RWG

I've heard about doctors saying this for a while now: masks are more effective at stopping the spread of the coronavirus than would be a vaccine, which might require a year for a sufficient portion of the population to get, and which might only make 50% of the people who get it immune.

The two teams I cheer for (Bills and Seahawks) are now a combined 9-0. With that said, this Seahawks team is the flukiest and most undeserving 5-0 team I've ever seen. I don't know how much longer Russell Wilson will be able to force these one-score games into wins. They should probably be able to steer this start into a playoff appearance, but the defense is just atrocious.

^ Climate change = solved

I never thought Markstrom would end up signing somewhere else, up until maybe the last hour before free agency. I thought he'd be open enough for a discount. But Calgary blew his socks off with 6 years/$6 million per, and there's nothing we can do about that. I would be livid if Benning had given him that. I'm glad he got his payday though. Guy is a fierce competitor. Tanev is hard to lose. He has been my favourite Canuck, after the Sedins, for the last 10 years. I have all the time in the world for him as a player and a person. But $4.5 million over FOUR YEARS is a horrible signing by Calgary. If he plays out that whole contract, I'd be shocked if plays the equivalent of two seasons, based on how often he gets injured. And he has sneakily been declining for years, which was sort of masked this year because he played with Quinn Hughes all season. It is going to suck to watch him play against us in a Flames jersey. But it would suck even more if we'd matched Calgary's offer. Stecher left too, for basically nothing, to the Detroit Red Wings, who just had the worst season in the cap-era NHL. We now have no one on the right side on defense other than Tyler Myers, who makes $5 million. That is an inexcusable fumble by Jim Benning. Based on their social media, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes seem heartbroken about losing Markstrom (Pettersson's close friend) and Tanev (Hughes's d partner and mentor). Time for them to be big boys, I guess. I didn't think it was possible the Canucks would lose ALL of their UFAs, but assuming they don't circle back on Toffoli (I doubt they will), that's what will happen. The Canucks are probably 10 wins worse than they were last season. Calgary also signed Louie Domingue. Since Calgary appears set on stealing all of our players, do you want to take Jim Benning too?

I can't find it, but there is a video of a Jets owner or chairperson or something introducing Gase at a press conference and saying something along the lines of "he is where coaching is going," and it is so outrageously funny in hindsight.

I did not envision Adam Gase outlasting Bill O'Brien AND Dan Quinn this season...

A number of polls have since come out showing the BC NDP in clear majority territory. The number required for a majority is 44. Here's the seat breakdown I'll guess: NDP - 48 Liberals - 38 Green - 1 This supposes that the NDP flips two of the Green seats in the Victoria area, four Liberal seats in metro Vancouver, and two Liberal seats in the interior. This will be Andrew Wilkinson's only election as BC Liberal leader. The new Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau will be the lone Green MLA survivor, though I know the NDP have targeted that riding and could take that one too. I feel like this is a conservative projection for the NDP, based on the fact so many close races broke their way in 2017 (and they still didn't win the most seats). The CBC aggregator and another one I looked at both have them in the low 50s for seats and with a 99% chance of winning the most seats. Should note that there was a similar projection to the 2013 election, in which the Liberals shockingly won a majority because of how bad polling was, or staged an epic comeback. But polling is better now, Andrew Wilkinson is much less likable than Christy Clark was, and John Horgan is much more likable than Adrian Dix was.

^ A week ago, the worst prognostications had us at +1,000 halfway through October. Testing has ticked up too, such that it looks like maybe the curve is flattening a bit. But with the new testing criteria and how deep the backlog is, who knows. The number of new cases a day feels almost arbitrary.

The video of him gasping is hard to watch. He looks scared.

I do not think it's possible for either side to win and have the other side accept the result as legitimate. It's not going to be pretty. If the mail-in ballots result in a jump-ball situation like the one in 2000, I'd assume the supreme court would just tip it to Trump. I don't think this is likely, but it's possible.

I'm glad the Lightning won the cup because it's good for the league if, every once in a while, the best team in the league actually won the cup. The discourse would be horrible if Dallas had won. Everyone would be talking about how choking defensive systems and boring hockey are how you win the cup, and all the contending teams would try to emulate that. I am sad for Rick Bowness though. Who even knows when we see hockey again? The league says December or January, but I think it will be weird and complicated and challenging.

^ That would be good as it might encourage his supporters to take it more seriously. Claiming his body vanquished the virus easily and the hospitalization and treatments were all precautionary because he's the president seems more in keeping with his SOP.

He's such an idiot. But also, very amoral.

Trump was on oxygen and was given experimental treatment. And hospitalized. He may be on the mend now, and his conditions may or may not worsen. But his case clearly has not been a mild one.

No chance imo this is a hoax or some kind of moonshot to alter the discourse on the virus, like liberals are suggesting. He would never agree to a ploy like this that he thinks makes him look weak. Zero.

Weeeeeeee

Yeah, I don't think the gap in the B.C. election is as vast as the aggregator makes it seem. Only one poll was conducted after Horgan called the election, but it doesn't seem to have hurt him much personally. The data points I'd worry about if I were him is that the gulf between the NDP and Liberals in party preference is significantly smaller than Horgan's lead over Wilkinson in leader popularity. There's not a ton of wiggle room in B.C. and there never really has been. The ridings on the island and around Vancouver proper will go NDP; the outer suburbs of Vancouver and the interior will go Liberal. I think this is the first B.C. election I can remember that isn't a single-issue referendum on pipelines.

The tax avoidance isn't even the takeaway for me. It's the extent of his insolvency. I would think that someone with a following as huge as his could easily make enough money to avoid foreclosure post-presidency, but all the guy seems to do is lose money.

Early projections for the BC election If this holds, it will be one of the "big" provinces backing up what the conclusion in New Brunswick was: people may be annoyed by being asked to vote but are generally adverse to changing gov'ts during the pandemic. I think we're headed for a federal election soon regardless, based on the throne speech.

Yeah yeah. No one is as well informed as you, psterina. I'm sure your raising this issue for the first time six weeks before an election in the American Politics Thread, in relation to Donald Trump and how the Democrats and elites are getting locked up for trafficking, is rooted in sincere concern for the victims.

Of course he will do that lol. McConnell, the person who actually runs the U.S., does not care an iota whether he is perceived as a hypocrite.

A towering legal figure, regardless of what kind of rulings you like. RIP.

Did not take long for the alt-right to successfully launder QAnon conspiracies into the mainstream through Erin O'Toole.

When people are led to believe children are in danger, they'll feel morally justified in anything they do, and any amount of violence is acceptable collateral. As a political tool to energize your base, this in itself is a pretty gross exploitation of an extremely serious issue.

Quebec: Vancouver: "Why do you care so much about America, you don't even live here."