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Richard Pund

@rpund.bsky.social
82 followers 69 following 65 posts

Occasional opinion haver. Probably going on about proportional representation or mobility again.

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Reposted by Richard Pund
Matt Bors @mattbors.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It was exactly ten years ago today, on my 33rd birthday, that I posted this comic online.
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Missouri Independent @missouriindependent.com · 03/09/2026
Missouri Supreme Court blocks gerrymandered congressional map, orders referendum vote #moleg #mogov
missouriindependent.com
Missouri Supreme Court blocks gerrymandered congressional map, orders referendum vote • Missouri Independent
Missourians will vote on the gerrymandered congressional map muscled through the Legislature in 2025, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled.
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Richard Pund @rpund.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Today's motivation comes from Li'l Petey.
Li'l Petey encourages Dog Man to stop hiding in the trash can and Do Good
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 13/08/2026
I feel like an issue that would connect well with voters would be doing anything at all to slow the current progression toward "absolutely everything now is a scam"
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Stephen Wolf @stephenwolf.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Republican power grabs in Kansas and Missouri are going down in flames with 18-25% of votes reported so far. Missouri's Amendment 4 aimed to make citizen-initiated constitutional amendments practically impossible. Kansas' Amendment 1 was designed to flip the state Supreme Court to ban abortion
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Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector editor in chief @journalist-sherman.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Early results — as in too early to draw any conclusions — show 71% voting against the constitutional amendment. That's with 126,572 votes posted. #ksleg
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Richard Pund @rpund.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
My newest opinion piece for @kansasreflector.com featuring Mister Gotcha #ksleg
kansasreflector.com
GOP messaging on Kansas judicial selection amendment has a democracy-sized sincerity problem • Kansas Reflector
It’s not a coincidence that the democracy Republican politicians want voters to choose is one that would give them more influence.
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 15/07/2026
The work of building efficient, scalable AI systems hasn't been done, Alex Reisner argues. He explores the the industry's inefficiency, and how it’s costing the rest of us:
bit.ly
Generative AI Is an Engineering Disaster
A shockingly inefficient trillion-dollar project
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 14/07/2026
An amazing quote from Lindsey Graham in this Atlantic story. It really captures an essential truth about politics that too few people ever really come to terms with. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Buttigieg: Let's talk one more thing, one more radical proposition on the executive branch. What if everybody's vote counted the same?
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 30/05/2026
“I want to urge my political allies, those who share my commitment to substantive policy outcomes, to adopt this same political orientation, to embrace feminist politics of solidarity rather than personality.” www.liberalcurrents.com/aoc-for-pres...
liberalcurrents.com
AOC for President
Whether or not she runs, Ocasio-Cortez is invoking a feminist politics that Democrats should adopt if they are serious about defeating fascism.
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 28/05/2026
And we are live! Massive thanks to everyone who contributed to this. Reading your posts made me so much madder than I ever knew was possible
theringer.com
The 40 Most Rage-Inducing Problems in Tech
The bugs, broken apps, and nightmare customer-service bots we can't escape, presented as a blessed and sacred addendum to Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on AI
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Richard Pund @rpund.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Count me in as another AI skeptic and UBI supporter. Thanks as always to @kansasreflector.com for letting me have my say.
kansasreflector.com
As data centers sprawl across the landscape, AI companies should pay Kansans what we're owed • Kansas Reflector
If we want AI to benefit all of us and not just the tech billionaires, then we need different policies to spread the wealth.
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Dennis Lytton @dennislytton.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
"Making [proportional representation] a “hundred days” reform . . . would upend our calcified two-party system. Only a few party insiders and timid squishes would miss this most contemptible aspect of the old republic." "What would a multiparty U.S. House look like? Let me speculate . . . "
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 11/05/2026
“We can fix our broken system. We can change the structure of elections in America to make them more free, more democratic, and more fair to every voter. Here's how.” @dennislytton.bsky.social today www.liberalcurrents.com/proportional...
liberalcurrents.com
Proportional Representation Would Fix That
We can change the structure of elections in America to make them more free, more democratic, and more fair to every voter. Here's how.
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 04/05/2026
"The main problem is the usage of single-seat districts as the basis of representing the population in the House. There is no such thing as a set of maps that is fair, competitive, and representative. Gerrymandering is just tweaking a bad system at the margins."
liberalcurrents.com
Lessons from the Redistricting Wars
Gerrymandering is just tweaking a bad system at the margins.
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 22/04/2026
sucks that it’s come to this, but if congressional Republicans wanted to put up a national gerrymandering ban or multi member districts etc, it would pass *for sure*. until then fight fire with fire
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Orban made grand appeals to “Christianity” and “Western Civilization,” but his “illiberal democracy” was just a scam, a way to make him and his buddies rich while subjecting Hungarians to stagnation and robbing them of their freedom. Sound familiar? (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Orbán rode to power on resentment over the economic stagnation that developed under center-left governments. But he leaves office with Hungarians facing falling wages and higher inflation than similar countries are experiencing. Orbán’s sectarianism and intolerance have sparked neither a religious revival nor a fertility bump; Hungary’s population is shrinking and has become more irreligious, even as Orbán has demonized LGBTQ people, “Muslim invaders,” and Jews. Orbánism, in short, did not make Hungarians more rich, Christian, or free—unless you happened to be one of Orbán’s buddies, in which case you may have gotten rich. As most Hungarians felt their economic circumstances worsen, Orbán provided them with relatively powerless targets to hate.
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Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
One of my favorite things about the Trump Era is that any invocation of civic virtue or decency, no matter how anodyne, is implicitly understood by his supporters as an attack on him and his movement.
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Richard Pund @rpund.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
This makes me wonder how bad the global memory shortage would be if these AI companies actually optimized their code. Would there even be a shortage at all?
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
New — I wrote about how journalists proudly using AI to help them write their stories obscures the deeply human process that makes journalism a societal necessity, and one that feeds the soul of those who create it. Hope you’ll give it a read. I promise I wrote the whole thing.
thehandbasket.co
Refusing to accept big tech's AI-poisoned 'future of journalism'
Humans, however flawed, are
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Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
The US has the fewest parties represented in our national legislature of any country in the industrialized world. We don't just need better candidates--we need a new political system with more parties.
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Lee Drutman @leedrutman.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
"There will be an after. There always is. The Gilded Age ended. The boss system ended. The Solid Jim Crow South gave way to voting rights. This era of dysfunction and discontent will end too. The real question is: What comes next?" New from me -> www.vox.com/politics/480...
vox.com
US democracy has repaired itself before. Here’s how we can do it again.
America has remade itself every few decades. Are we due?
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Richard Pund @rpund.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Great piece. I think the end makes a good point. Proctor has been promoting policies that primarily harm voter turnout. By manipulating the electorate like this, he's doing more harm to our election integrity than good.
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Protect Democracy @protectdemocracy.org · 23/02/2026
We need more people to know about this simple solution to gerrymandering ⬇️ Here's how proportional representation could make map manipulation impossible, and it’s actually achievable. Watch and share to spread the word: youtu.be/xN5V0au9Xms
youtu.be
How Proportional Representation Could End Gerrymandering
YouTube video by Protect Democracy
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 07/02/2026
on the balance i think partisan gerrymandering is bad but the only way it ends is if democrats weaponize it against republicans everywhere they can. wiping out republican lawmakers in blue states might bring the GOP to the table to end the practice.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. The multiracial community in Minneapolis was supposed to shatter. It did not. It held until Bovino was forced out of the Twin Cities with his long coat between his legs.

