Kingdom of Knuffel

Kinda. I dunno....I think its mostly that nothing WORSE is happening...everything going on is just the same level of awful we've been at for a while...sigh....

I really miss the lectures with the congressmen I got to attend over the last semester....it was like getting a reality check every Monday, and now there is no reality. There is only the election coverage.

(Starts laughing hysterically)

I also think this sentence, from an article by data wizard Nate Silver titled How I Acted Like A Pundit and Screwed Up On Trump, sums up where we are right now in the election quite nicely.

If you really expected the Republican front-runner to be bragging about the size of his anatomy in a debate, or to be spending his first week as the presumptive nominee feuding with the Republican speaker of the House and embroiled in a controversy over a tweet about a taco salad, then more power to you.


That sentence perfectly encapsulates the combination of disgust, exasperation, and near-hysterical cognitive dissonance that this election inspires in my soul.

Another great line....Nate Silver is definitely a good writer. (This line is about how the data analysts based their early conclusions about Trump on their own biases, and not actual data)

Without a model as a fortification, we found ourselves rambling around the countryside like all the other pundit-barbarians, randomly setting fire to things.

So here's an idea I had today......

Since the college I go to is for non-traditional students, there's a lot of flexibility in terms of what I can get credit for. So I was thinking of maybe finding Trump voters in my area and interviewing them over the summer, and then turning those interviews into a documentary in the fall as an independent study. I think I might be able to get a full class worth's of credit for doing this...

So if I do that, the first thing I need to figure out is how to talk to these people without shutting them down, but still be true to my own deeply held beliefs. My mom suggested hanging out at our local dive bar and buying people a beer in exchange for talking to me, which would actually probably work. I know for a fact there are a lot of men in that bar who will happily do pretty much anything if a young woman buys them a beer... any other ideas?

Your idea is awesome. I love it. And your mother's idea is perfect as well. Not too sure how to go about talking to those people while not starting something on accident. I'm sure you will figure something out. I wish you the best of luck with this. If I think of anything, I'll make sure to let you know.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... ge%2Fstory

Okay, this article is hilarious. Its titled The 10 Most Tortured Republican Responses to Donald Trump, its about the lengths Republican lawmakers are going to to avoid endorsing Trump. This part is really funny...

Bruce Poliquin, a vulnerable incumbent from Maine who has repeatedly met reporters' questions about Trump with awkward silences. A rundown:

"Good question," he said in March when asked if he'd appear with Trump in his district. And then, from Politico: "An uncomfortable pause ensued as the question hung in the air and Poliquin waited for an elevator to the House floor."

HA! I mean, what else are these guys gonna do? They're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Of course, they wouldn't be having this problem if they had any ethics in the first place, but it's still hard not to pity them.

Here's another segment about the same guy. Hilarious! He's straight up just giving the media the silent treatment cause he just can't. He just can't.

On Friday, Roll Call asked him again whether he'd support Trump and reported he "stared straight ahead and occasionally looked at his phone, walking briskly from the House floor to another press conference."

HAHA that is priceless. Too bad they don't feel comfortable enough to speak out
and say no way are they going to have anything to do with Trump. But it's kinda understandable.

Yeah.

I'm getting more and more convinced that what we're witnessing will, one way or another, eventually break the two-party structure. I don't think the Republican party heads or the Democratic party heads are competent enough to put things back together after November...