So, Chris Matthhews has a new Hero Politician to send a tingle up his leg — let the butch pantsuit jokes begin! But I’m more interested in the exchange at the 7:45 mark:
Amanpour: Should there be mandatory voting, in the United States of America?
HRC: No, but there should be automatic registration. I think, when a young person [audience applause] — when a young person turns eighteen, that young person should be registered to vote. And I deplore the efforts by some to restrict that right…
Matthews immediately cuts away from the tape to tweak (former RNC chair) Michael Steele, who is forced to say, on camera, “I have always been an advocate — the more participants — [Matthews interrupts to demand his opinion of automatic registration] — I have to take, viscerally, I don’t have have a negative response to that, I think anything we can do to encourage a young person to be an engaged and committed citizen to the country, through voting — absolutely, I think it’s something that’s worth, um, ahh, putting out there, and further exploration, if that’s what we want to do. I agree with her, that my party needs to get off this perception — if not in fact — the noise about cutting back, about creating this, these hills and these valleys, and these difficult — ” [Matthews: “Thirty-six states, led by Republican legislators, are trying to redu- to make it harder to vote!”] (Then Joan Walsh starts talking about North Carolina, where there used to pre-registration for high school seniors.)
Seems to me, whether or not Clinton decides to run again in 2016, she has considerable cred with the poll-responding public as the Sensible Citizen Spokesperson. If she can use that cred to hammer the idea that voting is something which every citizen should do (get regular dental checkups, don’t litter, make sure to register and vote in every election), well, there will be plenty of sneering from the media about nanny-state finger-wagging, but she can still reset the conversation from the self-serving Repub jabber about voting as a (heavily restricted) privilege to its proper standing as a public responsibility…
***********
Apart from discussing the duties of citizenship, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Long Tooth
A coincidence that Clinton trots out this venerable chestnut as Iraq implodes? It would be irresponsible not to wonder.
Randy P
Speaking of duties of citizenship, it has always irritated me that people complain about jury duty and try to get out of it. What part of “government OF the people, BY the people” do you not understand?
⚽️ Martin
I’d like to see the Dem presidential candidates and Obama all come out in favor of IRV, and ditch the primary system altogether. I know the village would completely lose their shit not having an extra 8 months of campaigning and losing the horserace narrative, but it’d be a great move. I have about zero expectation it would happen.
dmsilev
@Long Tooth: Obama engineered the explosion in Iraq to distract from Benghazi.
David in NY
“get regular dental checkups, don’t litter, make sure to register and vote in every election”
Given the number of folks I know who don’t do any of the above, I’m pessimistic.
And isn’t the real problem not so much registration (of people who probably won’t vote anyway) but that there are obstacles put in the way of people who are registered and really want to vote? And what did Hill say about that?
⚽️ Martin
@Long Tooth: True. This is just a distraction from our Benghazi distraction from Benghazi.
Eric
An excellent idea so long as white males get two votes. Pat Buchanan
beth
I see over in the Newsmax headlines that Donald Trump thinks the US should seize Iraq oil. Just a day or two ago he was saying we shouldn’t go back into Iraq. Who does this genius think is going to guard the oil sites?
NotMax
See no light between automatic registration and mandatory registration. For that reason, oppose the concept.
While I may disagree with anyone’s decision to not register, I will still vigorously defend their right to exercise that option.
dmsilev
@⚽️ Martin: Not just the Village. The state parties would throw several shitfits at missing out on their quadrennial gravy trains.
danimal
Voting rights are not a privilege granted by GOP politicians to the proper population sub-groups on an ad hoc basis. It’s time for Dems to draw a bright contrasting light on this issue. Voting is a foundation of our democracy, it’s time to stop pretending the franchise is a negotiable benefit to be bargained as a political chit. Automatic voting registration is only the beginning.
dmsilev
@NotMax: Even if you’re registered, you don’t have to vote.
I suppose you could allow people to affirmatively opt out of registration.
Suffern ACE
@beth: well, unlike WMDs, at least we know where the oil is.
JDM
I seized some Iraq oil just the other day. Cost me $3.88/gal.
⚽️ Martin
@dmsilev: Yep. And low-turnout primaries are the best way for monied interests to get their way, etc. Primaries are the most corrupt part of US politics. They desperately need to go.
Suffern ACE
@⚽️ Martin: weren’t they supposed to be an improvement over smoky back rooms?
JPL
So my TV is now airing an ad about Koch industries and how good they are. It’s kinda like an ad for clean coal but did you know Koch industries provide you food.
MikeJ
Went to jury duty this morning. sat around for an hour and a half, the judge asked his questions and then decided 50 people was an insanely large pool to draw from for one trial. As #39, I go to go home. Have to go back next Wed though.
NotMax
Expecting carping from the usual quarters any time now about the Obamas “celebrating the Death Train of a Republican president.”
Say what? This innocuous White House action.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@NotMax: Mandatory registration would impose an affirmative duty on a person to register and also penalize any person who does not so register. Automatic registration would just add people to the voting rolls when they either turn 18 or become a citizen.
I like the idea.
Baud
@⚽️ Martin:
How would you select candidates?
mdblanche
“We’re all so surprised. Canada seemed like such a nice country. Quiet, kept mostly to itself…”
On the bright side, Harper is expected to pay a political price for this. There’s a reason he keeps trying to get President Obama to put his head in the noose instead with Keystone XL and a reason why Obama keeps demurring.
⚽️ Martin
Um, why is there even a need to register?
There’s a number of states with same-day registration. What’s the difference between that and just showing up to vote. This isn’t the 19th century – the state has a pretty good idea who lives where, and we create a process for the people that recently moved or are otherwise off the grid (homeless, etc).
lamh36
Don’t know bout anyone else but I’m going to miss Jay Carney
Baud
@lamh36:
heh.
Long Tooth
@NotMax: Right you are, Max. First brand the herd, then slaughter it
(“..and we stampede tomorrow night at 3 AM. Now remember, when we get to Santa Fe, I ain’t slaughtered”- informer cow to cowboys).
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@⚽️ Martin:
A process like registration?
Elizabelle
@⚽️ Martin:
What’s IRV?
⚽️ Martin
@Baud: Same way you do now. You get signatures to appear on the ballot. We typically have no more than a couple of candidates from each party on the primary ballot in the end as it is. So you vote, you rank order your candidates. If nobody gets a majority of 1 votes, then they eliminate the bottom candidate, add in 2 votes, and repeat until someone gets a majority. It takes care of the job of primary and general election in one step, without all of the primary shenanigans. Half the states never even get a say in the primary because other states have already forced candidates out. And many of the complaints of ‘I don’t like either candidate’ diminish because there’s a legitimate field to choose from. There’s really no possibility of defensive and cross-over voting, etc. We’d get much more interesting debates as well.
