I thought CAT was the dumbest on here.

Tony_elTigre® · 2025-07-30T21:50:24.574Z

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/30/nx-s1-5485293/texas-redistricting-proposed-congressional-map This pretty messed up, but if they follow through with this, every” Blue state” should do the same

quozzel

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Re: Redistricting

Jul 31, 2025, 8:54 AM

Here's the problem, Keowee.

When the representatives are allowed to choose their voters, rather than the other way around, that isn't any kind of democracy...even a "democratic republic". It's a sham, the formalities of a democratic system wrapped in oligarchic capture.

At some point it occurs to everybody we're having the same empty elections with the same inadequate candidates fighting over the same six "battlefield" states and really only about the same 20-30 representative districts again and again and again, and that we don't have any kind of choice and are being governed by laws we don't agree with and had no hand in creating. And the system loses its legitimacy.

Ultimately all systems are governed by the consent of the governed. And it increasingly does not have my consent. More and more, I'm finding myself unwilling to be governed by people like Donald Trump and the kind of inept, mean-spirited, wholly unfit yes-men loyalists he appoints, who barely even pretend to adhere to the rule of law while they stuff their own pockets.

There's a whole lot of people starting to agree with me. The system is broken...and people like you have no interest in fixing it. Quite the contrary, you intend to break it worse, and because you've gamed the system, there's no legal recourse to fix anything.

So what's the point? Increasingly, since the rule of law means nothing to you but you expect me to adhere to the law even as you break it at whim, if I'm in charge, I myself am going to just ignore and fail to enforce the laws I don't like. And then I'm going to get together with a bunch of other states with the same issues, and we're going to work interstate compacts and basically do things our way while passing lip-service fealty to 'Murrica while really running our own show, sort of how the English do with their own monarchy. (I mean, England still has a king, his power just got stripped away by degrees until his one job is to attend white-glove functions.) And since the institutions that once governed us have been broken or perverted - I mean, we basically have the Toxic Avenger running the EPA now - we're just going to privatize necessary functions and patch in alternate financial systems. Like, say, crypto stablecoins tied to the dollar, that effectively robs Congress of its "power of the purse" and allows crypto companies to set their own financial policy. Which isn't ideal, but it does duck central control and is a $^%& of a lot better than hoping for fairness or competence from Congress.

Just how it goes. Competent people demand competence leadership and governance, and if it isn't being provided, they find alternate leadership. "Revolution" is so Last Century, too. These days we do it with the so-called "network effect", like-minded people building power structures and systems not constrained by geography. People don't even have to revolt, these days, enough of them just have to opt out.

And it's already happening. In fact, Congress seemingly is eager to give its power away - there was bipartisan support for the GENIUS act, for cryin' out loud - and at some point in the very near future, employers will switch over to crypto...and taxes will stop reaching Washington by steady degrees. And that will pretty much be that for gerrymandering and stacking the Supreme Court and DOGE and all the other machinations the GOP (and more than a few Dem politicos who are just fine with the present system because gerrymandering puts them in "safe" districts and they're free to go through the motions of complaining while grifting and benefitting from the same broken system) has destroyed the current system with. And have fun. Blue states control 71% of the wealth in the nation and most of the ports and almost all the technology, and as battery tech, nuclear, and vertical farming mature, they won't even need the red states for food and energy anymore.

And that will be that. America will still exist, at least on paper, but the actual power structures will have been redefined...and will in actuality still reside in boardrooms and financial institutions, just somewhat different ones than have presently captured and gamed the system. And the world will keep on keeping on, increasingly not even noticing folks like MAGA even exist.

That's how actual power works, Keowee. It's about function, not arbitrary laws that corrupt populists like Donald Trump and MAGA don't even pretend to honor anymore unless it's convenient for them.

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Not how it really works anymore in so-called "civilized" nations. The problem with regulatory and legislative capture is - especially if you're a legacy interest like, say, Big Oil - the captured system will then be owned by whatever moneyed interest moves faster and breaks even more stuff. And that's what Silicon Valley specializes in.

The PayPal Mafia's in the final stages of power consolidation as we speak. Palantir networks and will eventually supplant government agencies and intelligence services. Crypto will displace Congress's power of the purse and Washington's ability to tax. Big Oil and legacy utilities are about to be bumped off their pedestal in truly dramatic fashion by nuclear - people have no idea what's coming (or how soon it's coming) in terms of gridless SMR's that allow for local energy independence. Legacy defense industries are being displaced by drones...and Anduril has the very best ones, networked via the so-called "Lattice" system that also ties into Palantir's database and predictive AI's. Sort of the Silicon Valley circle of life.

That looks a whole lot like an independent governance stack that doesn't particularly need Washington for much of anything.

And MAGA dipsh!ts still think their AR-15 makes them powerful. Precious.

Redistricting

Ummmmm. They already have.***

Re: Ummmmm. They already have.******

California has not.***

Oh, their district lines are from Pangea?***

Theyre done by an independent commission.

Nope that goes to you.

Re: Nope that goes to you.

Please tell me you arent this dumb.

Californias population is overwhelmingly Democrat.

Re: Redistricting

Re: Redistricting

It's really convenient the other sides always does what you guys are doing***

Re: Redistricting

Re: Redistricting

He just told you pretty clearly that nobody is seceding and certainly won't be

Re: He just told you pretty clearly that nobody is seceding and certainly won't be

That's a hell of a Utopia you have conjured up for yourself.

Re: That's a hell of a Utopia you have conjured up for yourself.

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