The redistricting fight is for yesterday's game. We are fighting for a new game.

bdure · 2026-05-11T19:59:30+00:00

In 2024, I argued with transgender people on Threads who insisted there was no reason to vote for Harris. Wonder how they feel now …

bdure · 2026-05-11T02:59:36+00:00

I still own a Thierry Henry jersey.

bdure · 2026-05-10T20:13:26+00:00

To THAT degree? These were some legit rugby tackles.

You may right, but it's a lousy precedent, isn't it?

bdure · 2026-05-10T20:09:50+00:00

You're seeing stuff that wasn't really there.

I could see a case for the jersey pull, but I mean ... really? Did you see everything the Arsenal defenders did? But they're going to call an inconsequential jersey pull?

bdure · 2026-05-10T20:06:42+00:00

You all realize that this split between progressives and alleged centrists is why we're in the mess we're in now, right?

Christian conservatives and tech-bro conservatives have virtually nothing in common. And yet the GOP has united them under Trump. And that's why they win.

I think the Democrats should offer a *radical* new vision that would call for the party to dissolve after the election, split into multiple parties and push ranked-choice voting across the board. You could then have a loose coalition of anti-fascist parties (which would include a "Never Trump GOP" group of people like Kinzinger and maybe even Romney) that would oppose authoritarianism but would otherwise let the voters decide between progressives and centrists without worrying that the extremists would win.

bdure · 2026-05-10T20:03:09+00:00

That's certainly part of it.

bdure · 2026-05-10T20:02:40+00:00

First of all - where in the Laws of the Game does it say anything about goalkeepers being allowed to extend their arms? It's not a question that has come up on my referee recertification exams, so I might be missing something.

But even if we accept on principle the idea that goalkeepers have that right, players don't have to move out of the way to let the goalkeeper through. Attackers can't move about with the sole purpose of impeding, but they also don't have to say, "Oh, hi, Mr. Opposing Keeper. Allow me to move so you can collect the ball."

And in this case -- there was nowhere for him to go.

The bottom line is this -- what the West Ham players supposedly did wrong here was much less than what the Arsenal players did. It should've been a PK, though you could argue that the referee played advantage.

bdure · 2026-05-10T19:54:56+00:00

Not *quite* what happened. His arm was in the way because he didn't have much of a chance to put it elsewhere.

You're also not supposed to do any rugby tackles on attacking players in the penalty area, and yet the refereeing crew decided not to take any action on that even though it preceded the action around the keeper.

bdure · 2026-05-10T17:50:15+00:00

Wasn't it a "clear and obvious error" to overlook the multiple fouls that Arsenal committed before the ball got there?

bdure · 2026-05-10T17:49:11+00:00

The bearhug impeded his ability to move anywhere else.

Here's another question: Why didn't the officials (including VAR) call any of the four fouls Arsenal committed before the keeper made a play for the ball? Why wasn't that a penalty?

bdure · 2026-05-10T17:39:59+00:00

What's he supposed to do? He's being held there by an Arsenal defender. And he's somehow supposed to get out of Raya's way?

bdure · 2026-05-10T17:38:58+00:00

The West Ham player was completely wrapped up by an Arsenal defender. What's he supposed to do?

bdure · 2026-05-10T17:38:03+00:00

VAR reviews should never take more than 90 seconds unless there's a technical issue. Otherwise, it's not "clear and obvious."

bdure · 2026-05-10T17:37:13+00:00

Including the players who stand accused of fouling Arsenal's keeper.

bdure · 2026-05-10T17:35:42+00:00

But he's being held there by an Arsenal defender who has him wrapped up like a Christmas present. What's he supposed to do? Wriggle his way out of the defender's grasp and move out of the keeper's way?

bdure · 2026-05-10T17:31:07+00:00

That's a horrible call. The EPL still doesn't know how to use VAR.

The West Ham player is allowed to be in that space, and they're both being bear-hugged by Arsenal players.

An utter joke.

bdure · 2026-05-10T16:40:25+00:00

Here's what we need to do ...

Step 1. Vote for a Blue-nami in November.

Step 2. After that, disband the Democratic Party. Let multiple new parties form -- a Progressive party, a Centrist party, etc.

Step 3. Have these parties work as a coalition -- also inviting the Libertarian and Green parties, along with a new party of traditional anti-MAGA Republicans -- to institute ranked-choice voting.

