Author Topic: Politics '13: Like Madden but with better music (Read 7881 times)

Dunefar · « **on:** January 01, 2013, 03:26:22 PM »

For all your political discussion needs. Keep it civil.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #1 on:** January 12, 2013, 05:57:53 AM »

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/11/scientists_hate_the_gop_for_a_reason/

I wanna talk about meeeeeeeeee~!

"Even though there’s no real movement to bring back the use of DDT, conservative pundits and publications routinely drag Carson’s corpse out to punch it some more to spread the myth that scientists are dangerous anti-business ideologues who make up phony research for no other reason than their secret socialist agenda to bring down capitalism."

Pyro · « **Reply #2 on:** January 25, 2013, 02:20:15 AM »

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/01/this_is_a_big_big_deal.php?ref=fpblg

TPM follows a trend in Republican-controlled State legislatures that saw their states go for the Dems nationally in the presidential election. The idea is to split up a state's electoral votes based on congressional districts (so you get the electoral vote of the House districts you get a plurality in). This is biased for Republicans in two ways: It splits the vote up only in states that would tend to go Dem, and House districts are heavily biased for Republicans (so much so that it remains firmly in their control despite having over a million fewer votes cast for Republican representatives nationally).

This seems like a pretty big deal if it really gets off the ground, and should raise severe red flags that these people are even TRYING it.

Pyro · « **Reply #3 on:** January 26, 2013, 04:44:24 PM »

"We must not be the party that simply protects the well off so they can keep their toys. We have to be the party that shows all Americans how they can thrive."
- Bobby Jindal

http://www.itep.org/pdf/LATaxSwapAnalysis.pdf
"Fuck you little people"
- Bobby Jindal

SnowFire · « **Reply #4 on:** January 26, 2013, 05:39:15 PM »

I find it amusing that there's a rage among some conservative circles for amping up the sales tax and getting rid of the income tax. In an age of Internet commerce, I really think that high state sales taxes are just asking for trouble and circumvention - we should go the Delaware route and have a 0% sales tax, and use all income / property taxes ideally. (Well. Sales taxes that are really "sin taxes" e.g. for cigs or gas are fine, of course.)

NotMiki · « **Reply #5 on:** January 26, 2013, 07:53:58 PM »

Massachusetts recently came to an agreement with Amazon to have them collect sales taxes, but until the Supreme Court tweaks subject-matter jurisdiction law, states are typically powerless to collect sales taxes from online retailers.

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #6 on:** January 26, 2013, 09:49:08 PM »

California also finally got them to start collecting.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #7 on:** February 02, 2013, 06:25:12 PM »

http://prospect.org/article/geography-abortion-access

It shows that abortion access has been decreasing in a lot of states relative to the 1980's. I tend to like these infographics because they are more helpful than opinion-laden articles at giving me actual facts.

metroid composite · « **Reply #8 on:** February 05, 2013, 05:57:51 AM »

This would technically be politics:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21283202

metroid composite · « **Reply #9 on:** February 11, 2013, 08:27:36 PM »

http://gawker.com/5983066/ron-paul-calls-on-united-nations-which-he-doesnt-believe-in-to-confiscate-ronpaulcom
Ron Paul decides to bypass a free market offer, and calls down the authority of the United Nations instead.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21411304
The pope has given his two week's notice. Did not know he could do that.

NotMiki · « **Reply #10 on:** February 11, 2013, 09:12:23 PM »

Quote from: metroid composite on February 11, 2013, 08:27:36 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21411304
The pope has given his two week's notice. Did not know he could do that.

Funny thing about being the boss...

Grefter · « **Reply #11 on:** February 11, 2013, 10:35:12 PM »

Tony Danza for next Pope then Jim?

NotMiki · « **Reply #12 on:** February 26, 2013, 01:30:13 AM »

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/bork-nixon-offered-me-scotus-seat-for-saturday-night-massacre.php?ref=fpblg

Holy shit.

superaielman · « **Reply #13 on:** February 28, 2013, 02:24:31 PM »

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21572184-experiments-legalisation-are-showing-what-post-war-approach-drug-control-could-look Link title says it all.

metroid composite · « **Reply #14 on:** March 04, 2013, 09:24:29 PM »

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-north-korea-gets-virtual-asylum-130304/

Well then.

Dunefar · « **Reply #15 on:** March 07, 2013, 12:33:45 AM »

Quote from: metroid composite on March 04, 2013, 09:24:29 PM

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-north-korea-gets-virtual-asylum-130304/

Well then.

