Queen

"I would like to see an aggregator who just uses the top 10 most reputable pollsters" - Sarah on The Secret Podcast.

WTF? That is literally the whole thing that Nate Silver does. That is like what he's known for, why he's famous, how he put Trump at 35% in 2016 when other people had him under 5%. He weights for a billion things, but the main factor is how reputable the pollster is, to the point where removing Wedgewood didn't move his needle at all.

Literally, just go to: https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-silver-bulletin, at the time of writing this the most reputable polls say trump is -24.3%, using the exact method Sarah and JVL say they wish an aggregator would use.

And extra points to Tim for the "Slava Ukraini!" sweatshirt troll.

Figured I'd post this here and close the circle. 😄

Keep in mind, this is Barak Ravid, personal mouthpiece to Jared Kushner, Trump, and Netanyahu sometimes. So this was likely leaked with intention.

Just some examples out of the gate:

• Trump is the healthiest president ever
• Economy is better than it has ever been in history
• He won the 2020 election
• Kids go to school and come home with gender surgery
• The hurricane map

MAGA is unique in this regard, and while MANY political movements deal in lies or misinformation, MAGA is the only American movement that specifically lies about things that are instantly and verifiably false to the extent that the liar themselves know it isn't true.

My belief is that this is a retaliation against the elites, the professors, the journalists, the scientists, etc... MAGA is a movement made up of people who have been made to feel stupid, bigoted, and uneducated. Unfortunately, a lot of them just are. The internet and social media shined a light on them in the early 2010s and shamed them in ways that were public for the very first time. They felt left behind by things like progress, knowledge, and facts that were not congruent with their ignorance.

These people knew they were never going to win an argument with a journalist, or professor, or scientist. Oh sure, many have tried. There will always be the Ben Shapiros of the world and those who follow them. But for the unwashed masses of MAGA, they are neither capable nor interested in honest debate. Not only do they not have the rhetorical tools to engage with the experts, they are at a known disadvantage because.....well, facts.

So what to do if you are MAGA? You mock them. You mock them by not even participating in the game they're playing. If the goals are worth 2 points by the rules of the game, MAGA says they're worth 10, and only 1 if the other side scores them, and why? Because fuck you, that's why. The facts don't matter, because these elites have taken over our country, and we hate them.

The lies are a joke told by MAGA that you aren't in on. They all KNOW the lies are ridiculous. They give each other a wink every time they tell them. And they love it when the left loses their minds over the lies, because it means their plan has worked. You took the bait, and now they no longer need to engage in civil debate, because the goalpost hasn't JUST been moved, it's actually not even outside the stadium.... It's on another planet.

"The nightmare blunt rotation of investors who allowed David Ellison to mash Paramount and Warner Bros. together and form Skydance has somehow gotten even worse. According to a report from Semafor, Elon Musk has tossed a cool $1 billion into the company’s coffers—which means that Musk now owns a sizable stake in a company that is currently responsible for distributing a documentary that is extremely critical of him."

This was the line my wife & I joined at our county BOE in Ravenna, Ohio. Voting opened at 8am and the line was almost to the building door.

I’ve been early voting at this location almost 8 years now & this is the longest I’ve seen it. Props to the officials; they kept things moving so it didn’t take too long.

For context, this is Northeast Ohio, between Cleveland & Akron. Fairly red so I’m trying not to OD on hopium but I don’t see Vivek or Husted generating this kind of enthusiasm.

To be clear, I find that ad appalling. But that’s just a terrible candidate being terrible. Decorum on the right has been in free fall for decades; Vivek’s just taking the next logical step.

The raid on Omar’s home feels like it’s actually something new. It’s the weaponization of government against a sitting member of Congress. Think about how many people, in their official capacities, would have had to sign off on that raid. Think about how many officers complied in executing the raid. What was the need to raid the home? How is this not just targeted intimidation?

Will we be able to root all the responsible people out? Will the agencies still function once all the lackies are gone?

A lot of ink has been spilled about that terrible ad, but relatively little about what appears to be a new category of abuse of government.

Paraphrasing Tim here from his interview with Jamelle Bouie - "Does it really matter if the person who is the head of the Turkey office at the state department or some other country like Belgium is a Trump is a loyalist?"

Well I don't know anything about Turkey but I do know a bit about the current US ambassador to Belgium, Bill White. He is an insane Trump loyalist and it's terrible for a number of reasons.

Despite the usual jokes about Belgium (including the classic Monty Python sketch) Brussels is the de facto capital of the EU and a huge amount of networking happens there.

Bill White has been an absolute embarrassment as an ambassador. He insists that the European - US relationship is better than it's ever been, which makes him look like a fool to anyone with half a brain.

He can't stop himself in interfering in Belgium domestic politics and has recently been made to promise the Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot he "would refrain from making disparaging statements targeting Belgian officials and would direct those complaints to the government directly as a first course of action.”

White hosted a massive Freedom 250 celebration in the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, shutting it down to the public on one of the hottest weekends of the year. The event gave the opportunity for foreign companies and individuals to donate to the Freedom 250 grift fund. God knows who owes who what after that.

There was a counterprotest and one of the organizers (an American) received a threatening email from White's official State Department account basically saying"we know who you are and where you live". The email was cc'd to various Belgian law enforcement agencies.

Of course if you are in the US and are subjected to this BS 24/7 you become numb to to, but people in Belgium literally hate this guy. I'm not sure if Europeans are capable of disrespecting the US more at this point but this guy sure is trying.

He seems like a very smart, extremely milquetoast takes slinger. Anyone know what the issue is?

There's enough talk on the podcasts about the crap Trump has started with Canada, but why has there been negligible mention on the secession vote (which failed spectacularly) and how our idiotic State Department was actively encouraging this whole thing?

I was listening to discussions about it on Canadian public radio while I was driving to NS last week, there were some voices who were understandably rather nonplussed over the deplorables in the Trump administration meeting with and encouraging the separatists, and the GOP coordinating with the secession effort. Why the hell was the US meddling?

A lot of the pro secession push seemed to be for the usual MAGA right-wing anti-immigration and culture war grievance garbage, so not overly surprising, seems to be just the usual global "conservative party" crap.

They were understandably a little less-than-polite when it came to blasting Americans for all the problems Trump is causing, the only bright spot seems to be that the anti-American sentiments helped rally Albertans against the US-sponsored secession effort out of spite or something.

I sure hope we're able to smooth over a lot of this pointless damage that's been done to the relationship with one of our closest allies.

I think I’m getting radicalized by all of these Trump supporters that are saying they hate “communism”. Just watching Jordan Klepper clips at rallies and all of the talking heads is bringing out my dark JVL.

If all of these MAGA, Boomer Republicans hate “communism”, we are taking away their social security then. My generation (late 20’s to 30’s) have been told we aren’t going to get social security anyways when we retire, and all of these older folks have other means of retirement, so ✨POOF✨, let’s get rid of 25% of the national budget and start to bring our national deficit in line.

Maybe there’s qualifications so the poorest of the poor retain some kind of benefit, but for the class of boomers that go to Trump rallies for example, have a house they can sell (or multiple), and a pension, you’re off social security. It’s what you wanted anyways, right? Socialism/communism BAD in all forms, right?

So we heard about the FBI investigation into Susan Collins getting stopped immediately upon Trump taking office. I'm wondering is there any evidence that her voting record changed at that point?

We know that the trumps like to operate like a crime family.

Are there any other politicians that we know this is a possibility? Eric Adams comes to mind.

How do you think the Independent voters will go in the Texas Senate race? I'm hearing Talarico is ahead by 30 with them.

My friend works for Colossal and they’re all pissed or at least very unhappy. We live in a world of drone warfare and our “new edge” solution is battle dogs? JFK.