#thanks for the ask btw anon

[tanadrin]

What’s the case for an upper and lower chamber?

In my opinion, none.

The historical situation is that the upper chamber had more power and the lower was a sop to the common folk and petty nobility: this is why the House of Commons was formed (originally from knights of the shire and the representatives of cities that had been granted special rights by the Crown), and only later, after a very long process of constitutional evolution in Britain, did the Lords transform into a consultative body that was adjunct to the Commons, where the real power lay. For a while, even after you started to have something that looked like modern government in Britain, you still frequently had PMs drawn from the Lords--and still could, in theory, except that the convention is they come from the Commons.

In the U.S. example, the goal was simply to split the difference between a popular chamber (the House) and a chamber representing state governments (the Senate, whose members could be chosen by any method provided for under state law, but originally were usually chosen by state legislatures). This is because the people who drafted the U.S. constitution hated and were suspicious of popular democracy, because they were rich landowners and slaveholders whose positions were untenable in the long run if everyone in the country could vote and was equally represented.

Obviously they didn't put it like that--they spoke of the hotheaded hoi polloi, the changeable will of the people--but they were massive Romeaboos, and all the populist leaders who whittled away at the Roman republic managed to do so because they were willing to centralize power, to take it away from the baronial elite of the Republic, and to use that power in service of people further down the org chart. In service of themselves too, of course--these were not altruists--but it was the particularly Roman instantiation of the crown-vs-barons struggle, where the common folk usually side with the Crown, because the barons are bastards who abuse them directly.

(Very many "tyrants" in history were "tyrants" only in that they gave a raw deal to the barons in their particular social order, and very many events which we now describe as movements toward a more equitable distribution of power were in fact a very shitty deal for the majority of the population--the peasants--because it gave the barons even more license to abuse their serfs.)

And the American founders knew all this, and they were all barons, and they didn't like the idea of a federal government that was too effective, so they sprinkled it with veto points and also totally failed to anticipate the rise of modern political parties. (Which weren't exactly what they had in mind when they warned against factionalism--that was more about sectional interests. But still, they did totally fail to anticipate how this system would work as party politics developed.)

In a system of democratic government like the U.S. has now, where it is widely acknowledged the rule should be "one adult citizen never convicted of a felony who can get the day off work to stand in line and has a photo ID = one vote" the U.S. Senate is an inexcusable anachronism. Indeed, the Supreme Court has ruled that state senates modeled on the exact same principle as the U.S. senate (say, one county one senator, as the constitution of my home state Tennessee has it) are unconstitutional, because they violate the equal protection clause.

More recently, many countries have approached the idea of an upper chamber as a sort of "chamber of experts" meant to review and advise on legislation. This kind of makes sense in theory, I guess, but if voters want subject-matter experts to make policy, they can vote them in; in practice, any system of appointment or ex officio qualification is going to select for political lackeys without democratic mandates, and it's also just a bad idea to have people with significant power over the legislative process who do not have democratic accountability. The problem of creating legislation is never that we don't have enough smart people willing to offer their opinions; the problem is brokering functional compromises between interest groups and resolving incentives that push the process toward dysfunctional outcomes, which isn't really something you can fix just by fiddling with the composition of your upper house.

So in most modern parliamentary democracies, upper houses are reduced in power. Either they can't veto bills permanently (Lords), they can't originate money bills (Lords again), they only have input on certain matters (German Bundesrat), they're full of government appointees to ensure the government always has a majority in them (Irish Seanad), or the lower house can overrule them on most matters (Japanese House of Councillors). And the reason why is obvious: if your democratic mandate comes from the lower house, if that's where your government is being formed in a parliamentary system, if the whole principle of government is meant to be collective self-rule by the body of citizens, an upper house that is a check on that power is either definitionally redundant or a brake on democracy.

There are ways to ensure that a lower house is both representative and does not devolve into factional chaos. Proportional representation, four-year terms, constructive motions of no confidence (again, parliamentary systems only), etc. Plenty of countries and subnational entities have unicameral legislatures and are perfectly stable: Sweden, Norway, the Baltics, Portugal, Mongolia, South Korea, Peru [ok bad example nvm], all the states of Germany, all the provinces of Canada, most of the provinces of Argentina, Queensland, the vast majority of the states of India, and the three devolved legislatures in the United Kingdom.

