Phenomephrene

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.

Sucks is the wrong word. You just don’t like their music. They certainly don’t suck. Like them or not, they are undeniably talented.

A pedantic argument, admittedly. A spade is still a spade.

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).

No.

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.

Taking SSRIs, I feel like I’m living with an anvil strapped to my back.

Before I started on them, I felt like I was wrapped around the singularity at the center of a massive black hole. Utterly, utterly crushed; reduced down to the size of something that may as well be nothing. So far past the event horizon that I couldn’t even see it anymore.

At least an anvil can be useful for smithing something practical, hearty, and if one has the skill, something artful.

So you’re saying Akira wasn’t based on a true story?

Pro tip: Have other people do the scratching.

The only way to become a billionaire is to exploit the labor of others.

Absolutely. I’ve had two episodes of sleep paralysis in my life that we’re accompanied by some intense dream imagery and audio hallucination. And I’ve had one extremely potent nightmare that easily could have otherwise passed as an alien abduction incident.

Those three were a rush to fully awake from. The abduction one woke me from a dead sleep as they were inserting an instrument into my navel. 10/10 would do again.

One is never satisfied, as I’m assuming you know. I have plans to swap some out, but my current lineup includes:

Novation Peak Casio CZ-1 Novation Ultranova Radikal Technologies Delta Cep-A Dreadbox Abyss Polyend Tracker and a couple other supplemental pieces

If you’re a gearhound yourself I wouldn’t mind a look into your setup if you care to oblige.