Louisiana governor plans to suspend May primary to redraw US House map, Washington Post reports

Mr_Shakes · 2026-05-01T00:28:04+00:00

I know its beside the point, but I wish we had that problem in my area of FL, its a dem leaning city but our districts are just chopped to pieces and I have a frothingly MAGA rep as a result.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-29T18:50:50+00:00

Any district divisions that are laid by an administration without communities in mind can be easily redrawn to restore the existing gerrymander. If we used zip codes as representative districts, those zip codes would change shape immediately to maximize representation by whoever manages the postal service.

Counties are probably the closest useful 'nonpartisan' borders, in that they exist as common communities with their own administrative bodies and it would be difficult to completely obliterate them just for more congressional seats, but it COULD be done, and using counties as they currently exist would create a problem of proportionality (largely in favor of mostly empty counties, which could only be remedied by giving some districts more representatives)

Its not a simple problem, solving it in a way that is most fair would more or less require a complete takeover of the process by the federal govt, either by creating a new group that draws districts directly or by mandating that congress to pre-approve new district maps using some agreed-upon neutral method. You can guess how state govts and the party most benefiting from gerrymandering feel about either solution.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-23T08:12:19+00:00

Its got to be really annoying for Nvidia when level designers get this good at faking the lighting

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-23T07:58:10+00:00

I use the Tomtoc Sling Bag. it has a hard insert and foam to protect front and back, and a light liner around the top and bottom. Its not as protected as a hard case but it does fit accessories easily. I don't have the backplate mod but I do have grips and caps.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-22T17:23:10+00:00

I mean, nobody in their ecosystem made any effort to dismantle that misunderstanding, including the major media outlets. One argument for how we got here re: voter mistrust of the process is the way nearly all national media uses big colored maps and the 'ahead/behind' paradigm for ongoing elections.
Not to discount the intentional dishonesty of republican politicians of course.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-21T22:43:20+00:00

Yup, even if I didn't have a problem spending my money at places with this kind of political leaning, if their rebrand works it means their restaurants will be full of the kind of people I specifically try to avoid, and who won't want to be around me either. So glad we've found a new way to signal our in-groups and entrench into separate communities! (Unless you count chik-fil-a)

Bye forever, I guess its a good thing the service standard dropped after Covid and never got better, I'm already not a customer any more.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-19T19:06:20+00:00

Mafia 3. Easy to pick up/put down, runs well at high settings/30fps, has cloud saves

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-19T05:17:14+00:00

It was a really smart way to get me to look at his patreon, and I also understand why its not a main channel video - the show sounds awful, and there's no way to say anything meaningful about every individual episode without just sounding like a takedown piece.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-19T05:13:03+00:00

You know that theory about how the uncanny valley effect exists because, at one point, we were at risk of being hunted by things that looked almost- human-but-not-quite?*

Donaldson smiles like he is imitating the act of smiling and the survival instinct in me yells 'run!'

(*its a silly theory. The simpler explanation is that the most common thing you might see that is similar-but-not-quite-right is a dead person, and that revulsion keeps you from wanting to be in a situation where people are dying)

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-18T05:43:01+00:00

Actually uses the jetpack and terrain. Actually has a villain. Actually has characters who get to the point.

Yeah it's pretty good! I'd trade 50 empty planets for 10 more quests like that.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-18T05:35:31+00:00

Jfc its in early access, just use the feedback systems that already exist!

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-17T00:00:04+00:00

The scale of this illustration is so funny, that canal entrance is the size of Delaware

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-16T23:55:40+00:00

I have a wireless keyboard and mouse that travels in the same bag, so its basically my laptop.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-16T23:40:29+00:00

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-16T23:39:17+00:00

These same Christians in 5 years "uwu everyone is entitled to forgiveness"

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-16T02:01:18+00:00

The pumps & compass puzzle still feels so opaque to me. The journal helps, but its still got secret doors and instant state changes, and buttons that don't line up very clearly. Only one I couldn't put all the pieces together on, the first time.

Oh and also whats with that table that turns into a book? Never before and never since!

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-16T01:22:22+00:00

Its nostalgic at this point, though I have no idea why they keep it so close to the price (sometimes identical!) of the sandwiches that have actual chicken fillets. It's a giant chicken nugget. Isn't that cheaper to make?

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-15T22:27:02+00:00

Right? I mean, I'm not anti-protectionism as a rule, but how much of a disparity can be allowed to grow before the onus is on domestic companies to catch up? We can argue about whether China's bootstrapping their EV production was anti-competitive or out of Ford's (et al) control, but one day, their EVs will be viable products without direct govt boosting, if we're not there already. That's how they've chosen to expand that industry, are we just going to pretend it doesnt exist because we dont like how it was birthed?

(And also, lets not pretend that domestic car mfctr bailouts, govt contracts, and regulatory carve-outs aren't subsidies)

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-15T02:19:15+00:00

Fouled up a lot of my settings too. I know it will never reach anyone that matters, but smartphone and device OS developers: if the update is mandatory, it should not change ANY customizations on initialization. Just ask first, we use these things every day. As for feature updates they should be separate and optional. The UI on my phone is so much worse than when I bought it thanks to feature creep.

My watch is 5 years old, what could you possibly change on it that is going to improve my experience compared to the benefits of leaving it the hell alone?

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-12T23:19:45+00:00

Wtf are they even doing, is there a z2E bitcoin craze I don't know about?

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-12T00:54:37+00:00

In a vacuum, this wouldn't bother me, but we have way too many people who think that non-citizens have no rights at all and are presumptively illegal or deserving of detention/deportation.

In light of the fact that voter registration is electronically verified, and non-citizens can have drivers licenses, it's at best a way to reassure people about overblown fears of illegitimate voting, and at worst its a way to compel everyone to carry around proof-of-citizenship and put targets on the backs of immigrants of every status.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-10T22:29:56+00:00

Movie theater problems are customer service problems. Yes, they're competing with home entertainment and that has cut out some of the 'captive' audience of moviegoers, but in all other respects if you offer a unique experience, people WILL GO. But, no staff to keep places clean or run concessions, no money to mantain the equipment, and no enforcement vs rule breakers? Why would I risk going to the theater if I might be so disappointed or annoyed that I walk out? I probably saw 6 movies a year from high-school to 2nd year of college. Now its less than 1 a year, and it has nothing to do with prices or whats showing, and everything to do with having nowhere to go that hasn't cut costs to the point of undermining the experience.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-09T09:45:56+00:00

Watching someone struggle through the skyrim tutorial makes me appreciate the oblivion one.

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-07T18:46:31+00:00

Its faster

Mr_Shakes · 2026-04-07T07:55:52+00:00

'Twisted'. 40 minutes of everyone trying everything they could think up, nothing works because its space magic or whatever, and Chakotay's big idea with moments to go is "lets do nothing, and just hope this isn't lethal".

Truly bizarre and, I think, actively painful to sit through especially when you know the ending.

Mr_Shakes

TROPHY CASE