Some stories and deals don’t get their own post, but should get some coverage. Here are some quick takes on stories that caught my eye. Let’s hear your thoughts about them in the comments below!
View previous roundups and commentary here.
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Is This The End Of The Road For MAGA?
Historically, the ruling party loses big in midterms. That didn’t happen this year, as Republicans will wind up with a subpar performance.
Instead of a red wave, there was a red ripple in the House map. Republicans appear poised to win the majority of seats, but it may be tough for current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to get all of his members in line.
In the Senate, Democrats have the lead in Arizona, though that race hasn’t been called. For the Republicans to win, they would have to take both Nevada and Georgia. Nevada has a good number outstanding mail in ballots likely to lean Democrat, which will mean that race may not be called for another week.
Meanwhile, Georgia is headed for a runoff on December 6th, which will strip the Libertarian spoiler out of the race.
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Dejav.
Dejav who?
Knock knock.
Yes, we just did this 2 years ago. And Trump’s election denials flipped both of Georgia’s Senate seats to the Democrats, giving them full control over the Executive and Legislative branches for the past 2 years
If Democrats hold onto their seats in Arizona and Nevada, will the Georgia runoff even matter?
You bet it will.
It will mean the difference between the 50/50 Senate where Joe Manchin has effective veto power or a 51/49 Senate where Manchin can be bypassed.
What happened to the predicted red wave?
Roe v. Wade was certainly a factor helping Democrats, though polls show that dropped off significantly in recent months.
But Democrats spent heavily to get MAGA/Election Denier Republicans into the general election. And of course President Trump also pushed for those Republicans to become general election candidates.
But while the base loved those candidates, elections are won at the margins. Swing states may have at least a third strong Republican base and a third strong Democratic base. Those bases choose candidates they like in the primaries, but if they pick extremists that don’t appeal to swing voters in the middle third of the population, they’ll have a hard time winning in a general election.
Congrats to Donald Trump for making Pat Toomey hate the future of the GOP so much that he left the Senate and then endorsing the worst possible fit for PA in OZ and handing a Senate seat to Dems.
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) November 9, 2022
Independents didn’t want to hear about 2020 election deniers and sent candidates like Doug Mastriano, Tudor Dixon, J.R. Majewski, Steve Chabot, and dozens of others home in seats that would likely have been won by more moderate Republicans. Trump endorsed Don Bolduc lost a winnable election in New Hampshire. Just having an extremist like Doug Mastriano on the Pennsylvania ballot hurt Dr. Mehmet Oz. Oz was already a weak candidate and was only able to win the primary thanks to Trump’s endorsement. He failed to beat John Fetterman, who recently had a stroke, but received sympathy from people offended by how he was treated. His capacity to serve could have been questioned in kindness, rather than being taunted, but that sort of civilized politics seems to have left the building in this era. That’s bad for our country as it lowers the quality of candidates by dissuading decent people from running for office.
Other election denying candidates like Kari Lake were predicted to win big, but are underperforming as well and may possibly lose.
In Ohio, J.D. Vance came out of nowhere to win the primary after a late endorsement by President Trump. While centrist Mike DeWine won in the governor battle by more than 25% of the vote, Mr. Vance took an election denial position and won by a quarter of that margin, despite being gifted buckets of cash by Mitch McConnell, who considered Ohio to be a must win state at the expense of spending in other states.
Marco Rubio won by more than 16% in Florida and Ron DeSantis won Florida by more than 19% by staying away from election denial claims that anger swing voters. That strategy paid off for them with massive margins of victory.
And yet, President Trump is expected to announce next week that he will run again for President in 2024.
There are decent odds that his announcement will cause Democrat Raphael Warnock to once again win a Georgia runoff next month.
Republicans had a chance to permanently remove President Trump from ever running for office in January 2021, but failed to do so. Will that come back to haunt them?
Ron DeSantis has time to decide if he will run, but running against Trump will be a bruising battle and he might prefer to wait for 2028. Even if he does run, he may wind up splitting the anti-Trump vote among other candidates like Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, and Ted Cruz, and hand the nomination to Trump as happened in 2016.
Spoiler alert. If what we’ve seen in 2020 and 2022 continues, that’s a best case scenario for Democrats, as Trump sure seems like he may be unelectable.
Does Anyone At The CDC See The Bigger Picture?
18 months ago, we all had high hopes that the COVID-19 vaccine would end the pandemic. Delta and Omicron proved that it would turn endemic and we would have to live with it.
I was happy to vaccinate myself, despite recovering from COVID, as I was able to visit many countries that required vaccination, and getting some added protection against reinfection didn’t seem unreasonable. The vaccine’s uncomfortable side effects and eventual lack of efficacy ensured that I wouldn’t be getting a booster.
Bizarrely, the CDC continues to use language such as this, stating that vaccines aren’t “100% effective at preventing infection,” instead of just being honest and saying that vaccines do very little to prevent infection, but can help reduce the chances of severe COVID or death.
Indeed, my mother has had 5 (!) COVID shots, including the bivalent booster a month ago, but tested positive for COVID just yesterday. She’s grateful that she’s only achy, but wouldn’t it be nice if the CDC was more transparent?
A risk based approach to COVID vaccines makes sense as it affects older people and people with elevated risk factors more than others.
The CDC recommends that children get vaccinated and boosted for COVID, despite little evidence that there are tangible benefits to outweigh the risks in an age group that has nearly zero complications from COVID.
By putting the COVID vaccine on the schedule of vaccines for children, it can affect which schools that children are able to attend. It also puts the COVID vaccine on the same pedestal as other vaccines that do prevent diseases that cause grave danger in children. But if the COVID vaccine doesn’t prevent infections, why is this not being left up to individuals to decide if the benefits outweigh any potential risks? Or will it cause more schools to just stop enforcing the CDC vaccination schedule?
My grandfather did a lot of the original research on the polio vaccine and my family has many MDs in fields from ENT to infectious disease to pediatrics and many more, but they concur with my decision not to vaccinate my children against COVID, especially since they already had COVID before the vaccine was approved for children. But while you can test out of a chickenpox vaccine if you had chickenpox, there’s no such luxury given to COVID recoverees.
