Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

[Lods]

We'll see a few dropouts now.
O'Malley has gone from the Democrats and Huckabee has suspended his campaign.

Kruz (freudian slip) ;D... Cruz has won 28%....Trump on 24%....Rubio up to 23% a good result for him.

[Lods]

Democrats Sanders and Clinton all tied up on 50% with 90% of the vote counted.

[cookie2]

Cruz wins, don't have the numbers yet.

[Mav]

The Democratic Iowa Caucuses are a bit bizarre.  The % figures are 49.9% for Clinton and 49.6% for Sanders.  But those percentages relate to delegates and not votes.  The DNC won't release the voting tallies.  Candidates are required to poll at least 15% of the statewide vote to get any statewide delegates and at least 15% of the vote in any congressional district to get delegates in that district.  O'Malley looks as though he got 1% or less of the vote, but in fact he may have had 5-15% of the vote.  How his supporters spill to the other 2 candidates may be important in the remaining primaries.

The other thing is that delegates are awarded proportionally so that Clinton and Sanders will end up with almost the same number of delegates in Iowa.

[Mav]

Hmmm ... the GOP is making it plain that it won't make any concessions regarding abortion in the face of the Zika virus: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/z...=australia

But it's easier to talk tough when the victims are abroad.  If it hits the US, it will be a lot messier.  Maybe a vaccine will be released in time to defuse this GOP bomb.

[flyboy77]

Hmmm ... the GOP is making it plain that it won't make any concessions regarding abortion in the face of the Zika virus: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/z...=australia

But it's easier to talk tough when the victims are abroad.  If it hits the US, it will be a lot messier.  Maybe a vaccine will be released in time to defuse this GOP bomb.

Do some Googling Mav, the Zika virus is a big snow job......

[Mav]

The first hit says Obama has committed $1.8b to fighting it.  Perhaps you could point me in the right direction ...

[madbluboy]

Do some Googling Mav, the Zika virus is a big snow job......

Maybe you should read a bit more on the topic.

Zika is feared because of serious congenital birth defects it can cause in babies born to mothers who carried the infection.

The situation is so bad in some parts of South America, the authorities have asked couples to delay planned pregnancies and take measures to prevent unplanned pregnancies for the next 12 months.

[flyboy77]

Maybe you should read a bit more on the topic.

Zika is feared because of serious congenital birth defects it can cause in babies born to mothers who carried the infection.

The situation is so bad in some parts of South America, the authorities have asked couples to delay planned pregnancies and take measures to prevent unplanned pregnancies for the next 12 months.

1. the virus has been around/known about since the 1940s. It causes mild flu like symptoms for a few days - all well known by the science community.

2. In the US, there are 25000 cases annually. In Brazil, the recent numbers are nowhere near that...

3. The causes are widespread, including a simple but severe trauma.

4. Re the recent blah blah about the risk of increased microcephaly......well the jury is very very much out. The Brazilian thing - http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/.../80179898/

Yet note:

He added that the findings did not prove that the virus causes the birth defect and that more tests are needed before the link can be proven definitively.

And

"Zika is new, and new diseases can be scary, particularly when they can affect the most vulnerable among us,"

  which is not true.

As for Obama's USd 1.8b request - more money the US simply doesn't have - but that's another story.

Believe there's gold in Fort Knox?

Let's see how this thing plays out. Remember SARS?!

[Mav]

Has the virus mutated in a way that now causes microcephaly?  Is there something else which causes microcephaly which accompanies this Brasilian iteration of the virus but one which will follow the virus to the US and cause birth defects in the US?  There's no doubt that Brasil has suffered a significant increase in microcephaly.  The exact vector doesn't really matter.  While there's a chance that the US will suffer the same increase, it will be an issue in the Presidential election which will be held s bit less than 9 months from now, a significant figure when it comes to childbirth.