Phenomephrene

First off, that’s actually the coolest name for a bird that I’ve ever heard.

Second, I don’t think the birds would be bothered if they found out. They have no conception of what either Satan or a jar is. I’ll give credit that they can differentiate day from night. The rest would just be nonsense to them.

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You’re right. Sorry about that. I don’t want to put words in your mouth.

I recognize the problem you bring up, and that’s exactly why I’ve said what else I’ve had to say in this thread. The person you were responding to still has a point in what they’re saying. I’m not convinced they were asking for absolution of the Dems as a whole.

What are your ideas for enacting ranked choice voting that don’t involve leveraging the Democrats to make it happen?

It could maybe happen in individual states that allow citizen introduced ballot measures. That would be great. The scope and efficacy of that idea is pretty stunted though. You’d have to hope the measure passes in the first place, and counting on it to act as a catalyst for every other state to adopt the same is unrealistic. I’d expect a much longer time horizon on that approach than engaging with Democrats as far as making it the standard for the country at large.

That’s the other alternative I can think of to get the foot in the door, but I’m very open to hearing anything else that’s feasible.

The left in the U.S. seemingly has such a poor grasp of coalition oriented politics despite needing exactly that in order to become viable at all as political entities. It’s maddening. If people on the left en masse could put their ideals on the back burner long enough (and we’re only talking a couple/few election cycles) to force through issues of vote reform and campaign finance reform by working through the Democrats they could spend the rest of their lives voting for people that a) actually represent their values and b) actually have a shot at being elected.

Edit: That time frame may be optimistic, but the point stands. Cooperation/consolidation amongst the genuine left as a voting block/political force, and doing so through the currently actionable political channels, is what it’s going to take to get to where we want to go.

RCV will still have an effect on gerrymandered districts. It disrupts the clear funding strategies of lining up behind a single/pair of candidate(s). It becomes either a lot less guaranteed that your funding dollars are being put to good use, or a lot more expensive to make sure that they are. [Caveat: this obviously assumes some depth of a viable candidacy pool in a given district/race.]

Legit, if you have never contacted your reps in Congress before to let them know that they should be supporting a bill this is the time to do it. Make as much noise as possible on this one. It has the potential to be more impactful on every issue than most any other bill concerning a single issue. The only contenders I could think of would be campaign finance reforms or possibly some prohibitive action against regulatory capture.

Ah, it was the opposite for me. Might be because I enjoy the type of movies SC2 riffs on a lot more than NATM.

Honestly, it’s probably Little Nicky for me. I do enjoy the movie myself, but back in my highschool days my main group of friends I would hang out and smoke weed with could always agree on this movie. If anyone would complain about what someone else wanted to watch too much, or none of us had a good idea for anything else, we would usually just throw Little Nicky on and be happy enough. I’ll still watch every now and then even though I could recite the thing by rote.

It’s Scary Movie 2 that really tickles me with its good hand.

A couple YouTube channels I regularly turn to:

The Exploring Series - He does read throughs of SCP files and Lovecraft stuff, as well as other things. His voice and inflection are excellent for being calming, but not hammy like a lot of sleep story channels.

Astrum - Astronomy and physics related material. Also an excellent voice for this purpose.

Otherwise I sometimes just pull up a dungeon synth album that has the right mood that I’m feeling for the night.

This is better. I’m never having kids, but if I did now I’d really want an MRI scan of the little darling.

It’s the best remedy I’ve tried insofar as it’s the only thing that has worked as any type of preventative, and the only thing that has disrupted a cycle for me. It doesn’t work as an abortive, in my experience, but it beats every pharmaceutical I’ve tried in every other way.

Sourcing it has been an issue, and it sucks to open yourself up to criminal offense for not wanting to live in pain, but we do what we have to do.

I’m an episodic CH sufferer. No other pain comes close in comparison. You’re not alone, brother (if I can make that gender assumption given your user name).

Deli-sliced turkey, muenster cheese, honey mustard, and my home-made pickles, on wheat.

Depends on how good they are at it. If pedestrian drech is all they have to offer I’ll spin 'em dizzy and set 'em straight. If they’ve got art, game recognizes game.

Who is raising their pinky finger while they are eating corn dogs?

Corn dogs for sure. Fuckin’ love me some corn dogs with ketchup.

Hey, y’all remember how you were feeling about 4 weeks ago as the news media was eviscerating Biden over his debate performance? What a difference a month can make. I’m pretty jubilant this morning. As the kids say, LFG!!!

That lines up pretty well with my experience. I lived in Wisconsin for about 2-1/2 years. It’s not a state that has nothing going for it. The structure is absolutely there for it to be a successful and enjoyable place that residents could have right to be proud of. With what I encountered though the phrase Wississippi was very apt. And yeah, it’s because too many people there choose for it to be that way.