A holistic approach by the CDC would reveal that their failure to be honest with the general public is going to hurt their reputation and the medical field in the country as a whole. They previously failed by originally saying that N95s were of no benefit to the general public at the beginning of the pandemic, when it was revealed they did that to retain supply for hospitals, after failing to stop the export of N95s en masse to China before the pandemic reached the US.
The US is one of the last countries in the world still requiring foreign nationals to be vaccinated in order to enter the country.
My wheelhouse may not be medicine, but the narrow minded approach reminds me of the same small thinking that did United’s former CEO Jeff Smisek in. He ditched JFK service because routes like JFK to LA and San Francisco weren’t profitable on their own.
However he failed to stop to think of the systemic consequences of that decision. When United killed off JFK-LAX they wound up chasing away many of their top passengers and corporate clients in LA. In turn, they damaged their entire LAX operation and they were forced to shrink that hub and cede their once market leading service there to airlines like American and Delta. Worse yet, United permanently gave their JFK slots to Delta and to this day, the airline is unable to course correct as it can’t get ahold of any slots to operate in JFK.
Will someone please save the CDC?
United Will Remind You To Checkin For Your Southwest Flight
United has a cute campaign at NotGroupC.com throwing shade at Southwest for having to checkin at exactly 24 hours before your flight to avoid boarding in Group C. You can schedule a phone call for a reminder 24 hours before your flight through 5/3/23 so that you’ll get a good boarding position.
Of course United doesn’t really want you flying Southwest, but they’re here to remind you that other airlines don’t require you to checkin 24 hours before your flight to get a good seat.
Of course Southwest doesn’t offer Basic Economy, and United doesn’t allow you to choose any seat if you’re flying basic, though they are making exceptions if you’re flying with kids. United also blocks many seat assignments unless you have elite status or will pay for it.
But that’s neither here nor there, I still love seeing airlines throwing shade at Southwest’s anxiety inducing lack of assigned seats.
It reminds me of AirTran throwing shade at Southwest, before the latter got even by buying them and selling off their planes to Delta. Somehow I don’t see Southwest buying up United based on this campaign though.
And hey, Southwest might not have seatback entertainment, but they do have great live entertainment:
Don’t Check Valuables, But AirTags Are A Game Changer
I get a surprising number of emails from people who are looking for advice after losing valuable in checked luggage, from Tefilin to Jewelry.
First of all, don’t do that. Far too many bags and valuables in checked bags are stolen or lost.
But having an AirTag in a checked bag is a no-brainer at this point.
Readers have told me that they have been able to get airline employees to look in back offices in airports after showing them that their Airtag shows the bag is there.
There are so many stories like this one as well…
Airport cop shrugs. Missing bag. Says cops won’t care. Agitated. Night crew will take too long to respond.
— Alex Garcia (@AGarciaPhoto) September 16, 2022
People were home. Lights on. Didn’t answer. They called police.
— Alex Garcia (@AGarciaPhoto) September 16, 2022
From 50 feet away on the darkness I could see the red twist ties on the handles of my suitcase. My name tag was on it. This was no mistake.
— Alex Garcia (@AGarciaPhoto) September 16, 2022
Grateful to North Miami police for showing up and taking it seriously. Geovany my driver from Matanzas who got out of the car and had my back. And to #airtag. Use them. Good night all.
— Alex Garcia (@AGarciaPhoto) September 16, 2022
If you don’t have an AirTag, well, hopefully some kind DDFB members will help reunite you with your bags!
There Are Still Honest People Out There
From my inbox. The reader is correct, I always love a feel good story!
“Hi Dan,
Thank you for the posts you always put out there.
I think you’ll like this story that happened this week.
I booked tickets for my parents to go on vacation to Florida for 1 week they went this Monday with United airlines Flight 441 from Newark to Fort Lauderdale.
About 20 minutes after they landed I get a phone call from someone that works for United in Fort Lauderdale airport asking if I left something on the plane. I conferenced in my father on the phone and he tells me he has all his luggage. She asks him if maybe they lost money, and my father checks and realizes he left his envelope with $500 spending money on his seat!
She confirms she has that envelope (she got it from one of the cleaners) and tells us she will come to the baggage claim desk they should look out for her with a blue vest. They met her there and they got back the envelope and offered her money for returning it, but she refused to take anything!
Her name is Tereza Aramis and she got the envelope from one of the cleaners on the plane.
There are still some honest people out there, the cleaner that found it most probably makes around that in a week!
Thank you again for your posts.”
A Shocking Story Of Delta’s Abuse Of A Pilot
The Seattle Times shares a shocking story of a whistleblower pilot for Delta Airlines.
Unhappy with the whistleblower not accepting the airline’s actions, the airline paid a Doctor $74,000 to diagnose her with bipolar disorder in order to end her career.
She was eventually reinstated to fly A330s for Delta out of Seattle.
After a 6.5 year battle, the pilot finally won, with the judge ruling that Delta weaponized the diagnosis to obtain blind compliance by its pilots. The pilot was awarded $500,000 plus legal fees, but that’s not even a slap on the wrist for Delta. The judge also ordered the airline to post copies of his decision at every pilot base and that the pilot be reinstated with the highest possible wages along with payment for the lost time flying.
The Doctor involved has forfeited his medical license rather than face charges in the case.
Delta offered no apology or admission of wrongdoing.
Shame on Delta for dropping the ball on this one, and for creating an environment where their pilots don’t feel safe to report problems.
Flaming Toilets On El Al
El Al’s slogan is “Hachi babayit ba’olam.” That roughly means “the most at home in the world.”
But hopefully people don’t set fire to their toilets at home?
An Israeli passenger decided to have a smoke on a flight from Tel Aviv to Bangkok. Now, airlines are required to have ashtrays in the bathrooms, just in case someone does try to sneak in a smoke at 35,000 feet.
But this genius decided to forgo the ashtray and toss the cigarette into the trash, which then ignited toilet paper in the trash which caused both the toilet and trash can to catch fire.
