TallGuyJohninBKK

He's not:

Doesn't change the fact that RS has a better rating/reccord for factual reporting than sources like Fox News or the New York Post. NY Post - mixed, borderline questionable: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/new-york-post/ Fox News - mixed, questionable source: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fox-news-bias/ Rolling Stone looks quite good in comparison.

And Factual Reporting rating "High" -- which is a lot better than a lot of the right-wing media sources cited here.

Dredging back to 2016... Had to look hard for that. Here's what I look at: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/rolling-stone/

You're citing a press release source from a very partisan, Republican led House committee. If you actually read the 2022 CBO report that they're citing, AFAICT, there's nothing in it that compares economics under the Trump presidency vs. economics under the first couple years of the Biden presidency... Nor are the CBO's actual findings quite what the Republicans claim them to be. https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2022-09/58426-Inflation.pdf How Inflation Has Affected Households at Different Income Levels Since 2019 "CBO found that the effects of inflation have changed over time and varied by income group and income measure. The two income measures have followed different paths. Total adjusted income after transfers and taxes increased more than prices in 2020 and 2021, [emphasis added] but such income is projected to fall in 2022 in real terms (that is, after the effects of inflation are removed), primarily because temporary fiscal policies related to the pandemic ended. AND "Using adjusted income after transfers and taxes to measure the effects of inflation, CBO found the following: • From 2019 to 2022, the share of such income that households would use to pay for their 2019 consumption bundle decreased, on average, for households in every income quintile because, over that three-year period, such income grew faster than prices. [emphasis added] • In 2022, as inflation accelerated, the outcome differed from the outcomes in the previous two years. The share of such income that would purchase a 2019 consumption bundle increased, on average, for households in all income groups, primarily because temporary federal fiscal policies enacted in response to the pandemic ended, reducing households’ income." https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2022-09/58426-Inflation.pdf

Inside the Worst Three Weeks of Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign People around the former and would-be president see a candidate knocked off his bearings, disoriented by his new contest with Kamala Harris and unsure of how to take her on. Aug. 10, 2024 ... The fund-raiser came amid a stretch of flailing and self-harm that began after President Biden’s July 21 withdrawal from the race and endorsement of Ms. Harris to succeed him. Close Trump allies have described this as the rockiest period of Mr. Trump’s campaign — and easily the worst since a late 2022 spree in which he mused about terminating parts of the Constitution and dined at Mar-a-Lago with a white supremacist and an outspoken antisemite. Since then, Mr. Trump has picked fights with allies publicly and privately, including a broadside against Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia at an Atlanta rally — the kind of meanspirited public attack on a popular Republican that his own allies believe helped sink two Senate races in Georgia in January 2021 and could harm Mr. Trump in the state, a vital battleground in November. ... As Ms. Harris — long ridiculed and underestimated — has transformed the contest, campaigning energetically and drawing roughly even with Mr. Trump in many polls, Mr. Trump has responded with one unforced error after another while struggling to land on an effective and consistent argument against her. (more) New York Times https://archive.ph/qa2dR

He’s had yet another horrible week. The old tricks aren’t working. Kamala Harris does not fear him. And it’s showing in the numbers. August 16, 2024 It continues. Six days ago, The New York Times ran a story under the headline “Inside the Worst Three Weeks of Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign.” Usually, when the country’s most important newspaper runs a story like that, the candidate pays a little attention and the ship begins to right itself. But in this case, it’s just gotten worse. The ship is capsizing, and the captain is losing his marbles. Right after that story ran, Trump came out with his wild accusation that Kamala Harris’s crowd of thousands at a Detroit airplane hangar was fake. The next night, he did that weird, to borrow an au courant word, interview with Elon Musk, where he made more WTF comments than I can recount, capped by his vow to move to Venezuela (a country ruled by a corrupt autocrat who just cheated massively in this month’s election) if he loses. On Wednesday, he gave a rambling speech at a North Carolina rally. ... You know how they say in sports that an opponent has gotten inside the other team’s head? Well, Harris and Tim Walz have certainly gotten inside Trump’s head. Walz’s “weird” comment, which Trump has also responded to in a, well, sort of weird way, was just the start. Harris has also smartly refused to take the GOP campaign’s bait, like when Trump attacked her race and J.D. Vance tried to make her childlessness an issue. Meanwhile, the Harris-Walz campaign trolls Trump in its press releases with snarky language I don’t recall Joe Biden’s or Hillary Clinton’s campaigns using. It sends the message, which must drive him nuts, that they don’t fear him at all. (more) https://newrepublic.com/article/184951/donald-trump-flailing-harris

