Tootfinder

How the US democracy is designed to avoid representation
Right now in the US, a system which proclaims to give each citizen representation, my interests are not represented very well by most of my so-called representatives at any level of government. This is true for a majority of Americans across the political spectrum, and it happens by design. The "founding fathers" were explicit about wanting a system of government that would appear Democratic but which would keep power in the hands of rich white landowners, and they successfully designed exactly that. But how does disenfranchisement work in this system?
First, a two-party system locked in by first-post-the-post winner-takes-all elections immediately destroys representation for everyone who didn't vote for the winner, including those who didn't vote or weren't eligible to vote. Single-day non-holiday elections and prisoner disenfranchisement go a long way towards ensuring working-class people get no say, but much larger is the winner-takes all system. In fact, even people who vote for the winning candidate don't get effective representation if they're really just voting against the opponent as the greater of two evils. In a 51/49 election with 50% turnout, you've immediately ensured that ~75% of eligible voters don't get represented, and with lesser-of-two-evils voting, you create an even wider gap to wedge corporate interests into. Politicians need money to saturate their lesser-of-two-evils message far more than they need to convince any individual voter to support their policies. It's even okay if they get caught lying, cheating, or worse (cough Epstein cough) as long as the other side is also doing those things and you can freeze out new parties.
Second, by design the Senate ensures uneven representation, allowing control of the least-populous half of states to control or at least shut down the legislative process. A rough count suggests 284.6 million live in the 25 most-populous states, while only 54.8 million live in the rest. Currently, counting states with divided representation as two half-states with half as much population, 157.8 million people are represented by 53 Republican sensors, while 180.5 million people get only 45 seats of Democratic representation. This isn't an anti-Democrat bias, it's a bias towards less-populous states, whose residents get more than their share it political power.
I haven't even talked about gerrymandering yet, or family/faith-based "party loyalty," etc. Overall, the effect is that the number of people whose elected representatives meaningfully represent their interests on any given issue is vanishingly small (like, 10% of people tops), unless you happen to be rich enough to purchase lobbying power or direct access.
If we look at polls, we can see how lack of representation lets congress & the president enact many policies that go against what a majority of the population wants. Things like abortion restrictions, the current ICE raids, and Medicare cuts are deeply unpopular, but they benefit the political class and those who can buy access. These are possible because the system ensures at every step of the way that ordinary people do NOT get the one thing the system promises them: representation in the halls of power.
Okay, but is this a feature of all democracies, inherent in the nature of a majority-decides system? Not exactly...
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#uspol #democracy

Judge to weigh blocking Trump on birthright citizenship despite supreme court ruling
A federal judge will consider today whether to prevent Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing his executive order limiting birthright citizenship -- after the US supreme court restricted the ability of judges to block his policies using nationwide injunctions.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyers are set to ask US district judge Joseph Laplante at a hearing in Concord, New Hampshire, to g…

Estrogen? Hot drinks will suffice!
"""
Naturally, cold water cooled. For that reason it was used in mania and frenzy, sicknesses of heat where the spirits were in ebullition, solids tightened and liquids were heated to the point of evaporation, leaving the brain of the patient ‘dry and brittle’, as anatomists regularly demonstrated. Reasonably enough Boissieu includes cold water among his list of refreshing cures: baths were the foremost ‘antiphlogistic’, purifying the body of any excessive igneous particles to be found there. Taken as a drink, it was a ‘dilutive procastinant’ that diminished the resistance of fluids to the action of solids, thereby indirectly lowering the general heat of the body.
But it was also said that cold water brought heat and that hot water cooled. Such at least was the thesis defended by Darut. Cold baths chased the blood from the periphery of the body and pushed it ‘with increased vigour towards the heart’. As the heart was the seat of natural heat, the blood was warmed there, all the more so as “the heart, which struggles alone against all the other parts, makes renewed efforts to expel the blood and overcome capillary resistance. What results is a greater intensity of circulation, the division of the blood, the fluidity of the humours, the destruction of congestions, an increase in the strength of the natural heat, of the appetite of the digestive forces, and the activity of the body and the mind.” A symmetrical paradox operated regarding hot baths: blood was attracted to the extremities of the body, as were the humours, sweat, and all forms of liquid, both beneficial and harmful. The vital centres were therefore deserted, the heart slowed and the organism thus began to cool down. This fact was confirmed by the ‘fainting, lipothymia… weakness, nonchalance, lassitude, and lack of vigour’ that generally accompanied excessive bathing with hot water.
But there was more. So great was the polyvalence of water, so great was its aptitude to submit itself to the qualities that it carried, that it sometimes lost its efficacy as a liquid and acted as a desiccant instead. Water could Prevent dampness. In part, this was the old principle of similia similibus, but in another sense, and by the intermediary of a visible mechanism. For some, it was cold water that brought dryness, as heat kept water humid. Heat dilated the pores of the organism, distended its membranes, and allowed humidity to impregnate them as a secondary effect. Liquids made their way through heat. For that reason, the hot drinks so widely used in the seventeenth century risked becoming a danger, and those who took too many risked relaxation, general dampness and a weakness of the whole organism. As these were traits commonly associated with the feminine body, as opposed to the dry, virile solidity of the male, the abuse of hot drinks could lead to a general feminisation of the human race: “Not without reason, the reproach is made to the majority of men that they have softened and degenerated, taking on the habits and inclinations of women – the only thing lacking is a physical resemblance. The abuse of humectants could accelerate the metamorphosis, and render the two sexes almost identical both physically and morally. Woe betide the human race if this prejudice ever spreads to the masses: there will be no more labourers, artisans or soldiers, as they will have lost the strength and vigour necessary for their profession.” [Pressavin]
"""
(Michel Foucault, History of Madness)