Luckily the crew caught it before the fire spread to the cabin and the fire was extinguished without any injuries and damage to the plane. The airline decided not to involve Thai police in the matter, though charges were pressed back in Israel.
A Nigerian Prince Has Millions Of Dollars For Emirates
Earlier this year, Emirates suspended flights to Nigeria due to a dollar shortage and the inability to convert local currency into something the airline could repatriate. The airline resumed flight in September after receiving $265 million from the government.
However, Emirates has once suspended service due to the inability to repatriate funds from flying to Nigeria.
Luckily, I have the contact email of a Nigerian Prince that has offered to extricate the funds in exchange for a small percentage of the total amount recovered. If anyone can pass that information onto Sir Tim Clark, that would be great.
A US Air Force Pilot Shares A Yom Kippur War Story
There are countless stories, both miraculous and sad, told of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
But it’s not everyday that you read an AvGeek story about a US Air Force Pilot delivering arms to Tel Aviv, who had some divine providence making sure that he didn’t wind up landing his plane in the water at night.
United Does A U-Turn After Protesters Block Highway In Sao Paulo
Protestors in Brazil that were unhappy with Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat shut down the main highway connecting Sao Paulo with Guarulhos Airport.
There aren’t more than 200 here.. but they are effectively blocking the road to the airport in São Paulo as police stand by and watch pic.twitter.com/nLhcdfC0rp
— Manolo De Los Santos (@manolo_realengo) November 1, 2022
That caused United to turn around mid-flight:
https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1587262674118795265?
A little PTSD? Who, me? But what’s life if not for having a few adventures to tell along the way?
Mattress Mack Does It Again
No baseball fan outside of Texas likes the Houston Astros.
Once again, he gave away tens of millions of dollars in free furniture thanks to a brilliant annual promotion where he offers a full refund of your furniture purchase if the Astros win the World Series, which they did last week. He’s able to do that by hedging the promotion against an aggregate $10 million bet he made on the Astros, which comes out of the extra proceeds brought in by his wildly popular promotion. This year, the bet earned him $75,000,000.
Whether the team won or lost, he would break even, but he gains the added business from the promotion and a whole lot of people in Houston got free furniture.
Why aren’t stores in other cities offering promotions like this?
Are Extra Legroom Fees Racist?
I’d love to see hotel resort fees and fuel surcharges get regulated out of existence, but extra legroom fees?
Biden: "Some airlines, if you want six more inches between you and the seat in front, you pay more money but you don't know it … these are junk fees, they're unfair and they hit marginalized Americans the hardest, especially … people of color." pic.twitter.com/u8IbCqpRZG
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) October 26, 2022
Fly Frontier Shower Class
Don’t have the miles to splurge for Emirates Shower Class?
View this post on Instagram
Just fly on Frontier Shower Class!
Via @jimmyfallon on @FlyFrontier:
"They call this the vegetable aisle at @kroger experience. First time a flights been delayed because of bad weather inside the plane. And yet, somehow the chicken was still dry." pic.twitter.com/5g0p6Xknz0
— Ross Feinstein (@RossFeinstein) August 2, 2022
I May Need To Try This One Day…
Jetpacks are now real. pic.twitter.com/ZHGOWZ6uLQ
— Balaji (@balajis) September 17, 2022
Living In Elon’s World
Amazing how we got from banning the Babylon Bee earlier this year to where we are today.
If you are a Twitter employee and you participated in the culling of free speech, you deserve every ounce of stress you are feeling right now #TwitterTakeover #twitterlayoffs pic.twitter.com/lUPk0G4DvM
— Evolorian (@Arrechito_Amer) November 4, 2022
What are you thoughts on Elon’s takeover of Twitter?
Previous roundups
Catch up on what you missed!
- 1/9/22 News Roundup: We Can Do Better; The Chaim Walder Moment, COVID For All, $1,759 Kosher Airline Meal, Surfside Collapse Reconstruction, Taliban, Cancun Resort Gunfire, Hertz Arrests, Free Audi Q3, And More
- 9/5/21 News Roundup: Surfside Collapse, Endemic COVID, COVID Origin, BDS, Awesome LEGO App, Jews Playing Ball, Chicken On A Plane, And More!
- 5/16/21 News Roundup: Violence In Israel, Meron Thoughts, Get Away With Murder, Inflation, Chinese Vaccine, Delta Abuse, Nazi Escape, Rental Car Shortage, And More!
- 3/10/21 News Roundup: Vaccines, Yudi Dukes, Mandalorian, 0% Mortgages, Shomer Shabbat Airlines, Frontier Near Miss, Cats On A Plane, Antisemitism, And More!
- 1/3/21 News Roundup: Failing The Vaccine Rollout, UK Variant, Silver Linings, Greenland Flights, COVID At 35K Feet, $16K Apple Bill, Jetpack Flyer, Volcano Eruption, And More!
- 12/13/20 News Roundup: Vaccine Wars, Rules For Thee, Another 2 Year Old Kicked Off Flight, Delta’s Loophole, Work From Hawaii, Basic Economy Rooms, And More
- 11/2/20 News Roundup: Saved By A Whale, COVID Lockdowns, NYC Quarantine Fines, Peace In The Middle East, The Return Of The 737MAX, And More
- 10/9/20 News Roundup: COVID-19 Second Wave, Flights To Nowhere, Skymiles Mortgage, Airlines Banning Food, Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Home Makeover, Faked Death, And More!
- 9/2/20 News Roundup: UAE Peace Deal, El Al Sale, COVID Reinfection, Flight Simulator, 737MAX Rebranding, Ransomware, Tesla Hack, #Bonvoyed, And More!
- 8/5/20 News Roundup: COVID-19 Updates, United 232 Survivor’s Guilt, Hyatt Woes, All You Can Fly Deals, El Al Meals At Home, Corona Cruises, Hyatt In Hana, Clorox Wipes, Lost Baggage, And More!
