Brandon Anthony Bedard
Techdirt [Unofficial]John Roberts Is The Driver Who Wants Credit For All The People He Didn’t Run Over
John Roberts Wants You To Stop Believing Your Own Eyes
Big Blu GnuGerrymandering or not, however you slice it, this does not change my view that drawing districts ought to be a process left to independent commissions based on as transparent and nonpartisan a methodology as possible. The United Kingdom knows better than to have politicians pick voters, as does even Brazil.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5856022-redistricting-supreme-court-voting-rights-act/
#democraticBacksliding #democracy #electionReform #elections #gerrymandering #partisanship #redistricting #SCOTUS #VotingRightsAct #voterSuppression
#USPolitics
WIST QuotationsAUDITOR: By Hercules, I prefer to be wrong with Plato […] than to be right with those idiots.
[Errare mehercule malo cum Platone […] quam cum istis vera sentire.]
[Errare mehercule malo cum Platone […] quam cum istis vera sentire.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 1, ch. 17 (1.17) / sec. 39 (1.39) (45 BC) [tr. @sententiq (2012)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/cicero-marcus-tulliu…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #cicero #authority #bias #correctness #esteem #loyalty #partisanship #party #respect #right #truth #wrong
Cicero, Marcus Tullius - Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 1, ch. 17 (1.17) / sec. 39 (1.39) (45 BC) [tr. @sententiq (2012)] | WIST Quotations
AUDITOR: By Hercules, I prefer to be wrong with Plato ... than to be right with those idiots. [Errare mehercule malo cum Platone ... quam cum istis vera sentire.] (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations: Had rather, I assure you, be mistaken with Plato ... than to be of their opinion in…
A quotation from Madeleine L'Engle
Perhaps people who read and write and have enough vocabulary to think with are universe disturbers. But we need to disturb the universe if, as human beings on planet earth, we are to survive. We need to have the vocabulary to question ourselves, and enough courage to disturb creatively, rather than destructively, even if it is going to make us uncomfortable or even hurt.Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
More about this quote: wist.info/lengle-madeleine/836…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #madeleinelengle #candidate #choice #democracy #election #illusionofchoice #partisanship #politicians #selfdefeat #selfinterest #voting #creativity #writing
L'Engle, Madeleine - Speech (1983-11-16), "Dare To Be Creative," Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC | WIST Quotations
Perhaps people who read and write and have enough vocabulary to think with are universe disturbers. But we need to disturb the universe if, as human beings on planet earth, we are to survive. We need to have the vocabulary to question ourselves, and enough courage to disturb creatively, rather…
A quotation from Douglas Adams
“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see ….”“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in.”
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 4, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, ch. 36 (1984)
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-douglas/49165/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #douglasadams #hitchhikersguide #hitchhikersguidetothegalaxy #solongandthanksforallthefish #candidate #choice #democracy #election #illusionofchoice #partisanship #politicians #selfdefeat #selfinterest #voting
Adams, Douglas - Hitchhiker's Guide No. 4, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, ch. 36 (1984) | WIST Quotations
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see ...." "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?" "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything…
While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a Stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than 3 or 4 thousand years ago. What is the Reason? I say Parties and Factions will not Suffer, or permit Improvements to be made. As Soon as one Man hints at an improvement his Rival opposes it. No sooner has one Party discovered or invented an Amelioration of the condition of Man or the order of Society, than the opposite Party, belies it, misconstrues it, misrepresents it, ridicules it, insults it, and persecutes it.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1813-07-09) to Thomas Jefferson
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/36370/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #censorship #factions #government #parties #partisanship #politicalscience #politics #progress #publicpolicy
Adams, John - Letter (1813-07-09) to Thomas Jefferson | WIST Quotations
While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a Stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than 3 or 4 thousand years ago. What is the Reason? I say Parties and Factions will not Suffer, or permit Improvements to be made. As Soon as one Man…
History is thought of largely in nationalist terms, and such things as the Inquisition, the tortures of the Star Chamber, the exploits of the English buccaneers (Sir Francis Drake, for instance, who was given to sinking Spanish prisoners alive), the Reign of Terror, the heroes of the Mutiny blowing hundreds of Indians from the guns, or Cromwell’s soldiers slashing Irishwomen’s faces with razors, become morally neutral or even meritorious when it is felt that they were done in the “right” cause. If one looks back over the past quarter of a century, one finds that there was hardly a single year when atrocity stories were not being reported from some part of the world; and yet in not one single case were these atrocities — in Spain, Russia, China, Hungary, Mexico, Amritsar, Smyrna — believed in and disapproved of by the English intelligentsia as a whole. Whether such deeds were reprehensible, or even whether they happened, was always decided according to political predilection.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)
More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/46140/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #atrocity #cause #condemnation #endsandmeans #history #justification #nationalism #ourside #partisanship #politics #takingsides #tribalism #truthiness #usvsthem #warcrime
Orwell, George - Essay (1945-05), "Notes on Nationalism," Polemic Magazine (1945-10) | WIST Quotations
History is thought of largely in nationalist terms, and such things as the Inquisition, the tortures of the Star Chamber, the exploits of the English buccaneers (Sir Francis Drake, for instance, who was given to sinking Spanish prisoners alive), the Reign of Terror, the heroes of the Mutiny blowing hundreds…
NonilexIn addition to #CivilRights, the court powered by #Trump’s picks — Justices Neil M. #Gorsuch, Brett M. #Kavanaugh & #AmyConeyBarrett — has pushed to the right of any modern court on #religious rights & #voting issues.
The court has also entered a new era of extreme #partisanship. None over the past 7 decades has been as starkly polarized.
“There is no center now,” said political science professor Lee Epstein, who performed the analysis with Andrew D. Martin & Michael J. Nelson.