Tag: politics

  • For Whom the Teamsters Poll Tolls

    For Whom the Teamsters Poll Tolls

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    Brendan Barry
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    The Teamsters Union decided to officially endorse neither candidate in the 2024 US presidential election. Prior to their non-announcement announcement, however, the union surveyed its members and then released the polling data ahead of the announcement. Of course, the teamsters represent but a single union in a large and diverse country. More importantly, the survey…

  • 248 Years Later, Philadelphia’s Still Hosting Debates

    248 Years Later, Philadelphia’s Still Hosting Debates

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    by

    Brendan Barry
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    For those of you living under a rock, 2024 is a presidential election year in the United States and the campaign for the November election truly kicks off post-Labour Day. And post-Labour Day here we are. Tonight features a presidential debate between the two candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. Harris…

  • Electing An Expert in Nameology

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    Brendan Barry
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    Congratulations on making it to Friday. Though it was a short week for my American audience. Now that the State’s Labour Day holiday has passed, the 2024 electoral season can begin in earnest. And to begin the insanity we have a helpful graphic from xkcd. Clearly I’m not cut out for high office with a…

  • Warming Towards Women Leaders

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    Brendan Barry
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    We are going to start this week off with a nice small multiple graphic that explores the reducing resistance to women in positions of leadership in Arab countries. The graphic comes from a BBC article published last week. These kinds of graphics allow a reader to quickly compare the trajectory of a thing between a…

  • Whilst We Wait for Roe…

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    Brendan Barry
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    to be overturned by the Supreme Court, as seems likely, states have been busy passing laws to both restrict and expand abortion access. This article from FiveThirtyEight describes the statutory activity with the use of a small multiple graphic I’ve screenshot below. Each little map represents an action that states could have taken recently, for…

  • Political Hatch Jobs

    Political Hatch Jobs

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    Brendan Barry
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    Earlier this week I read an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the political prospects of some of the candidates for the open US Senate seat for Pennsylvania, for which I and many others will be voting come November. But before I get to vote on a candidate, members of the political parties first get…

  • The Potential Impacts of Throwing Out Roe v Wade

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    Brendan Barry
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    Spoiler: they are significant. Last night we had breaking news on two very big fronts. The first is that somebody inside the Supreme Court leaked an entire draft of the majority opinion, written by Justice Alito, to Politico. Leaks from inside the Supreme Court, whilst they do happen, are extremely rare. This alone is big…

  • Where’s My (State) Stimulus?

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    Brendan Barry
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    Here’s an interesting post from FiveThirtyEight. The article explores where different states have spent their pandemic relief funding from the federal government. The nearly $2 trillion dollar relief included a $350 billion block grant given to the states, to do with as they saw fit. After all, every state has different needs and priorities. Huzzah…

  • Colours for Maps

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today we have an interesting little post, a choropleth map in a BBC article examining the changes occurring in the voting systems throughout the United States. Broadly speaking, we see two trends in the American political system when it comes to voting: make it easier because democracy; make it more restrictive because voter fraud/illegitimacy. The…

  • Slaveholders in the Halls of Congress

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    Brendan Barry
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    Taking a break from going through the old articles and things I’ve saved, let’s turn to a an article from the Washington Post published earlier this week. As the title indicates, the Post’s article explores slaveholders in Congress. Many of us know that the vast majority of antebellum presidents at one point or another owned…