Popular vote ramblings

[Corso]

Not going to pull punches: If you're angry about immigration - legal or otherwise - but unconcerned about the Fed deficit - you might need to have your wheels trued...

No, I'm not angry at all. Just pointing out what I see as a partisan lean in an article about non-partisanship. My wheels spin just fine.

[TTX1]

No, I'm not angry at all. Just pointing out what I see as a partisan lean in an article about non-partisanship. My wheels spin just fine.

Even as a lifetime Independent - I agree that would be difficult to avoid a partisan "lean".

I took the same statement at face value. Probably confirmation bias. Ooops.

Also agree - He should have cited data.

Even so - the Pew reports support the position.

You can fairly say that the NYT piece was sloppy, but the larger point should stand.

[BBB]

Radical thoughts? All day school. 7am-6pm, M-Sat. reduce the negative influences from a dysfunctional home life. School choice? Great for the kids with involved caring parents that are trapped geographically in a bad school.......does nothing for the majority of kids trapped in this horrific cycle.

Kids get tired. All day school for 11 hours a day 6 days a week would cause all sorts of issues. And who is teaching them over a 66 hour a week cycle, much less paying them?

[BBB]

I'd like to see the government stop financing peoples bad decisions and paying young people to have children. Teenagers having children they cannot raise correctly should not be rewarded with free housing, food, childcare, and phone. That sends the wrong message to their peers. This, THIS is what hurts schools, neighborhoods, and communities.

I don't think Government pays people to have children. They provide assistance to people with less means when they do.

And what's the alternative to "teenagers hving children they cannot raise correctly should not be rewarded with..."? Surely leaving them on their own to contemplate their life choices is condemning people, in particular the baby in this scenario, to poverty.

[Dallas Tex]

Kids get tired. All day school for 11 hours a day 6 days a week would cause all sorts of issues. And who is teaching them over a 66 hour a week cycle, much less paying them?

Do kids in boarding schools get tired?

Can you imagine a scenario where teachers work in shifts and alternating schedules?

School costs less than prison per year.

Is it better to let them run feral and never acclimate to society?

[Dallas Tex]

I don't think Government pays people to have children. They provide assistance to people with less means when they do.

And what's the alternative to "teenagers hving children they cannot raise correctly should not be rewarded with..."? Surely leaving them on their own to contemplate their life choices is condemning people, in particular the baby in this scenario, to poverty.

Protect tomorrow’s children by providing a clear deterrent to making bad choices today.

[KonaSS]

Its beyond complicated, 'fixing the kids' is an enormous undertaking and anyone that takes up that battle has my unmitigated absolute respect.

I say fix the parents. And better yet, reel in the government enabling, incentivizing, and monetizing bad decisions. Folks having kids before they are prepared to raise them properly is the issue.

I understand the somewhat misguided desire to make folks as comfortable as possible, but its gone past enabling to encouraging. Not everyone will understand this, but the more comfortable we make folks that have made bad decisions and had kids too early......the more folks will make more bad decisions will have more kids too early.

Do you have any evidence that our current system actually incentivizes people to have kids, or is this just your feeling?

[Dallas Tex]

Do you have any evidence that our current system actually incentivizes people to have kids, or is this just your feeling?

Sure, read my posts in this thread.

[BBB]

Do kids in boarding schools get tired?

Can you imagine a scenario where teachers work in shifts and alternating schedules?

School costs less than prison per year.

Is it better to let them run feral and never acclimate to society?

Boarding schools run on regular time tables.

Surely you realise that kids get tired and 66 hours a week is not feasible. The normal working week is 38 hours in Australia and you're expecting kids to do almost double that?

[Dallas Tex]

Boarding schools run on regular time tables.

Surely you realise that kids get tired and 66 hours a week is not feasible. The normal working week is 38 hours in Australia and you're expecting kids to do almost double that?

Why couldn’t the schools run on these ‘regular time tables’ that you speak of?

[BBB]

Why couldn’t the schools run on these ‘regular time tables’ that you speak of?

By regular, I mean 8.30am to 3.00pm or 9.00am to 3.30pm. The students at boarding schools go to school during these hours. The times outside this are generally their own, save for meals and homework, the latter really only being an issue in high school.

[BBB]

This is an interesting take on voting. From an Australian perspective.

How Australia's compulsory voting saved it from Trumpism | Australia news | The Guardian

[Dallas Tex]

This is an interesting take on voting. From an Australian perspective.

