Saturday, October 31, 2020
I'VE BEEN TRIGGERED
Just white children of privilege smashing up the world around them, failing ever upwards while profiting off the idea that minorities get all the breaks and don't ever deserve any success at all.
A surprise return character from episode one. Hope this fucking show is over soon.
Saturday, Saturday
What's It All About Then
But Shalit did find time to make more trouble for herself, charging that Post media reporter Howard Kurtz "misquoted" her in a piece he wrote on the brouhaha on September 21.Kurtz quoted Shalit as saying that "the ethos of diversity is ultimately on a collision course with the ethos of newspapering." Shalit told the Phoenix that she spoke of "sensitivity" rather than "diversity," adding, "That makes a big difference."
Kurtz reacted with outrage.
"I would respond to that by saying that is a blatant lie," he said. "I can't believe she's telling you that." Kurtz said Shalit left him a voice-mail message after his piece had already gone to press, in which she said she wished she'd used the phrase "ethos of sensitivity."
To support his defense, Kurtz produced the transcript of a CNN program on which both he and Shalit appeared. According to the transcript, host Bernard Kalb read the quote back to Shalit, and Shalit responded that "what I really meant by that was that the ethos of diversity, meaning really the ethos of sensitivity: offend no one."
Fabulists
Her big scandal at TNR - though it wasn't what actually cost her the job because lol - was a huge very racist article about personnel practices at the Washington Post, which fit very much into the very popular-in-the-90s genre of "black people get all the breaks," especially popular with New Republic editors named Andrew Sullivan.
This David Carr piece is, I think, too kind, and also requires some reading between the lines as Carr's pieces always did (he knows more than he says).
As I said, she didn't just depart "journalism" without looking back. She went on to have mini-scandals at Elle and Salon about things no one much cared about. And, here she is, hired again! Some people's talent is just so indispensable.
Friday, October 30, 2020
Hey, uh, Ruth? Can You Write Just One Thing Without Plagiarizing Or Making Things Up
The Erik Wemple Blog wrote last week that these counted as freakish events in one of the world’s safest sports. The Atlantic has already issued one correction on the story — a claim about Olympic-size backyard hockey rinks — prompted by this blog’s questions. Now there appear to be yet more problems.I'm busy at the moment so I can't do a Ruth Shalit retrospective, but... People just keep paying her to write stuff no matter what! Blessed life.The gore that Barrett — who formerly went by the name Ruth Shalit while racking up a scandal-ridden record in Washington decades ago — described in the Atlantic has riled up the community of fencers in Fairfield County, a place whose affluence drives the narrative behind the piece. Most prominent among Ivy League-fixated parents in this story is “Sloane,” the alleged middle name of a woman who is said to have three daughters and a son. Her 12-year-old is the one who allegedly took a saber to the jugular.
Thoughts And Prayers
ATLANTA — Governor Brian Kemp and his wife are in quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
America's Worst Political Party
I bet you were a bit worried I was going to say the other one.
It's Called "Boofing The Opinion"
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh made a correction to a concurring opinion after Vermont officials pointed out that he mistakenly said the state had not changed its election rules.
This Was Your Chance
I Got This
The Best Case Scenario
Morning Thread
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Brave Sir David
🚨 #BREAKING: GOP Sen. @Perduesenate has withdrawn from a @wsbtv #GASen debate. Scheduled for Sunday, it was set to be his third and final faceoff with his Dem rival, @ossoff. He will instead attend be in Rome, GA, where President Trump will be holding a rally. #gapol
— Niles Edward Francis (@NilesGApol) October 29, 2020
Act Quickly
Apparently There's An Election On Tuesday
The guy who gets the most votes should win, but, ok, that isn't our system. So they guy who gets the most electoral votes, as we've been told that's suppose to happen, should win. But, no, the Supremos might try to start throwing ballots out if they don't like what might be on them, and state legislatures might step in and say LOL WHO SAID YOU GET VOTE, and...
Really this TV show sucks.
Copaganda
...ah, they deleted the tweet. Here it is:Can now say definitively that this post is a lie. This child wasn’t “wandering around barefoot,” he was grabbed from the back of an SUV after Philly cops smashed the vehicle’s windows and seized the driver. https://t.co/Shscl3t3zo
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) October 29, 2020
Supremos
Windows Update
Village Morals
cnn hired this guy when his most prominent achievement was helping to torture thousands of central american children and is now upset that he fibbed about his cosplaying three years ago. fuck off https://t.co/wUw7nbdeAM
— Christopher Hooks (@cd_hooks) October 29, 2020
Morning Thread
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Got Some Bad News About Brunch
Nobody Knows Anything
In "normal" times we can all put on our Real Pundit hats and talk about ad buys and campaign travel, trying to discern the campaign strategy. You know, last minute swing through Pittsburgh! Ad buy in Kansas City! Forcing Trump to waste resources competing in Texas!
