Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The Post-Normal Science of Manipulation

"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is." - Winston Churchill

I was listening to Mark Levin while driving around on Monday and heard him ranting on why conservatives feel betrayed by the GOPe. It was impressive and I see Sundance has posted much of the segment. Go see/hear for yourself and see if your pet peeve(s) is on Mark’s seemingly endless litany of betrayals:

Did the GOP secure the border with control of the White House and Congress? NO.
• Did the GOP balance the budget with control of the White House and Congress? NO.

• Who gave us the TSA? The GOP
• Who gave us the Patriot Act? The GOP
• Who expanded Medicare to include prescription drug coverage? The GOP
• Who created the precursor of “Common Core” in “Race To the Top”? The GOP

• Who facilitated the Iranian Nuclear deal?  The GOP
• Who facilitated the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership? The GOP

• Who played the race card in Mississippi to re-elect Thad Cochran? The GOP
• Who paid Democrats to vote in the Mississippi primary? The GOP
• Who refused to support Ken Cuccinnelli in Virginia? The GOP

• Who supported Charlie Crist? The GOP
• Who supported Arlen Spector? The GOP
• Who supported Bob Bennett? The GOP

• Who worked against Marco Rubio? The GOP
• Who worked against Rand Paul? The GOP
• Who worked against Ted Cruz? The GOP
• Who worked against Mike Lee? The GOP
• Who worked against Jim DeMint? The GOP
• Who worked against Ronald Reagan? The GOP

• Who said “I think we are going to crush [the Tea Party] everywhere.”? The GOP (Mitch McConnell)… and who else said recently the Tea Party needs to be eliminated/destroyed?  Tom Donohue, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

And while we’re talking GOPe betrayal, I see the powers that be finally produced the “polls” they need to show a Trump Slump so they can get on with the Chamber of Congress’ plan for America. They only had to chose their sample wisely, rework the phrasing of the questions a dozen times to shape the leading questions correctly, drop the “level of confidence” to +/- 6%, and stop the survey as soon as they reached the desired result.

For future reference here are a few tips on how to evaluate/interpret survey/poll results:

a-journalists-guide-to-survey-research-and-election-polls-by-cliff-zuskin-4-638

 

a-journalists-guide-to-survey-research-and-election-polls-by-cliff-zuskin-29-638

Here, let me fix that last slide for them:

POLL MANIPULATION YES WE CAN

And there it is: because political science and “science” science now apply the same stringent rules to their research.

science

restraineddog with baconMMMMMM - Bacon!

Today’s post was brought to you by the American Association for Public Opinion Research

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Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network