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Pirate Party Gains Seats In Iceland's Election (bbc.com)
The BBC reports that Iceland's Pirate Party "has tripled its seats in the 63-seat parliament, election results show. It is in joint second place with the Left-Greens -- with 10 seats each."
An anonymous reader quotes USA Today:
Iceland's hacker-led, upstart Pirate Party failed to make the nation's powerful Independence Party walk the plank after all. The Pirate Party -- led by a former WikiLeaks collaborator -- rode the populist movement sweeping Europe to make big gains in Saturday's election, but returns on Sunday gave the largest bloc of seats to the center-right Independence Party...
Pirate Party co-founder Birgitta Jonsdottir, who became involved with WikiLeaks in 2010 after its leader Julian Assange visited Iceland, said she was satisfied with the Pirate plunder at the polls. "Our internal predictions showed 10 to 15%, so this is at the top of the range."
Iceland's prime minister was forced to resign in April after the Panama Papers suggested his family had sheltered its personal wealth outside the country.
Pirate Party co-founder Birgitta Jonsdottir, who became involved with WikiLeaks in 2010 after its leader Julian Assange visited Iceland, said she was satisfied with the Pirate plunder at the polls. "Our internal predictions showed 10 to 15%, so this is at the top of the range."
Iceland's prime minister was forced to resign in April after the Panama Papers suggested his family had sheltered its personal wealth outside the country.
I would not be too sure of the outcome as of yet, the polls (if you want to believe ANY of them now) are still in the margin of error and more are flipping candidates. In other words, the lady has not sung yet.
Polls are almost always right.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/944...
http://www.foxnews.com/politic...
You are welcome on my lawn.
of you nord's parliaments. Canada's too. It's not a prefect solution but it is a _hell_ of a lot better than what I got here in the states.
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I don't think many people in the US are pro-establishment right now; even those who are voting for Clinton dislike that aspect of her.
When it comes to the final election it seems to be almost every aspect is irrelevant. If they made it through the primaries the two reasons for voting are (D) and (R), they could make Nixon and Bozo the clown the candidates and people would vote for them. Oh wait, they did... And to be honest, I hope the clown wins because he'll have the most problems convincing Congress to play along so despite the entertainment I doubt he'll be able to do too much damage as commander-in-chief. And it'd give Bernie or someone else the chance to try again in four more years, if Clinton wins now she'll almost automatically be the candidate next time too. At least the first female President will be good for equality, otherwise I don't see much positive about it.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Copyright reform isn't really a major issue for us, although it is something we support. There's much bigger issues on hand. Namely, there's a lot of issues that the public overwhelmingly supports - 65-85% - that the conservatives have derailed. Pirates are all about giving power to the citizenry. There's also a huge amount of corruption that desperately needs to be taken on.
"He's a god; it'll take more than one shot." â" Lady Eboshi, Mononoke Hime
Well, Bernie had way more support than a sixth of the people. Sadly, in a first-past-the-post world this means jack shit.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You know we had three Cod Wars with the UK... and won each time, despite them being vastly larger, right? In each case, it was by virtue of Iceland being a country. The third time was the most extreme - the UK sent two dozen frigates, versus Iceland's piddly couple of coastguard vessels Iceland ultimately won by threatening to give the NATO base at Keflavík to the Soviets, causing the US to pressure the UK.
Think that would fly in Minnesota during a dispute? Being a nation gives an entity asymmetric bargaining power. Certain aspects of power are based on economic or military might, while others are based simply on status and sovereignty. Iceland's ability to defeat the UK in the Cod Wars is considered a textbook example of expression of soft power. On the international stage, when claims between two nations are evaluated on their merits in non-military, non-economic contexts, both entities are treated as being on equal footing, and their arguments are listened to equally. More powerful nations may try to apply hard power, but that doesn't always play out well in a modern multipolar world; you can end up looking like a bully and losing out in other fields that make the overall cost not worth the effort.
As for Iceland, what's wrong with it? Iceland's name is ~1150 years old, how old is your country's name?
"He's a god; it'll take more than one shot." â" Lady Eboshi, Mononoke Hime
An average of the polls in 538's model not only predicted the results of the last two elections, it predicted the outcomes in 49 of 50 (2008) and 50 of 50 (2012) states correctly. When your "gut feeling poll" reaches an accuracy level of 99%, call me. Until then, shut up with your paranoid "polls are bullshit" wishful thinking. This is a site that generally attracts people that understand math. You may be looking for foxnews.com's comment section.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
As a complete outsider to the US elections, I shouldn't really offer my opinions, I suppose, but like a lot of the fiercer critics, I do love America, and it pains me to see the mess you guys are in.
I would invite people to take a step back from the furore and think a bit wider about the issues. The problem isn't just that you now have to choose between two unpalatable candidates; it is important that the US starts working again as a nation, both for its people (and here I mean all of its people, not just the favoured few), but it is also hugely important that America doesn't simply drop the ball, internationally. You may wish to disenagage from some of the too many duties you have taken on over the years in your quest for dominance, but there are different ways of doing so, and some could have devastating consequences, whereas other ways might be very advantageous. If Clinton and Trump really is all you have to choose from at this time, the sensible thing to do is to choose Clinton, who actually has a track record in the top of politics. Trump's bluster about "running the country like a business" simply isn't realistic. Firstly because a nation is vastly more complicated than a corporation, and of course, the States run on democracy, which a business doesn't. On top of that, Trump isn't really a good businessman; the fact that he makes a lot of money isn't a good indicator - if you start out with more money than you can squander quickly, then it is actually very hard not to make money, even if it all just sits in a bank account. A good businessman is one who constantly and creatively (as well as successfully) develops his business concept - as far as I know, Trump hasn't done much of that.
But America's problems run much deeper than having to choose the least bad president; somehow you have developed a culture where simple fact is invariably construed as "leftist" (at best) by those on the right, and "rightist" by those on the left, depending on their short term agenda, and the only thing you can't seem to find is a reliable, neutral view - at least originating from inside America. I remember a time, in my childhood (and that's a long time ago, let me tell you) when we all had to acknowledge America as the one, reliable source of facts that the rest of us tried to emulate, even if we didn't like the American Way. And then came the moronic agendas of the narrowminded, religious zealots that took over the debate to the extent that everybody in a public position must now pretend that they care deeply about "God", much to the detriment of truth and ironically, faith. And now, this kind of "faith" tries to dictate whether you are allowed to actually think clearly about real issues in almost all areas. And that, I think, is one of the fundamental problems that you have to solve.
It is not my place to tell you how to solve the problems, but I do suggest that your real enemy is not so much Clinton or Trump or even the political establishment as such - they are only consequences of the much more sinister problem of religious mind-control. Your enemy is stupid, bullying religion - those two adjectives are important: stupid and bullying. There are many intelligent ways to practise religion (or so I'm told, and it seems plausible), but insisting that a fistful of fables is the only Truth that reality must be bent to fit, is stupid. And of course, intelligent practitioners of religion don't go around trying to bully people into closing their eyes to common sense - they don't need to, because they are not scared of reality, and they know that the Bible is just a bunch of stories that were never meant to be taken at face value. So, there you have it: if you want to make America great again, topple the sick establishment and so on, start with stupid, bullying religion and make clear, fact-based debate mainstream again.