US Politics: Bike tricks

[konfab]

I love when you try to out-socialist me like I'm just gonna see the absurdity of my position. You know that I actually just believe that higher education should be free or at least heavily subsidized, right? And that the insane cost of education in the US is a sign of a broken society, and student loan forgiveness is just a band-aid on a much bigger root problem. But at least it's something.

You mean plumbers need to pay for the people who want gender studies degrees.

Totally sustainable, just like every socialist scheme. You know until you run out of other people's money.

 

[MunosMachos]

Teachers want AC and smaller classes. The leaders want to send Billions to the oligarchs in the Military Industrial Complex. Sorry teachers, cry some more.

 

[Temujin]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1562917272494260225

 

[cerebus]

You mean plumbers need to pay for the people who want gender studies degrees.

Totally sustainable, just like every socialist scheme. You know until you run out of other people's money.

Or just like how taxes generally pay for stuff. I guess the police forces and public schools just aren't sustainable.

 

[Kieppie]

Or just like how taxes generally pay for stuff. I guess the police forces and public schools just aren't sustainable.

Reminder that community colleges exist. They CHOSE not to go there or to other cheaper tertiary institutions.

 

[Pegasus]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1563274159706103808

 

[cerebus]

Ted Cruz says the quiet part out loud: tuition costs are about oppressing the lower classes and keeping them stupid.

Ted Cruz Worries Working Class Might 'Get Off the Bong' and Vote After Student Debt Relief

"Republicans revealing what they REALLY think about the working class," says Krystal Ball after Tex Cruz called student loan recipients pot-smoking "slackers."

www.commondreams.org

"If you are that slacker barista who wasted seven years in college studying completely useless things, now has loans, and can't get a job, Joe Biden just gave you 20 grand," Cruz said on his Verdict podcast.

"Maybe you weren't gonna vote in November," he added, "and suddenly you just got 20 grand, and if you can get off the bong for a minute and head down to the voting station, or just send in your mail-in ballot that the Democrats have helpfully sent you, it could drive up turnout, particularly among young people."

 

[Pegasus]

Ted Cruz says the quiet part out loud: tuition costs are about oppressing the lower classes and keeping them stupid.

Ted Cruz Worries Working Class Might 'Get Off the Bong' and Vote After Student Debt Relief

"Republicans revealing what they REALLY think about the working class," says Krystal Ball after Tex Cruz called student loan recipients pot-smoking "slackers."

www.commondreams.org

"If you are that slacker barista who wasted seven years in college studying completely useless things, now has loans, and can't get a job, Joe Biden just gave you 20 grand," Cruz said on his Verdict podcast.

"Maybe you weren't gonna vote in November," he added, "and suddenly you just got 20 grand, and if you can get off the bong for a minute and head down to the voting station, or just send in your mail-in ballot that the Democrats have helpfully sent you, it could drive up turnout, particularly among young people."

Stay away from crap sites like commondreams.com it'll rot your brain.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Ted Cruz says the quiet part out loud: tuition costs are about oppressing the lower classes and keeping them stupid.

Ted Cruz Worries Working Class Might 'Get Off the Bong' and Vote After Student Debt Relief

"Republicans revealing what they REALLY think about the working class," says Krystal Ball after Tex Cruz called student loan recipients pot-smoking "slackers."

www.commondreams.org

"If you are that slacker barista who wasted seven years in college studying completely useless things, now has loans, and can't get a job, Joe Biden just gave you 20 grand," Cruz said on his Verdict podcast.

"Maybe you weren't gonna vote in November," he added, "and suddenly you just got 20 grand, and if you can get off the bong for a minute and head down to the voting station, or just send in your mail-in ballot that the Democrats have helpfully sent you, it could drive up turnout, particularly among young people."

?

Favors high-income Americans: Despite the $125,000 income cap, research shows the White House plan still slightly favors higher-income Americans: Analysis of a $10,000 blanket relief program published Tuesday by the Penn Wharton Budget Model found 69.79% of overall debt forgiveness would go to the top 60% of Americans by income, while individuals who make between $82,400 and $141,096—placing them between the 60th and 80th percentile—would receive the greatest share of overall forgiveness, at 28.1%, though the additional relief for Pell grant recipients should bring further benefit to lower-income borrowers.

Generally, higher-earning Americans hold more student loan debt, with the top 10% of individuals holding 17.4% of all debt compared to 13.8% for the bottom 20% of earners, according to the most recent installment of the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances in 2019.

Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan: Here’s Who Benefits Most—And Least

Biden’s plan to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt could wipe out the entire outstanding balance of up to 14.6 million Americans.

www.forbes.com

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

A Democrat is likely to represent Alaska's sole congressional district. Oh boy. And with decidedly less than 50% of the total vote, which shows a shortcoming of the ranked vote choice method.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1563500242900660224

 

[cerebus]

A Democrat is likely to represent Alaska's sole congressional district. Oh boy. And with decidedly less than 50% of the total vote, which shows a shortcoming of the ranked vote choice method.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1563500242900660224

Seeing that she easily beat Palin in total votes I don't see how it reflects negatively on the ranked choice system at all. Unless you think elections should only be between two candidates and if you prefer a third choice you're effectively wasting a vote.

