Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Everybody saw this coming.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Visual Communication: The Pennsylvania Attorney General Brings His A Game

Visual Communication: The Pennsylvania Attorney General Brings His A Game

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While we wait for Vice President and President-Elect presumptive Biden and Senator and Vice President-elect presumptive Harris to begin their event, I wanted to point out Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s absolutely excellent visual communication capabilities. Take a look at the picture below and notice what is on the shelf behind and a little bit above his left shoulder:

Visual Communication: The Pennsylvania Attorney General Brings His A Game

In the center, in front of the clock is a USPS mail truck. To the right of the truck is Count Von Count from Sesame Street. To the truck’s left, at the extreme left of the shelf, is Sam the Eagle at the presidential podium from The Muppet Show. And between Sam the Eagle and the USPS mail truck, to the left of the clock and above everything else is a Notorious RBG action figure.

Regardless of what AG Shapiro was saying, what he’s communicating here is that under his watch Pennsylvania will count all the mail in ballots in the 2020 election and for president under the watchful eye of the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This is excellent visual communication!

And here’s the video of the media hit. Wait for it… Wait for it…

Well played young Shapiro, well played!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

147Comments

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: I was on a minute delay because I paused and rewound to confirm what I’d seen on the shelf and take a picture.

  3. 3.

    themann1086

    Speculation is that he and Federman, who is also great, will run for Governor and Senator in 2022. Not sure who will run for what but they’re both great guys and I’m hoping they win!

  5. 5.

    There go two miscreants

    Seeing The Count always brings pleasant memories of watching Sesame Street with my son (who is now in his 40s). I used to be able to do a passable imitation of The Count.

  7. 7.

    Benw

    @Baud: Same here. That’s a good kid.

    Calmly backs away while texts friends: “dude I was just on TV did u see me dude!!!”

  9. 9.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    In the center, in front of the clock is a USPS mail truck.

    Whenever I see David Plouffe on tv, he also has a USPS mail truck behind him.

  11. 11.

    Wag

    Reminds me of the British scientist a couple of years ago whose young child came is during an interview and his wife tried to sneak in behind his desk and grab the kid.  This kid handled it well.

  14. 14.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    Just got a text message from my (very political) son revealing that the UK newspaper The Independent had just learned that Fat Bastard was. planning to hold “victory rally” this weekend. I thought this had to be the Onion or disinformation-but it looks legit. Anybody else know anything about this?

  15. 15.

    Kent

    Meme my kids are passing around right now to their friends:

    Remember to lower your truck flag to half mast!

  17. 17.

    Kent

    @Keith P.:@Kent: I guess it’s too much to ask for him to drive in in his ‘Vette, top down.

    That would be a boss move.  But too much is at stake and those days are over I’m afraid.

  19. 19.

    patrick II

    I hope that when covid is over they keep doing these interviews at home. More interesting than the studio versions and now they know how to do it.

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Keith P.: @Kent: Yep. They plussed up his Secret Service detail on Wednesday. Midmorning they issued a nationals security NOTAMS and put up a TFR over his house and most of Delaware. And by that evening the additional Secret Service personnel had arrived.

  22. 22.

    Jerzy Russian

    It looks like Batman himself (aka Adam West) is a guest star in the Perry Mason episode I am watching now (The Case of the Barefaced Witness).   I assume at some point someone will get killed.  I hope it is not him!

  23. 23.

    Dan B

    Thank you Adam, smotch, smootchie, hugs and kisses,

    Oops, sorry . Did I go too far?

    I love when anybody points out brilliant communication – crossing all the ‘eyes’ and crossing all the ‘tease’. There are so many layers to this onion of effective and strategic communication. It gets increasingly empowering and exhilarating the farther you go. Who doesn’t want that?

    Posts like this, and similar, will be so essential the closer we get to 1/21/21.

    Empowerment. Need I say more? You are an expert guide. And I feel glad to recognize that.

  24. 24.

    Redshift

    @patrick II:

    I hope that when covid is over they keep doing these interviews at home. More interesting than the studio versions and now they know how to do it.

