U.S. politics isolation tank

[njlauren]

So do we in the USA. But that's about as for left as we can get right now. Evidently.

Basically anything left of Attila the Hun won't pass muster with the republicans, so compared to them, Obama is a flaming liberal, compared to the past, he is pretty much centrist comparatively.

 

[njlauren]

The Night A Computer Predicted The Next President

Some milestone moments in journalism converged 60 years ago on election night in the run between Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower and Democratic Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson. It was the first coast-to-coast television broadcast of a presidential election. Walter Cronkite anchored his first election night broadcast for CBS.

And it was the first time computers were brought in to help predict the outcome. That event in 1952 helped usher in the computer age, but it wasn't exactly love at first sight.​

There's more, of course, and it's actually funny. Just click the headline/link.

The computer was an original Univac, I worked on one of its descendants many years later (univac 1160/1180 to be exact)

 

[njlauren]

Best line of the night came from the Daily Show, John Stewart Quipped that Romney had been elected president of the confederacy, no matter what happened with the broader election. Watching the two election headquarters was kind of startling, the Romney headquarters looked like an election headquarter c1956, Obama's looked a lot younger, diverse, and pretty much what a lot of America looks like outside of flyover country (or whatever they are calling it). Romney took about 30% of the young people's votes, about 20% of Hispanics, with those kind of numbers they are turning into the old white people's party, and those are demographics that should be troubling them. Jeb Bush (who unlike his brother has half a brain), pretty much told them if the GOP keeps firmly in the court of the hard right, they are going to have trouble holding on as a party, and I think he is right. A republican pollster working for CBS, Frank Luntz, said that the Romney campaign and the GOP think they have to cater to their base to win, and what they did in the process was ignore the independant voters and it cost them the election (his words, not mine)

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Billionaire toilet paper magnates, tea party, snake handlers, old rural whites lose hard-fought bid to return nation to 1881.

 

[BiBunny]

Best line of the night came from the Daily Show, John Stewart Quipped that Romney had been elected president of the confederacy, no matter what happened with the broader election.

To be honest with you, that kind of shit sets my teeth on edge.

 

[Stella_Omega]

To be honest with you, that kind of shit sets my teeth on edge.

sorry for your teeth, but really.

 

[Netzach]

Nationally, I felt pretty cool going in - locally not so much. My entertainment will come from the growing popular victory in days to come (mail ins for ca, wa, or) being downplayed like Obama has "no mandate"

Um, hello, if you clowns don't have your act together by midterms and stop clogging progress like a turd in a bowl you WILL know mandate.

It looks like voter ID in MN got struck down AND we didn't feel the need to throw gays under the bus again just for spite...very few counties outside of the cities came thru, but some did surprisingly and most yes counties were very close. Our population density in the cities is just that freaking big.

I was watching John King trying to act like the red areas of the map meant this was an electoral win only. This is going to change a lot over the next few days. Numbnuts if you venn diagram the population over the blue dots, guess what - they match up almost COMPLETELY and desert and rocks and shit don't vote.

Before anyone worries about the endless ability for us to entertain, Michelle Bachmann won her frankenstein gerrymandered 6 again by a hair. So - if you like to laugh at people who appear to be someone's mind control experiment gone maverick, you're in luck!

 

[Netzach]

Best line of the night came from the Daily Show, John Stewart Quipped that Romney had been elected president of the confederacy, no matter what happened with the broader election. Watching the two election headquarters was kind of startling, the Romney headquarters looked like an election headquarter c1956, Obama's looked a lot younger, diverse, and pretty much what a lot of America looks like outside of flyover country (or whatever they are calling it). Romney took about 30% of the young people's votes, about 20% of Hispanics, with those kind of numbers they are turning into the old white people's party, and those are demographics that should be troubling them. Jeb Bush (who unlike his brother has half a brain), pretty much told them if the GOP keeps firmly in the court of the hard right, they are going to have trouble holding on as a party, and I think he is right. A republican pollster working for CBS, Frank Luntz, said that the Romney campaign and the GOP think they have to cater to their base to win, and what they did in the process was ignore the independant voters and it cost them the election (his words, not mine)

