@octaviuz.bsky.social
Places and facts. Mad about maps and the lines that connect and divide.
Fascinated by the riddle of electoral system change.
Fascinated by the riddle of electoral system change.
Pinned
I sure hope the next time there's an election the Democrats' messaging is less "America needs a strong Republican Party" and more "these corrupt idiots have driven the country off a cliff every single time they've gotten power in living memory."
Everybody gets mad over this point but our current system where one party is kinda meh and the other is made up of monsters who've crawled out of the pit and draped themselves in human skin cannot work as a democracy.
In a free society, voters cannot be prohibited from changing their minds.
In a free society, voters cannot be prohibited from changing their minds.
Reposted
The entire world would be united in saying the US engineered the Nobel going to Machado, if they hadn’t been visibly trying to get it for the president
January 3, 2026 at 11:18 AM
The entire world would be united in saying the US engineered the Nobel going to Machado, if they hadn’t been visibly trying to get it for the president
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The split-screen here is unbelievable - first from yesterday, the others from 2017. Musk’s Twitter has truly driven us mad. People absorb far more of their beliefs from their social environment than they realize, and we’ve created an environment where being a gutter bigot is the baseline expectation
January 2, 2026 at 7:21 PM
The split-screen here is unbelievable - first from yesterday, the others from 2017. Musk’s Twitter has truly driven us mad. People absorb far more of their beliefs from their social environment than they realize, and we’ve created an environment where being a gutter bigot is the baseline expectation
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If your service isn't reliably as fast or faster than driving, you're DOA in auto-dependent North America. There are exceptions to every rule, but transit planning would have had a far better last 30 years with that principle at its core.
The Finch LRT will hopefully force Toronto to reckon with two things: that street based transit will *almost* never compete with driving (especially in the burbs) and that people really care about speed. My new piece in the Toronto Star highlights that and makes the case for subways and railways.
To fix transit in Toronto, we need to embrace a simple idea: subways subways subways.
Rob Ford's maligned motto contained a nugget of truth.
www.thestar.com
January 2, 2026 at 6:07 PM
If your service isn't reliably as fast or faster than driving, you're DOA in auto-dependent North America. There are exceptions to every rule, but transit planning would have had a far better last 30 years with that principle at its core.
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Filipinos make up 4% of US registered nurses, double their population share. Now many live in fear of ICE at work. As one physical therapist put it: 'This is my place of work. I should feel safe.' Excellent @guardian reporting on essential workers under threat.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Many Filipino healthcare workers in the US live in fear of ICE: ‘This is my place of work. I should feel safe’
Filipinos make up a large percentage of the healthcare workforce, which includes undocumented people
www.theguardian.com
December 29, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Filipinos make up 4% of US registered nurses, double their population share. Now many live in fear of ICE at work. As one physical therapist put it: 'This is my place of work. I should feel safe.' Excellent @guardian reporting on essential workers under threat.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
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The best response (still incomplete, eventually you have to get to faith) to the question of divine permission for suffering is that even the divine is not exempt, God suffers for and with us.
When my dad was dying the main consolation my faith offered was that God had gone through the same thing he was, which meant somehow God was present. I thought about a Grunwald crucifixion painting a lot when he was dying. This one.
www.nga.gov/artworks/461...
www.nga.gov/artworks/461...
The Small Crucifixion by Matthias Grünewald
Matthias Grünewald's The Small Crucifixion is a masterful example of the artist's ability to translate his deep spiritual faith into pictorial form. Each individual, according to Grünewald, must reexp...
www.nga.gov
December 25, 2025 at 10:44 PM
The best response (still incomplete, eventually you have to get to faith) to the question of divine permission for suffering is that even the divine is not exempt, God suffers for and with us.
Reposted
Congress could mandate that states use proportional representation, with parties getting a number of seats proportional to their share of the vote. Advocates are already pushing for some states to experiment with this reform.
The Escalating Race to Redistrict: Your Questions Answered
How are the new maps changing the midterms? Would proportional representation help? Why are courts not doing more? You asked, and we’ve got answers about mid-decade redistricting.
boltsmag.org
December 24, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Congress could mandate that states use proportional representation, with parties getting a number of seats proportional to their share of the vote. Advocates are already pushing for some states to experiment with this reform.
This wasn't all that unusual, we joke about the Judean People’s Front but fascists hate each other. Hitler and Mussolini almost went to war over Austria, Horthy and Arrow Cross didn't get along and the behavior of the Ustashe sometimes dismayed Nazis.
Fascists are unpleasant, even to their allies.
Fascists are unpleasant, even to their allies.
Hitler had to tell Ion Antonescu that Antonescu was too antisemitic. This is similar
December 23, 2025 at 1:21 AM
This wasn't all that unusual, we joke about the Judean People’s Front but fascists hate each other. Hitler and Mussolini almost went to war over Austria, Horthy and Arrow Cross didn't get along and the behavior of the Ustashe sometimes dismayed Nazis.
