"Will you shut up, man?" US Politics October 2020

i will do same job for 1.5 million and will throw in a WAP parody

Give me $2.5 million and I won't do a WAP parody

Look, just give me $4 million and I won't do anything. $5 million. $6 million, my final offer.

If those Act Blue fundraising numbers are any indication it sounds like there is plenty of money to go around right now, or at least the traditional Dems are not lacking it.

Anyway, I'd post mean things about Trump for the promise of fast food gift certificates.

these dueling town halls...i am flabbergasted.

i feel like this is an obvious point that i haven't seen elsewhere: the purposes of the debates/town halls are to win over voters, right? any candidate would want to speak to the maximum number of potential voters/viewing audience, right? and a candidate would be especially interested in winning over voters that are leaning toward the other candidate, or whoever the fuck is "undecided", right? so whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy would the trump campaign/nbc schedule it at the same time as biden??

it really is just about scheduling them at the same time so that trump can get higher ratings and "win", despite it resulting in both candidates speaking directly to their own followers.

Any dumb + meaningless metric that gives him a false sense of overconfidence, I guess.

9 out of 10 dogs bark their heads off for Trump!

debates are archaic and have long outgrown their use and just exist as empty political theater because it's tradition and people still need to believe in our stupid process

i know it's asking a lot, but i would just like to see a single piece of news that bothers to mention that by scheduling them at the same exact time, they completely defeat the purpose of the event.

i mean, it's an own goal, too, for trump. he's way behind. he's the one that needs to change the dynamics, or whatever. he's shooting himself in the foot as usual

i don't think debates are archaic, and i don't think they ever will be. debate is foundational to democracy.

the way we do debates NOW is completely useless, i agree.

Wait, these obvious grifters are grifting? I'm shocked.

so whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy would the trump campaign/nbc schedule it at the same time as biden??

because the President of the United States understands one thing and one thing only: TV ratings. if he can beat Biden in the ratings, he'll feel like he's winning the race.

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S05E15/895510.jpg?b64lines=SSBET04nVCBLTk9XLiBBTEwgVEhJUwpFUVVJUE1FTlQgSVMgSlVTVCBVU0VEIFRPCk1FQVNVUkUgVFYgUkFUSU5HUy4=

19 days to go

... until we start the count up on 'american election held hostage'

meanwhile, behind closed doors, conservative power brokers take a hard look at reality:

Videos provided to The Post — covering dozens of hours of CNP meetings over three days in February and three in August — offer an inside view of participants’ obsessions and fears at a pivotal moment in the conservative movement. The videos, recorded by CNP to share with its members, show influential activists discussing election tactics, amplifying conspiracy theories and describing much of America in dark and apocalyptic terms.

“This is a spiritual battle we are in. This is good versus evil,” CNP’s executive committee president, Bill Walton, said on Aug. 21, addressing attendees at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City. “We have to do everything we can to win.”

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told attendees that same day that the left is “war-gaming” a plan to delay the election tally until Jan. 20, 2021, and enable House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to become acting president. “This is kind of like crazy talk” among political people, Fitton said. But he added: “This is not an insignificant concern.”

Expressing concern about voter fraud and disenfranchisement, Fitton called on the audience to find a way to prevent mail-in ballots from being sent to voters. “We need to stop those ballots from going out, and I want the lawyers here to tell us what to do,” said Fitton, whose organization is a tax-exempt charity. “But this is a crisis that we’re not prepared for. I mean, our side is not prepared for.”

In an interview with The Post, Fitton elaborated on his remarks. “The left has war-gamed this out,” Fitton said. “And it could cause civil war.”

Brent Bozell, a CNP executive committee member and founder of the Media Research Center, another tax-exempt charity, told attendees at one of the August sessions that he believes the left plans to “steal this election.”

“And if they get away with that, what happens?” he said. “Democracy is finished because they usher in totalitarianism.”

(CNP = council for national policy)

Brent Bozell, still alive?!

In a manner of speaking...

Pence has whooped both of the Democrats he’s debating tonight.

— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) October 8, 2020

Xp - If we could harness the power of the cognitive dissonance in that room we'd be at zero carbon in no time

The Democrats have war gamed the strategy of getting more votes, shameful really

it's part of a longer article, an attempted exposé of sorts by the WashPost, but nothing really surprising. still, i am always amazed at how i'm capable of hating Charlie Kirk EVEN MORE, every time i heard from him

As the presidential campaign entered its final stages, a fresh-faced Republican activist named Charlie Kirk stepped into the spotlight at a closed-door gathering of leading conservatives and shared his delight about an impact of the coronavirus pandemic: the disruption of America’s universities. So many campuses had closed, he said, that up to a half-million left-leaning students probably would not vote.

“So, please keep the campuses closed,” Kirk, 26, said in August as the audience cheered, according to video of the event obtained by The Washington Post. “Like, it’s a great thing.”

i can't embed the video here, but it's disgusting to look at his face as he says the words, and even before he gets the sentence out, the whole room is exploding in applause for him

CNP’s executive committee president, Bill Walton

Man, he contains multitudes

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn1.bloguin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F94%2F2012%2F05%2Fbill-walton.png&f=1&nofb=1

“We need to stop those ballots from going out, and I want the lawyers here to tell us what to do..."

Too late bro.

what is their basis for thinking closing college campuses will result in less voting? usually it's harder for college students to vote on campus because they tend to be registered in their home states. seems like COVID will increase college student turnout in 2020 since they'll be home.

Was gonna say the exact same thing.

True but they won't see any Che Guevara posters at home.

4D chess fellas

In my experience, it's harder to score weed when you're staying with your parents. So, advantage Trump.

...said Fitton, whose organization is a tax-exempt charity.

nice dig there from the reporter.

xp
And there'll be no professors indoctrinating them into Marxism.

except via Zoom

Look, I'm still trying my hardest, but it's hard doing proper indoctrination through Zoom, okay?

my students barely need indoctrinating at this point, 2020 has really landed hard for them i think

xpost It worked in 1984.

wtf is this shit

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-13/california-gop-defends-unofficial-ballot-boxes

Okay so conservatives are living in a full-blown fantasy land even behind the scenes. To the extent that it doesn't manifest as violence, I highly promote this course of events. Please, get all tin-hatty about smart (and, in a fashion that's foreign to you, above-board) election strategy. That should work out very well for you.

Per the Election Project site, over 14 million votes now cast; this equates to 10% of the total votes in 2016. (Overall electorate is around 200 million -- given that 10 million was hit by Monday evening, looks like we're well on track to see 20 million votes by Friday and thus 10% of said overall electorate.)

damn

wtf is this shit

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-13/california-gop-defends-unofficial-ballot-boxes

discussed upthread. may or may not be legal, but definitely extremely stupid and likely to result in missing GOP votes.

xpost It worked in 1984.

1984 paired the zoom indoctrination with covid-unfriendly mass gatherings as well, though

Interestingly, Florida is the overall early vote leader in terms of numbers, at a little under 2 million. Michigan, California and New Jersey are next after that with numbers in the low 1 to 1.2 million.

A reminder, though, that early voting starts next week in the State with the Prettiest Name, and we're apt to see GOP turnout perhaps match Dem.

Delaware?

Idaho?

Guam, obviously.

(Early voting total in 2016 was 47 million, as I might have mentioned upthread somewhere. The question is not whether early voting this year will top that -- that was always in the cards thanks to the switch to remote voting due to COVID -- but by how much. If, as is possible, the numbers increase by 5 million every two days, as seems to be happening here -- if it breaks 15 million by tonight then that will compare to being over 10 million on Monday evening -- then possibly we're talking 60 million by election day itself, being conservative -- well over a fourth and approaching almost a third of the total electorate, regardless if they vote or not. How much of that amount will be as a percentage in terms of the actual total voters we won't know until it's over.)

If Biden wins, Puerto Rico.

I like a nice rich port.

replace star spangled banner with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2QShLN_lSY

early voting on its own tells you that turnout is going to be high. it doesn't tell you anything about who is going to win the election when all the votes are in.

I thought everyone, including Republicans, were in agreement that higher turnout is bad for Republicans.