I think in normal times that stuff was mostly bullshit, but in these not normal times it's ridiculous to even try to pretend that these stories mean anything at all. With Covid, all the early voting, having no idea how much Trump and affiliates even have to spend*, and just dozens of reasons this does not resemble a campaign from 2004, nobody knows anything except what the polls say.
*I'm sure the proper answer to this is, "Trump can as spend as much as he wants as long as vendors will accept payment after the fact, because they're all going to be stiffed."
The Only People Who Matter
CNN's @AlisynCamerota: "Hospitals in WI are near capacity. Does that give you any pause about going there and holding a big rally?"
— The Recount (@therecount) October 28, 2020
Trump 2020 Press Sec. Hogan Gidley: “No, it doesn’t … the VP has the best doctors in the world around him." pic.twitter.com/aBRe6IYgCF
Poll Pron
| GEORGIA: PRESIDENT VOTER MODELS | ||||
| Registered voters | High likely turnout | Low likely turnout | ||
| October | ||||
| Trump | 45% | 46% | 48% | |
| Biden | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
| GEORGIA: SENATE VOTER MODELS | ||||
| Regular election | Registered voters | High likely turnout | Low likely turnout | |
| October | ||||
| Perdue (R-i) | 46% | 47% | 48% | |
| Ossoff (D) | 49% | 49% | 49% | |
We're All Posters Now
WASHINGTON (AP) — The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is using her Facebook page to amplify unsubstantiated claims of corruption by Joe Biden.Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, asked her more than 10,000 followers Monday to consider sharing a link focused on alleged corruption by the Democratic nominee for president and his son, Hunter, as well as claims that social media companies are censoring reports about the Bidens.
Iraq'd
They sent the idiot 23-year-old conservatives who were too useless to make it in the conservative movement at home to destroy Iraq, and that same basic set of people (the next generation) is destroying America.
And everyone is busy helping these assholes rehabilitate themselves.
US-UK intervention offered Iraq a better future. Whatever West's mistakes: sectarian war was a choice Iraqis made for themselves.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 6, 2016
Stonks
Starting off to be another fun day!
The CNBC headline is:
Dow drops more than 500 points on fears rising coronavirus cases could slow down economic recoveryAnd while they just make those headlines up... um, yah, you think?
Trumpfest
Our rallies have the best hypothermia!
Not sure if it was "not enough buses," "the buses couldn't get through the traffic," or "lol stiff the bus drivers once we get a video of this thing nothing matters."
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Overheard At The Hipster Coffee Shop
CLEVELAND, Ohio – A grand jury in Cleveland on Tuesday indicted right-wing political hoaxers Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman with felony charges connected to a multi-state robocall campaign that prosecutors say was meant to scare voters in urban areas with large minority populations out of voting by mail in the Nov. 3 presidential election.Wohl, 22, of Irvine, California, and Burman, 54, of Arlington, Virginia, are indicted on eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery in connection with more than 8,000 calls that were placed to residents of Cleveland and East Cleveland.
Still Dyin'
Like many things, it wouldn't be that expensive (or wouldn't have to be) and it wouldn't be that hard, but even aside from Trump, features of our dumb country make even the simple necessary things seem unimaginable. I mean, I can't believe there's some sort of "debate" about whether a hypothetical vaccine would be free for everyone, or just free for some people. Maybe the pulic benefits of government aren't *always* obvious over and above the private benefits, but the benefits of vaccinating everyone as soon as possible are pretty damn obvious! Even the Galt goers should be able to see this!
Our dumb country.
You Could Have Listened To Me
“I find (FSD) terrifying,” said Bill McGuire, who purchased a Tesla Model 3 in early September. He has serious concerns about the technology and the way he feels Tesla is promoting it, telling NBC News he feels "the branding is a lie, or at least a complete contradiction” because it actually can’t be driven without close human supervision.For the moment, Musk said the full self-driving beta release is going out to a “small number of people who are expert and careful” drivers.”
That tweet was four years ago, and it never happened.Tesla expects to demonstrate self-driven cross-country trip next year https://t.co/YTxMUT3hWq via @WSJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2016
Also, too.