I actually agree with Paul B e g a l a (can't believe I'm saying this) on this, which is that whatever used to be an independent voter because they're like me, for example, with the right on gun ownership for less absurd reasons, or we don't think the dems do enough to end the drug war - or we're sometimes more willing to accept that budgets are what keep things from being awesome progressiveland, or a few things, very few that actually ARE regulated with good intention in a stupid way...we are LONG since willing to get into the D tent, wheras people donning tin foil are the new (I) for the most part.

Ari Fleischer was saying the republicans had captured the independent voters, and the truth is that they didn't. They missed them because they're left of Birchers, and missed the rest of them because they freaked them out forever. It's a bind to try and differentiate yourself from the party that espouses reality and modernity and think you're going to actually win rather than simply spoil, but I agree with their strategists that say they can't just be Dem lite and expect to win either.

The struggle for relevance is going to be hard. If I ran their zoo I'd be going after the 18-29 male Ron Paulite with more civil liberties and less evangelism, and more actual tax benefits to smaller guys as well as larger, some way to make that small goverment felt and not just heard. Shit, I'd listen up, even, though with a large grain of salt.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I was watching John King trying to act like the red areas of the map meant this was an electoral win only. This is going to change a lot over the next few days. Numbnuts if you venn diagram the population over the blue dots, guess what - they match up almost COMPLETELY and desert and rocks and shit don't vote.

Yeah, if only square footage could vote.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

LMAO!

Woman Wearing MIT Shirt Banned From Voting In Boca Raton
November 6, 2012 11:36 am
By BocaNewsNow.com Staff

A woman wearing an MIT shirt in Boca Raton
was initially denied entrance to a polling place.

BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — A woman attempting to vote in West Boca Raton this morning was initially prohibited from entering the polling place because she was wearing a t-shirt with the letters MIT.

BocaNewsNow.com has heard from multiple sources that an election supervisor at the polling place ultimately realized that MIT stands for “Massachusetts Institute of Technology” — a school where students tend to know how to spell — and was not a campaign shirt for the Republican candidate, who spells his name MITT.​

There's more in the Boca News Now article linked through the headline, but it's mostly boring and irrelevant stuff.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

I wonder if maybe someone with balls couldn't legitimately charge The Donald with fomenting treason? Maybe that would get him to shut his mouth... ya think?

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Happy hangover.

Smug groggy.

 

[midwestyankee]

One of my brothers has, in recent years, become quite a fan of Republican politics. We've had a few dust-ups over my insistence that he back up his claims with evidence and such during this election season, but I've done my best to keep an even keel in any political discussions with him. So last night he posted an exasperated "What the fuck?" in his FB status. Taking this to mean that he was confused by the election results because they didn't match up with what he expected, I commented that not everyone listens solely to right-wing sources and, in fact, there were no big surprises to anyone who had been paying attention to the polls. His reply: "You're an inspiration to assholes everywhere."

I guess it sucks to lose to reality and the modern world.

 

[CutieMouse]

It's fascinating to listen to talk radio this morning, and hear the hysterical rantings about "waking up in a totally different country" this morning. The re-election of Obama is just a symptom of the moral decay that's taken over the country, blahblahblah.

And I found myself thinking I am not thrilled with the current economic climate. I am not thrilled about Bengahzi. I take everything that comes out of the White house with a grain of salt (and occasionally a huge groan)...

But moral decay? Seriously?

I'm thrilled some states will [finally] allow gay marriage. Perfectly fine that other states legalized marijuana and are going to let people grow their own. Kick ass we now have a gay woman in the Senate. I fail to see the immorality in any of those things...

Sigh.

