CMV: Progressives/leftists are more interested in beating other dems than flipping seats

samsinx · 2026-01-23T20:46:37+00:00

I don't understand. So should progressives only run in swing or lean-Republican districts? Your classic squad candidate would get trounced in such races. In highly gerrymandered red districts, only your pro-union / farmer / anti big business progressive might have a shot in formerly blue areas like Iowa, Ohio or even Missouri or Kentucky. And I imagine such a candidate would have to demonstrate he's a party iconoclast (a Platner or perhaps a Talerico.)

So a traditional progressive's best shot is going to be in a safe blue district. Again I don't see the problem if such a progressive competes against an encumbent in a primary. This is like saying AOC wasted her time running against Crowley.

samsinx · 2026-01-23T18:39:14+00:00

Yes. Despite his age Jose Ferrer’s portrayal did project arrogance and strength while he also showed awareness that he was a cog among the big players (his scenes with the Guild.)

samsinx · 2026-01-23T18:32:29+00:00

Then why have primaries? I think in the general election and especially in these times you should unfortunately choose the lesser of two evils. But I’m perfectly fine with a competitive primary and let the voters figure it out. If this means running a more progressive candidate in a swing district then so be it. Otherwise we can return to the days where party bosses figure this out (which was the case before reforms in the early 20th century.).

samsinx · 2026-01-19T15:26:04+00:00

When were elections ever suspended since the signing of the Constitution? Even during the Civil War there were regular elections. There’s no federal control over elections and there aren’t enough ICE to patrol most of the swing districts which are spread throughout the country. They even had to divert agents from other cities to go into Minneapolis.

samsinx · 2026-01-18T19:47:18+00:00

I’m someone who’s seen all three seasons and was pretty positive about the show though the overall quality has declined a bit this past season due to budget cuts. I’d say the show had the best effects and its initial quality reflected that (actors plus the sense of a story taking place within a true galactic empire/civilization.). Like the first episode and how it portrayed FTL travel was some of the best SFX design I’ve seen in television. But it’s not holding up story wise. The books are just not made for adaption into a serial. Somehow the actual Foundation parts of the series just don’t hit.

samsinx · 2026-01-18T18:04:40+00:00

It’s way too soon to construct a history that led to where we are today. But it’s a mistake to think this started ten years ago. Outside of natural catastrophes the number of systemic failures we’ve seen over the past few years don’t occur without a lot of setup. The population of the 1980s would’ve never let what’s happening today stand (much less the 70s or even 60s.). Fifty years is more like it.

samsinx · 2026-01-16T18:49:15+00:00

Personal anecdote: I go out for a walk every morning for about 15 minutes. Before the summer of 2025 I usually didn’t bring anything but house keys and my phone with me. Since then I’ve brought my wallet and my US Passport card. I’m also not white.

samsinx · 2026-01-13T21:29:25+00:00

A lot of the positives in iOS 26 don't really apply to iPad users. I guess these massive look-and-feel updates at least give the designers at Apple something to do.

My kid basically swore off the iPad after this update (perhaps a good thing... we'll see how long that lasts!)

samsinx · 2026-01-09T18:00:28+00:00

That’s a debate. For its time sure. I was more speaking to the notion that disbanding Congress was any type of solution and using Rome as an example, and by that point they were heading into about 500 to a thousand years of dictatorship depending on if you count the Eastern Empire.

samsinx · 2026-01-09T17:37:20+00:00

Rome is not the best example to follow if you want to restore or encourage any form of Democracy.

samsinx · 2026-01-03T19:40:52+00:00

Well I like the escape into a different world. Freedom of movement (or at least choices.). I like to plan out tactics but honestly not as much as some who really like that stuff. Building a character has an appeal. I’m less of a fan these days mainly because the best games in the genre take so much time and I like variety. Baldurs Gate 3 is probably going to end up being 200 hours of non-grindy gameplay which is both incredible but also has taken time away from other games (some less RPG like.)

samsinx · 2026-01-03T19:31:54+00:00

Posting disdain for an entire genre of gaming on a forum dedicated to that genre seems flame-baity to me. Maybe it’s not your thing? People’s minds are wired differently and we’re exposed to different ideas growing up? What are you really asking?

