…sorry if some of these aren’t as fresh as you’d like but I seem to have been slacking somewhat on the deluge-of-links so chalk it up to a backlog, I guess
…one way & another it’d be nice to see some tangible progress with a lot of what’s going on at the moment
[…& look out for the early mentions of yet another reason to loathe justice frat-boy-brett]
…but it’s not as though that’s particularly realistic where some of the bigger ticket items are concerned
…so even the good news is hanging a lot on potential to make up for the lack of meat on the bone…take this for example
…sure it puts a smile on my face that even Fox News couldn’t construct a poll that gets them better numbers than that…but basically all the polls had Clinton running away with the thing in ’16 so I’m nowhere close to feeling like those numbers are genuinely reassuring…not in the face of this kind of shit
…even if they do seem to be running scared
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/barr-claims-voting-mail-will-lead-fraud-counterfeiting-admits-he-has-zero-evidence
…here & there the cracks might just be starting to show in places that used to make ol’ clammy mcflopsweat feel special
…along with a bunch of others apparently…including one about the chapo trap house podcast…mind you most of them were apparently inactive so let’s not break out the champagne or anything
…still
…can’t deny some of this stuff is nice to see
…but there just might be some folks on team GOP looking to take their ball & go home
…& this took longer than it should have & might not be the last word on the subject…but was still nice to hear
…this, too
…this…not so much
…some mention was made yesterday of the effect that losing advertisers might be having on facebook but if anyone needs a refresher course in why you ought to have less than no sympathy for zuck this hits most of the highlights in one neat package
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/28/facebook-zuckerberg-trump-hate/
…& along with Coca Cola I think it’s safe to say that Unilever ditching the platform until the other side of the election is the kind of thing that has to hit zuck right in the bank balance
…although at least this went a slightly less fucked up way
…because this sure as shit didn’t
…& the outlook isn’t great with this stuff, either
…it’s a tricky one, for sure…much like Joe seems to be finding his pick for VP
…& to be fair those are the two names I generally find myself assuming must be odds-on favorites
…& right now that military connection could be a hell of a drum to beat?
…& well they might…but let’s be honest…we pretty much know the actual answers here…president you-know-when-you’ve-been-tango’d* was out here bigging up how swell it was that him & his good buddy Vlad got along so well months after it was clear that ol’ Vlad was doling out your actual stacks of greenbacks for dead US troops…& however you might feel about war in general or that one in particular any fool can tell you that shit ain’t right…& by rights it ought to have some consequences
…but with all due respect to the men & women who signed on to risk life & limb for the liberty of others in a hostile environment half way around the world from the land they hoped to protect…their commander-in-chief has been dropping that ball all over the shop back home…& shitty a chorus as it always is…it’s been landing harder on some than others
…& I don’t mean the bar owners of Texas or just Texas (more generally) or the beleagured governor of Florida (or Texas) or whoever has to find something else for Pence to do or anyone dumb enough to go to that convention or the folks who were hoping to catch a flight to Europe anytime soon
…& I hate to say it…not least because I think we mostly already know it…but this coronavirus shit is probably worse than it looks
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/06/29/coronavirus-mutation-science/
…oh…& speaking of a second of wave of a virulent contagion
…& although the likes of these getting fired is obviously no bad thing
…what does that really mean?
…funny how it all looks that much worse when you put it in even a little bit of context…& after it started off looking so bad in isolation
On The Day George Floyd Died, Police Across The US Shot And Killed At Least Five Other Men
Three Words. 70 Cases. The Tragic History of ‘I Can’t Breathe.’
…so while, again, this sort of thing is heartening to see
…there’s plenty of room to come at this from the other direction
…& lest we forget…there’s all kinds of other crazy shit going on out there
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/abandoned-oil-tanker-yemen-coast-risk-exploding-n1232254
…so…in closing
…oh, yeah…& then there was that * from earlier
Frack you, Chesapeake Energy and hopefully good riddance.
I still miss Calvin and Hobbes. It remains an almost timeless brilliant work of art by Bill Waterson.
