Interesting Map

Democratic Debate #5

Here is the full video for Democratic Debate #5 from Atlanta, Geogia:

Gerrymandering

This map is an example of gerrymandering. Gerrymandering occurs when one political party draws political boundaries to help members of their party win elections.

On Saturday, November 16, Louisiana held its run-off election for Governor. Democrat John Bel Edwards won by 2.7%. However, he only actually had a majority of votes in one of Louisiana's six Congressional Districts. How is this possible? Gerrymandering.

All states are required by the Constitution to re-draw their Congressional District boundaries following the release of the U.S. Census every 10 years. Louisiana is a red state which voted for Trump by about 30% over Hillary Clinton. In 2011, Republicans drew the boundaries of Congressional District 2 to include as much of the urban, predominantly African American populations of New Orleans and Baton Rouge as possible. This is called a Vote Sink. By attempting to place as many Democratic-leaning voters as possible in one district, it made the other 5 districts reliably safe for Republicans.

In 2021 Louisiana and all other states will once again go through the redistricting process. However, because of the result of the gubernatorial election, Louisiana will this time have a Democratic governor with the ability to veto unfair gerrymandered maps produced by the Republican legislature.

The above map was created by J. Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. You can find his original map here.

I have written previous blog entries about gerrymandering here and here.

For an interactive map of Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District, click here.

For the New York Times Louisiana election page and a map of the vote by precinct, click here.

All About Zeppelins

One of the fun things about His Dark Materials is the way Philip Pullman imagines technology in this alternate world. In this world, there are no airplanes; instead, zeppelins are the chief mode of air transportation.

Airship technology was developed in the early part of the twentieth century. However, after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 and the dominance of airplanes in aviation, airships died out as a prominent form of transport.

However, airships are making a comeback! Airship technology has advantages in combating climate change, as airship emissions are much lower than those of commercial airplanes. An interesting article about the renewed interest in airship technology can be found here.

The history of airships is really interesting! You can find the Wikipedia article on the topic here.

Let's hope airships are a part of our future!

Primaries & Caucuses

2020 Presidential Election Calendar is here.

MLS Champions!!!

Photo by Lindsey Wasson

His Dark Materials Humour

Cartoon by Tom Gauld

Political Ideology

The Circus season 4 episode 15: "Field of Dreams"