Wrapping Up Early Voting In Nevada 2024

     With in person early voting over in Nevada, only mail and non-polling place drop-offs are left before Election day. The GOP voter lead stands at 45,102, or ~4.3%, as of the numbers released as of writing, with practically no overall increase from the last day of in person early voting to bolster it. The GOP may be exhausting its pool of voters, but the Dem seem unable to tap theirs. Nevada is looking far more Red with the dissolution of the Harry Reid Machine.

     Nevada Republicans’ early in person is 97,103 or ~17.8%. This is a lower percentage than in ’22. However, Democrats’ mail voter lead of 51,001, or 10.3%, is much lower than the leads they had in ’22 of 16.9% and 13.8% in the 1st and 2nd week, respectively.

     At this point for Nevada in 2022, mail ballots were the gross majority of votes cast; in 2024 so far, there are more in person early votes than mail/drop-off ballots. This will change in the Democrats favor as four more days through Election Day plus a few more for late arriving ballot, but likely not by enough to give them the margins they saw in 2022.

     The Nevada Democrats’ 16,437 lead in Clark is wiped out by just the two rural counties of Douglas and Nye, which give the GOP a voter lead of 10,379 and 8.974, respectively, despite Clark having 14 times the population! The Republicans lead in Washoe is at 9017 or 5.0%. Democrats lead in Clark is only 2.2%. The Nevada Democrats’ problem is that their mail ballot game is poorer than it was in 2022. The institutional knowledge of the Harry Reid Machine seems to have disappeared along with the late Harry Reid.

     Political machines matter, and with the death of Harry Reid, the machine the Democrats relied on appears to be collapsing. Their over-reliance on that machine is hurting them now and will continue to hurt them in at least the near future.

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Free to Choose Friday, Revisited (Part 10)

     With the Presidential election less than a week away, this is a good time to revisit Milton Friedman’s ten-part Free to Choose each Friday before the election as a reminder of why politically good sounding policies are often bad economics.

     The tenth episode: How to Stay Free

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Happy Halloween! (2024)

     Here is the silent film classic The Haunted House from 1908.

     May it be less scary than all the political ads you’ve been getting!

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Our Manichean Political World

     It feels, especially online, that more and more people are falling into a manichean trap—imposing a false dilemma fallacy upon themselves (and others)—not by categorizing others as being not on your side but by categorizing your side as not being the other.   There seems to be a knee-jerk need to take an oppositional position to justify the other side being always wrong and you yourself being always right, even if it means taking a position that you know is wrong. If they have a point, you can’t admit it without feeling like you’ve conceded everything.

     becomes worse on a group level where tribalism takes over. No matter what cromulent point they other side make—heck, even just people who generally agree with you but just disagree with you and agree with them on one point or another—you have to deny this in solidarity with your tribal political group. Similarly, you have to refuse to deny if not be forced to outright agree with something you personally thing is a bad point just to remain in solidarity with your own tribal political group.

     This is a problem because it raised group think above your own reasoning and subsumes your mind to the collective will of your tribal political group. It is a self-fulfilling antipodal divide.

     But perhaps a more eloquent and simpler way of saying all this is to say that “[c]urrent year politics is a cesspool, everyone knows that but what people don’t want to acknowledge it has become a matter of being defined by the opposite of what you are and believe without giving credence to anything that might actually be true because gods forbid, someone said it that you don’t like…”

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Make Mine Freedom

     There are a lot of snake oil salesmen trying to convince us that America is fundamentally broken, or that radical change is necessary. We should beware of snake oil salesmen—they are in it for themselves and you are just a tool. As for you humble author, make mine freedom!

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Techniques of Propaganda

     Too many people think that “propaganda” is what bad guys do to lie, while the side they are on can’t engage in propaganda because they are telling the honest truth. But propaganda isn’t all about spreading lies, or even about spreading lies at all. It’s about intentional framing to get people to think the way you’d like them to think, and that can be done, and done best, with the truth, or at least truth enough.

     This old instructional film explains very well the techniques of propaganda. You’ll quickly notice how both sides this election have used them, and may even be able to recognize the specific techniques in specific ads and slogans.

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News of the Week (October 27th, 2024)

 

News of the Week for October 27th, 2024


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Early Voting In Nevada 2024 (Week 1)

     It’s hard to compare 2020 with the current one because it occurred during the Covid lockdowns, and I am hesitant to draw comparisons between 2020 and 2024. 2022 used the same new way of voting as is being used now.   While the raw numbers are a poor comparison, the relative percentages can show, between the two parties, which is doing better and which is doing worse.

     With the first week of early voting over in Nevada, the GOP has a total voter lead of ca 6.2%.   In ’22 after the first week of early voting, the Democrats had a lead of ca 3.1%. All but two rural counties have turnout above ca 30% so far, with Nye County reporting ca 42% turnout! The in person early vote to mail ballot vote is close to 5:6.   Democrats still lead Clark County, but by only 5972 votes. The GOP has a lead in Washoe County by 4306. With the rurals being a GOP blowout, the Nevada GOP has a statewide lead of 29,142.

     The GOP’s lead with in person early voting is at ca 24.6% compared with ca 18.7% at this point two years ago. The Dems mail ballot lead (which includes ballots dropped off at early voting sites) is only ca 10.0%, down from ca 16.9% at this point two years ago. #NVpol

     Clearly, Nevada Republicans have gotten over their allergy to early voting. However, their in person and mail percentage of the total vote of ca 51.3% and ca 31.3%, respectively, is only a slight improvement over 2022 percentages of ca 50.3% and ca 29.9%, respectively.

     The dearth of Democratic turnout, especially in Clark County, combined with decent turnout for non-partisan and 3rd Party voters is a bad sign for the once vaunted Harry Reid Machine. They need the numbers to massively improve during the rest of early voting and/or do ahistorically well on Election Day. There is no evidence to suggest that that is likely.

     The Democrats in Nevada should be hitting the panic button over their anemic turnout. Yes, the GOP’s election day turnout may end up smaller, but with the very early mail ballots being so low, they can’t count on the late arriving mail ballots to save even than. The Dems in Clark county may have been caught flatfooted, but they still have the resources to cajole plenty more ballots, if the voters are just reluctantly there. This can not be chalked up to just GOP transplants from California moving to Nevada.

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Free to Choose Friday, Revisited (Part 9)

     With the Presidential election but a couple of weeks away, this is a good time to revisit Milton Friedman’s ten-part Free to Choose each Friday before the election as a reminder of why politically good sounding policies are often bad economics.

     The ninth episode: How to Cure Inflation

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Quick Takes – Madness Of The California Legislature: Speeding Cars Beep; Taxpayer Funder Union Dues; Doubleplusungood Deepfakes

     Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

     The focus this time: What’s more crazy than a California Governor? The California Grand Soviet, of course!

     First, a little mood music:

     Carrying on…

     If you speed, the California legislature want to remind you that you are being naughty, over and over again.

“[A] new driver safety law passed the California legislature. Senate Bill 961 requires every passenger vehicle of the 2030 model year and beyond to “utilize a brief, one-time, visual and audio signal to alert the driver each time the speed of the vehicle is more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.” Passing the Assembly 42–12 and the Senate 26–9, the only thing that stands between S.B. 961 becoming law is Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. Once the bill becomes law, violations would not carry mere civil penalties but ‘would be punishable as a crime.’”

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