"Summons" was supposed to be your parked car driving to you, like it was KITT. I could post stuff like that all day.In ~2 years, summon should work anywhere connected by land & not blocked by borders, eg you're in LA and the car is in NY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2016
There's Always Money For Republicans
The Lincoln Project is building a media business and "weighing offers from different television studios, podcast networks and book publishers." https://t.co/IjRvYT2Uj1
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) October 27, 2020
Day 1375 Of The Trump Administration
"The lying is the story." Never too late!The lying is the story:
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 27, 2020
Trump's "falsehoods are the foundation of his campaign rallies and the connective tissue of the often 90-minute narrative he spins at every stop," @YLindaQiu and @shearm write https://t.co/9ufdK3Omhj
Morning Thread
Monday, October 26, 2020
Crash That Market
1) The powers that be will do almost anything to goose a crashing stock market.
2) When they act to goose the market, they feel a tiny bit obligated to goose the fortunes of the rest of us.
Let it crash. They won't let it stay low for long, and maybe they'll do something useful in response.
Maybe!
Holding Our Breaths
Peak
(CNN)Another day, another dreadful record broken in the Covid-19 pandemic. This time, the seven-day average of daily new cases reached an all-time high of 68,767 on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The previous record of 67,293 was set July 22.Heckuva job, Trumpie.
Racist Failson Distilled
Jared Kushner on Fox News about the black community:
— Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou (@misyrlena) October 26, 2020
"President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about, but he can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful."
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Evening Thread
Plotted
They Weren't Very Bright
The simplest explanation for the Trump administration's pandemic response failures is probably the correct one: they are idiots. Their vaccination plan literally involved mall Santas and elves. This is reporting from the Wall Street Journal: https://t.co/InWtMmvnc9 pic.twitter.com/FqO2vuZzwH
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) October 25, 2020
Head Of The Coronavirus Taskforce
Several members of Vice President Mike Pence’s inner circle, including at least four members of his staff, have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past few days, people briefed on the matter said, raising new questions about the safety protocols at the White House, where masks are not routinely worn.
Hospital Capacity
Ah well.
Just Admitting It
MEADOWS: We're not going to control the pandemic
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2020
TAPPER: Why not?
M: Because it's a contagious virus
T: Why not make efforts to contain it?
M: What we need to do is make sure we have the proper mitigation factors to make sure people don't die pic.twitter.com/0DYgk4rB3T
Morning Thread
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Excellent Point, Sir!
“I think the Senate is tough actually. The Senate is very tough,” Trump said at a fundraiser Thursday at the Nashville Marriott, according to an attendee. “There are a couple senators I can’t really get involved in. I just can’t do it. You lose your soul if you do. I can’t help some of them. I don’t want to help some of them.”Not sure you're right about this one, though, sir, but I'm sure you know best! You always do!
The president — in a sentiment not shared by many of his party’s top officials and strategists — said he instead thinks the Republicans “are going to take back the House.” And many strategists involved in Senate races say the party’s chances at keeping the chamber are undermined by the president’s unscripted, divisive rhetoric and his low poll numbers in key states.
That's My President!
I suppose he believes this, a bit, in a way, that Covid is just a plot against him, because everything is a plot against him, and the same way he managed to conjure caravans of Mexicans who were coming to kill us all, the Democrats and the LAMESTREAM MEDIA have conjured Covid."That's all I hear about now. Turn on TV, 'Covid, Covid, Covid Covid Covid.' A plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don't talk about it. 'Covid Covid Covid Covid.' By the way, on November 4th, you won't hear about it anymore ... 'please don't go and vote, Covid!'" -- Trump pic.twitter.com/1bh7x2RSTy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 24, 2020
Some People Are Kinda Stupid
We all did the penny doubling thing in elementary school, right? You don't actually have to understand fancy equations to get this. And yet...
Yoostabee
(one person calling Cspan, unless it's Cher, is not really newsworthy ever, and certainly not one of an endless parade of "I YOOSTABEE A DEMOCRAT BUT..." callers that have filled the call lines from its inception.)
Morning Thread
Friday, October 23, 2020
Sounds Bad
The United States hit an all-time high Friday in daily new coronavirus cases, surpassing the previous record set during a summer surge of cases across the Sun Belt.Friday’s tally — the first above 80,000 — comes as many states break their records for new infections. The average number of covid-19 hospitalizations has jumped in at least 38 states over the past week, a trend that cannot be explained by more widespread testing, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.
How Did You Find These People
Hi, all. I did not do my due diligence in looking into the backgrounds of two people I interviewed for this story. Making mistakes is agonizing. We fixed the errors as soon as we learned about them. https://t.co/2E9FfLIUEh
— Elaina Plott (@elainaplott) October 23, 2020
There Are None
Why the silence? I hope it is not because Leo runs a very powerful network that puts conservatives on courts and in high positions, and it is fear of what opportunities might disappear if Leo were called out.
— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) October 23, 2020
But his work should be condemned by all principled conservatives. 7/7
Shocked Face
In the wake of protests following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a member of the “Boogaloo Bois” opened fire on Minneapolis Police Third Precinct with an AK-47-style gun and screamed “Justice for Floyd” as he ran away, according to a federal complaint made public Friday.A sworn affidavit by the FBI underlying the complaint reveals new details about a far-right anti-government group’s coordinated role in the violence that roiled through civil unrest over the Floyd’s death while in police custody.
"I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault."
Easy To Get Sucked Into A Thing
Not going to claim to be immune to that type of thing, but I am sensitive to it. I try not to give into the temptation of finding patterns where there are none, or of finding any way possible to get mad at That Fucking Newspaper just because that's a thing I do here on atrios dot blogspot dot com. But, man, sometimes, that fucking newspaper..
Vox Pop
$500K Cash
A 19-year-old man charged with possession of child pornography last September was arrested with a cache of guns and explosive materials, a recent court filing reveals, and investigators discovered that he had allegedly traveled within four miles of former Vice President Joe Biden's home after he had posted a meme online asking, "should I kill joe biden?"...
Officers observed weapons including an AR-15 style rifle, a canister of explosive material, and other ammunition boxes, federal prosecutors said. They also found more than $500,000 as well as several more firearms and "drawings of swastikas and planes crashing into buildings," according to the court filing.
Seems Bad
Breaking: United States reports a single-day record of 77,640 new coronavirus cases Thursday, per NBC News. The previous high was 75,723 on July 29.
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) October 23, 2020
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Foxy
My President Is Very Smart
And I bet he totally would have aced the "What is a pre-existing condition?" question. That one's a toughy!STAHL: What about people with pre-existing conditions?
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 22, 2020
TRUMP: I’ll protect it. Will be totally protected
STAHL: How?
TRUMP: They’ll be protected Lesley
STAHL: How?
TRUMP: I mean the people w/ pre-ex are going to be protected
STAHL: How?
TRUMP: As they are now
STAHL: How?
Where We Are Going
The message is clear: There is no constitutional amendment, no federal statute, no state law, no half-baked legal philosophy, and no federalist principle that will prevent the conservatives on the Court from upholding Republican efforts to sever Democratic constituencies from the franchise. Whether Trump wins or loses in November, they will pursue this agenda in earnest. And with Barrett on the Court, it is unlikely that even Roberts’s rare defections will be an obstacle to them.
Blob'd
The last two decades have revealed the folly of this hubris. With the declaration of its global “war on terror” after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States went abroad in search of monsters and ended up midwifing new ones—from terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (or ISIS), born in the prisons of U.S.-occupied Iraq; to destabilization and deepening sectarianism across the Middle East; to racist authoritarian movements in Europe and in the United States that feed—and feed off of—the fear of refugees fleeing those regional conflicts. Advocates of the war on terror believed that nationalist chauvinism, which sometimes travels under the name “American exceptionalism,” could be stoked at a controlled burn to sustain American hegemony. Instead, and predictably, toxic ultranationalism burned out of control. Today, the greatest security threat to the United States comes not from any terrorist group, or from any great power, but from domestic political dysfunction. The election of Donald Trump as president was a product and accelerant of that dysfunction—but not its cause. The environment for his political rise was prepared over a decade and a half of xenophobic, messianic Washington warmongering, with roots going back into centuries of white supremacist politics.
Gatekeepers
It seems that Jake Tapper no longer treats Fox News as one of his "sister organizations," but he shouldn't have 11 years ago either.
And, no, the "NEWS AND OPINION ARE DIFFERENT!@!@!!@" bullshit is irrelevant here, as it is almost all the time, but especially as there has never been a meaningful difference between the news and opinion side of Murdoch properties.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
Never Going To End
Morning Thread
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Wednesday Evening
Hit'em, Bamz.Obama on Trump: "He's got a secret Chinese bank account. How's that possible? Listen, can you imagine if had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for reelection? You think Fox News might've been a little concerned? They would've called me Beijing Barry." pic.twitter.com/yDzGr4cS5x
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 21, 2020
The Next Two Frames Are
2) My President, UNDERSTANDABLY, storms out at this impudence.
TV journalists too much tend to allow the theater-as-presented to play out, as getting good shots and B-roll always requires a bit of staging ("Now walk down the hall.") Will she really say, "What the fuck??? THE BOOK IS BLANK YOU DUMBASS!!!!"i mean pic.twitter.com/jxezcSF8RK
— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 21, 2020
I'd say it's uncertain if they even highlight that the book is blank (even if it is).