Fascists are unpleasant, even to their allies.
Fascists are unpleasant, even to their allies.
The elder Daley had a line about how he'd have even more (five?) guys on Chicago garbage trucks if he could fit them in.
His goal was not to maximize solid waste management efficiency and Samuelsen's goal is employment not an ideal public transit system.
His goal was not to maximize solid waste management efficiency and Samuelsen's goal is employment not an ideal public transit system.
December 21, 2025 at 4:06 PM
The elder Daley had a line about how he'd have even more (five?) guys on Chicago garbage trucks if he could fit them in.
His goal was not to maximize solid waste management efficiency and Samuelsen's goal is employment not an ideal public transit system.
His goal was not to maximize solid waste management efficiency and Samuelsen's goal is employment not an ideal public transit system.
As a crank, I'm also going to relate the problem to my hobbyhorse.
People change their minds, the decided they didn't care for the Biden administration. You can't make the two only options, "mildly disappointing" and "apocalyptically dangerous". That's a key reason why more options are indispensable
People change their minds, the decided they didn't care for the Biden administration. You can't make the two only options, "mildly disappointing" and "apocalyptically dangerous". That's a key reason why more options are indispensable
It has to be put down to an astonishing lack of intellectual effort.
Yes there were/are/will be people fully into MAGA and its horribleness. But I suspect they’re not *that* large a %.
The median Trump 2024 voter was just vaguely pissed off at prices and couldn’t be bothered to think it through.
Yes there were/are/will be people fully into MAGA and its horribleness. But I suspect they’re not *that* large a %.
The median Trump 2024 voter was just vaguely pissed off at prices and couldn’t be bothered to think it through.
January 6 was like a much dumber version of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch and yet a plurality of American voters were like, Yeah, let’s give that guy the nuke codes again. An absolutely world historical debacle of societal ignorance. I’ll never understand it.
December 18, 2025 at 5:20 PM
As a crank, I'm also going to relate the problem to my hobbyhorse.
People change their minds, the decided they didn't care for the Biden administration. You can't make the two only options, "mildly disappointing" and "apocalyptically dangerous". That's a key reason why more options are indispensable
People change their minds, the decided they didn't care for the Biden administration. You can't make the two only options, "mildly disappointing" and "apocalyptically dangerous". That's a key reason why more options are indispensable
Reposted
"House Democrats on Thursday voted to return Rep. Henry Cuellar to his leadership role on the House Appropriations Committee following his presidential pardon on federal corruption charges."
JICYMI - Shameful, repulsive move by House Democrats and their leaders. Disgraceful.
JICYMI - Shameful, repulsive move by House Democrats and their leaders. Disgraceful.
Democrats Return Henry Cuellar to Powerful Spending Post After Trump Pardon
“We got ratified,” Cuellar told reporters after the vote.
www.notus.org
December 12, 2025 at 10:19 PM
"House Democrats on Thursday voted to return Rep. Henry Cuellar to his leadership role on the House Appropriations Committee following his presidential pardon on federal corruption charges."
JICYMI - Shameful, repulsive move by House Democrats and their leaders. Disgraceful.
JICYMI - Shameful, repulsive move by House Democrats and their leaders. Disgraceful.
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Important thread here. Congress is Article I for a reason. When it makes carefully considered judgments about how to structure the government—creating independent agencies—presidents sign them, and the Court then blows them up, we get government by Fed Soc judge policy preferences, not by Congress.
5/ In other words, I see very little reason to think that the Court would *allow* Congress to solve significant national problems—at least, when those solutions took a form the majority of justices disliked. And conversely …
December 10, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Important thread here. Congress is Article I for a reason. When it makes carefully considered judgments about how to structure the government—creating independent agencies—presidents sign them, and the Court then blows them up, we get government by Fed Soc judge policy preferences, not by Congress.
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Prison rape is wrong.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
BREAKING: Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans & intersex people, memo says. A DOJ memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) do not align with Trump’s Jan. 20 anti-trans executive order, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports.
Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans and intersex people
A Department of Justice memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act do not align with Trump’s executive order
prismreports.org
December 5, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Prison rape is wrong.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
In irrelevant news...
The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy.
www.chosun.com/english/nati...
www.chosun.com/english/nati...
National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders
National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders Honored for rejecting illegal orders during martial law, Marine death probe
www.chosun.com
December 4, 2025 at 7:20 AM
In irrelevant news...
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My (I suspect unpopular) opinion is that the problem is not the pardon power of presidents, but rather the inadequacy of criminal legal system to provide justice.
wrote about the problem of the pardon power (gift link)
Opinion | Guess Which Presidential Power Trump Likes the Most
www.nytimes.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:11 PM
My (I suspect unpopular) opinion is that the problem is not the pardon power of presidents, but rather the inadequacy of criminal legal system to provide justice.