U.S. weekly COVID deaths top 600+ for the most recent week through early August, up from a low of 302 in early June. The COVID testing positivity rate increased, as did the share of U.S. deaths due to COVID. The share of emergency department visits due to COVID declined slightly according to sampling data. There was no new update for sampling data on COVID hospitalizations. From the CDC: CDC COVID update for August 16, 2024: "Many areas of the country are continuing to experience increases in COVID-19 activity, though other areas are experiencing declines in COVID-19 activity following increases this summer. COVID-19 test positivity, emergency department visits, and rates of COVID-19–associated hospitalizations remain elevated, particularly among adults 65+ and children under 2 years. Surges like this are known to occur throughout the year, including during the summer months." https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00 With the absence of any comprehensive COVID infection testing and reporting program in the U.S. and reduced reporting of COVID hospitalization data, public health officials increasingly have turned to wastewater monitoring of COVID viral content as a primary forward-looking indicator of COVID activity and trends in the country, as follows: "Wastewater (sewage) can be tested to detect traces of infectious diseases circulating in a community, even if people don’t have symptoms. You can use these data as an early warning that levels of infections may be increasing or decreasing in your community." https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-nationaltrend.html https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-currentlevels.html Current Epidemic Growth Status for States "As of August 13, 2024, we estimate that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 25 states, declining or likely declining in 5 states, and are stable or uncertain in 17 states." https://www.cdc.gov/cfa-modeling-and-forecasting/rt-estimates/index.html

But he looks a bit rough in his women's wig and dress....

A nutter who actually started out far better than Vance, according to the OP report: "It may surprise some folks that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — who is usually remembered as the worst VP pick in modern times — had "only" a -2-point net favorability rating by the end of the 2008 campaign. But people forget that she actually started off as an energizing and popular pick. On Sept. 10, 2008, one week after her well-received acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, her net favorability rating was +21 points (47 percent favorable, 25 percent unfavorable). But from that moment on, the more Americans learned about Palin, the more they disliked her. Her poor answers to interview questions created a perception that she was unprepared for the presidency, and an ethics scandal back home in Alaska tarnished her image as a reformer. By Election Day, her unfavorable rating had shot up 20 points (to 45 percent), while her favorable rating was down 3 points (to 44 percent)." https://abcnews.go.com/538/tim-walz-popular-jd-vance/story?id=112841577

The latest aggregate national presidential polling info from FiveThirtyEight shows a very slightly closer racer with Harris still ahead: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/

August 16, 2024 Vice President Kamala Harris is making a bid for the White House with running mate Tim Walz after replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket just a few months before Election Day. A new poll suggests that Harris has the only positive approval rating of any candidate, and leads in almost all battleground states. ... On average, Harris has been marginally ahead of Trump in national polls, though the race remains tight. (more) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/harris-trump-poll-latest-updates-2024-election-states-b2597373.html

Reads pretty clear to me.... The king of grifting wants to really become the elected KING of grifting ("king" because he would be effectively immune from criminal prosecution as president thanks to the recent ruling by his appointed Supreme Court).

