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

Op-ed pages are garbage dumps in every newspaper.

*prepares NYT editorial pitch on Alfred’s post, completely misreading it* “It can be said that editorials are the compost of opinion, allowing it to grow.”

The bravery:

Scoop w/ @ErinatThePost: Turned off by President Trump, Maryland’s GOP governor Larry Hogan casts write-in vote for Ronald Reagan... https://t.co/U36tp4WXEz

— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 16, 2020

gov. larry hogan, welcome to the #resistance

source: I grew up in flyover country and the NY Post was much more likely to be found lying around coffee shops (of the early morning blue collar type) and diners than the Times, if any out of town or state newspapers were to be found.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, October 16, 2020 8:58 AM

this sounds like flyover country that was close to a city! not sure i've ever seen a NYT in a morning/all-nite restaurant.

the standard set-up, iirc is:

- local newspaper (100% chance)
- tidbits (50% chance)
- USA today (25% chance)
- a short-lived "only positive news!" venture (5%)

or a NY Post, especially

My dad's hometown newspaper op-ed is basically a real-life Ed Anger, it is a wonder to behold

xp ronald fucking reagan, lol. seriously, how do these people grow up and get elected to be the governor of a state? ronald fucking reagan? imagine having a friend who would seriously suggest voting for ronald reagan and how bizarre that would be

The lowest of stakes and importance but I'm still amused that two years ago Avenatti was a chief newsmaker/hyper of the year and Scaramucci a seeming flash in the pan joke even by joke standards, and now Avenatti's out of sight, out of mind and buried in endless bad decisions and verdicts and Scaramucci can deservedly troll the president for things he's literally saying this morning:

Nice to be inside what is ever left of your vacuous melon. Stop projecting! Where is the donor money? Fool me once.
We all know it was a catastrophic
year. 4 yrs.

But it’s all going to be over soon! You will be low life losing on Nov 3. Then America can move on and heal. https://t.co/K2UU49gxxI

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 16, 2020

Wait, is Reagan even running?!

I'm talking central Illinois, for the most part, specifically small towns outside of the cities. With I-55 connecting St. Louis to Chicago that may have had something to do with it. No all-nite anything around there, but the early morning farmer's crew's favorite haunts always seemed to have this breakdown:

always - Bloomington-Normal Pantagraph and the used car/tractor sales rags
usually (~75% of the time) - Chicago Tribune (tho always had the Sunday edition), NY Post
rarely (~15% of the time) - Sun-Times
almost never - Wall Street Journal, NY Times (maybe the WaPo, but I never remember seeing it)

Places in Bloomington-Normal or Champaign proper had a better mix, but I didn't hang around any of those places until college.

Remember when the Chicago Tribune endorsed Gary Johnson? What a bunch of assholes.

Time to start a zombie Reagan wins election containment thread?

fwiw if you live in New York, your bodegas and "coffee shop" style diners also have the option of the Daily News which is the mainstream Dem-leaning tabloid, similarly read primarily for sports coverage and inventive headlines. There's also the Spanish-language El Diario. So I see the Post front page, sometimes, but probably there are fewer people in NYC taking its "Hunter Biden" "laptop" "story" seriously than there are in Idaho.

Does it say in the Constitution that the president has to be alive? I ask that as an originalist.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PleasedMelodicIcterinewarbler-size_restricted.gif

somewhere between a Bill Plympton and a Karl Malone

ha, i wish!

Not sure about other markets, but the Biden town hall beat Trump in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market ratings (10.5 to 8.1).

You laugh to see it

“Stepien's critics say he is in CYA mode, refusing to make tough decisions that might incur Trump's wrath while setting up excuses for what polls suggest could be a shellacking by Joe Biden.” https://t.co/aysv5lt9Oe

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) October 16, 2020

So the ratings I've seen have been NBC vs ABC, but I assume that means MSNBC and CNBC are not getting factored in though, right?

Ah, truly the talk of confidence:

In internal conversations, Stepien and other senior officials often use the word "optionality" to describe the decision to keep dabbling in every Rust Belt battleground and preserve multiple paths to 270.

we have to keep all the optionalities on the table

What a charming fellow Stepien appears to be!

A friend of mine went to high school in NJ with Stepien.
She says that she always remembered him because he singled out one girl for vicious ongoing anti-Semitic verbal abuse.

