So I see a NO on 50 sign on the freeway overpass, while
I saw a Yes on 50 at the same overpass a month ago.

Concerning California Prop. 50, it is a legislature
placed initiative to place an even more extreme
gerrymander on Congressional Districts than we
already have.

From already a century's worth of gerrymandering the minority
party has been reduced to 17% or 9 out of 52 representatives
while the legislature initiated Prop 50 is intended to reduce
the ratio to 2 in 52.

Look at the polls, the real polls, not the serveys, the
California voters have never come close to a voting pattern
of 83% Democratic to 17% Republican, much less 96% Democratic
to 4% Republican.

I wonder if legislative districts are gerrymandered?

The California legislature has a history of deliberately
making bad laws with the intention to "settle it in court".



--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Oct 18, 2025 at 4:26:34 PM PDT, "Pluted Pup" <plutedpup@outlook.com>
wrote:

So I see a NO on 50 sign on the freeway overpass, while
I saw a Yes on 50 at the same overpass a month ago.

Concerning California Prop. 50, it is a legislature
placed initiative to place an even more extreme
gerrymander on Congressional Districts than we
already have.

From already a century's worth of gerrymandering the minority
party has been reduced to 17% or 9 out of 52 representatives
while the legislature initiated Prop 50 is intended to reduce
the ratio to 2 in 52.

Look at the polls, the real polls, not the serveys, the
California voters have never come close to a voting pattern
of 83% Democratic to 17% Republican, much less 96% Democratic
to 4% Republican.

I wonder if legislative districts are gerrymandered?

The California legislature has a history of deliberately
making bad laws with the intention to "settle it in court".

I had the opportunity to talk to my state assemblyman face-to-face today,
right after he made a speech at the "no kings" rally decrying Donald Trump's attempts to "silence voices".

I asked him how he could deplore silencing voices and telling us how we need
to "save democracy" while at the same time enthusiastically supporting Prop 50 which is just about the most anti-democratic thing they could have done and leaves 40% of the California electorate with no representation in Congress.

He literally said it's sometimes necessary to do undemocratic things in order to preserve democracy but that he's satisfied that we the public will at least get to vote on it, unlike in Texas.

I said the only reason we're voting on it is that the current redistricting procedures are part of the state constitution, so the politicians are forced
to let us vote on it to change it, and that if that wasn't the case, there's
no way it would be up for a vote. Sacramento would have just done it on their own. Us voting on it is an inconvenient bug to Sacramento politicians, not a feature.

He also tried to fall back on Gavin Newsom's big selling point-- that we wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for Texas and that if Texas withdrew its efforts, then California wouldn't do it, either. But I pointed out that the legislation that put the question on the ballot specifically included language that said this is not dependent on what any other state does or doesn't do, which indicates to me they're just using Texas as an excuse to do what they've wanted to do for a long time now. They've hated being shut out of
redistricting since it was taken away from them in 2010 and have attempted to reverse it several times to no avail. They're just using Trump and Texas as a convenient stalking horse to push through something they've been itching to do for 15 years now.

I could tell by his expression that I got him on that one. I guess he didn't expect someone to be as well-informed on the little details of the process and he kind of stammered out, "Well, I don't know about that..."

By that point, a small crowd had gathered around us and they sensed a Democrat was in trouble so they started screaming "No kings! No kings! No kings!" and blasting air horns to drown me out and make it impossible to continue the conversation. Gotta love those sensitive and inclusive 'progressives'. They've never met a debate they didn't want to censor, ban, or shut down.



--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

I had the opportunity to talk to my state assemblyman face-to-face today, >right after he made a speech at the "no kings" rally decrying Donald Trump's >attempts to "silence voices". . . .

Nice job in debate.

As far as what Texas is doing, in order for it to work, they are making Republican-heavy districts into Republican-leaning districts and
therefore slightly less uncompetitive.

