Election day 2021 with mostly all-eyes on the Virginia governor’s race, along with contests for mayor in Boston, Atlanta, Minneapolis, New York, and Buffalo (NY), with horrible one-sided races — Democrats want to govern, Republicans want to lie and whine about the evils of all kinds of shit without a thought on voters real concerns.
And the media is helping the GQPers scream about idiotic shiny objects.

Bad journalism starts at the top:

An NYT report describes the “palpable” energy among Youngkin supporters with quotes from a "Hillary-Biden" parent about how Dems are losing the culture war. But the story actually ended up illustrating how propaganda can be laundered into news reports. https://t.co/xYx25k7u1b

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 2, 2021

The NYT article literally has ‘both sides‘ in the headline — some snips from Rupar’s Public Notice report this morning:

Youngkin has surged in the polls in his race against Democrat Terry McAuliffe as he’s focused his campaign on the culture war in general and in particular on purported liberal overreach in schools.
The Virginia contest, which is regarded as a toss up hours before polls close, is widely seen as a bellwether for 2022, and Youngkin’s focus on issues like school curriculum and trans-inclusive policies are regarded by some as a roadmap for how Republicans can take back control of at least one chamber of Congress.

That Youngkin has such a good chance of winning a state President Biden carried by a comfortable 10 points last year indicates some Biden voters are now supporting a Republican.
And in the Times’s report from Youngkin and McAuliffe rallies that took place over the weekend, a self-described “Hillary-Biden” voter named Glenn Miller offers an explanation for why he and other voters are breaking away from Democrats.
…
There’s just one problem — a few minutes of vetting revealed that Miller is actually an activist who mostly supports Republicans and has a history of publicly opposing critical race theory (CRT).
But none of that gets mentioned in the piece.
…
But it didn’t take long for people to figure out that this Miller fellow might have more of an axe to grind than the Times let on.

In response to Kraushaar’s tweet, Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall pulled campaign finance records indicating that a Glenn Miller from McLean donated largely to Republicans, especially during the 2020 election cycle and in the run-up to the Georgia Senate elections early this year.

Go read the whole piece, a most-excellent look at how even a supposedly top-notch news site like the NYT could shit on an important political contest by allowing lies and loud-mouth bullshit. Yet it’s the current media rage, maybe an avalanche of Upchuck Todd-like assholes clogging the airwaves.

A shit point that leads to the way-fringe — yesterday for today:

Big day tomorrow. JFK Jr. back, Trump reinstatement and resignation, new VP Michael Flynn, and Trump becoming God. Rest up! pic.twitter.com/WiPGmHTQBJ

— Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd) November 2, 2021

Background in pieces via Rolling Stone, also this morning:

Fans of early-1990s tabloid culture, rejoice: John F. Kennedy Jr. is set to return.
The lush-haired scion and former George publisher is set to make an appearance at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, where his father was assassinated in 1963, for a special announcement this afternoon.
The fact that the former People Sexiest Man Alive has been dead for more than two decades is of no consequence.

This is the belief set forth by proponents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which postulates that Donald Trump is lying in wait to destroy a secret cabal of blood-drinking, child-sex-trafficking members of the liberal elite.
Dozens of QAnon supporters started gathering in AT&T Discovery Plaza in downtown Dallas last night to commemorate the glorious return of JFK Jr. — a man who, again, it must be emphasized, has failed to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide since 1999.
…
The renaissance of JFK Jr. is an increasingly popular cornerstone of the QAnon conspiracy theory, though it has historically been something of a fringe belief in the movement.
The theory postulates that JFK Jr. has been in hiding for years and will eventually reveal himself as Trump’s running mate for the 2024 election, a belief that stems from a poster claiming to be JFK Jr. who contributed to an 8chan thread in 2018.
Some proponents of the theory also believe that Vincent Fusca, a former sales manager in Pittsburgh, is secretly JFK Jr. in disguise, despite the fact that Fusca is inches shorter (and honestly, considerably less good-looking) than John F. Kennedy Jr.
QAnon influencer Juan O. Savin has also been “suspected” to be JFK Jr. in “disguise.”
Platforms like Etsy and Amazon have also been called out for selling merch promoting the idea that JFK Jr. is still alive and will return as Trump’s running mate, and many supporters at the Dealey Plaza event were photographed wearing such merch.

This would be a small, side-line issue if not for the media and the continual bullshit about ‘both sides‘ as if one of the sides had any kind of sane thoughts and actions.
Crazy don’t know crazy:

Yet once again, here we are…

(Image out front by illustrator and portrait painter, Tim O’Brien, and can be found here).