Zeppo
@Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on The Reason for the Electoral College 2 months ago:
i would love more parties and more choices. If we could get something besides FPTP voting that would be great.
- Comment on The Reason for the Electoral College 2 months ago:
You are still missing who votes. You seem to think you vote, but it is really the state that votes.
Uh… no, that’s my point. If electors are selected by a popular vote, that’s the vote. Very rare for electors to switch candidates.
This states thing is a questionable proxy system. We are sort of, theoretically, a republic of states. Sure. However, it’s a flawed system that isn’t quite relevant to how the country has developed. It’s silly to act like a system invented 250 years ago will always be the best or most effective. The founders of the country didn’t expect for the systems to never change. They also didn’t expect a party duopoly and hoped to avoid the current situation.
- Comment on The Reason for the Electoral College 2 months ago:
I’m obviously aware of electors. They’re selected by what you called a ‘popularity contest’.
A ‘fair vote for president’ is not really what I’d call the electoral college. Why would my vote count for more in Wyoming than Florida? It’s not consistent either. Large states still have way more power, so I’m not sure what that’s solving.
Okay, glad we can agree on swing states. How could that change under the current system, though? I guess small population states are never going to be as popular for campaigning as places where you can go visit 20x the population in just one city.
The left complains about this system because gives conservatives power disproportionate to their actual numbers, while we are still nominally a democracy. If there was anything like reasonable bipartisan legislative work, it might be better, but things have become so contentious. And yes, I don’t expect to see it change because conservative states would have to choose to give up power.
- Comment on The Reason for the Electoral College 2 months ago:
A popular vote is something people who do understand the Constitution or the power of the states.
I can’t parse that sentence.
Being president isn’t about being popular. It is about the states picking the person to represent them.
We are a representative government. We are not a boy band where popularity matters.What? Within each state it’s a popularity contest.
So you’re saying popular vote or ‘boy band popularity contest’ is fine within each state, but not for the whole nation at once, because we have to disproportionately select electors where people in North Dakota count 3x as much as people in Texas or California. Why’s that? The Senate is already bad enough where 30 million people in Texas get the same weight as 4 million people in Oregon or 700,000 in North Dakota.
The idea that the US is a coalition of independent states made sense over 150 years ago or 250 years ago, but not so much now. As much as say, some idiots in Texas fantasize about it, states are not free to leave the US and it’s no different than any country made up of provinces.
I would be more fine with the electoral college if the number of electors was updated to match growing populations. The system also is super lame in how it makes the entire election come down to tens of thousands of votes in ‘swing states’.
- Comment on The Reason for the Electoral College 2 months ago:
I like how you act like you really believe these things and that they make sense.
- Comment on Trump Supporters Mysteriously INJURED At Trump Rally, Chemical Attack Being Investigated 2 months ago:
prob just secondhand meth smoke given the demographic
- Comment on Anon can't sleep 2 months ago:
It does seem pretty wild how widely it’s prescribed given anecdotes like that. I also a knew a guy who had been taking it for over 10 years and clearly was wildly addicted.
- Comment on Anon can't sleep 2 months ago:
I had a friend whose mom was prescribed Ambien. I think it was the first time I’d ever heard of it. She said she kept having experiences like waking up in bed with empty bags of flour and jars of mayonnaise, so she stopped taking it.
- Comment on Iranian hackers sent stolen Trump campaign info to Biden campaign associates, FBI says 2 months ago:
My guess is Iranian Republicans thought of this scheme. I mean, Iranians have a lot better things to think about right now.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
I can read the entire article. You mean you don’t use NoScript etc?
There’s no “paranoia” about Theil. He’s shown himself to be an incredibly horrible person and to do bizarre things like have special assistants for donating blood he is injected with. Imagine how much ‘conservatives’ would freak out if Obama or someone similar did that, but he’s your boy, keep him.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
Okay, keep on selling medical devices because you were too incompetent at being a doctor.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
Only if you actually understand the studies, analyses, caveats, potential biases, and possible reasons for the results, which you don’t seem to have taken into account. Assuming you’re actually citing reliable research, which is unlikely, based on my experiences here.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
Yeah bro, TDS, the left!
We were comparing their debate performances as far as I can read it, so pretty sure that’s not “TDS” (which is an absurd term, and fuck Charles Krauthammer for introducing that to the lexicon - about Bush, of course).
I don’t really trust anyone once Theil is involved. Maybe that’s just my Theil Derangement Syndrome, since of course criticizing conservatives always means mental illness.