This is just that "the bombing will commence in 10 minutes" or whatever joke by Reagan. POTUS can't just say stuff. The office makes statements consequential, no matter how inconsequential the occupant might be.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that people shouldn’t read much into a social media post where he said Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed
Trump Downplays Venezuelan Airspace Threat as US Mulls New Steps
President Donald Trump said Sunday that people shouldn’t read much into a social media post where he said Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed.
bloom.bg
November 30, 2025 at 11:39 PM
This is just that "the bombing will commence in 10 minutes" or whatever joke by Reagan. POTUS can't just say stuff. The office makes statements consequential, no matter how inconsequential the occupant might be.
Reposted
Former US military lawyers speak out:
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
November 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Former US military lawyers speak out:
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
I understand neither the tactics nor the strategy.
In October, Trump’s education department asked nine universities to sign a compact to save higher education in the United States. Oakwood University wasn’t on the list, but its president volunteered anyway.
religionnews.com/2025/11/24/a...
religionnews.com/2025/11/24/a...
A Seventh-day Adventist HBCU wants to sign Trump’s compact to reform colleges
(RNS) — The president of Oakwood University, a faith-based HBCU, said the school wants to sign on to the Trump administration's Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education — if the DOE makes…
religionnews.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
I understand neither the tactics nor the strategy.
Succession rules let Hoover be an elder statesman for 40 years instead of having his palace burned down on his head. That's a really good thing, and not just for him.
November 23, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Succession rules let Hoover be an elder statesman for 40 years instead of having his palace burned down on his head. That's a really good thing, and not just for him.
I suspect that the problem is much worse in the US. It seems to me that far too many pro-tax folks here have adopted the anti-tax framing of taxes as punishment, which leads to promises to only raise taxes on the wealthy. We need more @jmedlock.bsky.social thought. Taxes are good.
November 20, 2025 at 10:57 AM
I suspect that the problem is much worse in the US. It seems to me that far too many pro-tax folks here have adopted the anti-tax framing of taxes as punishment, which leads to promises to only raise taxes on the wealthy. We need more @jmedlock.bsky.social thought. Taxes are good.
Reposted
(IMO this also means nonhuman animals)
November 20, 2025 at 8:30 AM
(IMO this also means nonhuman animals)
Reposted
An idea that somehow never really comes up in any political theory literature is that, if someone is, in fact, incapable of participating in the business of self-government as an equal (say because they're eight years old), what that means is the rest of us owe them a very strong fiduciary duty
the thing which gives the game away on scientific racism is that if we discovered an island where everyone was gravely intellectually disabled and some guy said, "great, let's make them our slaves," we would beat him to death with hammers but if you say that about actual people it's taken seriously
November 20, 2025 at 8:26 AM
An idea that somehow never really comes up in any political theory literature is that, if someone is, in fact, incapable of participating in the business of self-government as an equal (say because they're eight years old), what that means is the rest of us owe them a very strong fiduciary duty
There's a lot of publicly displayed stupidity in the MAGA faction, sarcasm is an excellent tool for uncovering it on this side of the political divide.
Guys I think will actually used sarcasm here
This is true! Other than the vague claim he was “dirty,” Epstein did not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing.
He merely said Trump knew about the hundreds of underage women that Epstein was sexually exploiting and abusing, and maintained a close personal relationship with Epstein anyway. Nothing BAD
He merely said Trump knew about the hundreds of underage women that Epstein was sexually exploiting and abusing, and maintained a close personal relationship with Epstein anyway. Nothing BAD
November 17, 2025 at 8:00 PM
There's a lot of publicly displayed stupidity in the MAGA faction, sarcasm is an excellent tool for uncovering it on this side of the political divide.
Most favored shipyard
my cursed thought
modify the Jones Act to apply to our NATO allies and major non-NATO allies (Japan, SK, etc)
modify the Jones Act to apply to our NATO allies and major non-NATO allies (Japan, SK, etc)
November 6, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Most favored shipyard
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The Biden administration worked hard to accomplish this new free IRS filing system. It’s astounding that one should have to pay fees in order to pay their taxes. But this rent seeking is entirely consistent with the economic policies of the current administration that benefit the most wealthy.
👀 Scoop: IRS Direct File, the free government-backed program that let you file your taxes for free, is dead.
IRS wrote to state tax agencies saying it would not be operational this coming tax season, per records I've obtained.
IRS Direct File: 2023-2025.
(Story from when the pilot launched.)
IRS wrote to state tax agencies saying it would not be operational this coming tax season, per records I've obtained.
IRS Direct File: 2023-2025.
(Story from when the pilot launched.)
IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax-prep giants
The tax agency has quietly built its own prototype system for filing tax returns digitally and free of charge, according to current and former officials.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:50 PM
The Biden administration worked hard to accomplish this new free IRS filing system. It’s astounding that one should have to pay fees in order to pay their taxes. But this rent seeking is entirely consistent with the economic policies of the current administration that benefit the most wealthy.