⚽️ Martin
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Right, but why maintain this separate database? Why not just verify the person same day and let them vote and be done with it?
srv
We should have a pant suit for the day just like a teletubbie for the day.
I also think we should adopt purple fingers for voting, and if you don’t have a purple finger, you lose a finger. Or maybe blue for democrats and brown for republicans.
mdblanche
“No. Please. Anything but the brier patch.”
Violet
@lamh36: I love Jay Carney. He’s perfected the bland, slightly rumpled, utterly forgettable yet exactly on target press conference. He’s the best. I’ll really miss him.
Baud
@⚽️ Martin:
Interesting. Is it in place anywhere? I can see a real information overload problem for voters.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@⚽️ Martin: I live in a same day, polling place registration state, so there is no functional difference for me.
MikeJ
@⚽️ Martin: Just wait until a person who came in second wins office.
lamh36
So if u know me, then you know that there is one dream job as a Microbiologist that I’ve always talked about! So off and on I check the jobs website for that place just because. The Microbiology positions are usually few and far between. Well guess what? I looked today and there are 4 Microbiologist positions just posted today! !!!!
OMG. I just started this new job in Feb, but this is literally the place I’ve always said I wanted to work! What to do what to do!!!
The quick fast an easy.
1. It’s at CDC in ATL as a Microbiologist.
2. The posted salary is in my current range and I think possible I have enough experience to I hold out for higher skin range.
3. There are 4 positions in my current range, but one in a higher level position. I figured I would apply for both the average position and the mod-level position. I am definitely qualifies for the mid level position, it is exactly what I currently do. The hover level position I think isn’t much a stretch based on my experience but I would most def be at the lower to mid range within the higher level
4. A lot of times with these federal jobs there is some possibilities of relocation benefits.
I do have a former classmate who I have as a friend on Facebook who currently works for the CDC. I asked him how he likes working there and he said he loves it and that it is the best job he’s ever had. He like me was a 2nd degree student who who worked in public health then hospital lab and now he’s been with CDC go years.
Guys this has literally been my dream job since I finished a med tech school and way before Katrina. Prior to all these years I’ve just never felt I had the experience for a job at CDC. Now though I’m confident in my experience and skill but CDC just never had any opening in Microbiology in all these years since I’ve gained more marketable skills.
I
Matt McIrvin
@Randy P: A lot of people are in fear of being fired if they get jury duty, or simply not being able to make ends meet.
There are generally laws mandating some paid time off without retaliation, but they’re not always enforced, and they’re fairly limited to begin with; and jury compensation is generally pretty pathetic.
Violet
@lamh36: Apply! What do you have to lose? You might get your dream job. What do you have to lose by applying?
Violet
@Matt McIrvin: I just got my jury duty check in the mail. It was for $6. I was there from 8:30 to 2:00 p.m. and had to pay for my own lunch. From what I heard, we were lucky to get let out at 2:00 because a friend’s husband had the same jury duty a few weeks before and was there until 11 p.m.
Gin & Tonic
I know lots of people complain about the parlous state of journalism, and due to one of the commenters here, RT.com also comes in for some abuse, but they are really ahead of the crowd in many ways. Yesterday a gas pipeline in the Poltava region of Ukraine exploded, for reasons that are unclear. RT published the story, here. It went up at 1301 GMT, which is 1501 in Ukraine and 1601 in Moscow. The body of the story notes that the explosion occurred at 1445 local (Ukraine) time. 16 minutes from explosion to posting, with a photo. Now that’s journalism.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Randy P:
Back when I was paying off thousands of dollars in medical bills for my son, I worked 84 hours a week just to stay afloat. Jury duty didn’t even cover the money I had to spend on gas to get to the courthouse. When I lost a week’s wages because of jury duty my wife and I dined on peanut butter crackers. You might want to consider that for some people, jury duty imposes some real hardships.
srv
Patricia Kayden
@lamh36: Go for it. How often does your dream job come along? Good luck.
SatanicPanic
@Randy P: Jury duty is awesome. Last time I got to declare some lady guilty for scarring another woman’s face. Anytime they call I’m like “sign me up!”
piratedan
@⚽️ Martin: HOW DARE YOU BUY INTO THE SURVEILLANCE STATE MODEL!!!!!! FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
⚽️ Martin
@Elizabelle: Instant Runoff Voting.
Nice little video explanation. About a minute long.
Basically we now have a system that prevents candidates with the widest appeal from advancing unless primary voters are willing to vote against their personal interests in favor of broader strategic ones in an effort to block certain candidates. So, we’re more inclined to vote for Hillary over Elizabeth Warren in the primary because we would believe that Hillary would do better in the general than Warren would. With IRV, we don’t need to make that choice. We can vote for Warren, and if she’s knocked out early in the runoff, no harm done because our votes would degrade to Hillary. Both sides go through this debating between more pure candidates and more electable candidates. The candidates go through this as well, eschewing some of their true positions for ones that they think will get them through a given round of voting. So they will tack away from center in the primary and then toward the center in the general. Which is the true candidate? We really don’t know. And rather than line up along predefined policy narratives (basically following wedge issues out), candidates are rewarded for choosing new policy issues – and ones that don’t necessarily line up with the party preferences. So instead of just jockeying with other party members in a primary OR the opposition in the general, you have to do both, which favors candidates with broader popular appeal.
Iowa Old Lady
@lamh36: Of course apply. Why not? Loyalty to your current employer? They’d lay you off in a minute if they had to.
srv
@Gin & Tonic: In Soviet Russia, we report news before news happens!
D58826
OT but the savor of Iraq and the general that Bush listened to (when he wasn’t listening to the little voices in his head) said in an interview today that it would be a mistake for the US to become the Iraqi Shia Air Force. Petraeus reiterated that it s a political problem; and that problem has a name – al-Malaki; that is the heart of the crisis. Now that the GENERAL has spoken maybe the wingers and armchair generals will just STFU (insert bad joke here).
mdblanche
Let’s see; 100 – 73 = …
NotMax
@Higgs Boson’s Mate
The transportation costs can be a true hardship for some. Here, those on Molokai or Lanai must bear the cost of taking a ferry or a flight to Maui, plus the bus or taxi fare to the courthouse, and are subject to the schedules of the same carriers as to the time they can return home.
