…I didn’t mean to watch the last debate…but then I did…which you’d think would be a lesson learned…but then again…you have to think that Kamala going up against a man who apparently can’t deal with women unless his wife is there to reassure him that it’s okay might be…well, I don’t know about “worth watching”…but at least more edifying?
…then again…since the election seems (at least for one campaign) to be just a hell for leather descent into the kind of break from reality that I’m pretty sure used to be considered clinically significant
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/sick-coronavirus-trump-puts-his-presidency-steroids
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/10/06/cartoons-trump-covid-coronavirus
…the cost/benefit analysis is less than encouraging
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/08/international-complaint-worker-protections
…so the combination of the two is…hard to stomach, if I’m honest
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/07/russian-trolls-graphika-parler-gab
…& I’m pretty sure CleverNameHere would henceforth assume that I’m too dumb to learn from my mistakes so you might have to fill me in on the good bits?
…or so we thought
…so if you’d rather just (literally) space out entirely…there’s always this?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/28/the-elusive-peril-of-space-junk
[…it’s a long read & I dare say much of it isn’t exactly what you’d call upbeat…but it’s about as far away from the election as anything & honestly pretty interesting]
…lord knows even as bad a picture as it paints it’s still better than this kind of crap
…so, maybe I’m scraping the barrel here
…but while I’m not exactly unhappy to hear that both twitter & facebook are making some gestures in the direction of getting their shit together when it comes to the insidous bullshit they’ve been happy to diseminate far & wide
Facebook said it plans to temporarily suspend all political and issue-based advertising after polls close Nov. 3, a move the company said was intended to limit confusion, misinformation and abuse of its services in the days after the presidential election.
The social media giant also said it would remove calls for people to watch the polls when those posts use militaristic or intimidating language. Executives said that the policy applies to anyone, including President Trump and other politicians. Trump has made calls for people to engage in poll-watching, and his son Donald Trump Jr. appeared in an ad last month urging people to “defend your ballot” and join an “army” to protect the polls.
Facebook executives said such language, including the words “army” and “battle” would be prohibited in the future, but the ad will not be removed retroactively.
The moves by Facebook come in the face of criticism that the company’s policy to not fact-check political ads has created a loophole for misinformation that has been repeatedly exploited. The company has previously said it will suspend running new political ads in the week before the election but will allow ads that have previously been approved to continue running.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/07/facebook-political-ads
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-bans-militarized-calls-poll-watching-during-election
…the fact that it seems like a transparent effort to wriggle out of the kind of admission that might actually mess with their bottom line kind of takes the shine of it
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-amazon-alphabet-apple-monopoly-power-dems-say
…& frankly…there wasn’t a lot of shine to start with if you ask me
…it seems like they’re very much in the day-late-dollar-short camp from where I’m sitting…mind you…speaking of being late & short a few dollars
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-tax-returns/2020/10/07/story.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-loses-tax-subpoena-another-legal-setback
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/06/trump-covid-tax-returns-leadership
…I know the chances of an ex-president (even one who never showed any signs of understanding the job…much less doing it) actually winding up incarcerated seem vanishingly slim…but god damn it I still want there to be some actual justice done somewhere down the line…as opposed to the absurd injustice of fast-tracking a judge with all of three years’ tenure all the way to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court for the express purpose of representing the kind of christianity that I’m fairly certain would be up there with the temple full of money-lenders as far as your actual christ was concerned
…the handmaid’s tale was meant to be a cautionary tale…& above all fictional for fuck’s sake…not a godforsaken playbook…& while we’re on the subject of godforsaken playbooks
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/coronaviurs-antivax-conspiracies/2020/10/06/story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/07/trump-creates-unreality-he-needs-steal-election
…anyway
…before y’all come to my rescue with the highlights of Kamala taking Pence’s lunch money & making him cry…here’s a couple of things that didn’t make me feel like it was time to admit that “this is The Bad Place, isn’t it?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/06/joe-bidens-campaign-summed-up-one-simple-gesture
…maybe I ought to just try & sleep through the winter…it works pretty good for these guys, after all?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/10/06/fat-bear-week-winner-2020
Been a minute since I heard “jah didn’t kill johnny” reminds me of my brother that passed away, hard to hold the tears back.
…obviously I’m sorry to hear that…& offer condolences…wasn’t looking to bring a tear to your eye
…but at the same time, in a more general sense I admit that’s somewhat why I found myself listening to it while thinking about the thousands of people that have been lost of late
My condolences to you, AWhit.
I am sincerely sorry for your loss.
Top White House security official “gravely ill” with coronavirus. While House/Administraton saying nothing:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/520116-white-house-security-official-reported-to-be-gravely-ill-with-covid
The Hill doesn’t say what his job was but somewhere else I read that he was in charge of credentialing visitors to the White House. If this wasn’t a desk job, he was like one of those famous red-shirted Star Trek extras who never survive. Or may have been a Typhoid Mary himself. If that’s the case, it would be very Trump White House. Official in charge of admitting visitors to the White House suspected of infecting visitors with coronavirus upon admission.
That is … entirely on-brand, isn’t it? That is just quintessential Trump, right there.