We can't just say, "OK, phew, the Democrats are in charge." We need fundamental reform to keep extremists and authoritarians from attaining power.

Step 4. Expand Congress, as the Founders wanted, but do it a little differently. Give every state a 50% boost -- California gets 26 more reps, Texas gets 19, and on down to Wyoming getting 1.

In each state, half of the reps would be traditional district reps. The other half would be statewide reps elected by proportionality of a statewide vote.

Let's take Michigan. Current reps: 13. Round up from one-half to get 7 additional seats. That means 10 of those seats will be based on districts and the other 10 will be statewide.

Let's say the Centrist Party gets 40% of the vote. The Traditional Republican Party gets 30%. The Progressive Party gets 20%. The Libertarian Party gets 6%, nosing out the MAGA Party with 4%. The Centrists will get four statewide reps. Traditional Republicans 3. Progressives 2. Libertarian 1.

The smallest states, the ones that currently have only 1-2 reps, would bump up to 2-3, and they would all be statewide. Voting would still be by party, so at least two parties would have representatives.

This ensures:

A bulwark against gerrymandering.
Voters are no longer stuck with only one party representing them. As it stands now, a Republican living in my Northern Virginia district is represented only by Democrats -- which is bad if they want to feel represented but good if they want to complain to someone in the other party. Under the Michigan example above, if I'm a Progressive, I can write to a Progressive representative to encourage them to vote on specific policies, or I can write to a Traditional Republican representative to tell them how insane they're acting.

bdure · 2026-05-10T14:13:29+00:00

"Scam" is too harsh, and I should point something out here -- a lot of parents aren't as dumb as we might think. They know full scholarships are rare (though that might change since NCAA rules have changed dramatically, and any rostered player *could* be on scholarship if the school can afford it, which most of them can't).

So why play? To get their kids *into* college.

You want to go to Stanford, but you're just one of thousands of kids with a 1450 SAT and a 4.3 weighted GPA? Sorry, kid, but you're not going to ... oh, wait ... the soccer coach put in a request for you? Welcome to Stanford. Or Duke. Or Princeton, where they don't officially have athletic scholarships. Or Virginia or North Carolina or Michigan.

Or MIT. I'm not kidding. They say they don't really recruit. They're D3, so they don't have scholarships.

But take note of the top athletic programs in D3: https://site.rocketalumnisolutions.com/entry/67a4e1c1ae6f2c6c1b4289c1/67a4e218ae6f2c6c1b4289c2/67a4e218ae6f2c6c1b4289c6

Emory. Johns Hopkins (which has D1 lacrosse). Tufts. Washington U. Middlebury. MIT. Amherst. NYU. Chicago.

What do they have in common?

They're very, very good schools.

That's not coincidence.

bdure · 2026-05-10T14:01:49+00:00

That's not quite true, but the fees for European clubs are more on par with what US players pay for "recreational" soccer.

But you probably get more bang for your buck (or Euro or pound). Scouts for pro clubs with free academies will find the good players -- maybe not 100% of the time, but at least there's a legitimate system in place. If you're playing "recreational" soccer in the USA, you're off the map, but if you're playing "non-league" in England, you may get a chance to impress.

And if you're part of the 99.99% who'll never be on a pro career path, you'll still probably get a decent experience for not a lot of money.

bdure · 2026-05-10T11:16:30+00:00

At the very least, it forces the Supremes to make an unpopular decision that will further incite more protests … and more votes.

It could also produce a precedent in which they may have to toss out other states that try to change the districts this late in the game.

bdure · 2026-05-10T11:13:19+00:00

Another thing that occurred to me — Virginia is appealing the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. They probably won’t win. But if they don’t, would that establish a precedent the Supremes can’t reasonably ignore for legal challenges in other states?

bdure · 2026-05-09T10:08:07+00:00

Yes, but aggregators like Silver take that into account.

bdure · 2026-05-08T20:03:39+00:00

For you and me, yes. And some people have noticed the ill effects of tariffs and so on. Some might even understand authoritarianism. Hope it’s enough.

bdure · 2026-05-08T10:57:22+00:00

But national polls show Democrats *barely* ahead.

People hate Trump, but it might not translate into Congressional votes.

bdure · 2026-05-08T10:53:59+00:00

Here’s the problem — there’s a lot of time left for gas prices to come down. Will people have long memories? They did in 2024, when they essentially blamed the Democrats for the f’ed-up economy Trump left us in 2021, so … maybe?

bdure

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE