I have an old j-school buddy who worked in the marketing department there.

Sounds like ESPN wants to turn it into strictly a "sports science" and "advanced stats" site and leave all the election stuff behind.

Hypothetically that would mean saying goodbye to NS.

I was sorta shocked.

I believe 538 was a top 100 site (in the U.S.) around election time, but then the bottom fell out. Seems like they would have been prepared for that.

Yeah, I'm sure if Silver did indeed retain rights to the FiveThirtyEight name he'd just take his ball and go home, and most of his political colleagues would follow him. While I think they've done a good job tracking the popularity of Trump and Congress, most people don't give a shit about it on odd years.

I just looked this up.

In like two and a half months, FiveThirtyEight fell from the top 100 to the 4,000s for internet traffic.

Even if you've got a base like ESPN, that's gotta be brutal.

That's not as steep a fall as I would've imagined.

Is ESPN really surprised traffic is way down for Five thirty-eight this year? That's like starting an ice cream company and expecting their sales to stay steady throughout the winter.

Seems like a convenient excuse to cut costs if they are going in that direction.

woah no need to attack Trag like that.

Castro twins' political ambitions collide

Texas Democrats desperately want Rep. Joaquín Castro to run for governor next year — and they’re frustrated by what they see as his twin brother’s presidential ambitions getting in the way.

The congressman’s decision as to whether to run against Republican Gov. Greg? Abbott is caught up in the Castro brothers’ unique mix of their deep personal connection and parallel political ambitions. Joaquín Castro is being hounded by Democrats to get in but is torn, according to people who’ve spoken with him, over whether to take on a popular incumbent with $40 million in the bank.

That’s where his identical twin brother, Julián Castro, comes in. The former Housing and Urban Development secretary and 2012 Democratic convention speaker recently launched a PAC and is spending the fall writing an autobiographical, campaign-style book, and has made his interest in 2020 clear.

The brothers serve as each other’s top strategists, and they’ve agreed that Julián’s next political move takes primacy for now. One worry is that a Joaquín loss for governor — it would be an uphill battle, at best, against Abbott — would make the Castros look like losers. The other is that if Joaquin happened to pull off an upset, it would distract attention from Julián, potentially complicating his path to the White House.

I hope my twins have to someday decide who gets to run for President.

Oprah or Zuckerberg....who ya got?

I guess at least we know Oprah reads. I'd prefer a politician.

government experience, please