The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.
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Richard Pund @rpund.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
I've started playing #CluesbySam. It's a fun logic puzzle! 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 cluesbysam.com
cluesbysam.com
Clues by Sam
A daily logic puzzle where you deduce who is a criminal!
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
If you had predicted with precise accuracy any of our current top stories this week during the ‘24 election, it would have been dismissed as Trump Derangement Syndrome by most of the professional takesmiths.
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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 04/01/2026
Instead of whatever this is, we should have a government getting lots of new homes and apartments built, lots of clean energy built, lots of high speed rail and transit and bike lanes built, human rights for everyone, economic & healthcare opportunities for all, & innovation that leads the world.
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Bolts @boltsmag.org · 24/12/2025
Congress could mandate that states use proportional representation, with parties getting a number of seats proportional to their share of the vote. Advocates are already pushing for some states to experiment with this reform.
boltsmag.org
The Escalating Race to Redistrict: Your Questions Answered
How are the new maps changing the midterms? Would proportional representation help? Why are courts not doing more? You asked, and we’ve got answers about mid-decade redistricting.
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🔫🎃Scott Martian Invaders 🎃🛼 @youcaughtscott.com · 11/12/2025
I’M LOSING MY SHIT THIS IS SO FUNNY
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Kansas Reflector @kansasreflector.com · 02/12/2025
U.S. Sen. Bob Dole’s disdain for Electoral College in presidential elections still matter of debate | via @kansascarpenter.bsky.social #ksleg
kansasreflector.com
U.S. Sen. Bob Dole's disdain for Electoral College in presidential elections still matter of debate • Kansas Reflector
Two attorneys and four expert witnesses at Dole Institute explore replacing Electoral College in election of U.S. presidents with a national popular vote.
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 12/11/2025
you should quit social media if you can. if you can't, you should use apps that give you and old-school reverse chronological feed of posts from people you follow. yes, like bluesky. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/you-should...
gelliottmorris.com
You should quit social media for good
Platforms optimized for engagement warp our politics, erode attention, and harm our wellbeing. Here’s how I minimize time on the (anti‑)social web.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
wow. WOW.
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FieldExplores (Gator Days) @fieldexplores.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Play it Later - Gator Days
Transcript

Panel 1

August has just finished downloading a game that he's been looking forward to playing. Unfortunately, he also has to get to work so he doesn't have time to playing it right now. On his computer screen is the notice that the download is complete and an option to tip "15%", "30%", or "50%".

