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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      An exact 270 via AZ+NV would kinda be appropriate and an accurate mandate, but yes as an unabashed partisan, much as I dislike the electoral college, I’d like a cushion for a deeper defense of the legal drama.

      1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      Winning without PA is key I think, since it seems the most vulnerable to frivolous legal challenges succeeding.

      1 reply 1 retweet 12 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      The mix of urban+mail-in has created Jurassic World ending level drama. Joe Biden (played by T-Rex) is in overmatched standoff with Trump (played by Indominus). Will chaotic-neutral energy of electoral system (played by Mossasurus) rear up from water at last minute to eat Trump?pic.twitter.com/FD6nDU0ARB

      2 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      Commercial break. Этот сегмент живого твита спонсируется Владимиром Путиным. Пейте больше водки!pic.twitter.com/RHuYZI76Hx

      2 replies 0 retweets 14 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

      This is very niche but I don’t care.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1324134191483682816 …

      Venkatesh Rao added,

      Venkatesh Rao @vgr
      The mix of urban+mail-in has created Jurassic World ending level drama. Joe Biden (played by T-Rex) is in overmatched standoff with Trump (played by Indominus). Will chaotic-neutral energy of electoral system (played by Mossasurus) rear up from water at last minute to eat Trump? pic.twitter.com/FD6nDU0ARB
      Show this thread
      1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
      Show this thread
    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      Goddamn Pennsylvania

      1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      The electoral college creates an interesting faux-discretization of a single scenario into many. Remember we’re now navigating a variety of scenarios and futures all within cone of Biden winning popular vote, which I think is already certain. It’s like aliasing pixelation.

      1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      An odd shtick nobody else could pull of with a straight face is Trump trying to halt counting where it would favor him and drive it to resolution where he’s behind. He really has no sense of the spirit of a competition. Atlanta commissioner doing a presser on scanner process.

      2 replies 1 retweet 16 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      Quite a process this dude is describing. - invalidated ballots are tossed (missing/mismatched signature) - open, flatten feed ballot through scanner twice - if computer flags an uncertainty, human review panel infers voter intent to countpic.twitter.com/qtvLNghYUT

      1 reply 1 retweet 8 likes
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    10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      Gotta say these people are heroes in the same sense as firefighters, healthcare workers. It’s thankless, low-paid, low-glamour frustrating work with a lot of angry people waiting to yell at you no matter what. This is why I believe in democracy. We invest thankless labor into it.

      1 reply 3 retweets 62 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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      Things tend to be valuable in proportion to the amount of thankless grinding labor it takes to make them work. In a way this would be an argument against online voting. The labor is a feature.

      4:23 PM - 4 Nov 2020
      • 32 Likes
      • Kerem Göksel Avery Little Phil Jim Walker nick Saki Niall Murphy Čhepulis • • • Smythelan
      3 replies 0 retweets 32 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Blockchain people get this and don’t get this. This is literal proof of work. If you designed an online version you should design in an expensive counting process. Elections *should* be costly to run.

          1 reply 1 retweet 26 likes
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        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Liberty

          If Trump loses, there will be a clear test of the popular remote diagnosis that he is a narcissistic psycho with no soul. If he grows a beard to process, he has a soul. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t. I don’t make the rules. The beard test is bipartisan and global.https://twitter.com/LibertyRPF/status/1324145916853575680 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          Liberty @LibertyRPF
          Replying to @vgr
          You can't shame someone who doesn't have a conscience. They should teach the basics of sociopathy and malignant narcissism in high school so fewer people fail to recognize the signs.
          4 replies 1 retweet 46 likes
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        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Litigiousness goes with trumpcore aesthetic like PB&J. Though US as a whole has a rep for litigiousness, it is not a randomly distributed trait. I think it’s a Jacksonian-America trait. The language points to a subculture: “So sue me” “See you in court” “It’s perfectly legal”

          2 replies 2 retweets 29 likes
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        5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Perhaps the clearest example of it is sovereign citizen conspiracy theories, ideas that income tax is illegal, etc. My theory is that these are self-soothing tales of agency poor white males began telling themselves in the 1830s after getting a taste of power under Jackson.