    A friend does freelance video tech work, and they all expect their industry to be decimated post-covid, because so many video productions (not just broadcast, but business), they’ve now accepted that zoom and such are “good enough” and are of course way cheaper than professional video production.

  27. 27.

    EmanG

    Oh my God cubed. (third power y’all). That is the most 2020 moment yet. A reluctant star is born.

  29. 29.

    waratah

    I agree I wish we had him in Texas.
    I had a crush on the guy in Georgia today that was explaining  their vote counting. I loved how he gave the news media and those watching how to pronounce Dekalb and Houston they Georgian way.

  32. 32.

    piratedan

    i guess none of us should be surprised by this chain of events because it appears that the only thing that moves the media is when a white supremacist liar is calling the shots that they can’t find their balls.  Hell, the sonofabitch has been lying non-stop for the last 5 years and they haven’t been able to call him a liar… committing treason becomes “unusual foreign policy”,  unbridled corruption ends up being “unsubstantiated financing”, I swear if they spent less time coming up with creative euphemisms for all of the shit Trump does, the public would be much better informed.

    I get the distinct impression that while the outside temp is 120 without any shade, the pool looks mightily inviting but no one wants to go first because all the networks are busy playing political double dare to stay out of sight of the bully; who really doesn’t care because he’s gonna try and abuse them all anyway.

    That leads me to my other issue with the MSM, they continually act as if they are above this all, that they are simply observers, that they do not frame the events, they simply “report them” without recognizing that the very schtick that they pull does its own kind of damage, it’s like they want to be the judges, but they get really pissed off when you point out that not only are the scales seriously out of balance, but maybe they shouldn’t have left the chocolate fingerprints on everything that they got from the very people their supposed to be reporting fairly upon…

  33. 33.

    PsiFighter37

    Fairly standard speech for Biden. I sure hope he can give a victory speech tomorrow. Media outlets are fucking assholes for trying to milk eyeballs for advertising dollars.

  36. 36.

    Kent

    Drip drip drip.  The numbers keep creeping up.  Since this thread started the PA lead has gone up by 1700 to 28,833.  And the GA number keeps creeping up bit by bit and now sits at 4,395

    Earlier Andrea Mitchell let slip that if the PA lead his 35,000 they are going to have to call it at NBC and MSNBC.  I’m not sure if that is some actual threshold or just her opinion.  They are 6200 away from that.

  38. 38.

    JoyceH

    The crucial quote from the Biden speech that I texted to a friend was that the voters “have given us a mandate for change.”  I was all YES YES YES!

    But I thought he sounded a little hoarse. He needs to pamper his throat for a few days.

  41. 41.

    Curtis

    They should have called this election hours ago. I guess because of covid and mail-in ballots, their normal predictive models are out of whack, but it’s getting silly at this point.

  42. 42.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PsiFighter37: My guess is they’ll give it through the weekend and if the news media can’t/won’t get the stick out, Biden’ll do a speech explaining why there is no way the president can make the deficits up and there is no legal remedies to him and that they’re formally beginning the transition and the President and his administration can be part of moving the Nation forward by performing their final acts of public service or not, but either way, that business is going to begin.

  43. 43.

    dmsilev

    @Kent: 35,000 is 0.5 percent, which I believe is the recount threshold in PA. If you’re going to draw a ‘will make the call here’ line, that seems like a reasonable choice.

  46. 46.

    guachi

    I think 35000 puts Biden’s lead at about 0.5% and that is some kind of magic threshold for calling it.

  47. 47.

    frosty

    I saw the kid too. Not quite as funny as the toddler and the wife with the British guy several months ago, but yeah, Dad’s on camera, I’d better back out of here.

     

    ETA: Sharp eye, Adam, I can’t believe you noticed enough of that to get a screen shot!

  50. 50.

    Dan B

    @Wyatt Salamanca: All the nonverbal cues add up.  I had hundreds of people tell me that the non- verbal cues mattered whenever I was on radio or TV, or telling my story about being a gay kid who didn’t find anyone like him for years moved them.  We took down or blindsided so many bigots by telling stories instead of arguing facts.

