elbucho @ elbucho @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

I'm glad that the paramedics were both found guilty, and that one of the 3 piece of shit cops were found guilty. But it's infuriating that the other two cops, Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard, were acquitted. All 5 of them should be serving murder sentences in a federal prison.

I think the best solution to this issue is to change the calculus of representation. The article mentions that rural areas have out-sized representation, but it only discusses the senate. The house, as well, has out-sized representation for rural areas. For example, California has approximately one Representative for every 749,000 people, while Montana has one Representative for every 560,000 people.

I think that to truly honor the idea of "one person, one vote", 3 steps need to be taken:

• Abolish the electoral college
• Dissolve the Senate, leaving the House as the only Legislative body
• Dramatically scale up the number of representatives in the House, and tie representative count directly to population.

I'd love to see, for example, 1 representative for every 250,000 people, or something similar. That would push us from the current 435 to about 1,340 representatives, which would definitely require a new chamber for sessions. But it would also mean that demographic groups would be much better represented, and it would be much more difficult for batshit insane people like Marjorie Taylor Green to get or remain elected. If you're representing fewer people, those people have more incentive to vote.

And it's not like growing the House is a far-fetched idea. In fact, it is baked into the constitution. Article I, Section 2 says that the number of representatives should be directly tied to the population, with each representative representing no more than 30,000 people, and that adjustments to the size of the House should occur after every 10 year census:

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 actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

And this is what happened, with the size of the House growing every 10 years up until, in 1929, they decided to keep it constant based on the figures from the 1930 survey. Having a cap on the number of representatives harms democracy. We can see the results in the decaying towns of rural America, and the batshit insane cultists who want to overthrow our government and install a fascistic theocracy.

You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.

I'm sorry... couch gun??? Like they just shove a gun into the couch cushions? What the hell kind of purpose would that serve? Opening a beer can or turning on the tv? Or are they all just living in constant paranoia of someone kicking their door in and trying to kill them?

I love that "poop with friends" is in a different ink than "poop alone", and that the frowny face is in different ink than the smiley face, suggesting that this was a collaborative effort between multiple people over an unknown period of time.

More like:

Scientist: "Hey, I think this thing."

Scientist: goes on to commit atrocities in the name of thing

Other Scientist: "Jesus Christ!"

So he's on record saying that he believes Trump is a traitor ("What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable"), and he is on record stating that he believes that America would not re-elect such a traitorous piece of shit ("I have faith in the American people, and the strength of our Democracy"), and yet he's now endorsing this same traitorous piece of shit because reasons (“Together we must put an end to the disastrous Biden-Schumer agenda. Our country cannot endure another four years of Bidenomics, continued lawlessness at our southern border, and American weakness on the global stage.”). So he apparently thinks that having a traitor as president is a better alternative than having someone who has helped stabilize the economy, has a practically indistinguishable racist approach towards border control, and pledges to stay in NATO.

Considering Thune was one of the 8 traitors who celebrated July 4th, 2018 in Moscow... how much you want to bet that it's the last thing that really pushes him over the edge? America supporting NATO is bad for Russia, after all.

Oh hey - catturd2; isn't that that sycophantic piece of shit who fawns all over Elon Musk every chance he gets? Maybe it's a different catturd2 on bluesky.

Edit: Actually, yeah; it does look like it's a different person entirely:

I think it's not so much about the genders of the shoppers, but rather their approach to shopping that is most telling. I take after my mother: I'm a Combat Shopper. When I enter a store, I have a specific plan of action, and my goal is to execute it as swiftly and efficiently as possible and get out. My father, on the other hand, was very much a lookie-loo shopper. He would spend hours at the store slowly walking up and down every aisle trying to think if anybody he knew would want whatever bit of tat was on the shelves in front of him. Drove me fucking nuts to shop with him.

I think that combat shoppers can shop with other combat shoppers, and lookie-loo shoppers with others of their ilk, but pairing one with the other is a recipe for hurt feelings.

Unfortunately, it's often not easy to do. Women have a notoriously difficult time convincing fertility doctors to sterilize them because "well what if you change your mind some time in the future?" or "well what if you eventually meet a man who wants kids?". Yeah. Basically, your wants and desires take back-seat to some hypothetical future you, or some hypothetical future man's wants and desires. Unfortunately, even some of my blue state friends have faced major road blocks in this quest. It's a disease that's only going to get worse if the Republicans take over the executive. :(

Well, the first thing I'm going to do is drink myself into a coma. After that, I don't know. I keep hoping to wake up rich so I can have a lot more options, but that hasn't happened yet.

Harsh, but fair.

Can't jump, can't dance, but I'm ok at swimming.

I recently read Neil Stephenson's book called "Fall", in which a significant chunk of the novel is set about 30 years in the future. At that point in time, large swathes of America are referred to as "Ameristan", because they are break-away territories ruled by evangelical warlords. It feels surprisingly prescient.

People think they're cute and cuddly, but that's just how they reel you in. Sneaky little fuckers. Here's a selfie one of its victims snapped in the moment before his brutally painful demise:

It took me way too long to realize that "AU" was short for "Alternate Universe", and not Australia. Though, I suppose "Australia" works, too. Everything there is actively trying to kill you, after all.

Carpet does NOT match the drapes.

Well, there wouldn't have been prison in any case from this trial, as it was a civil suit, not a criminal one. But, he is facing 91 felony charges in total spread across a few cases that are currently working their way through the court, so maybe. Probably not. But maybe.

I'm thinking that would actually appeal to some folks as a Mad Max sort of aesthetic.

Others are in favor of their Cybertrucks developing orange stains, saying that they’re looking forward to the patina the stainless steel may develop.

LOL - that's some straight up 🤡 shit.