The OP report above is based on polling data for net favorable-unfavorable ratio among past VP candidates. Do you have any credible source for your claims that Harris started out (which seems to be the data the OP report is using) as a more net unfavorable VP candidate that Vance. Because the OP article gives no indication she was....and in fact says the opposite. In commenting on Vance thus far: "That is a historically bad net favorability rating for a vice-presidential candidate. We applied our current favorability polling average formula to old polls of six freshly minted VP picks [emphasis added] from the past 20 years,** and none of them ever had an average net favorability rating as low as Vance's. Most vice-presidential candidates this century had numbers that looked like Walz's: Slightly more Americans liked them than disliked them, but public opinion on them was pretty divided (probably reflecting simple partisanship). An exception was former Sen. John Edwards in 2004, who went into Election Day with an excellent +21-point average net favorability rating (48 percent favorable, 26 percent unfavorable). Before 2024, the lowest net favorability rating among the candidates we looked at belonged to Sen. Tim Kaine in 2016, who was 4 points underwater on Election Day. https://abcnews.go.com/538/tim-walz-popular-jd-vance/story?id=112841577

Trump owes millions from two civil court cases, but his investment portfolio offers a staggering portrait of wealth August 16, 2024 Donald Trump has submitted his annual financial disclosure, and after a year of lawsuits, legal cases, and grifts, the contents of the documents reflect the turmoil surrounding the former president. ... On Thursday, Trump held a press conference at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The former president appeared alongside a collection of common grocery items like cereal, bacon, and ground coffee — ostensibly in an attempt to make a point about the high cost of goods for everyday consumers. What Trump’s financial disclosures make clear is the canyon of separation between the struggles of working-class Americans, and the man hawking branded bibles and NFT trading cards for quick cash — all while sitting on a massive pile of properties, investments, licensing deals, and brand endorsements. (more) https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trumps-financial-disclosures-liabilities-grifts-crypto-1235081631/

... "Americans aren't vibing with the Republican vice-presidential nominee. On average, only 33 percent have a favorable opinion of Sen. JD Vance, while 42 percent have an unfavorable one. Americans were cool toward Vance from the start: Three days* after he was announced as former President Donald Trump's running mate, his net favorability rating was -3 percentage points (26 percent favorable, 29 percent unfavorable). But since then, he has faced a rash of bad headlines about his past comments calling Harris a "childless cat lady," his past support for a national abortion ban and even a baseless internet rumor about having sex with a couch. The poor rollout pushed his net favorability rating down even further, to -9 points. That is a historically bad net favorability rating for a vice-presidential candidate. We applied our current favorability polling average formula to old polls of six freshly minted VP picks from the past 20 years,** and none of them ever had an average net favorability rating as low as Vance's." (more) https://abcnews.go.com/538/tim-walz-popular-jd-vance/story?id=112841577 Footnotes *This was the earliest that we had enough national polls of Vance's favorability to generate a polling average for it. **All but then-Sen. Joe Biden in 2008, for whom we didn't have data. In contrast, from the same source above:

10 Aug 2024 Meta Platforms defeated an appeal by Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F Kennedy Jr, challenging its censorship of Facebook posts that spread misinformation about vaccines' efficacy and safety. In a decision on Friday, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, said the nonprofit did not show that Meta worked with or was coerced by federal officials to suppress views challenging "government orthodoxy" on vaccines. ... Circuit Judge Eric Miller, appointed to the court by Republican former President Donald Trump, wrote for the appeals court that Meta was a "purely private" company with a First Amendment right not to use its platform to promote views it found distasteful. ... Friday's decision upheld a June 2021 ruling by US District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco. (more) Source: Reuters Channel News Asia https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/meta-beats-censorship-lawsuit-rfk-jrs-anti-vaccine-group-4538601