— Padraig O Mearain (@PMearain) October 16, 2020

Keith Moon owns the Go To The Mirror

They should give Trump a literal shellacking. Like, coat him in insect resin.

This is INCREDIBLE

Judge Reggie Walton: I think when a president makes an unambiguous statement that he was declassifying information I don't think anything more is required. He clearly has indicated intent.

Walton wants WH counsel to speak to Trump about his tweets/intent https://t.co/yWZchZCZX2

— Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) October 16, 2020

Oh, and:

SIREN! The Biden Town Hall on ABC drew 2.3 million more viewers than the Trump town hall on NBC. There is nothing @realDonaldTrump cares about more than ratings. https://t.co/03OMGhEVLM

— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) October 16, 2020

So the ratings I've seen have been NBC vs ABC, but I assume that means MSNBC and CNBC are not getting factored in though, right?

Just the NBC numbers here. And as that Variety article points out, preliminary ratings.

Still, the idea that Trump didn't absolutely cream Biden in the ratings is just chef's kiss, no matter how it's sliced.

Fake views. They buy thousands of TVs, hundreds - and just turn them on, walk out of the room.

Given the states that are going to count quickly, It’s basically impossible for Trump to get enough good news on election night for the networks to be even a little bit confident he’s going to go on to win.

And if Trump loses Florida on election night then it’s difficult to see a credible path to a win even if he cheats tbqh.

Biden can be almost certain of a win if he wins Florida. “Almost certain” doesn’t mean trump will concede or that the networks will declare it, and assumes the postal count in PA/MI is allowed to proceed fairly. But you can stop worrying about Biden losing fair and square if he gets Florida on the night.

There’s a remote chance the networks might be able to call it for Biden on the night https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/12/biden-trump-2020-election-night-428856

I am holding onto the hope that all the fears about weeks of court challenges and recounts are overblown because the decision is going to be so clear Nov. 3 that everyone just says the hell with it. Which I think is possible. There's a huge chunk of the GOP ready to cut him loose.

Fake views. They buy thousands of TVs, hundreds - and just turn them on, walk out of the room.

some version of this is actually kinda true though lol

I just saw a posterboard sign with this thread’s title and a “— Joe Biden” attribution on a student rental house while walking to drop off my ballot

long xpost but Ronald Reagan Jr. is “not afraid of burning in hell”, he’s our man

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7INIhD9P0Pw

The nodding woman I mentioned last night:

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/woman-behind-trump-her-nod-013553335.html

THEY ALWAYS STACK THE DECK.....Biden's ABC Town Hall Questioners Include Former Obama Speechwriter and Wife of Former PA Dem Candidate - ZERO Questions About Hunter's Emails via @gatewaypundit https://t.co/jwwesxajmT

— Chuck Woolery (@chuckwoolery) October 16, 2020

Never gets less weird to see this stuff from the host of Love Connection or a secondary character on Love Boat who has 450k Q followers or whatever.

lol it's so cute how they keep thinking anyone gives a fuck about Hunter's emails

Woolery Bully

Chuck Foolery

lots of people will think Hunter's emails are vitally important, but that's only because they are being fed that line hourly by the outrage peddlers they pay close attention to. they are a lost cause in terms of ever getting them to think about issues that can't be cast in terms of a soap opera plot.

yeah but none of those people were ever not voting for Trump

he's just too up his own ass this time around with right wing twittersphere garbage

I never listen to radio outrage peddlers, but the other night I was scrolling through the AM band in my car trying to find the baseball game, and came across one of those guys yelling so hard about Hunter’s emails I thought he was going to have a stroke. I don’t know how listeners subject themselves to that much vitriol. I couldn’t do it even if it was anti-Trump radio, it’s just so toxic.

was probably jackin' it during the call, you mistook rage for ecstacy

same reason Dan Bongino has a following despite having clearly achieved brain death ten years ago

I wonder if it was Mark Levin you were listening to. That guy always sounded like he was gonna have a heart attack. Pls calm down sir

just checked the early vote tracker site Ned posted

16% of Minnesota's population has voted already

that is nuts. what percent usually votes in total in an election campaign?

I really hope someone does Trump era trading cards of all the weirdos and grifters and has-beens who hitched their wagon to this flaming sceptic tank

Pelosi and Trump go a full year without speaking