California is probably one of the least gerrymandered states. In 2008 there was an initiative to form a non-partisan redistricting commission to draw districts. All federal and state districts have been set using this process for more than 10 years.

California also has an open primary system where all candidates run against each other in a combined primary vote regardless of party affiliation (except president and some local offices). The top 2 from the primary advance to the general election. So, the general election could feature 2 democrats or 2 republicans.

Additionally, following the pandemic, California moved to automatically mailing a ballot to every active registered voter. They also have automatic voter registration at the DMV.

Altogether, it would be unfair to compare California to Texas or any other red state, all of whom actively gerrymander and work to suppress voter participation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Citizens_Redistricting_Commission https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/primary-elections-california https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-27/california-universal-voting-by-mail-becomes-permanent

Right, and that’s assuming he doesn’t just use his “dictator for a day” plan to remove anyone from Congress that opposes him. That’s how other authoritarians create a sham democracy.

They way over-complicated it. Once he installs loyalists (as in their step 1), he can just round up anyone he wants, send them to a private prison run by an aligned billionaire, and ignore the courts. If the people in the departments controlled by the executive are willing to break the law, Congress and the courts don’t really have any tools to combat that.

I once had to post a position that was specifically made for my employee, but my recruiter was awesome. I told her there was no possibility I would pick anyone else, so she suggested I make the requirements hyper specific. So, I met with my employee and we worked up a list of 10-20 things that she had done in her career and put them all in as requirements to qualify.

I received no other “qualified” applicants, so I only had to interview the one. My next meeting with her I said, “this is your official interview, do you have any questions for me?” She said “no” and I congratulated her on being selected for the role.

Same. I have a fence that’s barely still standing now that I removed the ivy. I’ve been pulling it and spraying it for several years now. I know I’ll never win, but I’m doing my best to keep it in check. The most painful part is when I go to garden centers and see it for sale. It makes me want to cry.

I can definitely ID 2 mosses: long moss and short moss.

To some degree you can get use Glassdoor with the help of the element zapper from ublock origin. What you can circumvent is pretty limited, but you can at least get a bit of information without jumping through all their hoops.

What that said, I would not put a ton of trust in the reviews section. As people have mentioned, companies can get bad reviews removed, but also most happy employees aren’t taking the time to go submit a review. I use it more to see salary ranges for job titles, both generally and at specific companies. Even that is subject to how honest users are about their title and salary, but employees have much less access to that kind of info compared to employers, so I have to take what I can get.

I have the opposite problem. I have a dead PS3 and a bunch of games that I can’t play anymore because Sony refuses to offer backwards compatibility. I would love to be able to play those games on my PS4 or PC, but so far I haven’t been able to get an emulator working for that.

Apocalyptica is a symphonic metal band with 3 cellists as the core of all their work. Sometimes they also have drums, electric guitar, or vocals. It varies from album to album and song to song.

There’s a great orchestral version of “Animals” by Architects if metal works for you.

Going back to the 90’s Metallica did a concert and live album with the San Francisco Symphony.

It’s not exactly what you asked for, but Sean Townsend does great piano covers of rock/metal, especially Killswitch Engage. His music is very relaxing to listen to. Most of his material is on YouTube, which is a shame because I would buy his music if it were for sale somewhere.

I love their cover of Gasoline by Audioslave.