I’m not sure. I said in another comment in here that maybe having the public vote on districts would make it harder to pull off. Like, if the entire state needs to look at the map and say “That looks fair”, maybe it’ll be hard to make those paint splatter ones.

For many people, in-group is the only thing that matters.

I wonder if “I know it when I see it” would be good enough if it had to pass a public vote. Do you think the regular people on the street would vote to support gerrymandering? Getting good voter turnout and education is its own set of problems, admittedly.

Gerrymandering should be a crime and conviction should mean removal from office and a life long ban on working in politics.

Now we just need a way to do that that isn’t vigilante violence.

It is kind of frustrating how every system needs to resist people (usually conservatives) from acting in bad faith.

Yeah, 2nd person is pretty rare. the “Broken Earth” books by NK Jemisen are 2nd person, if i recall.

I thought this was a quote from the article until the end

I thought “Another one??” but clicked through and saw this is from June 17, 2025.

I get a lot of music from Bandcamp. Unfortunately while unemployed I’m not spending much money on fun

Good to know. I had some trouble a couple months back getting wifi and Ethernet working, and learned my phone can provide Internet over USB.

A reasonable guess, but i think I (re-)read all of Pratchett as an adult and didn’t come across it

That reminded me of https://dogparkdissidents.bandcamp.com/track/rainbow-drones-2

Rainbow drones with lesbian pilots
B stands for bomb in LGBT
Let’s go!

I read a fiction in high school about like the afterlife, and it mentioned the best English playwright wasn’t Shakespeare. It was some nobody who only showed his writing to his neighbor, but the neighbor was an asshole and told him it was trash. Don’t remember anything else about it but that stuck with me.

I’ve been buying mostly mostly from Bandcamp. It’s worked out well. I have a big library, and the people making music got paid.

Usually people talk about the pre tax cost.

I have a tinfoil hat theory that the taxes are kept like that to give people a recurring, low grade, anti-tax sentiment. There are a lot of crazy idiots that don’t want government to exist here, so by making people feel bad about paying taxes (instead of obscuring that by baking it into the listed price) they can win sympathy.

Cool. I’ve been off Spotify for years. Buying music from Bandcamp and similar has worked out. (Though now that I’m unemployed I’m not spending any money, but like I always say if capital wants me to spend money they have to pay me some first)

Social media was always kind of garbage, and the modern algorithmically sorted stuff is worse.

I’d rather just text my friends

Did you independently reinvent https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_System or did you know about the history?

The cops always park in the bike and pedestrian lanes in prospect park, and it makes me so mad.

Personally I feel like if you park in the bike lane for any reason that’s not life or death, people should be allowed to do what they want to your car. Maybe move it. Maybe key it. I don’t care. It’s a hazard for everyone.

I’ve lived here for almost two decades and I’ve almost never had a problem with bikes.

I did once see a driver make a right turn and hit a delivery bike kid, drag him for a few feet, and then speed off. Luckily, teenagers I guess are indestructible and the kid got up and rode away after a few minutes.

If you want better bike and pedestrian safety, the solution is probably build better bike lanes. There are a lot of spots with nothing, or a painted suggestion. There’s a spot near prospect park where they expect the bicyclist to turn right, pass through a lane of traffic, and then just hang out in the center lane with all the cars. It’s a nightmare.

When I worked an old job in the office, the game of telephone from the CEO down was so bad. People would get in their head that some things were MUST HAVE, but if I sneakily just asked the CEO directly he’d be like “no that’s not important”. But the designer thought he wanted it so she told the product lead it was important so our team product guy was told this was “straight from the top”.