Sometimes all you can do is stare and laugh.

Grefter · « **Reply #16 on:** March 07, 2013, 12:44:43 AM »

Comments thread on the relevant article on the Register had a bunch of people trace route showing the stuff is really still in Germany at the time, but still a fun trolly move.

metroid composite · « **Reply #17 on:** April 30, 2013, 03:47:33 AM »

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/sports/basketball/nba-center-jason-collins-comes-out-as-gay.html?_r=0

So like...the shocking part about this one to me is that it is a "first".

Seriously? There has never been an openly gay male actively playing professional team sports? Wat.

superaielman · « **Reply #18 on:** April 30, 2013, 04:05:00 AM »

A majority of Americans finding gay marriage to be acceptable is an extremely recent event, and sports has a very conservative/traditionally masculine mindset in a lot of ways. This isn't just male sports, women sports are just as dumb about playing through things like injuries. Anyway, it isn't remotely surprising.

Idun · « **Reply #19 on:** April 30, 2013, 06:32:04 AM »

Quote from: metroid composite on April 30, 2013, 03:47:33 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/sports/basketball/nba-center-jason-collins-comes-out-as-gay.html?_r=0

So like...the shocking part about this one to me is that it is a "first".

Seriously? There has never been an openly gay male actively playing professional team sports? Wat.

Weird superlative; Dennis Rodman gets the shaft since he's "bisexual." I'm thinking about Oakland A's Glenn Burke for just "gay." That's really old news though. There's a lot actually. + when Frank Ocean (musician) "came out" there began a riptide specifically for black male mainstream figures to come out too. I like how it's unsettling the black community's weird homophobia.

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #20 on:** May 03, 2013, 06:01:13 PM »

UKIP ... UKIP!?! ... what the HELL England =/

(ok, maybe some people up here agree with their extremities too >.>, but I sure don't)

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #21 on:** May 24, 2013, 07:22:24 PM »

http://www.prez16.com/2013/05/these-united-divided-states-of-america.html

A bit of a numbers breakdown of the election. Primarily about how the married woman vote goes strongly Republican.

metroid composite · « **Reply #22 on:** May 29, 2013, 03:28:28 PM »

So...the thing that article doesn't do is control for other factors.

Like...say you're a rural white woman who got married right out of high school because that's what people in your town do. Yes, I would believe someone like that votes republican. By comparison, say you're either a city girl...or alternatively you came from a small town but escaped small town life, got a master's degree, and maybe you have someone you've been dating for a while but you're not in a rush to be married. Or maybe you were married but got a divorce and have enough income to independently support yourself, so you're not worried about being unmarried. Sure, I'd think this kind of woman would be more likely to vote Democrat.

There are statistical methods to actually separate out these kinds of factors. I'd be curious if once you control for income, race, education, urban/rural, etc whether marriage would still be a significant determining factor.

superaielman · « **Reply #23 on:** May 29, 2013, 03:32:30 PM »

MC:One thing to keep in mind there is that married people tend to skew older, wealthy, and white in the first place- which are traditionally republican bases of strength.

SnowFire · « **Reply #24 on:** May 31, 2013, 07:44:19 PM »

Well, the article itself seems vaguely cognizant of what's going on, but I can't read too far because of some of the silliness.

"Despite the ceaseless "war on women" narrative, it's hard to argue that Republicans have a problem with women."

What nonsense. Okay, don't get me wrong, the "war on women" was somewhat overhyped and was basically a vanilla attack line for Democrats, BUT the chart of white women votes proves nothing. Hypothetically, let's say that the Democratic candidate in 2016 gets 70% of the black vote. Does that mean arguments that the Democrats have a problem with blacks are nonsense in this hypothetical scenario? NO! Blacks routinely vote at rates of 90-95% for the Democratic party in presidential politics - when Obama WASN'T on the ballot. A collapse of support to "only" 70% would be huge and something epicly noteworthy. Anyway, married white women is a demographic that the Republicans SHOULD and NEED to be strong in. A shift of, say, a win by 60-40 to a win by 55-45 among married white women would have David Axelrod dancing at the DNC. Same reason that Bush was considered to be a very good candidate for Republicans among Hispanics, though he lost the demographic big - Bob Dole had lost Hispanics even bigger.

News:

Author Topic: Politics '13: Like Madden but with better music (Read 7881 times)

Idun