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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
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That is a fair point.
Heck at least George W. Bush was an actual politician before becoming President and could get the country united in a crises in at least some cases.
Sure in the end he squandered that unity on a fool's crusade in Iraq among other things. But Trump has never achieved any unity to squander in the first place, and instead has poured gasoline on our cultural divisions.
We know have a number of polls about how the population viewed the debates, and it's just perfect
.
Morning Consult:
Biden: 50%
Trump: 34%
Data For Progress:
Biden: 52%
Trump: 39%
CNN/PBS:
Biden: 60%
Trump: 28%
Biden: 48%
Trump: 41%
(for those willing/able to view Twitter I'd recommend reading the original tweet, it's quite funy)
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Oct 1st 2020 at 5:16:22 AM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangMaybe that’s why I’m less prone to getting overwhelmed with stress. grin
This is in fact much more important advice than it seems - social media is the absolute worst place to be a primary news source for politics or social discussion, as the major platforms have largely failed when it comes to moderation, resulting in a sheer amount of misinformation, racism, and sensational bullshit, all designed to entice people to reinforce their existing views and make them more extremist.
Anytime you see someone prefer to get their news from social media and denounce mainstream media as fake news, chances are they're the sort that cannot accept any criticism of Trump or their favorite far right politicians.
Also, since Jacob Wohl and Jack Buhrman were mentioned earlier
, if anyone isn't familiar with them, a podcast called Fraudsters recently did a two part series on them, the second of which focused on the Elizabeth Warren hoax and an attempt to accuse Faucci of sexual misconduct. I remember listening trying to recall where I heard the names before realizing it was here.
Anywho, for stuff relevant to the thread:
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2020/10/01/day-1351/
Day 1351: "The single largest driver of misinformation."
✅ Check your registration: https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/
ℹ️ Voter Guides: FiveThirtyEight
/ Washington Post
/ NBC News
/ Wall Street Journal
📺 Next presidential debate: Wednesday, Oct. 7.
📆 The WTF Event Calendar: https://talk.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/t/the-wtf-event-calendar/5888
💬 WTF Community Discussion: https://talk.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/t/2020-general-election-trump-vs-biden/5758
🖥 Daily election live blogs: New York Times
/ Washington Post
/ CNN
/ The Guardian
2/ Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin failed to reach a deal on a new pandemic relief package. House Democrats, meanwhile, plan to vote on a new $2.2 trillion relief bill that Republicans oppose. The legislation is a slimmed-down version of the $3.4 trillion Heroes Act the House passed in May, which Senate Republicans and the White House also dismissed as too costly. (Politico / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg)
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/01/pelosi-no-coronavirus-deal-likely-424438
😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”
Global: Total confirmed cases: ~34,125,000; deaths: ~1,017,000
U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~7,269,000; deaths: ~208,000
Source: Johns Hopkins University
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
💻 COVID-19 Live Blogs: New York Times
/ Washington Post
/ CNN
/ CNBC
/ Bloomberg
/ ABC News
/ Guardian
3/ Trump is the “single largest driver of misinformation” about COVID-19, according to a study by Cornell University that analyzed 38 million worldwide articles about the pandemic. Researchers found that nearly 38% of the “misinformation conversation” began with Trump driving ”spikes” about “miracle cures” for COVID-19, such as the use of disinfectants, ultraviolet light, or unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine. (New York Times / NBC News)
4/ Trump suggested that he won’t “allow” the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates to change the format of the debates. Trump’s tweet – “Why would I allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third Debates when I easily won last time?” – comes a day after the commission announced that it would making changes to the format, including potentially allowing moderators to shut off the microphones if Trump or Biden break the rules. At Tuesday’s debate, Trump interrupted Biden or the moderator at least 128 times. The commission said the event “made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues.” The plans have not been finalized and the commission is still considering how it would carry out the plan. (CBS News / CNBC / Bloomberg / NBC News)
