Episode 81: The afterlife, bribes, tariffs, Romney 4 Prez, NASA & Boeing, Ranked choice voting

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The Thought Provoker:

Sam is up first this week. Trump recently stated that tariffs are a tax on a foreign country. What do you think about tariffs?

Next up, Shawn. Before Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris, Aaron Sorkin wrote an op-ed in the New York Times saying Democrats should nominate Mitt Romney: "Nominating Mr. Romney would be putting our money where our mouth is: a clear and powerful demonstration that this election isn’t about what our elections are usually about it, but about stopping a deranged man from taking power." Is it impossible to think that a political party would ever do something altruistic like this?

Finally, Matt. NASA has given Boeing hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the development of a class of partially reusable spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Now the crew of one of these vessels is stuck in outer space. What was supposed to be an 8 day mission may take 8 months because the spacecraft is flawed. Boeing is a private corporation that is poorly managed, yet receives billions of dollars in contracts from the federal government. Who should taxpayers hold accountable when private companies waste their hard-earned money?

The Big Question: A recent study was published that looks at what happens when a state adopts ranked choice voting. They find that in the elections after Alaska adopted rank choice voting, 1) the moderate candidate won the Senate race, who otherwise would have lost, 2) some Democrats and independents who favored the moderate Republican more than the Democrat were able to support her at all stages of the election, along with others who voted for her to stop the more conservative Republican candidate, and 3) Alaskan voters are largely favorable toward the new rules, but that certain kinds of populist voters are likely to both support Trump and oppose the rules. The big question is, based on this should more states adopt rank choice voting?