Organization Seed: V.U.L.T.U.R.E.

VULTURE – Google Docs

 

V.U.L.T.U.R.E.

 

V.U.L.T.U.R.E.  They are the very Platonic archetype of a superhero world’s international villainous paramilitary organization, with one glaring exception.  Everything from their green and black uniforms (complete with masks obscuring their features) to their endless array of custom-built, themed weapons, armor and vehicles — plus their deliberately obscured origins and numerous secret bases — screams “Cower before the might of Vulture-One, people of Earth!”  Or it would, if V.U.L.T.U.R.E. ever showed any sign of trying to take over the world.  Or, indeed, any sign of organized villainy at all.

 

Oh, to be sure, V.U.L.T.U.R.E. is a criminal organization in several countries: the kind of countries where ‘criminal’ can be a badge of honor. Elsewhere, they come across as an extremely bizarre and melodramatic charitable NGO, devoted to disaster relief and infrastructure repair in the most over-the-top, four-color way possible.  Is there a drought? Fire the Precipitation Mega-Stabilizer Ray, my Vulture Nestlings!  Dam just collapsed?  Watch the Earth itself tremble as we unleash the power of the Vulture’s Interlocking Claws! Need a road network?  The Screaming Hammer orbital laser network will make short work of any presumptuous hill that dares to defy our greatness!

Continue reading Organization Seed: V.U.L.T.U.R.E.

Time for the traditional ‘So why were the polls wrong?’ posts.

Caveat: I got it wrong, too. I said that it was much more likely that Donald Trump would either win big, or lose big, than it would be for him to get into second or third place.  Guess what happened?

So I can’t really criticize the pollsters too badly.  Of the possible reasons listed here as to why the polls were off, I’m going to go with ‘organization.’ Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio had people who not only looked over what the Democrats did in 2008 and 2012; those people also took copious notes.  Donald Trump’s campaign… did not.  Which is one of the things that maybe Trump should be wanting to fix today.  And I mean literally today. It would take a crazy amount of money to set up a working GOTV/voter identification system by the weekend using off-the-shelf components, but the man’s a billionaire, right?

Moe Lane

PS: Actually, yeah, I’m being serious. What’s the point of having a billion dollars if you don’t use it to solve problems that only a billion dollars could solve?

RNC to test out campaign, outreach infrastructure this month.

Organization. That’s what you need to have. Organization, and infrastructure.  The RNC is currently testing its recent work on both: “The RNC says it now has over 150 paid staff and 10,000 campaign volunteers scattered in key electoral battlegrounds and other states. Now, the national party wants to find out if its investment in manpower, technology and strategy development pays off in the form of a well-oiled political machine.”

I’m noting this because I want to get on the record: do not panic if the rocket blows up on the launch pad. The RNC is testing this stuff out a year early precisely because it might blow up. Negative data is great data. And you want to do this early In 2012 Team Romney went live with its infamous GOTV platform ORCA on Election Day. Guess what happened? That’s right, it blew up on the launching pad.  With Team Romney inside of it.

Via @CommodoreBTC.

Moe Lane

PS: Looking at the article, the specific states targeted appear to be specific test beds for specific strategies. I wouldn’t read too much into what states got excluded at this particular stage of the process. For all we know, the next wave will test stuff in safe Democratic or Republican states, or look at other battlefield states, or just go national and see how things scale. If you know what you’re doing, how long it’s going to take, and how much it’s going to cost, it’s not exactly R&D, is it?

Herman Cain ’12 Iowa caucuses: Obama, 2008? Or Dean, 2004?

Hot Air and Ace of Spades HQ are both contemplating the issue of Herman Cain, whether he can win, and whether he is truly likely to win.  Fortunately or unfortunately – depending on your point of view – I take a utilitarian point of view on the matter: what does the Herman Cain Iowa plan look like? Does it look like this?

Campaign organizer: We’re going to harness the power of the grassroots and take this country back by getting together and coming together with one voice in caucuses all across Iowa to win and we’ve got people calling and the enthusiasm out there that I’m seeing every day is infectious!

…or does it look like this? Continue reading Herman Cain ’12 Iowa caucuses: Obama, 2008? Or Dean, 2004?