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[Strife26]

That's good. The American interstate is somewhat important, being the biggest public works project ever and all.

[FearfulJesuit]

Also, Nate Silver made a thing.

It's interesting to look at what demographics seem to matter and which don't. Notably, Hispanics' importance to national elections seems to be heavily overrated- you can move the Hispanic slide quite a ways away from its 2012 position, in pretty much any direction, with not much change in the map. The key demographics appear to be blacks and whites without college degrees.

EDIT: An interesting observation: if the 2016 election were held with mandatory voting/100% turnout, as the president has proposed recently, with the listed demographics voting as they did in 2012, you'd get...the 2012 electoral map, exactly, and most of the swing states still look pretty swing.

[redwallzyl]

its back. dun dun duuuuunnnnn!

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/12/04/458444673/5-things-to-know-net-neutrality-is-back-in-court

[Lord Shonus]

Also, Nate Silver made a thing.

It's interesting to look at what demographics seem to matter and which don't. Notably, Hispanics' importance to national elections seems to be heavily overrated- you can move the Hispanic slide quite a ways away from its 2012 position, in pretty much any direction, with not much change in the map. The key demographics appear to be blacks and whites without college degrees.

Blacks are influential with this data because they skew so far into the blue, so any movement toward the red is a major shift, while non-college-educated whites are influential because they make up a huge majority of the electorate in key states such as Ohio. The influence of Hispanics is less than expected on a national level because the Hispanic population is concentrated in states that are very solid one way or another - they're still critical in Florida and a few other battleground states.

[wierd]

Re: Return of Net Neutrality, the lawsuits that never end.

Of course it is.

Title II is about as popular with really big ISPs as the ACA is with wealthy republicans, and for basically the same reasons.

"Stop regulating my ability to screw with my competition and offer lackluster service for a high price! Stop disturbing my ability to act like a monopoly player! WHAAAAAA!!!"

Basically.

Under title II regulations, ISPs would have to act like dumb pipes, which basically destroys some VERY lucrative notions of being "the new cable", with ISP specific streaming media services at special discounts for the ISP's customers (and possible access fees toward other streaming media providers that dont try this, like Netflix and Amazon).

It's as fucking transparent as you can get. Their whole argument is basically "But we can make SOOOOO much more money if you dont regulate us that way! (But we cant actually say that, because it will cause a public backlash-- instead, we will trump up some bullshit about how Title II classification will "Destroy" our business, A La how the movie business likened VCRs to Jack the Ripper)", which is totally BS, because they have been picking and choosing acting like a title II regulated agency, to gain save-haven exemptions under the DMCA-- without actually being title II.  Now they would actually have to really choose weather or not to be a real title II, or face litigation from the media industry for the actions of their customers on their network.  Naturally, they want things back the way they were, where they could have their cake, eat it too, AND double dip on charging all over the damned place, while never really upgrading service to customers in a timely manner (compared to other first world countries.)

They are lucky I am not the judge, as I would dismiss with prejudice.

[Morrigi]

Well, the San Bernadino shooters were Islamist fuckheads using illegally modified weapons.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/04/us/san-bernardino-shooting/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/rifles-used-in-san-bernardino-shooting-illegal-under-state-law-1449201057

[smjjames]

its back. dun dun duuuuunnnnn!

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/12/04/458444673/5-things-to-know-net-neutrality-is-back-in-court

It was inevitable.

Not even joking- the moment the FCC took the matter into their own hands, them being taken to court over this was inevitable.

The last one on there says that it may end up in the Supreme Court. I wouldn't really trust those old people to understand the internet properly.

[smjjames]

Uh, I think Cruz is advocating or wanting to drop nukes on ISIS, which is the equivalent of using a sledgehammer Mjolnir where a scalpel is required...

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/cruz-isil-bombing-216454
"Ted Cruz on Saturday promised a ruthless campaign against terrorists in the Middle East, promising to find out “if sand can glow in the dark.”"

It's probably just rhetoric, but I can't think of anything else that the words 'if sand can glow in the dark' implies besides nukes, tactical (the non-mushroom cloud* kind) or the regular mushroom cloud generating kind. Which, honestly, is pretty concerning.

*I think..... not sure if tactical nukes have actually been used. Edit: Looks like they have, but still, the rhetoric is concerning.

[Frumple]

Not in actual combat, no. Probably been tested somewhere, but used, not so much. Not yet, hopefully not ever. Pretty standard hawk chestbeating, though. Same thing we've been seeing for the last... while. Cold war, really, though the commonly declared targets have changed a bit.

[WealthyRadish]

Uh, I think Cruz is advocating or wanting to drop nukes on ISIS, which is the equivalent of using a sledgehammer Mjolnir where a scalpel is required...

*I think..... not sure if tactical nukes have actually been used. Edit: Looks like they have, but still, the rhetoric is concerning.

You may be thinking of depleted uranium (which isn't really related to nuclear weapons at all, it's just used because it makes for dense projectiles). The US uses depleted uranium ammunition and shells regularly, which has a number of toxicity problems, but not nuclear weapons.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I assure you, you will hear about it if anyone anywhere on this planet deploys a tac nuke on the battlefield.

[smjjames]

I tried to do a google search and there a few maybes/rumors like in Yemen or something, but still. Editwhiletyping: Theres a type called depleted uranium warheads that have been used before. http://science.howstuffworks.com/bunker-buster3.htm

I assure you, you will hear about it if anyone anywhere on this planet deploys a tac nuke on the battlefield.

Well, the site I linked calls DU weapons tactical nukes. It may be the wrong use of the term, I don't know. And you're probably thinking of the stragetic nukes rather than the tactical.

[Willfor]

I feel like it's disingenuous to call DU weapons tactical nukes. "Nuclear weapons" use a "Nuclear reaction" as their principle form of weaponizing the material they're composed of. DU weapons are only weaponizing the additional mass-to-size ratio of their components. That's not using the words in any correct way at all. It's not even a case of emergent changes in language. It's just being obtuse.

[Flying Dice]

If someone called DU ordinance tactical nukes, they're either trying to lie to you or idiots.

This is what a tacnuke looks like.

[smjjames]

If someone called DU ordinance tactical nukes, they're either trying to lie to you or idiots.

This is what a tacnuke looks like.

I'm going to go with idiots (and probably misinformed on the term) and me being a bit confused.

Anyhow, yeah, even if Cruz is just chestbeating the rhetoric, it's still concerning. As I said, it'd be like using Mjolnir (both the carpet bombing bit and the reference to nukes) on a problem that requires a scalpel.

Also, carpet bombing is an obsolete tactic, only made neccesary by the fact that bombs weren't guided* in any way, shape, or form after being dropped in WWII.

*One could say the V1 and V2 rockets were guided, but they were as guided as an artillery shell.