There are other experts who have analyses too, of course. You might check out this one:
fortune.com/…/trump-vs-harris-election-odds-who-w… - Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
We can discuss Harris, sure. However, the topic was a debate - so yes, the idea is comparing the two. Trump was slovenly, unhinged and incoherent, but you somehow didn’t notice and claim that Harris did a bad job? Your interpretation is so distorted that I’m not sure it’s worth addressing.
okay, so Silver is working for Peter Theil now. Good to know.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
Woah bro, you really told me! One of those nuanced, well informed takes you’re known for by now.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
That’s a wild analysis about her lying constantly. It’s so bizarre that someone would hear trumps endless spew of nonsense and then say that about Harris.
Sorry to have to mention reality, but that is not what Silver is saying currently:
…fivethirtyeight.com/2024-election-forecast/
Harris wins 61 times out of 100 in our simulations of the 2024 presidential election. Trump wins 39 times out of 100.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
Or perhaps more likely to seek help and take psychologists and counselors seriously. There’s been a big shift in willingness to accept that one might have a mental illness within the past couple of generations.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
Just imagine beholding Trump, everything from his very foolish appearance, to the horrible things he says, his complete lack of understanding about almost every issues (dumbfuck is still acting like other countries pay tariffs, to say nothing of retaliation and trade wars), his deranged ramblings, moody insults, defensiveness, and not being repulsed. What the fuck is wrong with republicans?
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
“Acting foolish” in what way exactly? She actually expressed ideas for policy and acted professional while Trump just whined, attacked with lies and moaned in a slovenly way, with a few notable outbursts about bullshit.
As of now, Trump is expected to beat Harris in the election.
Expected by whom? That does not seem to be the consensus in any media I consume or with people I’ve talked to.
- Comment on No More Debates, No More Mistakes 2 months ago:
Pretty sure we experience entirely different versions of reality, not just debates.
- Comment on Texas Gov. Abbott designates Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, as a foreign terrorist organization 2 months ago:
Ah, a hysterical Fox article about crime committed by minority immigrants. My favorite.
Anyway, okay, law enforcement is going to try to arrest criminals! Novel idea.
- Comment on Anon explains the 2nd amendment 2 months ago:
What number of those people are of military age, though, fit, able, willing to upend their lives and would support whatever cause? A lot less than 330 million, I’d guess.
- Comment on Polling guru Nate Silver predicts Trump has 64% chance of winning the Electoral College in latest forecast 3 months ago:
Kind of a weird dodge… I’ll just answer the rhetorical question for you. So, people who currently fly confederate flags are uniformly Republican and identify as conservative.
- Comment on Polling guru Nate Silver predicts Trump has 64% chance of winning the Electoral College in latest forecast 3 months ago:
I don’t think there’s much use in explaining this, but you don’t seem to have a very good grasp of history. Party names are not the key to ideology, and it’s baffling that people think they can compare politics from 180 and 120 years ago using current concepts. If you think modern Republicans are the party of Lincoln, let’s see… who would we see flying Confederate flags currently?
- Comment on Polling guru Nate Silver predicts Trump has 64% chance of winning the Electoral College in latest forecast 3 months ago:
Are you sure you’re a conservative? Most conservative views are insulting. But back in real life, it was a deeply ingrained institution at the time.
- Comment on Polling guru Nate Silver predicts Trump has 64% chance of winning the Electoral College in latest forecast 3 months ago:
Ending slavery is not a conservative position by definition. Conservatism means continuing the system that is currently in place and accepted.
- Comment on Polling guru Nate Silver predicts Trump has 64% chance of winning the Electoral College in latest forecast 3 months ago:
I guess if you knew basically nothing about US history that would be a convincing statement.
- Comment on 'Maybe We Took A Wrong Turn Somewhere,' Thinks Party Whose Candidate Just Got Endorsed By Dick Cheney And Vladimir Putin 3 months ago:
That’s hilarious, Republicans don’t like Dick Cheney now? Sure did love the fuck out of him 20 years ago. Oooh, it’s not for war crimes, it’s because he doesn’t like the velveeta treason weasel. Makes tons of sense.
- Comment on Grok do a good 3 months ago:
The word has been widely use in programming culture for a couple decades too.
- Comment on Grok do a good 3 months ago:
The submarine thing is still one of the most ridiculous ideas I’ve ever heard. The cave is in some places so narrow divers had to remove their tanks. How would an imaginary submarine based on a space X rocket make it through?