Grannies revolt against Trump updated October 15 and 26

November 17, 2020:The role seniors played in the Biden win was significant. Per Brookings Institute: " There was also less Republican support among older segments of the population: ages 45 to 64 and ages 65 and older. This decrease in Republican support was even more pronounced for 45- to 64-year-old whites: from 28% in 2016 to 19% in 2020 (see downloadable Table A). This is evident in several battleground states."  It was a shift from 2016 ,  particularly significant in heavily retirement population in Arizona which helped Biden win there. Instead of the usual heavy Trump support among seniors, Biden and Trump evenly split the vote.   https://www.brookings.edu/research/2020-exit-polls-show-a-scrambling-of-democrats-and-republicans-traditional-bases/

October 26, 2020

A con man is an abbreviation of a confidence man...who depends on those who trust him to rip off someone successfully. Donald Trump's victims are those who trust him the most...those who attend his COVID super spreader rallies, and especially those over 65 in the Florida Villages retirement developments.80% of deaths from COVID are in that demographic. Bernie Madoff before Trump likewise used his religious cohorts and Florida golf club acquaintances to victimize with his fraudulent investment scheme.. He first got their trust and then used them for his purposes, just as Donald Trump has done to demonstrate there is nothing to fear from COVID. Go ahead and consider mask-wearing the mark of his political opponents he insinuates and he revels at the thousands who appear shoulder to shoulder shouting their "lock him up" "loke her up" chants in his rallies. Trump may not verbally be practicing herd immunity, but the guinea pigs are his own most loyal followers, who he does not really care about their health, only the successful demonstration of what great political strength the con man in chief wants to convey to media.

October 15, 2020

So the Trump cohorts are practicing herd immunity? and then they wonder why seniors have deserted Trump? Herd immunity, if there is such a thing, and that is debatable, means that 60% of a community needs to have either survived Covid or have had an effective vaccine. 80% of COVID deaths are in the over 65 age group. That is because as you get older, your immune system becomes less effective and by that age, there has been enough time to accumulate pre-existing conditions, which COVID likes to attack. . So far, we have not had evidence about how long immunity lasts after surviving the disease, but assuming the best, lifetime, and assuming that vaccine will not be fully available to the general public until late spring, the estimates are that given the infection rates now, we need 10x the current infections and survival. That means not 7 million need to be tested positive (current figures), but 70 million and not 200 thousand would die, but two million if no vaccines were given. That is why there is such a flap over whether, when and if most of the population will get vaccinated...and that may be nearly 9 months away, per the best estimates. Those younger than 65 may think that this is just the flu, and they are welcome to their illusions, and they will survive, but so long as they do not bring that home to those in their family or close associations who are over 65, they can speak for themselves. They are, however, a danger to anyone else they encounter, and especially seniors. The purpose of masks and social distancing is not only to protect themselves but to protect others from those who may be an unwitting carrier or who are not sick enough to stay at home.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/older-adults.html#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%208%20out%20of,aged%2065%20years%20and%20older.

Seniors need a special heads up. .Joe Biden, August 31 speech, said that the social security fund would be depleted by 2023. That is because social security funding depends on payroll tax which has been suspended.as part of the COVID stimulus. His plan to save social security has received praise. "Joe Biden’s plans for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income would lift 1.4 million Americans out of poverty in its first year, a new analysis found, along with guaranteeing the payout of full benefits for another five years. 

The former vice president’s plan hinges on imposing the 6.2% Social Security tax on earnings above $400,000. Employees and their employers are taxed on earnings up to $137,000 under current guidelines. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/519851-trump-biden-tied-when-it-comes-to-economy-poll

Trump and the GOP for years have wanted to privatize it.. Paying for it would be by the casino of Wall Street. If Trump is re=elected and the Senate is still in GOP hands.and that the legislative fight will be epic. Trump cannot enact that big of change by executive order, but like so many issues like he tries to move funds around to legislate changes in legislatively approved uses.. He has often been rebuffed by the Supreme Court, but as he stuffs the Court with conservatives, and will complete his control of the Court in a second term if the GOP remains red..

