December 14, 2019
Data driven worlds …
or … Get swept along by the hype?
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Lots of US Lefties are moaning that the UK election of Boris (with an 86 vote majority) … somehow magically predicts a big Trump win in 2020…
Is that a reasonable conclusion?
The actual UK election results say a resounding …. ” No ” …
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Why-how did UK-ites lose their minds, electing Boris the Goon with an “86 vote” majority?
When the vast majority of the British public believes that their deep complex problems (of failed-collapsed Empire) should be solved by easy feel-good solutions … (falsely-easy solutions offered by all sides) …
When pretty much all talented leaders leave-the-field (years ago) due to over a decade of intractable messes … leaving only very low-talent options … Who (or what) do they vote “for” ?
… or … Do you vote “against” ?
Notice that it’s the same as the USA where millions of votes “for” Trump… were actually just votes “against” the arrogant more-of-the-same Washington-insider Hillary.
Then notice that UK’s “first past the post” election rules too often guarantee non-democratic results … where Boris (ab)used the UK Parliamentary system to steal an 86 vote majority (56% of Parliament), with just 43% of the vote …
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-results-pr-alternative-voting-system-tories-labour-hung-a9246661.html?fbclid=IwAR0gCSRhT1w8_yHMMoby8exUMkQhccNpkv4U13ImR2_IBEi_k1BPAdEIThs
Notice that Tories’ vote share only increased by a paltry 1.2%, even though they LOST over ½ their seats in Scotland – ( getting a WEAK 43% of the total UK vote).
while … Labor votes FELL by 7.8%
… (led by the repulsive, dithering, bland Labour leader Corbin)
The election results were NOT a resounding “YES” to Boris-the-Goon (a paltry 1.5% gain to just 43%) … Instead, they were a rejection of Corbin & Labor’s weakness & confusion.
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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read on, MacDuff.
Surviving Yucatan 
“Instead, they were a rejection of Corbin & Labor’s weakness & confusion.”, it was an election over policy and Corbin was too far out of the mainstream to win. He did much better than I thought possible after reading his election rhetoric. Had he stepped down a month ago, that in itself would have been enough to beat Boris. The man was radioactive.
Our coming US election shares some aspects with our British friends. Giving out free collage might be a bridge too far but changing student debt to something that can be discharged in bankruptcy-that is reasonable as a first step and would win votes. Letting people enjoy the same tax treatment that people who get their health insurance through their employer-as in no tax, would be a winner. Steal Trump’s hospital disclosure proposal on billing. It will never pass the Republican Senate. It will be in play. The mystery billing program is fraud of the worst sort. Just putting a 2% cap on deductibles for people making less than 50 thousand dollars a year could swing the election.
The health deductibles are so high for the working poor, they are forgoing children because the birth costs are so high from the deductibles that they take a half year’s wages. The new baby starts a new deductable from the first second of life. I love babies, it just pisses me off that a new child can bankrupt a new family.
And in a nod to the socialists, the billionaire class would have to do some serious estate planning because a platform promising to take half that pile on death would be a vote winner.