Walls
Fuck That Guy
I don't particuarly *care* that celebrities and similar speak out, in the sense that I don't think their influence necessarily matters, but it's refreshing that at least it isn't controversial to do so.
America's Wanker
In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat’s daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.
She Has A Point
.@IlhanMN responds to the president's criticism: “I would certainly reckon...not only Somalis, but myself, the governor of Michigan, our speaker, all love this country way more than the president, who is not only destroying the presidency but everything this country stands for.” pic.twitter.com/kcaiClS4K1
— The Week with Joshua Johnson (@TheWeekMSNBC) October 19, 2020
The Good Ones
DJ Rove
Washington (CNN)Senior officials throughout various departments and agencies of the Trump administration tell CNN they are alarmed at White House pressure to grant what would essentially be a no-bid contract to lease the Department of Defense's mid-band spectrum -- premium real estate for the booming and lucrative 5G market -- to Rivada Networks, a company in which prominent Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump have investments.Whatever his friends on the TV tell him.The pressure campaign to fast track Rivada's "Request for Proposal" (RFP) by using authorities that would preclude a competitive bidding process intensified in September, and has been led by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was acting at Trump's behest, sources with knowledge tell CNN. To push his case, Meadows has sometimes used as his proxy an individual identified by sources in the telecommunications industry as a top financial management official in the US Army.
Sources tell CNN that Trump was encouraged to help Rivada by Fox News commentator and veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove, a lobbyist for, and investor in, Rivada.At some point we're going to find out that Trump runs a pedophile ring out of the basement of a Trump properties pizza joint called "Meteor Pizza."
Morning Thread
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
How We Got Here
The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to petitioner Bush, and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election. - Antonin Scalia
LIFE IS SO UNFAIR
Especially when the whining isn't about some grand enemy the affects us all (LIBERALS! WOMEN!), but, for example, process complaints about the damn debate rules. Complaining about debate topics and microphone mutes and butt rest sizes and... who is the audience for this?
Hugh Jazz
NY Post's Miranda Devine: Trump's town hall was a "set-up from the start" because they gave him a "tiny" chair that "could barely fit half a buttock, let alone a whole one" pic.twitter.com/zlhmcD6Vpr
— Brendan Karet 🚮 (@bad_takes) October 19, 2020
Nothing But Sparkly Sunshine
That's the best case scenario.
Lunch Thread
Kidding, I Hope.
Pro Fracking Is The Most Popular Policy In America
NYT/Siena likely voter poll on issues
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 20, 2020
National mask mandate? 59% 👍 39% 👎
$2T stimulus? 72% 👍 21% 👎
Obamacare? 55% 👍 40% 👎
Public insurance option? 67% 👍 25% 👎
Fracking? 44% 👍 42% 👎
$2T renewable energy plan? 66% 👍 26% 👎
28% corporate tax rate? 46% 👍 48% 👎
Going For It
It isn't that I expect All This to make them suddenly see the light, but it makes clear that they are quite happy to see the destruction of anything resembling a functioning country. Honestly not even sure what they think they're winning.
It is easier to understand when you see them not as evil geniuses, but as characters in a Coen Brothers movie.
And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well. I just don't understand it.
Monday, October 19, 2020
Nice Try
But The Sacred Norms
This is a stunning opinion. The court holds that voters have *no due process rights at all* when their ballots are rejected, and therefore voters don't need to be given a chance to cure alleged signature mismatches. Their mail ballots can just be tossed out. https://t.co/y9EBBfsuwk
— Daniel Jacobson (@Dan_F_Jacobson) October 19, 2020
Okay Then
Limbaugh's crying about his cancer on air! Worst 15 minutes in radio history! Spilled a large coffee all over counter and floor. I PROMISE MY AUDIENCE THIS- I WILL NOT DRAG YOU DOWN WITH ME! Best wishes RUSH, but stop and leave the stage with dignity.
— Michael Savage (@ASavageNation) October 19, 2020
I Can't Believe I'm Losing To This Guy
(hopefully title is a joke)Trump’s message two weeks out, based on call with staff:
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) October 19, 2020
-Dr. Fauci is a “disaster” who is a “bomb” every time he’s on TV
-Other health officials are “idiots”
-Americans no longer care about the pandemic and just think “whatever”
-News reports are “fake”
Great Moments In White Supremacy
To examine many aspects of American life once broadly seen as race neutral — such as mortgage lending or college faculty hiring — is to find a bedrock of white supremacy.Sometimes to argue with things is to give them too much credit, but redlining and general discrimination in mortage lending wasn't even secret at the time. It was explicit policy!
