Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Ternaugh]

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

Russian Oil Chief Dies In Fall From 6th Floor Window; Company Blames Death On 'Illness'

 

Sounds like someone's just too impatient to wait for the novichok to work.

[Old Man]

Doctors quickly realized the gravity of his situation. A concrete treatment plan brought the progression of the disease to a sudden stop. They expect some significant short term health impacts but long term his condition is not expected to drop by more than six additional feet. 

[BoloOfEarth]

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

Doctors quickly realized the gravity of his situation. A concrete treatment plan brought the progression of the disease to a sudden stop. They expect some significant short term health impacts but long term his condition is not expected to drop by more than six additional feet. 

 

"He was apparently very determined to commit suicide.  He managed to tie himself to a chair, shoot himself twice, stab himself four times, throw himself down a flight of stairs, and still leapt through the window."

[Pariah]

Even for a famous mystic Russian like Rasputin, that's kind of pushing it.

[unclevlad]

11 hours ago, Pariah said:

Mary Peltola beats Sarah Palin and becomes 1st Alaska Native in Congress

 

Dare we hope then, that Boebert and Greene also get the boot?

[unclevlad]

8 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Russian Oil Chief Dies In Fall From 6th Floor Window; Company Blames Death On 'Illness'

 Business Insider also adds:

a)  his company criticized the invasion 6 months ago, and

b)  this is the second exec from that company to suffer a mysterious death

 

 

[pinecone]

12 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Russian Oil Chief Dies In Fall From 6th Floor Window; Company Blames Death On 'Illness'

It's a mystery...

[unclevlad]

44 minutes ago, pinecone said:

It's a mystery...

 

No fear, they put Clouseau on the case.

[assault]

21 hours ago, Pariah said:

Mary Peltola beats Sarah Palin and becomes 1st Alaska Native in Congress

I didn't realize it was preferential "ranked choice"/"ïnstant runoff" voting.

Watching the Palin supporters cry "fraud!" is worth the entry price by itself. Poor darlings.

EDIT: although after reading how the new Alaskan voting system works, it's... very American. Take something that works, and break it so it doesn't.

[Lord Liaden]

It was Republicans who instituted ranked choice voting in Alaska in the first place. Because it favors the dominant party, which used to be them.

[BoloOfEarth]

3 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

It was Republicans who instituted ranked choice voting in Alaska in the first place. Because it favors the dominant party, which used to be them.

 

According to BallotPedia, an Independent (former Rep Jason Green) was chairperson of the campaign to pass the ballot initiative for ranked-choice voting, and Bruce Botelho (D), former mayor of Juneau, and Bonnie Jack (R) were co-chairs (I'm guessing at a different time than Green was chairperson).  Looking at the list of supporters of Alaskans for Better Elections, it looks like it had bipartisan support, including from the Libertarians.

 

Whereas it looks like Republicans dominated the efforts to oppose the ballot measure.  

[unclevlad]

Ranked-choice only matters in a multi-way race.  And there?  I think it MUCH more accurately reflects things, particularly now when people very often vote against a given candidate.  

[Ranxerox]

14 hours ago, assault said:

I didn't realize it was preferential "ranked choice"/"ïnstant runoff" voting.

Watching the Palin supporters cry "fraud!" is worth the entry price by itself. Poor darlings.

EDIT: although after reading how the new Alaskan voting system works, it's... very American. Take something that works, and break it so it doesn't.

 

Please, explain how this method is broken.  This is how I thought ranked choice was suppose to work.

 

3 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

It was Republicans who instituted ranked choice voting in Alaska in the first place. Because it favors the dominant party, which used to be them.

 

What I read said that it was passed by a ballot initiative put forward by Lisa Murkowski supporters.  Ms Murkowski had lost the Republican primary but then won as a write-in candidate.  That was an extremely impressive feat that she didn't want to have to do in future elections.  Ranked choice voting was seen as a way to make her less vulnerable to the extreme elements of the Republican base. 

[Starlord]

On 9/1/2022 at 5:57 PM, BoloOfEarth said:

 

"He was apparently very determined to commit suicide.  He managed to tie himself to a chair, shoot himself twice, stab himself four times, throw himself down a flight of stairs, and still leapt through the window."

 

So far this sounds like a John Wick movie...please, keep going....

 

[unclevlad]

43 minutes ago, Starlord said:

 

So far this sounds like a John Wick movie...please, keep going....

 

 

John Wick, or Pink Panther/Clouseau?

[assault]

2 hours ago, Ranxerox said:

 

Please, explain how this method is broken.  This is how I thought ranked choice was suppose to work.

 

The odd thing about the Alaskan system is that it involves two rounds.

 

That's an artifact of the US primary system and the parties not being parties in the usual sense.

 

A pure ranked choice system only needs one round.

[Ranxerox]

21 hours ago, assault said:

 

The odd thing about the Alaskan system is that it involves two rounds.

 

That's an artifact of the US primary system and the parties not being parties in the usual sense.

 

A pure ranked choice system only needs one round.

 

That is interesting.  So, in races with 20+ candidates, how deep do most people go in their rankings?  Do they just stick to their top 3 or do they take out to their top six or what?

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Ranxerox said:

 

That is interesting.  So, in races with 20+ candidates, how deep do most people go in their rankings?  Do they just stick to their top 3 or do they take out to their top six or what?

 

I believe it's top 3, from what I saw.

[Ranxerox]

10 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

 

I believe it's top 3, from what I saw.

 

Are you talking about the US or Australia?  Because, I was asking assault about Australia where they use rank choice voting all the time.  Also, with large slates of candidates, using a top 3 system you could wind up with a winner who was endorsed by far less than 50%  of the voters.  I would think that it would be hard to claim any sort of mandate when all your ranked choice votes still gave you less than 30%.  Though this is theoretical.  Maybe in practice even with 20+ candidates only 3 or 4 really matter, and a top 3 system will give you a majority winner most of the time.  I don't know.  That is why I am asking questions.

 

[unclevlad]

4 minutes ago, Ranxerox said:

 

Are you talking about the US or Australia?  Because, I was asking assault about Australia where they use rank choice voting all the time.  Also, with large slates of candidates, using a top 3 system you could wind up with a winner who was endorsed by far less than 50%  of the voters.  I would think that it would be hard to claim any sort of mandate when all your ranked choice votes still gave you less than 30%.

Sorry, my bad, Alaska.

 

I would expect that when you have that large a slate, you use 2 rounds.  First round reduces from X to something manageable...3-5, I'd think, if there's no clear choice.  

[unclevlad]

Interesting analytical piece from FiveThirtyEight:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-trumps-presence-in-the-midterms-is-risky-for-the-gop/

[Starlord]

[Armitage]

On 9/2/2022 at 7:13 AM, assault said:

Watching the Palin supporters cry "fraud!" is worth the entry price by itself. Poor darlings.
 

 

 

This is likely to be our future now, thanks to Trump.  A prominent Republican loses and they immediately start shouting fraud, demanding an investigation, filing lawsuits, etc.

[Pariah]

1 hour ago, Armitage said:

This is likely to be our future now, thanks to Trump.  A prominent Republican loses and they immediately start shouting fraud, demanding an investigation, filing lawsuits, etc.

 

Which is the primary reason why, for the sake of the democracy, the former president cannot, under any circumstances, be allowed to return to the White House.

[Old Man]

5 hours ago, Armitage said:

 

 

This is likely to be our future now, thanks to Trump.  A prominent Republican loses and they immediately start shouting fraud, demanding an investigation, filing lawsuits, etc.

Yup, we even have one of those out here.