Here comes another double feature of a base share on our part. This is about the Long Island Railroad Strike and the issue of gerrymandering. Where the strike is concerned, Tropical Soulvangelical was able to call Bernie out on his obstensibly misleading statement that he blocked a proposal in Congress to force the workers to make a settlement with the MTA. He kind of accidentally did it via AI, though in keeping up on how Papua New Guinea wants to use AI within the cultural context of their country rather than that of the Bladerunner West, he also wants to find out how to use AI in a more green fashion somehow. But because Bernie's a political ambulance chaser, TSV wanted to know whether he meddled outside his home state of Vermont to intricate himself in the strike. AI came back and talked about a claim about Bernie blocking the aforementioned proposal. TSV then asked AI, well how about my Senators and Congresswoman, and how about those Senators TSV deems as part of the #SpiritOf46? AI said that it couldn't find any statements or votes by said persons on the strike, and that TSV should check roll calls from 5/14-17 on congress.gov. TSV did so and came up empty. He didn't exactly went through with a fine tooth comb, but he doesn't feel like he had to -if- said proposal was formally introduced in the Senate. He believes he would have seen some kind of meaningful heading in the site search results. That leaves two possibilities for TSV. Either said "proposal" was the kind of backroom discussion that doesn't immediately make it into a vote, and hence a roll call of some sort via congress.gov, -or- Bernie was just making it up. In giving Bernie the benefit of a doubt, TSV entertained the possibility that Bernie's proposal blockage was part of the backroom discussion as is the proposal that was supposedly blocked. Since neither would make it and -didn't- make it on congress.gov, it's impossible to independently verify Bernie's claims, which as per his wont is the way he kind of prefers it. Just like -trump- himself, Bernie doesn't want to be questioned. TSV figures that Bernie made the blockage claim to try to embarrass Kathy Hochul whom TSV observed via newsradio as making the unforced error of attacking the workers and feeling like she had to take the side of the MTA instead of providing neutral reassurance of some sort. Being a member of the food union as per his job on the Bland Barns Catering Counter, TSV takes the general side of the workers, and wants both the MTA and Kathy Hochul to provide some sort of mathematical substantiation that the workers were asking for too much money instead of just running around going, "oh they're asking for too much money!" TSV also wants the unions to also be substantive in making it clear how their demands are actually reasonable, which being a union member himself, TSV wants to believe. But this is otherwise for TSV yet another example of having to go None Of The Above with respect to the lame trifecta of Trumpy/Bernie/Clooney, because -trump- also got involved as TSV also heard on newsradio. TSV wants to monitor the situation beyond all the political noise both via newsradio and the appropriate wiki's articles. But he still says, foo on Bernie for again not being all that different from Ol'Trumpy and Clooney/Hochul in terms of political lameness.

Gerrymandering. Is. Bad. Tropical Soulvangelical doesn't think anyone's going to argue with that, but with the primary election in his district, he was mailed an alarmist pamphlet from one of the contenders regarding gerrymandering. The contender made a vague promise that he will supposedly fight the "good fight" with respect to generalized issues including gerrymandering. Because TSV had already voted, the only thing that would convince him that he made the wrong choice in going for the #SpiritOf46 candidate is if any of the contenders actually substantively said amidst their pamphlets something to the effect of, "vote for us, and we'll do our part to support lowering gas prices and health insurance costs," Basic Ben Franklin (via the concept of "self interest"), but none have done so. There's only about two weeks left, and the Bernie/Clooney contenders have said nothing relevant or substantive accordingly. TSV figures the anti-gerrymandering contender talked about gerrymandering because he, too, had nothing substantive to offer in the way of economics, and hence he had to resort to alarmism and emotional language because that's all that contender's got. Gerrymandering, like -trump- himself, TSV finds is a very convenient distraction, because it uses ambiguity and mirror logic. It depends on the point of view, and this is outside of the Supreme Court striking down Virginia's proposed redistricting. But the way TSV figures, let's say you have Figure A and Figure B in a given district. Figure A claims that the district is gerrymandered toward the benefit of Figure B, and Figure B replies that Figure A is just being a spoilsport. And then you supposedly "ungerrymander" the district, and the result benefits Figure A. And then it's -Figure B- that comes back and says, oh the district is gerrymandered for the benefit of Figure A, and then it's Figure A that replies that it's Figure B who's now being the spoilsport. So who's right and who's wrong? There's no answer to that, so TSV figures that any alarmism vulnerable members of the populace will just go down the rabbit hole without -ever- saying, "...wait a minute, how does it make sense?" TSV has already made everyone's head explode with talking about two separate issues, so he's going to have to put off talking about the Supreme Court and Justice For Jordan Neely till "manana."