Therefore in my opinion there is no good democratic case for an upper house. And all the undemocratic reasons why you'd want one are bad. Too much democracy is, in fact, a very rare problem for systems of government to have!

#thanks for the ask btw anon #i love getting to rant about the evils of bicameralism

[somerandomdudelmao]

this is so bad that people are asking you when your comic updates are so they can sleep.

Yall really SHOULDN'T do that, its messed up, im just speaking from my standpoint but hearing stuff like that i wouldn't even Want to update anymore or announce wips or anything with all this "when is it coming out? can i sleep? can i do this? is it coming out soon?" i mean asking for WIPS of the comic seems fine but asking when its coming out bc its affecting you is wild. and not good. imagine what type of stress that is on a person to know that people arent taking care of themselves until the comic comes out.

idk it feels like some of yall dont know how to act. this comic is a passion project if anything. it just seems. so unhealthy and offputting to deal with this from an audience. idk.

:т

#would I be able to sleep tonight? #tell me when is the update so I can finally sleep #don’t get me wrong here #I don’t judge anyone for not sleeping because of the comic #I was the same lmao #but bruh #it would be nice if you stop making your health my responsibility #if I had nickel every time someone tried to make me promise updates through quilt #I would have like…..hundreds? of nickels #idk #I had something like 15 whenistheupdateiwanttosleep asks only today #not the worst thing I ever had in my asks tho but still #All said doesn’t apply to Hoddi and Tapa btw #They are special #thank you anon:)

[c-hrona]

hey!! may i suggest number 19 for vashwood for the things you said prompt?

Things you said when we were the happiest we ever were.

Ask game (request closed u.u)

#trigun #trigun maximum #vashwood #vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #interrupting normal broadcasting of the blorbos kissing to post this #it was sitting in my folder and I just wanted to free it into the wild #(i did not forgot about these asks I'm just working on them slowly because... let's just say i'm an idiot and leave it as it is) #BTW wanted to do something sappy as hell so this is the morning after their wedding :3c #also gonna tag this as #Wolfwood Lives AU #because i have WAY more of this AU and I want to talk about it more #anyway hope you like it kind anon! #and thank you for the ask! :3 #chronart

[basketobread]

How does Lunara feel about... Lolth

not good lol

#i took a quick break from comms just to doodle this #it made me laugh cuz i was literally just talking abt this with simon the other day #shout out to him btw i think hes the only one that knows the lunara lore rn lol #you can barely even tell whats goin on here but #WHATEVER!!!! #also shout out again to simon cuz he informed me about a certain little fact and it worked perfectly with lunaras lore #lunaras life is in SHAMBLES rn #also lunara is from menzo so you can imagine how she feels about lolth now that shes a selunite #ANYWAYS #back to comms... BYE BYE!!!! and also thank u anon for this question huehue #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #tav #bg3 tav #bg3 oc #baldur's gate oc #lunara posting #bob the artist #ask bob #lunara lore

[temeyes]

everyone i see your 141 art i just want to grab them all and just hold them like wdym they’re hardass soldiers they’re just my babygirls

they're just our Babygirls, they're just our Babygirls!

#THANK U ANON!! GLAD U LIKE MY 141 ART HEHE #i had too much fun with this one #ghost is about to puke btw #answered asks #anon #my art #2023 #call of duty #task force 141 #tf141 #ghost cod #price cod #gaz cod #soap cod

[bixels]

Do sunset and twilight have any sort of relationship in your human au? (Your art is so SO BEAUTIFUL by the way, I have spent so much time staring at it. I love your lines and use of color).

Yes.

#ask me #anon #also thank you! #btw i'm feeling generous don't send asks that are obviously prompting me to draw something i won't answer #but yeah of course the bookish excitable nerd falls for the badass brooding cowgirl who do you think i am?