Oct. 10, 2020As more seniors and women flock to Biden, it appears that issues, health care, COVID, ending choice, are not the main issues. It is crazy versus normal. The behavior of Trump in his first debate, would not be tolerated by a 6-year-old at a thanksgiving dinner table and he would have been sent to the kid's table. Now that he is high on steroids, maybe we can excuse some of his post-debate behavior. Or maybe his unplugged self is adding to the perception that this is his true crazy nature, demanding that Barr arrest Biden, Hillary, and calling impressive Harris a monster ...or that we should start a war somewhere. Even when the steroids wear off, there is plenty of Trump's crazy behavior compared to the adult in the room Biden, to make their choice even clearer.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/older-voters-flee-trump-solidifying-biden-s-advantage-2020-race-n1242280

Hell just froze over. If Biden can summon 500 golf carts in Trumpland..the Villages in Florida. wow....I never could have predicted this. https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-seniors-florida-michael-pence-b8bbfd3a87dc290a84b9ed9915a4cf63 " An armada of as many as 500 golf carts gathered at the Sea Breeze Recreation Center to caravan to the nearby elections office, so folks could drop off ballots for Biden.

As each cart rolled into the parking lot and slid a ballot into a locked box under the watchful eye of elections supervisors, dozens lined the sidewalk, cheering and clapping every time a vote was cast.

“I think we all came out of the closet for this election,” said Branscome."

Joe Biden, August 31 speech, said that the social security fund would be depleted by 2023. That is because social security funding depends on the payroll tax which has been suspended as part of the COVID stimulus. It could be saved by paying for it from the general fund. which Biden prefers. Trump and the GOP for years have wanted to privatize it.. Paying for it would be by the casino of Wall Street. If Trump is re-elected and the Senate is still in GOP hands,. the legislative fight will be epic. Trump cannot enact that big of change by executive order, but like with so many issues he tries to move funds around to legislate changes in Congressionally approved uses.. He has often been rebuffed by the Supreme Court, but as he stuffs the Court with conservatives, he will complete his control of the Court in a second term if the GOP Senate remains red.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/31/politics/biden-speech-public-safety-fracking-social-security-fact-check/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1C-Dx3Any__oh9iIDFbg8sJW3-KB4Uy52AmVxGlwSrqxzPauP7YjZKxQI

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/04/biden-campaign-attacks-trump-social-security-plan-that-does-not-exist/?utm_campaign=wp_the_5_minute_fix&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_fix

Released figures July 24 were the deaths attributed to COVID and 8 out of 10 of them were senior, those over 65.

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/press-release/8-in-10-people-who-have-died-of-covid-19-were-age-65-or-older-but-the-share-varies-by-state/.

Also mid July: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/07/13/covid-risk

Released figures July 24 were the deaths attributed to COVID and 8 out of 10 of them were senior, those over 65.

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/press-release/8-in-10-people-who-have-died-of-covid-19-were-age-65-or-older-but-the-share-varies-by-state/.

Some in Trump's camp are touting Sweden's open for business as usual approach that said its goal of getting herd immunity with 60% immune to COVID. Here is what happened in Sweden when they stayed open for business instead of issuing stay at home orders.:: six times comparable neighboring countries and most were seniors. , they still have 6 times the deaths as their neighboring Socialist countries who instituted stay at home and other strict.rules and not great economic gain.

Per Business Insider, As of April 28, 2,274 people had died from the coronavirus in Sweden, making its per capita death rate nearly six times that of Norway and Finland who had very stringent stay at home rules and similar socio-economic characteristics. https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-norway-sweden-different-coronavirus-responses-fatality-rates-2020-4 An expert epidemiologist t on MSNBC yesterday did the math: If we are to get herd immunity (which he dismisses as a false goal) would require 2 million deaths instead of the 200,000 we are near now in the US given our much larger population than Sweden., Seniors: you can do the math, too.

Update July 29, per a July 22 poll: The revolt continues: https://www.nbcnews.com/…/who-s-behind-trump-s-big-polling-…

Per NBC News and republished in Cook's Political Report show huge shifts in voter demographics since 2016. The most dramatic are seniors, showing a 20 point swing, now favoring Biden, and impressive college-educated whites showing a 12 point swing, also now more than ever favoring Biden. These two blocks are likely voters. Seniors got the message: COVID and Trump's willingness to throw them under the bus in a haste to open for business...and they are the most vulnerable group to COVID-19.   

