How should west respond to potential (likely) Russian invasion of Ukraine?

[steve_bank]

Most or all states have referendums. Here in Washington referendums work, get enough signatures on a petition and it goes onto a ballot.

Stes are mre focused and resposive.

During the BLM riots there was a knee jerk reaction to to reduce police funding and limit the scope of police.

The ability of police to pursue criminals was severely weekend leading to criminals taking advantage of the fact. A cop car pulls up behind and they just speed away. As crime went up people complained and it swung back the other way.

Our city council polices failed miserably, and the extreme progressives were voted out and replaced by moderates more pro police and pro business.

Wauy back in the 90s the stae had a monopoly on the sale of hard liquor fixing prices at state stores. A rerendum led to a vote to get rid of it and it passed.

There are problems of course but at the state level more responsive.

I think our number of state representatives to the national congress needs to be increased greatly.

It is difficult to get a consensus in congress as it is, adding more will gridlock congress permanently.

The problem is we are trying to fit a model created by the founders for a small agricultural system to our modern diverse complex country. Too many compering social, religious, politico, and economic factions. With no one willing to compromise.

The founders intended the president to be selected by educated electors who were land owners with a stake in the country.

I had to cut off my answer above quickly due to someone at the front door.

The problem is we are trying to fit a model created by the founders for a small agricultural system to our modern diverse complex country. Too many compering social, religious, politico, and economic factions. With no one willing to compromise.

That is exactly the reason why better representation is needed And frankly, the only ones I see unwilling to compromise are the crazy wing of the Republican party

The founders intended the president to be selected by educated electors who were land owners with a stake in the country.

Are you trying to explain the electoral college? I see nothing in the constitution that land owners had to be educated with a stake in the country. Land owning white men is the only requirement in the constitution.

And we need netter representation in the house.

The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives | American Academy of Arts and Sciences

www.amacad.org

Another politics thread.

The number of senators are fixed at 2 per state.

The number of representatives form each state up or down varies with state population.

The current number is 435 in the house, imagine what it wid be like lie with 1000. It owd be a redistricting nightmare in the states.

As an independent centrist sitting at the net I watch the ball go back and forth. To me both sides act the same.

Progressives spend on stoical programs as if there is no end to it, and conservatives demand fiscal impressibility. Biden wants to give away upwards of a billion in student loan forgiveness even though he has no authority.

Here in the Seattle ares illegal areas are a problem. There is no money for them and schools and hospitals are bearing the burden. Biden has been tone deaf.

To me both sides are equally ideological and impractical.

 

[ZiprHead]

The number of representatives form each state up or down varies with state population.

The current number is 435 in the house, imagine what it wid be like lie with 1000. It owd be a redistricting nightmare in the states.

No, it wouldn't. You just lack the imagination of how it could be done.

All those other nations with smaller districts are all the proof you need that you are wrong.

 

[Elixir]

All those other nations with smaller districts are all the proof you need that you are wrong.

Don’t underestimate Loren; there might be an American Samoa out there.

 

[ZiprHead]

All those other nations with smaller districts are all the proof you need that you are wrong.

Don’t underestimate Loren; there might be an American Samoa out there.

Actually it was Steve B., not Loren.

 

[Elixir]

All those other nations with smaller districts are all the proof you need that you are wrong.

Don’t underestimate Loren; there might be an American Samoa out there.

Actually it was Steve B., not Loren.

My bad, mea culpa.

 

[steve_bank]

The number of representatives form each state up or down varies with state population.

The current number is 435 in the house, imagine what it wid be like lie with 1000. It owd be a redistricting nightmare in the states.

No, it wouldn't. You just lack the imagination of how it could be done.

All those other nations with smaller districts are all the proof you need that you are wrong.

Imagination without a pragmatic view of how people and reality are leads to looking through rose colored glasses.

The fact that we survived the capitol riot and Trump, and the courts held up against Trump is a miracle.

You have to look at the scope. 50 states with different views and issues, and divisions within each state. That it works at all under our 19th century paradigms is an historical miracle.

From my career as an engineer I know something about people.

The American experiment was about whether or not a country can rule itself without a ruling class and central authority, IOW the British monarchy. It is still an experiment that is not proven yet. Our system can fail.

In the 1800s a Frenchman De Tocqueville toured the USA. His observations and commentary can be found online.

Look at the fat that voters arr roughly split between Harris and Trump. Trump an irrational,ignorant demagoguery. What does that tell you about the American people and the ability for self rule?

Adding more of the same distribution of people makes it mote chaotic.


Biden is righjt about one thing, we and western democarcies are in an existential crisis against autpterian rule.

 

[ZiprHead]

The number of representatives form each state up or down varies with state population.

The current number is 435 in the house, imagine what it wid be like lie with 1000. It owd be a redistricting nightmare in the states.

No, it wouldn't. You just lack the imagination of how it could be done.

All those other nations with smaller districts are all the proof you need that you are wrong.

Imagination without a pragmatic view of how people and reality are leads to looking through rose colored glasses.

The fact that we survived the capitol riot and Trump, and the courts held up against Trump is a miracle.

