TinyPizza

Michigan only changed due to a citizens ballot initiative that created a independent board to redistrict the state. Not every state has that mechanism. I also wouldn’t characterize either the Governor or a large portion of our Dems as progressives, though they certainly do love to use language that leads many to think that.

Thanks for the recommendation. Just downloaded (just in case) and I’ve gotta say, I might like this enough to switch out even if they don’t mess with my browser player.

My favorite (actually true) story was that Edison possibly had a French inventor disappeared on a train. The man had been hard at work and created a supposedly superior prototype movie projector that would surpass Edison’s fledgling efforts. He was on that train, with his machine, to attempt to gain capital from investors and commercialize the product. He and the machine were never seen again.

Probably wouldn’t have happened if good Edison had still been around…

Also, Edison is just Elon Musk. Possibly reincarnated by use of a Lazarus machine.

Sadly the machine was destroyed during the battle of wizards at Menlo Park. That’s how we ended up with evil Edison taking control in this timeline.

Try to step away from your bias here and look at what you’ve written objectively, as if you’re reading someone else’s writing. Does that person seem rational and logical or does it seem like they’ve jumped to conclusions? Set that aside and ask yourself, besides this are there things in your life that are bothering you that you’d like help with? As suggested elsewhere, this may be an excellent time to consider therapy and focus on some self care.

Randomly thought about this movie last night and started humming “friends come in all sizes”. It’s a classic in my opinion.

Technology could largely streamline that and condense things in plain language for people to understand. Research councils and individual polling could help to dictate ballot composition. I’ve seen it proposed that you could enact whats known as liquid voting, where by you could entrust a like minded friend you consider more knowledgeable to vote for you. Outside of that, so much of that individual policy is performative and redundant. We can change how the system works incrementally and work toward greater levels of involvement and knowledge will become more common the more people have a taste for it. We can incentivize participation by linking it to civil duty and a lessening of your personal taxes.

there’s at least 5-7 states where you could pass it as a constitutional referendum. The only hang up is that we are baked in as representative governments on a state level due to agreements made to the federal government constitutionally when we joined the union. You’d have to find a way to make a representative system function like a delegate system, but not under the eyes of the law. It seems like a real moonshot, but where I’m at all it would take is the courts to approve the language and around 50,000 signatures to get it on the ballot. 50%+ of the vote and it’s enacted.

I say fuck representative government. We as people, all of us, are flawed. And no matter who we elect, they will at some point, use the power or voice we’ve entrusted them with to their own ends and for their own means. We need Digital Direct Democracy. It’s time to end the notion that society needs elected representation to act as wranglers and moderate our opinion. The technology is here and honestly I think it’s a system that the founders would have been behind.

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Biden “We’ve decided to paint the Titanic green. Red is out jack!”

AH, a fellow Robert Evans connoisseur?

Oh well, cat’s out of the bag I guess. No good deed goes unpunished and all that. They’re both gonna taste weird if we’re being honest. If cocaine leaves a taste in someone, I’m guessing they both taste like that.

Still plenty of liquid in that glass, I’m gonna call it half full. Optimism!

Glass half full, there’s very little talk of murdering millionaires, so hypothetically things are looking up!

I believe they’re alluding to the wealthy funneling their money into foundations and other “charitable” endeavors as basically being a money wash that also comes with a lot of power to influence things. Their charity comes with strings and when you’re talking about the vast sums they wield, it has the ability to derail other charities or efforts that may have been more focused on the actual task/problem. If NPR decides not to run a story critical of Microsoft or the Gates’s because the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation are donors, does that charity still have a net positive effect?

So OP, I’m unsure how to ask this, but you wouldn’t happen to be… Say… A billionaire would you?