 

[Kieppie]

A Democrat is likely to represent Alaska's sole congressional district. Oh boy. And with decidedly less than 50% of the total vote, which shows a shortcoming of the ranked vote choice method.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1563500242900660224

Yeah kinda stupid that Peltola would represent a state with less than 40% of the vote.
Doesn't the system require that the process continue until it is only between two candidates? I'm pretty sure Republican leaning voters would prefer either candidates over Peltola

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Seeing that she easily beat Palin in total votes I don't see how it reflects negatively on the ranked choice system at all. Unless you think elections should only be between two candidates and if you prefer a third choice you're effectively wasting a vote.

You can only have a ranked-choice system if the number of candidates is greater than 2, obviously. Most elections - and especially in the US - are only really between two candidates - or more specifically, parties. If it was Palin v Peltola, then Palin would almost certainly win given the massive Republican lean in Alaska. I mean, she still can, but apparently, you don't even need to vote for your 2nd choice in ranked choice anyway (leave it blank). It will be interesting to see the final totals once Begich's votes are re-distributed but I somehow don't think it will be more than 50% if you look at the total votes cast. Maybe if they forced people to vote for a 2nd choice, then it might have some value, but the fact you can leave it blank blunts its effectiveness of it, I think.

 

[rietrot]

Yeah kinda stupid that Peltola would represent a state with less than 40% of the vote.
Doesn't the system require that the process continue until it is only between two candidates? I'm pretty sure Republican leaning voters would prefer either candidates over Peltola

Then it is a Republican failure to run two candidates and splitting the vote. That's why everyone ese have primaries first

 

[Kieppie]

Then it is a Republican failure to run two candidates and splitting the vote. That's why everyone ese have primaries first

Having multiple candidates are fine as it allows for more parties, but it should be like the French election where a separate proper election is held between the top 2. Will eliminate cases where voters did not enter 2nd or third choices.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Having multiple candidates are fine as it allows for more parties, but it should be like the French election where a separate proper election is held between the top 2. Will eliminate cases where voters did not enter 2nd or third choices.

Yup, imagine you have a super competitive 4-way ranked-choice. The winning candidate could probably win with 35% of the vote or so (if a high number of voters don't rank the alternatives).

 

[konfab]

The Nebraskan Republican Party took some flak for posting images from Maia Kobabe's graphic novel Gender Queer. To be fair, the images depict what appear to be minors engaged in sexual acts and are highly inappropriate. However, as the book is available in school libraries around the state, it can possibly be child pornography...right?

Nebraskan Democrats accuse Republicans of posting child porn ... for posting pics from a trans book currently available in school libraries

The Nebraskan Republican Party took some flak for posting images from Maia Kobabe's graphic novel Gender Queer. To be fair, the images depict what appear to be minors engaged in sexual acts and are highly inappropriate. However, as the book is available in school libraries around the state, it...

notthebee.com

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Ruy Teixeira on the Democratic Majority That Never Emerged

Mr. Teixeira acknowledges that this is a development “The Emerging Democratic Majority” failed to foresee: “We didn’t anticipate the extent to which cultural liberalism might segue into cultural radicalism and the extent to which that view, particularly as driven by younger cohorts, would wind up imprinting itself on the entire infrastructure in and around the Democratic Party—the advocacy groups, the foundations, academia of course, certainly the lower and middle levels of the Democratic Party infrastructure itself.”

A decade ago, “the typical response of people on the left when you’d bring this up was, ‘Oh, it’s just crazy kids in the universities. Not to worry—once they get out into the real world, they’ll act quite a bit differently. It’s a fad, like goldfish swallowing or something.’ But that turned out to be so wrong. They came out in large numbers, they did not give up their points of view, they pressed them vigorously, and more and more of them came out of the universities.”

If a Republican majority emerges, Mr. Teixeira suggests, Mr. Trump will have made it possible: “He broke the Republicans out of the endless attempt to replicate pure Reaganism and went in a different direction that was actually successful in expanding the working-class base of the Republican Party.”

His warning to Democrats: “You won’t always have Trump to kick around. You’re going to have to deal with smarter, better versions of a similar thing.” More specifically: “Watch out for Ron DeSantis.” You may need his votes even if you don’t want them.

 

[#name?]

A Democrat is likely to represent Alaska's sole congressional district. Oh boy. And with decidedly less than 50% of the total vote, which shows a shortcoming of the ranked vote choice method.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1563500242900660224

I thought ranked choice requires 50% to win? Candidates are sequentially eliminated until that criteria is met or all votes have been counted. That's my understanding of it.

I mean a candidate with less than 50% of the vote can win in the winner-takes-all system used in other states

 

[cerebus]

Ruy Teixeira on the Democratic Majority That Never Emerged

I know you don't want to hear this but I seriously doubt that DeSantis has what it takes to go the distance. He isn't populist enough compared to a Trump or a Reagan, and he isn't establishment enough compared to a Bush. He's a cheap-suited whiny-voiced uncharismatic authoritarian and his culture war anti-woke schtick gets boring quickly and isn't gonna fly with moderates.

When I was with my dad in February I could already see that he was struggling to drum up the kind of enthusiasm for DeSantis that he had for Trump. He was like oh yeah sure I like him, he did this and that, but... It just wasn't there.