Red Dead 2's systems to me are an evolution of San Andreas, where you didn't have to go to the gym or eat or date anyone but if you did than you got benefits for it. Red Dead 2 makes it less optional but also makes the world more responsive, encouraging you to behave like a real person.

1/ I understand this criticism but I actually think a lot of this serves to make Red Dead 2 feel like a breathing open world instead of a series of waypoints and checkboxes, and further you don't *have* to do a lot of this stuff, you're just encouraged to.

1/ People love be contrarians but I think the GTA series has only improved in quality over time, but I think it also goes like: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas = best open world Grand Theft Auto 4 = best story Grand Theft Auto 5 = best overall gameplay Red Dead Redemption 2 is also masterpiece.

Personally I don't think throwing a sandwich at a police officer in the manner described could cause physical harm. I don't believe you should it, but it's not physical harm.

There were not 60 votes to ban gerrymandering at the time lol. And Texas absolutely would have went to SCOTUS to get said law overturned.

COVID effect is incredibly pronounced here. First-time home buyer age is more or less static until 2020, with a slight rise after 2015.

Kevin Roberts seems like the kinda Catholic who's driven a lot of Catholics out of Catholicism and we can only hope that he does the same for Heritage.

1/ Helen Andrews has a BA in religious studies from Yale, meaning that she has probably never had to exist in a blue-collar workplace or anything remotely proximate to it. Leah Libresco Sargeant does not appear to be remotely liberal, but she spends most of this interview undercutting Andrews.

this looks like a trick daffy duck would put up to get bugs bunny into "the oval office"

Haldeman: “it’s paper, sir. They taped it to the wall.” Nixon: “No!” Haldeman: “he got an MRI a few weeks ago. They admitted it.” Nixon: “his father lost it you know. Didn’t recognize his children in the end. A terrible tragedy.” Haldeman: “the rehabilitation of your legacy is well underway, sir.”

"the best explanation for 2025 is that voters didn’t know what they were getting with Trump 2.0 last November, but now they do — and they don’t like it." www.gelliottmorris.com/p/seven-data...

Look, I know what you're gonna say. But it's important have goals.

1/ Midterm gut check a year out. Assuming a D+4 generic ballot, I think Democrats are narrowly favored to take the House, even if the VRA is shredded. I think white college voters will continue to race towards Dems and racial depolarization is halted or reversed and this is pretty bad for the GOP.

It's very funny to see our so-called master of politics realize that inflation is a real thing, not a made-up thing, and that he's saddled himself with it with no obvious solution.

What you should actually take away from last night for 2026 is that white college voters are still shifting hard towards Democrats and this is going to make life difficult for Republicans in a lot of places like the Midwest and maybe even the heartland.

Sounds like somebody's secretly yearning for a Kamala Harris presidency.

Trump realizing shutdowns are bad is pretty funny. Like yeah if you shut down the federal government and fire a shit ton of federal workers they will not like you very much.

1/ Comparing the exits between 2017 and 2025, Spanberger scored a whiter, older electorate than Northam but also one that was much more liberal. Where 2025 was 72% white to 2017's 67%, Spanberger did much better with minority voters, suggesting that conservative minority voters just didn't show.

This is a ridiculous take of course. When you win off-year races by 10%-15% you are killing it with whatever swing voters are out there. In Virginia and New Jersey it looked effectively like 2017 with a little more white college turnout and persuasion. There was no silver lining for the GOP.

1/ Virginia next-day thoughts. Spanberger's margin (+15.2) beat most polls and expectations. Small caveat though - Henrico County, Spanberger's home county, is giving her a 40% margin *and* a greater raw turnout than 2024. I am pretty sure that's an error, so we're taking some points off the board.

Quite ironically the polls only undershot Republicans last night. Even former Democrat Andrew Cuomo did better than polled and Curtis Silwa did worse.

We’ll have to wait for the numbers to be run but I am pretty sure Spanberger won 8 of Virginia’s congressional districts and lost VA-5 by less than 5%.