- 7/22/20 News Roundup: Israel Flights, COVID-19 Thoughts, Cuomo, AA Adding Flights, JetBlue Ditching Long Beach, Hertz “Improvements”, DOT Complaint, Elon’s Negative Fine, And More!
- Sunday News Roundup 6/28/20: New LGA, El Al Bailout, Hong Kong, Credit Card Approvals, Goodbye Qantas 747s, Buried Treasure, And More
- COVID-19 News Roundup 5/25/20: Super-Spreaders, Second Wave, Immunity Passports, El Al In Turkey, Worldwide Restrictions Roundup, Amare Stoudemire, And More
- COVID-19 News Roundup 5/12/20: Distancing On A Plane, De Blasio, OU Kosher PSA, True Number Of Deaths, Murder Hornets, Free Eilat Flights, Goodbye $10,000 Bumps, And More
- COVID-19 News Roundup 4/5/20: Shifting Origin Story, Billionaires Doing Good, Plague Of Wild Animals, Trapped Away From Home, Chicken Soup For The Soul+More
- COVID-19 News Roundup 3/14/20: New Travel Bans, Airline Suspensions, Israel Shutdowns, An Alternate COVID Approach, JetBlue Ban, TSA Changes, Poll, And More
- Sunday News Roundup 3/8/20: Flight Tampering, eBay Bans, Centurion LAX, United Refunds, Airline Bunk Beds, Amazon Grocery Markets, Record Flight Times, And More
- Sunday News Roundup 2/23/20: Flight Denied Entry To Israel, E-PASS Transponder, Venice #Bonvoyed, MLB, Points Scam, Drone Dome, $10K Bump, Cuba Trip, And More!
- Sunday News Roundup 2/16/20: New US Airlines, Cruise Quarantines, #Reclinegate, Yiddish Harry Potter, Aeroplan Infant Awards, And More!
- Sunday News Roundup 2/2/20: Coronavirus, RIP Kobe, Something Smells At American, Super Bowl Saturday, Stuck In Iran, 15K Lie-Flat Transcon, And More!
- Sunday News Roundup 1/19/20: Pilotless Flights, El Al Diversion, Mobile Boarding Passes, MLB Cheating, Handy Credit Card, United Backdoor Link, And More!
- Sunday News Roundup 1/5/20: Kosher Thailand Hotel, Mexican Jail Mileage Run, Jeopardy GOAT, Fugitive Ex-Nissan CEO Escape, EgyptAir Coverup, And More!
- Sunday News Roundup 12/22/19: #KosherAntarctica Cruise, The Residence, AA Shutdowns, TWA, Amazon Israel, NY Small Claims Change, United Cape Town, Backdoor Marriott Links+More!
- Sunday News Roundup 12/15/19: Jersey City Terror, TLV Hotel, Bonvoyed, Protect Your Ring, Check Your Passwords, And More!
- Sunday News Roundup 12/8/19: 8 Quick Takes On Travel; DansDeals Interview, Falklands Tanya, Aegean Devaluation, Travel “Nightmare,” Airline Meals, Near NFL Forfeit, And More!
- Sunday News Roundup 11/24/19: 10 Quick Takes On Travel; Phone Charging Scam, AMEX Loves Sapphire, Making Amtrak Great Again, Hyatt Private Island, And More
- Sunday News Roundup 11/17/19: 12 Quick Takes On Aviation And Travel; Dubious Marriott Claims, TWA Ice Rink, A380 Failure, Mileage Ban, And More
- Sunday News Roundup 11/3/19: 9 Quick Takes On What’s Going On In Aviation And Travel; Airbnb Scam, Cathay’s Tel Aviv Plans, United Plays Dirty, 747 Farewell, LAX Uber Disaster, And More
- Sunday News Roundup 10/27/19: 11 Quick Takes On What’s Going On In Aviation, Credit, And Deals That You Should Know About
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74 Comments On "11/9/22 News Roundup: End Of The Road For MAGA? COVID Vaccines, United Teases Southwest, Mattress Mack, Frontier Shower Class, And More!"
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Early voting prior to the Fetters Oz debate is what got Fetterman elected. Different outcome had there been no voting prior to the debate
Maybe, but with someone marginally more relatable, trustworthy, and local than Oz, they would have beat Fetterman easily.
Nominating him was an unforced error. Well, forced by Trump I suppose.
It was sort of ironic that the “Muslim ban”-peddling President was the one to prop up a U.S. Senate candidate named after Islam’s Prophet Mohammed. Mehmet Oz came closest to becoming the country’s first Muslim US Senator.
Would some other Republican candidate from the primary have outperformed Mehmet Oz in an election race against Fetterman enough to keep the seat in Republican hands? I have my doubts about that.
Nope. It was a lot of democrats believing in Fetterman coupled with independents and some republicans seeing Oz for the snake oil salesmen and New Jersey resident that he is.
All this Trump v. DeSantis talk is juicy, but under the hood, there’s a far more pressing issue: Democrats fortified their COVID mass mail-in-voting apparatus. It’s a vote-harvesting juggernaut that will continue to produce competitive results no matter the GOP nominee.
The problem is that the election deniers have their base convinced that their votes won’t count if they mail them in.
That means the Democratic party gains more as their voters can vote anytime by mail, but if lines are too long or GOP voters get busy on election day, that vote is lost as they won’t vote by mail.
Are you somewhat suspect of the delayed counting process (certain areas) which almost always favors dems??
Also, i was watching the Pennsylvania hearings after the last election and heard a State senator saying they wanting the mail in ballots bar codes and the Dem governor threatened to Veto … Gotta wonder what the issue with bar codes would be.
Also why are democrats so opposed to voter id, Id is needed for a myriad of things.. makes you wonder…
Nope. The Rs have spent years vilifying mail in ballots and saying to vote in person. Obviously they will have a massive D advantage.
That also means that if lines are long or people get busy on election day, they just won’t bother voting, which impacts Rs more than Ds.
Maybe the Rs should promote absentee ballots to their voters in 2024?
Bingo and agreed with Dan that we need to start playing the game we’re being forced to play.
