[spoiler] Ruff v COVID (and other political topics)

[Ruff_Hi]

Naming code will be pandemic related (once I do some reading).
Story line and theme will be spreading covid to everyone.  Maybe a religious approach?
Does that mean my capital has to be called R0?

I was going to call this thread 'Ruff v Superdeath' but I didn't want to spoil the surprise in the thread subject.

Password is 'covid' - forgot I had mentioned a password - see below.

Edit: Changed the subject line.  Firstly, I don't think that COVID is a political topic.  COVID (or Coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19) is a respiratory illness that can spread from human to human. There are many types of human coronaviruses, including some that commonly cause mild upper-respiratory tract illnesses.  COVID is a new disease that has not previously been seen in humans.

Other definitions ...

A highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS-CoV-2 is thought to spread from person to person through droplets released when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. It may also be spread by touching a surface with the virus on it and then touching one’s mouth, nose, or eyes. The most common signs and symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and trouble breathing. Muscle pain, chills, headache, sore throat, and a loss of taste or smell may also occur. The signs and symptoms usually appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some people may not have any symptoms but are still able to spread the virus. Most people with COVID-19 recover without needing special treatment. But other people are at higher risk of serious illness. Those at higher risk include older adults and people with serious medical problems, such as heart or lung disease, diabetes, cancer, or a weak immune system. Serious illness may include life-threatening pneumonia and organ failure. Research is being done to treat COVID-19 and to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2. Also called coronavirus disease 19.

Why change?  So I can talk about other political items such as Proportional Representation, US electoral collage system, black lives matter, XXXXX lives mater, climate change, etc.

I will not be discussing the upcoming US Nov 3rd election as a) I can't stand the vitriol it generates between the two groups, b) I am NOT a US citizen and so I shouldn't be involved in influencing the election one way of the other (I wonder if Putin reads RB?).

Password is 'egg'

https://civ.zulan.net/pbspy/game/103/

[Ruff_Hi]

City names ...
- Index Case
- Serial interval
- Pre-symptomatic
- Asymptomatic
- Elimination
- Eradication
- Exposed
- Incubation period

[Hollybombay]

I was going to call this thread 'Ruff v Superdeath' but I didn't want to spoil the surprise in the thread subject.

A grudge match?

[Ruff_Hi]

No.  We have played together in two pitboss games and started near each other both times.  First time, he killed me, second time, I crippled him.

I think Ruff v Superdeath has become a sort of running joke between us.

[Ruff_Hi]

First off the rank ... Proportional Representation

This is the system of voting that I grew up with.  In Australia's lower house (similar to house of Reps in the US), there are X seats available and each seat represents the same (ish) number of citizens.  Citizens vote for who will represent their seat / district.

The voting could include multiple people standing for election.  Say there are 6 people standing.  1 from Major Party #1, 1 from Major Party #2, one from the Greens, one from the Yoga Party (not a party as far as I know but using it for good examples below), 1 from Earth First (a climate change party) and one from the local pub.

Say there are 30k citizens on the voting rolls.  Ir proporational representation, the first person to 15,001 wins (or a majority of legal votes cast).

A voting ballot will look something like this ...

• Greens
  
• Yoga
  
• Major Party #2
  
• Major Party #1
  
• Pub
  
• Earth First
  

Order is determined randomly.

Every citizen gets to vote.  Once.  But they have the option to rank the preferences by voting from 1 to 6 against each of the candidates.  They can just put a '1' in and leave it at that, or put in 1-3 and then stop.

Vote counting ... Round 1
Each vote is examined and valid votes are counted.  The first round involves counting the '1' votes.

• Greens - 4000
  
• Yoga - 2500
  
• Major Party #2 - 10,000
  
• Major Party #1 - 10,000
  
• Pub - 15
  
• Earth First - 3000
  

Do we have a clear winner?  No.  The person that came last (Pub in the above case) is removed from the voting and the 15 votes are distributed according to how those people put their preferences ... the '2' votes.

Vote counting ... Round 2

• Greens - 4000
  
• Yoga - 2515
  
• Major Party #2 - 10,000
  
• Major Party #1 - 10,000
  
• Earth First - 3000
  

Look at that ... everyone that liked the pub had a strong preference for Yoga.  Do we have a clear winner?  No.  The person that came last (Yoga) is removed and we move on to round 3.

Vote counting ... Round 3

• Greens - 4500
  
• Major Party #2 - 10,250
  
• Major Party #1 - 10,250
  
• Earth First - 4515
  

This time the Yoga '2' votes were scattered.  When they came to the pub votes (again), the 2 option was already eliminated, so they moved on to those people's 3rd choice.