[layraket]

I really like your art.. and you're really cool ajajaas bueno este yo estoy hoy aqui para preguntar si podrías dibujar a Wind y Vio jugando jenga encima de Wolfie.. AJAJSJSJAJS D PERSONA POR LA IDEA CRACK ESQ NO ME LA SACO DE LA CABEZAAAAA

vio is testing how much patience has twilight how much time can wolfie stay still

wind is there for emotional support

enfin se la estan pasando de bomba

#this was supossed to be a quick doodle.... #i got excited and it ended being full render lol #SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG BUSY LIFE PERDONAME PLS #thank u im glad u like my art btw :D #linked universe #linked universe fanart #lu vio #lu four #lu wind #lu wolfie #asks #anon #layraket art

[ebi-noodle-doodles]

i apologize if this is weird but your fat miku art has helped me with my self esteem <3 im chubby and ive always loved hatsune miku and seeing her so happy has made me feel a lot better about myself. fat girls for the win 💙💙💙

<3

#its not weird btw #and thank you #i appreciate the love for my art so much #vocaloid #hatsune miku #miku #xixiriima #ebi noodle doodles #ask #reply #reply anon #anon #anon reply #anon ask #reply art

[tazmiilly]

fiddleford's middle name is "hadron". the term "hadron" was coined in 1962 and, according to google ngram viewer, didn't really take off until 1965 (in terms of replacing the previous term "strongly interacting particle"). according to the gravity falls wiki fiddleford is 72 years old in 2012, meaning he was born in 1940 or -41, a full two decades before the word was invented. even if the specific age of 72 is inaccurate, he must have been born at the latest in 1957 in order to have attended backupsmore university with stanford in 1975. fiddleford's parents absolutely did not give him the name hadron. fiddleford gave himself the name at age 21-ish. fiddleford hadron mcgucket is transgender. happy friday

fiddleford winning 1st place in transgender. most trans guy of all time.

#I'm so curious where the wiki got age 72... #I'm just assuming that no matter what he gave himself his first and middle name #bc i love trans headcanons #scribbles #ask #gravity falls #fiddleford mcgucket #happy friday to you anon #thank you for the trivia btw

[dustykneed]

Picture this; Bones holding Joanna, rocking her to sleep and the part in Beautiful Boy where it’s like “The monster's gone, He's on the run, And your daddy's here” is playing. :,)

Fatherhood gives you certain... skills. Coincidentally, this is also how Jim finds out that Bones sings.

:'))

#star trek #star trek fanart #star trek aos #star trek alternate original series #jim kirk #jim t kirk #leonard mccoy #bones mccoy #leonard bones mccoy #joanna mccoy #mckirk #mckirk fanart #ship or platonic? up to you #this sort of ties in to another thing ill be posting soon. but only sort of?? mainly it's joanna's design and symbols lol #yes joanna has character symbols im a little bit insane and a huge nerd #this is when jim decides he HAS to woo that divorced dad lmao #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK ANON ILYSM. im so happy with where this ask took me and i hope you enjoy!! #what is jim dreamjng about you ask? well. The colours are a reference sorta actually but iykyk (aos lore?) #this hit me in so many different feels. SO MANY. im a changed man because of this ask anon i am in your debt #im so in love with all of your brains btw. the reqs yall send in are so so good #honestly if youre a recurring anon feel free to leave a calling card or something. i would love to shake you adoringly by some sorta name #happy first contact day!!

[buwheal]

*its an old Ecard featuring Garfield. There is a picture of Garfield commenting about his annoyance that its only midweek and the bottom text says "hang in there"*

#Ok. Fine. He gets to suffer then. And you get to see!! Congrats!! #[you've got mail!] #spamton #spamton g spamton #deltarune #deltarune spamton #deltarune chapter 2 #thank you anon for being patient! this is what i mean when i say if it isnt answered; i could be saving it. This is from jan 7 i believe. #This one is cute though. And creative. Many points for you filler ask anon. #Sorry hes suffering as your answer though LOLL #wasnt sure what i wanted the dialogue to be and then i had a lightbulb moment and remembered #I DONT HAVE TO HAVE DIALOGUE!!!! Thats what descriptions are for!! #man i am smart. /j #Btw ily (/p) if you know what the one sided static means.. youve been paying attentino thgatst so cool.. (sniffle)

[apollos-olives]