August (thinking): I've been waiting for this game forever. I'll play it after work.

Panel 2

It's later in the evening and August is making dinner. He's putting some onions in a pot and thinking about his new game. As much as he'd like to be playing right now, they got to eat and he promised his son one of his favorite dinners.

August (thinking): I'll play it after dinner.

Gustopher: TACO SOUP! TACO SOUP!

Panel 3

Dinner is done but August is exhausted. He goes to bed and his two cats have quickly settled in for sleep. August thinks about his game but he just doesn't have the energy for it.

August (thinking): Too tired... I'll play it later.

Panel 4

August is woken up by his to cats touching his face and meowing for food. He'd like to play his new game, but there's things that have to be done and he has to get to work.

August: I'll play it after work... Eventually.

Nougat: Maw (possibly meaning "Excuse me good sir, but I find myself in a most peckish state and it be pleasing if you could find it fit to fill my dining bowl with your most delicious of food morsels. I apologize for waking you in this most undignified manner but it is imperative that I dine soon I fear that I might perish from this foul hunger.")

Mewbert: Mew (possibly meaning "FEED ME! NOW!")
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Kansas Reflector @kansasreflector.com · 05/11/2025
Kansas House speaker waves white flag on special session as congresswoman considers Senate run | via @crazeywriter.bsky.social #ksleg
kansasreflector.com
Kansas House speaker waves white flag on special session as congresswoman considers Senate run • Kansas Reflector
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins said Tuesday that he didn't gather enough support from his Republican caucus to force a special session.
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 31/10/2025
“We cannot go back to anything approaching the old constitutional order, which already had been in a long, terminal decline.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...
liberalcurrents.com
The American Presidency Can Never Be Trusted Again
It’s time for multiparty democracy and a limited executive.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
“70% of wage-earning adults who rely on government programs like SNAP and Medicaid work full-time, many at hugely profitable companies like Walmart and McDonald’s whose low wages are effectively subsidized by tax dollars without any of the blame or paternalistic lectures.”
thehandbasket.co
SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more
Journalist and author Adam Chandler explains what so much of the conversation about them gets wrong.
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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
In my opinion it’s time to retire the Nobel prizes for fields where most of the important discoveries have already been made, like physics, and add prizes for newer fields where substantial innovations occur every year, like speedrunning
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NPR @npr.org · 01/10/2025
Kansas Republican lawmakers are circulating a petition for a special session to redistrict. The goal is to defeat the state's only Democrat in Congress. (via @kcur.org)
n.pr
Kansas Republicans start redistricting process aimed at unseating Rep. Sharice Davids
Kansas Republican lawmakers are circulating a petition for a special session to redistrict. The goal is to defeat the state's only Democrat in Congress.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Most of the power authoritarians have is freely given. We should not comply with them in advance. Trump is far weaker than he looks. So is the GOP. We should draw them out, drain them at every opportunity, and fight for people’s wellbeing at every turn. We have been sent here to fight for people.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 30/09/2025
great piece from the always-great @pastpunditry.bsky.social and a welcome antidote to vacuous commentators whose historical memories seem to go back no further than the first iron man movie
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Right Didn’t Catch Cancel Culture From the Left
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Let me tell you a beautiful story about this couch. 🧵 IG msviciousdesign
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Kimmel’s defiant return highlights one of the most disturbing dynamics of Trump II, that so many people in positions of leadership are chickenshit frauds who would rather fold in advance than put up anything resembling a fight www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Kimmel’s refusal to capitulate stands out because so many other well-situated people—those with the resources, platform, and power to stand up to the president, including, initially, the leaders of ABC—have surrendered, withdrawn, or become Trump sycophants themselves. One by one, American leaders supposedly committed to principles of free speech, due process, democracy, and equality have abandoned those ideals when menaced by the Trump administration. These cascading acts of cowardice from the people best positioned to resist Trump’s authoritarian power grabs have made Trump seem exponentially more powerful than he actually is, sapping strength from others who might have discovered the courage to stand up. Defending democracy requires a collective refusal to acquiesce to lawless behavior from many different sectors of society. All of these powerful people trying to save their own skin have effectively multiplied Trump’s attacks on constitutional government, by enhancing a false sense of inevitability and invincibility.
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 24/09/2025
if we are going to have online magazines for Abundance, i think a wealthy patron should fund an online magazine for electoral reform — specifically for furthering the twin causes of proportional representation and democratic revival. seems like a comparatively neglected space
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 20/09/2025
a few thoughts (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The MAGA Movement Is Not a Debating Society
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either
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Richard Pund @rpund.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Sometimes, the YouTube algorithm actually works. Can't believe I've never heard Stromae before but it's really speaking to me right now. youtu.be/VHoT4N43jK8?...
youtu.be
Stromae - Alors on danse (Official Video)
YouTube video by StromaeVEVO
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Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Political violence is often the result of people living in a political system they no longer believe can deliver the things they want or need. We need to change how our political system works so more of us believe that it’s possible to solve problems together through our government.
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