…so…does this mean there actually will be a mute function?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/second-presidential-debate-will-be-virtual-after-trump-s-covid-n1242596
I’ll believe it when I see it. Trump’s polling plummeted after the first debate. There’s no way he should be allowed back on stage. But, since he is literally the stupidest human-shaped object on the planet, he’s probably insisting on it, counting on his imaginary “negotiation skills” to see him through.
I’m still not sure he’ll be alive for any more debates, honestly. From what I’ve read of his treatments, it’s a lot of experimental crap and wishful thinking. It’s a pretty clear-cut case of VIP Syndrome, where self-important pricks force their doctors to give them drugs or treatments that aren’t medically sound.
https://fortune.com/2020/10/05/trump-covid-what-is-vip-syndrome/
…yup…the VIP syndrome thing is certainly in effect
…but apparently he doesn’t like the virtual proposal (surprising nobody) so maybe the mute function would be part of it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/10/08/trump-biden-live-updates/
He just announced he’s “not going to waste his time” participating in a virtual debate, you sit behind a computer, they’re protecting Biden, polls he’s read show he won the first debate, he knows it, and he thinks Biden knows it…
He’s in for a rough weekend if, as I have read, they have to start changing around and decreasing all the drugs after a week’s course of treatment. Maybe someone (Ivanka) said to him, “Do you know what you’re going to look like a week from now?” and he listened.
…that’s a good point about the adjusted regimen
…much as their first debate was dire in a lot of ways I almost feel like there would be something to be said for his having to be on camera for 90mins straight given the amount of contradictory information about his condition that’s going around
…a live feed for an hour & half seems like it might be telling in a number of ways…so you could well be right about that last bit?
They should invite him, and hold it whether he shows up or not. They could even pan to an empty podium for two minutes, and then let Biden “respond.”
I’m not prepared to give social media any credit for “reforms.” Too little, too late. Both Facebook and Twitter management have come to the realization that, barring a MAJOR disruption, Trump is going to lose. And they will face the wrath of angry legislators who are sick and tired of weaponized social media lie and conspiracy campaigns. Their 11th-hour Road-to-Damascus conversions (yeah, mixing metaphors again) is cheap and transparent.
That said, it will probably work.
…extra points for managing to use the word transparent in conjunction with facebook/twitter without talking nonsense
…that is no mean feat
If they were smart, they would smother the hard right associations. Microsoft sells tons of software to Neo Nazis and flat earthers and German nihilists, but they are careful not to market to them or connect their brand to them. Facebook made a conscious decision to promote political extremism and kooks, and a grownup would tell them their bread and butter is really in cat owners and soccer fans and people who hate pumpkin spice. I don’t know if Zuckerberg has any grownups around him, but this would be a good time for them to step up.
…I know he looks all of twelve years old but it wouldn’t do any harm to have zuck be reminded he’s meant to be a grown-up, come to that
…the microsoft point is also a good one…although that gates foundation does seem like more than a bid for tax efficiency at this point so I think bill at least gets some grown-up points?
Mayor Pete is going to make Pence cry.
Oh my God, that was the best. And on Fox News! Maybe that tactic should be randomly, almost Dadaist-like, thrown in more often. “I think what we’re seeing in this White porn star House is…” “About the inaction on the stalled Covid relief package I will say this: The refusal by Trump porn star to summarily shut down talks…”
By the way, I have no moral opposition to sex workers, so this is not a knock on them.
That is delightful. A pity he didn’t bare his teeth when he was running.
I watched the whole debate again, I know, I am a glutton for punishment. The winner of the night was definitely the fly that landed on the giant piece of shit on stage. I hear they already have him signed to do the next debate! Black flies matter people!
I hung in for about 45 minutes. Even in a fairly normal debate, I get frustrated by the emphasis on prescribed talking points. Harris was more fluid but she still kept circling back around to the same major points. Pence was rigid and clumsy and way more obvious, but kept doing the same thing.
There’s an job interviewing technique where if there’s a question that you don’t want to answer, you mentally revise it to a question you DO want to answer, and go from there. Basically dodging the question, but by providing information on another subject rather than refusing to answer. It’s surprisingly effective in a one-on-one situation. But when you’re in a group interview, it tends to fall flat, because other people who aren’t the focus of your answer quickly realize that you’re dodging the question. I just kept seeing that all night long. Pence: Biden will raise taxes. Harris: Trump killed 220,000 Americans. It’s not really a debate as much as an extended campaign ad.
Regarding
Silly me – I thought that the debates were for the benefit of the citizens to learn about the candidates, not for the convenience and glorification of those running. My bad…
I skipped this debate as well. If it weren’t for the drinking, I’d probably be getting smarter.
Police are currently in a standoff with a member of the alt-right militia that plotted to kidnap governor Whitmer (LOL not what I’d call “stand back, stand by”). I don’t have a link right now.
I wonder how Trump is going to “fine people” this one.
Merci beaucoup
It is good to see that one of the most prestigious medical journals is officially calling out the fucking idiots in our government…
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812?query=featured_coronavirus
I’ve missed Keith’s show so much, he was the best thing MSNBC ever had!
how come theres like 500 bazzillion people doing music reactions on youtube now but they are all reacting to the same 20 songs?
its wierd
also..why are music reactions even a thing?
why am i watching this shit?
*starts next reaction*