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Reposted by Stuart98

Kurtbert Barlowko @albertburneko.bsky.social · 3d

when the people who shuttered USAID learn of a diabetic single mother and her disabled son starving to death 9,000 miles away because of aid cuts, they don't see failure or dereliction or tragedy, but rather success: the people they view as unworthy of life are dying

She has no real way of explaining the danger of their situation to her son, who is 17 years old but cognitively closer to a toddler. And as a single mother too weak to forage, she has no real way of ensuring their survival. She also is too old to benefit from a recent policy change the Thai government made in a bid to prevent mass starvation, granting work rights to some of the 107,000 Myanmar refugees who, like her, live in Thailand’s border camps.

Her son never learned to speak, and needs her help with everything from getting dressed to using the toilet. Since the funding cuts, their survival has hinged on the charity of her Christian church, whose members occasionally give her handfuls of their rice.

She suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, and begins to sweat and grow dizzy when her hunger is at its fiercest. Some days, she eats nothing.

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Reposted by Stuart98

Bryan Schott @schotthappens.com · 5d

Listening to Utah GOP lawmakers scold us while claiming they avoided partisan data to draw new congressional maps is rich.

Somehow, we are to believe they were unaware of an effort FROM THEIR OWN PARTY to support the map that gave them the biggest electoral edge.

Guess which map they passed. 🤔

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 7d

VOD: youtube.com/live/njickRV...

Map 1 (non-partisan map around communities of interest): davesredistricting.org/join/f9d77d2...
Map 2 (Democratic gerrymander): davesredistricting.org/join/bf175a5...
Map 3 (Republican gerrymander): davesredistricting.org/join/fc29958...

Busting Brady Brammer's Bogus Bill

YouTube video by Stuart98 (ストゥアート98)

youtube.com

Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 7d

Finished my stream drawing maps and testing them against Brady Brammer's Bogus Bill. The first of these 3 maps, drawn without regard for partisan data, fails Brammer's tests. The following 2 maps, drawn to intentionally favor specific parties, pass them. VOD and map links below:

Map drawn without regard for partisan data while splitting zero cities. District 1 consists of Davis County (minus North Salt Lake) and counties north of it and the northern and eastern parts of Summit County. District 2 consists of the northern half of Salt Lake County, and North Salt Lake. District 3 consists of Wasatch County, the remaining parts of Summit and Salt Lake Counties, and Provo and its immediate suburbs. District 4 consists of the rest of the state.

A map gerrymandered to favor democrats. District 2 is a double digit democratic district by presidential data and consists of a Salt Lake City South Salt Lake, Millcreek, Murray, Holladay, Midvale, most of Davis County excluding Syracuse and Clinton, as well as Ogden, South Ogden, and Washington Terrace. District 3 is tossup district consisting of most of the rest of Salt Lake County excluding the southwest corner, as well as the Park City area and Provo. Districts 1 and 4 are both solidly Republican districts comprising the rest of the state.

A Republican gerrymander colored by 2024 senate data. District 2 (consisting of Salt Lake, Millcreek, Murray, Taylorsville, Magna, and a string of counties going all the way down to St. George, is the only district that wasn't R+20 or more by this data, being R+15. The rest of Salt Lake County is in a district 4 which also contains Eagle Mountain and a sliver of rural areas in the south of Utah County. District 1 consists of Davis county and counties north of it, except Morgan, while District 3 contains all of eastern Utah as well as Provo and Lehi and their immediate vicinities.

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 7d

In a few hours, I'll be going live demonstrating the flaws in Brady Brammer's bill (SB1011) by drawing maps from scratch on the fly and testing them against his criteria. Should be a fun and educational experience, hope to see y'all there! www.youtube.com/watch?v=njic...

Busting Brady Brammer's Bogus Bill

YouTube video by Stuart98 (ストゥアート98)

www.youtube.com

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 7d

This bill's test passes the vast majority of gerrymanders (including the current one) and fails most fair maps. It is quite literally worse than having no test at all.