Update July 4. 2020
For those over 65, the message should be"we need to keep older people from dying from it". Older people are the ones who die; 80% of the deaths from COVID 19 are older ones. Even if older people follow every guideline and follow safer at home or stay at home, those who are younger are the spreaders and bring it home. So long as the virus rages in the younger population, the danger to seniors will not diminish. What this shows is that the administration does not care about older people, and given his plunging polls with that group, they have gotten the message. Update: July 21, 2020. The last to get the message are residents of the Villages, a huge retirement settlement in Florida, where 2/3 are registered Republicans and "they can tell who are Democrats by the ones who wear masks". They swallowed the Trump cool-aid. They had kept the virus out until recently and now they are experiencing it themselves. The President was caught recently wearing a mask. Something as gotten to him that perhaps he is indeed in danger of losing some of the most hard-core White senior support to be found..in the Villages itself., if not owed to a political conversion but to the experience of having the disease and surviving. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/us/coronavirus-florida-elderly.html

https://www.newyorker.com/…/donald-trumps-big-problem-with-…
This article, drawing from numerous polls, shows this group he carried in 2016 has flipped to favor Biden. In some instances, it is as much as a 12% swing in that demographic. The swing is particularly noticeable in the swing states that gave him the electoral college win in 2016 with narrow margins.

Some in Trump's camp are touting Sweden's open for business as usual approach that said its goal of getting herd immunity with 60% immune to COVID. Here is what happened in Sweden when they stayed open for business instead of issuing stay at home orders.:: six times comparable neighboring countries and most were seniors. , they still have 6 times the deaths as their neighboring Socialist countries who instituted stay at home and other strict.rules and not great economic gain.

Per Business Insider, As of April 28, 2,274 people had died from the coronavirus in Sweden, making its per capita death rate nearly six times that of Norway and Finland who had very stringent stay at home rules and similar socio-economic characteristics. https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-norway-sweden-different-coronavirus-responses-fatality-rates-2020-4 An expert epidemiologist t on MSNBC yesterday did the math: If we are to get herd immunity (which he dismisses as a false goal) would require 2 million deaths instead of the 200,000 we are near now in the US given our much larger population than Sweden., Seniors: you can do the math, too.

Update July 29, per a July 22 poll: The revolt continues: https://www.nbcnews.com/…/who-s-behind-trump-s-big-polling-…

Per NBC News and republished in Cook's Political Report show huge shifts in voter demographics since 2016. The most dramatic are seniors, showing a 20 point swing, now favoring Biden, and impressive college-educated whites showing a 12 point swing, also now more than ever favoring Biden. These two blocks are likely voters. Seniors got the message: COVID and Trump's willingness to throw them under the bus in a haste to open for business...and they are the most vulnerable group to COVID-19.   

Update July 4. 2020
For those over 65, the message should be"we need to keep older people from dying from it". Older people are the ones who die; 80% of the deaths from COVID 19 are older ones. Even if older people follow every guideline and follow safer at home or stay at home, those who are younger are the spreaders and bring it home. So long as the virus rages in the younger population, the danger to seniors will not diminish. What this shows is that the administration does not care about older people, and given his plunging polls with that group, they have gotten the message. Update: July 21, 2020. The last to get the message are residents of the Villages, a huge retirement settlement in Florida, where 2/3 are registered Republicans and "they can tell who are Democrats by the ones who wear masks". They swallowed the Trump cool-aid. They had kept the virus out until recently and now they are experiencing it themselves. The President was caught recently wearing a mask. Something as gotten to him that perhaps he is indeed in danger of losing some of the most hard-core White senior support to be found..in the Villages itself., if not owed to a political conversion but to the experience of having the disease and surviving. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/us/coronavirus-florida-elderly.html

https://www.newyorker.com/…/donald-trumps-big-problem-with-…
This article, drawing from numerous polls, shows this group he carried in 2016 has flipped to favor Biden. In some instances, it is as much as a 12% swing in that demographic. The swing is particularly noticeable in the swing states that gave him the electoral college win in 2016 with narrow margins.

Retaining the support of seniors is central to Trump’s reëlection chances. But a number of recent polls show that he has slipped badly in this key demographic.

NEWYORKER.COM

Donald Trump’s Big Problem with Senior Voters

Retaining the support of seniors is central to Trump’s reëlection chances. But a number of recent polls show that he has slipped badly in this key demographic.

