Quick Hits

Damn, I missed the National Mullet Championship!

USA Mullet Championships crown 2024 winners

I got news for ya, Chief: By wearing the mullet, they've already crowned themselves as winners.

The 2024 USA Mullet Championships wrapped up with bold, unique hairstyles from all corners of the country, celebrating the best in "business up front, party in the back." Contestants across three divisions--kids, teens, and adults--battled for the title of best mullet, with cash prizes and championship belts up for grabs.

In the adult division, Todd Grubb of Galesburg, Michigan, was crowned champion, securing a $5,000 cash prize. Grubb, hailing from Kalamazoo County, showcased a mullet that impressed both judges and voters, who helped push him to the top.

The teen category saw California native Mason Padilla, 13, take first place with his voluminous "West Coast Wave" mullet. A veteran of the competition, Padilla has participated since 2019 and won over nearly 3,800 voters. Along with his $1,000 prize, Padilla also received a GoPro camera, adding to his growing reputation as a mullet icon.

In the kids division, 8-year-old Kamden Cunningham of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, took the top spot. Kamden's mullet, representing his hometown in Luzerne County, won him a $5,000 prize, making him the youngest champion of this year's competition.

The Mullet Championships website is here.

This guy's mullet is sublime.

ABC "News" has 100% objectivity in the Trump-Harris race: Literally 100% of their coverage of Trump has been negative. 93% of their coverage of Vibe Auntie has been positive.

With Kamala Harris and Donald Trump set to face off in their only scheduled debate Tuesday night, a new study from the Media Research Center (MRC) sheds light on the significant bias in ABC's election coverage leading up to the event. The study highlights how World News Tonight, ABC's flagship news program moderated by David Muir, has provided overwhelmingly favorable coverage of Harris while casting Trump in a predominantly negative light, raising concerns about the fairness of Tuesday's high-stakes debate, which will be hosted by ABC.

From July 21st, the day Harris entered the race, through September 6th, MRC analysts reviewed 100 campaign stories aired on World News Tonight. Their analysis found that Harris received zero negative statements from nonpartisan sources, reporters, or anchors, giving her a perfect 100% positive spin. In contrast, Trump faced 66 negative comments and only five positive statements, resulting in 93% negative coverage.

The MRC report highlights the editorial choices that contributed to this imbalance. ABC avoided labeling Harris as a "liberal" or "progressive," unlike CBS and NBC, which made early efforts to identify her ideology. Instead, any mention of Harris's political stance came from Republicans, particularly Trump, while ABC's reporters and anchors sidestepped the topic altogether. Additionally, World News Tonight featured no voter opposition to Harris, in stark contrast to CBS and NBC, both of which included segments showing voter dissatisfaction with the vice president.

ABC's coverage of Trump, meanwhile, focused heavily on his controversies, offering extensive airtime to his remarks questioning Harris's racial background and his comments on military honors.

Don't believe those stories about illegal aliens killing American birds. This is all obviously fake. Illegal aliens would never do such a thing.

A second man has been arrested in the killing of a bald eagle last year in northeast Nebraska.

Ramiro Hernandez Tziquin, a Guatemalan native, was found last month hiding from authorities using a fake identity, the Stanton County Sheriff's Office said Monday.

He has since entered a guilty plea in federal court, and a sentencing for violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is scheduled for October.

The sheriff's office said Hernandez Tziquin and Domingo Zetino Hernandez shot and killed a bald eagle at the Wood Duck State Wildlife Management Area on Feb. 28, 2023.

Deputies found the dead bald eagle in the trunk of their vehicle, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The men told deputies they planned to cook and eat the bird, the sheriff's office said.

Zetino Hernandez was taken into custody shortly after the shooting, but Hernandez Tziquin went on the lam for over a year.

He is charged with killing protected wildlife. Prosecutors want to give him additional time for "Painfully on-the-nose symbolism."

Nate Silver boosted Trump's chances of winning the electoral college to almost 64%.

Election analyst Nate Silver has boosted Donald Trump's probability of winning the 2024 election, citing momentum shifts in the latest polls. Trump now holds a significant lead over Kamala Harris.

Key Details:

Nate Silver's model gives Trump a 63.8% probability of victory against Kamala Harris.
Trump's chances have increased nearly 5 points since Thursday, with a rise from 58.2%.
A new poll shows Trump favored in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona.

Diving Deeper:

Election analyst Nate Silver has sharply raised Donald Trump's chances of winning the 2024 presidential election, giving him a 63.8% probability of defeating Vice President Kamala Harris. This uptick comes in the wake of a New York Times/Sienna poll released Sunday, which Silver cites as highly reliable. The poll, along with other indicators, prompted Silver to increase Trump's odds from 58.2% just days earlier.

Silver's model now shows Trump with a strong advantage in several crucial swing states. Trump is given a 64% chance of winning Pennsylvania, 54% for Michigan, and 53% for Wisconsin. In traditionally conservative-leaning states like Arizona (77%), North Carolina (75%), and Georgia (68%), Trump holds even firmer ground. Harris, by comparison, faces an uphill battle as her support appears to erode.

Via Instapundit, Silver thinks that the defining of Red Kam as a hard-left San Francisco "progressive" is going to start biting even harder.

Harris's articulation of highly progressive positions on immigration and health care have become a talking point for the Trump campaign and one where the facts are mostly on their side. Harris has flip-flopped on some of these positions, like on Medicare for All and decriminalizing border crossings. Still, you'll probably see clips like the one above in heavy rotation in Republican attack ads.

The flip-flopping may explain why Harris has been weirdly reluctant to do media hits or articulate policy specifics. This strategy may have worked well enough when she was riding high off the vibes of the Democrats' candidate swap, but it's causing her more problems now.

This morning's NYT/Siena poll contained a pair of questions on whether voters think Harris is too liberal/progressive3 and whether Trump is too conservative. The numbers were lopsided in Trump's favor. Only 32 percent of voters said Trump was too conservative, while 47 said Harris was too liberal. The demographics on this question are about what you might expect. Harris is faring poorly among white voters without college degrees, rural voters, and older voters: the types of voters who are plentiful in Blue Wall states like Pennsylvania.

I'm not a messaging-and-tactics guy like Dan Pfieffer, but I'm not quite sure how Harris is supposed to spin her way out of this perception.

Your "vibes" are sweaty sunblasted garbage.

Thanks to Piper for that.

Melania Trump: "There is definitely more to the story" of Trump's shooting than incredible levels of Secret Service Whoopsies.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:00 PM

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