Wish him a happy birthday. He turns 62 on July 5th. Although he’s so reclusive he makes J. D. Salinger seem like he was one of the Kardashians.
I feel you on being wary as fuck of polls. But I think…the thing that gives me some hope that what we’re seeing isn’t just sort of error is that the degree to which the math would have to be wrong would need to be massive to account for the shifts in polling. Biden has a higher favor-ability than Clinton, and Clinton never crossed the 50% threshold. Biden has.
The shifts in the polls also seem to be at least trying to make up for the polling errors in 2020. Again, a whole lot could change between now and November. But the question is, how can Trump win back any of the advantage he’s lost.
Like…he hasn’t articulated a coherent vision for the future. He has no policy goals. He can’t get free TV time with his rallies, and every time he talks his speech is more scrutinized than ever. Fox fuggin’ News is starting to fire off polls that have Trump in a precarious position.
What I keep coming back to is this; if Biden can just manage to flip Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, he wins even if the rest of the map turns out exactly like 2016. Biden doesn’t need Texas or Arizona or North Carolina or Georgia. Biden and his team can dump tons of money into those states and those states alone. Trump has more territory to defend and doesn’t have a message that would cause any of Joe Biden’s states to flip.
Those are the only states I’m going to be watching on election night. Biden being able to flip Arizona or Florida would be icing on the cake. But if Biden wins PA, MI and WI, then Trump is done. His chances of picking up another state in the electoral college to swing the pendulum in his direction just aren’t likely.
…from your lips (or I guess fingers) to god’s ears
…you’re right…it looks like even a plausible route through the electoral college for him is (if not impossible) looking highly implausible…& there’s nothing he’s offering that seems like it should be able to sway that outcome
…whereas Joe looks to have a solid shot at picking up enough to swing it
…but I guess the truth is I won’t really be able to relax about it until it’s called for Biden…which might be a few days after the vote potentially
…& if at that point they were to tell us that the electoral college gave the asshat a second term I’m pretty sure I’d seriously question the legitimacy of that result
…so even though I don’t think the reasons why are applicable in the reverse scenario I strongly suspect that to be a logic his supporters may be incapable of parsing…which has me on edge in a different way?
…so trepidation abounds but I remember what it was like to have faith that the electorate could pull itself together & do better than it managed last time & that little flicker of optimism is one I’m trying to guard as best I can without getting carried away to the point that I relax about it?
I mean…maybe this is just a problem of me staring at that stupid blue and red map, but Trump would have to, essentially, exactly repeat his 2016 road to victory in order to win. Like, he’d literally have to repeat it, without losing any of the states he’s currently down in. And yeah, leads collapse in the waning days of an election, but goddamn-goddamn, that just doesn’t seem even in the least bit possible, even with voter suppression and Russian assistance. (And honestly, I think the Ruskies got what they wanted from Trump and I don’t see them going out of their way to assist him in winning the next election. Putin’s got his own shit to focus on.)
Like, I really don’t see a path forward for Trump except literally duplicating his 2016 map. He has to defend everything and not lose anything, and while I’ll never say that’s impossible, it’s just…it’s so implausible.
I know you are probably sick of hearing it but I will keep preaching it until I’m proved wrong…
The question in my mind is, will Trump even run if he feels he has no chance of winning? I could easily see him withdrawing just to salve his tiny, fragile ego, particularly if it looks like the massive electoral blowout it’s shaping up to be. Taking his marbles and going home rather than getting beat like a drum.
You’re right, a lot can still happen. But I’m not seeing how much of it can benefit Trump. Even with voter suppression and massive gerrymandering, his chances of pulling this off dwindle more each day.
Also, I feel like his supporters are starting to surrender now. I’m not getting the desperate Facebook pleas from my redneck relatives that I was getting a month ago — Please vote for Trump or our country will be DESTROYED. I get the sense they’ve already thrown in the towel. Now, my relatives may be marginally smarter than the run-of-the-mill MAGAs, and this is purely anecdotal, but I dunno, I’m sensing a difference since the Tulsa flop.
