The biggest problem with leaving it up to the states is that the party that is always harping on about states’ rights is a bunch of disingenuous liars who immediately start restricting states’ rights the second the state doesn’t do what they want.
It’s actually something that gives me hope in the world. LLMs are predicting the words they use based on being fed tremendous amounts of data. The fact that they’re having trouble getting them to parrot lies is a good sign that the vast majority of data sources are actually agreeing on the truth. At least that’s how I view it.
If I could make one wish to fix things, it would be to eradicate all externalities. Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware this would absolutely suck for a while. Without some kind of matching increase in wages or subsidies, it would ruin a lot of people that I don’t think deserve it. But when you have to pay for the cost of recapturing the CO2 you produce, when you have to pay for the actual cost of producing the plastic you throw away, we would very quickly get better alternatives. Biodegradable packaging would become more common. Alternatives to gas would explode. Interest in walkable areas and public transit would grow. Industries that really need disposable plastics are also rich enough to afford proper disposal, like medicine and electronics. After enough time, we’d just live in a better, cleaner world with less waste and more care put into our distribution networks.
We only have all the bullshit because they’ve been pushing the bill along to the next generation and the next and the next, and we are seeing the bill come due.
The Secret Service should be trained to arrest or assassinate the President if he openly violates the constitution.
Here’s why I still think of it as a win: It’s not just the contest between two people, or their ideas, or their backgrounds. What you really have to look at is the contest between the propaganda and the budgets. The simple fact is that a lot of voters aren’t that involved, they vote based on word of mouth or advertising, not by looking into the backgrounds of those they’re voting for.
Cuomo outspent Mamdani 4 to 1. Billionaires and politicians went all out to attack Mamdani. Many painted apocalyptic pictures. If you look at those more distant contests, where someone won by a wider margin, I would bet that the advertising and endorsements weren’t so lopsided either.
This isn’t a win for Democrats or Mamdani, this is a win for word of mouth campaigning. This is a win for people being so sick of what’s on offer that many ignored the dire warnings of billionaires and politicians. That’s some good news I can get behind.
Instead of a static number, you just make it a multiple of the minimum wage. Say, the upper limit is 500 x Minimum Wage x Full Time working hours, or right now about $15.6 million. If you have enough for a person to live 5 lifetimes, then you have enough for you and your family. If you feel that’s not enough, maybe the minimum wage needs improving.
TBH we need to bring back fireside chats. A more direct communication from President to people. Imagine if that was just the expectation
For my part, if I were President, I would explain what I am working on and who is in my way. Just every week. “This week, my main goal is still universal healthcare. I want everyone to be able to get the medical care they need. Here is a list of the senators currently opposing, and the state they represent…”
I don’t even think capitalism requires infinite growth. It’s just how we built it. Not even since the beginning. That is, you could buy stock in a company to help them grow. Then they make a profit, and give you a share of that profit. Everyone is happy. You could sell that to someone else, and maybe they pay more than you’d get in a year, but they’ll make more in a long run as long as the company stays alive and can keep distributing profits. Everyone is happy.
It’s this idea that the money you make from investment should grow exponentially. This demand from professional stock traders that they be able to sell for obscene profits. The company must grow, and those profits must grow, or the shareholders will all sell in a panic and abandon them, and even a profitable company may go under.
Like why can’t the company just make some profit and distribute that profit among shareholders and employees and everyone be happy? It doesn’t HAVE to be more profit next year than last year, we just made it that way over time.
I interpreted it as general disgust that this is the only thing that seems to have put a real dent in his support from the Republican base. Maybe I’m projecting. Don’t get me wrong, I get why people are upset about it, but it just strikes me as crazy that “oh no, the man who’s a petty tyrant and obviously a rapist and probable pedophile won’t release the files about the pedophile human trafficker” is the straw that broke the camel’s back for so many.
I mean, just because he already did it doesn’t mean it’s too late to stop. I’d argue that stopping immediately is still a good thing.
It seems to me that they can be stretched just shy of infinitely, because sources aren’t reliable and people aren’t paying attention. That is, when a source reports on what’s happening with as little bias and editorializing as humanly possible, it is labeled as “left bias” while the conservative news sources don’t bother talking about the problems with ICE at all. As long as that’s the case, they can basically get away with anything because their human rights abuses won’t get enough coverage or will be dismissed by enough of the population that it won’t actually have an impact.
In case you’re curious why they might hate the post office so much, I suspect it’s because as a government entity it has two important attributes:
When you ship UPS or FedEx, you’re giving a package to a private entity. They are only bound by the contract they make with you. If they decide to start opening every package, that’s their right. The USPS has specific laws around when it can and cannot search packages, and generally requires a warrant.
I use a little mini PC with a DAS connected via USB. So you don’t need to go full server to expand the storage.
Maybe I’m oversimplifying but I tend to think money is the problem. Supposing all wealth were equally distributed, libertarianism makes a lot of sense to me as maximizing personal freedoms. It generally becomes a problem when people use wealth to abuse others, either by hoarding wealth and restricting the freedom of others that way, or by using inequality to purchase things that no person should be able to purchase.
Couple the increasing property taxes on vacant homes with an agreement that there are no property taxes on properties leased for free to qualified individuals (people who would qualify for government housing anyway essentially) and the government will pay for repairs. The government gets a cheaper place to house the homeless, having only to pay for repairs, the landlord gets an appreciating asset with no repairs to worry about, and the homeless get a place to live. Seems like a win all around unless I’m missing something.
When I was little, long before I had a reason to want it to be true, I had this theory that the Secret Service, which is obviously not a secret, was called that because they had a secret mandate: If the President ever gets really out of pocket and goes for dictator powers, it’s their job to execute him as a traitor.
Anyway, I doubt it’s true, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.
That’s the neat part: Convicted felons ARE excluded from most public service jobs like being a teacher or a mayor. It was widely believed that this included the presidency until the Supreme Court decided it somehow didn’t.
It’s more odd to me that the ones who believe in original sin and forgiveness for everything are the ones anti-abortion and pro-execution.
I hate when people downplay the economy or employment as trivial or at least not very important. It is important, and for many it is rational to consider it the most important. At an individual level in America, employment means food, shelter, healthcare. It even means companionship… People who can’t afford to date, have a harder time finding love.
At a high level, even if we implemented universal healthcare and fixed our other problems, the health of the economy would STILL dictate our access to food, shelter, and healthcare. A government with no funds cannot sustain programs.
It’s not exactly that I wish to harm any of them. It’s just that they all believe in strong individualism and I’d hate to help them when they have made it very clear that needing help is weakness in their religion. I’m sure they’d feel much better burning than receiving help from anyone.