Great write up as usual I definitely agree with your trump analysis
+100
Ladies and gentlemen, finally a new knock knock joke that is freaking hilarious.
This roundup is worth it just for that.
Oooh and a verified green badge here. I guess I need a better ‘in’ on here!
Just pay $8
I went to israel for sukkos this year. Had AirTag in every suitcase and hand luggage. Someone mistakenly took my hand luggage from tsa. Was able to track it to where they were.
Thanks for the tip
Thanks again for the news roundup. We want more…..
I like your short and sweet analysis on Trump. Echoes the thoughts of many.
Wow, almost a year since the last roundup! Thanks Dan, I love these.
The veracity of pushing the covid vaccine amongst our communities really deterred me from wanting my family and I to live in a Jewish community. I was shell shocked how much hate I got when I refused to get vaccinated. All I did was read the research. I kept sharing it with everyone, but nobody listened to me. Instead I was made a pariah in my town.
Thats OK. Everybody knows now. And now they all want to be friends again. I’ll never forget what they did to me.
I’m happy you realized the same now. I love you for it.
Not sure why this would make you want to not live a Jewish community. Assuming you live in the US, just move to a Chareidi community like Lakewood Monsey etc. – noone was a pariah there
They were never your friends, truly. Find new friends.
Roundups are back ! Thanks Dan for doing the dirty work of sifting the web to bring us quality entertainment ! Love it
Great roundup again! Really enjoy them. Mattress Mack is great.
Dan, re the elections I agree with you, but Trump aside, we are all seeing and feeling the effects of inflation and high gas prices etc etc so why isn’t that in it of itself a reason to trigger a red wave?
Because people need someone functional to vote for. Case in point, Ron DeSantis who won by 30k votes 4 years ago, didn’t get on the Trump election denial train and this time won by 1.5 MILLION votes. Clearly people would have voted for more responsible and disciplined Republican candidates. Another point, in Georgia all the statewide republicans who beat their Trump backed contesters in the primaries easily won, while the Trump backed senate candidate got a lower percentage of the vote than the Democrat and is gonna have to face him again in a runoff.
R.I.P MAGA
Is the party that’s spending recklessly and promoting the issues facing every day Americans really the “functional” party to vote for? Is it really possible to convince people that the inflation/crime/gas etc etc are really Trumps fault?
And indeed Trump has got to go. He was a good president but the bad is far outweighing the good
Denying legitimate elections are only going to keep hurting the party that promotes that idea regardless of what else is going on. (Perhaps Trump “stole” the election from Hillary? Wouldn’t you think that absurd of anyone who claims that?)
MAGA will not die, and has not died, friend. DeSantis is MAGA and is the second and third dose of Trumpism that will rid our body politic of the DNC virus.
Voter turnout in FL was 10% less than in 2018. DeSantis did not win by any “mandate” that is all made up by the media. Once Disney goes to the Supreme Court to overturn DeSantis’s special tax law aimed only at Disney, that will become a national issue that DeSantis won’t be able to hid from! Raising taxes is not a Republican thing. Once all the Orange County residents get their new tax bills that stench will very hard to overcome!
I doubt that Trump really cost the Republicans much of anything in this election. Take a look at Wisconsin where super-Trumpy Senator Ron Johnson won re-election even as the Democratic governor got re-elected in this same round over a Trump-supported candidate for governor who previously lost to Russ Feingold for Senator.
There just aren’t that many true independent swing voters as there used to be, and politics becoming less local
and more national is part and parcel of that. Also, the country’s self-sorting and gerrymandering have set up the country for more of the same “the other side is evil” politics and what that means for being truly “independent”.
What amazes me: how incompetent the Democrats are with putting out hard-hitting messages; how much extreme hypocrisy Republican voters tolerate from
Republican candidates nowadays.
What surprises me is how the Democrats pulled off a pretty sweeping victory across Michigan with the state legislature flipping.
The Democrats nationally would have done better if they got their act together on messaging more around inflation-induced economic hardship and crime being a Trump-delivered situation. Also, the Democrats seemed to have lost the plot on Republican plans to gut Social Security and Medicare for most Americans who have paid into it. While Democratic “scare-mongering” about Social Security no longer sells in Florida like it used to be able to sell, it should still be able to sell in the Midwest and Rustbelt areas.
But Johnson is a veteran up against an unknown. And he also won by a slimmer margin than predicted by polls.
Regardless of Johnson, on balance seems clear that Trumpism lost out here. Many of Trump’s picks lost, in particular in swing states.
Maybe it’s time to put Trump back on the drawer.
Trump cost us in terms of his endorsements leading to nominations, in turn leading to failed candidacies. We get better candidates organically, even if some aren’t true Republicans.
Someone has to figure out a way to get rid of that clown he has definitely overstayed his welcome.
If the dems nominate a real functional centrist vrs Trump it will be an absolute blowout.
Sounds like you believe that boring middle beats roaring clownishness. I am not so sure about that in a world that all too recently elected Trump, Modi, Bolsonaro, Orban, Netanyahoo 😉 and so on. Even in a very evenly split state like Wisconsin, a known bad boy like Johnson won the Senate race against a known guy like Barnes in the state. Lying clown ≠ loss, unfortunately.
Too many Americans have gotten used to hyper-partisan playing fields; and for 47+% of the country, Trump would probably be accepted yet again in an election for US President. In such environment that makes elections a game between turnout maximization and voter suppression maximization. And Democrats keep bleeding males — particularly Hispanic-American, African-American, Asian-American, Native American men — but seem incapable of messaging correctly to capture non-college-educated European-American males.
Still support the clown from Queens or are you dropping your support since he supported so many losers?
I messaged delta about family seating for basic eco ticket. Rep wouldn’t do anything. Asked for a supervisor. Supervisor provided seats
I saw Delta recently spread a family of 1 adult + 3 young children across seats that had each child away from the accompanying adult and each sibling by at least two rows each. [Also saw Delta bungle how it assigned seats for a family of 2 adults with 3 wild children under the age of 6.] The gate agents said they couldn’t do anything even an hour before boarding started. Seems to often be a problem with the way Delta handles “basic economy” passengers, but not only. Why Delta can’t get its act together in such situations as well as even KLM does in such situations just speaks to a degradation of service level from Delta and may one day set up Delta to lose a massive lawsuit when an emergency evacuation goes more wrong than it would have if Delta had it as a priority to always seat kids next to their parent(s).
