I was inspired by yesterday's post to see what it might take to actually create a Republican district in CT. The answer: extreme gerrymandering, and the seat wouldn't even be that safe. Every other seat would be unflippably blue. (Yes, the performative red/blue dichotomy is tiresome, but we're stuck with it. For now.)

There's a viral maga meme that "New England is gerrymandered" citing 40% Republican registration (which I didn't verify, and don't believe). Aside from New England not being a state, Connecticut is simply not gerrymandered. Massachusetts, the birthplace of gerrymandering, is also not gerrymandered. The fact is that any of the New England states that could even do this, would have to go very far out of its way to coddle these people, and none of them would be successful without gerrymandering.

The base map is from the NYT's "An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2024 Election," which I used to build out the "R" district first. Turnout in that contest was.. unpredictably uneven.. and so it may not fully represent each town, but close enough for this. I matched the boundaries to existing municipal borders to keep it relatively simple while getting the population division as close as possible. It worked.

But it only works in practice if you're deplorable.

The Cara Pavalock saga continues….

As Cara continues to call my family supporters of child abuse and supporters of violence, a video has been released of her engaging in a road rage incident.

In the short clip released, Cara is seen in the middle o the road, standing outside of her car, screaming at the car in front of her.

Cara addressed this in a post on her Facebook, acknowledging it was her in the video. In her own post, she clarified her son was in the car. She admitted to leaving her son in the car to walk away and scream at someone in the middle of the road. The individual who anonymously shared the video also noted she was driving irrationally and impatiently before she got out of the car, she was hopping curbs, cutting through parking lots, and speeding down streets - ALL WITH HER SON IN THE CAR.

Cara has the nerve to use her platform as an elected official to spread lies about my family, while she acts like this in broad daylight.

She is UNFIT for an official position and is INCAPABLE of representing all constituents in Bristol.

She needs to be held accountable for her actions, especially how she has targeted my family and lied about us.

HOLD HER ACCOUNTABLE.

Two years ago today, I was fired from my job. Why? Because I asked a question about my pay - a couple weeks after they changed how we were paid. I was in active cancer treatment. I lost my insurance. When I did my research, I realized that my question was protected by the 1934 Labor Relations Act. I contacted the NLRB, and a lawyer in the Hartford office took my case. Although the NLRB usually tries to get you your job back, once I told my lawyer that I had alerted my former employers that they had broken the law in my termination and I would happily come back with an apology (not once, but THREE TIMES) and they did not respond,we decided it wasn’t worth trying to get employment back where the work environment was not friendly. The NLRB determined I was owed lost wages and my former employers decided to settle. Workers have rights!!!! And if you own a business, perhaps you should acquaint yourself with the labor laws of the state and country - it could save you thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.

Illegitimi non carborundum

I wish CT had something similar to stop corporations from spending money to support or oppose candidates, political parties, political committees or ballot measures.

Earlier I saw a post but it disappeared before I could read it and was the same law that Hawaii passed. I know there are some restrictions but there needs to be a complete stop.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/10/26/upshot/gerrymandering-ranking.html

People often assume that CT's map is gerrymandered because of how weirdly shaped the congressional districts are, but CT is really not gerrymandered.

The origin of CT's insanely shaped map is also quite odd and old, and was actually drawn to advantage *republicans* back in 2000. CT's constitution requires that either a bipartisan redistricting commission draw the maps, if that fails then a 2/3 majority of the state legislature can draw the maps, and if that fails the courts make sure the maps comply with equal population requirements.

The origin of the weirdly shaped 5th district was from a bipartisan compromise. In 2000 CT was losing a congressional district, and we had 3 Republicans and 3 Democrats in congress. The 5th district combined a Democratic and Republican district that both parties thought they could win. Initially Republicans got the better part of the deal, winning 3 of the 5 districts in 2002 and 2004. But then Democrats won the 5th and 2nd districts in 2006, and have wone every district in every election since then.

In 2010 and 2020 the bipartisan commission could not agree to a consensus map, and there wasn't a 2/3 democratic majority in the state legislature in either of those elections. So in both of those redistricting cycles judges made small changes to ensure each district have equal populations, but the districts are basically the same as they were when they were drawn in 2000.

Just a bit of backstory: Roy was an absolute chonker of a Koi that lived in the Porter Reservoir in Manchester. Unfortunately he was last seen a couple years back and it's safe to assume he's dead now. I took these shots back in June 2023 the first time I saw him. He came up to me expecting to be fed. Unfortunately I didn't have anything for him, but it looked like he knew how to work the crowd either way.

EDIT: I have to log off for a bit but will try and get to some more of these at my son's hockey practice later, so keep em coming. Thanks everyone!

Went hiking at Mohawk Mountain yesterday

This is the reason I love living in Connecticut

Did anyone here go to 104 Fest in 1996? It was the 1 where Candlebox headlined, and Lush walked off stage because of all the flying bottles. I was hoping to find pictures of the day, but there's almost nothing online. Anything you can share would be appreciated.

For those who don't know, private equity has been purchasing veterinarian practices. I came across this website, https://privateequityvet.org/vet-list/, from a reddit post yesterday. Its a map of the US and you can drill down by state/town to see whether your vet is listed as being owned by private equity.

I live in the Farmington Valley area, and when I looked at the website, I found both my current vet, my past vet, and the two emergency hospitals that I've gone to are all owned by private equity firms. And as I was looking for other vets nearby, it seemed like the vast majority of them are also owned by private equity firms.

I've been with my most recent vet for probably the last decade and I really like the people there. For example, one of the receptionists has a side gig pet sitting, and I've used her frequently over the years when I'm traveling. However, their prices have been OUTRAGEOUS. Every time I go to the vet I guess what the final bill will come to and my best guesses usually involve me figuring out what it should cost and then doubling it. I love my furry companions but it isn't uncommon for me to drop several thousand dollars a year on vet bills (and much more in end of life situations).

But now I know why the costs have become so outrageous. All the extra blood tests being performed before every procedure and all the extra charges are likely mandated in order to increase revenue/profit. The tube of eye cream that costs me $50 at the vet costs $10 on Amazon. I can only imagine the markups on the many, many blood tests I've had run over the years.

I don't mind paying the salaries of a local business plus a reasonable profit. However, private equity looks to maximize profits, and I feel like I'm treated as a profit center where they are trying to maximize how much they can extract from me.

If anyone has any recommendations for a vet practice in the Farmington Valley area that isn't beholden to private equity investors, I would love to hear about it.

EDIT: I found a companion website to the one listed above. However, this website identifies vets that are independent. https://independentvet.com/

October in Connecticut

I’ve never seen the sunset from up here since the road to drive up closes earlier. Make sure to take a flashlight and good shoes for the hike down!

Donation Drop-Off Dates & Location:

All material donations can be dropped off at the IRIS food pantry & warehouse facility on:

MONDAYS before NOVEMBER 12TH, 2026 or by appointment

From 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM

IRIS Warehouse

75 Hamilton Street, New Haven, CT

More info about IRIS on their website.