Octopus Overlords

Grifman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:18 pm I'll note today that Bloomberg has really gone back on what he promised. He initially promised an expensive superpac to take on Trump. Now, he's just donated $18 million to the Democrats and called it a day. What is going on here? Sour grapes? Why has he changed his mind so dramatically?

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/81892953 ... atic-party

Defiant wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:36 pm If Trump doesn't lose by landslide proportions, considering what we're about to go through, I weep for this country.

Defiant wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:36 pm If Trump doesn't lose by landslide proportions, considering what we're about to go through, I weep for this country.

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 10:08 pm NK's going to get tired of being ignored.

North Korea fired an unidentified projectile into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, Yonhap said on Saturday, citing South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

gilraen wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:27 pm

Grifman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:18 pm I'll note today that Bloomberg has really gone back on what he promised. He initially promised an expensive superpac to take on Trump. Now, he's just donated $18 million to the Democrats and called it a day. What is going on here? Sour grapes? Why has he changed his mind so dramatically?

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/81892953 ... atic-party

I'll wait to pass judgment on that until after the Democratic convention. It's very possible he wants to prop up the DNC so they can finish out the primaries with the minimal amount of damage to the ultimate Dem candidate. Once the general election mode kicks in, it's a whole different game.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 11:12 pm

gilraen wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:27 pm

Grifman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:18 pm I'll note today that Bloomberg has really gone back on what he promised. He initially promised an expensive superpac to take on Trump. Now, he's just donated $18 million to the Democrats and called it a day. What is going on here? Sour grapes? Why has he changed his mind so dramatically?

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/81892953 ... atic-party

I'll wait to pass judgment on that until after the Democratic convention. It's very possible he wants to prop up the DNC so they can finish out the primaries with the minimal amount of damage to the ultimate Dem candidate. Once the general election mode kicks in, it's a whole different game.

Most likely explanation is that Bloomberg's an untrustworthy asshole.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 11:12 pm

gilraen wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:27 pm

Grifman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:18 pm I'll note today that Bloomberg has really gone back on what he promised. He initially promised an expensive superpac to take on Trump. Now, he's just donated $18 million to the Democrats and called it a day. What is going on here? Sour grapes? Why has he changed his mind so dramatically?

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/81892953 ... atic-party

I'll wait to pass judgment on that until after the Democratic convention. It's very possible he wants to prop up the DNC so they can finish out the primaries with the minimal amount of damage to the ultimate Dem candidate. Once the general election mode kicks in, it's a whole different game.

Most likely explanation is that Bloomberg's an untrustworthy asshole.

Kraken wrote:YK, are you assuming a fair election?

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 7:59 pm

Kraken wrote:YK, are you assuming a fair election?

I'm assuming about the same level of fairness as 2016. I think that's best case scenario.

malchior wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:09 pm If Biden continues to have weeks like this one it won't matter anyway.

Kraken wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:34 pm

malchior wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:09 pm If Biden continues to have weeks like this one it won't matter anyway.

Did he say/do something that I missed, or just fade into irrelevance?

malchior wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:46 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:34 pm

malchior wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:09 pm If Biden continues to have weeks like this one it won't matter anyway.

Did he say/do something that I missed, or just fade into irrelevance?

Faded out. He is invisible.

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:13 pm I’m not sure what you would expect from Biden this week. The news is dominated by the Coronavirus; anything he said or did would be a small blip.

malchior wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:08 am

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:13 pm I’m not sure what you would expect from Biden this week. The news is dominated by the Coronavirus; anything he said or did would be a small blip.

He is a Presidential candidate so I expect him to be visible. Bernie was *far* more visible and Joe needs to avoid stories like this. Still I agree it is likely it'll be hard to break in. But this is a big crisis and he is running for a big person seat. He needs to deliver ideas. In fact, I'll go further and say that Pelosi and Schumer have been lying down on the job too. They've been periodically appearing on friendly networks but they've been letting Trump and Mitch and even Andrew Cuomo to drive the discussion. An example about how most Democrats are holistically bad at politics. The administration may be flailing around hopeless but they've kept their hands on the wheel without much challenge. The Democrats had many opportunities to seize the story and provide leadership. They largely haven't.