With proper receipts and documentation they (supposedly) will receive reimbursement, but that can take weeks or months to arrive.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Gin & Tonic: The Germans were pretty quick to report on Gliwice.
::whistles casually::
⚽️ Martin
Stay classy, Utah:
Nice to see the Jesus key has made its way to local politics, and the non-veiled message to residents that they can shoot BLM officers on sight.
And of course, we just had a BLM officer shot here in CA the other day by one of these douchnozzles.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Instant Runoff Voting. I had to look it up, too.
WaterGirl
@⚽️ Martin:
I don’t understand that sentence.
Assume your audience is people who aren’t that familiar with instant runoff voting.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@⚽️ Martin:
Fuck it. light ’em up.
Villago Delenda Est
@beth:
The wholly expendable children of his good friends, “The Blacks”.
Villago Delenda Est
@⚽️ Martin: Round up the assholes who voted for this and execute them as rebels.
piratedan
@⚽️ Martin: just a guess that their local law enforcement is one of those gents that believes that the penultimate authority in the land is the county sheriff
WaterGirl
@lamh36: Apply, apply, apply. You don’t have to make a decision about whether to take it until or unless you get an appealing offer for your dream position.
D58826
@⚽️ Martin: Several groups have complied lists of ‘terrorism’ related deaths in the US. since 1995. Discounting 9/11, terrorist type incidents perpetrated by the right (I’m sorry Murkin patriots) is much greater than that of the left/Muslims. And year in and year out you are more likely to be murdered by you neighbor or significant other exercising their 2nd amendment rights than you are by a terrorist, including 9/11.
Trollhattan
@mdblanche:
Barely follow Canadian politics and even I know Harper is a major douche. And now he has a Doppelgänger in Australia.
WaterGirl
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: I see you’ve moved from the discouraged/depressed stage to the anger stage. :-)
Trollhattan
@srv:
Win.
Corner Stone
Registering to vote just doesn’t seem like all that big of a deal. I’ve never had any issue when I go to vote, how difficult a task could it possibly be?
Heck I think, more likely it’s just that some people just don’t want to make any effort to participate as legitimate citizens.
JPL
@lamh36: The area around the CDC is sane and not ruled by whackos. Atlanta is a beautiful city although the last couple of days the humidity has been brutal. The one thing you have to ask yourself is do you want to be that far from family. Several of your posts have been about your family. If you do decide to move here, there are several obots on the site.
⚽️ Martin
@WaterGirl: So, when you vote you rank your candidates: 1st choice, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. Let’s say there are 4 candidates.
When they count votes, they count how many 1s each candidate receives. If someone has 50% of votes, they win. If nobody has 50% of votes, they look at the candidate with the fewest 1s and eliminate that candidate (let’s say candidate #3). Everyone who voted for #3 as their first choice then have their 2nd choice counted instead and their votes are then moved to candidates 1,2, and 4 as appropriate. If someone now has 50%, then they win. If not, then the next lowest candidate is eliminated, and their voters are reallocated based on their next choice.
It’s entirely possible that the first choice candidate in the first round won’t win. In fact, its likely in many cases. The top candidate could be the tea party candidate that gets the most unified support and 27% of votes. But the tea party candidate might be despised by everyone else and by the time we go to round 2, someone else now pulls ahead, etc. You’d actually expect in a relatively close two-party race that the top vote-getter would alternate from one party to the other on each round.
But there’s also no penalty for voting for 3rd parties. Even though they might be eliminated early, the winner always needs 50%. So if Florida 2000 had IRV, they would have taken out the Nader voters after the first round (since neither Bush nor Gore got 50%) and put them with their 2nd choice. I’m willing to bet the Nader voters would have chosen Gore over Bush.
NotMax
@lamh36
Frankly, with the GOP/Teanut record, ought to also take under consideration how secure the long-term existence or funding of the position might be.
Suffern ACE
@NotMax: they should drape it in black and put his grieving widow in one car, and his grieving mistresses in another.
⚽️ Martin
@Villago Delenda Est: Nah. Obama should call up the Utah National Guard and task them with escorting BLM officers as they do their job. Do the same in Nevada with Bundy. Let’s see if these assholes are willing to take on the US military. They weren’t willing during Civil Rights and I don’t think they’ll be willing today either.
dmsilev
@WaterGirl: Wiki has a decent description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting
So, let’s say that I like candidates 1, 2, and 3 in that order (1 is my favorite, if I can’t have 1, 2 would be my choice. If 1 and 2 aren’t available, my pick would be 3). Everyone voting also picks a set of candidates that they like and the ordering. Now, we total up the first choices for everyone. Say that it is
1: 15%
2: 35%
3: 30%
4: 20%
Nobody has a majority. So, we take the candidate with the least number of “they’re my first choice” votes, candidate 1, and for all of the people like me who picked 1 as their favorite we now look at their 2nd choices. For me, that’s candidate 2. Redo the count:
2: 40%
3: 38%
4: 22%
Of the 15% who picked 1 as their favorite, 5 percentage points had 2 as their 2nd choice, 8 percentage points had 3, and 2 had 4. Nobody has a majority, and 4 is the least-popular remaining candidate. For people who picked 4, allocate their votes between 2 and 3, and retotal the election:
2: 45%
3: 55%
3 wins.
Anoniminous
@lamh36:
If it is your dream job why wouldn’t you go for it?
Baud
@dmsilev:
What do you do if a substantial number of people don’t rank all of the candidates?
BD of MN
@WaterGirl: Dunno if IRV is like ranked choice voting, but the City of Minneapolis has had ranked choice for the past couple of elections. You as a voter go and rank your three choices, A,B, C… if nobody gets 50% in the first round, they eliminate the candidate who got the least votes. Then, all the first choice votes for the now kicked off loser, their second choice gets added in to the initial count…
clear as mud, right?
edit: dammit, beaten to the punch…
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
OMG, lamh36, it would be great to have you in Atlanta! Despite what you may hear about Georgia (okay, much of it true), metro Atlanta has a lot to recommend it, including quite a number of Juicers who would welcome you enthusiastically! And the CDC is one of our sources of pride — as, in fact, is the whole “Clifton Corridor” of research, health policy, and first-rate medical care.
Fingers crossed for you!
Baud
@BD of MN:
How’s it working out? It does seem confusing, but I’m not used to it, of course.
