Georgia’s Voting Law and Its Affect on Turnout
You may recall the Georgia election law of 2021, that so many on the political left and in the corporate world criticized and said would lead to “voter suppression.” Major League baseball famously moved its All-Star Game out of Atlanta that summer over their supposed concern for the potentially disenfranchised. President Biden even called the new law racist, comparing it with “Jim Crow” laws.
Thus far, the election turnout in this year’s primary has shattered previous records in the Peach State.
The numbers have even outpaced those posted during the 2020 presidential election by 156%…Georgia has seen 539,297 people cast ballots as of Tuesday, far outpacing the 182,684 by this point in the 2018 midterm primary elections
It’s easy to point to a stat like this to show how mistaken one’s political opponents were in their criticisms of the law.
I would suggest, however, that many of those offering the criticisms did not really believe it would lead to voter suppression. Rather, they thought such an approach would win support in the arena of public opinion.
We have to be better than this. Can we please have honest and respectful debate, without assuming the worst about those who disagree with us?
Nearly half of President Biden’s Twitter followers are apparently fake
Of his 22 million “followers,” over 49% apparently are not real accounts, according to an audit tool.
The tool defines fake accounts as “accounts that are unreachable and will not see the account’s tweets (either because they’re spam, bots, propaganda, etc. or because they’re no longer active on Twitter).”
Meanwhile, it’s these kinds of numbers of fake accounts that are apparently holding up Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter.
[Musk] says the deal cannot move forward until there is a better understanding of the number of fake accounts on the site.
On Tuesday, Musk said that the number of fake accounts on Twitter was close to 20%, four times what Twitter claims,” he wrote, and “could be *much* higher.”
Musk noted that advertisers can’t be sure of what their money is buying if issues like this aren’t addressed. Some say Musk could be using this to negotiate a lower final purchase price, and Twitter claims that it suspends over a half a million spam accounts every day.
More people quitting jobs before they even start
I’ve heard of ghosting someone you recently met on a dating app, but nothing like this.
Southwest Airlines Co. said some 15% to 20% of new hires for some jobs don’t turn up on their first day. At security and facility-services provider Allied Universal, roughly 15% of new hires disappear before starting a job.
Apparently, people are accepting jobs, then changing their mind, and not telling their almost-new-employer. Woa.
“The incidence of so-called ghosting—of accepting offers and then saying that they’ll start and not showing up—is at a record high,” said Jonas Prising, chairman and CEO of staffing agency ManpowerGroup Inc.
What’s causing it? Some speculate the hiring process has gotten too quick & easy. Others say since it’s an ‘employee’s market’, people are betting on themselves to find something better quicker.
“We have a generation of professionals who grew up on dating apps, where ghosting has been accepted as an annoying, but common, phenomenon,” he said. “I believe that is leaking into the professional world.”
With the economy looking like it will soon slow down, I bet this trend doesn’t continue.
No Longer Silent 