Biden actually did a good job at an example of this actually. When Trump was fumbling around 2 weeks ago, Biden went on all the stations and gave a speech on 'his plan', and Trump actually shaped up. That's leadership. Then Joe went back into hibernation and Trump has continued going on tv everyday and acting a fool without a response. That said, it appears that someone literally must have been yelling at Joe to get it together because according to Politico he plans to start holding "shadow" Coronavirus briefings. I hope that is the start of a turn around. It's luckily still early but this isn't a good sign. This election is going to get so, so much worse and these guys really need to have their game together.

Grifman wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 10:08 am

malchior wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:08 am

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:13 pm I’m not sure what you would expect from Biden this week. The news is dominated by the Coronavirus; anything he said or did would be a small blip.

He is a Presidential candidate so I expect him to be visible. Bernie was *far* more visible and Joe needs to avoid stories like this. Still I agree it is likely it'll be hard to break in. But this is a big crisis and he is running for a big person seat. He needs to deliver ideas. In fact, I'll go further and say that Pelosi and Schumer have been lying down on the job too. They've been periodically appearing on friendly networks but they've been letting Trump and Mitch and even Andrew Cuomo to drive the discussion. An example about how most Democrats are holistically bad at politics. The administration may be flailing around hopeless but they've kept their hands on the wheel without much challenge. The Democrats had many opportunities to seize the story and provide leadership. They largely haven't.

Biden actually did a good job at an example of this actually. When Trump was fumbling around 2 weeks ago, Biden went on all the stations and gave a speech on 'his plan', and Trump actually shaped up. That's leadership. Then Joe went back into hibernation and Trump has continued going on tv everyday and acting a fool without a response. That said, it appears that someone literally must have been yelling at Joe to get it together because according to Politico he plans to start holding "shadow" Coronavirus briefings. I hope that is the start of a turn around. It's luckily still early but this isn't a good sign. This election is going to get so, so much worse and these guys really need to have their game together.

I think you are being a bit unfair and unrealistic.

What we are going through is unprecedented. People/campaigns are just now realizing what the world is going to be like for the next few months. Things need to be adjusted, calibrated. How do you campaign in this environment? Will you come off a tone deaf given the crisis the country/world are in? How do you remain relevant? What can you do or say without being too political given the current situation? I don't think anyone knows what the correct answer is.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:46 am What specifically do you want Biden to do, other than "be better" and "lead"? In other words, what specific actions do you want that he is not doing?

Kraken wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 1:39 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:46 am What specifically do you want Biden to do, other than "be better" and "lead"? In other words, what specific actions do you want that he is not doing?

Maybe stake an opinion on the $2 trillion fight happening in Congress right now? If Biden has one, it didn't register. He could be sharing Pelosi's headlines.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:27 am I'm sure his response could be better, almost by definition. But sometimes "he should do stuff, but better" type criticism gets a little tedious.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:46 am What specifically do you want Biden to do, other than "be better" and "lead"? In other words, what specific actions do you want that he is not doing?

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:27 am I'm sure his response could be better, almost by definition. But sometimes "he should do stuff, but better" type criticism gets a little tedious.

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:36 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:27 am I'm sure his response could be better, almost by definition. But sometimes "he should do stuff, but better" type criticism gets a little tedious.

The reflexive defenses of the candidate are pretty tedious too. He was invisible for almost a week as the leading candidate. I don't get how thinking that's worth commenting on is a controversial opinion. He was just starting to get bad coverage because he was obviously missing from the discussion. I'll stress again that it is only a yellow flag at this point. That said, I'm curious to see how his shadow briefings go.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:46 am What specifically do you want Biden to do, other than "be better" and "lead"? In other words, what specific actions do you want that he is not doing?

Here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head - some are low effort/cost:

Get on tv regularly - Trump is literally running a campaign rally every day on captive networks who won't turn him off. He needs to counter act that. The shadow briefings hopefully will help with this. He needs to be focused and on point for each one to contrast Trump's style.

Virtual rallies - Find segments or cross-segments of folks that his campaign wants to target. Get them to sit in front of a laptop and hold a virtual town hall with them. Put it on Twitch if he has to. Partner with a network. Whatever they have to do.

Put together a 30 - 60 second spot once or twice a day and speak to the public about his vision. Blast it out on twitter, Facebook, everywhere.