I love your thoughtful perspective on the election!
to add to the CDC post, the US still remains one of few (maybe only?) country that is still refusing entry to non-vaccinated visitors….
The Dems complain about elections, too, but yes… Trump’s gotta go.
A. http://www.fivethurtyeight.com never predicted a wave. So for those who did, maybe it was more of a bad prediction than “trump”. It’s easy to look back today and blame a bad prediction on Trump.
B. Previous waves happened when the minority had 175 – 195 seats. It’s hard to have a wave when you already occupy 213 seats. How many seats did you really expect republicans to win, even with a “wave”.?
538 predicted the GOP would take the house by a solid margin of 20-30 seats. As it stands they have one of the slimmest majorities ever. People are blaming Trump for endorsing a lot of candidates in the primaries and then barely supporting them afterwards especially if they failed to spew his election fraud nonsense. He raised nearly $100m and used a negligible fraction of that supporting the candidates he picked, most of whom lost if they were in a competitive race. Trump did a great job as president, he’s doing a horrible job as ex-president.
Here’s your link. “republicans have an 80% chance of holding between 214 and 246 seats. The odds of taking 20-30 seats was less than 20%
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/house/
Thank you for deerrrpp spelling 538, a fake wannabe “institution” that only gets it right once a decade or something.
Dan, did you hear the Dr. SEUS southwest flight speech? It’s really funn.I have it if you want it.
Feel free turn your furniture store into a casino
Great roundup once again, Dan.
Would like to hear your take on the Twitter saga.
Roundups make my day!
Thanks Dan!
Thank you for the News Round up . This is best Political summary of the election I found so far .
I have yet to fly southwest . I do prefer assigned seats and finding my flights on Google flights .
Am I not correct that people living in the Netherlands are taller than the marginalized people President Biden is talking about ?
Did the polls have any affect on election turnout? With all the Trump hate and endorsements The candidates were all still polling to win. If the problem was the candidates shouldn’t the polling prior to the election have shown that? weve seen polling get it wrong all the time – maybe polling causes people to stay home and come out…
love the ‘shower class’ dig 🙂
question is will Jetblue become this..
Jetpacks are not so new but incredibly hard to fly..
Wow, I didnt realize that Dans Deals would be giving political opinions. A few facts first, why does it take Arizona, California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, etc several days to count the votes? I can only come up with 1 reason for that and its called cheating and fraud. The republicans should have been successful in winning both the house AND the senate. Unfortunately though it appears that they are getting cheated out of the senate seat for Blake Masters in Arizona, and maybe Laxalt in Nevada. A country the size of Canada or France can count ALL the votes 24 hours from the end of the voting but all these democrat run states cant.
Secondly, Trump busted his butt flying all over the country to hold huge rallies for Republicans. I believe Trump endorsed candidates were like 173 wins and 16 losses in the general election. The fake news and main stream media can call it a red ripple, but I believe that 173 wins and 16 losses would be considered a RED WAVE. If there had been no multi day counting in Arizona and Nevada then I do believe the Republicans would have won both the house and the senate. Katie Hobbs the Arizona incumbent Governor and her democrat friends ran the election counting in Maricopa County Arizona. She and her fellow Dems are going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, when Kari Lake wins the governorship ship.
Let me ask you all this. Were you aware that CNN did an exit poll on election night asking voters if they were happy or angry about the direction the country was going in with Joe Biden President. 73% of the respondents said they were either angry or very angry with Joe Biden and his policies. That coming from far left fake news CNN. Those all add up to a red wave. Yes the Repubs lost Pennsylvania because Oz was a flawed candidate.
So please stop listening to what the main stream media and the RINO’S (repubs in name only) tell you. Without the cheating in Arizona and Nevada in which they wait DAYS to finish counting the votes,the Repubs would have won both houses in congress. Just saying.
1. It takes time as they allow mail in ballots postmarked by election day. How does that prove cheating? Allegations are worthless without proof.
2. Endorsements in all races is a meaningless number. You need to filter out noncompetitive races for an accurate number of how he did. His record there is quite poor and even among those who won, like Vance, wildly underperformed.
3. The idea that there was a red wave is laughable. This was the worst midterm showing for the opposition party in a very long time.
4. I don’t pay any attention to mainstream media, these were just my thoughts on the day after election day.
Washington, Oregon and Nevada, do the vast majority of voting by mail. It takes time to count those mail-in ballots. Those states have had mail voting for the last 20 years, but you were not paying attention to how long the vote counting took prior to 2020, right?
While there are potential critiques of CDC-public communication, several medical inaccuracies are present in the COVID-19 analysis. It would be worth leaving these types of discussions to public health experts, infectious disease specialists, and infection prevention experts. SARS-CoV-2 represents one of two major infections for which having disease (infection) DOES NOT confer the same level of immunity as vaccination (haemophilus influenzae is the other). Thus, the guidelines continue to recommend vaccination and booster even if one has had infection previously. Having disease alone as well as vaccination plus disease without booster continues to confer lower levels of protection against severe disease and long-term ramifications of infection (such as “long COVID”).
Your mother having had 5 COVID shots sounds consistent with medical guidelines for the patient population in which she resides. It is good that she had that protection when she contracted disease. It is possible that it could have been far worse had she not received appropriate recommended vaccination.
The risk based approach to COVID vaccines is exactly what public health experts recommend. I’m always shocked that there’s this social psychology of attempting to “meet in the middle” when one side is factually inaccurate and the other side is “the middle.” The CDC guidelines are based on level 1 data and expert consensus analysis that combines infectious disease and public health expertise. To suggest that it needs better public input is to suggest that passengers’ perspective on proper fuel amounts and flight plans should carry a level of weight in decision making in the flight deck similar to that of the expertise of the pilots themselves. It sounds ludicrous but that is exactly how most medical professionals truly entrenched in the data feel with this type of conversation.