Hong Kong to stop offering Sinovac Covid vaccine when current stocks expire in October Authorities say they expect new jab targeting prevalent JN.1 variant will be available by the end of the year 9 Aug 2024 The Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine will no longer be offered in Hong Kong from early October, with authorities saying they expect a new jab targeting the prevalent coronavirus variant to be available by the end of the year. ... The new jabs are expected to be supplied for use by the year’s end, with new vaccination arrangements to be announced later. The centre said Covid-19 levels had been increasing locally since June and were expected to rise further. ... Arrangements for boosters will remain the same, and eligible high-risk groups will continue to enjoy free vaccinations at least six months after their last shot or Covid-19 infection, regardless of the number of doses received previously. Those groups include adults aged 50 or above, people aged 18 to 49 with underlying comorbidities, those aged six months and above with immunocompromising conditions, pregnant women and healthcare workers. (more) South China Morning Post https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3273775/hong-kong-stop-offering-sinovac-covid-vaccine-when-current-stocks-expire-october

COVID-19 surge fuels fears of hidden spread, with less data, fewer tests Sticking to preventive measures, testing for COVID-19 if signs appear could tame spread, experts say Aug. 15, 2024 The recent surge in COVID-19 infections is stoking concerns of hidden, unchecked community spread, intensified by reduced data collection from Korean government agencies and a decline in testing rates. ... The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at 220 hospital-level medical institutions stood at 1,357 in the second week of August [emphasis added], according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Wednesday. This is a sharp rise from 148 in the second week of July to 226 in the third week and 475 the following week. The corresponding figure for the first week of this month was 861. [emphasis added] Most hospitalized patients were over 65 years old. (more) https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20240815050087

In the latest weekly update from the Taiwan CDC, severe COVID cases and new COVID deaths both declined from the prior week. The Taiwan CDC's headline from Aug. 13: The domestic COVID-19 epidemic situation is declining, but it is still in the epidemic period and the number of severe cases and deaths is still high. It is recommended that the public get the COVID-19 XBB vaccine as soon as possible to reduce the risk of severe illness The following is this poster's trends recap of prior Taiwan CDC reporting on severe cases and COVID deaths: Week Ending -- Severe COVID cases -- COVID Deaths June 17 -- 624 -- N/A June 24 -- 817 -- 40 July 1 -- 932 -- 64 July 8 -- 987 -- 99 July 15 -- 896 (revised) -- 104 July 22 -- 773 -- 124 July 29 -- 584 -- 90 Aug. 5 -- 445 -- 104 Aug. 13 -- 347 -- 57 The CDC also reported that most of the severe COVID cases and COVID deaths involved people age 65 and older. Regarding COVID vaccinations, the CDC reported: "As the epidemic at home and abroad continues, and more than 91% of confirmed domestic complications and deaths have not been vaccinated against COVID-19, we call on those who have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19 to get vaccinated as soon as possible." "The CDC pointed out that the global COVID-19 positivity rate has been on an upward trend recently. Among them, the positivity rate in Africa and Southeast Asia has increased, while the positivity rate in the Eastern Mediterranean region has fluctuated. In some countries, such as China, the positivity rate has continued to rise since early July, and the United States has continued to rise since May. The positivity rate and emergency room visit rate have continued to rise since mid-month. The number of cases in Japan has declined but is still at a high point. The number of cases in Italy, Russia, Greece, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and other countries is also at a high point." Source: Taiwan CDC

Here's the charts from the latest UKHSA weekly COVID update for England as of Aug. 15: My text summary - Although new COVID deaths at 193 rebounded back toward the 200 per week level by the start of August, other publicly reported COVID indicators for England showed improvement / declines in the latest weekly update. Those included declines in new weekly COVID cases (not an especially reliable indicator these days), and a substantial decline in the positivity rate for COVID tests (7-day rolling average), which dropped from 14.8% previously to 13.2% in the latest weekly report. There was no updated data for COVID new hospital admissions since the prior weekly report. https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/ https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19#deaths Weekly COVID deaths from the recent weekly low in May: Weekly data for deaths with COVID-19 on the death certificate in England Up to and including 2 August 2024 (some recent prior week figures have been revised vs prior weekly reports): Date -- Amount 2 Aug 2024 -- 193 26 Jul 2024 -- 174 19 Jul 2024 -- 211 12 Jul 2024 -- 202 5 Jul 2024 -- 165 28 Jun 2024 -- 186 21 Jun 2024 -- 149 14 Jun 2024 -- 158 7 Jun 2024 -- 146 31 May 2024 -- 113 24 May 2024 -- 147 17 May 2024 -- 168 10 May 2024 -- 93 https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/ https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/ https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19#testing