The implicit "we" in elite journalism is often maddening, but not usually so explicit.
Our Sister Outlet
But of course the real job is to lend credibility to a corrupt enterprise, to continue to lend credibility when, for example, a reporter whose name rhymes with Haggie Maberman moves onto bigger and better things but still can be relied on to promote and defend her prior employer.
One thing that is better now is that there is at least pushback on these things which can't entirely be ignored.
They're Bad People
The Right has had the better amplification machine for decades, and every journalist knows this, so they can always squeal more loudly on any given issue of the day. Yes it's always true that "Democrats need to play the game better," but also always important to ask, "why, exactly, are these the rules of The Game and why, exactly, is it completely reasonable to call it, 'a game'?"
Anyway, I've been repeating myself on these issues on this dumb blog for EIGHTEEN YEARS NOW. It gets a bit monotonous, I realize, and in some ways thing are genuinely better than they used to be. And yet...
Sunday, October 18, 2020
It Can Keep Going Up
The Upper Midwest and Sturgis, likely America's largest superspreader event
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) October 18, 2020
870 infections per million people in ND is an unprecedented peak in the US pandemic and around the world (2nd is SD/Czech Republic, currently 740) 2/ pic.twitter.com/3EN7dL2Kyj
Freedum
Saturday, October 17, 2020
Saturday Happy Hour
Rock on.You should wear a t-shirt that says “My dad wants to fuck my sister.” https://t.co/yK6gF0aYM2
— Richard Marx (@richardmarx) October 17, 2020
Sounds Bad
In an initial report about long-term COVID-19, Britain’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) said one common theme among ongoing COVID patients - some of whom are seven months or more into their illness - is that symptoms appear in one physiological area, such as the heart or lungs, only to abate and then arise again in a different area. “This review highlights the detrimental physical and psychological impact that ongoing COVID is having on many people’s lives,” said Dr Elaine Maxwell, who led the report.
FUNDRAISING TOO FAST TOO FURIOUS THE FINAL
Saturday Morning
George Bush's approval went into the low 20s! I've commented on that recently and had people mis-remember that was the financial crisis. No! Way before that!!!
Friday, October 16, 2020
They'll Be Fine
“Quiet conversations in Gmail are more active now than would be expected a month before an election,” said a senior Republican strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations. “I have a buddy in the administration who is starting to quietly move his resume around, and he’s noticed people who he thought would be quicker to respond to inquiries have been less so. He called it ‘the Trump stink. How much Trump stink is on my resume right now?'”
Normal Life
Still seeing people going about their lives as if nothing is really happening is always a bit jarring. Rooms filled with maskless people. Again, I'm not even being judgmental. It's just, "whoa."
Up Up And Away
But the evidence that most of them believe their own bullshit and/or are happy for the great culling to just take their people to the Good Place is pretty strong. What's going on in South Dakota is...bad.
Left to mayors to just beg.
The mayors of South Dakota's largest cities have written an open letter to the citizens of the state, asking that they do their part to stop the spread of COVID-19. The letter, signed by 16 mayors including Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken and released through the South Dakota Municipal League, says they "have come together to bring you a united message concerning the COVID pandemic in our state."Absent is the sociopathic governor.
Cars In A Tunnel
Fire regulations peg the occupant capacity in the load and unload zones of one of the Loop’s three stations at just 800 passengers an hour. If the other stations have similar limitations, the system might only be able to transport 1,200 people an hour — around a quarter of its promised capacity.Muskies will claim it's just a demonstration system, that when you build 400 more tunnels, or whatever, then the capacity goes up, but bottlenecks are bottlenecks and one of those bottlenecks is simply "how long does it take a few people to climb into an automobile." The capacity of a heavy rail subway system is of course way larger than that, but a "fairer" comparison is perhaps with a standard airport people mover. They aren't all the same, but 3-4,000 passengers each way is a fair number. Easier boarding, too, especially with a bag.
WHO WON THE TRUMP BIDEN RATINGS BATTLE
Offense
Don't Complain, Europe Is A Mess Too
The ranking of these reasons changes, but the basic issues are everywhere. Much of Europe had more reason to claim premature victory, but nonetheless it was premature.
Got My Vote
As of the last 48 hours, the Trump re-election platform is:
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) October 16, 2020
▪️ Mr. Rogers sucks
▪️ I'm annoyed local TV covers severe weather but not a foreign politician talking about me
▪️ there might be a Satanic pedophile cult, haven't found it yet
▪️ I ordered US Marshals to murder someone
Morning Thread
Profiles in courage!