Anyway, you get the idea. Lead. You can't lead if you're invisible.

Scraper wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:56 am I'm calling Florida for Biden right now. This is based solely on Primary voting numbers. If you look at votes received Biden lost to Trump by just 77,000 votes. Trump lost about 70,000 votes to other republicans. Biden lost about 640,000 votes to other democrat nominees. Assuming all 70K Republican votes go to Trump, Biden still only needs to win about 30% of those 640,000 votes to beat Trump in November (Assuming the other 70% don't vote for Trump).

There's a lot of assumptions there, but overall the party vote totals for the Florida primary are heavily in Biden's favor.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:56 am

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:36 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:27 am I'm sure his response could be better, almost by definition. But sometimes "he should do stuff, but better" type criticism gets a little tedious.

The reflexive defenses of the candidate are pretty tedious too. He was invisible for almost a week as the leading candidate. I don't get how thinking that's worth commenting on is a controversial opinion. He was just starting to get bad coverage because he was obviously missing from the discussion. I'll stress again that it is only a yellow flag at this point. That said, I'm curious to see how his shadow briefings go.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:46 am What specifically do you want Biden to do, other than "be better" and "lead"? In other words, what specific actions do you want that he is not doing?

Here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head - some are low effort/cost:

Get on tv regularly - Trump is literally running a campaign rally every day on captive networks who won't turn him off. He needs to counter act that. The shadow briefings hopefully will help with this. He needs to be focused and on point for each one to contrast Trump's style.

Virtual rallies - Find segments or cross-segments of folks that his campaign wants to target. Get them to sit in front of a laptop and hold a virtual town hall with them. Put it on Twitch if he has to. Partner with a network. Whatever they have to do.

Put together a 30 - 60 second spot once or twice a day and speak to the public about his vision. Blast it out on twitter, Facebook, everywhere.

Anyway, you get the idea. Lead. You can't lead if you're invisible.

This is helpful. Mainly I find generic "he should do better" type criticism to be not all that useful, vs. specific ideas / proposals on what he should be doing. Though good luck getting people to log into a virtual political rally.

I do wonder about what's the best way to run a political campaign under COVID restrictions, as the worst case scenario would be Biden getting a severe (possibly even fatal) case of coronavirus. It seems like it should be doable to hold campaign rallies from the perspective of Biden's safety, as long as he has a separate entrance to wherever and the stage is sufficiently far from supporters. The issue would be that it would be wildly unsafe for the attendees, which (1) risks a bad turnout that would generate negative media stories; and (2) is irresponsible from the perspective of public safety.

BUT on the other hand staying at home in Delaware and doing whatever digitally I think creates the impression of weakness and hiding, which is likely to generate negative media stories like we've seen this week. But I'm honestly unsure what you do that's safe and is likely to generate good media coverage. Biden does have a lot of Obama administration pandemic people on his staff - I wonder whether it would do good to have them start interfacing with governors, corporations, etc. to act as sort of a shadow government in response to the pandemic. Is that helpful, or is that just going to generate more confusion?

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:17 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:56 am

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:36 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:27 am I'm sure his response could be better, almost by definition. But sometimes "he should do stuff, but better" type criticism gets a little tedious.

The reflexive defenses of the candidate are pretty tedious too. He was invisible for almost a week as the leading candidate. I don't get how thinking that's worth commenting on is a controversial opinion. He was just starting to get bad coverage because he was obviously missing from the discussion. I'll stress again that it is only a yellow flag at this point. That said, I'm curious to see how his shadow briefings go.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:46 am What specifically do you want Biden to do, other than "be better" and "lead"? In other words, what specific actions do you want that he is not doing?

Here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head - some are low effort/cost:

Get on tv regularly - Trump is literally running a campaign rally every day on captive networks who won't turn him off. He needs to counter act that. The shadow briefings hopefully will help with this. He needs to be focused and on point for each one to contrast Trump's style.

Virtual rallies - Find segments or cross-segments of folks that his campaign wants to target. Get them to sit in front of a laptop and hold a virtual town hall with them. Put it on Twitch if he has to. Partner with a network. Whatever they have to do.

Put together a 30 - 60 second spot once or twice a day and speak to the public about his vision. Blast it out on twitter, Facebook, everywhere.

