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Fay Reid's avatar

As I've often said Tom, I have ZERO belief in polls. If they want me to have a modicum of concern fore their "findings" they'd better be prepared to release their question verbatim "Trade Secrets"? Irrelevant what they ask today is yesterdays news tomorrow. Exactly how many persons were in the polls AND which States and which areas in those States were polled. We are a nation of ~340,000,000 people spreading from the Atlantic Coast to Hawaii ~2,286 miles into the Pacific Ocean and Alaska ~ 500 miles north of the mainland. So, how many were polled in each State.

Yes I studied statistics in college - I'm a science major, no choice. But as a science major I also know you can "prove" anything you want with a mouse. (A favorite saying in upper level physiology) Like polls, it's how you choose your subject. When the sugar industry wanted to "prove" saccharine was detrimental to your health, they hired a scientist who purchased a strain of mice susceptible to carcinoma. He fed them 10X the maximum amount of saccharine consumed by a normal human being in one day. Voila! they all came down with cancer.

So you only poll those who don't hang up on you. You ask only questions that have yes or no answers, no explanations allowed. Voila! The poll results you expected.

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Gigi's avatar

BLESS YOU FAY!!❤️❤️❤️❤️I have been complaining about polls for so long and you say it so clearly. Please send this letter everywhere you can think of, especially whitehouse.gov

My favorite stupid question is something like “ do you think America is in a good place?” Hell no, but it’s taken as an anti-Biden answer. THREE little words in the report would make such a difference. In a poll OF 1000 PEOPLE.

P.S.—Can we agree to have 1 rant a week then calm down? Our votes are needed in a few months. Stupidity is probably part of the MAGat plan to make us stark raving crazy.

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Fay Reid's avatar

Thank you, Gigi. It's early morning and your post gave me my first laugh of the day

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Richard Johns's avatar

Was it Mark Twain who said, "There are lies, damned lies and statistics"?

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TCinLA's avatar

Yes!

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Fay Reid's avatar

Thank you Mark, I love that and fully agree with Sam Clemens, his humor was spot on.

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JustRaven's avatar

One of my favorite quotes attributed to Mark Twain but there is some question as to its actual origins, since 1891... very interesting reading if you wanna go down that rabbithole:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics

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Kathy's avatar

This:➡️ “ Yes I studied statistics in college - I'm a science major, no choice. But as a science major I also know you can "prove" anything you want with a mouse.”

The only thing I remember from biostatistics was the prof saying you could “use” statistics to get to your preferred outcome.

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JustRaven's avatar

Same experience here, as a microbiology major!

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JDinTX's avatar

Mark Twain was right.

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Fay Reid's avatar

Yes he was.

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JDinTX's avatar

About so much

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Fay Reid's avatar

Agreed, Mark Twain (Sam Clemens) ad Will Rogers had a plethora of wise observations in easy to remember quips!

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JDinTX's avatar

Love Will's comment about money trickling up...

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Gigi's avatar

This article describes how tffgdonthecon paid a polling company to throw polls his way. The story came out that Cohen had skimmed some of the money but totally ignored that important part. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-hush-money-trial-business-practices-rcna153736

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