          1 reply 0 retweets 18 likes
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        6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          You grasp at legalistic notions of agency when you’re admitted into society under the letter of the law but not the spirit. When you’re granted frustrating access to the nominal power but denied access to the inner rings. Trump has that same feeling at a fractally higher level.

          1 reply 0 retweets 22 likes
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        7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Basically, starting in 1830s a *national* class emerged in the US whose identity was built around suing richer whites and punching down at still-disenfranchised blacks and browns. A superset of poor-white post-civil war southerner.

          1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
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        8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          In case you’re not familiar with this line of argument it’s the one Walter Russell Mead has been developing for decades https://pmachala.people.amherst.edu/Current%20Politics/Case%20Studies%20in%20American%20Diplomacy%20-The%20Readings%20FOR%20the%20FIRST%20and%20SECOND%20Class/Mead,%20The%20Jacksonian%20Tradition.htm … https://www.hudson.org/research/13258-the-jacksonian-revolt … https://www.hudson.org/research/13010-donald-trump-s-jacksonian-revolt …

          1 reply 1 retweet 9 likes
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        9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Sling down no doomscroll tv 😩 Also gotta reread this thinghttps://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/ …

          1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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        10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Before Sling crashed, token Republican on CNN was arguing that the biggest outcome is rejection of far left. I kinda agree. If it had been Bernie on the ballot with AOC cheerleading, Trump would likely have won in a landslide. This is a major bourgeoisie warning shot across bows.

          3 replies 1 retweet 25 likes
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        11. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          While I’m sympathetic to some far-left policy priorities, Bernieverse vastly underestimates how much bourgeois middle values stability, even if short of law-and-order dogwhistles. This is the 800lb fascist-lite egregorilla++ we’re talking about. It includes Biden’s core.

          2 replies 0 retweets 23 likes
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        12. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Even in countries that are not paranoid about communism, it takes a lot of oppression of a lot more people over a long time to truly activate a far-left movement. I grew up near the Maoist Naxalite belt in India. The cartoon antifa Fox agonizes about is a cute joke by comparison.

          1 reply 0 retweets 17 likes
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        13. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          CNN back up, yay! Doomscroll tv continues.pic.twitter.com/oJhUaOruEn

          1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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        14. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Wow, Trump’s lead in GA narrowed from 370k last night midnight to ~30k now. 95% reporting. This is gonna be really close.

          3 replies 0 retweets 16 likes
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        15. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Several people have brought up minimum wage as proof of far left policy support. No it’s support for more money for yourself when you make very little. I can’t think of a litmus test policy that would reliably gauge sympathy level for real socialism. Which I think is really low

          5 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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        16. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted stephen

          Don’t agree with this, but linking it in to think about more in my later lessons learned analysishttps://twitter.com/Stephen_Corwin/status/1324165872760557568 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          stephen @Stephen_Corwin
          Replying to @ArchivesBoy @vgr
          The left right spectrum isn’t the issue. People jump all over for the right candidate. Messaging is the problem. Run a candidate that rejects establishment dems, supports a minimum standard of living, and acknowledges problems with big gov—they’ll do fine.
          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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        17. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted stephen

          This too. Don’t agree but interesting to think about. I think imagination *is* among the concerns to cater to. People vote for an overall emergent story, not a spectrum-auction bundle of policies.https://twitter.com/Stephen_Corwin/status/1324166026553151488 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          stephen @Stephen_Corwin
          Replying to @Stephen_Corwin @ArchivesBoy @vgr
          Also, cater to people concerns, not their imaginations.
          2 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
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        18. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          This is an example of another anomalous feature of this election despite surface normalcy. Everybody is armed to the teeth including a ton of Democrats who are buying guns for first time. Best case: lots of used guns for sale after a peaceful transition.https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-10-30/gun-sales-are-soaring-and-its-not-just-conservatives-stocking-up …

          2 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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        19. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

          I did a thread on an outsider view of American gun culture in June when this arming of the populace was ramping up.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1267940553204760576 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          Venkatesh Rao @vgr
          So... thinking more about this mall-ninja white house syndrome in the context of American gun culture overall... some more thoughts on the role of guns in situations like this. https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1267915370658009088 …
          Show this thread
          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
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        20. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Guns are exhibit A in why you must cater to imaginations not just needs. If you don’t, a dark imagination takes over. The narrative imagination abhors a vacuum. In America it also shoots at it. And sometimes the void shoots back.