5/ White House press secretary Kayleigh Mc Enany would not provide a declarative statement about whether or not Trump forcefully condemns white supremacy. Instead, Mc Enany pointed to Trump’s past statements denouncing the KKK and advocating for the death penalty for a white supremacist, while claiming that Trump’s “record on this is unmistakable and it’s shameful the media refuses to cover it.” At one point, Mc Enany accused CNN’s Kaitlan Collins of asking a “partisan attack question.” (Axios / CNN)
poll/ 39% of voters said Trump did worse than they expected during the first presidential debate, compared with 13% who said Biden underperformed. 57% of Republicans and 61% of independents said their primary reaction was disappointment. 37% of Democrats said they walked away angry, compared with 24% of independents and just 9% of Republicans. (Survey Monkey)
https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/axios-first-debate-2020/
poll/ 53% of likely voters said Biden did a better job in the debate, compared with 29% for Trump. 45% of those surveyed said Trump performed worse than expectations, while 11% said the same for Biden. (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/01/biden-leads-polls-voters-say-he-beat-trump-in-first-debate.html
A federal judge blocked Trump’s federal law enforcement commission from releasing a report on ways to improve policing. Trump and Attorney General William Barr violated federal law by placing only current and former law-enforcement personnel on the 18-member commission, doing its work behind closed doors, and failing to include people with diverse views. (Politico / Bloomberg / Washington Post)
The Trump administration will admit a maximum of 15,000 refugees next year – a historic low. Last year’s limit was set at 18,000 refugees. (Axios / CNN / The Hill / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/01/politics/us-refugee-cap-fy21
The Trump administration mandated that the Farmers to Families Food Box Program include a letter from Trump claiming credit for the program. The USDA program provides millions of boxes of surplus food for families in need. The letter, on White House letterhead and featuring Trump’s signature reads: “As President, safeguarding the health and well-being of our citizens is one of my highest priorities. As part of our response to coronavirus, I prioritized sending nutritious food from our farmers to families in need throughout America.” The Trump administration denied that the move is political or improper. Fox News reported
in July that Ivanka Trump was responsible for the idea. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/01/trump-letter-food-aid-boxes-424230
Pope Francis denied Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s meeting request, saying the Vatican does not receive politicians during an election period. Pompeo recently published a letter accusing the Vatican of putting its “moral authority” at risk by renewing an agreement with China over the appointment of bishops. The Vatican accused Pompeo of trying to use that issue to drag the Catholic Church into the U.S. presidential election. (BBC / New York Times / Reuters / Vox)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pompeo-vatican-china-idUSKBN26L25G
Brad Parscale is leaving the Trump campaign after he being detained and hospitalized in Florida over the weekend for threatening suicide while holding a handgun during a confrontation with his wife. Parscale served as Trump’s campaign manager until July, and has remained a senior adviser on digital projects for the campaign. Parscale said he is “stepping away from my company and any role in the campaign for the immediate future to focus on my family and get help dealing with the overwhelming stress.” (Axios / Politico / CNN / New York Times / Daily Mail / Washington Post)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/politics/brad-parscale-steps-away-from-trump-campaign/index.html
Trump signed a bill to keep the government running through Dec. 11 after funding briefly expired. The move averts a government shutdown before the Nov. 3 election. (CNBC / Axios / Bloomberg / CNN)
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/30/government-shutdown-senate-passes-spending-bill-sends-to-trump.html
Edited by sgamer82 on Oct 1st 2020 at 5:26:00 AM
Nobody should get their primary news from social media posts, but social media posts can link to primary news sources. When in doubt, check the sources. This is the easiest thing to do. I live on Twitter (when I'm not here) and this simple test is virtually flawless.
If you have specific media figures (Rachel Maddow, CNBC, PBS, whatever) that you trust, you can follow them on Twitter to see article links as soon as they post. It makes for a nice aggregator, albeit one that's a bit cluttered.
I am particularly interested in EVs and the space program, so most of what I see has to do with those, but I also follow Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Rachel Maddow, Paul Krugman, and a few other sources that always give reliable news or reliable takes on the news, but I don't stop with their tweets; I click and examine the links.
