Cipheron on 9/11/2024 at 20:47
This article was a good take on the results:
(
https://newrepublic.com/post/188197/trump-media-information-landscape-fox)
Quote:
Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won?
It wasn't the economy. It wasn't inflation, or anything else. It was how people perceive those things, which points to one overpowering answer.
I've had a lot of conversations since Tuesday revolving around the question of why Donald Trump won. The economy and inflation. Kamala Harris didn't do this or that. Sexism and racism. The border. That trans-inmate ad that ran a jillion times. And so on.
These conversations have usually proceeded along lines where people ask incredulously how a majority of voters could have believed this or that. Weren't they bothered that Trump is a convicted felon? An adjudicated rapist? Didn't his invocation of violence against Liz Cheney, or 50 other examples of his disgusting imprecations, obviously disqualify him? And couldn't they see that Harris, whatever her shortcomings, was a fundamentally smart, honest, well-meaning person who would show basic respect for the Constitution and wouldn't do anything weird as president?
The answer is obviously no—not enough people were able to see any of those things. At which point people throw up their hands and say, “I give up.”
People can't be "bothered" by details that they don't know about, because the eco-system they're in makes sure they don't know about them. That shifts the Overton Window, and when real actual facts do creep in at the sides they sound of place, like someone is trying to trick them.
Quote:
Back to the campaign. I asked Gertz what I call my “Ulan Bator question.” If someone moved to America from Ulan Bator, Mongolia in the summer and watched only Fox News, what would that person learn about Kamala Harris? “You would know that she is a very stupid person,” Gertz said. “You'd know that she orchestrated a coup against Joe Biden. That she's a crazed extremist. And that she very much does not care about you.”
Same Ulan Bator question about Trump? That he's been “the target of a vicious witch-hunt for years and years,” that he is under constant assault; and most importantly, that he is “doing it all for you.”
The liberal venture capital and ad-supported online media all fizzled out because they rely on revenues, and especially with ad capture by Facebook and Google, those revenues dried up in the mid 2010s.
The few big right-wing billionaires who funded the right-wing media ecosystem have just kept pouring money into it. That's the difference in how things ended up here.
Quote:
I haven't even gotten to the economy, about which there is so much to say. Yes—inflation is real. But the Biden economy has been great in many ways. The U.S. economy, wrote The Economist in mid-October, is “the envy of the world.” But in the right-wing media, the horror stories were relentless. And mainstream economic reporting too often followed that lead. Allow me to make the world's easiest prediction: After 12:00 noon next January 20, it won't take Fox News and Fox Business even a full hour to start locating every positive economic indicator they can find and start touting those. Within weeks, the “roaring Trump economy” will be conventional wisdom. (Eventually, as some of the fruits from the long tail of Bidenomics start growing on the vine, Trump may become the beneficiary of some real-world facts as well, taking credit for that which he opposed and regularly denounced.)
Vae on 9/11/2024 at 21:25
Quote Posted by heywood
An interesting story to me is Dearborn, MI. It's majority Muslim and not small, ~100k population. 18% voted for Jill Stein to protest Gaza, and that flipped it for Trump. I wonder if they are proud of their victory.
Amer Ghalib—Democratic Muslim Mayor Of Hamtramck, Michigan—Encourages Voters To Back Trump At Rally...
[video=youtube;tEx4aDtYn0s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEx4aDtYn0s[/video]
Nicker on 9/11/2024 at 21:34
Sent the treasonous, thieving rapist back to the White House so he can rob the country blind, escape consequences for his insurrection and fuck over his supporters.
Idiots come in all stripes.
DuatDweller on 13/11/2024 at 07:11
Don't you love efficiency and electric cars?
Starker on 13/11/2024 at 08:21
Yes, give the billionaires direct power over regulations and government agencies... what could go wrong? Why not get rid of the Department of Education while you're at it... oh, wait.
I guess this is the new era where billionaires just openly buy direct access to the government to shape it for their benefit. No need for all that pesky lobbying and trying to pretend otherwise.
lowenz on 13/11/2024 at 11:48
Quote Posted by Starker
Yes, give the billionaires direct power over regulations and government agencies... what could go wrong? Why not get rid of the Department of Education while you're at it... oh, wait.
I guess this is the new era where billionaires just openly buy direct access to the government to shape it for their benefit. No need for all that pesky lobbying and trying to pretend otherwise.
heywood on 13/11/2024 at 12:07
Not a new government agency, but an outside group that's more like an advisory panel, so Musk won't have any regulatory authority. His business interests prevent him from being in government. Musk as NASA administrator would be interesting, but he owns SpaceX, so that doesn't work.
We've had government efficiency initiatives before. Reagan created the Grace Commission during his first term. It had limited effect because most of their major cost saving recommendations were ignored by Congress. During the Clinton administration, Al Gore ran the National Partnership for Reinventing Government which was likewise only marginally successful.
I kind of doubt that Musk is really going to sink his teeth into it given the other things competing for his time, but honestly this is probably Trump's best pick besides his own chief of staff. The dog shooter as Secretary of Homeland Security is depressing. During his last administration, he went through a half dozen acting secretaries and made DHS a shit show. I thought he'd have a strong pick this time given his immigration focus. DHS needs continuity of leadership, not a media circus. But the biggest head scratcher is Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. He's a Fox News TV presenter.
Sulphur on 13/11/2024 at 12:22
Predictably, Dogecoin trading volume just went up. Reality has nothing on satire, per usual.
Starker on 13/11/2024 at 13:57
Quote Posted by heywood
But the biggest head scratcher is Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. He's a Fox News TV presenter.
The entire list is a who's who of who brown-nosed the hardest. Also, it is not a list of the picks for the positions, but rather a list of positions to be given out as rewards.