How Australia's compulsory voting saved it from Trumpism | Australia news | The Guardian

10,000 foot view: If a person isn't interested enough to vote or capable enough to figure out how to vote, is it in the interest of the country to force them to vote?

[Scott G.]

10,000 foot view: If a person isn't interested enough to vote or capable enough to figure out how to vote, is it in the interest of the country to force them to vote?

"If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for, but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong. If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well-meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish) without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly intelligent exercise of franchise requires."

RADM R.A. Heinlein.

[sine]

This is an interesting take on voting. From an Australian perspective.

How Australia's compulsory voting saved it from Trumpism | Australia news | The Guardian

Six prime ministers in eight years....great job mate :)

Voting in the US is not restricted to one midweek day as the article indicates. Early voting is pretty popular. My wife's elderly aunt voted early two election cycles ago because she wasn't sure she was going to be alive on election day.

If election day was on a Saturday.......since I ride a bicycle for hours and then need a nap.....I would be pretty damn grumpy standing in line to vote.

Joking aside, election reforms are needed in the US. Right off the top....election cycles are too damn long and the money spent.........geeez.

[ericpmoss]

10,000 foot view: If a person isn't interested enough to vote or capable enough to figure out how to vote, is it in the interest of the country to force them to vote?

It might be if we had a binding "None of the Above" choice. In many races, the two parties provide absolute shit candidates. We had one race in IL with a corporate-friendly Dem facing an actual Nazi.

[BBB]

10,000 foot view: If a person isn't interested enough to vote or capable enough to figure out how to vote, is it in the interest of the country to force them to vote?

While I can't speak for the entire voting population, I think the fact that you are required to vote (or at least attend to get your name crossed off the electoral roll) in fact forces people to think about how they are going to vote.

[BBB]

Six prime ministers in eight years....great job mate :)

Voting in the US is not restricted to one midweek day as the article indicates. Early voting is pretty popular. My wife's elderly aunt voted early two election cycles ago because she wasn't sure she was going to be alive on election day.

If election day was on a Saturday.......since I ride a bicycle for hours and then need a nap.....I would be pretty damn grumpy standing in line to vote.

Joking aside, election reforms are needed in the US. Right off the top....election cycles are too damn long and the money spent.........geeez.

I know. It's a terrible record, worse seeing we had three Prime Ministers between 1983 and 2007.

We also have early voting here too.

Voting on the day you ride is great. Most voting places (schools, community halls etc) have BBQs, sell cakes and so forth. If you have ridden in the morning for example, you can refuel after exercising your democratic rights.

[Colinmclelland]

10,000 foot view: If a person isn't interested enough to vote or capable enough to figure out how to vote, is it in the interest of the country to force them to vote?

As mentioned before, knowing that you are going to have to do it tends to make people have at least a rudimentary understanding of what’s going on. And even if some people don’t, that probably just balances the zealots who make their decisions without the need to refer to any pesky facts.

Six prime ministers in eight years....great job mate :)

True…but not six prime ministers voted for by the electorate.
One of our major parties has already learned that unilaterally changing the Prime Minister is a bad idea in an electoral sense. The party currently governing is a slower learner, but I think they are about to be delivered that message loud and clear.
The problem we have is career politicians (I’m looking at you Tony Abbott) who would rather be in opposition (where he dreams he could become leader again) rather than be a nobody in government.
I would like to see our electoral term increased from 3 years to 4 so that elected parties could, you know, do some governing…but other than that i'm pretty happy with the system. Oh that, and can we get rid of State governments? We've got the population of a really big city and we have local government, State Government and Federal government. It's like light, cheap, strong...choose two. Three we don't need.

Radical thoughts? All day school. 7am-6pm, M-Sat.

No thank you. Although I suppose it depends what age group you are talking about. But at primary school, kids literally fall into the school holidays as it is.
Ours don’t learn much in the afternoon. Under this regime they wouldn’t learn much in the afternoon or after Tuesday! They’d be shattered – and that makes them irrational and nasty!
Our kids would actually do better at a school that was 8am -1pm. Longer school hours don’t mean hours spent learning…

[ABiCi]

On the theme of opinion from Australia...

The most dangerous thing about democracy? Elections.

The most dangerous thing about democracy

This article probably has too many local references to make full sense, but I think some of the takeaways are transferrable