“Meet the Pollster Who Convinced Republicans There Would Be a Red Wave”.
“A Step Back from the Precipice on Election Denialism and a Slightly Rosier Forecast for a Free and Fair Election in 2024″.
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. How about if we waste less time trying: A proposal.”
“Your Creation Museum Report, 15 Years On”.
“Could a rebranded MAGA movement continue by just replacing the frontman? Is it still Journey without Steve Perry, or the Grateful Dead without Jerry Garcia? In a way, yes. MAGA could Jefferson Starship itself indefinitely as long as the crowds keep vibing. But without the original magic the venues tend to shrink, the fans get old, and it all starts to seem a little pathetic.”
“Voters Want Impartial Election Administration—And Tuesday’s Results Confirm It”.
“Here’s why 51 is much better than 50, even if we don’t keep the House. And no, it’s not (mostly), about Manchin and Sinema.”
The emoluments clause of the Constitution was there for a reason.
RIP, Budd Friedman, founder of The Improv comedy club. Mark Evanier shares some stories about him.
RIP, Keith Levene, guitarist and co-founder of the bands The Clash and Public Image Ltd.
RIP, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Iranian man whose 18-year residence in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport loosely inspired the 2004 Steven Spielberg film The Terminal.
RIP, Dan McCafferty, lead singer for the rock band Nazareth. I commend you to read this Popdose article, which I know I linked to back in the day when I was regularly doing Friday Random Tens, about the origin of Nazareth’s biggest hit, “Love Hurts”.
RIP, Virginia McLaurin, national treasure. If you don’t remember her name, go watch this and you will. She was 113 years old, born in 1909. What an amazing life.
“Pro-abortion rights ballot measures outperformed Democrats on the ballot in three states, while Republican politicians ran ahead of failed anti-abortion ballot measures in two states.”
“The numbers are in, and the Machiavellian scheme worked. In the six races where Democrats got the Republican nominee they wanted—after running reverse-psychology ads highlighting the candidates’ conservative bona fides—Democrats won.”
“Could I say something about Kari Lake, you guys?”
“Helmed by erratic new owner Elon Musk, Twitter is no longer fulfilling key obligations required for it to claim Ireland as its so-called main establishment under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)”. (More here.)
“Seeing as this the one moment where being a Grover Cleveland biographer has any social utility, let me save you all a lot of Googling: Cleveland and Trump are starkly dissimilar figures.”
“Trump’s announcement was exactly what it looked like: a desperate, low-energy attempt to head off 2024 GOP primary challengers; possibly ward off ongoing investigations into his seizure of classified documents, January 6th, and attempts to overturn 2020 vote results in Georgia; and consolidate his wavering support. He is too weak not to run; his dwindling political assets are still worth too much to abandon.”
“Ticketmaster might be used to criticism from advocates and Capitol Hill when it screws something up so publicly. But the company has never shaken a beehive quite like the Swifties. Swift’s fanbase is as rabid as they are loyal to the megastar, and the Eras presale nightmare focused the collective’s attention on a new enemy: Ticketmaster and its monopoly power.”
“Larry David sued for crypto ad in which he talked crap about crypto, which feels about right”.
RIP, Robert Clary, actor, singer, and Holocaust survivor.
“Pelosi is the strongest congressional leader I’ve ever seen. McCarthy is the weakest.”
“Hundreds of Twitter’s remaining employees have resigned ahead of Elon Musk’s “extremely hardcore” cultural reset of the company”.
I would suggest pollsters be treated like teams in the European soccer leagues- only the best performances stay in the top league, and those that underperform get demoted. In Trafalgar’s case, based on this year’s abysmal record, they ought to be ignored in the media and excluded from any composite polls for at least 3 election cycles. I do recognize the difficulties inherent in getting polls right, but some of them sure looked like they were more about trying to influence voters than to report on voters.
Also, I’ve never been polled on my voting preferences.
>>“The numbers are in, and the Machiavellian scheme worked. In the six races where Democrats got the Republican nominee they wanted—after running reverse-psychology ads highlighting the candidates’ conservative bona fides—Democrats won.”<<
It backfired in the 2016 prez race. Just saying.
Well, we know Grover Cleveland raped Maria Halpin, of which Trump stands accused, so they’re not so dissimilar in every way. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2414809409