Sociotard

Oh, yes. Electors Request Intelligence Briefing on Russia Election Interference And those stories of Electors still trying to get Romney or Kasich (basically persuade enough R electors to write on of them, and then all the Dems jump on and say "better than Trump"), and that group that popped up and offered to pay the Faithless Elector fees. Of course, in the end, it just makes for mild political theater. Trump will be president, and none of this will stop that. (but then, I never thought trump would win the nomination, and then I never thought he'd win) That said, I still hope one of these "interesting" scenarios play out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st-y4FRCRHE

And I Darken by Kiersten White. It was actually kind of fun. It's a historical novel about Vlad the Impaler (you know, the guy who inspired Dracula). The book is part of a series, so the first on is just about the main character's time spent as basically a hostage in the Ottoman Empire. Except, in addition to the standard fictionalizing of history (stuff gets made up), this is a gender swap novel. Vlad the Impaler is now Lada the Impaler. And she has a torrid romance with Mehmed the Conqueror.

In his day, he wasn't a bad looking man. And, in person, I'm told he is the king of concierge. That is is a sexual predator and he'll say inflamatory things to rile up the base does not negate that.

I now have an image in my head of a cop-turned-superhero who fights with a bunch of trick-ammo burritos.

Donald Trump says he was talked out of his waterboarding position by General Mattis, and he's much more moderate on Climate Change than he had been. Time will tell, I suppose. I'm looking for reasons to be optimistic. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/us/politics/donald-trump-visit.html?_r=0

How is that I really don't like Donald Trump and wish he'd lost, but now I dislike this Randy Rainbow even more? Good singing voice, not nice.

Exactly. You get a real choice between blue and navy. Not a mere protest vote. Not a shout out into an uncaring void. A real, genuine choice. Before, you could vote for a republican, but the odds were very bad. Now they can vote for the less liberal of the two candidates, and have a good chance of getting a moderate. Not a real conservative, because they never had that chance. But the chance to be pragmatic enough to say, at least we got a moderate. I will concede that Californian votes are down, even compared with the rest of the country. I will consider on the possibility that it may amount to voter suppression.

And that's actually the beauty of the Californian system. Oregon rejected it, but I voted for it when it was there. If an area had enough Left-leaning people that they could split their vote and still completely shut out the republican, well, I don't think the republican had much of a shot. Ah, but now the republicans can choose which democrat represents them. Before, they'd still lose, but they'd lose to whoever the democrats fielded. Now, they can probably tip the scale. Instead of having a super-left person like Chuck Schumer they can have a very moderate one like Claire McCaskill. Of course, this falls apart if Republicans believe that all democrats are effectively the same. And that happens. The same people who can point out the diversity of the Republican Party, where a Hawk like McCain and an Isolationist like Ryan coexist, sometimes do say that all democrats are the same. By extension, it falls apart if people aren't pragmatic. If you say you can't vote for someone who doesn't completely match your values. You can't vote for a moderate Democrat, even at the risk of representation by a super liberal one. Well, welcome to the club. I hated voting for Hillary. She's a Hawk and she would have walked us into some stupid wars. But I thought Donald was worse and so I did the Pragmatic thing. I wholly endorse the Californian system. I wish it was more widespread. It brings out the Moderates. It rewards the Pragmatists.

There are. Proportional methods. They wouldn't even require much of a change, really. No amendments needed. Right now we have first past the post, and we have to, because we only have one seat per district. But the constitution doesn't say first past the post, or one seat per district, or to use districts. Here's the relevant bits: So, the constitutions didn't say that states had to divide up into one-seat districts. It gives most of the power for deciding the qualifications for representatives to the states, excepting what is already in the constitution. It gives states power to say how their representatives are chosen, but allows Congress itself can overrule them, even without an amendment. So, there's nothing constitutionally stopping us from putting in a proportional or semi-proportional system. Of course, it'd be state by state, rather than nationally, but that's okay. I think that's how Germany does it. I'm a big fan of their Semi-Proportional method. (I'm not presenting it here for the sake of simplicity) So, parties would create lists of representatives, then citizens would vote for parties, and the seats would be apportioned. We'd see the two big parties break up, since Green and Libertarian would suddenly have a chance. As a bonus, suddenly the people on that list would be different sorts of politicians. Parties could pepper their lists with people who would be unelectable on their own (ugly, abrasive, whatever) but who had particular skills or knowledge that they wanted in their committees. So, all we need to do is ask the two leading parties to commit organizational suicide. Easy, right!

Only if all the states follow suit.

