Here’s your deep thought for the day:
Food for the body. Food for the soul.
And if you share your bounty with others (both the food-food and the brain-food), you’ll enrich their lives too.
I came across the quote above on Bluesky. I was never very active on Twitter, but now that it’s solely a propaganda tool for a plutocrat, it was time to move onward and upward.
By the very nature of our two-party political system, half the country is happy and half (OK, 48%) is down in the dumps.
Worse yet, a lot of Americans don’t even get the warm and fuzzies over their “own” party.
Source of the charts above, and other depressing ones, is this 2021 article from fivethirtyeight.com.
The system is broken.
Our current system increasingly produces candidates who represent the extreme views of our electorate. The moderate majority – the backbone of our nation – finds itself unrepresented and increasingly disillusioned. If we continue down this path, we risk falling into an abyss of hyperbolic partisan turmoil from which we may struggle to recover.
Can we please ditch the two party system, truly “drain the swamp” of PAC/lobbyist influence, and introduce ranked-choice voting that rewards moderates vs. extremists?
The Nonpartisan Top Five Open Primary would standardize our primary election process. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, would appear on a single ballot, and all voters would have the opportunity to participate. This simple change would have profound effects. Voters would no longer be limited to candidates from a single party – if you like a Democratic candidate for one office and a Republican for another, you’d have that choice. The top five candidates from this primary would then move on to the general election.
This system would put an end to the systemic voter suppression that comes from requiring membership in a private organization (a political party) to participate in taxpayer-funded elections. It would return power to the voters in nominating candidates, decreasing the influence of party insiders while still allowing parties to endorse and promote candidates as they see fit.
Importantly, it would increase the diversity of candidates, giving voters more choice and a better chance of finding representatives who truly reflect their values.
The general election would then use Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). This system is simple and intuitive, much like the choices we make every day. Voters can choose to vote for just one candidate or rank as many as they like. This allows people to vote their conscience without fear of “wasting” their vote or inadvertently helping a candidate they oppose. No longer would we be forced to choose the “lesser of two evils” – we could support the candidates we truly believe in.
RCV ensures that the winning candidate has the widest possible support. It has also been shown to reduce negative campaigning, as candidates have an incentive to appeal to a broader base rather than just energizing their core supporters.
Perhaps most importantly, it promotes a more collaborative legislative process. When legislators know they can’t be easily “primaried” by more extreme candidates, they’re free to work across the aisle and find real solutions that benefit all Nevadans.
Both quotes above are from an op-ed piece by a self-described “conservative Republican lawyer” on ThisIsReno.com. (Emphasis in the 2nd quote is mine.) He was making the case for a state ballot issue called Question 3. It didn’t pass, sadly.
It shouldn’t be “us” vs. “them” but that’s where we are today. Even if you’re on the “winning” side, you’ll probably wind up with the short end of the stick, unless your name is Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.
You’ve probably heard a lot about two-party systems this election season — with most of that chatter being about our two-party political system’s failure to benefit everyday Americans while upholding the elite few. You’d probably even agree that ANY two-party system, given enough time, will always result in two powerful “sides” that squelch innovation, pick arbitrary winners and losers and reduce your choices. Two-party systems are good for the parties who operate them and bad for everyone else.
(from this Rolling Stone article that’s actually about credit card companies)
The parties are lame. It’s time to go someplace better.
It’s hard to imagine the U.S. as that country.. Especially with the news bubbles that create echo chambers. The promulgation of lies via social media. The name-calling that gets blood boiling. The downright demonization of certain members of society. The pure hatred for — and sometimes inciting violence toward — opponents and their supporters.
Be honest: at the top of the ticket, which candidate do you think better fits the bill of “calm” and “open towards each other”? Which has a better chance of uniting our United States? (It’s U.S. after all, not US vs. THEM). Which one might create calm instead of chaos, not just here, but across the world?
If you haven’t already, please vote!
The United Kingdom has a Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero… who knew? His name is Ed Miliband, and last month he gave the keynote speech at the annual Energy UK conference.
He referenced an energy “tri-lemma”:
Here’s the security part:
Granted, oil imports are a bigger deal for the UK than for the U.S.A. But do you really want to have to worry about what Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Russia are up to, and how that will affect oil prices here, when there are clean alternatives?
What about affordability? Here’s Ed again:
Clean renewables are cheaper. No need to “drill, baby, drill” when you can just build more solar arrays and wind turbines, and higher capacity batteries… cheaper, with much less impact to the climate.