Baud
@lamh36:
You apply for job right now.
mdblanche
@Trollhattan: Did you see that Tony Abbott was in Ottawa last week for a love-in with his BFF? They released a joint statement that the rest of us can do what we like but they’d rather see their countries fry. Now Harper is doing his part to see that it happens.
tsquared2001
” If she can use that cred to hammer the idea that voting is something which every citizen should do (get regular dental checkups, don’t litter, make sure to register and vote in every election), well, there will be plenty of sneering from the media about nanny-state finger-wagging, but she can still reset the conversation from the self-serving Repub jabber about voting as a (heavily restricted) privilege to its proper standing as a public responsibility”
I hear that shit. Be the best you can be, Hilary. Own it, work it, take it. Move that window. Aside from the presidency, it would be its own reward.
NotMax
@⚽️ Martin
Me no likee very much.
If someone doesn’t meet the 50% threshold, that also means that more than 50% of the voters did not want or actively voted against that person, and that sentiment is eliminated without giving the ‘regular’ run-off candidates an opportunity to make a further case for receiving a vote. Also includes the distinct possibility of a less than serious/capable/qualified write-in candidate being catapulted to the top.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Very helpful! I was with you most of the way through, but I’m puzzled by how you got to the last set of numbers.
Did you leave out the part where of folks who had picked 4 as their favorite, 5% had #2 as their second choice and 17% had #3 as their second choice?
Or did I completely miss the boat there at the end?
Anoniminous
@mdblanche:
Shut down the federal government six weeks before the election? I’d say they aren’t that friggin’ stupid. Except they ARE that friggin’ stupid.
geg6
@dmsilev:
I’m not opposed but do you seriously believe your average Real Murkin is gonna go for this? More likely, they’ll have a splodey head from the explanation. Too much math, they’ll say. Nuh guh happen. Too stupid, these people.
gbear
@Baud: St. Paul is using it now too. It worked just fine but it can take a while to find out who actually won an election. It can be a bit disconcerting to not know the same night as the elections, but after that awful wait to find out that Franken had won, it doesn’t seem so bad.
I know that the first time it was available to me I didn’t make second or third choices (you don’t have to do it) because my first choice was the only one I wanted. They won anyway because it’s almost impossible for a democrat to lose in St. Paul.
PIGL
@NotMax: This is why most adults think libertarians suffer from a deranged form of OCD.
You against automatic registration of births, too?
rikyrah
The only bad thing about jury duty is that I might get assigned to a location where you have to pay for parking.
Baud
@gbear:
Thanks. It’s hard for me to envision how it would play out in the real world and for various types of districts/offices/elections.
Randy P
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: All right, point taken.
Let me revise that to say that it irritates me when the Masters of the Universe, for whom it most emphatically is not a huge hardship, talk about getting out of the duties of citizenship.
These are the same people who want government services but don’t think “their” money should pay for them.
Mike in NC
Enough about the Tweety-Steele bromance. These two make us ill.
⚽️ Martin
@NotMax:
But as it stands now you almost always have more than 50% of the voters actively voting against the winner, either in the general or in the general+primary. So there’s nothing different here.
But what we have now are primary candidates chosen by a small minority of voters (sometimes no more than 10%) who advance to the general. I don’t think there’s any way that Cantor would have lost a general election race, but a few thousand voters in a district of nearly a million denied that vote from happening. It would also prevent the idiotic practice of advancing wedge issue ballot initiatives on the ballot to motivate turnout for one side or another.
It’d be almost impossible for a less-than-serious candidate to make it to the top in a way that they couldn’t in the current climate. That would require that a less-than-serious candidate is preferred by the majority over all others. Remember, that majority solves a lot of problems that our plurality system creates. IRV pretty reliably eliminates fringe candidates in a way that the current system doesn’t, without the voters for those candidates losing the ability to vote for the fringe candidate.
If you want 3rd party candidates to ever play a role in shaping policy, changing how we vote for candidates is a prerequisite. Probably much moreso than changing finance laws.
geg6
@PIGL:
Yeah, I can’t even wrap my mind around why anyone would oppose automatic voter registration. And then I remember what crazy paranoids libertarians are and pay no more attention to this kind of crazy. Libertarians are always on about how smart and logical and rational their ideas are, but I find libertarianism and objectivism to be nothing more than a mental illness. They are just as paranoid and deluded and hallucinatory as my brother with bipolar disorder is when he’s off his meds and in the midst of a full out manic episode.
Red Apple Smokes
After helping me through some difficulties, I figure that it’s only right that I share some good news. (Soon to be) Mrs. Smokes finally received good news about her job search and we’re moving to Columbus, Ohio. Honestly, this is bringing up a lot of conflicting emotions for me. I am incredibly happy for her, and for us. It’s been a really difficult situation, and the thought of us getting the opportunity to finally start our lives together is almost too good to be true. On the other hand, I feel like a real shmuck leaving my sister and fiance to deal with taking care of my parents. We’ve gotten through this situation as a unit, and breaking up the band is a painful thought. Unfortunately, there just haven’t been any hits in our area on the career front, and it’s hard to ask someone to work retail after going through grad school, just so we can stay local. I’m trying to ease my guilt a bit by remembering that I’ve put in five years of full time work as a caregiver, but that’s all it really is, an exercise in unburdening myself. When it’s all said and done, I love my fiancee and I’m committed to us, so it’s off to Columbus I go. If anyone has any information on the area they are willing to pass along I would be very appreciative.
schrodinger's cat
The Dark Lord is back and he finds your lack of faith disturbing.
If you want something more pleasant instead; I have another photo of Gulmohar in full bloom against the Bombay skyline.
ETA: Agenda for the evening is pimping my blog and hanging out with the good folk of Balloon Juice.
NotMax
@PIGL
Am not by any stretch of the imagination a Libertarian. Never have been, never shall be.
Reductio ad absurdum is, by definition, absurd.
JPL
@Red Apple Smokes: Good luck to both of you. Although it won’t be the same, you can still stay in touch and offer suggestions on care taking.
Trollhattan
@mdblanche:
I did, and was stupified by how crass they sounded.
It’s a little like Bush-Blair, Boogaloo II. And they can do real damage, both nations being huge energy exporters.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Hey! What about the rest of us?
Hal
@mdblanche: To quote John Oliver on the 23-25% of Americans are still skeptical of global warming; “who gives a shit?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg
dmsilev
@WaterGirl:
Yes, sorry, skipped that step. However, it’s a tad more complicated than that. For people who had 1 as their first choice and 4 as their second choice, it was their third choice.
mdblanche
@Anoniminous: I know, right? My first thought was they’ll snap out of it. My second was since when have they snapped out of anything?