You have to look at the scope. 50 states with different views and issues, and divisions within each state. That it works at all under our 19th century paradigms is an historical miracle.

From my career as an engineer I know something about people.

The American experiment was about whether or not a country can rule itself without a ruling class and central authority, IOW the British monarchy. It is still an experiment that is not proven yet. Our system can fail.

In the 1800s a Frenchman De Tocqueville toured the USA. His observations and commentary can be found online.

Look at the fat that voters arr roughly split between Harris and Trump. Trump an irrational,ignorant demagoguery. What does that tell you about the American people and the ability for self rule?

Adding more of the same distribution of people makes it mote chaotic.


Biden is righjt about one thing, we and western democarcies are in an existential crisis against autpterian rule.

We had all these issues under the system you advocate. Limiting the legislature so so many people have no say in the process is helpful to the authoritarians, not the other way around as you seem to think.

 

[bilby]

The American experiment was about whether or not a country can rule itself without a ruling class and central authority

If that were true, one might expect that an attempt would be made to eliminate or disempower the ruling class and/or central authority, at some point during the experiment.

When do you plan to start doing that?

So far, I can see that you asked the ruling class to be a touch less overt about weilding their power; And replaced a distant cenral aurhority in England, with a more local one in the District of Columbia.

That's not even vaguely close to sufficient to run any experiment even slightly similar to the mythical one you just described.

Though it might be sufficient to get people who aren't paying attention to mistakenly believe that some such experiment had occurred.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Look at the fat that voters arr roughly split between Harris and Trump. Trump an irrational,ignorant demagoguery. What does that tell you about the American people and the ability for self rule?

That's amoral, natural selection at work, nothing more. Brains exposed to the exact same stimuli arriving at very different conclusions about reality. There isn't anything mysterious there. Same inputs but different wiring, programming and hardware. The religious freaks will eventually offer up the woo solution, the fall from the magic space creature's grace. That some human brains are simply not capable of intellectual observation and rational behavior is obvious.

 

[Henry-Finland]

From here:

 

[Henry-Finland]

This is good to know:

Rivals, not Friends! Russia-China Alliance is MASSIVELY Overrated.​

Russia is the underdog - by far.



Or what says our Russian friend?

 

[Tigers!]

The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives | American Academy of Arts and Sciences

www.amacad.org

Aust. is 5th.
Nice exponential graph

 

[ZiprHead]

Ukraine strikes Moscow in biggest drone attack to date

Ukraine struck the Moscow region on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far on the Russian capital, killing at least one woman, wrecking dozens of homes and forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow.

Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power, said it destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian attack drones as they swarmed over the Moscow region, which has a population of more than 21 million, and 124 more over eight other regions.

At least one person was killed near Moscow, Russian authorities said. Three of Moscow’s four airports were closed for more than six hours and almost 50 flights were diverted.

Kyiv said Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, had attacked it overnight with 46 drones, of which 38 were destroyed.

The drone attacks on Russia damaged at high-rise apartment buildings in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region, setting flats on fire, residents told Reuters.

A 46-year-old woman was killed and three people were wounded in Ramenskoye, Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said.

Pooty, how are you going to keep the Russian people from spreading this information?

 

[Shadowy Man]

The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives | American Academy of Arts and Sciences

www.amacad.org

Aust. is 5th.
Nice exponential graph

What would this look like per capita?

 

[zorq]

The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives | American Academy of Arts and Sciences

www.amacad.org

Aust. is 5th.
Nice exponential graph

What would this look like per capita?

This graph is per capita. A constituent is a person. This is a graph showing ratios. And those ratios are per person. The graph shows that, on average, in the US, 1 lower house representative represents more than 750000 people.

 

[Shadowy Man]

The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives | American Academy of Arts and Sciences

www.amacad.org

Aust. is 5th.
Nice exponential graph

What would this look like per capita?

This graph is per capita. A constituent is a person. This is a graph showing ratios. And those ratios are per person. The graph shows that, on average, in the US, 1 lower house representative represents more than 750000 people.

Sorry. Now I see that I was misreading the chart.

 

[bilby]

The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives | American Academy of Arts and Sciences

www.amacad.org

Aust. is 5th.
Nice exponential graph

What would this look like per capita?

This graph is per capita. A constituent is a person. This is a graph showing ratios. And those ratios are per person. The graph shows that, on average, in the US, 1 lower house representative represents more than 750000 people.

Sure, but it's showing the representation per capita in national assemblies, without any distinction between small nations where that's the only representation, and large nations with federal systems in which there are additional representatives in powerful sub-national political divisions, such as states.

How many constituents per representative do Americans have when you include state legislatures as well as the national one? What if you include city or county representatives as well? What if you include ALL elected offices (which in the US includes a huge range of roles that other nations typically appoint, from judges to dog-catchers)?

 

[barbos]

Another one was signed into ukro-wehrmacht:

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Pooty, how are you going to keep the Russian people from spreading this information?

That drone attack on Moscow opened a lot of windows. Accidents happen.

 

[Elixir]

What if you include ALL elected offices (which in the US includes a huge range of roles that other nations typically appoint, from judges to dog-catchers)?

Good point.
But, it still looks like Federal representation should be improved IMO.