The vast majority of Haley’s supporters who identify as Republicans, however, will almost certainly back Trump after he is increasingly contrasted with Biden (rather than Haley) over the course of the election year. Indeed, political science research shows that the general election campaign often activates partisan loyalties and leads disaffected primary voters to support their party’s nominee in November.
The Real Question is How Many Won't. 8% of Republicans voted for Clinton in 2016. 6% of Republicans Voted for Biden in 2020. What Will Happen in 2024?
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:30:19 GMT -8
A Vote Against Child PovertyCongress, which has been setting records for a lack of accomplishments, may be on the verge of actually doing something big: passing a bill that could lift half a million kids out of poverty by next year.— The proposal, which the House could vote on as soon as next week, involves an expanded tax credit for parents of children 16 and younger. If that rings a bell, congratulations, you’ve been paying attention. The proposed credit is a scaled-down version of a plan that passed during President Biden‘s first year in office, but only lasted one year. Reviving some version of that has been a top priority of congressional Democrats ever since. Earlier this month, the chairs of Congress’ two tax-writing committees, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, struck a deal to make it happen. Their proposal then won approval of the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee, 40-3 — the sort of bipartisan vote that’s now rare in Washington. This being Congress, it’s possible the deal could fall apart. Some House members threaten to oppose it over an unrelated tax issue. In the Senate, some conservative Republicans don’t like expanding the child tax credit on ideological grounds. But the lopsided vote in the House tax-writing committee indicated the bill has a strong chance of approval. That’s a rare advance in a stalemated Congress. New, expanded child tax credits are back — and they may actually pass Congress
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:31:50 GMT -8
An Actual Soft Landing?
Inflation as measured by the Federal Reserve’s preferred metric fell below a 3% annual rate in December, showing that price increases are steadily headed back to the central bank’s target, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on Friday. The overall personal consumption expenditures price index rose 2% for the month, as did the core index that omits food and energy costs. Both were in line with estimates. On an annual basis, the overall index remained unchanged at 2.6% while the core fell to 2.9% from 3.2% in November. The rise in the core index was the slowest since the spring of 2021. The core index is often cited by Fed officials as their barometer for inflation. Personal income, meanwhile, grew by 0.3% in December, while spending rose by a strong 0.7%. "The report showed steady income growth and good spending, together with the Fed’s preferred inflation measure finally falling below 3%,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “Those are all ingredients for Fed cuts, regardless of December’s higher CPI inflation and strong retail spending." Key Inflation Measure Shows Drop Below 3% Annual Rate in December
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2024 10:34:01 GMT -8
Today's Freeway Safety Tip: Keep Your Fingers Down.
A Southern California man was convicted of murder Thursday in the road rage shooting death of a 6-year-old who was killed after his mother gave another driver the middle finger.
Marcus Anthony Eriz, 26, of Costa Mesa, faces up to 40 years to life in prison for the May 21, 2021, death of Aiden Leos, the Orange County District Attorney's Office said.
Eriz killed Aiden “for no conceivable reason,” DA Todd Spitzer said.
“A mom literally held her son, whose heart was bleeding, on the side of the freeway here in Orange County — because of the reckless, and just cold-hearted behavior of an individual who decided that he would carry a gun. And when the right time presented itself, he would use that gun,” Spitzer said.
Eriz was with his girlfriend, Wynne Lee, when she was cut off on the 55 Freeway by Aiden’s mother, officials said.
Aiden’s mother gave them the middle finger, and Eriz fired a Glock handgun at her car in response. Aiden, who was being driven to kindergarten, was struck in the back seat.
Eriz was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and two enhancements that increase the possible penalty, the district attorney’s office said.
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Post by sagobob on Jan 26, 2024 19:37:15 GMT -8
A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large. Fortune-tellers are often sick. It is rare to find a well medium. The QOP: Where Being Arrested is a Badge of HonorAfter leapfrogging to a new district to improve her re-election chances, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) participated in her first GOP debate on Thursday night before the Colorado primary scheduled for March 5. As both the New York Times and Axios are reporting, it was at times contentious with John Frank of Axios writing that what transpired has all the signs of "a Republican primary that is devolving into a clown-car crash." According to the reports, Boebert's decision to run in the more GOP-friendly 4th Congressional District was front-and-center in the debate with her rivals for the nomination calling her out as a carpetbagger. In particular, State Representative Mike Lynch (R), who this week stepped down as the GOP minority leader in the statehouse, fired back at her after she brought up his DUI arrest by asking her, "Can you give the definition of 'carpetbagger' to me?" With Boebert saying she moved to give her kids a "fresh start," she then added, “And this move is the right move for me and for them.” According to the Times report, "At one point, candidates were asked to raise their hands if they had ever been arrested. Six of the nine candidates onstage raised their hands, to cheers and applause from the audience. Trent Leisy, a Navy veteran and business owner, high-fived Mr. Lynch and Ms. Boebert while their hands were raised." The report notes that Boebert admitted to having been arrested only once over "a simple traffic violation that was unpaid," with the Times' Chris Cameron adding, "the local news media have reported at least two additional arrests. In one incident in 2015, Ms. Boebert told police officers who were arresting her that she 'had friends at Fox News' and that the arrest would be national news." This pool of candidates all swim in the shallow end. From the crowd reaction maybe a felony would count for more than a misdemeanor? |
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2024 9:07:57 GMT -8
I find the response from the crowd most disturbing. These are people who really want to bring down the government. |
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