US Politics, October 2018: next week will be even longer

perhaps of note that that was in Louisville and not DC

I was just on the Berkeley campus yesterday and was stopped by a couple of students doing a project on the importance of voting who wanted to record my response to a question or two. I was about to say something but stopped and asked for a bit to get my thoughts together first. Which I did and I think because of that I was relatively lucid and coherent.

Fuck yeah: finally some Democrats who know how to fight Trumpists.

https://youtu.be/msxropCGhls

After this and Andrew Gillum's performance last night, I feel temporarily good.

it would be interesting if decades of Saudi-friendliness in DC starts slipping away in part b/c of WaPo putting "Remember the Maine" on the front page every day for a month

“Shock report: US paying more for illegal immigrant births than Trump’s wall” https://t.co/FX3ljN7kPS

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2018

who is shocked by this, I spent more on coffee today than the US has paid for Trump's wall

This was cheesy, but feel good. I am a sucker for girl groups.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/beto-orourke-may-not-win-election-supporters-winning-internet/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Web+Social&utm_content=campaignvideos&fbclid=IwAR0mqPCPSdeyJBkNcQmgHdaEcWDAetWi93UAYsWUcqoeBZkeMO0rESNfizg

waiting for the trump admin to do predator drone strikes on the caravan from honduras

Uh - what the fuck?

re: hyperlink I posted above - I'm convinced the Georgia GOP is run outta Stone Mountain.

can't they just be satisfied eating their carp po' boys with extra chuckle?

i mean its pretty standard these days to have a Name attached to your turnout texts -- "Hi Justin, this is Alyssa Milano/Elizabeth Warren/Pres. Obama, can I count on you to vote for our guy?"

if anything this is probably a 'did our people actually go vote or not' strategy that, granted, preys on the same kind of people every THIS IS NANCY PELOSI, I'M BEGGING YOU email does

THIS IS PRES. TRUMP, I TOUCH YOU TOOTRBUSH WITH MY THING, YOU BETTER VOTE FOR GOP OR ITS UPPER DECKER CITY FOR YOU

“He’s not ‘Lyin’ Ted anymore. He’s beautiful Ted,” Trump told reporters on the White House’s South Lawn.

Trump also said that he calls him Cruz and “Texas Ted.” He said he doesn’t regret claiming that Cruz’s father killed former president John F. Kennedy. “I don’t regret anything,” said the president.

“It’s going to be a public relations nightmare for our president if he doesn’t get ahead of this thing. The person who has apparently been financing this thing is George Soros. Now, we don’t have hard evidence on that, but that’s the suspicion; that the George Soros foundation has somehow been providing money because somebody has been paying those people off. My suggestion is that the Justice Department needs to get a warrant to search the books of the Soros foundation to see if indeed they have been setting this thing up. The whole idea was to use these people to embarrass the president just before the election.” – Pat Robertson

i know there is no god because pat robertson has yet to be reduced to cinders by a bolt of lightning

we are at that particularly irritating point in the political-reportin-on-an-election cycle where the media outlets are pivoting their narratives from "this thing we were talking about being a MAJOR POSSIBILITY" to "now maybe not so major after all, gonna be a real NAILBITER OH NOES TIME TO PANIC", even though there have not been a whole lot of substantial changes. Democrats still have huge cash advantages on hand, Dems still favored to win the House, Senate likely not to shift too much. Races that people expected to be tight are (surprise) still pretty tight. Heitkamp is doing worse than hoped for, but on the other hand it looks like Nelson is doing better than expected. Still, I'm kinda hating this proliferation of "has the blue wave already faded away????" handwringing puff pieces.

the press still desperate to create trends and waves and suspense

it's all A New Story for a New Day, full stop

did not see this one coming: https://www.yahoo.com/news/alaskas-independent-governor-drops-election-043757868.html

a rare selfless decision in american politics in 2018

can't george soros sue these people for libel?

lol Gorby

President Trump’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from a nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia drew sharp criticism Sunday from one of the men who signed it, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who called the decision reckless and not the work of “a great mind.”

and that's from a guy who negotiated with Reagan

yup

Countdown to a public statement from the President of the United States making fun of a former world leader's physical appearance in 3...2...

(For those who somehow still aren't able to gauge Trump's reaction to any given situation or statement, imagine how the shittiest kid you avoided in junior high would have responded.)

to Gorby?

The problem with Gorby is summed up by a twist on Christ's adage: this prophet isn't welcome in his own country or anywhere else

Yeah, I meant him specifically but it's not out of the question that he'll slip in a completely unnecessary dig at another head of state or two before he gets around to ol' Mikhail.

Quick statisticians, poke the holes in this shitty article:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/republicans-outpacing-democrats-early-voting-key-states-nbc-news-finds-n922881?cid=sm_npd_ms_fb_ma

it's right there in the article:

Republicans typically dominate early voting by absentee ballots, while Democrats tend to have the advantage with in-person early voting. So, for example, the entire early voting picture in Florida, which has yet to begin in-person voting, is incomplete.

yeah, I've had several former students sharing it and I'm like, uh

the thing that made me maddest was the suggestion that perhaps the Blue wave may be turning purple, when the study is focusing on the 7 states that have key Senate races.

Like...the Blue Wave has never been referring to the Senate, it's always been referring to the House, and since you can only vote for your District, how helpful is state-wide data like this?

and fuckin' Nate Silver acknowledged many key Senate and House races were trending in opposite directions, with Senate races breaking towards Republicans, House toward Democrats, after the Kavanaugh confirmation. so this is like...an expected thing.

I mean if it inspires more Democrats to vote, fine, but what in the actual fuck is the point of this thing. alarmist friends sharing it....

click harvesting, ya big dummy

I know, I know....

I'm just moody when I see shit like this circulated amongst people who are normally smarter than this.

It’s been over 700 days of panic. People are actively seeking it out because it feels like home to them now, here, in hell.

Early voted just now here in Austin... wait was about an hour, which is pretty high in my experience. Might partly be the 14-page ballot, but it usually takes all of five minutes.

I sent my absentee ballot back a few weeks ago and got the lil confirmation that it was received. woohah

It’s been over 700 days of panic. People are actively seeking it out because it feels like home to them now, here, in hell.

― Trϵϵship, Monday, October 22, 2018 3:24 PM (thirteen minutes ago)

lol

I believe in the blue wave, but if the advantage the Democrats are currently seeing isn't enough to take the House, then we are well and truly fucked and it's time to start digging the trenches.

so whose house are we having the ILX midterms pizza/poison-drinking party at?

Trump on Cruz: ‘He’s not Lyin’ Ted anymore. He’s Beautiful Ted.’

so whose house are we having the ILX midterms pizza/poison-drinking party at?

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal),

I got the gin, I got the looks, you bring lots of money

Literally the first thing I encountered in the vicinity of the Cruz/Trump rally was Alex Jones screaming at a pile of shit pic.twitter.com/lxmPgjAmB5

— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) October 22, 2018

Not sure which pile of shit is Alex Jones

Was coming here to post that.

i voted in san antonio today, about a 35 minute wait in a midterm is p darn long. saw lots beto shit as well as white olds.

was Alex Jones yelling at beto's shit

holy shit @ what Pelosi went through

In recent weeks, Lesley Stahl, the AP White House team & now Van Jones have all secured rare sit-down interviews with Trump and Kushner; rare opportunities for a non-Fox interviewer to hold this dishonest, racist, unhinged White House to account.

And they've all blown it. Sigh.

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 22, 2018