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Rick Perlstein is out with another interesting piece in the American Prospect today, this time about “undecided voters.” He references the great Chris Hayes piece from 2004 that I’ve often discussed over the years. It had the same effect on me that it had on Perlstein who describes it as “the most important piece of political journalism I have ever encountered.” As he says: The future MSNBC host’s TNR piece was an account of the lessons he learned canvassing among undecided voters in Wisconsin for John Kerry. It incinerates a basic foundation of how political junkies think: “Perhaps the greatest myth about undecided voters is that they are undecided because of the ‘issues.’ That is, while they might favor Kerry on the economy, they favor Bush on terrorism; or while they are anti-gay marriage, they also support social welfare programs.” Chris noted that while there were a few people he talked to like that, “such cases were exceedingly rare.

North Carolina was once a climate leader, but more than a decade of Republican and corporate obstruction left the state ill-prepared for the historic disaster.

The Opposition’s shadow minister for home and foreign affairs, Barnaby Joyce, has called on the Government to look into the issue of shrinkflation. Namely the shrinkflation he gets whilst swimming. ”Albo’s keen to get out their and tackle shrinkflation, fair... Read More ›

Some go gently into the night. Others die in freak accidents or deadly invasions, or after a showy display.

The post Your Cells Are Dying. All The Time. appeared first on Nautilus.

A reader friend by the name of Sean Kelly, a scientist, seeing me flail about trying to deal with polling, offered this explanation and agreed to let me share it with you in case you are feeling the same way. It cleared a few things up for me: So. Political polling. It is basically experts making data informed guesses, and the reported margins of error are pretty much meaningless in context. Experts making informed guesses are a useful thing, and the best realistic option, but poll results are not scientifically rigorous things. Let me explain some of that context. The reality of political polling usually involves people that answer their phone when the call is from an unknown number. That skews the sample to older people, as many people avoid scammers and random sales people by not answering calls by unknown numbers. Older people grew up in a society where avoiding callers was impolite, so are more likely to pick up – not certain, but more likely. Alternatively, a small army of people can buttonhole people on the street, but that skews the poll to shoppers or business people that are out on the street.

Users of Meta’s platforms could see posts taken offline if they include the upside-down red triangle symbol.

The post Facebook and Instagram Restrict the Use of the Red Triangle Emoji Over Hamas Association appeared first on The Intercept.

Representative Mike Collins posted this “perfected” image of JD Vance on his Twitter feed yesterday: Uhm, no: Is this Collins’s fantasy? Vance isn’t hot enough for him as he is? What? And they wonder why people think they’re weird.

Greg Sheridan is doubtless now too long in the tooth to change his journalistic ways. But it really is time that he recognised the force of that immortal observation by Shakespeare’s contemporary, Francis Bacon, that ‘Speaking in perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love’. No Sheridan article seems complete without some person or policy Continue reading »

I thought this was a BS way to frame the abortion issue last night and because of the rule that the moderators could not fact check Vance’s lies (or even their own questions!) Walz had to just repeat over and over again that it wasn’t true. As TNR reports: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was asked to respond to Donald Trump’s outlandish abortion talking point during the vice presidential debate Tuesday. “Former President Trump said in the last debate that you believe that abortion ‘in the ninth month is absolutely fine.’ Yes or no, is that what you support?” asked CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell. “That’s not what the bill says, but look, this issue is what’s on everyone’s mind,” Walz replied, explaining that Trump had made way to destroy national protections for abortion. During the presidential debate last month, Trump had claimed that Walz supported abortion in the ninth month—and after. Trump claimed that Walz “also says, ‘Execution after birth’—execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born—is OK.

“The simple fact is that the housing crisis lies squarely at the feet of the malevolence of developers just like Donald Trump himself.”

The post J.D. Vance Blamed Immigrants for the Housing Crisis. Corporate Greed Is the Real Culprit. appeared first on The Intercept.

I just wanted to check in to give people an update from Tom Sullivan. He’s doing fine. He’s staying at a friend’s house and power came on last night. His own house is still out. They still have no water and are having to bring it in from a creek nearby for flushing and bathing. WiFi is sporadic. However, there does seem to be a lot of services flowing and local businesses are coming to the rescue with free water and supplies to keep things going. Some grocery stores are open and Jose Andres is in town, so the townsfolk even have some good eats. The airport is letting in some flights but it’s erratic. Lots of helicopters, fire trucks and other rescue vehicles have been going night and day. Lots of people are still missing. I haven’t had the heart to even ask him about the prospects for the election in his area. I’m not all that hopeful, I’m sorry to say. Asheville is one of the blue cities the Democrats were depending on… But we’ll see. You can be sure if there’s a way to get people out to vote, Tom will be there working to see that it gets done.

1. Open the event with some pleasantries, perhaps a quick lighting of the holiday candles. Feel free to say a few blessings. A quick note: This will be the only time you should NOT bring up 1999’s soup-to-nuts, flawless film Blue Streak, starring Martin Lawrence at the absolute pinnacle of his movie stardom.

2. Despite the joyous get-together, it’s now time for one of your relatives to discuss the most morbid event of the past year. Stay poised as it is nearly the moment to lament how so few films nowadays can duplicate Blue Streak’s brisk but enjoyable ninety-three-minute run time.

3. Just as Uncle Kenny says, “Speaking of anniversaries,” you interrupt, marveling at how it’s been twenty-five years since you first saw a certain two-hander starring Martin Lawrence and Luke Wilson at the White Flint Mall Cineplex in Bethesda, Maryland.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is being urged to borrow to invest amid claims that billions of pounds in cuts to investment is planned

The army is set to launch an inquiry into the behaviour of British troops posted to the British Army Training Unit Kenya where Agnes Wanjiru was found dead in 2012