The Phony Campaign

2020-05-24 Update

The probability of President Hillary continues to fade on the betting markets, but she remains above our arbitrary 2% inclusion threshold. President Bone Spurs lost a bit, Wheezy Joe gained a bit.

And the phony-hit results continue to be as expected: Trump in a walk, primarily driven by his labeling a study critical of hydroxychloroquine as "false," "phony" and a "Trump enemy statement." Dammit, Donald, you keep your thumb on the scale like this…

Candidate WinProb Change
Since
5/17
Phony
Results
Change
Since
5/17
Donald Trump 48.4% -0.6% 2,430,000 +790,000
Hillary Clinton 2.2% -0.1% 675,000 +117,000
Joe Biden 42.2% +0.1% 477,000 +45,000

Warning: Google result counts are bogus.

  • So this is big news for me: Jo Jorgensen Wins Libertarian Party Presidential Nomination.

    In a day-long virtual meeting, after four ballots, the 1,035 delegates assembled for the Libertarian Party's online convention selected Jo Jorgensen as their presidential candidate.

    She won with slightly over 51 percent of the vote (not every delegate voted in every round) on that fourth ballot, with 524 votes. Jacob Hornberger came in second, with nearly 28 percent of the vote. Vermin Supreme (pictured above) came in third, with 20 percent of the final vote.

    So Jo's looking good for getting my November vote. I was pretty turned off Jacob Hornberger, thanks to a recent Reason interview where a couple of his more interesting beliefs were discussed:

    […] Hornberger also discussed some of his outlier beliefs—he believes that Franklin Roosevelt goaded Japan into bombing Pearl Harbor so the United States could enter World War II and that Lee Harvey Oswald was "framed" for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

    Jacob said a lot of things I agree with. (Heck, I think all candidates manage to do that at one point or another.) But wacky revisionist/conspiracist views tend to be dealbreakers for me.

    And my regrets to Vermin Supreme. But it's nice to know that 20 percent of the party faithful hung in with him until the final ballot.


  • The Trump campaign came out with a pretty funny website: Truth Over Facts. There's a genius video:

    And that's about it for now.


  • So what's Trump's excuse? Jay Nordlinger at National Review on Presidential Lying, and More.

    Twice, President Trump has told Fox News that Joe Biden sent him a letter of apology: a letter apologizing for earlier criticisms of the president’s handling of the pandemic. The Biden campaign flat denies that such a letter was ever written or sent.

    So, someone’s lying. Trump can easily settle the matter — by producing the letter.

    […]

    In early March, Trump toured the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The great question, of course, was the coronavirus. After the tour, Trump said, “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”

    A question for you: Do you believe that every one of the doctors at the CDC said, “How do you know so much about this?” Do you believe that any of them did?

    A second question: Does it matter?

    Last year, Trump said that ex-presidents told him they should have built a southwestern border wall. The ex-presidents denied it.

    Were they lying? Was the incumbent president? Again, does it matter?

    I have done a fair amount of reading, reporting, and writing over the last 25 years. I’m talking about political matters, for now, and especially presidential matters. Let me give you an impression, gleaned from this experience.

    Some people think that lying doesn’t matter at all, no matter who does it. This group is small. Some people think that lying doesn’t matter when their side does it. This group is big. Some people think that lying matters, period. This group is, like the first, small.

    I hope you're in the last-mentioned group. Heck, I hope I'm in that group.


  • Powerline brings our attention to Out-Of-Ammo Joe. Via this tweet:

    And of course…


  • There was the Great Biden "You Ain't Black" Gaffe; Kevin D. Williamson looks at the New York Times coverage:

    The New York Times report on Joe Biden’s insistence that some black voters “ain’t black” is a truly remarkable piece of non-journalism. The trouble to which Astead W. Herndon and his editors went to avoid looking at the story head-on is remarkable if only from a purely compositional point of view.

    The bombshell line is mentioned in the lead and then followed by . . . paragraphs of tax-policy details.

    The story notes that social media exploded in condemnation of Biden’s remarks, but the only social-media post quoted is from a Biden aide, Symone D. Sanders.

    There’s the inevitable “Republicans pounce!” angle (“conservatives jumping on Mr. Biden, 77, for acting as the arbiter of blackness”) and the “But, Trump!” angle, too.

    It would be generous to call this “solicitous.”

    So to sum up: Trump is an obvious liar; Biden is seriously fumble-mouthed and reality-challenged; the media doesn't care much about the latter.


  • And one of our favorite phonies from years back is in the news, for shedding her former firm principles if only it will get her a heartbeat away from the Presidency: In Bid for VP Spot, Elizabeth Warren Drops Medicare for All.

    The progressive champion from Massachusetts — who made “Medicare-for-all” a key issue in her White House run before suspending her campaign in March — said earlier this week: “I think right now people want to see improvements in our health care system. And that means strengthening the Affordable Care Act. We should be doing that anyway. That should be easy. We should be doing it right now.”

    . . . . Warren’s comments come as she’s considered very much in the running — among other contenders — to be Biden’s running mate, and many political pundits are reading her words as the latest public signal that she very much wants to be the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee, and wants Biden to view her as a candidate in synch with his governing philosophy.

    She's pretty shameless, isn't she?


Last Modified 2020-05-25 7:24 AM EDT

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

[3.5 stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

As previously mentioned, we're getting into the weeds on my Netflix DVD queue. I was slightly surprised by this one, very much in the "woman undergoing life crisis" genre. Maybe I was just in a good mood. That happens every so often.

Netflix's "genres" for the movie are: "Comedy, Mystery, Dramas Based on the Book, Indie Comedies, Indie Dramas". Mystery? I don't think so. (We know where Bernadette went.) And there are some funny scenes, but …

"Bernadette" is Bernadette Fox (played by Cate Blanchett), a middle-aged wife and mother living in a tony area of Seattle. We are plunged into her life without (yet) knowing her backstory. But it becomes apparent that she's prickly, motormouthed, know-it-all, hostile to her neighbors, especially Kristen Wiig. Her house is a fixer-upper, that's not being fixed up. Hubby is a computer genius, and thanks to some unspecified earlier work, the family's lifestyle is adequately funded by what's called "Microsoft money".

Daughter is graduating from middle school, and wants to go to Antarctica to celebrate. Here's what drives me crazy: everyone in this upper-class milieu pronounces it "Antartica". Which caused me to say, at increasing volume, "Ant-ARK-tica!" I'm not sure if this contributed to Mrs. Salad's movie enjoyment.

I suppose the mystery is: why is Bernadette the way she is? Is she dangerously nutso, or…? We eventually find out, and (somewhat despite myself) I found myself interested in the answer, and what happened.


Last Modified 2024-01-23 2:06 PM EDT