Reading

Created
Wed, 23/10/2024 - 07:30
Those two quotes are correct. The first, the second. I share this after having watched a bunch of evangelicals drool all over Trump as if he’s the second coming and I’m reminded that we don’t have to listen to the Christian Right about morality ever again. There was a time when they’d be trotted out as the avatar of Real American values. No more. They showed themselves to be simply lackeys for a demagogic cult leader. I don’t think we have to have any doubt WJWD.
Created
Wed, 23/10/2024 - 06:00
Elon Musk and Charlie Kirk taking over the Trump field operations may be one of the worst decisions he’s made and that’s saying something: Donald Trump’s ground game in Arizona and Nevada may be undercut by canvassers working for America Pac using GPS spoofing to pretend they have knocked on doors when they haven’t, according to multiple people familiar with the practice and a leaked how-to-fake-location video. The ramifications for Trump may be far reaching, given America Pac has taken on the bulk of the Trump campaign’s ground game in the battleground states, and the election increasingly appears set to be decided by turnout. A bootleg how-to-spoof video, made by an America Pac canvasser in Nevada and obtained by the Guardian, shows the apparent ease with which locations can be changed to fake door-knocks, calling into question how many Trump voters have actually been reached by the field operation.
Created
Wed, 23/10/2024 - 05:00
One of Obama’s top strategy and data guys, Patrick Dillon, has written a statement today that I think you may want to read. It’s not just phony Hopium, it’s based on educated analysis, experience and possibly some inside knowledge. Anyway, I don’t know if this will be real or not and he admits he doesn’t know either. But this is his best guess. An excerpt: My texts are full these days of “are we gonna be okay?” and, then, a beat later, “are you really sure?” Over and over, my answers are basically “yes” and “as sure as I can be.” I also used to get paid to make big presentations this time of year to tell clients what was going on and what might happen. That process forced me to be rigorous in assessing every bit of data I could lay my hands on, and keep myself honest. That said, I’m no Nate (neither Silver nor Cohn.)3 I still believe at the end of the day campaigns are more art than science. Call it 51% gut / 49% data.
Created
Wed, 23/10/2024 - 04:00

My nephew told me he was getting into punk music and played me some stuff from this guy Machine Gun Kelly. I couldn’t help but laugh and roll my eyes. What these kids today call “punk” is embarrassing. It’s time they learn what real punk is from someone who was there when it happened.

I was there when Yellowcard opened for Good Charlotte. I was there when American Hi-Fi released an iTunes-exclusive EP. I was there when SR-71’s “Right Now” was in the Harold and Kumar… trailer. I was also there when SR-71’s “Right Now” was in the Old School trailer. Hell, I was even there when SR-71’s “Right Now” was in the Dude, Where’s My Car? trailer.

You think you’re punk because you’ve got a leather jacket and some chains? A leather jacket doesn’t make you punk. A powder-blue T-shirt that’s one size too small and a pair of brown corduroy pants does.

Oh, what’s that? You also like the new Blink-182 album? Yeah, I’m real impressed. If Blink-182 is still punk, then why haven’t they won a Kid’s Choice Award since 2001?

Created
Wed, 23/10/2024 - 03:00
I’m staying away form the horserace polls. But some of the other questins are interesting. Like this one: “Voters who made their decision on who to support over a month ago break for Trump, 52-48%, while voters who made up their mind in the last month or week break for Harris, 60-36%.” Voters who say they could still change mind? Harris +5 I don’t know if that’s meaningful. I can’t imagine why so many people haven’t been sure that they would vote for a fetid pile of garbage over Donald Trump. But if they’re coming around, that’s good news.
Created
Wed, 23/10/2024 - 01:30
Is the Harris-Cheney teamup unnerving the Trump campaign? Former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin wonders if the Kamala Harris / Liz Cheney teamup is working against Donald Trump. Griffin reminds CNN viewers that as many as 20 percent of voters voted for Nikki Haley in Republican primaries even after she dropped out. The fact that Trump is still insulting her instead of reaching out to Haley voters is not the way to win them over. Team Trump is going after Cheney as well. But that’s because “Donald Trump is going to do Donald Trump,” says Republican stragetgist Erin Perrine. Whatever comes out of his mind (mouth) is his strategy. That is, if it’s not to simply flood the zone with crazy, Griffin adds. Anything to distract from his claims about using the U.S. military against U.S. citizens. Many voters are shrugging it off as Trump being Trump. But deploying the military against Americans is also the crazy coming out of Trump’s mouth. So if crazy is a distraction strategy, Trump lacks the self-discipline to adhere to it. Cheney, meanwhile, gets to say things Harris the candidate cannot, and from the same stage in joint events with Harris.
Created
Wed, 23/10/2024 - 00:31

“War is not healthy for children and other living things,” reads a poster titled “Primer” created by the late artist Lorraine Schneider for an art show at New York’s Pratt Institute in 1965. Printed in childlike lowercase letters, the words interspersed between the leaves of a simply rendered sunflower, it was an early response to America’s war in Vietnam. “She just wanted to make something that nobody could argue with,” recalled Schneider’s youngest daughter, Elisa Kleven, in an article published earlier this year. Six decades later, Schneider’s hypothesis has consistently been borne out. According to Save the Children, about 468 million children — about one of every six young people on this planet — live in areas affected by armed... Read more