AIUI in the 1860s the driver was absolutely slavery -- the various declarations of succession are crystal clear about why they were breaking from the Union. "state's rights" were just … (View Post)

I think "effectively unmodifiable" isn't great, but it's just one thing that ties into all the other problems with the US system. With a fair number of the recent controversial SC… (View Post)

Yeah. My totally uninformed take is that they'd probably not change the rules unless they were very sure it would be a defeat, say about 2/3rds to 1/3rd. And even then I'd guess that people… (View Post)

In this analogy, I think I (like most people but by no means all) am not a bank employee but a customer or perhaps a very minor one-share shareholder, though. I don't influence what policies the… (View Post)

If you're a 17th century astronomer looking to construct a heliometer there probably aren't that many suitably sized buildings with big open floors directly under their roofs. So you persua… (View Post)