flobaba wrote:

Yeah, those per capita numbers are meaningless in a country like America where the wealth or income gap is so wide and top heavy.

Yeah. I'm doing some work for another government right now. You need to look at a contextual benchmark that includes things like income Gini and the poverty rate. Even labour share of income is helpful. Then you can get a sense of how inclusive your growth is even before you get to access to social services. What I find interesting is how a lot of fast growth economies don't report these types of numbers to mask how their models can exploit people. Singapore and Qatar, for example, don't report income Ginis. 

Yeah I've always found it surprising that countries aren't more open about the true extent of inequality among their citizens

It wouldn’t make sense politically for either of those countries. Qatar has such an incredibly flashy brand. They have a $40k GDP/capita but I think 1/6 of the population is in the construction sector, many of them South Asians at low wages. Singapore has a few south Asians in construction and then lots of domestics from the whole region who are earning much less than domestic workers at equivalent GDP/capita peers. So I think they don’t report Gini and other inequality data because it reveals these things and tarnishes the glossy brand.

I was being sarcastic Claude.

Hope that poll's off by a margin because that's way narrower than it was a month ago.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died today.

May her soul RIP.

Her replacement is going to become another huge election campaign issue for Trump / Republicans

MHSRIP

Election issue? Mitch is moving to fill that seat before the funeral

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcconnell-supreme-court-nominee-vote-floor

[Twitter]

They must be bricking it if theyre resorting to doing this in texas

These polls coming out since the debate seem to point to an irretrievable gap for trump. Feels like we're really just waiting to see how and to what extent he's willing to cheat

I think the Dem claims of an impending coup are off the mark, because Trump doesn't control the state agencies or have their special loyalty. But I also think it's highly likely Trump will say some histrionic things about the ballots if he loses, and encourage a bit of stochastic terrorism on the part of the Proud Boys etc etc.

Gazza M wrote:

These polls coming out since the debate seem to point to an irretrievable gap for trump. Feels like we're really just waiting to see how and to what extent he's willing to cheat

A few months ago I was sure he would win but his campaign has been terrible so far. Letting his massive ego get in the way as usual!

He would win if he was a stable individual. If you read the Bob Woodward book, Lindsey Graham actually laid out the re-election plan to him about 6 months ago. He said shut down aggressively for Covid and re-open towards elections, introduce a bill against police brutality, support DACA, and introduce an infrastructure bill.
The Democrats would've struggled against that kind of program. Trump's lack of empathy saw him go away from all of that. At this point, the best approach for Republicans is to force their judge and save the Senate.

This is him today...

[Twitter]

Claudius wrote:

He would win if he was a stable individual. If you read the Bob Woodward book, Lindsey Graham actually laid out the re-election plan to him about 6 months ago. He said shut down aggressively for Covid and re-open towards elections, introduce a bill against police brutality, support DACA, and introduce an infrastructure bill.
The Democrats would've struggled against that kind of program. Trump's lack of empathy saw him go away from all of that. At this point, the best approach for Republicans is to force their judge and save the Senate.

It seems like the Republicans around him know exactly what needs to be done to win but he along with his inner circle are on another planet. Biden/Harris ticket is so weak as well, he should be winning easily.

Biden Harris ticket feels quite strong. It's the right ticket for the moment. They don't need to do much and can win the middle. I actually don't think America needs a liberal ticket in this explosive moment.
They've been doing clever things like dodging the issue on packing the courts. That actually polls really badly (around 30% favourability), and the Republicans have been trying to goad them into committing to it, to turn it into a talking point that flips the middle and activates the base. And Biden-Harris are just sidestepping it every debate. That doesn't mean that once they have won the presidency and both houses, they shouldn't immediately consider the future structure of the Supreme Court. That should be a priority, but not worth discussing up front.

... even Medicare for All. Just rename the damn thing. Call it Obamacare Advanced or something and move towards coverage for all in line with the exposure from the pandemic, the changing nature of work, and the economic crisis. Constituents across the political spectrum will be able to get behind better care under those guises. Once you have both houses and presidency, just go for it

Naming the thing obamacare advanced is more damaging than M4A. And biden definitely isn't pushing for that. Harris was in the tank for M4A for about 2 minutes, until her consultants told her to walk it back. I seriously doubt biden will be pushed left on healthcare of all things if you look at his record. The guy cares way too much about working with republicans and getting all the wrong shit 'done' (increasing military budgets, walls street deregulation etc). He once again intimated this week that the fever will break once trump is gone and he'll be the guy to get republicans to do the right thing. Did they ever do anything but obstruct obama and him during their 8 years in office?

Biden-harris would be a crap ticket if you took COVID out of the equation, which has caused trump to repeatedly punch himself in the face. Hopefully people aren't too suckered in by these 2. By all means dump trump asap, but don't expect much beyond the status quo with centrist democrats

Listen to the trout.