The field of Republican candidates vying for the presidential nomination is growing. With Ron DeSantis's completely unsurprising announcement last week (May 24) the pool is now 8. The others who've already thrown their hats in the ring are Larry Elder, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamey, Tim Scott, and Corey Stapleton- in addition to ( Read more... )

Last night (Friday 18 Sep 2020) Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. She had struggled for months with health problems even as she kept a vigorous schedule as a jurist and eloquent public speaker. It appears she died from complications of pancreatic cancer. She was aged 87.
The Life and Times of "The Notorious R.B.G."


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On Wednesday this week Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica, testified to the US Senate Judiciary Committee about that company's scandalous campaign efforts during the 2016 presidential race. Buried in his testimony about specific things the company did with Facebook data from tens of millions of people were some quite astute ( Read more... )

This evening President Trump unceremoniously sacked FBI Director James Comey. First-hand accounts indicate that Comey found out the same way the rest of us did- by reading or hearing about the press release in the evening news. Wow, classy move, Mr. President ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago the Oxford University Press, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, announced its Word of the Year 2016: post-truth.

I'll excerpt their definition here:

post-truth
adjectiveRelating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief ( Read more... )

Shortly after the election 5 weeks ago I- like nearly everyone else in the country- noted that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote while Donald Trump won the Electoral College voteIn the weeks since the election the popular vote totals for each candidate have continued rise. It takes a while for states to count mail-in ballots, provisional ballots ( Read more... )

A few nights ago we met some friends at a restaurant. As we joined the group at the table, one friend, 'S', was in the middle of a rant about Donald Trump. S paused after another minute or so and looked at us. "I suppose before I go further I should make sure nobody's offended by my opinions against Trump ( Read more... )

It's insightful to look at how votes in last week's presidential election break down by race, sex, etc.

By Race/EthnicityWhite voters broke for Trump over Clinton, 58 to 37, according to exit polls ( Read more... )

Voter turnout dropped in the 2016 election versus 2012 and especially since reaching a modern high in 2008. Here are figures for the last 20 years of presidential elections:

Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections

Year
% Eligible Voters

1996
53.5%

2000
56.6%

2004
62.1%

2008
63.7%

2012
60.0%

2016
55.4%*

These figures are from ( Read more... )

While many parts of the country tacked to the right in electing Donald Trump president last Tuesday, California continued leaning to the left. Not only did Californians pick Clinton over Trump by one of the larger state-level margins in the US, but numerous propositions passed by voters move the state further left on issues such as education and ( Read more... )