…it’s true the wind seems to have gone out of their sails…but I think it’s not just him but the whole GOP that’s committed at this point…to throw out an incumbent after confirming them as the nominee & try to start over with a different ticket would be crazy sounding under “normal” circumstances…but when the circumstances are the middle of a pandemic that looks increasingly out of control & just about guaranteed not to have taken the pressure off this side of the next inauguration…& your incumbent is Trump…if you did then you might as well just concede the whole thing & start thinking about ’24?
…I don’t know…it seems like nothing is too crazy to get traction in 2020 but I can’t make it work out in my head…even though you’re absolutely right that I think he’d much rather slope off with his tail between his legs than get his ass handed to him in front of god & everyone on internationally syndicated news all the way around the globe
…I generally cleave to the theory that he ran to lose the first time just the same as Boris in the UK wanted to lose that referendum & ride the sentiment of a losing leave campaign to boost him up to the top spot in his party & from there to PM so he could convert well-I-tried into it’s-not-my-fault-we-can’t-do-better & they’re both now fucked because they very much needed to deliver on promises they made explicitly in expectation that no one would ever be able to hold them to any of them
…although in the case of orange foolius the motivation had a lot more to do with personal enrichment & thinking campaign finance was like a supermarket sweep compared to the effort it takes to maintain the books that family has been cooking for decades…imho & all that
…interesting to consider, though
It is intriguing to speculate. Would the GOP basically write off the presidency, and devote party funds to the down-ticket races? Just leave Trump twisting in the wind? I don’t know if Trump has moved from the “asset” column to the “liability” column yet, but if he hasn’t, he’s damn close.
It would really be wild if they simply nominated someone else. They couldn’t win at this point, but would it be less embarrassing to the GOP to nominate Pence or Jeb Bush? Bush probably wouldn’t take it, thinking he would have a better chance later (probably true). He’s the only one I can think of that might have the name recognition and distance from the Trump stench to get any votes.
This move tells me they are all onboard the Trump train and theft of another election…
Yep. They’re going to try every damn thing they can now. Traitorous fucks.
how are polls conducted? by calling folks and asking people ‘will you vote for trump or biden?’ right? the problem I see is who is going to go out, or request a mail ballot, to vote for joe biden? people may say ‘I will vote’ but are they really going to? for joe biden? the guy is as unexciting as they come. he’s also 78 years old. magas will go and vote for their guy. but will enough people do so for joe biden?
#RIP
A life well lived!
Well, shit. We’ve lost a lot of great artists in 2020.
Imagine if your best friend was Mel Brooks. What a pair, how fun would that be?
Since you don’t have enough links RIP, I got a few extras for you…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/two-friends-texas-were-tested-185607085.html
and my favorite!
Sacha Baron Cohen Crashes Right Wing Event, Leads Absurd Sing-Along
That song got stuck in my head the other day.
The one thing I’ll say for fracking is that it pushed coal over a cliff. Trump’s not even bothering trying to talk about coal anymore because he knows even West Virginia will shake its head at him.
And since fracking ended up being a giant mess of rigged contracts and shady financing, it’s fallen flat too. It’s way overdue for the US to make a huge jump to wind and solar and rebuild our miserable electric infrastructure. I think people are going to be more receptive to a Green New Deal than most pundits think.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, another close Trump ally, told reporters that the president needs to make the race “more about policy and less about your personality.”
LOL, Lindsey. Your dipshit president doesn’t have anything resembling a policy, unless you’re willing to count racism. And you probably are.
Amy McGrath will be the Dem nominee to run against Moscow Mitch McConnell in November. She beat Charles Booker by a lousy 2%. I don’t think she has a chance in hell of beating McConnell. Booker, on the other hand, was gaining momentum. Are we sure this isn’t Monday? It feels like a Monday.
…well, shit…she’d still be better than Mitch…but that sucks…& maybe enough that she’ll be worse by virtue of letting his wizened ass hold onto that seat
Sprots!
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/us/ian-desmond-opts-out-mlb-spt-trnd/index.html
His whole statement is worth a read; thanks for sharing!
I think we all know who came up with this brilliant idea: lysol donnie…