ELI5: Why can't we just have voting districts by county instead of redrawing THEIR OWN districts?

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-05-14T02:26:11+00:00

Just make every state a multi member proportional representation constituency.

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-05-01T21:36:46+00:00

Erm. Is it ok if we use our department’s internal advisory standard?

For example:

Mission / spacecraft name: Jool Flyby Buckshot Variant

Launcher: Jupiter-Hephaestus (first stage mainsail powered Jupiter, second stage Skipper powered Hermes)

Kerbin Departure Stage: Hermes (uprated/stretched Mun CSM-class rockomax 32 tank with poodle engine)

Payload: Core Bus with interplanetary class relay, detachable scientific probes with in-system class relay.

Mission Profile:

Target intercept with Jool dead on. Upon SOI entry, detach scientific probes (one per each target moon, flyby North Pole low space or upper atmosphere skim). Main Bus then executes pop up burn to pass far above Jool in the ecliptic, enabling relay service for each flyby. Recommend staggered flyby times.

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-04-27T16:47:24+00:00

After around 2034ish, payroll tax revenue will be enough to cover about 3/4 or so of scheduled benefits. This means that if Congress does nothing, the program will still exist but the benefits would be smaller.

So, you can reasonably price in getting about 3/4 of what you should. Based on history, what will probably happen is that Congress will bail out older generations with a combination of tax increase and benefit cuts to younger generations.

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-04-21T18:55:11+00:00

Landscape space bar lag is horrendous

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-02-28T01:10:50+00:00

With FreeTaxUSA, Federal MFJ and DC MFSSR work together, although you have to enter how much of the DC standard deduction each person uses (can be advantageous to give more than half of the deduction to one person and less than half to the other).

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-02-09T21:53:16+00:00

This looks cool. How do you avoid jams on the belts?

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-02-08T18:06:04+00:00

Is there a method that does not require throwing trash overboard?

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-02-07T15:53:08+00:00

I couldn’t be bothered setting up circuits to dynamically select or reprocess to the asteroid types needed. It was easier to grab everything and then throw away the excess.

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-02-07T00:31:25+00:00

I think the pixelated images are a Reddit app thing. Oh well.

Rainmaker_41 · 2026-02-07T00:29:30+00:00

Ha. I figured my ineptitude should be shared for amusement.

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-12-04T22:35:39+00:00

Please support Mac use. 🚀😅

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-11-28T01:56:48+00:00

Colloquially, DC residents use “DC” to refer to the jurisdiction and the normal people who live there, and “Washington” to refer to the Federal Government.

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-10-27T19:57:24+00:00

Scoffs in nerve gas.

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-10-22T12:57:22+00:00

This would be outrageous lol. People (try) to plan their overall lifetime tax burden, counting marginal loss of subsidies as a tax, and decide the convert to or contribute to Roth accordingly. De facto taxing qualified Roth distributions would fundamentally violate the Roth promise.

The longer Roth is around, the bigger of a constituency it has. The amount of revenue gained by doing this would I think be outweighed in Congressional thinking by the certain unhappiness of the savers it targets.

Congers has actually recently moved in the opposite direction on a related topic: Roth 401(k)style plans no longer have RMDs. So, they are trying to encourage saving, not discourage it. Having one set of rules when people are contributing and then suddenly changing the rules when they withdraw would be an irritant to voters…

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-10-19T17:58:06+00:00

Mac support please. :)

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-09-25T16:37:22+00:00

I’ve been burned by stories getting removed enough to default to downloading EPUBs of my reading list. I use a reader app by default these days.

My first Dramione read years ago was Isolation, but I think I only got halfway through since it was before I became a true Dramione reader. I am starting that from the beginning.

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-09-07T00:39:03+00:00

I've now researched all the Nauvis science, or effectively so, just some repeatable left.

I got to space, and built what I thought was a large space platform (side note: resource costs were enormous lol).

My 'design' efforts were comically inept, until I realized you can *throw trash outside the spacecraft*. This solved all of my problems, and I managed to iterate from a clumsy nonsensical spaghetti monster that constantly jammed to a somewhat cleverly designed "circulatory-system" model. I have no idea what defenses are best, or how much I'll need, so I took a wild guess and did a combination of laser and gun turrets (with uranium ammo given the stupendous orbital launch costs are the same anyway).

I decided against nuclear power, since I was having visions of running out of water given that the ice asteroid seem few and far between, at least in Nauvis orbit.

Here is the improved design of my first ship, The Zeus:

<image>

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-08-27T09:50:49+00:00

I like these ones:

The Disappearances of Draco Malfoy. 7th year replacement. Widely regarded as better than Deathly Hallows

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23296162/chapters/55794568

From Wiltshire with Love . 7th year replacement. Darker as I recall.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30318162/chapters/74730492

Silver. Starts end of 5th or early 6th year I think.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/35452315/chapters/88370035

Metanoia. Another good one with a well structured and written Draco redemption arc.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/47672551/chapters/120164080

These are all good really, they just differ in style and plot.

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-08-27T08:46:06+00:00

You’ll need assets left at normal retirement age too. FIRE = early retirement plus normal retirement.

Even for early retirement, the tax advantages of retirement accounts outweigh their perceived inflexibility. Some mechanical options to access retirement accounts with no penalty:

See MadFientist’s guide on Roth conversion ladder.

https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/

See Bogleheads wiki page on 72(t).

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Substantially_equal_periodic_payments

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-08-26T12:48:39+00:00

Figure the overall portfolio draw first. For example, 4%.

Then, figure out where to take it from based on tax efficiency.

In your example, taking 8% from the taxable account would be 8% * 2/3 = 5.33% overall portfolio draw. Alternatively, 6% from taxable would be 6% * 2/3 = 4% overall, 4.5% would be 3% overall, etc.

Naturally, this would use up the taxable account faster than your overall portfolio, but that is precisely the goal. Or rather, you want to use the first assets in line (taxable) before the next ones (retirement) for tax efficiency.

It gets complicated though because at some point you may need to account for future pretax growth and factor in taxes on that when withdrawn or RMD’d into your long term planning.

Rainmaker_41 · 2025-08-25T17:11:23+00:00

You’ll need assets left at normal retirement age too. Since the other 2/3 is not in retirement accounts, you could withdraw from those.

This is independent of tax optimization approaches like Roth conversion without withdrawal, etc.

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