          2 replies 0 retweets 15 likes
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        21. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Ht @Aelkus a read on what to expect on Trump’s litigation end game. CNN discussing it right now as frivolous desperate long shots.https://www.propublica.org/article/if-trump-tries-to-sue-his-way-to-election-victory-heres-what-happens?fbclid=IwAR0WG8L9jr1Meta-A19lHg-WNJv26xaiXfGfr4X2C3ie8SOPkQENZAl2mcE …

          1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
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        22. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          CNN says Biden team being super cautious and disciplined in firmly not gloating about either Trump or his supporters, or taking any bait. The afternoon statement signaled a clear intent to be beaker in chief and woo away non-core trump voters if he wins.

          3 replies 0 retweets 16 likes
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        23. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          I don’t think the mainstream media or social media is going to be that restrained or forgiving if Biden wins. Jake Tapper already described Trump’s litigation endgame as “flailing.” Otoh if Trump squeaks through — still a slim possibility, his holy rage will be unstoppable.

          1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
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        24. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Worth thinking this through since it’s so close. If he does win I think Trump will go Old Testament on everyone who is now abandoning him. Mitch on down. Revenge on traitors will be first priority of second term. Both GOP and Fox will be tortured for doubting him.

          3 replies 0 retweets 13 likes
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        25. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Everyone’s written him off, but he’s definitely not done. Statistical weird luck and/or strange legal events could still hand this to him. If he wins I think after revenge, his second biggest priority will be destroying Obamacare as his legacy. Scorched earth.

          2 replies 0 retweets 15 likes
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        26. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Arizona is getting back in play for Trump, Biden’s lead is slipping seriously.

          4 replies 0 retweets 18 likes
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        27. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted

          4chan view. Don’t be quick to react. Things could still turn around for them in which case they’ll be in kek heaven. And if Biden does win, remember 2016. An imploding reality bubble is not pretty no matter who it happens to. https://twitter.com/mothistopheles/status/1324037003428667392 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          This Tweet is unavailable.
          1 reply 0 retweets 15 likes
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        28. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Steve Cortes

          Yep, Trump is still very much in this game. His early switch to litigious endgame tactics should not be mistaken for actual weakness. The count is in charge, not his premature reactions.https://twitter.com/CortesSteve/status/1324176831260594176 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          1:01
          Steve CortesVerified account @CortesSteve
          Brand new Arizona numbers tonight reinforce the trend I detail in this video. The math points to an AZ win for Pres Trump. Stay positive and stay engaged, patriots! pic.twitter.com/wIFUSt4XKW
          2 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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        29. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Akaash Kolluri

          Fingers crossed, but I’m wary of PA vulnerability to litigation. I’d rather see a win that does not need that. AZ and/or GA...https://twitter.com/akaashkolluri/status/1324187106818822145?s=21 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          Akaash Kolluri @akaashkolluri
          Replying to @vgr
          Otoh, Biden is romping in PA, and appears to be expected to win it based on performance in MI/OH
          2 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
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        30. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

          If it’s Trump, dark age If it’s Biden, dark age served coldhttps://twitter.com/vgr/status/1323294268438450176?s=21 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          Venkatesh Rao @vgr
          Thought for the week: “If it's chicken, chicken a la king. If it's fish, fish a la king. If it's turkey, fish a la king.” — Bender, on Iron Chef
          Show this thread
          1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
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        31. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Nov 4
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Ian Bogost

          This explains everythinghttps://twitter.com/ibogost/status/1324071758782177281?s=21 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          Ian BogostVerified account @ibogost
          No matter whether you approve of it or not, the Electoral College is what you’d get if you let a tabletop board-game designer create an election process.
          Show this thread
          1 reply 1 retweet 17 likes
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