Tag: politics

  • The First Democratic Debate

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last month we looked at the Washington Post’s coverage of the second Republican Debate. For those unaware, the first Democratic Debate was held last night. And so it is only fair for us to look at the Post’s coverage of that event. Credit for the piece goes to Samuel Granados, Richard Johnson, Denise Lu, Ted Mellnik,…

  • The Second Republican Debate

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    11 candidates. 9 authors. (That would be the sub-title if my blog had sub-titles.) I do not have cable and so watching the debate live was not an option. Instead, I rely upon post-debate coverage to understand who said what and to whom. Usually that means an article with some video clips. But this piece…

  • The Funding Sources for the 2016 Candidates

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    We are past the halfway point for summer in 2015 and that means the autumn 2016 presidential election is off and running. But running an election campaign, if even just for the primary phase, costs money. So where does each candidate receive its money? Well, FiveThirtyEight looked at the early reporting and identified four types.…

  • ISIS Throughout the World

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    ISIS is still a threat to the Middle East, evidenced by the US announcing yesterday that it is intensifying strikes against the quasi-state in both Syria and Iraq. But just where has ISIS spread? And are its attacks spreading? This New York Times piece looks at just those two questions. The first through an obvious…

  • The Supreme Court’s Recent Liberalism

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Affordable Care Act, better known colloquially as Obamacare, and said that the federal tax subsidies are, in fact, constitutional. But, this piece is not so much about that one individual ruling, but rather the surprising trend of the recent Roberts’ court terms to skew liberal…

  • Donald Trump is Running for President

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    This week saw a few new people officially jump into the 2016 election: Jeb Bush and Donald Trump. Next week I want to at least look at some design-related elements to the forthcoming primaries. But, today is Friday. So let’s get to the important stuff first: Donald Trump’s hair. Thankfully, Time has that covered. (Get…

  • The Coal Century

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    The other day I misread a poster on the road that “The Cool Century” for “The Coal Century”. That is the origin of today’s title. The origin of today’s piece, however, is Bloomberg, which looked at the impact of some new environmental regulations on the coal industry vis-a-vis dozens of coal power plants. Basically, you…

  • America’s Long History with Flip-flopping

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today the Supreme Court takes up gay marriage. Again. This is, you know, after they decided two years ago that the federal government has to recognise gay marriages when performed in states where it is legal. Anyway, last week, Bloomberg Business looked at the United States preference for changing its mind through a nice series…

  • Organising and Structuring ISIS

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Yesterday we looked at the Russian sale of advanced surface-to-air missiles to Iran. Let’s stay in the Middle East and look at one of the forces that Iran—among many others, the US included—is fighting: ISIS, or Islamic State.  We all know it from its ruthless, zealous, brutal application of Islamic law to the territories it…

  • Predicting the UK General Election Results

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    (To be fair, I forgot to schedule to publish this post before I left somehow.) Your humble author is still on holiday. So, today, you can enjoy a nice interactive piece from FiveThirtyEight that predicts the results of the 7 May general election. Of particular interest, the box part of the plot that shows the…