.
Of course us politically-minded types are thoroughly tired of this year’s war-by-other-means, but now even sweet non-political ‘funny page’ cartoonists are getting cranky!
…who were gonna vote for him anyway but call themselves "undecided" because .. well, they're embarrassed. 2/2
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) October 29, 2016
If you claim that you were undecided about Trump, but you're voting for him now, you were never "undecided." You were looking for an excuse.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 31, 2016
If you say you were undecided between Clinton and Trump until this moment in October, you're either an idiot or full of shit. https://t.co/UqpoS8xJgC
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 31, 2016
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil.
–Hannah Arendt— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) October 31, 2016
Keith P.
‘Undecided voter” reminds me of an old joke
“What’s an agnostic?”
“A chickenshit atheist.”
Major Major Major Major
I made another graph! Top balloon-juice commenters and their various commenting-network tendencies.
If I knew how to format that better I’d have more people on it, but the visualization looks funky when I do. Oh well, enjoy anyway!
TheMightyTrowel
I think I might be teaching one of my dumbest students in years. They have to writing a weekly reflective reading log and some of the topics in this course are a bit inflammatory. So far almost all of them are being thoughtful and engaged. But one decided the week on gender equity she’d let her freak flag fly: She wrote a full page screed against any sort of “feminist thing” then ended with “and that is why I did not do the readings”. SIGGGHHHH
(this is the same student who wrote in a previous week that she thinks aliens had a role in human evolution)
James E Powell
Been skimming rather than reading the usual blogs since last week. Looks like a I picked a great time to swear off cable news.
Curious about something. Nate Silver at 538 has an article headlined “The Odds Of An Electoral College-Popular Vote Split Are Increasing” with a photo of Trump giving a thumbs up. Horrors!!!
I read the article a couple of times and there is no sentence that says anything like “the odds were X and now they are Y” or anything like that. It seems that the odds have increased to the terrifying 10%!!! But even that isn’t exactly clear. I don’t get the “odds are increasing” warning.
So. Question. What’s with Nate Silver? Why would he publish something like that?
Comrade Scrutinizer
@James E Powell: Click bait. Nate is morphing into generic political pundit the same way Chuckles did.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@TheMightyTrowel: Our biology instructors get reams of stuff like that when they cover evolution in intro bio courses. I’m kinda glad that I teach physics courses, where all I have to deal with is the MEGO (my eyes glaze over) syndrome.
AnderJ
@Comrade Scrutinizer: Just go with Sam Wang. And don’t forget to thank him (for keeping me sane)
Karmus
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
I have been forming that impression independently. Good to see I’m not alone/glad to have my biases confirmed.
craigie
Good morning from Tokyo !
Mai.naem.mobile
Ive talked to a few people in the last few weeks. Kind of my personal GOTV. I am usually pretty successful but this year its been depressingly unsuccessful. Theyre almost all milennials and all non white. One guy told me its all a big conspiracy because Clinton and Trump were good friends. Another said Trump is bad but HRC is a liar. One woman said all the parties cant even get on the ballot and also too, HRC is a feminist and apparently feminism is part of some big lifestyle that they’re trying to spread(wtf??) One woman doesnt like Trump but HRC is for abortion!!!. Jeezus. I just shut up.
Chris T.
@Mai.naem.mobile: Ask the “is a liar” one: “So… you want a president who can’t lie when needed? When some foreign head of state is in a conference with our President, you want her aides to have to tackle her to the floor and haul her off before she can blurt out the nuclear codes?”
Some Dude
Why do I want to equate ‘undecided voter’ with ‘attention seeker’?
Patricia Kayden
@craigie: Good Morning, you traveler!
Despite the media brouhaha over Secretary Clinton’s emails, nothing has been revealed which would render Trump a qualified Presidential Candidate. There is no excuse for voting for him.
raven
If I was undecided hearing that lowlife bully motherfucker Bob Knight testify for Trump would be enough to send me over the edge.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
Do you have any recommendations for how someone would find their own dot? Other than something to talk about what can we learn from these?
Thanks for doing them.
Schlemazel
@James E Powell:
As the great American philosopher, Cindi Lauper, once said:
he needs to drive clicks for his corporate masters and click he can do with attention grabbing headlines that are not supported by what follows.
Mustang Bobby
@Major Major Major Major: I need to comment more, I see.