Some pointed Facebook remarks from ordinary people: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/dontkillgrandma?__eep__=6&hc_location=ufi

Sen.Cory Gardner owes Sen. John McCain thanks for his vote against GOP health bill

A version of this appeared in all editions of the Sky Hi News, August 2, 2017

Colorado Senator Cory Gardner owes Sen. John McCain  thanks for McCain’s  deciding vote against the Senate “skinny” bill to repeal/replace Obamacare. A Magellan poll of Colorado voters showed 60% wanted Obamacare repaired, not repealed or replaced.  By the time of Gardner’s re-election  campaign in 2020,  it  is now more likely that Colorado voters will  have forgotten  how badly the GOP bill would have hurt Colorado citizens. The full impact on Colorado of the bills he supported would have been felt in the middle of his re-election campaign, but by 2020 the issue will have been relegated to memories of what could have happened.

Voters may forget that not only did he vote in favor of all GOP Senate repeal/replace bills, he was a leader in designing the GOP’s preferred version of repeal/replace legislation. Gardner was one of the committee of GOP senators who crafted that  original version of the bill. The CBO score on that bill  would have resulted in 22 million losing  access to affordable health insurance among other hurtful impacts.  

Gardner will be facing re-election in 2020 in  a state that turned blue in 2016 with Hillary Clinton winning the state with a 5%  plus margin. Had the Senate voted in favor of the parliamentary ruse  to send their “skinny” legislation to a conference committee, no one knows what would have come out of negotiations with the House version, but it would not have been skinny  since the GOP’s Senate original version differed little from the House version. Even the skinny bill  itself would have left 16 million without insurance and cause a 20% increase in premiums, per the Senate Budget Office score and Gardner voted for that, too.

Here is how Colorado would have been hurt if Gardner had had his preferred way. Over  400,000 in Colorado alone could have lost  their health insurance over the next ten years . Rural hospitals and urban charity hospitals would  have lost many paying customers, causing some to close. Medicaid expansion under Obamacare could have been eliminated.    Colorado  could  have voted to restore the loss of Medicaid expansion  at the cost to taxpayers of $15 billion over ten years.

22% of Colorado adults  with  pre-existing conditions could have been dumped into a “high risk” pool in which the premiums could have to be raised to the point of being unaffordable . Seniors between 50 and 65 could have seen premiums increase by $2 thousand a year. Women could be charged more than men again for  coverage of their special services, from prenatal to maternity care, cancer screenings, mammograms, birth control pills,  assuming those benefits would even  be offered . However. all guarantees  of benefit inclusions were removed in both House and Senate versions. GOP versions removed medicaid funded coverage of 60% of elderly in nursing homes.

If Gardner is banking on  many voters forgetting how much he did not care  about their health insurance, count on his opponents to try to remind them.  Gardner’s worst nightmare might be if Colorado governor John Hickenlooper (D) is his  opponent.  Hickenlooper  will be the most effective and credible  reminder  of Gardner’s votes, since Hickenlooper led the bipartisan committee of governors to  urge a no vote on the GOP dominated  Senate’s repeal/replace attempts.

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/22/cory-gardner-senate-health-care/

http://magellanstrategies.com/colorado-voter-opinion-survey-release-part-2-2/ 60% in Colorado in April wanted Obamacare to be fixed, not repealed

http://www.skyhinews.com/news/colorado-health-care-series-part-4-experts-warn-to-beware-effects-of-dismantling-obamacare/

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/16/hickenlooper-kasich-letter-opposing-health-bill/

https://www.coloradostatesman.com/report-gop-health-plan-would-cost-colorado-15-billion-or-leave-hundreds-of-thousands-without-care/
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/03/13/denver-health-other-hospitals-worry-about-newly-uninsured/

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/29/cory-gardner-health-care-obamacare-repeal-vote/

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/politics/sen-cory-gardner-moving-denver-office-after-protest-arrests

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/02/the-still-conservative-states-of-america/515592/

https://coloradopolitics.com/hickenlooper-face-nation-healthcare/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/poll-most-time-end-effort-repeal-obama-health-074755459--politics.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/22/senate-panel-begin-bipartisan-hearings-stabilizing-health-insurance-market/589555001/