Our media elites can't WAIT to find their new GOP Daddy.
This is how it works.Is this the reconstitution of the G.O.P? https://t.co/eEtYMcnfEk
— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) October 16, 2020
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Can't Stop Posting
And There Are No "Good Republicans" Who Care
Yes there’s a lot going on, but here’s the president saying he successfully ordered a murder executed by US Marshals. https://t.co/HTJeUqspJT
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 15, 2020
Gyms
A spin studio that public health officials say followed all Covid-19 protocols is now reporting 61 positive cases of Covid-19, and as many as 100 staff, clients and family members may have been exposed.Maybe appropriately distanced weights, but spin class?
Freedom_USA_88
In the days leading up to October 14 (a Wednesday), an account on TheDonald.win called “Freedom_USA_88” had repeatedly posted threads that claimed that a “massive” story about Biden was coming out that day.(H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, 88 stands for Heil Hitler, for those of you uncursed by knowledge like this)
Sensible Centrists
Our Elites Were Addle-Brained Long Before Fox Came Along
The standards of the Wall Street Journal‘s news content and its editorial content are radically different because the mostly affluent people who pay to read it are fine with bullshit in political punditry but actually want the news (especially the business news) to be accurate.It's the basic observation people have made for decades, but with the assumption (both pre- and post-Murdoch WSJ, it was a trash fire before he bought it) that the opinion section was just some weird nonsense that Very Savvy Rich Well-Educated People Who Read The Financial News tolerated.
True for some, perhaps. True for the kinds of liberalish people who read the WSJ for news and chuckled at the opinion pages. But the Masters Of The Universe are not all so discerning. The love their right wing media too, and have been getting it right into the veins from the respectable Wall Street Journal for decades.
It's ancient history now, but the WSJ opinion pages during the Clinton years were barely different from the kinds of gibberish you get from Fox and OANN now. It was wrong to assume those highest advertising dollar target consumers were not nodding along in agreement, or that many other respectable media figures weren't as well.
FUNDRAISING NOTSOFUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY 5
My way around that is that I promise nothing!
I kid, but what you see is what you get.
Anyway, relative to the amount of grift in politics - I'm looking at you, Lincoln Project - mine is tiny. So, consider a tip!
Thanks to all!
Monsters
But hours earlier, senior members of the president’s economic team, privately addressing board members of the conservative Hoover Institution, were less confident. Tomas J. Philipson, a senior economic adviser to the president, told the group he could not yet estimate the effects of the virus on the American economy. To some in the group, the implication was that an outbreak could prove worse than Mr. Philipson and other Trump administration advisers were signaling in public at the time.The next day, board members — many of them Republican donors — got another taste of government uncertainty from Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council. Hours after he had boasted on CNBC that the virus was contained in the United States and “it’s pretty close to airtight,” Mr. Kudlow delivered a more ambiguous private message. He asserted that the virus was “contained in the U.S., to date, but now we just don’t know,” according to a document describing the sessions obtained by The New York Times.
The document, written by a hedge fund consultant who attended the three-day gathering of Hoover’s board, was stark. “What struck me,” the consultant wrote, was that nearly every official he heard from raised the virus “as a point of concern, totally unprovoked.”
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
Predictions are hard, especially about the future, but it's only gonna get worse in the coming months...
Thursday Morning
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Brain Geniuses
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Tuesday blamed South Dakota’s recent surge in coronavirus cases on an increase in testing, even as the state saw a new high in the number of people hospitalized by the virus.Of course there is some relationship between the number of tests and the number of recorded cases, but not so much (at least now) with hospitalizations.There are currently no open general-care hospital beds in the southeastern part of the state, which contains the two largest hospitals, according to the Department of Health. Hospitals are dealing with both an increase in COVID-19 patients and people needing other medical care. The hospitals in Sioux Falls do have about 41% of their Intensive Care Units available.
And with a 20% positivity rate, they aren't testing nearly enough.
Poll Pron
GEORGIA: Biden 51%, Trump 44%
OHIO: Biden 48%, Trump 47%
GEORGIA SENATE: Ossoff 51%, Perdue 45%
GEORGIA SENATE: Warnock 41%, Collins 22%, Loeffler 20%
Nothing Can Get Maggie Off Her Bullshit
I shouldn't be surprised. Maybe I'm not surprised. I've seen so many waves of important events followed by important reporters in no way getting off their bullshit.
It's still depressing.
That Fucking Newspaper
The New York Post is a garabge outlet, of course, but it's a useful way to get things into more mainstream coverage and first thing this morning, Maggie Haberman was retweeting that shit as much as anything had been retweeted before.
