Hillary Clinton only “won” Iowa because she won all six coin tosses in tied precincts. What are the odds against six successive coin toss wins? I calculate 1 in 64, or you have a 1.5% chance of pulling it off. If I am right, do we really believe it did happen? That question is posed without taking into account the indisputable bias for Clinton of the Democrat machine which was organising the vote, and other startling irregularities, including the falure of the organising committee to staff over sixty caucus meetings. It all stinks, frankly.
I have been trying to think up a word to describe the kind of society we have now, in which a tiny number of extremely wealthy people control the politicians and manipulate the public through the mass media. Then I realised we already have a perfectly adequate word for it – plutocracy.
It is a plutocracy where 85 people own the same wealth as the other 50% of the population of the entire world, and the wealth gap still grows at astonishing pace. A reaction from the people who actually create that wealth is inevitable. The extraordinary concentration of capital has only been possible because of the existence of state mechanisms designed to promote it, and a popular movement to end that state bias was bound to happen. It was also predictable that it would be dominated by the young. To see youth mobilise for Scottish independence, for Corbyn or for Sanders has been life-affirming for me.
I might wish the movement for change to be sometimes better directed. But there is now a generational shift, a desire of young people for fundamental change, resisted by their elders. This phenomenon has not been seen so strongly since the 60’s. In the battle between the growing and the dying, there is only one ultimate winner. A good time to be alive (again). Almost makes up for struggling on through Thatcher and Blair…
The idea that Craig had “to think up” plutocracy is almost as much nonsense as the notion of a rising star of the FCO “struggling on through” Thatcher. I guess I am the only reader who finds such stuff breakfast comedy gold.
More interestingly: I see the wonderful Cornell West is on side. Maybe Saunders will steal a good chunk of POC votes.
“85 people own the same wealth as the other 50% of the population of the entire world,”
source for the 85 comment ?
yours in neutrality
However, for dedictaed students of electoral corruption:
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors/
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%2410%2C000%2C001+to+%2425%2C000%2C000
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%245%2C000%2C001+to+%2410%2C000%2C000
…see site for donations of less than $5 million…
The political – charity interface is certainly worth some scrutiny. The Clinton Foundation is above all an enthusiastic promoter of globalisation and the access to resources and markets in developing countries by unaccountable global corporations, many of them listed above. Even this might not be a bad thing, if it didn’t require the countries concerned to participate in casino economics, mediated by funds which produce nothing and take a huge cut of any profits.
Israel fans may note, in passing, Victor Pinchuk, the Saban Foundation and others. (Who have also been very helpful to the Tony Blair conglomerate of obscurely interlinked charities and businesses….which does not publish donor lists….)
I guess I am the only reader who finds such stuff breakfast comedy gold.
No. You are not unique.
“But only militant Islam seems to have any real motivation or clear and functional ideas for bringing down the system”
I’d rather remain in “the system”, thanks.
I’d rather remain in “the system”, thanks.
Sure. Me too. But the system’s still a pile of steaming crap. It’s unsustainable, even in its own terms. It fuels resource wars just as much as the dream of a Caliphate. It does nothing about the causes of poverty and famine. It’s based on waste. I’d rather find another system. However, I fully realise you won’t be conributing ideas.
Anon1, well OK, you prefer the frying-pan to the fire. I’d rather avoid being either fried OR roasted, thanks.
Further to my comment at 11.01 pm yesterday, the French film-maker Paul Moreira, who produced the documentary covering right-wing groups murdering 42 people of Russian extraction in a trade union building in Odessa, has responded to his critics.
https://newcoldwar.org/french-filmmaker-paul-moreira-responds-to-critics-of-his-documentary-film-on-the-odessa-massacre-of-may-2-2014/
It’s a shame Craig questioned the randomness of the coin-toss, which probably wasn’t faked.
Surely the tied precincts should be shared equally between the candidates or something?
John Goss, I request that you join me on the 9/11 thread for a discussion about evidence and honesty.
what is it about change people don’t like?why should our system not be open to evolutionary pressures like all other system are?
Its the way we apply change which is still medieval, and its not intelligent to assume that change comes out of the barrel of a Gun, did you hear that Hillary/David Cameron?
It is the lack of real democracy, a fair system that concerns itself with all species and that works towards a sustainable future for our children that I aspire to change. For that I’m willing to sacrifice (horrible word) myself.
Now lest see if there is any coverage of the Irish election campaign about to hit the ground. I’m with Ba’al on this issue, why are we following this madcap millionaires merrygoround in the US, is there nothing more close to peruse?
now there is, look out for it.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-election-idUKKCN0VC0Z9
Maybe Dreolin can give us a low down on the usual suspects running for glory.
I am still asking myself why every detail of another country’s electoral process has to be on UK prime time news. For months.
Ba’al- for the same reason that we get wall to wall coverage of Oscar/Grammy/Golden Globe nominations and ceremonies. Our media elites just lurve all things American. This is partly because so many of le grand fromages in the media world have connections to this US soft power/networking tool-
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/British_American_Project
Also in play is a fair dollop of what Orwell rightly described as one of the negative characteristics the ‘intelligensia’ in the UK, namely its tendancy to (at the least), brownose, and (at its worst) worship, power for its own sake. And the US, despite a number of reverses since 2003, is still the nearest we have to a hyper-power on the world stage.
“It’s a shame Craig questioned the randomness of the coin-toss, which probably wasn’t faked.
Surely the tied precincts should be shared equally between the candidates or something?”
That’s effectively what happens with the coin toss, the candidates will get roughly half of the delegates each. The flaw in Craig’s argument is that there were more than six coin tosses there were at least a dozen.