I prefer my salmon steaks baked in the oven, which gives them a firmer and crispier exterior without having to pan fry them... And usually topping those with EV olive oil or some avocado salsa I import from the U.S. But if I was going to cook them for eating cold, such as flaked in a salad, ya, poaching would be my way to go...

Pretty rich posting a Fox News report on rich elites spinning political propaganda... When it comes to Fox, that's really the pot calling the kettle black!

Yes we need to worry so much about Soros buying a stake in radio stations (which for the most part aren't primary national news providers in the U.S.)... But meanwhile, let's ignore arch right winger Rupert Murdoch and his family's far right-wing influence over many more primary U.S. news sources, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, the Fox News network, and others. Who Owns Your News? The Top 100 Digital News Outlets and Their Ownership Who Owns the Media in the U.S.? About 15 billionaires and six corporations own most of the U.S. media outlets. The biggest media conglomerates in America are AT&T, Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, National Amusements (which includes Viacom Inc. and CBS), News Corp and Fox Corporation (which are both owned in part by the Murdochs), [emphasis added] Sony, and Hearst Communications. All of them save for Sony make an appearance in our online news sources chart. ... Who Owns the Fox News Network? Fox News is owned by the Fox Corporation, which is owned in part by the Murdoch Family (39% share). It’s also important to point out that the same person with Fox News ownership, Rupert Murdoch, owns News Corp with the same 39% share, and News Corp owns the New York Post, HarperCollins, and the Wall Street Journal." https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-center/who-owns-your-news-the-top-100-digital-news-outlets-and-their-ownership/ Strange, I don't see George Soros' name anywhere on the linked list of owners of the major news sources in the U.S. But the Murdoch family absolutely are. Forbes magazine in 2016 said Murdoch "may well be the world's most powerful media tycoon." https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/06/01/these-15-billionaires-own-americas-news-media-companies/#29ae3f3e660a And last time I checked, he's the only U.S. news media mogul whose corporation ended up having to pay a $787 million settlement to voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems because of Fox hosts' pervasive attempts to undermine the credibility of the U.S. presidential election system during the 2020 cycle with known false claims in an attempt to favor their favored candidate (Trump) and echoing his likewise false claims. "Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network (colloquially Dominion v. Fox) was a U.S. defamation lawsuit filed in March 2021 by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News Channel and its corporate parent Fox Corporation. Dominion's complaint sought US$1.6 billion in damages, alleging several Fox programs had broadcast false statements that Dominion's voting machines had been rigged to steal the 2020 United States presidential election from then-president Donald Trump. ... Dominion focused on allegations made between November 2020 and January 2021 by hosts Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro. Guests who often appeared with these hosts included Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, both of whom have also been sued individually by Dominion in federal court.[a] During pre-trial discovery, Fox News' internal communications were released, indicating that prominent hosts and top executives were aware the network was reporting false statements but continued doing so to retain viewers for financial reasons. On April 18, 2023, as opening statements were about to begin, the judge announced that the parties had reached a settlement. Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million and acknowledged the court's earlier ruling that Fox had broadcast false statements about Dominion. The settlement did not require Fox News to apologize. It is the largest known media settlement for defamation in U.S. history. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Voting_Systems_v._Fox_News_Network

As an aside, interesting getting a feel for people's popular menu choices here... Chicken and chips (like french fries in U.S. parlance) seems to be a common theme! 🙂