Skill issue, you probably failed to pay the “don’t break my stroller” and “don’t steal my stuff” fees.

Based on the current tally, “Yes” would still have won narrowly even without those two, and most statewide races are far bluer than yesterday’s. (And even granting the insane hypothetical proposal, like half of Alexandria was never in DC, so presumably that part stays in VA anyway!)

Sure, but they *really* don’t seem to want independence, at least if electoral performance is any indication. The plebiscites are always somewhat flawed, but afaik independence usually finishes third, below both status quo and statehood.

Like a dinosaur doing the “cmon do something” meme

Of course, the only reason *this* issue had to be an amendment is that Virginia previously amended to create the nonpartisan redistricting commission. That probably could have been achieved thru regular legislation too, except nobody trusts future legislators to stick with it if they don’t have to!

That’s the plan, but they seem to be slow-walking it, maybe because of impending Supreme Court Voting Rights Act decision… but maybe because they’re considering running out the clock to avoid a potential dummymander.

The less voters knew, the more they liked Trump in 2024. Not anymore The least-engaged Americans have swung 25 points against him since 2024 — about twice the shift among everyone else. Trump has flattened the engagement gap.

This survey from January is somehow both stunning and unsurprising. People who knew who controlled Congress narrowly preferred Kamala; Trump’s margin was entirely derived from low-info voters (who had soured on him by then, presumably worse now)
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-lost...

Ain’t no train in the world that could get from LA to NYC in 2.5 hours. If you somehow had the infrastructure for the fastest existing (but not yet operational) maglev train in the world, ran it at absolute peak speed, and had no stops, you’d maybe do it in 8. But even Japan can’t do that.

The issue is there isn’t a “Dem nom” in California. Everybody runs in a single primary and the top two go to November. With only two Republicans vs. a huge number of Dems splitting their vote, there is a real chance that the Nov ballot could be Republican vs Republican if Dems don’t coalesce

You know how people get that surgery to break their legs in a way that they get taller by a couple inches? I think you just created the market for whatever the reverse would be.

“For the sake of argument” is basically the same, though. As a matter of principle (or maybe just style), I try to avoid unnecessary Latin. Among other things, I’ll also cut “inter alia” whenever I see it. Even i.e. and maybe e.g. (outside of citations) are better avoided.

Feels like there must be some weird story behind that 2020 outlier! I can’t think of an obvious one, though.

Is this analogy anything? If automakers had sold most people enclosed golf carts and called them “EVs” while car guys/pros got real-deal EVs, the average person might reasonably (but perhaps incorrectly) conclude that EVs could never replace ICE cars, even if experts tried to explain otherwise

The only good thing about him being rich and famous for so long is that he developed a truly amazing collection of haters across multiple generations.

People forget or never knew that US parties weren’t strictly ideological until, like, 1994, and it still took another decade or so past that to fully sort out. It was absolutely normal for some very conservative Dems in Congress to be to the right of some quite liberal Republicans.

I think you could probably by statute create an automatic new seat whenever a justice hits 18 years, and say only the 9 most junior justices are allowed to hear cases. Or convert SCOTUS to a temporary (but lengthy) gig for existing appeals ct judges, then they resume their circuit judgeship after

“Making it easier for people to follow the traditional tenets of their religion” is now an outrageously left-wing thing to do

Exactly. Especially in the Cold War/nuclear age, it became a much riskier situation if the president, say, fell into a coma, leaving nobody (or multiple people) claiming legitimate command authority should an urgent situation arise. It’s an emergency/backup provision, not a general political tool.

This is a hard thing with inflation measures, quantifying when a thing is just *better*. Like, a pound of beef is a pound of beef, but “a mobile phone” in 1990 vs. 2010 vs. now are three dramatically different items. You can’t just ignore a thing getting better, but it’s also not apples to apples

Vintage Twitter screenshot of tweet from @realDonaldTrump: Who is paying for that tedious Smokey Bear commercial that is on all the time - enough already! 10:50 PM - 7 Jan 2015|

“And then they start Twitter beef with Smokey the B—wait, hang on, he did what?”

“Ask your doctor if Clavicular is right for you.”

(The answer is no.)

Exactly, most places couldn’t realistically have a policy like this, but if you’re running the place that CAN, you absolutely should!

Two states split their electoral votes by congressional districts. Everyone else is winner take all. Nobody is proportional, though IMHO that would be better. (Maybe you’re thinking of presidential primary delegates, which are sometimes proportional? But never in the general election.)

The House of Representatives and state legislatures can be gerrymandered. But the electoral college (outside Maine and Nebraska) just uses state borders, which don’t change

Looks to me like, if this passed before 2020, Biden would’ve gained one more EV from Maine and maybe 3 from Alaska. If this existed in 2024, Trump would have won at least 533-5 (NH + Omaha as the only Harris votes). Both the risk and reward are entirely one-sided, and on different sides.

Just eyeballing it, I think every one of the orange states has voted Dem 3x in a row, while the green ones are mostly swingy. So if a Dem wins pop vote, they likely get similar number of EV they’d always have had, while if Repub wins, they’d get an almost unanimous EV. That seems pretty asymmetric!

Looks to me like, if this passed before 2020, Biden would’ve gained one more EV from Maine and maybe 3 from Alaska. If this existed in 2024, Trump would have won at least 533-5 (NH + Omaha as the only Harris votes)

Just eyeballing it, I think every one of the orange states has voted Dem 3x in a row, while the green ones are mostly swingy. So if a Dem wins pop vote, they likely get similar number of EV they’d always have had, while if Repub wins, they’d get an almost unanimous EV. That seems pretty asymmetric!

The electoral college has absolutely nothing to do with gerrymandering.

It’s really not as weird as people think. Prime ministers in Westminster systems like Canada’s aren’t elected by direct popular vote either, and until this week, Carney didn’t even have a majority of the Commons. It’s just that the EC has only one purpose, while Congress is totally separate.