My third thought was what can we do to egg them on?
Morzer
@NotMax:
Why not just automatically register folks and allow them the right to sit on their asses when Election Day comes around? How does that impinge on their freedom or rights?
raven
@Red Apple Smokes: Our young nephew, ETSU grad, lives there with his girlfriend and they love it!
Baud
@dmsilev:
If a substantial number of people don’t make second or third choices, couldn’t you end up with no one having 50% of the votes?
PIGL
@WaterGirl: What she said. Also, what somebody else said about how loyalty to employers is sadly misplaced, too.
Goblue72
@Baud: San Francisco & Oakland use IRV (along with public financing of municipal elections). You get to rank your Top 3 candidates.
It’s working fine – and it seems to have leveled the playing field more for candidates of color. In SF, it meant the Chinese community didn’t have to get its vote split when multiple Chinese candidates ran for Mayor. Instead of being diluted amongst 3 Chinese candidates, they could vote for all 3, knowing one of the 3 would survive to one if the final IRV rounds.
Iowa Old Lady
Voting in the caucuses is a little in this same line. For the first round, you go to the area designated for your candidate and they count noses. In order to be viable, your candidate has to have enough votes to get a delegate to the convention. (Not to get too technical, but my precinct is entitled to 7 delegates, so to be viable, a candidate needs 1/7 of the votes in the room.)
Then the wheeling and dealing starts. People supporting non-viable candidates can move to another candidate, persuade others to join them, or stay with someone non-viable and throw their vote away. So you can vote your heart the first round and then do something more practical.
Just as an aside, in 2008, we Obama people were waiting in the hallway between the first and second rounds while the Richardson people decided what to do as a group. I was standing next to an AA lady who said her husband almost didn’t come because it was so cold that night. And she said, “Baby, you gotta go. It’s history.” I swear a chill ran down my spine.
Hal
@lamh36: My company relocated me from San Francisco to Atlanta way back in 2005. Nice place, and ATL is a great city. For me it was just the job and weather that didn’t work out so I went back to SF, but every once in awhile I wonder if I should have stayed and just looked for a different job. Politically the place is cess pool, but red states need more liberals, and they got that in droves with the people relocated from my old job.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: As long as you are not Dick Cheney or Spawn Cheney, you are good people in my book.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Right. Got it. Finally. Thanks!
And thanks to Martin, too for the earlier explanation!
Baud
@Goblue72:
Thanks!
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Damn, that’s generous. I wish you were Jesus.
PIGL
@geg6: I agree with your diagnosis 1000% with bells on.
Red Apple Smokes
@JPL: Thanks, apart from the obvious, we’re really excited. I’ll just have to just used to being in Columbus after spending my entire life in the very long shadow of Ann Arbor.
NotMax
@⚽️ Martin
Presidential contests are of a somewhat different species, but strictly hypothetically enough Perot votes could have tipped the race to Bush (as choice #2) from Clinton in ’92.
Having run for office (as an Independent), IRV still strikes me as an iffy proposition.
The Republicans do seem to be doing their darndest to create a vacuum for a third party to fill.
Therein you have defined the crux of the problem, IRV or no IRV.
mdblanche
@schrodinger’s cat: Comparing Dick Cheney to Darth Vader is very unfair.
Darth Vader ultimately did something to redeem himself.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Oops, not quite done yet. :-)
Let’s say the 4 people on the ballot are Barack Obama, Joe Biden, the “you’re fired guy with the hair comb-over” and Ted Cruz.
1. Barack Obama
2. Joe Biden
At that point, am I better off (me, watergirl, you may have some sense of my politics by now) not selecting a #3 or #4, because I NEVER want to add to their count, EVER?
Or Is it better to rank even #3 and #4, even if they are bottom of the barrel and I will have to lock myself away for 8 years if either of them gets elected?
Edit: Martin, I would love to hear your take on this, too, if either of you will indulge me.
gbear
@Baud: The only way for one of the top two candidates to not have more than 50% of the vote is to have an absolute tie. Chances of that are incredibly small.
Anoniminous
@mdblanche:
Seems to me Obama has been trolling the GOP over the past month or so. Goading them into this kind of stupidity? Is this the eleven dimensional chess I keep hearing about?
dmsilev
@Baud: It’s a majority of ballots cast on any given round. So, if nobody lists any 2nd or more choices, then the winner ends up being whichever candidate had a plurality of the votes on the first round. Taking the example I gave above, first round is
1: 15%
2: 35%
3: 30%
4: 20%
We discard 1. Assuming there were originally 100 votes, there are now 85 valid ballots left, so the percentages are
2: 41.2% (35/85)
3: 35.3% (30/85)
4: 23.5% (20/85)
We discard 4. There are now 65 valid ballots left. Candidate 2, with 35, has a majority.
Red Apple Smokes
@raven: Thanks, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the area from two people on my facebook feed that moved there. The combination of being both a college town and a state capital should hopefully make for some great adventuring.
Corner Stone
Michael Hastings widow, Elise Jordan, is a Republican strategist?
Keith G
@Red Apple Smokes: Columbus was the first city that I lived in. I loved it so much that I spent an additional two years getting my degree (OSU) just so I could enjoy. I get back from time to time. I have family nearby.
Central Ohio is beautiful. As you get to know the area, you will find much that is pleasing – except the winters.
Corner Stone
@Anoniminous:
He plays the long game, as we know.
pseudonymous in nc
Automatic registration, federal database that’s shared freely and cooperatively with states, and updated with the assistance of things like USPS change of address forms.
What’s so terrible about that?
Oh, I forgot: the ability of ALEC-owned state legislatures to disenfranchise people.
mdblanche
@Trollhattan: I assume Harper = Blair since he’s the smart one.
@Hal: The GOP clearly does since they’re contemplating shutting down the government again just to impress them.
raven
@Red Apple Smokes: And one of the greatest test markets in the world. . .for what that is worth!
