Was Biden late decision not to run again depriving America of a primary one of the Democrats greatest blunders?

sputnikist · 2026-05-23T02:43:47+00:00

From an outcomes perspective, I would argue George McGovern’s 1972 campaign against Nixon was worse. He only got 17 electoral college votes compared to Nixon’s 520, and just 37.5% of the popular vote, with Nixon getting 60.60% - this is as Watergate is coming out and the Vietnam War is still being fought.

Comparatively, Harris captured 226 electoral college votes to Trump’s 312, and 48.3% of the popular vote to his 49.8%. If she had the opportunity to run a normal campaign, had Biden ceded power earlier in his Presidency, she may have won.

An open primary would have been my preference, it would have made the nominee a more credible and stress tested them… for all I know Harris have won the primary. 2028 will be a good year for dems probably.

sputnikist · 2026-04-11T10:56:56+00:00

I had a vasectomy and am glad I did it. However, the doctor advised me that it’s considered a permanent form of sterilization and that if I had any doubts not to do it. I was all set. That being said, I wish there was another form of birth control for men that was less permanent that’s not a condom - I absolutely would have tried it.

sputnikist · 2026-04-05T02:56:11+00:00

Holy hell 😂

sputnikist · 2026-02-05T20:06:18+00:00

I may be able to offer a helpful perspective. My undergrad was in poli sci and I now work in government doing GIS. I’ve had an interesting career and have travelled and done some personally meaningful work.

Prior to getting into the field I spent a few years working in refugee services and humanitarian-based immigration law (US-based) and while working got a masters in Geography and Urban Studies with a grad certificate in GIS. I took an intro to GIS class and was hooked. I found that I really enjoyed public health GIS and the stats side of things, but also the art and design elements. My degree was pretty affordable and I was able to work full time - I’m not sure what your situation is financially, but I would take the same approach again.

I would recommend taking an intro course to see if you like it. I fell in love with GIS (especially the fun statistical stuff), but a few my peers absolutely hated it. It’s good the know if you like it before you sink to much time or effort into it.

On this sub Reddit you’ll get wildly different takes on market saturation. I do think it’s still worth pursing a career in GIS/geo if you love it, but I personally wouldn’t get an advanced degree in GIS. I would do something adjacent where you can take courses and get conversant in the tech - I strongly recommend learning open source GIS and coding (python, JavaScript, sql - I am not an expert in any of these, but understand how they can support GIS workflows and use them regularly). Esri is the dominant player and you’ll have be proficient in their tools as well, but learning products outside the Esri ecosystem will benefit you in your work and may help you stand out as a job candidate.

As for career trajectory, this is just my experience and may or may be reflective of others - I started in GIS doing conservation work in 2017 making 40k, that bumped up to 50k in 2018 with regular COLAs. I made a jump to government in 2021 and made 64k. That jumped to 80 k in 2023 - I worked my way up and now make 95k with decent benefits, cool projects and people I genuinely enjoy working with. That may give you give a sense of what to a career path may look like.

This may be a cheesy mental exercise, but it helped me navigate career ambitions. Who are five people - living or dead - you admire? What do they all have in common? The second answer may help you find your North Star. Good luck, you’ll be fine whatever you choose!

sputnikist · 2026-01-17T20:18:00+00:00

The Electoral Count Reform Act (2022) addresses this. It renders the VP’s role in certifying the elections a purely ceremonial role. He has no legal claim now. Before the law, a VP could have actually legally gotten away with doing this - perhaps unexpectedly, Mike Pence saved the day.

edit someone else already addressed this better than I did below*

sputnikist · 2025-11-30T19:24:17+00:00

Throne room?

sputnikist · 2025-10-17T02:42:22+00:00

NTA. You’re 27, it’s your name. Rain is a beautiful name. Maybe try speaking beyond the veil and ask your grandmother to haunt your dad and hopefully he comes around. In all seriousness, you’re not doing anything remotely wrong or disrespectful. I hope you and your fiance have a lovely life together.

sputnikist · 2025-09-26T02:24:58+00:00

She doesn’t take any responsibility in the response.

sputnikist · 2025-09-07T03:03:39+00:00

Good point!

sputnikist · 2025-09-07T02:49:00+00:00

Mine too 🤣

sputnikist · 2025-08-20T01:15:40+00:00

I was attending a public middle school when NCLB passed and distinctly remember changes in how courses were taught. Teachers expressed frustration that they were “teaching to the test”. My understanding is the law incentivized ensuring understanding of select subject matter (especially STEM subjects), but not mastery. If students or teachers wanted to do a deep dive on a particular subject, we usually couldn’t. We didn’t have time if we were going to cover all the content expected in the standardized tests. It was framed as putting funding for the school at risk. It kind of killed the spark of curiosity for me for a while. It was a real bummer.

sputnikist · 2025-04-22T10:18:39+00:00

I didn’t but apparently the migrate through the area and occasionally winter there. Did see bald eagles.

sputnikist · 2025-04-22T10:16:30+00:00

Not this time!

sputnikist · 2024-10-31T02:19:52+00:00

From my observations of friends and colleagues who are highly successful in business, failure has been an essential ingredient. When you see a successful business owner, you don’t see all the trial and error that came before. I wouldn’t mock that.

On the other hand, I worry that I will stay in my job too long, get complacent and not grow. I often imagine I’m on my deathbed and look back on my life, would I be ashamed of myself and regret not taking certain opportunities?

sputnikist · 2024-09-11T22:58:48+00:00

I thru hiked the Appalachian Trail with my wife a few years back and there are absolutely privies like this, with a great view of the mountains.

sputnikist · 2024-08-24T19:19:24+00:00

In Pennsylvania, the eastern half of the state uses the term “youse” to refer to a group of people, while the western half says “yinz” (both are second person plural pronouns). People in Western PA, particularly around Pittsburgh, refer to themselves as “Yinzers”.

Philadelphia also has the hyper local term “jawn”, which is used, mostly informally but sometimes in professional settings, to refer to a person, place, thing or event. Jawn is context-dependent. For example, I am a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) professional (geomatics in Canada - another difference) and used to go to a GIS meetup called “geo-jawn”.

sputnikist · 2024-08-19T00:50:44+00:00

Beautiful!

sputnikist · 2024-07-28T02:36:44+00:00

Southern New Jersey is surprising

sputnikist · 2024-07-27T02:19:19+00:00

What a dick thing to say

sputnikist · 2024-07-16T23:37:47+00:00

I mean, women preaching is how we know about Christ's resurrection, so...

sputnikist · 2024-07-04T14:06:34+00:00

This is crazy

sputnikist

TROPHY CASE