Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S. • Hacker News Board

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#81

Post by softwaredoug » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

On the data nerd side I continue to be shocked at how people misinterpret the certainty of polls/forecasts. Forecasts give us probability distributions based on historical polling error data. Not infallible predictions the expected value will 100% happen.

It’s fairly revealing of society’s general innumeracy, just as it was 4 years ago when Trump won.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#82

Post by pstrateman » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

rixrax wrote: post #58

I am holding my breath until Jan 6th at least when electoral college votes: Url: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11641 The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline

Yeah... there's questions about mail-in/absentee voting that are going to the supreme court.

'Justice Alito temporarily grants Pennsylvania GOP request to enforce segregation of ballots that arrived after Election Day'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pennsylvania-ballots...

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#83

Post by sdfhbdf » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

Interesting fact I noticed: If Biden is to take the presidency after the Electoral Collage voted that would make him the oldest president to take office yet, also interesting that wikipedia already marked Biden as president-elect [0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_Unit...

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#84

Post by bosswipe » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

If Republicans keep the Senate Biden won't accomplish much of his agenda. Especially with Mitch Mcconnell's uncompromising approach expect gridlock, government shutdowns, probably a constitutional crisis or two, and a complete inability to respond to any further crises.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#85

Post by Jap2-0 » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

ceilingcorner wrote: post #59

Completely independently of who won/will win this election, I find it massively irresponsible that media outlets are calling it before actual states are. The media should report the news, not make it.

I found the AP's article (who [edit: many, not nearly everyone] goes off of for race calls) to be interesting: https://www.ap.org/en-us/topics/politics/elections/how-we-ca...

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#86

Post by drocer88 » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:44 PM UTC

Shouldn't we wait for the states to go through , in some cases, mandatory recounts and certification of the results and then the actual electoral college vote after any legal appeals?

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#87

Post by GavinMcG » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

ceilingcorner wrote: post #59

Completely independently of who won/will win this election, I find it massively irresponsible that media outlets are calling it before actual states are. The media should report the news, not make it.

How could this possibly work? Do you want to legally bar speech with the content "We have a 99.9% confidence that X will win"?

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#88

Post by simonh » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

bkovacev wrote: post #53

As someone who is not that much into politics but receives salary in US dollar - what does Biden win mean for the US economy and the dollar?

Probably not a lot for quite a while to be honest. The virus is still here, the deficit is still ballooning and Biden won't even be in office for another few months. Even when he is, it will take time for policies to be formulated, enacted and eventually have any effect.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#89

Post by otterley » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

rixrax wrote: post #58

I am holding my breath until Jan 6th at least when electoral college votes: Url: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11641 The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline

Democrats prayed for such an occurrence in 2016 to no avail. Why do you believe the results will be different this time?

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#90

Post by mixmastamyk » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

just-juan-post wrote: post #79

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Got a Big Social Media Boost from Indian Troll Farms https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-kamala-harris-got-big-soc... Social media has been devoid of Covid fear mongering since election night. For months we had daily stories pumping out fear about Covid. For the last few days there has been nothing to talk about while we waited for the recount yet no USA-centric Covid horror stories have appea…

It's called "news" for a reason. Old stories simply aren't as interesting.