Red Apple Smokes
@Keith G: I should be as ready for the winters as I can get. There’s no way they’re worse than Michigan’s winters, right? (he says hopefully)
dmsilev
@WaterGirl: I’m not sure it makes a difference. If you leave them off, that’s essentially saying “they’re both horrible, but I’m not sure which is more horrible”, but listing them both at the bottom says “I think Trump is marginally less horrible than Cruz”. From a vote counting standpoint, it wouldn’t matter. Your hypothetical vote for Trump would only count if it came down to Trump v. Cruz in the end. At that point, I suspect we’d all be so far gone in self-induced alcohol poisoning that we wouldn’t care.
schrodinger's cat
@mdblanche: He is Darth Vader of the first Star Wars movie (ep 4, I think). If you are DS9 fan, then he is like Gul Dukat without the charm.
JPL
@Corner Stone: I’m streaming MSNBC and she is not doing a good job as a Repub strategist. Just my opinion though.
Keith G
@Corner Stone: She worked in the G. Bush administration at a few different positions.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: How do you know that I am not?
NotMax
@Morzer
For the very simple reason that some citizens may not want to become registered by default (whether for rationales arguable, imagined, arbitrary or just ornery).
Again, I can absolutely disagree with not wanting to be registered yet be perfectly in sync with expressing an allowance of the freedom of the option. That does not translate as advocating not registering.
shelley
Yup, in our county we get paid 5 bucks a day. The thing that bugs me about it is the tone of the jury summons itself. An odd combo of ‘be proud to participate as a citizen….and if you don’t we’ll throw you in jail.”
Corner Stone
Yeah, Maliki is going to step down because the GOP thinks he should.
Keith G
@Red Apple Smokes: I grew up in the farmland surrounding Toledo, so I can imagine that you are ready for anything that a central Ohio winter can throw at you.
Red Apple Smokes
@raven: That’s some information that could come in handy, will definitely file that tidbit away.
Corner Stone
@shelley: I just always sign the form to donate it back.
Does that make me Uncle Scrooge McBucks?
Morzer
@NotMax:
Well, that’s why they have the option of ass-sitting on election day, thereby, in effect, rejecting their registration. Your standard would allow folks to drive without getting licenses, set up as opthalmologists just by declaring themselves qualified and, in general, permit the nullification of any and all legislative activity that A.N. Other from Podunk might disapprove of.
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: No wonder you had reservations about doing that religious ceremony with your MIL!
Morzer
@Corner Stone:
Clearly, Maliki’s best play would have been to become a tax-dodging, racist rancher in Nevada.
PIGL
@NotMax: I don’t know any other sort of person who would take your position in the matter at hand, so I think “not by any stretch of the imagination” must be a very considerable overstatement, however you may chose to characterise your politics.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@lamh36:
do it.
Morzer
@schrodinger’s cat:
Married, not Jewish, female… I think you fit the three strikes rule.
Red Apple Smokes
@Keith G: I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a more mild winter, this year. That polar vortex stuff was bananas.
Gin & Tonic
@Red Apple Smokes: My daughter went to Ohio State for grad school and lived there for two years. It’s nice there, but just too damn far from salt water for my tastes. The university is a *huge* proportion of the community.
schrodinger's cat
@Morzer: Not a carpenter, either. Actually the only deity I recognize is the Ceiling Cat and her prophet Tunch, may peace be upon him.
mdblanche
@schrodinger’s cat: I always thought Mitt Romney was Gul Dukat without the charm. He was deceitful, he was always trying to get the black guy out of the office that was supposed to be his, he revitalized his struggling campaign by striking an alliance with an organization that could provide him with all the fanatical foot soldiers he could ever need, and he never realized that he sold out his own independence and his own people when he did that.
schrodinger's cat
@mdblanche: Romney is not crazy enough to be Dukat.
Morzer
@schrodinger’s cat:
I am afraid that’s a moving violation by you against the FSM, may his al dente appendage be merciful towards you when your case comes up for review.
⚽️ Martin
@NotMax:
Probably would have in a non-electoral college race.
I’m not saying there aren’t races that would have gone against us, there are. Probably as many as would go in our favor (2000).
But you have to look past all of that. You cut the number of elections for voters considerably. You empower the voter in each election, hopefully driving turnout. And with more voters we win. Full stop.
But we also lament the lack of input from 3rd party candidates, independent policy ideas, ideas from candidates that aren’t beholden to the groups that will give them hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for the campaign. Inevitability is much harder to establish so candidates can stay in the race longer.
And lets face it, the primaries just take too long, are too politically contentious (who goes first, caucus or primary, etc. etc) and wear out most citizens long before the election actually arrives. After being drowned in ads in Feb and Mar, there’s not a lot of energy for voters come November.
gene108
THIS IS AWFUL!
As a former high school senior, in North Carolina, who got called into my high school’s library senior year and was registered to vote, I cannot begin to describe how AWFUL this is.
I was 17, in April or May of 1992, and I got to vote in the Democratic Presidential primary. I voted for Paul Tsongas.
Voted for Clinton in the general.
I would not have bothered to register to vote, if I had not been handed a voter registration card in my school’s library and probably not be tuned into politics, as much as I am.
joel hanes
OT:
Jim Henley of Unqualified Offerings blog has been accepted into the medical program he wanted, and now he’s fundraising again to pay for the treatments.
http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2014/06/18/17850
muddy
@schrodinger’s cat: But Rmoney = ducat.
Red Apple Smokes
@Gin & Tonic: I’m hoping that it might be the kind of area where someone with a degree in nonprofit management could get their foot in the door. I’m not going to be looking for anything immediately, but I imagine that I’ll need to find gainful employment at some point, even if it’s just to pay off the student loans.
gogol's wife
Okay, so Cheney and Judith Miller and Bill Kristol are all surfacing and putting in their two cents, but Newsmax — “Bernard Kerik: Squeeze Benghazi suspect on boat home” ? ? ? ? ?
Bernard Kerik ? ? ? ? ? You’ve got to be kidding me!
mtiffany
If she can put that sentiment into a speech like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFMZ7fpGHY, she should be okay. The “keep going” call-and-respond towards the end.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Morzer: If you run with Iain Pears and The instance of the Fingerpost., she could well be Jesus. But then so could I. And now we veer into Mark Knopfler territory. Theology is some complicated shit.
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
I was skeptical because I am Jesus and so is my wife.
Just so you know.
schrodinger's cat
@Morzer: Tunch and his pointy ends will protect me. Anom.
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
Yikes. Reminds me of the classic Rules of Cricket:
NotMax
@Morzer
If registration entailed only voting or not voting, then yes, I would have significantly less objection. But the registration data is used for more than that, and making it an absolute legal requirement (albeit by default) rather than an exercise of the inalienable status of citizenship rankles.
Driving is not a civil right (nor a duty). Voting is.