And they’re not just cheaper and cleaner, they’re also safer.
[Article that accompanies the two charts above from OurWorldinData.org is here. ]
The faster we go, the better off our world will be. Ed knows that:
Let’s make every day a sun-day.
Tony Bennett has left the building.
Well, yes, that Tony has left, but I’m talking about the Tony Bennett who was the head coach for the men’s basketball team at the University of Virginia.
Coach Tony abruptly announced his retirement this past Friday, less than three weeks before a new season starts.
Why? Not because the game on the court has changed, but because the game off the court has changed.
“Nil” means nothing… but NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) means college athletes are cashing in, big time. Good for them… but bad for the sport. Tony knows that:
I think it’s right for players… student-athletes… to receive revenue. Please don’t mistake me, I do….
But the game, and college athletics, is not in a healthy spot. It’s not. And there needs to be change.
“I was equipped to do the job the old way. That’s who I am. But there needs to be change. It’s going to be closer to a professional model. There’s got to be collective bargaining. There’s got to be restrictions on a salary pool a team can spend. There has to be transfer regulation restrictions. There has to be some restrictions on the agent involvement on some of the young guys.”
— from his retirement press conference
He’s absolutely right. it’s no longer about Xs and Os… it’s about dollars and cents. And under the current system, there will be “haves” and “have nots” based on how deep the boosters’ pockets are… and unsavory agents… and teammates caring less about the team and more about WIIFM, and willing to leave one program at the drop of a hat (or at the promise of more cash).
Kudos to Tony for speaking up. Managing to turn a bunch of teenagers and early 20s kids into a high-performing team was tough enough in a pre-NIL world. Now you have to focus more on salary demands. You have to spend every waking hour thinking about the transfer portal (incoming and outgoing). You have to spend more time fundraising than you do coaching.
It’s sad. But it’s the current reality. And when you grew up the son of a coach, as Tony did, it’s gotta be tough when “coach” is about 12th on the list of your priorities at a major college b-ball program.
I hope his plea for changes doesn’t fall on deaf ears. The game needs it, ASAP.
I voted yesterday, and I have the sticker to prove it.
Our county offers early voting (and absentee ballot drop-off) at the Board of Elections location.
Plenty of people have been taking advantage of that option.
The parking lot was packed yesterday, with police directing traffic in and out from the street, and volunteers directing cars within the parking area.
But the voting process itself was quite smooth.
Full story is here. (The Linser quoted above is our neighbor Alex, btw.)
Vote411.org is a fantastic resource for voters. You can enter your home address and find out who is on your ballot, and compare the candidates’ profiles and their answers to a standard set of questions.
One of the volunteers directing traffic in the parking lot was Brewster Rhoads. He’s the brains and boosterism behind Paddlefest and Green Umbrella (i.e. a “tree-hugger”) and he served as the regional director for Southwest Ohio for a Democrat Governor (Ted Strickland) from 2007 to 2011. So Brewster’s politics are easy to discern. But yesterday, he wasn’t checking cars to see if they were “red” or “blue.” He wasn’t shouting epithets at folks, he was just guiding them to parking spots to make their day a bit easier. He wasn’t pointing fingers unless he was pointing out where to drive. He was kind and courteous to everyone, while knowing full well that many of the folks he was assisting have opposing political views, and were about to go cast their votes accordingly. The polar opposite of voter suppression.
We need more Brewsters in our world these days.
Whoops, wrong Brewster. Here’s the correct one:
Mr. Rhoads was a shining example of Civics 101.
We too often get fixated on the “rights” and forget about the “duties.”
We have a right to express our views, but we also have a duty to be respectful… civil.
(source)
Just because we disagree doesn’t mean we have to resort to name-calling, shouting, Twitter wars… or calling in bomb threats to schools and hospitals in Springfield, Ohio.
When civic education succeeds, all people are prepared and motivated to participate effectively in civic life. They acquire and share the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for effective participation.
It starts with knowledge. Know the facts… and know that just because a lie is repeated and amplified, it’s still a falsehood.
Be an informed voter. Uncle Sam wants YOU to vote… but you need to study up first.
And keep the “disposition” part in mind too. Our political world could use a temperature drop. Turn down the rhetoric, and turn up the kindness toward your fellow citizens. Even the ones with whom you disagree.
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