    I got on TV, radio, and the papers when I went to an anti-gay “conversion therapy” event at a local mega-church.  The organizer cruised 40 year old me.  The young presenters looked downtrodden.  I ended up on TV, not by my choice.  I said they felt sad and that my life was happy because I knew where I could find and spread love.  The next day I was on a local right winger show.  He couldn’t take me down the road he wanted because I didn’t attack him.  I told my feelings and my history.

    Near the end I said I had to get back to work.  That was the truth.  My Mike guy was stunned.  Not long after the anti-gay forces lost.

    I failed at all the professional gay communication spokesman trainings.  They are better but you don’t have to be perfect to change the world.

  51. 51.

    different-church-lady

    I’m drunk as skunk, but I’m getting the feeling things are breaking in a a way that even the 3-6 supremos are not going to be able to steal this away.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    @frosty: I first noticed the Count. Then I hit pause, backed it up a frame or two and hit pause again, realized all the other items he had, and decided to take a picture with my iPad.

  54. 54.

    OGLiberal

    Great eye on the shelf.  That kid reacted exactly like my son would have.

    We’ve have the kids watching the PBS News Hour. (or, sometimes, the Beeb, which is on right before on our local public broadcasting station)  It ain’t perfect but it’s an hour, they have some good in-depth stuff, and they are mostly doing their stuff from home.  What my kids always notice are the pets in the background since most of them are broadcasting from home.  My daughter just found this vid from earlier this year featuring the pets:

    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1133120410398347

    My kids love Lisa Desjardins’ cat because he’s almost always there and all he does is sleep or groom on the couch in the back.  I will note – and I’m sure this is not unique – that one of our cats love being in whatever room it is where her people are talking.  I’m sure that’s why these pets wander on to cam so frequently.  The teen in the vid featured in this post?  He had no idea.

  56. 56.

    Melusine

    Thanks for pointing out those details, Adam! It’s reassuring to see officials signaling a commitment to democracy.

  58. 58.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jeffro:

    You should see my students’ eyes bug out when I bring a boombox to class (back when there was such a thing as a class). Some things I want to play for them I have only on cassette tape or CD.

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    @different-church-lady: There is not enough out in NV, AZ, or PA for Trump to overcome the deficits he’s got. This also appears to be the case in GA. As for the legal stuff, all the things they’ve tried to litigate have gone nowhere because they don’t have anything. When you spend 35 years smoking your own stash of “voter fraud is rampant, the Democrats are always stealing elections so we have to do all these security things that just by complete happenstance disenfranchise everyone who doesn’t vote for us” despite there being no evidence whatsoever, when you get into court and you don’t have any evidence not even partisan judges can help you very much.

  62. 62.

    clay

    My wife literally teared up during Biden’s speech.  “We finally have a President again,” she said.

  65. 65.

    zhena gogolia

    I just realized I haven’t gotten an e-mail all evening. I thought — is there a malfunction? Then I realized: the election is over (sort of).

  66. 66.

    Redshift

    @JoyceH:

    The crucial quote from the Biden speech that I texted to a friend was that the voters “have given us a mandate for change.”  I was all YES YES YES! 

    Me, too! I’m so glad that Joe gets that he needs to claim a mandate right from the beginning. And unlike the GOP, he doesn’t have to lie to do it, because he actually got a sizeable majority of the votes!

  69. 69.

    Another Scott

    @Dan B: Thanks for that.

    You’ve got a lot of great stories and an important history.  I hope that you think about writing a memoir.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  71. 71.

    different-church-lady

    I mean honestly, I’m thinking this is what it was like when Sese Seko got expelled. Dictators dictate utterly until the moment enough pepole sense they’re weak and vulnerable, and then they get ditched in a heartbeat.

  76. 76.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: It looks to be mostly resolved. She has a little bit of peeling on her cheeks but it’s almost gone. I have super-sensitive skin, and I get rashes frequently. I still don’t know what triggered this one.

  77. 77.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Adam L Silverman: the a-hole who refused to speak to the journalist who asked him to mask up at the Capitol. Also the one who had the 300 person wedding for the daughter over the summer. Zero empathy.

    My favorite person of the day was the Philly official(Mayor?) I was listening on the radio. Anyway he asked Orange Dbag to put his big boy pants on and concede like Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and George HW Bush did.