@PIGL
Sorry you can’t even conceive of the possibility. I shall defer to Voltaire.
Morzer
@schrodinger’s cat:
The FSM has access to the quality tuna cans. I wouldn’t count on Tunch’s protection too too much, if I were you.
Morzer
@NotMax:
Fine, so ring-fence the registration data off from everything else, absurd as it may be. And frankly, why should it “rankle” to have your right to vote protected and ensured in this way? Doesn’t it rankle you just a touch to see the GOP trying to suppress your rights in this area? And how do you move from feeling rankled and possibly crankled at the idea of being registered automatically to viewing voting as a duty? Seems to me there’s a certain amount of ongoing possession and eating of the same cake going on in your argument.
Corner Stone
@NotMax: You may have missed out on the thread where pretty much all of BJ commenters had no issue with the govt having a DNA database.
Voter registration is pish tosh for those…liberals.
Bobby Thomson
@Violet: First in line to get killed by the superflu. But it gets almost everybody, anyway, so no biggie.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Red Apple Smokes: I lived in Columbus from ’93-’08. It’s not bad. If you are at all a city person, you need to stay near the High Street corridor from the OSU campus at the north end to German Village at the south end. Large parts of the city proper have a very suburban feel (I lived in German Village and the Discovery District – both are urban). There is a pretty good music scene, both local stuff and bands on the college town circuit. If you have any specific questions, I would be happy to try to answer them (note that I have been away for six years though).
NotMax
@⚽️ Martin
(Just an aside.)
Primary here this year isn’t until August 9. Ads by then have long since entered MEGOland.
Not saying that is a good or a bad thing, just that that’s the lay of the land.
Morzer
@Corner Stone:
Do explain to us what a true liberal like yourself would offer as a solution to suppression of voting rights by the GOP. I am sure it’ll be a fascinating contribution to the discussion.
mike in dc
1. Automatic registration and same-day registration if need be.
2. Make the first Tuesday in November every year a federal and state holiday.
3. Work on turning the absentee ballot into an e-ballot, with lots of safeguards.
4. Everybody who is automatically registered also gets a federal voter ID card which MUST be recognized by local and state election authorities as valid ID for voting purposes.
6. Something something midterm election reform.
7.???
8. Profit!
schrodinger's cat
@Morzer: And you are my math mommy, so what does that make me?
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Just in case you are Jesus, I hereby repent and accept you as my Lord and Savior.
Morzer
@schrodinger’s cat:
Someone who needs a math tutor urgently, in all likelihood.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@SiubhanDuinne: I have been told by cricket fans that your impenetrable Rules are absolutely accurate and make complete sense.
lamh36
@JPL: Yeah. That is def one of my hold ups. I’ve been glad to be home, but it’s also been frustrating. I’m glad to be close to my family, but I have been feeling unsatisfied. The ability to see my family anytime is a plus, but I have been thinking alot about my career and where else I can go from here. Not that I am/was looking to leave my current position, just that alot of my current co-workers, are actually retirement age and were apart of the previous state system (if you look up LSU Interim Hospital, you see some history) that GOP Governors ending with Jindal completely gutted after Katrina. They basically lost a good bit of their retirement and are now essentially stuck in this job until they can make up what they lost.
I’ve also come to the realization, that I care more about being near my family than my family actually cares about me being here…lol.
ETA: Also too, Southwest has really cheap flights to MSY same as DFW did. My main reason for staying is my moms and it’s been 2 years since she’s been home and with all her health troubles, she’s settled in and doing really well. She doesn’t need me much anymore.
Corner Stone
@Morzer: I’m sure you douchely consider that somehow interesting. Somehow.
Shouldn’t you be in a canoe somewhere, paddling down a creek or something?
Morzer
@Corner Stone:
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I have obviously struck a nerve in the poor critter. Maybe, Corny, you shouldn’t be quite so smug about your pure liberalism, given that you never have anything worthwhile to say on the topic?
Just sayin’.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: Everything you have written points to your being interested in this new position.
The name of the game (in my opinion) is no regrets. Just do it!
schrodinger's cat
@Morzer: A math tutor is something I definitely don’t need.
Corner Stone
@Morzer: Yes. You got something there.
Please proceed.
JPL
@lamh36: As SiubhanDuinne mentioned, you have friends here. We can’t replace your family but we’re nice people.
Morzer
@schrodinger’s cat:
With me as your math mom? I am all for optimism and believe even Corny might one day be redeemed by a strong woman with a good bludgeon, but let’s not go too far.
NotMax
@Morzer
I did not say that voting was a duty. But by making registration to vote automatic, registration then becomes a duty as opposed to a responsibility.
It should be obvious to anyone who has read any of my ramblings that I do not support restricting voting rights. So much so that I view so-called provisional ballots as an offense against democracy, in the sense of being a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ contrivance.
Anyway, have to move on to more trivial life-related stuff, but shall look back (sans response) later on.
Red Apple Smokes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): That’s great to know. I’m definitely a city-guy, but also kind of a shut-in. It’s been more out of necessity than anything else, but I’m looking forward to getting out into the world again, and apparently getting to do it in a pretty cool city. It’s still new news, so I don’t really know what I don’t know, but I imagine that I’ll have a bunch of questions when my head stops spinning. (I’ll try not to be a pest)
NotMax
@Corner Stone
Yeah, missed that one.
One more thing about which to be glad, if read your description accurately.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Cricket makes complete sense to me, SD’s blockquoted paragraph on the other hand makes very little sense.
You should watch a real match, he rules are really not that difficult, actually.
WaterGirl
@Red Apple Smokes: Oh, be a pest! I’m sure Omnes can handle it.
Are you looking for work in Columbus, too? Or are you going to take a break after the long years as a full-time caregiver?
Either way, best of luck, it all sounds kind of exciting.
Morzer
@NotMax:
You did say:
I took that to mean that you regarded voting as a civil right and a duty. Not that you’ve addressed the wider point about how registering someone with the data ring-fenced ought to address your previously stated concerns. I also think you are misreading automatic registration as an obligation, rather than an enabling measure.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@WaterGirl:
HEY!
schrodinger's cat
WP eated my comment, trying once more:
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Cricket makes complete sense to me, SD’s blockquoted paragraph on the other hand makes little sense.
If you watch a real match, I am sure you will figure it out, the rules are really not that difficult, actually.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): You better watch it there. She seems reasonable but has a surprisingly crazy balls response policy.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@schrodinger’s cat: Maybe the other cricket folks took the liberty of bullshittng me. I am sure it is as comprehensible as baseball, but I just don’t have much interest in either sport.