There are 1,683 precincts which elect 11,065 delegates between them to go on to county conventions where they are whittled down to 1,046 delegates. That’s a lot of little elections and Clinton and Sanders are very close, where there is an odd number of delegates there will be a coin toss.
Craig told the truth but not all the truth, he gave the impression there were only six coin tosses and Clinton won them all.
Whoever gets the nomination for Democratic leadership, they are going to be confronted by a big problem, the decline in the faith in Petrodollars.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/saudi-arabia-has-lost-asia-russia-now-chinas-biggest-oil-partner/ri12611
Buy yuan, rubles and rupees. If they’ll let you.
Mr Scorgie
“As a child I was shown a coin tossing trick by my grandfather where the coin thrower can control the outcome of a call (heads or tails). The thrower catches the coin in one hand which is closed over the coin. If the caller says “heads” (or tails) the thrower can either open his hand to reveal the result he wants or can upturn the coin by slapping the coin hand onto the top of the other hand before revealing the result.
With practice it works.”
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I’ve no doubt it does, Doug.
But, as I’ve already pointed out:
“Another fact is that the coins were allowed to fall to the floor, according to the film footage I’ve seen”.
Therefore, perhaps you might like to have a second go at answering the question of how the Iowas coin flips were rigged (allegedly)?
Thank you.
Habbabkuk, coin tosses could have been rigged.
Ultimately, coin tosses are not democracy.
Komodo
“I’d rather find another system. However, I fully realise you won’t be conributing ideas.”
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If Anon1 finds the current “system” satisfactory then it is not really up to him to provide ideas on how to change it, surely.
But you, on the other hand, say you’ “rather find another system”. Perhaps you would consider contributing your ideas?
Feel free to be as long as you like.
Where is there political will to make the system more democratic?
Fred, I’m not familiar with this electoral system and your comment makes it no clearer to me. Do you dispute that all six “tied precincts” went to Hillary Clinton despite the democratic part, the vote, being much closer than six versus zero?
Old Mark – While the BAP is probably influential in its way, it pales into insignificance beside the self-organising global associations and networks, whose members attend the same international meetings, participate in (or are) the same hedge funds, spend their hols on each others’ yachts….etc. The Old Boy Network’s gone worldwide. The American – British love-in (which I acknowledge) is IMO simply the Anglophone aspect of this. Never forget that the US isn’t any more interested in the UK than it is, say, in Kuwait. These Atlantic Bridge clones and wannabes are being played for suckers just as much as the far left is being played by Moscow.
Mr Goss
“Buy yuan, rubles and rupees. If they’ll let you.”
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I don’t know about yuans and rupees but I agree that this is certainly the moment to buy roubles, albeit on a highly speculative basis – the rouble is almost at its historic level vis-à-vis the US dollar.
For the time being I would advise readers to follow my often-repeated counsel, namely: buy USD, GBP, CHF and NOS (New Israeli Shekels), dump roubles, rupees and reals. Keep any positions in yuan.
NOS = NIS
“Habbabkuk, coin tosses could have been rigged.
Ultimately, coin tosses are not democracy.”
Look they aren’t selecting the next president of the United States, they aren’t even selecting the candidate, they are selecting the delegates who will go on to the next round of the selection process who will eventually go on to select the candidate.
The Democrat party’s selection process may seem strange to us but then I expect the SNP way of selecting candidates (you’re a mate of Nicola Sturgeon’s you’re in) seems strange to them.
Clark
“Habbabkuk, coin tosses could have been rigged.”
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Perhaps you’d have a stab at telling us how the rigging could have taken place, given that
– the coins had heads and tails
– they were tossed in the (presumably eagle-eyed) presence of both Clinton and Sanders supporters
– the tossed coins landed on the floor (and not on a hand)?
Habbabkuk, I don’t know. I don’t know how stage magicians do such things. It doesn’t really matter. If an election was running roughly 50/50, it’s wrong that it should come down to coin tosses, because one time in sixty-four on average, the tosses will come out 6:0.
It seems to me that this exchange on the rigged coin flipping demonstrates the mindset of certain commenters rather well in that I’m pretty sure that if Sanders had won all of them – or even half of them – no one would have raised a peep on here. The underlying idea appears to be: we don’t like Hillary so if she won all the coin flips (and therefore won Iowa) all those coin flips must have been rigged. It’s a form of denial in a way, isn’t it.
Is that a fair comment, I wonder?
The more important part of Craig’s first paragraph is this:
Clearly you are not a follower of the current affairs, and have difficulties in discerning your elbow form your stats. Hence the inane question about the public domain data.
Google it!
There is no Neutrality with such a loaded inane question?
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This is the state propaganda organ explaining the report away!
Now how is that for making the poor out of the picture and calssifying the destitute as middle-class?
Habbabkuk, 12:34 pm; well you’re as guilty as anyone else, aren’t you? Going on about how the tosses were fair is just as bad as going on about them possibly being faked; it draws attention away from the real issue no matter which way it’s argued.
“Fred, I’m not familiar with this electoral system and your comment makes it no clearer to me.”
It’s a complicated process different in every state and internal to the Democrat party.
You only need to understand the important part.THERE WERE MORE THAN SIX COIN TOSSES, THERE WERE AT LEAST A DOZEN
Clark
Just to polish you off.
“Habbabkuk, 12:34 pm; well you’re as guilty as anyone else, aren’t you? Going on about how the tosses were fair is just as bad as going on about them possibly being faked;”
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Actually, it is not. ‘Twas not I who immediately leaped into conspiracy mode. I merely responded to those who could not accept that Clinton won.
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“it draws attention away from the real issue no matter which way it’s argued.”
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What issue? See my comment above at 12h41.
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And now do keep quiet, I’m done with you. 🙂