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This week we’re talkin’ midterms and one very short term. England has been especially interesting these last few months, and we’re always happy to have Toby Young with us. He has much to say about the lightning-fast deterioration of Liz Truss, and the Conservative Party that may go down with her. Then Jim Geraghty returns to breakdown this peculiar midterm cycle. He gets into Fetterman, Oz, Walker, Abrams, O’Rourke and a few local races.
Steve Hayward fills in for a jet-lagged Peter. He, James and Rob chat about the big semiconductor restrictions the Biden administration and they have a great time laughing at the greenies who can’t even get VW to submit to their demands.
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At least the intro, needs to be re-done.
I tried to use Express VPN to watch US Netflix, and got detected and blocked immediately.
Yeah the “pretend to be in another country” doesn’t really work for Netflix etc, unless they want it to. Even if your IP says you’re in another country, you have to login to your account and then they know who you are, and where you really are.
Also, the VPN servers will be using the same IP for multiple people, so if Netflix etc see a bunch of US customers trying to access programs from an IP in Australia or something, it becomes easy to just block that IP.
So, I think the ad copy needs to change, because it doesn’t work.
Something I’ve “complained about” for quite a while, but they get paid to say those ads.
Fixed!
Albeit deceptive advertising.
I don’t know what Rob’s sources are, but—despite my reservations in saying so out loud—I bet he’s a good bit off the mark when it comes to the non-wave election he’s expecting. The disaffected Republican mantra of this cycle, that their polling problem is the result of subpar candidates (never mind many of the Founders’ desire for citizen legislatures) is as tiresome as fat women jokes. (FWIW, I am not and never have been a Republican or a Democrat and, thanks to colon cancer, I’m pretty thin, so I’m not personally offended, just irritated, by this view.) Not to mention that everyone knows not to take polls seriously until late September, when guess what? The gap began to close and is continuing to close. If Republicans don’t vote for Dr. Oz because he comes from TV (no hat tip to Ronald Reagan?) or Hershel Walker because he isn’t as polished as they want him to be (despite proffering the best pro-life comment in any political debate I’ve ever seen) or Kari Lake is too transparent in her thinking (no one knows that the election was fairly conducted inasmuch as the votes were never—and cannot be—audited). My view is that these voters care more for aesthetics than the incredible harm that’s actually befallen the most vulnerable of the body politic over the past twenty months.
Thank you, @stevenhayward, for always being so unshakeably cheerful. You are the Platonic ideal of a Happy Warrior.
If the commercial media polling looks this bad, I wonder what the campaigns are looking at. Campaign polls are more rigorous.
The candidates, of course, are dishonest to a fault. I listened to O’Rourke last Sunday talking about how he’s never been so optimistic. Five days later the University of Texas poll puts him down 11. But they have debts to pay (unless you’re Evan McMuffin and then you just ignore them) and they need to say that stuff to keep the money flowing.
.Compared to people like Katie Hobbs, Evan McMullin, Raphael the Warlock et al, most Republican candidates don’t look bad at all.
The VW discussion at the end was top notch. It’s an interesting flip of the script as Volkswagen, the lefty lifestyle brand before there was a name for it, and ride of hippies and Baby Boomers of a certain political persuasion now is on the other side of the protest movement. I guess if you last long enough you really do become The Man. But in this case, The Man just wants to make make money, be done with persistent supply chain issues, and not be bothered with latrine-challenged weirdos bent on the end of civilization as we know it — and drive in it. Great show!
Fahrverglüen.
Nice!
I wish I would have thought of that on Friday… about 3ET…
“Had”, peasant. “Had.”
I confess that my alternative would have been unprintable, had I offered one at the time. Hint: would have started with the same letter.
All told, I think you hit the right tone :-)
The only two people that think the DNC will hold the House and lose the Senate are Rob Long and Nancy Pelosi.
All polling reports in MSM are propaganda. They are not “bad” or “off”, they are intentional lies.
I don’t blame a candidate for staying confident. Acting like a loser is a self-fulfilling act. That said Robert Francis O’Rourke has a lot of money and is hitting three things (that I see): (1) deadly failure of electricity grid in 2021, (2) 19 dead kids in Uvalde (3) “women’s rights”. Abbott talks about crime.
2/3 of those should be easy layups for Abbott, and frankly, the abortion issue should still split, perhaps even in his favor.
Of course, Beto’s – and the Democrats’ – “solutions” to those three things he’s “hitting” would make them all much worse.
Rob’s unqualified belief in technological progress is exceeded only by his naivete about what it takes to “win” in politics, and maybe his disdain for the average American voter. I often wonder why he isn’t in high demand by political campaigns on both sides of the aisle.