US Politics Mega-thread - Page 3199

On March 07 2016 07:23 xDaunt wrote:

And maybe a multiparty system is what the US needs (and it may be what Trump gives us). But the larger point is this: the GOP has clearly failed its membership. This is why I objected to Sermokala's point that the GOP may have been right to ignore the "Cruz and Trump" elements of the party. The obvious point is that a party's leadership cannot ignore 70%+ of its membership and expect things to go well.

Fossil fuel millionaires collectively pumped more than $100m into Republican presidential contenders’ efforts last year – in an unprecedented investment by the oil and gas industry in the party’s future.

About one in three dollars donated to Republican hopefuls from mega-rich individuals came from people who owe their fortunes to fossil fuels – and who stand to lose the most in the fight against climate change.

The scale of investment by fossil fuel interests in presidential Super Pacs reached about $107m last year – before any votes were cast in the Republican primary season.

Campaign groups said the funds raised questions about what kind of leverage the fossil fuel industry might enjoy if the Republicans were to take the White House.

Ted Cruz, the Texas senator seen as having the best chance of stopping Donald Trump from clinching the Republican nomination, was among the biggest beneficiaries of fossil fuel support to his Super Pac.

Cruz, who more than any other Republican candidate openly rejects mainstream science on climate change, banked some 57% of the funds to his Super Pac, or about $25m, from fossil fuel interests, according to campaign filings compiled by Greenpeace and reviewed by the Guardian.

On March 07 2016 09:03 iPlaY.NettleS wrote:
Seattle experiences largest 9-month dropoff in jobs recorded since the great recession after bringing in $15 minimum wage.Great work guys...

On March 07 2016 09:18 KwarK wrote:
Any 9 month period? That sounds awfully, awfully specific. Like the kind of stat that someone would come up with after finding out that it wasn't the greatest of any 6 month period, or of any year. Did you check if they tweaked the time period deliberately to manufacture that statistic? Because you'd think a minimum wage law would have its impact almost immediately, if not even earlier as people see that it will take effect.

I did a little googling and it turned out that the minimum wage law was actually passed in June 2014. So from June 2014 everyone knew what the new rate of pay would be and would have made decisions accordingly due to efficient market theory. If an employer was not prepared to pay someone $15/hr then the time to lay them off would be between June 2014 and April 2015, before the wage hike which the employer knows is definitely coming takes effect. However that graph does not show that. In fact it shows employment is still higher today than it was in June 2014. Weird.

Furthermore it shows a decrease in employment of approximately 10,000 jobs from approx 405k to 395k. So if we accept your evidence, which I've already discredited pretty thoroughly but let's assume for a second that I haven't and we accept your claim, your argument is that a $15 minimum wage law leads to a 1.2% decrease in employment? Honestly that seems pretty much okay. Like that's about what I'd expect in terms of kids not having to skip college to support their family because the single working parent at McDonalds can pay the electric bill now. So even if we accept that graph, and I don't, I still think it shows that the minimum wage has been a success.

On March 07 2016 09:27 KwarK wrote:
Wait, when they say largest since the great depression they don't mean the actual Great Depression in the 1930s, they mean 2008? Wow. That's some shit. Largest drop we've ever seen in the last 7 years of uninterrupted economic growth. Employment right now is only as high as it was about 18 months ago, we've lost all the growth we've seen in the last 18 months!!!

Those guys at the American Enterprise Institute must shit themselves every winter. "Temperatures haven't been this low all year!!! What could this mean for the American ice cream industry as it struggles to cope in this new perpetual winter? And how is Obama to blame for this? We can only hope that soon the Republicans will take the White House and restore warmth to America, probably sometime around May".

On March 07 2016 09:41 KwarK wrote:
This is not how you do statistics. This is how you demonstrate to the world that you need help with your statistics. They should be embarrassed that they published that and the people who took it seriously should go to any educational establishment they ever attended and use the fact that they took it seriously as evidence that they didn't get their money's worth.