Portland is officially rioting. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=/amp/www.oregonlive.com/articles/19646563/anti-trump_protests_held_for_f.amp&ved=0ahUKEwiP88_IhKDQAhVCi1QKHQDzBwUQFghpMBs&usg=AFQjCNF8vuNycxF2yYDEJ8s3Rv_cUDAoZg&sig2=NJrHLP8X5EXvYioRH4jjhw

Of course, if he really needed those posts filled, he could start a reality television show . . .

Team Trump Struggling to Fill National-Security Jobs I'll admit, my first thought was schadenfreude, but my second was that I hope he does find respectable talent. We all need those posts filled.

Hey, remember all the rumors that Trumps people would go full on Red Dawn if he lost? I guess the party I voted for isn't much better. Trump Election sparks protests, borderline riots Okay, I guess it isn't violent. Yet. 'just' lighting tires on fire in the street. Still. I'd hoped for more decorum.

I wonder if the dems were just overconfident. All the outlets were calling an easy win for Clinton, so people leaning toward her figured they could stay home.

Now trump gets the supreme court pick. And the Senate will be his party. Ugh. I'm so upset.

Ugh, he's still ahead and the remaining states don't look great. I don't want president trumptylumpkins.

Oh, they're on a table, shot with a phone, and a light bulb behind. In the first picture I thought they were flying through a super structure tube with a borg cube chasing them. Good job on the origami

The "candidate out from the cold" is Evan McMullin. He is only doing well in one state: Utah. In fact, I'm not sure he's on the ballot in any other state. McMullin is doing well because he is a member of the church that dominates Utah. You could argue that it is wrong to vote for anybody based on their religion, but there you go. Moreover, lots of members of that church really hate Trump. They think he is skeevy and does not represent their moral values. So, McMullin is a protest vote. As far as Stein, I think a lot of people who were voting for here were disaffected Sanders voters. The Clinton campaign has a made a fair effort to bring them home. Again, the threat of Trump.

*shrugs*. When I was in 9th grade, we were encouraged to take part in service opportunities, one of which was helping out at a retirement home. Very old people. And many of my female classmates complained about the old men grabbing butts. Old doesn't mean tamed.

I am curious to see how Hillary will contain her husband. I get that I didn't vote for Bill (yay early voting), but he's still going to be around the office, and he's still gross. He's at least 70% the sexual predator Donald is. (They both enjoyed repeat flights on the infamous "Lolita Express", for example) Maybe she'll appoint him Ambassador to France. That's how the Founding Fathers handled their randy old goat.

Okay, this article made me angry. A new study shows how Star Trek jokes and geek culture make women feel unwelcome in computer science The article explains how "masculine culture" drives women out of STEM majors. I started off expecting the standard explanation that men make sexist jokes or are more likely to be dismissive of women, etc. Nope! It's Star Trek. Not even the sexist parts, like joking about Kirk and his endless conquests. Just liking Star Trek. (it briefly mentioned the dearth of female role models and the existence of negative female stereotypes as well) We've gone through a few years now where the big shame for nerds was excluding women by assuming they weren't 'real fans' of comic books or sci fi or video games. Now this is saying, no, those are for boys and you should put nice pictures of flowers in the computer science classroom so women feel welcome. A few quotes: Okay, I get that they supported all these statements from data. I can say "it shouldn't be like that" all I want, but they can still point to data and say "but it is". I also get that "Feminism" isn't a monolithic entity like Mormons or Catholics, but more like that many different kinds of Protestants. It isn't weird or inconsistent for one feminist to say "Women should be included in science fiction and comics and video games" while another feminist says "Women feel excluded when you openly enjoy science fiction and comics and video games". It still feels like a disconnect, to say that I should never make assumptions about whether women like nerdy subjects, but also not enjoy nerdy subjects openly in school and other professional environments lest I alienate women.

The Fireman, by Joe Hill It was excellent. This is a book that aspiring writers should study to learn about pacing, about making plot points that are surprising, yet make total sense in the end. To learn about giving different characters different voices, conflicting goals, and depth. To learn how to foreshadow and build tension. The book is somewhere between Plague-post apocalyptic and Urban Fantasy. People get a fungus that makes them get black and gold lines on their skin. Eventually, it makes them spontaneously combust. The book follows one nurse who gets it and then finds out she's pregnant. I will admit to not being entirely satisfied with the end.

The Gone Girl With The Dragon Tattoo On The Train Why are there so many books with “girl” in the title? It made an interesting observation: Women in "Girl" titled books by men are more likely to wind up dead than women in "Girl" titled books by women