USA Politics

It’s a tricky problem. Ideally you would add seats, but the constitution doesn’t allow for that. At the same time, it’s hard to argue that Natives are truly represented in Congress even though they are counted in the census. It’s a more unique situation than simply saying “x demographic gets its own district.” This is a population that was here first and has routinely been screwed over by the American government.
 
Actually they can add seats, the number of seats is set by law (last change in 1911). not the Constitution (House seats, not Senate .. that is fixed at 2 per state by the Constitution).
However packing seats is Constitutionally questionable.
 
Tester declared the winner in Montana.

I once read that a way to neuter the strength of the electoral college would be to increase the amount of US Representatives to be closer to 1 per 100,000 persons. That would give every state multiple reps. In that situation you would easily be able to create "historic native" districts, much as some districts in places like Georgia are "historically black".
 
Zare said:
That guy's a serious retard.
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Yes, but at least he was a serious retard who took the role of the justice department mostly seriously. Now we have a political hack appointed as the interim AG with a lame duck Republican majority that has no interest in overseeing anything. Who knows what might happen.

The silver lining is that even if they kill the Mueller investigation before the end of the year, the new Congress could still subpoena all the records, reports, and FBI agents involved in the Mueller investigation to air out whatever dirty laundry was found before the investigation was killed.
 
Yea I'm not worried about the Mueller investigation now. I never really was to begin with but that's beside the point. I wouldn't be surprised if Democrats launch a similar investigation anyway to work concurrently with Mueller.
 
I can see them eventually passing a law that leaves the decision on weed up to the several states. I don't think there will ever be a national legalization a la Canada.
 
LooseCannon said:
I can see them eventually passing a law that leaves the decision on weed up to the several states. I don't think there will ever be a national legalization a la Canada.
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Yeah, that is what it should be IMO ... and what we are heading for. Trump has said he is open to criminal justice reform (around weed and in general) ... Sessions was for sure not for that ... that would seem one area Congress should be able work with him on ... and something that would be pretty meaningful.
 
bearfan said:
Yeah, that is what it should be IMO ... and what we are heading for. Trump has said he is open to criminal justice reform (around weed and in general) ... Sessions was for sure not for that ... that would seem one area Congress should be able work with him on ... and something that would be pretty meaningful.
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Pot - could it be the one true remaining bipartisan issue?
 
LooseCannon said:
Pot - could it be the one true remaining bipartisan issue?
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I profoundly loathe Mr. Sessions and people like him because they haven't separated the religion and the state inside themselves first. Drugs are satan and that's it. Mr. Sessions is not the one relevant to say drugs are satan, that's a topic of a scientific research program. But he doesn't care about that because his holy book told him otherwise. If you approach him and say, please allow regulated usage of methamphetamine for hurricane PTSD victims, he'll call cops on you. But if his party comrade comes to him and says, the big pharma have invested into research in MDMA for PTSD treatment and has already started spreading the word on high therapy success ratio inside veteran organizations, they want it legal, he'd just nod in approval. This is the standard religious hypocrisy. He'd never throw his son in jail if he caught him with a joint. Asshole.
 
I am a fan of ranked voting .. and think this is cool


(CNN)A competitive House race in Maine will be decided by "ranked-choice" voting, marking the first time in US history the process will determine the outcome of a congressional race.

Maine voters had the chance to rank all candidates by preference in Tuesday's midterm elections for the US House and Senate. Instituted for the first time this year, the new state law mandates ranked-choice tabulation be applied in any federal race in which no candidate receives a majority of the vote.

Independent Sen. Angus King and 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, both received majorities, according to unofficial tallies, and avoided the instant runoff. In the 2nd District, however, the unofficial tally had incumbent GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin leading Democratic state Rep. Jared Golden by 46.2% to 45.7%, respectively, according to the Bangor Daily News. Two other candidates split the remaining 8.1% of the vote.

Beginning Friday, votes will be tabulated until two candidates remain and one has the majority. Voters are not required to choose more than one candidate in any race if they prefer not to participate in the preference process.

While this would normally be done in multiple rounds, both the third and fourth place candidate will be immediately eliminated since the third-place candidate can't mathematically win. The votes for them will be tabulated simultaneously, which should give either Poliquin or Golden a majority, and therefore, a seat in Congress.
 
bearfan said:
I am a fan of ranked voting .. and think this is cool
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Me too - I've preferred instant runoff voting forever. Would have helped lead to a stronger conclusion in places like Arizona this year, and probably Florida as well.

Imagine how the world would be different if the people who voted Green in Florida in 2000 could have picked Al Gore as their 2nd choice...
 
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