Is it direspectful to cut a kufiya ? I was thinking of doing sewing projects and maybe clothes or plushies from them when i can get some from hirbawi but i don’t want to do something wrong

with all due respect, please do not mutilate, cut, or change the kuffiyeh in any way. if you're not palestinian, then you should not be using our clothes and our traditional scarves or anything outside of what we have instructed you to do with them. and you should ESPECIALLY NOT DO ANYTHING to a hirbawi kuffiyeh. hirbawi is the last kuffiyeh factory in palestine. that factory took a nearly dead cultural practice and revived it. please treat our scarves with respect and do not alter them in any way. they're very delicate and hirbawi puts their blood sweat and tears into their kuffiyehs. changing our cultural clothings outside of what we have instructed for non palestinians to do with them is extremely disrespectful and it turns into the topic of "consuming" our culture, instead of respecting and appreciating it.

thank you so much for asking first, before doing anything. please take care of our kuffiyehs and especially treat hirbawi's kuffiyehs with love. i hope this helps.

#anon i am absolutely not mad that you asked btw #if anything i'm relieved #thank you for asking first. thank you for being respectful #palestine #free palestine

[basketobread]

that weird little wrinklemouth expression you draw (like karlach saying "stinky") is SO funny, i just had to tell you because i love it and it's been making my partner and i lose it every time we see your art

truth be told, i did not expect so many people to find it funny but i'm VERY glad that it could become my trademark DHFIUFDSDS its like my favorite thing to draw in the world

#THIS WAS SUCH A SWEET THING TO READ BTW THANK YOU ANON #IM GLAD MY SILLY DOODLES COULD MAKE U AND YOUR PARTNER LAUGH <333 #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #karlach #karlach cliffgate #lunara posting #tav #bg3 tav #ask bob

[dailyfigures]

Do you have pictures of your personal collection if you’re comfortable sharing? Hearing abt the miku figures u have made me curious! Love the blog as always ⭐️

thank you anon! honestly i have been waiting for someone to ask me that so yes! i do!!! :)

little disclaimer is that my collection is always a work in progress so i don't love how some of my shelves look rn but it changes all the time so that's okay!

here's a general overview and i'll do a shelf by shelf tour under the cut!

starting off with my favourite madoka magica set! i love how dynamic the poses are and they look so badass but delicate at the same time <3

and my second favourite madoka magica set! this madoka was actually my first scale figure ever :)

ofcourse i need a homumado shelf <3 i don't usually put non-scale figs in here but that sitting homura just matches the madoka too well so i had to make an exception!

i try to have a theme for each shelf so as you see this one is like a traditional clothing shelf!

this is my halloweeney shelf! definitely will be expanding this in the future as i am obsessed with halloween <3

these ladies don't have much in common but they all have some hot/deep pink in them so i still like them together!

this is my racing/street style miku shelf! (it's starting to sound far fetched but these shelves all make perfect sense to me ok)

ok this one is not supposed to be like this but neither of them fit anywhere else so they're just chilling down here for now. will change as soon as i get new figs that match either of them!

my beautiful goth girlfriends! they can't really hold hands physically but they are holding hands mentally <3

my beloved annoying men <3 btw dabi is a 1/8 scale and gojo is a 1/7 so it's crazy how big dabi turned out i was so surprised!

chainsaw shelf! sadly this denji turned out kinda bad but together with bishoujo ash williams i do kinda like him....they're cool together :)

and lastly the rest of my horror bishoujo ladies! this shelf is a little empty rn but i have the friday the 13th one, the hellraiser one, the other beetlejuice version (striped jacket), the other pennywise version (coloured instead of monochrome) and the other ash williams version (groovy version aka extra bloody) in the mail rn so that's super exciting!

that's my whole scale figure display! i have some scale figures in boxes that i'm planning on selling and i obviously didn't include any of my nendoroids and prize figures, since those are mostly in boxes rn until i figure out a good way to display them.

this was very fun for me to talk about so thank you so much for asking anon and thanks for reading everyone!!!! <3 and let me know if you have any questions about anything!