Morzer
@schrodinger’s cat:
One side is in, although members of the side that is in may be out, whereas the other side is not in, but none of their members are out.
Simple, really.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): It does have many similarities with baseball.
ETA: Not a fan of the recent commercialization, its not cricket if you ask me. Players should be in white not be billboards for every corporation under the sun.
Red Apple Smokes
@WaterGirl: Esmarelda(The screen name my fiancee just chose. It just feels weird to keep referring to her by a title) is being kind enough to give me some time to get my head together. To be honest, I really need to figure some stuff out and find some direction. I shoehorned myself into a Master’s program that was only sort of what I was looking for. I made it work for me, and did a bit of research that I was proud of, even though the math I used was pretty basic and the higher level stuff is over my head a bit. At one point I thought I wanted to go into academia, but I heard enough horror stories as a grad assistant that it kind of scared me off. At least I’ll be in a pretty large city, where there will hopefully be some options once I figure out what I’m doing.
Aimai
@lamh36: I will be crossing my fingers for you. It sounds like an incredible job in a great city. I hope you get one of them.
schrodinger's cat
@lamh36: All the best of luck!
Jeffro
@Violet: The national rate for jury duty should be 8 hours x the minimum wage for each day served. (No OT)
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Red Apple Smokes: As you noted above it is a college town and a state capital, so there are a lot of non-profits around.
Aimai
@NotMax: they have to register and pay taxes why should people accept the privileges of citizenship without the costs? The idea that you can be a citizen and refuse to engage politically ir even be counted is absurd. Its a libertarian fantasy.
NotMax
@Morzer
(Double cross-the-heart that have to move on, but one last query before my ride shows up.)
Yoicks, will freely admit to sacrificing clarity in favor of brevity and mangling that construction in the process.
Don’t interpret that you have any problem with maintaining a choice to vote or not vote. (One can decry the latter practice without rejecting it as extant.)
In all seriousness, what then escapes me is the substantive difference of people maintaining the option of choosing to register to vote or choosing to not register?
2liberal
I’ve taken to watching some of the cycling on BEIN and NBCSN. It’s got more blood&guts and better scenery than NASCAR. It’s a very good cure for insomnia so I DVR some races. One thing I always notice on these narrow in-town roads is those rain drain grates – it looks like the grates line up with the direction of the bicycle tires and I can’t understand how nobody runs into one of those things and goes head over heels.
PS i support automatic voter registration ….
Morzer
@NotMax:
Seriously, what’s your beef with people being registered automatically as having the right to vote (stipulating that the relevant data is ring-fenced) and simply choosing not to exercise that right? How is their liberty being compromised in any meaningful way?
Let’s get right down to the bedrock on this one.
Morzer
@Jeffro:
Is that the Seattle minimum wage or the Rick Perry’s Texas minimum wage?
Gian
@NotMax:
At 18 we still do mandatory Draft registration.
Automatically enabling voting for 18 year olds… who already have social security numbers issued just is a good idea
Morzer
@Gian:
Not to mention the fact that most of the relevant data, maybe all of it, is out there being scooped up by one cyber-entity or another.
WaterGirl
@Red Apple Smokes: It seems like your life is opening up for you, which is really exciting.
May you relax and dawdle for just the right amount of time, enough to chill out but not so long that you get too comfortable not moving forward. If that’s what you want to do, don’t let the politics in academia scare you off; in my experience politics plays a part in every professional job.
Sounds like we might see Esmarelda in the comments at some point – hello Esmarelda if you are out there. Best of luck to you both in your new adventure!
Red Apple Smokes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): When I get my head screwed on straight that’s the route I’ll probably go, or at least check out first.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
:-)
mainmata
PBS’ NewsHour interviewed Sens. Kaine (VA) and McGrumpy (Green Room) on Obama’s reaction to ISIS/ISIL. Kaine was a calm voice for what actually happened – collapse of the SOFA talks and a policy of not getting involved in other people’s civil wars (Vietnam, Lebanon, Iraq) with troops in harms way. McGrumpy was totally off his meds and yelling incoherently. For one thing, he called Judy Woodruff, the host, “Jim” (apparently a reference to retired host Jim Lehrer). He then repeatedly said that he and Sen. Huckleberry Butchmeup (via Pierce) were there with al-Maliki saying he did not want us to leave back in 2011. There is ample documentation that this is simply not the case, by the way.
McGrumpy has decided he is simply going to troll Obama for the rest of their respective careers. Relatedly, the GOP is now totally unhinged from reality and solely dedicated to political-economic destruction.
Red Apple Smokes
@WaterGirl: I really appreciate the feedback. It wasn’t the politics that scared me off. I agree that you’ll get that wherever you go. The career prospects sounded downright frightening. The adjuncts that had to cobble together a course load from four or five area schools and lived their lives out of their cars, just didn’t seem very happy about it, and it doesn’t look like that model of constructing a department is changing for the better anytime soon.
I imagine that something will click after I have a moment to decompress. Luckily, as long as the finances hold out, Esmarelda is comfortable with me serving in a domestic capacity, and I kind of enjoy doing that type of thing too.
WaterGirl
@Red Apple Smokes: Holy cow, no, the career prospects you describe do not sound very appealing!
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Corner Stone:
Your privilege is showing.
Matt McIrvin
If we only had federal elections, automatic voter registration would be easy. The potential sticking point I can see is assigning everyone to the correct district (especially people with no fixed address, or who have moved recently) and coordinating with all the local election boards for eligibility to vote in local elections. I suppose there could still be a non-automatic registration process for the unusual cases.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Red Apple Smokes: Make sure you hit the North Market if you are at all a foodie.
Steeplejack
@lamh36:
Good luck with the CDC! I have a couple of friends who work there, and they both love it.
NotMax
@Morzer
Because was directly asked an honest question, here’s the bedrock answer:
It restricts freedom of choice and, however incrementally, promotes passive rather than active participation in the process of democracy.
aimai
@NotMax: No it doesn’t. That’s just absurd. That would be like arguing that everyone’s social security number “promotes passive rather than active participation in the economy.”
Searcher
It’s a tick box on the Canadian income tax return. Turn-out is still low, but the registration rate is high
Glocksman
@Matt McIrvin:
Unions.
My contract specifies that I get paid the difference between my regular salary and what the state pays for jury duty.
Corner Stone
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): So is your intense stupidity.