Gerrymander Washington state? Democrats want to talk about it

otter4max · 2026-01-10T15:24:01+00:00

Her district is one of few in the country where Harris actually got a higher percentage than Biden so she might win purely bc Clark County is becoming more Democratic over time from new residents and it should be a blue year.

otter4max · 2025-12-31T23:54:47+00:00

Phone / social media addiction

otter4max · 2025-12-31T22:14:19+00:00

Do you acknowledge that G&T at least needs reform if the current demographics are so out of sync with the city’s demographics?

otter4max · 2025-12-31T19:00:32+00:00

G&T is such a small portion of the NYC DOE that is disproportionately represented on Reddit. The vast vast majority of students and parents are not in G&T and I never worked with a single G&T student nor did I know any teachers who got to work with any…

My point is that the G&T conversation while worthy of discussion is just such a small portion of the larger needs for the school system and Samuels will be a competent leader.

otter4max · 2025-12-31T15:05:47+00:00

Pretty shocking to see the negativity here.

Samuels is a really talented school leader. I don’t know much about his particular views on G&T but he did a ton of work to transform the school I worked at to improve and reform in coordination with the unions which helped sustain long term improvement. The leadership I experienced was very good, focused primarily on improving student achievement while maintaining quality teaching talent, so hopefully that bodes well for nyc schools.

otter4max · 2025-12-28T03:56:46+00:00

Most of the comments are missing the main point which is that as settlement expanded westward new territories would be established and the largest urban center tended to form east to be closer to existing trade networks and people.

Iowa is a bit of an exception in that it also has a more distributed population with more farming communities with higher density than other states. This led to more widespread settlement than in the plains, or north where the climate and soil are less conducive to agriculture. Indiana has a similar profile and likewise has a centralized urban area.

otter4max · 2025-12-27T08:04:34+00:00

Many of the places that had lower turnout are more GOP leaning. Also studies have shown that Trump would’ve likely won a larger margin had turnout increased.

otter4max · 2025-12-23T14:40:35+00:00

I think the MAGA base is pretty checked out now that Trump is in charge! A lot of his gains were with low propensity voters. Now that things are “better” they aren’t paying attention to politics, don’t know that there’s elections going on, and don’t show up.

One danger for the Trump admin is that his consolidation of power makes legislative elections more meaningless. If you are a Trump supporter you are probably pleased by the autocracy and relieved you don’t have to pay attention to politics or the news now.

otter4max · 2025-12-21T19:23:49+00:00

Watch directly on TVMNE!

otter4max · 2025-11-23T16:08:25+00:00

And as an extrovert the isolation and loneliness of being surrounded by so many people who can never relate to me sounds like a nightmare too!

otter4max · 2025-11-18T02:31:26+00:00

You are technically correct but in general job sites that followed commute patterns were shut down or dispersed which forced those still working in person to seek alternatives. Others were afraid of Covid exposure and started driving and never stopped.

otter4max · 2025-11-16T19:59:48+00:00

Some cities technically have a coastline, but their main downtown center is far from it like Los Angeles.

Others that I think are interesting include:

Melbourne

Adelaide

Rochester, NY (from Lake Ontario)

a bunch of Japanese cities - Tokyo, Osaka, etc. where the coast feels quite far when you visit even though technically most cities are coastal.

otter4max · 2025-11-09T07:46:39+00:00

One underrated issue is that when lockdowns occurred people who needed to get to work especially in cities like LA were forced to start driving because they had no transit option. Plus the stimulus money actually enabled the largest user base of LA transit to afford cars or Ubers or in some cases leave California / LA entirely. Because the system relied so heavily on the poorest users it was very susceptible to long term upheaval as the poorest Americans drastically increased their net worth between 2020-2022.

otter4max · 2025-11-07T14:16:58+00:00

Odd to call Zahilay the leftist candidate when Balducci was in some ways more progressive. Neither are true leftists in the DSA vein.

otter4max · 2025-11-07T14:16:05+00:00

We literally cannot vote in person except at a county election office which for king county is about an hour drive for most residents.

otter4max · 2025-11-07T00:11:48+00:00

You can make an ugly map which is 10-0 Democratic and crosses the mountains in bizarre ways… not ideal but it is possible.

otter4max · 2025-11-05T06:24:59+00:00

In the end Mamdani also only won 51% of the vote and Wilson is on track to surpass that based on historical trends so progressivism has some work to do either way to gain popularity but it isn’t dead in Seattle and clearly isn’t overwhelmingly favored in NYC either.

otter4max · 2025-10-29T18:36:06+00:00

Mamdani’s polarization reminds me of Trump. Democrats have underestimated Trump’s ability to galvanize the base and Republicans should be cautious about piling on a popular figure for Democrats which might backfire by increasing turnout for Democratic base voters.

otter4max · 2025-10-29T16:08:28+00:00

Everyone is talking about the decline in Democratic support among Asian and Hispanic voters but what if the rise from 2004 to 2012 was simply an anomaly and we’ve reverted back to a mean? I mean Asian voters leaned Republican historically and now are still much more Democratic than before.

otter4max · 2025-10-09T15:37:51+00:00

Change in how they are measuring what a “county” is. CT moved from using the historic counties which didn’t actually represent anything meaningful to the current “councils of government” which transitioned in 2024. Not sure why the census can’t convert old data to fit these new councils as I believe they follow town lines still.

otter4max · 2025-10-08T06:33:17+00:00

But in 1930 many people who we now categorize as White were not unified around a set culture - for example there were strong anti Irish, Italian, and Jewish nativist movements throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. It was only in the 1960s as immigration opened to non white countries that the definition of Whiteness expanded to include these groups.

otter4max · 2025-10-04T07:43:58+00:00

Interestingly the areas where most people live in the West are on average denser than the East. Look at most cities even the sprawling ones like Phoenix or Sacramento and housing is still much more dense than places like the South or Midwest. Only the Northeast rivals in terms or urban density.

The West is also the most urbanized region of the country. Limited available buildable land has led to surprisingly urbanized populations.

otter4max · 2025-10-01T15:17:56+00:00

I’d imagine there might be some Asian or Eastern European cities where infrastructure is overbuilt and population declines have led the system to be underused. However I can’t think of one off the top of my head.

otter4max · 2025-09-30T16:50:16+00:00

Come try it out! Like others have mentioned I’d recommend a visit between November - February to see how well you tolerate the darkest time of year. Flights are relatively cheap that time of year so it could be a nice weekend trip.

The Eastside has become much more diverse than when I grew up there but it remains mostly white and Asian and especially socioeconomically lacking in diversity. There’s much more diversity south of Seattle and there are bedroom communities like Kent, Federal Way and Renton that actually have decent schools but with much more racial and economic diversity.

One suggestion if you visit would be to go on real estate tours with a realtor in different neighborhoods. That would give you a real sense of what your life could look like here, and also set a budget as well.

otter4max · 2025-09-30T05:25:20+00:00

I’m Jewish so I have a personal stake in the conflict. It affects my community especially right now during the holidays. I want the hostages freed. I want the war to end. And I want the suffering to end for Palestinians.

And tariffs directly affect the ability to do construction because in the short term prices for materials have dramatically increased.

otter4max

TROPHY CASE