  78. 78.

    Kattails

    I would like to have an actual celebratory drink, rather than a “damp down the anxiety” drink.

  79. 79.

    guachi

    Since Steve Bullock lost in Montana he should be Secretary of the Interior. One of his campaign slogans was “public lands in public hands”. It’s a really big deal in Montana.

    To give you an idea how important it is to Montanans, the 1972 Montana Constitution states that all waterways in Montana are property of the state.

  80. 80.

    Another Scott

    DC will be 51.

    Puerto Rico wants to be 52.

    Route 50:

    Voters in Puerto Rico declared this week they want to move forward with trying to turn the territory into the 51st state.

    The nonbinding measure, approved by a 52% to 48% margin, gives Puerto Ricans the go-ahead to pressure Congress toward granting statehood—but whether or not the U.S. House and Senate will be receptive remains to be seen.

    The vote on Tuesday was the sixth time Puerto Ricans cast ballots on the question of statehood, a proposal that received overwhelming support in both 2012 and 2017. The voter turnout this year, however, was much higher than the last time Puerto Rico weighed the issue, at 51% compared to 23% in 2017. (In 2017, statehood opponents and those who favor complete political independence encouraged a boycott of the vote because they considered the wording of the ballot question unfairly skewed towards statehood.)

    With the 2020 ballot measure now approved, the governor will appoint a seven-member commission to represent the territory in negotiations with the United States. The process for adding states to the union isn’t set in stone, but generally requires the territory to present a plan to Congress and the president, after which a simple majority approval in the U.S. House and Senate, followed by the president’s signature, can result in the territory’s admission as a state.

    […]

    Success breeds success. More, please.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  81. 81.

    Yutsano

    @Adam L Silverman: Okay Mr. Run-on. :P

    I know exactly why no one is calling the race. No one wants to be “first”. No one wants to bring the wrath of his supporters on them. So they’re all hemming and hawing, waiting for the other guy to jump off that cliff first. I mean, they actually had Steve Kornacki give some massive bullpuckey about how the provisional votes were starting to drag towards Drumpf. It’s getting ridiculous.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mai Naem mobile: Mark Meadows is what happens when the guy who owns the sandwich shop in the semi-rural bedroom community outside the university town decides he’s a history changing figure who knows more about anything and everything than the actual subject matter experts.

  86. 86.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yutsano: It is ridiculous. But as I said last night:

    Kornacki is actually a statistics doctoral candidate who died in a horrifying, but tragic card reading machine accident in 1962. MSNBC uses that coffee Joy Ann Reid drinks to always be wired on air, combined with datura stramonium (Zombie cucumber) to reanimate him for election season. The rest of the time they keep him on ice in the 30 Rock basement.

  88. 88.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: Yeah, I have sensitive skin, too.  Got it from my dad.  I call it my “princess and the pea skin” because it’s so fussy.

    Glad to hear it’s clearing up so you don’t need to worry!

  91. 91.

    different-church-lady

    So…

    Nothing in the world can ever make the fact that Trump became president in the first place right.

    But…

    Consider this: once you’ve been president of the United States… there’s nowhere else to go. Trump will be chasing this dragon for the rest of his miserable existence.

  96. 96.

    Keith P.

    @Yutsano: Naa, this is about dragging out the ratings for as many days as possible.  Well, not Fox News….I *highly* doubt they’ll call the race first, given how much of a headache that’s been for the re: Team Trump

    @different-church-lady: Trump’s gonna be having dragons chasing him for the next couple of years.

  99. 99.

    Kristine

    @Yutsano:

    I mean, they actually had Steve Kornacki give some massive bullpuckey about how the provisional votes were starting to drag towards Drumpf. It’s getting ridiculous.

    The AZ-based reporter also discussed how Trump was closing the gap in AZ and is therefore not out of it yet. This despite the fact that he’s still losing PA, his must-win state. I gave up and switched to Ant-Man.

  103. 103.

    Gravenstone

    @WaterGirl: Likely too recent to have developed it yet if he was exposed there. But I’m willing to bet he was absolutely passing it around there.

  106. 106.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I neither know nor care to be honest. If he was just some stupid goober like Gohmert who wound up well above where he should’ve been and was relatively harmless, other than the occasional stunt rooted in his being stupid and unaware of that fact, it would be one thing. But he’s malevolently stupid and he’s ambitious and found a way to combine those into being exceedingly harmful to the Republic. I have no empathy or sympathy for him because, frankly, he has none for anyone else.

  112. 112.

    oldgold

    @JenniferJJacobs

    NEWS: Along with Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, at least FOUR other White House aides currently have coronavirus, per sources. Pains were taken to keep Meadows’ illness a secret, I’m told. And people around him who knew were told to keep quiet.

  121. 121.

    dww44

    @WaterGirl: Yep.  I was looking forward a bit to having not so many emails in my inbox.  But this result is just so worth it.  The Democratic party here has not held a state wide office since 2002 when Sonny Perdue became the first GOP Governor.  Like most GOP’ers of his era he, too, was once a Democrat.  He’s a far better politician than his cousin David.  Neither of them win any plaudits in other arena.  Both of them, though, hail from the same county just below here that Sam Nunn is from.  A very strong Republican stronghold it is now. And highly dependent, economically, on defense spending.

  122. 122.

    Mary G

    I love this Pete Souza photo; it illustrates past and future America the way Norman Rockwell might paint it if he was alive:

    Madison, Wisconsin, this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/WvCkur3n7t
    — Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) November 6, 2020

    The woman is so furious and the young man is just standing there with a twinkle in his eye and probably a smile beneath his mask.

  129. 129.

    different-church-lady

    What, your freude is not Schaden enough yet? Regarde!

    Special Counsel has opened an investigation into Trump’s use of the White House for campaign-related activities, Reuters reports

  131. 131.

    hotshoe

    @oldgold:

    Every one of them who was told and then agreed to keep the secret in spite of the danger of infection for innocent other people, should be chained in stocks in downtown NY from now until January.

    Merciful, they can remain clothed.

  133. 133.

    frosty

    @Lyrebird-on-tablet: I lurve Fetterman. He would have beaten Toomey if the PA Dems had gotten behind him. That being said, I think he’s a better match for an executive position than legislative. The guy wants to get stuff done.

  134. 134.

    Another Scott

    Networks are right to have held off on a call even though Biden’s win has been obvious since election night. Nothing should be called until we have a live Trumpcam set up to get his reaction. Or a fox and friends call in would be ideal. We deserve to see this.

    — Ben Tribbett (@notlarrysabato) November 7, 2020

    Let a million memes bloom.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  135. 135.

    Amir Khalid

    @different-church-lady:

    What, your freude is not Schaden enough yet?

    Tsk, tsk. Your question should be “What, his Schade has not brought you enough Freude yet?” (Schade = misfortune, Freude = joy)

    Yes, I’m such a pedant that I learned German just so I could pedant in that language as well.

  137. 137.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Adam L Silverman: All good points so then let consider the kind of abuse Trump must be lobbing at Medows right now for failing to steal the election for Trump. That and COVID couldn’t happen to nicer guy than Medows.

  140. 140.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Dump is opening fire on everyone but his family. (for now)

    “WWWAAHHHHH!!!!!  Why didn’t everyone kiss my fat, orange, fascist ass the past four years!???  I’m tremendous bigly!!!!”

    States’ AG’s are gunning for the Soviet shitpile mobster conman.

  142. 142.

    Elizabelle

    @Lyrebird-on-tablet:   Love that article, and the links within about John Fetterman.  What a cool guy, with a wonderful wife and family.

    Knew a little bit about him, and will now follow him more closely.

  146. 146.

    mrmoshpotato

    GBBOtb – Great British Bake Off then bed.

    Good night.  (We’ll see what the morning brings us (aside from more Biden votes))

  147. 147.

    trnc

    @guachi: 

    I think 35000 puts Biden’s lead at about 0.5% and that is some kind of magic threshold for calling it.

    It’s the automatic recount threshold. Since recounts don’t generally change outcomes, the news orgs would probably call it at that point. I would expect DT will demand a recount anyway, but the campaign would have to pay for it and it’s unclear whether they have maxed out their credit cards on hookers and blow.

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