Whoops! Candidates are going to have to start appealing to... moderates.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Oct 18, 2025 at 8:27:21 PM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

I had the opportunity to talk to my state assemblyman face-to-face today,
right after he made a speech at the "no kings" rally decrying Donald Trump's >> attempts to "silence voices". . . .

Nice job in debate.

As far as what Texas is doing, in order for it to work, they are making Republican-heavy districts into Republican-leaning districts and
therefore slightly less uncompetitive.

Whoops! Candidates are going to have to start appealing to... moderates.

Whereas here in California, they're taking Republican districts like the one
in the farthest northeastern part of the state (Modoc County) along the Oregon border and combining it with downtown San Francisco, 200 miles away, so that the high density population in San Francisco will completely overwhelm the sparse population in Modoc County and make it impossible for a Republican to ever win that seat again. Not to mention the fact that the people who live in forests of northeastern California have absolutely nothing in common with an urban San Francisco city dweller.

Oh, and they?re also creating new undefeatable districts for Democrats in the state legislature who are terming out and whose political careers would be coming to an end. Instead, Gavvy's maps create all-new bespoke Democrat-locked districts just for them so they can move on to national politics. The corruption is right out front, in our faces, and the idiots here will vote for it anyway because Trump.



--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

On Oct 18, 2025 at 4:26:34 PM PDT, "Pluted Pup" <plutedpup@outlook.com> wrote:

So I see a NO on 50 sign on the freeway overpass, while
I saw a Yes on 50 at the same overpass a month ago.

Concerning California Prop. 50, it is a legislature
placed initiative to place an even more extreme
gerrymander on Congressional Districts than we
already have.

From already a century's worth of gerrymandering the minority
party has been reduced to 17% or 9 out of 52 representatives
while the legislature initiated Prop 50 is intended to reduce
the ratio to 2 in 52.

Look at the polls, the real polls, not the serveys, the
California voters have never come close to a voting pattern
of 83% Democratic to 17% Republican, much less 96% Democratic
to 4% Republican.

I wonder if legislative districts are gerrymandered?

The California legislature has a history of deliberately
making bad laws with the intention to "settle it in court".

I had the opportunity to talk to my state assemblyman face-to-face today, right after he made a speech at the "no kings" rally decrying Donald Trump's attempts to "silence voices".

We had these bozos protesting Burger King, because no kings means no kings.

I did my part by ordering a BOGO jack-o?-lantern whopper, halvsies
fries/rings, and a chocolate Oreo shake.




--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 18 Oct 2025 22:01:09 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

On Oct 18, 2025 at 4:26:34 PM PDT, "Pluted Pup" <plutedpup@outlook.com>
wrote:

So I see a NO on 50 sign on the freeway overpass, while
I saw a Yes on 50 at the same overpass a month ago.

Concerning California Prop. 50, it is a legislature
placed initiative to place an even more extreme
gerrymander on Congressional Districts than we
already have.

From already a century's worth of gerrymandering the minority
party has been reduced to 17% or 9 out of 52 representatives
while the legislature initiated Prop 50 is intended to reduce
the ratio to 2 in 52.

Look at the polls, the real polls, not the serveys, the
California voters have never come close to a voting pattern
of 83% Democratic to 17% Republican, much less 96% Democratic
to 4% Republican.

I wonder if legislative districts are gerrymandered?

The California legislature has a history of deliberately
making bad laws with the intention to "settle it in court".

I had the opportunity to talk to my state assemblyman face-to-face today,
right after he made a speech at the "no kings" rally decrying Donald Trump's >> attempts to "silence voices".

We had these bozos protesting Burger King, because no kings means no kings.

I fully support anyone protesting Burger King.

I did my part by ordering a BOGO jack-o?-lantern whopper, halvsies >fries/rings, and a chocolate Oreo shake.

If it doesn't make you sick then I hope you enjoyed your food. I've
eaten at the King on two different occasions. Both times I ended up
losing my meal within thirty minutes of eating said meal. Something
I've never encountered at any other place.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:

On Sat, 18 Oct 2025 22:01:09 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

On Oct 18, 2025 at 4:26:34 PM PDT, "Pluted Pup" <plutedpup@outlook.com>
wrote:

So I see a NO on 50 sign on the freeway overpass, while
I saw a Yes on 50 at the same overpass a month ago.

