Politics

[PortKells]

Trump under investigation for espionage...

These times man.

[Glacier]

^ What did I miss?

I was away offline for 10 days so missed all the excitement. It seems like the biggest news story that happened in my absence was the Salman Rushdie was stabbed 7 times and lost and eye all because he wrote a novel 35 years ago that was so upsetting to Iran that the top Cleric put a $1,000,000 bounty on his head.

It's amazing that even today Iran can repeat this call for Rushdie's head on Twitter and not get banned, but my friend Apostate Prophet got permanently banned from Twitter for ripping up a copy of the Quran. Sure, that's poor taste and obviously going to upset people, but it's not even close to the same level of wrongness as explicitly telling people you'll give them millions of dollars if they kill someone.

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[SouthSardiswx]

^ What did I miss?

I was away offline for 10 days so missed all the excitement. It seems like the biggest news story that happened in my absence was the Salman Rushdie was stabbed 7 times and lost and eye all because he wrote a novel 35 years ago that was so upsetting to Iran that the top Cleric put a $1,000,000 bounty on his head.

It's amazing that even today Iran can repeat this call for Rushdie's head on Twitter and not get banned, but my friend Apostate Prophet got permanently banned from Twitter for ripping up a copy of the Quran. Sure, that's poor taste and obviously going to upset people, but it's not even close to the same level of wrongness as explicitly telling people you'll give them millions of dollars if they kill someone.

299276835_461029692700007_2982280460656146974_n.jpg

You didn't miss much other than that attack, l think Rushdie most likely just relaxed to much after all these years Glace.
It still appears to me the tension in this world is ten fold since Covid.IMO

[SouthSardiswx]

Such a statesmen in Russia back in the day R.I.P. Mikhail Gorbachev, l'll never forget that speech by Ronald Regan. "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall"
Inevitably ithe Berlin wall did come down.
Now look at where things stand today scary indeed.

[VanCitySouth]

Our PM apparently believes anger at his government is due to anxiety over climate change, and our (probable) leader of the opposition thinks bureaucrats speak a foreign language called "bureaucratese" which should be banned.

Canada: we're a real, grown-up country, we promise!

I have a new reality TV show to pitch. It's like the Real Housewives of [place], but instead it's the Real Canadians of Ottawa. Starring JT and PP.

[Glacier]

Our PM apparently believes anger at his government is due to anxiety over climate change, and our (probable) leader of the opposition thinks bureaucrats speak a foreign language called "bureaucratese" which should be banned.

Canada: we're a real, grown-up country, we promise!

I have a new reality TV show to pitch. It's like the Real Housewives of [place], but instead it's the Real Canadians of Ottawa. Starring JT and PP.

Climate change is real, but politicians LOVE to blame their own mistakes on climate change. Similarly, corporations LOVE to do that too. A number of years ago the Caribbean had a serious overfishing problem, and everyone involved tried to get themselves off the hook by blaming climate change.

Latest Dilbert cartoon...

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[VanCitySouth]

Climate change is real, but politicians LOVE to blame their own mistakes on climate change. Similarly, corporations LOVE to do that too. A number of years ago the Caribbean had a serious overfishing problem, and everyone involved tried to get themselves off the hook by blaming climate change.

Latest Dilbert cartoon...

FB_IMG_1662267234702.jpg

I just find it incredibly tone deaf that he thinks the people angry at his government are anxious because of climate change, when the people angriest about his government are the LEAST LIKELY to believe climate change is real LOL

[SouthSardiswx]

I just find it incredibly tone deaf that he thinks the people angry at his government are anxious because of climate change, when the people angriest about his government are the LEAST LIKELY to believe climate change is real LOL

How true Grumpy it's so dysfunctional. IMO

[VanCitySouth]

I'm gonna fan the flames a little bit with my midterms prediction (apologies for the poorly designed graphics):

Capture.jpg

The more solid colour indicates the most likely outcomes, based on a standard polling error
The pale colour indicates possible outcomes to the extent of a historically poor polling error
The black line is the mean expected outcome

[PortKells]

I'm gonna fan the flames a little bit with my midterms prediction (apologies for the poorly designed graphics):
Capture.jpg
The more solid colour indicates the most likely outcomes, based on a standard polling error
The pale colour indicates possible outcomes to the extent of a historically poor polling error
The black line is the mean expected outcome

Looks like things turned out quite a bit bluer than forecast. Trumpism is starting to die out on the right. Biden for all of his many weaknesses has just had the strongest midterms for a sitting president in 20 years.

I should also add I believe the abortion debate turned off many fence sitters. The majority of that country is pro choice.

I am still cynical about politics but its nice to see people like Trump, Bolsanaro and on a local scale, Doug Mcallum getting repudiated in one month.

[SouthSardiswx]

Looks like things turned out quite a bit bluer than forecast. Trumpism is starting to die out on the right. Biden for all of his many weaknesses has just had the strongest midterms for a sitting president in 20 years.

I should also add I believe the abortion debate turned off many fence sitters. The majority of that country is pro choice.

I am still cynical about politics but its nice to see people like Trump, Bolsanaro and on a local scale, Doug Mcallum getting repudiated in one month.