“The CDC recommends that children get vaccinated and boosted for COVID, despite little evidence that there are tangible benefits to outweigh the risks in an age group that has nearly zero complications from COVID.”
The complications from COVID are hardly zero in the pediatric group. I personally have encountered several previously healthy young people die from COVID. It’s certainly rarer but hardly zero. The level of evidence for COVID vaccination and age-appropriate booster dosing in children is quite compelling. The “little evidence” statement does not appear to be grounded in any studies from major medical journals. The CDC recommendations are not in isolation. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends age appropriate COVID vaccination. That decision-making entails hundreds if not thousands of scientific experts. It’s great to have doctors in the family but there is incredible value to understanding what recommendations are coming from medical societies and what the foundation is for those recommendations. Again, see explanation above why COVID is different from varicella (chickenpox). We also are beginning to learn about the long-term ramifications of COVID infection in children, including among those completely vaccinated per recommendations, incompletely vaccinated, or unvaccinated. Needless to say, vaccinations are about public health. To some extent, no one is safe unless we are all safe. The decision to vaccinate completely per recommendations or not vaccinate per recommendations may not just have impact on those receiving the vaccine but also their family members. They may be the entry point for the high risk and/or immunocompromised family members who will have ramifications from exposure. One could argue that a decision to drive drunk may be one’s alone to make as a crash would impact one’s own life – it ignores the fact that one is also a danger to everyone else around, even if they are driving safely. Their driving safely lowers the risk but the drunk driving still makes conditions riskier.
What happened during the pandemic is exactly what experts said would happen. While there was certainly room for analysis and improvement, the strategies at different points in a pandemic change based on rates of community spread, evolving understanding of the contagion, and the public health targets. Containment and mitigation are two very different strategies and quarantine and isolation are two different tools for pandemics. It would behoove our children to be quite educated in all of these concepts – let’s hope they are not as rigid and fixed as the generations before them. There is overwhelming evidence that the risk of pandemics moving forwards is higher than where it was previously. It’s certainly possible this may not be last respiratory pandemic of this type we encounter in our lifetime. We had SARS-CoV-1, MERS, H1N1, and now SARS-CoV-2, which spread far further and faster. We really do not know if another will arise in our lifetime. The likelihood our children or their children will face one is also far from zero.
It sounds like the CDC doesn’t need saving. We do.
Bravo.
TL;dr pretty please
So Dan complains the CDC continues to peddle how the vaccinations prevent covid and you just go on some fancy rant basically ignoring the fact that it is not exactly stopping any spread and telling us all to stay out of it leave it to the Holy CDC. Which is exactly why Dan concludes at the end “A holistic approach by the CDC would reveal that their failure to be honest with the general public is going to hurt their reputation and the medical field in the country as a whole.”
Unfortunately, you fancy response does not help with the conclusion of many people doctors appear to be completely brainwashed by the CDC and their recommendations
Wearing a seatbelt doesn’t prevent one from dying in a car crash but it does significantly reduce the risk. See above again for the more detailed explanation. Vaccination works.
Sorry your rant is full of medical errors, misrepresentations and assumptions. The idea that you claim vaccines provide better immunity than a natural infection is completely unproven. You don’t even mention which Covid vaccine you are talking about. You’re not even differentiating between humoral or cellular immunity. I also find it laughable that you say non medical professionals have no right to talk about what they are seeing in the medical community around them. That’s a terrible insult to Dan.
In my case I was fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine. The vaccine made me sick for three days. Three months later I still contracted Covid. I was terribly sick for five days. Over a year later I been in close contact with Covid almost every day at work and I’ve never gotten sick or tested positive. Clearly the natural infection has worked better for me.
Good writeup. Some additional points below.
1) The switch from absentee voting with a valid excuse to mailing everyone alive a ballot has radically changed the dimensions of the voting public. If the GOP wants to win, they need to revert back to pre-COVID rules on absentee voting. No more election month, no more mailing people a ballot who didn’t ask for one, and on and on.
2) There is no regaining trust from the WHO, CDC, HHS, etc. On the basis of the Covid vaccine misinformation and obfuscation, and data shenanigans, I have assumed similar things are being done with the other vaccines, and have ceased vaccinating the kids until further notice. If they want to course correct, it’ll have to be for those people who are under 12 years old as of today. Everyone else with some modicum of intellect won’t soon forget.
3) Thank you for the Apple AirTag vignettes. I had (potential) issues with luggage on my current overseas trip and the airlines have left me no choice but to AirTag my luggage going forward.
4) Unfortunately, we need to just switch to DeSantis, even though if we were assured the GOP could win, we’d love to nominate Trump to make the left’s collective heads explode. We should just make Trump Speaker of the House and let DeSantis finish of the left in 2024, with extreme prejudice.
1. Wrong lesson as that won’t happen. GOP needs to encourage mail in voting if they want to win in this era.
2. Personally I see that as shooting yourself in the foot, though I understand where you’re coming from.
4. GOP base will forget about this loss and probably nominate Trump again. While the base loves him, he’s been losing in general elections since 2018 and there’s no reason to suspect that will change now.
1. I agree that we need to start filling out our childrens’ ballots and collecting ballots from retirement homes, and such, like the Left, and work under our current reality. But the reversions to pre-Covid balloting needs to happen.
2. I get that. But I’m not going to play a game if shenanigans are going on. Either the government and the industry are transparent and let me make my own assessment based on the most accurate info, or they can try to manipulate me and I’m not even going to play the game.
4. I don’t think Trump 2024 will happen. GOP has witnessed too many Trump mistakes, and although we like Trump and detest what the Left is doing to him (and regret what the Left is changing him into), we want to win. No more Georgia 2020.
It would seem pilots are in the hands of Big Boeing. Maybe we’d be better served just to hand the instruction manual to passengers and let them fly the planes? Why trust anyone who has trained for years and developed specialized expertise when you can just “read [your own] facts?”