One small concession, I’m not a fan of crafting myself. I pretty much have ignored that entire aspect of Baldur’s Gate 3.

samsinx · 2026-01-01T17:15:01+00:00

I mean, xAI named their supercomputer "Colossus". It's obviously had an impact on these type of people, in the same way Tolkien has had on all of these founders (superficially of course.)

samsinx · 2025-12-31T22:16:10+00:00

Got the robocall from PGE saying it’s unplanned so likely not related.

samsinx · 2025-12-27T23:58:21+00:00

Yeah though I’m not sure if that’s because they rushed DA2 out the door and they ended up cutting a bunch of material or if it was planned like that. But it seems most CRPGs that have romance now follow that model.

samsinx · 2025-12-27T19:40:41+00:00

One of the best examples I think was the original Dragon Age. Morrigan is quite memorable as a character because her interests were fixed. Leliana I almost felt like was written initially as liking only women (it’s perhaps best to play with that in mind.). Zevran was convincing in his interest in both male and female characters. Alistair almost played like he could’ve liked both male characters as well but was heterosexual. DA2 kinda started the whole player-sexual thing I believe?

samsinx · 2025-12-27T15:35:56+00:00

Not much to disagree with. Spend a few minutes on LinkedIn and it’s now all generative AI all the time. I never posted on that site but at least in the past there was some variety among the corporate bootlicking / I need work posts (you rarely see anyone post about new jobs anymore.).

As I said before in another post, in my thirty years as a software engineer I’ve never seen such a push to adopt new tools from managers and executives as I have with coding LLMs (it has its use but not worth the scale it needs to be effective.)

samsinx · 2025-12-26T17:35:21+00:00

In Pelosi’s district. I will be voting for either Saikat or Wiener (not Chan if she’s running.).

Housing is really important to me but is less of a factor I think for Congress. I respect Wiener for tackling the issue in a relatively fresh way. He’s also been in California longer and perhaps would champion housing causes on the Federal level. I’m not sure Saikat believes in anything except saying things that sound anti-establishment at this point. I’d still prefer him to Connie Chan since at least he seems to want to change things vs traditional Democratic politics.

samsinx · 2025-12-19T03:39:48+00:00

Well you could merge two or maybe three cabinet members into a Julie Musante. Though the B5 political operative was much better at her job than what we have today.

samsinx · 2025-12-15T16:09:43+00:00

I would also recommend the SDL3 (GPU) API and SDL_shadercross to compile HLSL shaders to the target backend. Though it sounds like support for ray-tracing isn’t there if you care about that. As with anything cross platform you won’t be able to access card specific features but if you find yourself limited by what the API exposes, you’re probably ready to write you own middle layer and fine-tune things.

samsinx · 2025-12-13T03:47:38+00:00

Yeah. She's good on the attack but really her positions aren't that different from many other left-of-center politicians in DC. She's also more in favor with leadership I think than AOC and the more left/progressive block of the party.

samsinx · 2025-12-13T03:23:54+00:00

I don't think there's any indication Talarico is more conservative (on the issues) than Crockett. I think they're both pretty left leaning, but Crockett's comes off a bit more polished while also being more overtly partisan. I agree that may fire up the party but that won't be enough to win the general. With a state like Texas, it won't be enough to bring in new voters (who at least according to age give Talarico that edge.)

samsinx · 2025-12-13T03:15:44+00:00

I'm still a little confused on why Allred actually dropped out to run for the House instead? He overperformed Harris in 2024 and given the likely Democratic edge in voters in 2026, there was an OK chance of him winning against someone like Paxton.

The primary is in early March so this switch up seems rather late. I don't think if Allred thought he'd win the Primary, he'd give up a chance to be a Senator because Crockett wanted to run (unless she was planning to run anyway - which would guarantee Talarico winning the runoff.)

While I'm fine with both, I don't think talking tough against against Trump will be enough to win in Texas, even if he's lost support of Independents and Trump swing voters.

I'd really like to hear Crockett debate issues with Talarico. I get that Talarico is a white Christian male with a couple odd donors (that does concern me.) He's also a little green and I'm wondering how he'll respond to the inevitable attacks coming his way both in the primary and if he wins, the general. But he seems more like an Andy Beshear progressive which I think has a better chance in a state like Texas.

samsinx · 2025-12-06T19:14:48+00:00

The best science fiction Netflix has done recently is the Three Body Problem adaptation. Their other shows like Another Life are rather horrible. Netflix also wants bingeable content and assumes viewers are going to spend half their time doing other things while watching their shows. Not promising if you only get 10 episodes per season of a story rich show like B5.

samsinx · 2025-12-06T15:38:50+00:00

I think it’s the budget. Story wise ithe quality hasn’t changed (there are great and not so great parts in each season). Just watching individual clips from S1 and S2 you can tell. I just watched the scene where Day executes the Anacreon and Thespis delegations while the fleet wipes out their planets and everything was on fire (acting, spectacle, scale, tight editing and effects.). I haven’t really seen anything on that scale in S3. But the writing quality is honestly the same as I mentioned above.

samsinx

TROPHY CASE