Edited by Fighteer on Oct 1st 2020 at 8:28:28 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I think it was just a general overreaction to something that people in the US just considered plain impossible. And when people get shaken on such a deeply personal level as being a nigh invulnerable super power, they tend to lash out.
On unemployment, I read a comment (from a debate fact check, I think) that unemployment is currently at the same level as at the time of the financial crisis under Obama, and could get higher than that again, to give a perspective of just how bad the situation is.
Edited by Redmess on Oct 1st 2020 at 2:29:49 PM
Hope shines brightest in the darkest times![]()
This is what I do. It's always best to have multiple sources to make sure something is correct. If others aren't saying it, it's either false, people are looking into it, or other outlets haven't picked up on it.
I find that for the US at least, late night comedians tend to provide the best news sources. US news tends to be either biased or sensationalist, in part to how the US broadcast system works. I don't know what public and local television is like in the US, but if they seem to just bring the news wihtout trying to sensationalize or give a political spin, there is a good chance they are reliable as a source.
F Or an example of sensationalism, just turn on CNN and take note of how news segments are announced and titled. On cable news, you'll often see banners with quippy titles announcing news stories, and news stories will be announced with little teasers and cliffhangers. You will see neither of these on neutral news programs, or at most a short announcement of the most important topics.
For bias, that's a little more complicated. I think you just need to develop a feel for it. Biased news will tend to use specific words and terms, often with a deeper meaning only meant for a particular public. They also will tend to only invite experts from one party only. In extreme cases, you can tell from just the tone alone. If a news show consistently seems to rip into one party while praising the other, that is a dead giveaway that there is strong bias.
This is not to say neutral news sources don't have their own problems, of course, but this will help avoid the worst of it.
Edited by Redmess on Oct 1st 2020 at 2:46:08 PM
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesThis logic seems self-defeating to me. It refutes conventional government, which is made of groups of those same "dumb, panicky animals" as surely as it refutes more distributed governance. It only creates consistent reasoning if you are advocating either dictatorship (because, after all, "a person is smart") or that something non-human rule over humanity to protect it from itself.
Ideally, you elect people to government who are more competent than average. Of course, that depends on the voters being able to recognize (and indeed support) competence over, say, charisma or rhetorical polish. Or hatred, like with Trump.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Edited by tclittle on Oct 1st 2020 at 7:57:26 AM
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."For news, 5-6 of the major outlets and a couple of the large regional newspapers are saved in my bookmarks and I check them out once or twice a day. Like now:
The Hill:
Bill Blesdoe, the Constitution Party candidate in South Carolina's Senate race, is dropping out and backing Lindsey Graham. Analysis of the race was suggesting Jaime Harrison had a chance of winning with 48% of the vote or so as long as the third-party candidate pulled enough support from Republicans, so this will probably hurt him.
NBC:
US District Judge rules in Gov. Bullock's favor in mail-in-ballot lawsuit, says his directive that allows counties to hold mail ballot elections is not unconstitutional
Democrats are seeing massive fundraising hauls in Q3/September. Biden reportedly raised more than in August (when there was the DNC).
Cal Cunningham raised $28.3 million in Q3.
MJ Hegar raised 13.5 million.
Raphael Warnock raised $12.7 million
(ActBlue has pulled in nearly $500 million since the 19th, so it's very likely other Democratic Senate candidates will see similar numbers.)
Edited by nova92 on Oct 1st 2020 at 6:01:56 AM
Indeed, the pitch behind both election and sortition (lottery) is often more about avoiding getting the worst people than the possibility of getting the very best people.
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That's going to hit home hard for Trump. Hope Hicks is pretty much his best friend in the White House.
On the political division, I think at a very basic level, the biggest long term danger is that an unwillingness to govern across party lines will eventually start to leave its mark on the basics of society, like infrastructure and power generation. If you can't work out how to maintain the roads on a large scale for year after year, eventually something is going to give way.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest times

Or George W. Bush
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.