Theropod tracks "of a very large dinosaur for which we currently have no skeletal evidence." Mill Canyon site, near Moab, Utah #FossilFriday

Texas floods leave at least 51 dead, 27 girls missing as rescuers search devastated landscape.
The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 8 meters on the Guadalupe River in just 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles.
#ClimatechangeisWaterchange

Kerr County floods: 24 dead and more than 20 children missing in Texas
A Texas sheriff says the deaths from flash flooding in central Texas has risen to 27 people. Among those confirmed dead are children. More than two dozen children from a girls’ camp and many others are still missing while search and rescue efforts were continuing in the Texas Hill Country. The destructive fast-moving waters along the Guadalupe River washed away homes and roads early Friday near the river. Authorities say more than 1,000 rescuers are on the ground. The danger is not over as to…

Loss-tolerant parallelized Bell-state generation with a hybrid cat qudit
Z. M. McIntyre, W. A. Coish
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08577 https://arxiv.org/pdf…

Loss-tolerant parallelized Bell-state generation with a hybrid cat qudit
Having multiple Bell pairs shared by distant quantum registers provides a key resource for both quantum networks and distributed quantum computing. In this paper, we present a protocol for parallelized Bell-pair generation that uses the phase of a coherent light pulse to encode a qudit, enabling the simultaneous generation of multiple Bell pairs. By encoding a qudit in a basis of light-matter Schrödinger's cat states, the loss of a photon in transit can be detected through an $XX$ parity syndr…

He’s probably (he’s on the list) doing it out of (he’s on every page of the list) a strategic need (and there are photos) and sound military and national security (and there is footage) concerns. There’s no way he’d do this as a distraction (this way, this is the way he does it as a distraction), that would be reckless, irresponsible and dangerous (which he very much is).

Trump orders US nuclear subs repositioned over statements from ex-Russian leader
President Donald Trump has ordered the repositioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines. Friday's decision comes after what he calls "highly provocative statements" by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev and Trump has fueded online in recent days. The impact on U.S. nuclear subs — which normally and routinely patrol global hotspots — remains unclear. But the move potentially escalates tensions between Washington and Moscow at a delicate time, as Trump threatens new sanctions in a…

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from reallocating $4 billion meant to help communities protect against natural disasters.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns in Boston granted a preliminary injunction sought by 20 Democrat-led states while their lawsuit over the funding moves ahead.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said in a statement that she would continue fighting to make sure “communities can adequately prepare for natural disasters

Judge blocks reallocation of billions meant for disaster mitigation
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from reallocating more than $4 billion meant to help communities protect against natural disasters. U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction sought by 20 Democrat-led states while their lawsuit over the funding moves ahead. The states argue the Federal Emergency Management Agency lacks the authority to end the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and redirect more than $4 billion …

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan,
who previously presided over Trump’s federal election interference case,
will now oversee a new lawsuit from Democracy Forward Foundation,
a D.C.-based nonprofit,
requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI release any communications between Trump officials on the Epstein matter,
any communication between Trump and Epstein himself,
and Epstein’s so-called client list that Attorney General Pam Bondi previously acknowl…

Judge Detested by Trump Will Oversee Epstein Files Case
Welcome back, Judge Tanya Chutkan.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin along with other members of Congress are asking a federal court to let them in
— without advance notice
— to facilities where the Trump administration is detaining immigrants facing deportation
so they can conduct lawful oversight,
according to a complaint filed Wednesday.
Raskin and 11 other Democratic members of Congress filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Lawmakers ar…

Raskin lawsuit challenges congressional restrictions at ICE facilities
The lawsuit comes days after members of Maryland’s federal delegation were denied a tour of Baltimore’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office.