Schlemazel
@Some Dude:
I think a lot of undecideds are just folks who can’t be bothered to pay any attention at all. They do not know shit from shinola and are not interested in learning which is which. They suffer Dunning-Kruger, couldn’t name their Congressional Representative, don’t know anything about government they did not learn from Schoolhouse Rock (and little of that), only manage to vote occasionally and then only in Presidential years when they are repeatedly stunned by all those other names on the ballot for positions they have no idea exist.
You know, morons.
raven
@Schlemazel: I don’t see any names attached to the dots?
Baud
@Mai.naem.mobile: We’ll win the millennial vote but it looks like a lot of them won’t vote.
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: And these are the same morons who say “throw the bums out” but re-elect the same people over and over. It’s never their representative; “I voted for him/her/it so they’re okay”; it’s always the one the next district over who is a crook. Oy.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Hold the cursor over the dot; the name shows up on my PC.
Schlemazel
@raven:
\hover over a dot & a name appears.
I did finally find myself (found you too) but the lines make no sense from my dot. I’m not sure what they mean
Schlemazel
@Baud:
same as it ever was.
Baud
@Schlemazel: True. Youth turnout for Obama was extraordinarily high. But at least we can stop listening to people who argue that millennials are some type of supergeneration of socially conscious people. (Or that they are uniquely bad — they aren’t that either).
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
Considering I live in Kieth Ellison’s district with Tom Emmer (Batshit Bachmann’s old district & tommy is better only in that he keeps his stupidity quiet) and Erik Paulsen (straight GOP vote but he speaks politely) that is true in my case.
Mr. Paulsen is in a very tight race and I have my fingers crossed after doing some calling for his opponent Terri Bonhoff. Better still in John Kline’s old district (the crook made his millions & is getting out) the GOP primary winner is a very scummy radio loudmouth, Jason Lewis. He is such an asshole that the 2nd district will be turning blue this fall.
raven
@Schlemazel: Thanks!
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: There’s a race for Congress in my district where the Republican incumbent, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, is putting up scary ads about her opponent, Scott Fuhrman, because he has a criminal record; DUI’s and frat-boy stuff. That’s supposed to be a big reveal. Except Fuhrman’s first campaign mailer during the primary was very up-front with his criminal record and he said he’s learned a lot from his youthful mistakes and has nothing to hide. But Ros-Lehtinen must be worried or she wouldn’t be running ads at all.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’ll repeat what I said last night, IDIOTS!
?BillinGlendaleCA
Morning Email is talking about email.
Mustang Bobby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And Manafort and Russia? Let me guess: [crickets]
Some Dude
@Schlemazel:
True.
But as to my question, at this point in time how can anyone be sitting on the fence? Or are they just gonna flip a coin once they get in the voting booth. Wait, that is only good for choosing between two candidates. There are four for President. Only gamers are going to be equipped to decide with 1d4 (aka caltrops) dice. How will the rest decide when they realize there Trump and Clinton aren’t the only ones to pick from?
Iowa Old Lady
@TheMightyTrowel: That’s hilarious. She must think you don’t read these things.
NorthLeft12
@TheMightyTrowel: Being an optimist, I am trying to give her the benefit of doubt and would assume she is “having you on”. However, you would be the best judge of that, so based on the evidence provided I concur with your evaluation; moron.
NorthLeft12
@Schlemazel: School house Rock libel!
I feel like I have a very good understanding of your system of government, but when I try to explain it to other Canadians I usually get blank stares which in short order are followed by “That makes no sense at all!” or something like that. Makes me feel like an idiot, but silently I agree with them.
Mike in NC
“Undecided voter” is a myth that goes back decades, but the media never says that.
donnah
Undecided voter = willfully stupid
Sorry, but if you can read and hear what Donald Trump says and still believe he should be elected, then you are stupid. It’s that simple.
O. Felix Culpa
One of our phone bankers got an undecided who said she “was praying on it.” Uh huh.
AnderJ
@?BillinGlendaleCA: shorter: Morning email is.
ruemara
@Mai.naem.mobile: call them out for being idiots.
No One You Know
@Major Major Major Major: Very cool! Social network diagrams are part of what I do.
chopper
@James E Powell:
he’s become popular enough that he needs to bring the clickbait to stay as relevant as he needs to be.
JR in WV
Major foursquared
So a line between two dots (people on B-J) is a comment replying to one dot’s post or comment, right?
JR unsquared in WV