Do we have a clear winner?  No.  The person that came last (Greens) is removed and we move on to round 4.

But wait ... Earth First was behind Greens ... up until they picked up more Yoga preferences.  YES!  That is how this system works.

Anyway ... you see where this is heading.  Someone will either get past the 50% level and cannot be caught or it will come all the way down to a 2 horse race.

The impact of this approach is that everyone has to talk to every issue.  In prior US elections Climate Change is a vote loser and so no one talked about it.  Ever.

In the above situation, Major Party #1 and #2 have to talk about climate change as the distribution of the Green and Earth First groups will be critical to winning.  Say Major Party #1 has a very limited approach to Climate Change.  How many of those preferences do you think they will get?

So ... major upshot of Proportional Representation is that minor / side topics are campaigned on.


I have heard it say that this system is unfair as some people get to vote more than once.  Untrue ... they only get to vote one.  It is true that their vote is counted multiple times.  I have voted for sub-candidates in the past with the express desire to get my vote counted multiple times.  As long as I put my final preference above other groups that have a real chance of winning - so what?

Maybe I vote for the Pub, then Earth First, MP #2 and MP#1 and don't specify 5 or 6.  My vote will stick (eventually) with MP #2.

[Commodore]

Hai

[Ruff_Hi]

And I picked Hannibal.

Financial

• +1c on land tiles that have 3c
  
• +1c on water tiles that have 2c
  
• double speed on banks (not that we will get that far in this game)
  

Charismatic

• +1 happy per city
  
• -25% XP for promo
  
• double speed on monuments, colosseum
  
• +1 happy from monument, broadcast tower (fat chance)
  

Note that I added a comment ... 'Superdeath, because I don't love you'.

That was because a) naufragar started it with 'I love you' and b) the past two games, SD and I have started close by ... and we seem to have a little bit of a running competition.

Each game will be different and my attitude to SD will be blank until we interact in this game.  I can't say the same for Mr C (just checking - he is in this game) who was a constant annoyance in our last game.  I expect that his style of play will be similar so I will have to watch him (depending on our starts).

Meta game comment - see above.  That is it.

Starting position comments - shit, shit, shit ... where are the hills for production?  I guess my capital really will be a financial hub .

Traits ... I was slow at tech ... maybe Fin will help.  This game will involve wars ... units with more promotions are better ... providing you actually promote your units and don't leave them glowing blue while they die to knights.  There might be a monument synergy option available to me.

[Ruff_Hi]

NEXT!  US electoral collage system

I think I understand how it works.  But I totally don't understand how / why the US ended up in this situation.  Any US history people out there to chip in on that?

From ... https://www.usa.gov/election

During the general election, Americans go to their polling place to cast their vote for president. But the tally of those votes—the popular vote—does not determine the winner. Instead, presidential elections use the Electoral College. To win the election, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes. In the event no candidate receives a majority, the House of Representatives chooses the president and the Senate chooses the vice president.

That sounds sing-songy.  Citizens don't only go to their polling place ... there are other ways to vote.  The 'majority of electoral votes' certainly explains what happened in House of Cards.

The electoral votes are determined by state with more populous states having more electoral votes (is there a formula?)  I seem to remember that the number of electorial votes is somehow tied to the number of seats in a state.  Let's see if google can answer that question.

Each state gets as many electors as it has members of Congress (House and Senate). Including Washington, D.C.’s three electors, there are currently 538 electors in all. See the distribution of electors by state.

Well - that was easy.  How do they calculate the number of members of Congress per state?  Senate is 2 per.  House?

Well, well - it is in the US Constitution (original wording) ...

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative;…

Minimum 1, Maximum state population divided by 30,000 minus 1(?).  I guess that makes knowing the state population important then!   Bring on the census.

The 30k per rep has changed ... see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta...ortionment for more info ... but it is now around 720k per district.

Ok ... electoral college votes = # of members of congress (2 + population / 720k).  Minimum per state is 3.  Maximum depends on population, currently 55 for CA.

How do you win a state's prez vote?  Most states have a winner take all approach.  So, win enough states by 1 vote and it doesn't matter what happens in the states you don't win (ie get beaten 95%-5%).

I did try to find how the counting goes for the house ... but google wasn't coming through for me.  I think it is the candidate with most votes ... so you can end up splitting a parties vote (see monty python skit where the silly party vote was split 26,317 and 2 so that allowed the sensible party to win with 26,318 votes.

those are the monty python party names, not comments from me

[Charriu]

You do know the CGP Grey YouTube videos about voting systems?

[Ruff_Hi]

You do know the CGP Grey YouTube videos about voting systems?

No.

But I do now ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...Ob7FQ2vF9c