Only a bit later did she pretend she was being very skeptical of the story she had not shown any skepticism about, because she thought happy days were finally here again.“...both the computer and hard drive were seized by the FBI in December, after the shop’s owner says he alerted the feds to their existence.” https://t.co/VggHCJKKI9
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 14, 2020
Reader, there was no questioning.I'm sorry that you can't see my questioning the idea that the FBI is involved as "amplifying' this. Or that you're ignoring subsequent tweets. But it is what happens on this website.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 14, 2020
An issue for years has been that almost any horseshit jumps from the right wing fever swamps to the more resecptable news outlets. It's actually been a bit better in recent years, now that Matt Drudge No Longer Rules their World, but there's Maggie eagerly awaiting anything that comes to her from her old newspaper.
That Boy Ain't Right
Lindsey Graham to ACB: "You're not aware of any effort to go back to the good old days of segregation by a legislative body, is that correct?" pic.twitter.com/Ioj7GEfoFw
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 14, 2020
Optimism
Going For The Villages Vote
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020
Morning Thread
Rules are for other people.Asked by Kamala Harris if she were aware — before she got the nomination — of Trump’s vows to choose a Supreme Court nominee who would strike down the ACA, Amy Coney Barrett said: “I don’t recall seeing or hearing those statements.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 13, 2020
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
There Are Two Types Of People In America
What is the point of membership if it doesn't have its privileges? And what are privileges, but things denied to you?
The Best President America Will Ever Have
"He literally wants to take your cars away" the president says of Joe Biden.
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) October 11, 2020
Poll Pron
National Poll:
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) October 13, 2020
Biden 57% (+17)
Trump 40%
Opinium
(LV, 10/8-10/12)
Court Reform
FUNDRAISING NOTSOFUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY 3
The "walled garden" days of the pre-internet, of AOL and similar, is returning. Google is a bit more subtle about it, but increasingly their "internet search engine" is structured so that you never leave google.
A difficulty with blogging, a format which was always conversational, these days is there just isn't much to link to anymore. I don't like embedding tweets, but I do it more and more because that's where the linkable conversation exists now, along with breaking news or free-to-link news at all.
Internet advertising was never everyone's favorite thing, but to some degree the open internet did float on top of it, and they fade together.
Yay to everyone who manages to find subscription models that work - email newsletters are the latest - but everything that is effectively unlinkable moves us a bit further away from that open internet.
Only tangentially related to fundraising for this site, but it's stuff I think about when I do.
Thanks to all!What Went Wrong
And so I think that if we’re able to get the public health under control that normality will return more quickly than it does after financial crises or normal recessions, but I’m not sure of that.
That's Summers in the Vanity Fair interview where he gives the "Cape Code in winter" quote. The financial crisis was the easiest damn thing in the world to fix. The people responsible for fixing it instead gave us the Great Recession and then spent years telling each other what geniuses they were.
Cape Cod In Winter
thank you. @LHSummers! happy to see you to back off your ‘Cape Cod in the winter’ take ... too bad it’s months after CARES Act https://t.co/FqdTniW4cp
— Claudia Sahm GET MORE MONEY OUT (@Claudia_Sahm) October 13, 2020
On this particular issue - how to rescue the economy from a recession - the costs of doing way too much are trivial compared to the costs of doing not enough, and yet that is where they go every time. Summers wasn't against doing something, but the immediate happy talk after doing it helped to dampen enthusiasm for CARES or anything similar. And here we are.I have the optimistic guess-but it’s only an optimistic guess-that the recovery can be faster than many expect b it has the character of the recovery from the depression that hits a Cape Cod economy every winter or recovery in American GDP that takes place every Monday morning.
— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) April 3, 2020
Tuesday Morning
Monday, October 12, 2020
The Winter Of Our Discontent
And then I started thinking about the Steinbeck novel, from which I stole quotes for the post titles today. I haven't read it in..let's say 25 years... but I guess it stuck in my brain the way some books do. Various themes, but one is coping with living in a world where you gotta be a scammer to get ahead, or even just to tread water, despite what you were taught, and realizing the next generation learned that lesson early.
The Only Punishment Is For Failure
If You Want To Keep A Friend, Never Test Him
Sen. Booker: presumably any Senator that wants to get tested, can. I did last week. Go for it.
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) October 12, 2020
Grab Anything That Goes By. It May Not Come Around Again.
That Only Leaves Them Three Per Cent For The Future.
There are moments when the people who have ruled us for a very long time have responsibilities. And, welp...