#btw if anyone comments on the dust i WILL be pressing charges!!!!!!! i do not wanna hear it!!! #ok that's all thanks again if you read all that :3 #me.txt #ask #anon

[genericpuff]

Ahem. I know what other brushes LO uses ;)

(Forewarning: most of these brushes are from early LO and as such aren't used anymore. I will put an * next to the recent brushes Rachel uses.) Pastels, Gouache, and other textured brushes (used mainly for backgrounds):

Pastel Palooza (Kyle's Megapack)

Pastella (Kyle's Megapack)

Fat Fun 100 (Kyle's Megapack)

Fat Fun Spongy (Kyle's Megapack)

Hard Square Pastel (Kyle's Winter 2019 set) *

Pigmentia (Kyle's Fall 2021 set) *

Sheriff Coal (Kyle's Spring 2022 set) *

Watercolors (used for backgrounds like clouds and texture)

500 Giant (Kyle's Watercolors)

Medium Wash Texture (Kyle's Watercolors)

Soft Irregular Wash 150 (Kyle's Watercolors)

Soft Wash 120 (Kyle's Watercolors)

FX:

Kyle's Splatter Brushes - Splatter Bot C (Kyle's Splatter set)

Stars 1 and 2 (Kyle's Splatter set)

Pressure rake (Kyle's Rake set) (warning: while this brush can be imported into CSP, this brush only properly works in Photoshop and Procreate because of their specific brush engines that allow 360 brush tip rotation)

Wet Ink Dynamic (Kyle's Splatter set)

Wet Ink Random (Kyle's Splatter set)

Bird Mix (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Bird Mix Vintage (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Break Glass (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Crackup (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Downpour (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Gulls 1 and 2 (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Manga Line Varied (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Manga Lines Broken (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Any of the smoke brushes (Kyle's Concept brushes) (warning: like the pressure rake brush, they work properly in Photoshop or Procreate)

Get the concept brush set. I'm not joking.

The entirety of Kyle's Winter 2022 set (Rachel is using these for how winter looks in the mortal realm) *

Foliage:

Fall Color Save (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Foliage Color Mix (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Foliage Mix 2, 3, and 4 (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Foliage Mix Dry 1 and 2 (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Brancher Big, Medium, and Small (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Foliage Pro 1 - 8 (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Foliage Small Color (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Foliage Ground cover (Kyle's Concept brushes)

Maddy Bellwoar's Ghibli-inspired brush sets* (can be found on Gumroad for the cheapest price)

Hope that helps!

listen here my dear sweet anon

first of all, there is no forewarning needed here that these are mostly from early LO, early LO is what I'm dying to recapture so you already struck gold and you can stop digging (or don't, because holy shit finding this in my inbox was like christmas for puff round 2)

second, i hope you're happy choosing this timeline where you're my new bestie because goddamn this is COMPREHENSIVE

and third (and most importantly) how in the flying FUCK did you know about some of these

like it's clear at this point rachel uses a lot of the kyle webster brushes, i kinda figured that out ages ago and it was just a matter of figuring out which ones she uses which you've done me the solid of putting together for me

but the ghibli background set?? the brushes that are exclusive to the newest episodes ??

either you've just become the champion of being the most hyperfixated on old LO orrrrr you know something we don't and there's a reason you're using the anon tag-

#i will mention btw there are some i couldn't get thru my usual download sources #the winter 2019 fall 2021 and spring 2022 set #thankfully they only contain one brush each all of which are from the newer episodes as labelled #but i'd still like to nab 'em so if anyone has any leads or can share these brushes with me pls lmk in my asks <3 #everyone thank our almighty anon for passing on these resources #i've gone ahead and updated the brush pack post which now includes almost all of these as a background brush set #lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #lore olympus redraw

[lesbiandardevil]

Not sure if you're an MattFoggy enjoyer, but could you do something MattFoggy in Joan of Arc? Or if that isn't your thing, a regular Matt in holy cow? :)

SAY NO MORE ANON!!!!!!! in a festive mood lately apologies but i think it fits the palette actually ..

edit: matt under the cut cause i lost my fight against colors but still 🫶

palettes are here if you wanna send smth <3

black lines version cause i was told it's allowed.. feels like cheating to me but it does look better at least <3

#this was therapeutic thank you anon #i love mattfoggy btw if you even care .. #silleys.. #asks #doodles #my art #daredevil stuff #daredevil #matt murdock #foggy nelson #mattfoggy #id added #thank you user fannishmagpie for always adding id to my art <3