Concerning California Prop. 50, it is a legislature
placed initiative to place an even more extreme
gerrymander on Congressional Districts than we
already have.

From already a century's worth of gerrymandering the minority
party has been reduced to 17% or 9 out of 52 representatives
while the legislature initiated Prop 50 is intended to reduce
the ratio to 2 in 52.

Look at the polls, the real polls, not the serveys, the
California voters have never come close to a voting pattern
of 83% Democratic to 17% Republican, much less 96% Democratic
to 4% Republican.

I wonder if legislative districts are gerrymandered?

The California legislature has a history of deliberately
making bad laws with the intention to "settle it in court".

I had the opportunity to talk to my state assemblyman face-to-face today, >>> right after he made a speech at the "no kings" rally decrying Donald Trump's
attempts to "silence voices".

We had these bozos protesting Burger King, because no kings means no kings.

I fully support anyone protesting Burger King.

I did my part by ordering a BOGO jack-o?-lantern whopper, halvsies
fries/rings, and a chocolate Oreo shake.

If it doesn't make you sick then I hope you enjoyed your food. I've
eaten at the King on two different occasions. Both times I ended up
losing my meal within thirty minutes of eating said meal. Something
I've never encountered at any other place.

I haven?t had Burger King in decades. Period no effects.

Food tossing usually comes to me from Greek restaurants who don?t bother to tell you chickpeas will kill 15% of the people that are allergic to
peanuts. Damn you, Jimmy Carter. Also, I found out recently that they make
the Greek salad dressing with peanut oil to save money and don?t tell
anybody. I knew I couldn?t tolerate it and now I know why.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-10-18 11:50 p.m., BTR1701 wrote:

On Oct 18, 2025 at 8:27:21 PM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

I had the opportunity to talk to my state assemblyman face-to-face today, >>> right after he made a speech at the "no kings" rally decrying Donald Trump's
attempts to "silence voices". . . .

Nice job in debate.

As far as what Texas is doing, in order for it to work, they are making
Republican-heavy districts into Republican-leaning districts and
therefore slightly less uncompetitive.

Whoops! Candidates are going to have to start appealing to... moderates.

Whereas here in California, they're taking Republican districts like the one in the farthest northeastern part of the state (Modoc County) along the Oregon
border and combining it with downtown San Francisco, 200 miles away, so that the high density population in San Francisco will completely overwhelm the sparse population in Modoc County and make it impossible for a Republican to ever win that seat again. Not to mention the fact that the people who live in forests of northeastern California have absolutely nothing in common with an urban San Francisco city dweller.

Oh, and they?re also creating new undefeatable districts for Democrats in the state legislature who are terming out and whose political careers would be coming to an end. Instead, Gavvy's maps create all-new bespoke Democrat-locked
districts just for them so they can move on to national politics. The corruption is right out front, in our faces, and the idiots here will vote for
it anyway because Trump.

We've seen comparable tactics here in Canada.

Alberta has long been the most conservative province in the country.
There haven't been more than a tiny handful of Liberals elected
federally in decades. A few years ago, there was a time when there was a second conservative party vying with the traditional conservative party
for votes at the provincial level and the NDP got enough votes to win
the provincial election for the very first time ever. They knew their supporters were mostly in the cities so they immediately set about gerrymandering the ridings so that every riding had both a city
component and a rural component, in the hopes that this would be enough
to get them re-elected. It didn't actually work and the United
Conservative Party (which had been formed by merging the two
conservative parties) got back in. It is still in. (The NDP replaced
their former leader with the past mayor of Calgary, Nenshi, who was
popular despite being Muslim and pretty liberal in his policies so it's
going to be interesting to see how the NDP fares at the next provincial election.)

--
Rhino

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)