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Democratic hopefuls are already moving too far left to beat Trump in 2020

Tom Rogan
Washington Examiner
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 01:22 UTC
Trump effect
© CNN/KJN
President Trump's approval ratings are falling, and his failure to build the U.S.-Mexican wall endangers his consolidated political base. As my colleague David Drucker reports, top Texas Republicans now fear that the president may lose Texas in 2020.

Yet, I believe Trump has an increasingly good chance of reelection. Why?

Because of the growing division between the basic political ideology of most Americans and the campaign platforms of 2020 Democratic Party presidential aspirants. The first point to note here is that most Americans identify as either conservative or moderate, rather than liberal. A 2018 Gallup poll, as below, shows that while the number of self-described liberals is growing, the gap between self-identified conservatives and liberals remains near 10 points.
chart
© Gallup
I believe that this gap is the critical element in allowing Trump to win reelection, because there's no question that the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries is now centered around a contest of who can be the most liberal.

Comment: The Democratic Party has provided ample munition to Trump's re-election strategy and unwittingly continues to do so.

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Doberman

Baby girl killed by dog in Costa Rica


qcostarica.com
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 15:50 UTC
The dog, an American Stafford, was usually kept in the garage of the small house. Apparently the infant, somehow, crawled into the garage.

The dog, an American Stafford, was usually kept in the garage of the small house. Apparently the infant, somehow, crawled into the garage.
An eleven-month-old baby died on Monday morning in hospital, the victim of the injuries she suffered after being bitten by a dog. The attack took place in the small house, located in San Gabriel de Calle Blancos de Goicoechea, in San José, around 10:30 am Monday.

The parents of the only child took her to the nearby clinic in Tibas, where after administering first aid, transferred to her to the Children's Hospital in San Jose, where she died.

The dog, an American Stafford, was owned by the family. It was one one of six dogs that were without proper conditions and a parrot, whose possession is prohibited.

The dog typically ran loose in the small garage. Apparently, the baby crawled from the house into the garage and was attacked. The mother was also injured while trying to rescue the infant.
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Bizarro Earth

'Hundreds of thousands' of fish dead in Australia


Digital Journal
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 05:27 UTC
Darling River Mass Death
© ROBERT GREGORY, ROBERT GREGORY/AFP
Just weeks after up to a million fish were killed, another mass death occurred in the Murray-Darling river system.
"Hundreds of thousands" of fish have died in drought-stricken Australia in the last few days and more mass deaths are likely to occur, the authorities warned Tuesday.

Locals around the Darling River were confronted with a sea of white, as dead fish carpeted the waters near the southeastern Outback town of Menindee.

Just weeks after up to a million were killed -- with scientists pointing to low water and oxygen levels as well as possibly toxic algae -- another mass death occurred in the key agricultural region.

Inspectors from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries have visited the site and said they found that "hundreds of thousands of fish have died".

"Further fish deaths in the Darling River are anticipated as a significant number of fish have been observed under stress," the department said in a statement.

Some 700 kilos (1,543 pounds) of dead fish were removed from the river Monday, with similar amounts expected to be collected Tuesday, it added.

The Darling River is part of the Murray-Darling River system that stretches thousands of kilometres across several states.
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Biohazard

Chickens in Scotland modified to produce human proteins in eggs

Nick Carne
Cosmos Magazine
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 17:51 UTC
Chickens
© ISTOCK/LEONSBO
Are these drug providers of the future?
Scottish researchers have genetically modified chickens to produce human proteins in their eggs, which, they say, could offer a cost-effective way to produce certain types of drugs.

During their study, which is reported in the journal BMC Biotechnology, they found that the drugs workd at least as well as the same proteins produced using existing methods.

"We are not yet producing medicines for people, but this study shows that chickens are commercially viable for producing proteins suitable for drug discovery studies and other applications in biotechnology," says Helen Sang, from the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute.

Eggs are already used for growing viruses that are used as vaccines, such as the flu jab. Sang and colleagues say their approach is different because the therapeutic proteins are encoded in the chicken's DNA and produced as part of the egg white.

Large quantities of the proteins can be recovered from each egg using a simple purification system, they say, and there are no adverse effects on the chickens themselves, which lay eggs as normal.
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Snowflake Cold

American alligators freeze in place to survive arctic blast in North Carolina


Strange Sounds
Thu, 24 Jan 2019 16:32 UTC
dormant alligator frozen lake
© The Swamp Park/Facebook
Alligators in one eastern North Carolina swamp have proven it was no fluke last winter, when they survived a cold snap by freezing themselves in place with their noses above the ice.