I was most surprised after all the talk of the red wave to Kells, Mcallum was just a joke of a disaster Bolsanaro was just another dictator and l was happy to see Ken Sims elected in Van city even though l don't live there l think he's got the balls to get things done.
I'm not happy Popove was re elected in Chilliwack he did dick all during the November floods only 2 short news conferences it was like he let Abbys mayor Herny Braun carry the ball. I wasn't impressed.

[Glacier]

Looks like things turned out quite a bit bluer than forecast. Trumpism is starting to die out on the right. Biden for all of his many weaknesses has just had the strongest midterms for a sitting president in 20 years.

I should also add I believe the abortion debate turned off many fence sitters. The majority of that country is pro choice.

I am still cynical about politics but its nice to see people like Trump, Bolsanaro and on a local scale, Doug Mcallum getting repudiated in one month.

The polls were actually quite good. The senate was a toss-up with the Republicans having a 59% chance of winning verses 41% for the Democrats. The house certainly favoured the Republicans where they had a, 84% chance of winning. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... -forecast/

So far the Senate is tied with Alaska and Georgia yet to be determined in run-off elections. Republicans are guaranteed to win Alaska (both front-runners were Republicans) with the Democrat likeliest to win Georgia.

The House is yet to be determined as some states count slower than a third world country for some reason. Looks like the Republicans are likely to win that, but it will be close.

Absolutely the abortion debate ensured there would be no red wave (although their super pro-choice candidate Dr. Oz lost to a guy who had a stroke.

The media is so stupid. They kept claiming the polls were predicting a red wave, which was a complete fabrication. Not sure if they're just dishonest or (more likely) confusing polls with historic trends (usually first election after presidential is bad for the winner). I stopped listening to the news 6 months ago because of their inability to not exaggerate everything, especially when it turns out to be boring (like the polls were right), but I was sick in bed all week and decided to turn on the news.

I'm back now and feeling better. Damn, that was a bad one!

[PortKells]

To be fair the Republicans themselves were chest beating about a red wave. Not everything is the media's fault ( though much of it is).

I thought the Senate majority was locked up when Nevada went blue? Georgia should go blue, that Herschel dude was just out to lunch. Speaking of strokes it sounds like he's having one every time he opens his mouth

All in all I think both parties win. Republicans against Trump might finally be able to push him out and win back some moderates. And Democrats still retain some power in an election where the sitting presidents party usually gets smoked.

[Glacier]

To be fair the Republicans themselves were chest beating about a red wave. Not everything is the media's fault ( though much of it is).

That's true. No one likes to read the polls if it doesn't fit what they want to be true.

I like how Dr. Oz lost to a guy who had a very serious stroke. CNN was showing the areas of his brain that are dead. he needed a computer to talk for him, and all the answers he was giving were pre-produced so he could still answer even if he's basically brain dead. And Oz lost to that. Goes to show you have bad of a candidate he was (and how over Trump Americans in general are since Trump was really pushing for him).

It's crazy how some voters in some states will vote overwhelmingly Republican for one position by overwhelmingly Democrat for another.

Check out Alaska! For Senate only 9.5% voted Democrat, and THESE SAME VOTERS voted 47% Democrat for the House and 23% for Governor!
Explain that one to me!!!

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The two without a >50% of vote winner are going to a run-off between the top two, BTW.

Other crazy states: New Hampshire (about 55% Republican for Governor and about 55% Democrat for Senate) and Vermont (about 70% Republican for Governor and 70% Democrat for Senate)

Some interesting things I've noticed as well is that Florida is no longer a swing state (one of the most Republican ones on the map now) and neither is Colorado (now solidly Democrat). Oregon and New York, on the other hand are turning toward the swing-state direction (though we can't make the inference from a single election).

[PortKells]

That's true. No one likes to read the polls if it doesn't fit what they want to be true.

I like how Dr. Oz lost to a guy who had a very serious stroke. CNN was showing the areas of his brain that are dead. he needed a computer to talk for him, and all the answers he was giving were pre-produced so he could still answer even if he's basically brain dead. And Oz lost to that. Goes to show you have bad of a candidate he was (and how over Trump Americans in general are since Trump was really pushing for him).

It's crazy how some voters in some states will vote overwhelmingly Republican for one position by overwhelmingly Democrat for another.

Check out Alaska! For Senate only 9.5% voted Democrat, and THESE SAME VOTERS voted 47% Democrat for the House and 23% for Governor!
Explain that one to me!!!


ak1.png
ak2.png
ak3.png

The two without a >50% of vote winner are going to a run-off between the top two, BTW.

Other crazy states: New Hampshire (about 55% Republican for Governor and about 55% Democrat for Senate) and Vermont (about 70% Republican for Governor and 70% Democrat for Senate)

Some interesting things I've noticed as well is that Florida is no longer a swing state (one of the most Republican ones on the map now) and neither is Colorado (now solidly Democrat). Oregon and New York, on the other hand are turning toward the swing-state direction (though we can't make the inference from a single election).

You could say Texas is turning towards a swing state but not there yet.

For a two party system it sure is still an interesting country politically.

Will be fascinating to see where the parties go. Will gop ditch Trump? He won't go without a fight. DeSantis is just a more disciplined version of him. Personally I think he's terrible but I can see why they would back him.
And can the Dems really ride a geriatric old man into another general election? He's done ok actually but his mind is going and he's almost as prone to gaffs as Donny. There's not much else out there that I can think of.