Ben Winslow @benwinslow.bsky.social · 7d

BREAKING NEWS: Sen. Brammer announces he will MODIFY his bill on redistricting criteria, moving away from a single test. Here’s what changes. #utpol #Utah

Key Provisions of the S.B. 1011 Redistricting Standards:
The Three Statistical Methods
● Partisan Bias Test
○ Pass/fail: 0 for the current map with four seats. +/-1 and +/-2 fail.
○ The test played a key role in the U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision Gill v.
Whitford (2017). Similar analyses have been used to invalidate manipulated maps
in states such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
● Ensemble Analysis
○ Pass/fail: Must be within the acceptable bounds of 2.5% and 97.5% with no
outliers.
○ Detects purposeful favoring or disfavoring of any party.
○ Democrat-proposed test.
● Mean-Median Difference Test
○ Pass/fail: No deviation above 2% between the mean and the median.
○ Provides another method, in addition to the partisan bias test, to measure undue
favoring or disfavoring of any party.
○ Democrat-proposed test.
The Legislature will consider the bill during the special session on Monday, October 6, 2025.

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 12d

Meanwhile all of Oregon, South Carolina, New Mexico, Illinois, Florida, Iowa, Tennessee, and Oklahoma are blatantly missing despite being some of the most gerrymandered states in the country.

Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 12d

What a bizarre list. Pennsylvania has a completely fair map, West Virginia literally can't be gerrymandered (no matter how you draw it you get two safe R seats), Louisiana's map is weird but gets the same 4-2 split a fair map would, Maryland and Kentucky are only mild gerrymanders.

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 12d

Sorting by attachments also works, though that also pulls up an old version of one of mine due to legislative staff (I assume?) screwing up.

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 14d

And that's just in the races where running an indy didn't split the vote. We might have an extra seat in the state senate if one fewer candidate ran in SD8!

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Reposted by Stuart98

Utah News Dispatch @utahnewsdispatch.com · 16d

The second day of Utah’s court-ordered redistricting process saw plenty of fireworks, with Democrats and Republicans fighting over their dueling experts.

Meanwhile, Utahns like Stuart Hepworth have submitted dozens of other maps that they urged lawmakers to consider instead. #utpol

As lawmakers fight over dueling redistricting experts, Utahns ask: Why not one of our maps? • Utah News Dispatch

As Utah lawmakers fight over dueling redistricting experts, Utahns ask why they don't just pick one of their congressional maps.

utahnewsdispatch.com

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Reposted by Stuart98

Bryan Schott @schotthappens.com · 17d

It's decision day for the redrawing of Utah's congressional maps.

Five maps have already been proposed by Utah's GOP majority.

Two more last-minute proposals could shake up the process ahead of today's vote.

🔗 Full breakdown at the link.

www.utahpoliticalwatch.news/decision-day...

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 19d

nooo you misspelled my name😭

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 19d

Never gonna stop fighting that fight!

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Reposted by Stuart98

Dave Lee @davelee.me · 22d

Dutch late night TV has its take

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 22d

Yeah have to imagine that's what's going on (from both sides)

Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 22d

Hilarious how the New York Post is more distrusted by Republicans than by Democrats.

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 22d

Only problem is the legislature hasn't been advertising that their map submission portal is up and running again.

Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 22d

Seems they consider public participation via submitting maps to the legislature's website prior to the legislature passing their map to be sufficient, and then the onus would be on the plaintiffs to submit one of those public maps to the court if they approve of it.

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 23d

Please Mr. Jacobs, don't threaten us with a good time!

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 23d

/20 In closing, this is the result that the Right, the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, and their crew have successfully fought for: a system where the federal government can deliberately violate your rights and there is no effective remedy - meaning you don’t really have the right.

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Reposted by Stuart98

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 24d

The Free Speech President has now pulled two of the three major late night hosts off the air through threats and intimidation because of their jokes. Obviously I’m behind Jimmy Kimmel 100% in the face of this fascist garbage. Speech against this admin isn’t just being chilled, they’re freezing it.

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 23d

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say.

This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand.

All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

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Reposted by Stuart98

Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 24d

“A democratic society needs people in Ezra Klein’s position to treat Charlie Kirk’s anti-democracy stances as disqualifying, rather than pretend they’re just another policy opinion…”

@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social w/an excellent critique of Kirk hagiography

www.arcdigital.media/p/ezra-klein...

Ezra Klein Accidentally Shows How the Media Brought Us Trump

The prominent liberal pundit made up a fake version of Charlie Kirk to praise, laundering his reputation the way a lot of mainstream media launders MAGA

www.arcdigital.media

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Stuart98 @stuart98.bsky.social · 24d

Okay it's up now www.utahforwardparty.org/fairmapdebate

Fair Map Debate

60% of Americans say they want a third party. We're building it.

www.utahforwardparty.org

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