Anyway, you get the idea. Lead. You can't lead if you're invisible.

This is helpful. Mainly I find generic "he should do better" type criticism to be not all that useful, vs. specific ideas / proposals on what he should be doing. Though good luck getting people to log into a virtual political rally.

This a problem but eventually they'll have to try. I could think they start this by first partnering with a friendly network - MSNBC comes to mind. They preface it strongly as an experiment, etc. They may fail to launch at first but they have to figure it out in case this event goes long.

stessier wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:55 am

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:17 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:56 am

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:36 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:27 am I'm sure his response could be better, almost by definition. But sometimes "he should do stuff, but better" type criticism gets a little tedious.

The reflexive defenses of the candidate are pretty tedious too. He was invisible for almost a week as the leading candidate. I don't get how thinking that's worth commenting on is a controversial opinion. He was just starting to get bad coverage because he was obviously missing from the discussion. I'll stress again that it is only a yellow flag at this point. That said, I'm curious to see how his shadow briefings go.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:46 am What specifically do you want Biden to do, other than "be better" and "lead"? In other words, what specific actions do you want that he is not doing?

Here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head - some are low effort/cost:

Get on tv regularly - Trump is literally running a campaign rally every day on captive networks who won't turn him off. He needs to counter act that. The shadow briefings hopefully will help with this. He needs to be focused and on point for each one to contrast Trump's style.

Virtual rallies - Find segments or cross-segments of folks that his campaign wants to target. Get them to sit in front of a laptop and hold a virtual town hall with them. Put it on Twitch if he has to. Partner with a network. Whatever they have to do.

Put together a 30 - 60 second spot once or twice a day and speak to the public about his vision. Blast it out on twitter, Facebook, everywhere.

Anyway, you get the idea. Lead. You can't lead if you're invisible.

This is helpful. Mainly I find generic "he should do better" type criticism to be not all that useful, vs. specific ideas / proposals on what he should be doing. Though good luck getting people to log into a virtual political rally.

This a problem but eventually they'll have to try. I could think they start this by first partnering with a friendly network - MSNBC comes to mind. They preface it strongly as an experiment, etc. They may fail to launch at first but they have to figure it out in case this event goes long.

Good luck figuring out how to keep the trolls out. If it's just Biden talking, it could work but will be boring. If he wants to interact, it's doomed to fail.

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:56 am

stessier wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:55 am

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:17 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:56 am

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:36 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:27 am I'm sure his response could be better, almost by definition. But sometimes "he should do stuff, but better" type criticism gets a little tedious.

The reflexive defenses of the candidate are pretty tedious too. He was invisible for almost a week as the leading candidate. I don't get how thinking that's worth commenting on is a controversial opinion. He was just starting to get bad coverage because he was obviously missing from the discussion. I'll stress again that it is only a yellow flag at this point. That said, I'm curious to see how his shadow briefings go.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:46 am What specifically do you want Biden to do, other than "be better" and "lead"? In other words, what specific actions do you want that he is not doing?

Here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head - some are low effort/cost:

Get on tv regularly - Trump is literally running a campaign rally every day on captive networks who won't turn him off. He needs to counter act that. The shadow briefings hopefully will help with this. He needs to be focused and on point for each one to contrast Trump's style.

Virtual rallies - Find segments or cross-segments of folks that his campaign wants to target. Get them to sit in front of a laptop and hold a virtual town hall with them. Put it on Twitch if he has to. Partner with a network. Whatever they have to do.

Put together a 30 - 60 second spot once or twice a day and speak to the public about his vision. Blast it out on twitter, Facebook, everywhere.

Anyway, you get the idea. Lead. You can't lead if you're invisible.

This is helpful. Mainly I find generic "he should do better" type criticism to be not all that useful, vs. specific ideas / proposals on what he should be doing. Though good luck getting people to log into a virtual political rally.

This a problem but eventually they'll have to try. I could think they start this by first partnering with a friendly network - MSNBC comes to mind. They preface it strongly as an experiment, etc. They may fail to launch at first but they have to figure it out in case this event goes long.

Good luck figuring out how to keep the trolls out. If it's just Biden talking, it could work but will be boring. If he wants to interact, it's doomed to fail.

Sounds like a moderation problem. They do this live, right? I don't envision it as a free for all reddit AMA.