My Blog Week: April 5 to April 11

A Word on the Week

The Race Is, or Appears to Be, On 

Bernie Sanders has ended his campaign.

A sexual assault accuser for Biden was up someone’s sleeve (her own, perhaps), and has her chance, as timing would have it, to begin telling her extended story now. Read the facts of the allegation, and judge if you like, because the case is not likely to be formally adjudicated. If it helps, Trump has a pattern of rapey behavior out the wazoo (to use a figure of speech), and Biden has a pattern of Clueless Old Man.

Trolls are on Twitter feigning, hoping their insistence they can’t vote for anyone now, will lead others to give up, too.

And voting is starting to look a little tricky. Maybe by October health departments that’ve been given antibody tests for Coronus—that’s the name I like for it—will have figured out how to bootleg them, thwart our own government’s nefarious plans, and let us all know how safe the polls will be to visit.

So, electability. Think, if someone wanted you to answer survey questions, whether they could reach you at all…do you have a landline? Do you answer unfamiliar numbers on your cell? Do you do surveys online? It’s worth considering where polling data comes from. Methodology can be perfect, in managing information available, but people are not as accessible as they once were. In 1980, all ages could be got to at home. Public paranoia wasn’t fanned to the extent of terrorizing others, or being terrorized, by person-to-person contact.

However, if Coronus keeps doors unknocked at, clipboarders at bay, who doesn’t see good in it?

Now, when a political party hires a consulting firm, and the firm provides data, the party should be able to answer these questions:

How do you know the data isn’t stolen? (What we call extracting data from unwitting citizens.) How do you know it isn’t fudged or invented? How do you know it isn’t real but recycled?

Yes, yes, trusted relationships, etc…but…

How do you know? It is, after all, most pleasant altogether to take money and return confirmation bias. Clients hear what they like; they want to hear more. Numbers crunch every which way; more is readily provided. Part of the insanity of the Republican party must be their misplaced confidence in “the voters” demanding their grotesqueries.

If you use a data analytics service, here’s an exercise you can do at home. Picture yourself asking your company rep the above. Picture the answer you’ll get. Try writing it out: “All our work is in compliance with very strict protocols, that we rigorously enforce. Is that good for you? How else can I help you?”

One thing Bernie has done right is taking, with his town halls, the Fox bull by the horns. The info derived in these sessions still comes from those willing to go out of their way, not the average voter, but the information is directly verifiable. One thing he can do, now his campaign army is free to take on other tasks, is knock down trolls. Tackle everyone who tries to discourage voters from voting.