Now the radio guy is going off on how all this stuff is women's fault. Women as a huge voting block *obviously* agreed to legalize pot because they didn't want their boyfriends/spouses to go to jail over it.

Women *obviously* are more romantic than men, so they wimped out and agreed to gay marriage.

Women *obviously* are going to blindly vote the woman into power, even though she's gay... it's that feminist stuff all over again.

Way to respect and win over the female vote [for next time], conservative dude.

 

[intothewoods]

Reminds me of an old Peanuts Comic strip, where Lucy is giving Charlie Brown a rundown on their teams performance: "Charlie Brown, our team has played 100 games, and lost 100; our team has scored 56 runs, the other teams, 360; our team batting average is .200, while opposing teams hit .330 against us; our pitches had an era of 3.6, theirs 0.5...."

Charlie Brown looks at Lucy wearily and says "Lucy, tell your statistics to shut up"...that is how people are with facts. Sound bytes sound a lot better and more importantly, you don't have to think.

I don't think it's sound bytes. I think it's narrative. Pick the story that appeals to you.

 

[midwestyankee]

I don't think it's sound bytes. I think it's narrative. Pick the story that appeals to you.

In a sense, I think it's both. It's narrative taught by sound byte. Rush Limbaugh does not do thorough discourse; he demagogues with sharp retorts that are easy to quote and share. There is such a reliance on "gut feeling" and "anything but science" on the right that they have taken away all the room needed to lay out a thorough case and present evidence. the narrative is created in snippets not pages, in sound bytes and not whole arguments.

 

[midwestyankee]

It's fascinating to listen to talk radio this morning, and hear the hysterical rantings about "waking up in a totally different country" this morning. The re-election of Obama is just a symptom of the moral decay that's taken over the country, blahblahblah.

<snip>
Way to respect and win over the female vote [for next time], conservative dude.

The underlying assumptions here are mind-blowing here, aren't they?

The mood on the right today seems to be, "Get ready for the end of life as we know it; get ready for the end of America." And all because the country decided - again - that it didn't want to be led by a rich old white guy who stopped learning about his country in 1957.

 

[intothewoods]

In a sense, I think it's both. It's narrative taught by sound byte. Rush Limbaugh does not do thorough discourse; he demagogues with sharp retorts that are easy to quote and share. There is such a reliance on "gut feeling" and "anything but science" on the right that they have taken away all the room needed to lay out a thorough case and present evidence. the narrative is created in snippets not pages, in sound bytes and not whole arguments.

true - more than a sound byte but the sound bytes are the high notes.

For all of this handwringing over the future of the GOP, doesn't the evidence suggest that we just pick who we like and then justify it?

At the end of the day, Obama was more likeable?

 

[Stella_Omega]

true - more than a sound byte but the sound bytes are the high notes.

For all of this handwringing over the future of the GOP, doesn't the evidence suggest that we just pick who we like and then justify it?

At the end of the day, Obama was more likeable?

If by "likeable" you mean "Less likely to shove civil rights into a closet and take the last few pennies out of our pockets", then yeah-- Obama is more likeable.

 

[midwestyankee]

true - more than a sound byte but the sound bytes are the high notes.

For all of this handwringing over the future of the GOP, doesn't the evidence suggest that we just pick who we like and then justify it?

At the end of the day, Obama was more likeable?

As I recall, one chapter in Freakonomics argued that the more likeable candidate almost always wins in our elections. It certainly makes sense but I also wonder if our biases and prejudices help form our opinion of who's likeable.

 

[Keroin]

Chris Rock is not usually someone I would quote, but I think this tweet makes some strange sense:

If you vote against Obama because he can't get stuff done, it's like saying, "this guy can't cure cancer. I'm gonna vote for cancer."

BTW, Southern friends, there were a lot of Canuck Whew!s on my Facebook newsfeed today. (Also some jokes about visiting Colorado).