18 American alligators froze Monday night and stayed frozen all day Tuesday with their nose above the ice in North Carolina.

Yes, the same weird phenomenon happened again Monday at The Swamp Park, only this time more - and bigger - alligators joined in, says park manager George Howard, who posted a video Tuesday:
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Attention

Signs and Portents: Mutant goat born with two heads and four eyes caught on camera in China

Simon Green
The Star (UK)
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 12:47 UTC
A goat born with two heads and four eyes has
© ASIA WIRE
A goat born with two heads and four eyes has been caught on camera
The bizarre footage shows the kid with the abnormal head lying on hay in its pen.

It struggles to sit up, leading to the farmer lifting its head.

Another clip appears to show its mum licking it to try and rouse it to its feet.

The owners at the goat farm - in the village of Yezhai in Fuyang City in East China's Anhui Province - said its pregnant mum struggled to give birth for seven hours due to the size of the creature's heads.

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Attention

Signs and Portents: Two-headed blue-tongue lizard handed to reptile park in Australia

Jamie Toomey
abc.net.au
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 12:37 UTC
Lucky the two-headed blue tongue lizard.
© Australian Reptile Park
Lucky the two-headed blue tongue lizard.
An extremely rare two-headed blue-tongue lizard has been handed to a NSW Central Coast reptile park by a member of the public.

The lizard, which has since been named Lucky, had handlers at The Australian Reptile Park surprised and excited, with some experts predicting its life expectancy in the wild was not great.

Animals with this deformity often don't survive due to their eating difficulties and inability to defend themselves from predators, the park said.
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Fire

Australian heatwave - Forgotten history

Joanne Nova
JoNova
Thu, 24 Jan 2019 19:32 UTC
Don't believe your lying eyes - Australian newspaper archives are full of temperatures recorded higher than 121 in the shade which is 50C. All of these temperatures in the map below are found in historic newspaper archives. Measurements done after 1910 are even done with official Stevenson screens, yet the BOM "throws them away". It's true that ones done in the 1800s are often recorded on non-standard equipment, or are just literally "in the shade" under cover. So some of these, perhaps many, are one or two degrees too high. But even if we take two degrees off, how scary is global warming when Australia knew many days of 48C and 49C and some at 50C 120 years ago? The BOM - supposedly so concerned about the State of Our Climate - show little interest in talking about our history or in analyzing it, or even mentioning it.

And modern temperatures are recorded on electronic equipment, sometimes in areas affected by urban heat islands (concrete and cars).
Forgotten History
© JoNova
50C temperatures have occurred all over Australia before

Australians have been recording temperatures of over 50C since 1828, right across the country. In 1896 the heat was so bad for weeks that people fled on emergency trains to escape the inland heat. Millions of birds fell from the sky in 1932 due to the savage hot spell.

Comment:
Australia heatwave: Dozens of wild horses found dead at dried-up waterhole

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Red Flag

Dead birds found scattered along road in Blue Springs, Missouri

Nathan Vickers and Maggie Holmes
KCTV5
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 13:29 UTC
Dead birds in Blue Springs, MO
© KCTV5
A nasty sight along Adams Dairy Parkway has drivers in Blue Springs crying foul.

The route down Adams Dairy Parkway is scenic, filled with artwork, evergreen trees and wildlife.

"You see deer often," Du'an Lightfoot, Blue Spring resident, said.

But Lightfoot was one of many drivers who noticed something unusual on the way home Sunday.

"Riding down the street, I thought it was kind of odd," Lightfoot stated.

Something related to the dozens of starlings his neighbors have spotted this winter.
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Attention

Man mauled to death by lions after climbing over 25-feet wall at zoo in Chandigarh, India


India Today
Sun, 20 Jan 2019 18:44 UTC
Zoo officials said a lion
© Reuters
Zoo officials said a lion and a lioness were in the enclosure and the lioness attacked the man first.

A man was mauled to death by lions on Sunday at Chhatbir Zoo in Zirakpur, around 20 km from Chandigarh.

According to zoo officials, the man entered the enclosure by scaling an over-25-feet wall and as soon as he crossed over, he was attacked by two lions.

Officials said the incident happened at 2.20 pm and the man, who is in his early 30s, was yet to be identified.

"The injury on his neck was deep. He was taken to civil hospital in a critical condition where he died," said the zoo's field director M Sudhagarb.

A lion and a lioness were in the enclosure, he said, adding the female lion attacked the man first.
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