Physician, if (1) a few Boeing planes a year start crashing, and (2) Facebook groups about it start getting deleted, the TSA merely begins recommending that pilots take more classes each year, and (3) the government is heavily subsidizing the manufacture of airplanes on a limited term basis, and on and on,
then clearly something is wrong with our “experts” and yes, the peanut gallery should stop flying on those airplanes.
And it needn’t be plane crashes. It could just be that a Boeing or its computer just goes haywire for 3 minutes every X interval. Same thing, something is wrong and just stop flying planes until the incentives or corruption or whatever it is that’s going on is digested and fixed.
I’m in the middle here. If there was something nefarious happening with vaccines we’d know about it, so I’m concerned about that. But I also think a risk based approach makes sense, and I haven’t seen anything compelling to show that kids who had COVID should get vaccinated.
I’m just amazed the CDC uses language like “may not be 100% effective in stopping transmission,” when we can all clearly see that it does very little in stopping transmission. That diminishes the other things they say, such as the vaccine helping to reduce the risk of long COVID or death as it requires discounting the first half of what they’re saying.
(By TSA I meant FAA or whoever.)
Dan, I don’t think so. You need to remember that myocarditis was actually suppressed before it became a losing battle to bury those deaths, so to speak. There are other side effects, perhaps not as huge in number as myo or maybe as life-threatening, that do exist and people are out there suffering them and being gaslit by medical professionals who say they have no clue what could be causing X side effect. The support groups that had formed on social media to figure out what’s going on with side effects were nuked. Faced with that situation, some unknown number committed suicide. To our better experts, that was an acceptable price for others to pay, for the greater collective good.
Of course, you and I are agreed on risk assessments by age and everything else. The only slight correction I have is that the vaccine was actually very effective against the original virus strain, which any basic chart makes abundantly clear, but not at all against the subsequent variants that showed up.
To my last day I’ll be thankful that I stumbled upon Dr. Malone’s podcast appearance on the Darkhorse podcast. There were so many red flags.
These are classic social psychological errors in judgment that render one to see conspiracy where it does not exist. Vaccines are of critical public benefit to both adults and children. Science is science whether we choose to believe it or not. The misinterpretation of the VAERS database is striking and there are clearly opportunities for better communication. Please share any peer reviewed journal articles from JAMA or NEJM that suggest no children have been harmed from COVID. Again, it’s counter to the reality we see in the hospital.
Interestingly, the statistical risk of having myocarditis or stroke or pulmonary embolism is far, far, far higher with having disease than being in close association with vaccination.
Nevertheless, I recognize one would sooner try to change reality (or the perception of it) than change one’s core beliefs. That’s a very well known phenomenon.
To all of you on the fence- may you use good judgment and keep your families protected. We are now seeing outbreaks of measles unlike much of what has been seen for years. Polio has been found in wastewater. These are diseases that vaccination confers protection but those vaccinated may still die or be harmed by exposure. The risk is lower in comparison with someone unvaccinated but we are all the more made dangerous by those among us who buck good public health recommendations. There will be kids who get subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, even among the vaccinated. We are only as safe as the most vulnerable among us.
1. the media got a new agenda to bash trump really bad even republicans
2. trump did all the work this election by himself all the votes were his noone helped campaign which is pretty impressive how much people came out for him
3. everyone is busy answering everything up i have it preety easy IT WAS FRAUD
Re: apple AirTags – what if I have Android?
Dan, I would leave vaccination advice to readers and their doctors. Children can and do get bad cases of Covid. 2% of young children get Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS) after contracting Covid. Children who get this syndrome, get very ill, hospitalized, and some even die. Why would you not want to prevent that from happening to your children?
There is also evidence that multiple cases of Covid in an individual, of any age, have bad consequences over the rest of that individual’s lifetime. People who had previous infections of Covid variants prior to Omicron strains, and then become infected with an Omicron variant have much higher chances of getting “long Covid”. There is no rhyme or reason as to who has more serious side effects after their infection. With the best advice still being, “try all costs to avoid infection”. Which means even if vaccinated: wear a mask in close quarters, wash/disinfect your hands, and practice social distancing if possible. Outside of my home, I have worn a mask almost non-stop since March 2020. My allergies/hay fever have disappeared, no common cold in 4 years, and I have never contracted Covid. The CDC has advised masking and social distancing from Day 1. Simple advice that too many people ignored!
Day 1? really now the CDC did not recommend masks for the general population for the first month or so…
your MAGA analysis has some inaccuracies; for example “Dr. Mehmet Oz. Oz was already a weak candidate and was only able to win the primary thanks to Trump’s endorsement. He failed to beat John Fetterman, who recently had a stroke, but received sympathy from people offended by how he was treated. ” Fetterman was treated with respect and no trace of insensitivity. Oz lost because of voter fraud, plain and simple, as will happen in Georgia.
Aliya anyone ?
Smell what you are shoveling as if Israel is less corrupt the whole world is corrupt. why can’t you understand that there are millions of people against trump whatever fraud numbers you claim in 2020 it’s not in the millions, a few thousand in PA a few thousand in AZ the fraud you claim is for electoral votes not the popular vote which he lost by 5 million and being that 2022 was just a popular vote it makes a lot of sense that he didn’t get the votes ( and the claim that trump got more votes than desantis doesn’t really have much bang to it 1. less turnout in a midterm election 2. percentage desantis did much better)
Election denialism is a form of anti-American bias. Just as anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism when it denies the right of Israel to exist, election denialism denies the right of America to reside as a safe democracy free from existential threat.
Commenters engaged in election denialism and those on the fence would best be served reading How Democracies Die by Ziblatt and Levitsky. Venezuela was once the model of democracy in Latin America and has now collapsed. Hungary has eroded into an “illiberal Christian democracy.” These didn’t happen with military coups. This happened through soft transition to authoritarianism, demonizing of essential journalism, seeing political opponents as enemies of the (authoritarian) state, inaction of parties to rid themselves of extremists in their midst, and several other factors present in America today.