Problem lies in the ‘first-past-the-post’, aka ‘winner-takes-all’ system. There are others, like the electoral college, but I digress.
Third party candidates only ever bleed votes from another in FPTP. Assuming RFK is going after Democratic/‘swing’ voters he’ll potentially end up costing the Democrats votes in key states which, at the margins we’re currently seeing, would potentially allow Republicans to win, holding slightly more votes to be ‘first-past-the-post’ at the end of ballot counting even though a majority of people would’ve preferred a Democrat representative anyway.
Under the FPTP system, voting for RFK as a protest vote, at his 10% margin, becomes a wasted vote because of how FPTP works.
The only true way to fix this is ‘single transferrable vote’, or ‘ranked choice’ voting. Voters simply rank their preference from most desired (1) to least desired (n) on a single ballot.
If the first round of counting doesn’t yield a winner (usually 50% of ballots + 1 ballot in a candidate’s pile), the candidate with the least amount of ballots is eliminated. Ballots are then redistributed from the eliminated candidate, according to the voters next preference on their ballot, amongst those candidates who remain.
Process continues until a candidate has 50% of ballots + 1 ballot in their pile.
The best version of this is ‘full’ preferential voting (every candidate must be numbered), rather than ‘optional’ (number at least one candidate; better versions of this are ‘number at least n candidates’). Optional preferential votes ‘exhaust’, potentially becoming wasted, if the voter didn’t number all the boxes.
This will allow people to protest vote, without actually wasting their vote.
I was skeptical at first though let me tell you, Kagi is so much better. I get exact search terms, which is immensely useful as a programmer, rather than providing results for what Google thinks I want to search for. It’s also really, really nice not seeing ads as search results anymore, ad blocker or no ad blocker.
Is it as comprehensive as Google search? It meets about 95-96% of my needs. I still use Google very infrequently for some really obscure domain specific searches if Kagi doesn’t find anything useful, though that’s getting rarer and rarer.
It’s also easy to block AI generated sites that pop up providing just enough likeness, but really are regurgitated AI trash, or are ‘Wikipedia clones’.
I have no financial interest in Kagi, other than paying to use it. It has certainly been worth it for me.
Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Rupert Murdoch will step down as board chair of Fox and News Corp. and be succeeded by his eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, the companies announced Thursday.
Having the ability to build custom Windows installations, including ‘in-place’ editing, and the ability to update Windows without Microsoft silently reinstalling shit I don’t want or need, with NTLite’s ‘Host Update’ wizard, it has been well worth the 40€ for each version (no subscription too!)
I really don’t want to sound like an ad, though NTLite has really made Windows a decent operating system again.
It certainly notable that Windows, once all of Microsoft’s crud is stripped out, doesn’t touch the CPU at idle, whereas a fresh install of Windows without customisation always consumed 2-3% of the CPU at idle.
The EPA decided its scientists were overstating the risks and gave Chevron the go-ahead to make the new boat fuel ingredient at its refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi....
Best program I’ve bought was NTLite, which allows you to customise a Windows ISO before installation, or edit a ‘live’ environment though this isn’t recommended. It takes a bit to get used to, though it’s incredibly powerful.
You can strip out pretty much all of that crud, including Edge, and prevent it from coming back using NTLite’s Host Update wizard, rather than Windows Update.
I have no financial interest in NTLite, I hope this helps someone make Windows decent again. It’s worth the money (about $50 if I recall correctly).
Most powerful Republican in Congress complains he has no influence: Mitch McConnell has admitted he can’t control the Republican Party. (newrepublic.com)
One of Congress’s most powerful Republicans apparently feels powerless in the face of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign....
Ron DeSantis says Florida isn’t going to follow Joe Biden’s new LGBTQ+ supportive rules (www.lgbtqnation.com)
In Judge Juan Merchan, Trump may have met his match (www.msnbc.com)
The judge kept the former president on a tight leash when jurors were in the courtroom....
R.F.K. Jr.’s Environmental Colleagues Urge Him to Drop Presidential Bid (www.nytimes.com)
Democrats introduce bill to name Miami prison after Trump (thehill.com)
Democrats Meddle in Ohio G.O.P. Senate Primary, Pushing Trump’s Choice (www.nytimes.com)
How bad are search results? Let's compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT (danluu.com)
I find it pretty interesting that kagi is rated as Terrible search engine, even ChatGPT preforms better.
Rupert Murdoch to step down as chair of Fox, News Corp. - UPI.com (www.upi.com)
Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Rupert Murdoch will step down as board chair of Fox and News Corp. and be succeeded by his eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, the companies announced Thursday.
Windows 11 and local accounts (www.techrepublic.com)
Does this trick actually work?
LTT is starting to lose subscribers (lemmy.ml)
EPA Approved a Fuel Ingredient Even Though It Could Cause Cancer in Virtually Every Person Exposed Over a Lifetime (www.propublica.org)
The EPA decided its scientists were overstating the risks and gave Chevron the go-ahead to make the new boat fuel ingredient at its refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi....
Reddit and Windows
Today I installed Windows on my laptop and then I visited Reddit without being logged in. The two experiences are very similar....