And as of two minutes ago the Times has her at 15%. A 10% swing from 2024!

Looks like turnout is ahead of 2021 in terms of raw votes and as a % of 2024, and Spanberger is sitting at 14.8%.

With 1,786,000 votes and counting Spanberger has the most votes of any Virginia gubernatorial candidate. She’s broken Youngkin’s record by more than 100,000.

The whole “try to impoverish the state’s largest region” strategy does not appear to have paid off for Republicans.

Did anyone actually vote for Donna Charles?

Spotsybama? More like Spotsyfornia!

Decision Desk calling it for Jones. I don’t like the guy but how humiliating for Miyares.

Plurality-Hispanic Manassas 16% to the left of 2024? Spanberger might actually get past 15% statewide lol

Once again, the kicker is not Spanberger’s gain but that Miyares can’t outrun Trump. But only 63% white so that explains it.

This is a magnified swing due to third parties getting 3.5% of the vote but the real kicker is Jones outrunning Harris.

Less than one hour!

Beware of reading into Virginia results until counties are complete. Some report mail first, or early vote, or Election Day, or weirdo combos. That being said lol Loudoun.

And Lt Gov called. We’ll be waiting awhile on AG.

lol call made 19 min after polls close. I suspect the networks will wait for a few counties to complete counting then call it.

Polls closed in Virginia but people in line will still be voting. Early results … soon?

Carroll is 63% as of 5 pm and Pulaski 64%, I’m thinking they finish at 2021 or just below.

Also 5 pm: Arlington County: 71% Virginia Beach: 66% In 2021 Arlington cast 73% of its 2020 vote and we look on track to exceed that.

Will have to wait of course but I suspect we’ll see blue counties slightly overshoot 2021 and red counties slightly undershoot it.

5 pm* thanks phone

pm State Navigate vote check-ins in Southwest Virginia: Pulaski County: 64% of 2024 Norton city: 61% of 2024 Not bad but still lagging.

Total guesses about race call timelines tonight in Virginia: Governor: 8:30ish Lt Governor: 10ish Attorney General: midnight at the earliest Non-VA: New Jersey Gov and NYC Mayor: 10ish, or the latter, how long it takes Staten Island to come in.

Bedford County (one of those red counties Miyares needs to turn out big) is sitting at 65% of 2024 as of 4 p.m., up there with bigger blue localities. Better sign for Miyares than he's gotten from a lot of other places. I think they could reach/exceed 80% by polls close.

Craig County (R+67 in 2021) right due north of Roanoke clocking in at 58% of its 2024 vote at 3 p.m. per State Navigate. It got 79% of its 2020 vote in 2021. Maybe they finish just underneath that? Not looking good for Sears.

This is classic off-year base energizing (at least when the incumbent President is sitting at 40%).

1/ In terms of "how cooked are Republicans in Virginia" these are the red counties that had insane turnout in 2021 (name, 2021 % of 2020, and margin): Hanover County, 82%, R+27 Rockingham County, 81%, R+51 Bedford County, 80%, R+59 Franklin County, 80%, R+50 Augusta County, 80%, R+47

Some 3 p.m. turnout reports from State Navigate: Williamsburg city, 5,384 votes, 68% of 2024 Roanoke County, 35,319, 62% Amelia County, 5,020, 62% Fairfax County, 356,127, 60% A small blue county, big red county, small red county, and big blue county. Not much turnout separation in this batch.

Complete aside from my usual posting but it seems like we've had a flood of great fall video games this year: Borderlands 4, Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders, Outer Worlds 2. All the sudden it seems like there's a lot more content than time!

Virginia anecdata time: Rockingham County in the Shenandoah Valley had some of the highest 2021 turnout relative to 2020, at 81% and was R+51 that year with 35,339 votes cast. As of 1 p.m., its at only 52% of its 2024 vote with only 25,337 votes cast. Doesn't seem on track for 81% right now.