 

[Netzach]

It's fascinating to listen to talk radio this morning, and hear the hysterical rantings about "waking up in a totally different country" this morning. The re-election of Obama is just a symptom of the moral decay that's taken over the country, blahblahblah.

And I found myself thinking I am not thrilled with the current economic climate. I am not thrilled about Bengahzi. I take everything that comes out of the White house with a grain of salt (and occasionally a huge groan)...

But moral decay? Seriously?

I'm thrilled some states will [finally] allow gay marriage. Perfectly fine that other states legalized marijuana and are going to let people grow their own. Kick ass we now have a gay woman in the Senate. I fail to see the immorality in any of those things...

Sigh.

Now the radio guy is going off on how all this stuff is women's fault. Women as a huge voting block *obviously* agreed to legalize pot because they didn't want their boyfriends/spouses to go to jail over it.

Women *obviously* are more romantic than men, so they wimped out and agreed to gay marriage.

Women *obviously* are going to blindly vote the woman into power, even though she's gay... it's that feminist stuff all over again.

Way to respect and win over the female vote [for next time], conservative dude.

I'm not thrilled with Benghazi or the economy either, and things that come out of the White house *regularly* make me yell out "IDIOTS" but I know which way the winds are blowing, and I can't fathom stepping into these people's "big tent" over anything, even when something stupid like well-intentioned lead regulations have hurt my business.

(Regulations I should mention that a lot of the mommy crafters being hurt blame Obama for today, which were signed under Bush, but never let that enter into it.)

That guy isn't trying to court votes he's trying to foment the anger among the white men listening to him who are feeling ultra victimized today, no doubt so they keep listening to his repetitious NLP ridden brainwashing bile dump.

There are a LOT of center-left issues I'm to the left of or the right of, but I will not play in a sandbox with that much poop in it, for ANY reason, poop targeted and designed to hurt ME as a human, not poop-shrapnel.

This is nothing you're not going to hear on every single one of these programs, and BELIEVE me - I do my time listening to them whenever I go home, so I'm not one of those people who says "fox is like this" without intimate watching time under my belt (drinking is fun!)

 

[Netzach]

Yeah, if only square footage could vote.

It is a powerful echo chamber fantasy. The things we do to appease the radio listeners who are going to call us left wing anyway.

---I'm proud of myself this year. I made a decent cheat sheet for all those soil and water regulators after there was a news story that went slightly national in USA TODAY of all places - about the state of lead inspections in MN and other places. The state regulators didn't know we had smelting plants in the past in places where the historical society has PHOTOS of old smelting plants PUBLISHED, or just felt 'why bother telling the EPA we did as we're mandated to."

I voted in whoever was closest to their time at the U and furthest from a business. I used to "duhhh incumbent" with these.

This is "small government" I always want to shake libertarians and yell at them. I appreciate their desires, I too have Jeffersonian impulses riddling this squishy body, but the most micro government is the most crony-ridden useless government. A libertarian-tinged Jew says "God bless and keep the tzar ..FAR away from us!" I guess.

Give me feds who do a few things well ANY day and protect me from my state and neighbors.

 

[Netzach]

I had an extensive conversation with a German client who knows more about MN than most other people in the US. Poor guy was really shitting a brick, would NOT go to bed before the concession.

M this morning "Obama WOOOO"
Me this morning "Obama, whew" *unenthused brow sweat wipe"
Says it all.

 

[intothewoods]

If by "likeable" you mean "Less likely to shove civil rights into a closet and take the last few pennies out of our pockets", then yeah-- Obama is more likeable.

The person you want to hang with. Not saying I like this but it might be how our brains work.

As I recall, one chapter in Freakonomics argued that the more likeable candidate almost always wins in our elections. It certainly makes sense but I also wonder if our biases and prejudices help form our opinion of who's likeable.

Yes, it was Freakanomics! Thank you. I better go back and read that chapter.