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GW Hayduke

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Everything posted by GW Hayduke

  1. You are describing actual speech. Citizens United was about moving money under the umbrella of speech. You are again describing actual speech by corporations. Corporations can't vote or hold office. Corporations are influenced by foreign actors. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZX.html "At bottom, the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics."
  2. Conservative humor isn't funny to a lot of folks because they use trickle-down comedy. This means only about 1% get it.
  3. Sure. But the point is that the wealthy used to pay a much higher share of their income as taxes, which is very true. Especially since the 80s tax act, capital gains rates were decoupled from ordinary income rates. And since the wealthy gain much of their income from capital gains, this resulted in:
  4. I'm embarrassed to live in a society where TMZ is real.
  5. Technology is surely playing a role in wealth disparity, and I agree market efficiencies can leave folks out of a job. We have always had changing technologies. IMO our current problem is bigger and is a result of the boomer generation. We used to heavily tax the rich and invest in future generations. Boomers benefited from all of that. When the boomers came along and due to their large population held a lot of political power (which they still wield), those trends shifted. Higher education was much more affordable for boomers when compared to current college kids. Pell grants have been replaced with our current student loan system. At one point, the cost of college was growing eight times faster than wages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_tuition_in_the_United_States#/media/File:InflationTuitionMedicalGeneral1978to2008.png Boomers were able to support a family on a single income. That is no longer the case. From the 1930s to the 1980s, the top annual tax rate never dropped below 63%. When the boomers came of age, the top annual tax rate dropped to 28% and has virtually remained below 40% for top earners. Since boomers came of age, government investment in future generations have decreased. The solution to our growing wealth disparity IMO is reversing the boomer trends. We need to greatly raise taxes on the rich and heavily invest in workers and future generations (like prior generations invested in the boomer generation).
  6. Technology is a part of the story. Technology does influence the disparity in wealth between the upper and the middle/lower classes. IMO technology plays a minor role when compared to our policies related to taxation, education, social safety nets, worker protections, minimum wage, health care, etc. etc.
  7. Author Ibram X. Kendi defines racism as: "Racism is a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities." (p. 17-18, How to Be an Antiracist) Kendi then goes on to define racial inequity, racist policies, and racist ideas. "Racial inequity is when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing." (p. 18) "A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. By policy, I mean written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people." (p. 18) "A racist idea is any idea that suggests one racial group is inferior to or superior to another racial group in any way. Racist ideas argue that the inferiorities and superiorities of racial groups explain racial inequities in society." (p. 20) For more on these important distinctions and definitions, read pp. 17-23 of his book, How to Be an Antiracist.
  8. Not many folks know this but a year back, Matt bought some very special porpoises. They were immortal. But only if you fed them a special diet of seagull hatchlings from a remote beach in Western Florida. As Matt spent a lot of time in Washington D.C. and wanted to keep his new pets nearby, he paid some friends to catch the necessary gulls and bring them up north for his porpoises. But while in transit, the truck carrying the birds encountered a circus train in North Carolina that was bringing a pair of older, rare lions, to a farm where they could live their remaining regal days in peace. It was a dark and stormy night, and visibility was poor. So their truck ran right over the train car carrying the lions. It created a serious furor. Since it was Matt Gaetz who bought the gulls, and it was Matt who owned the porpoises, the federal prosecution charged him with transporting young gulls, over stately lions, for immortal porpoises.
  9. I was just going off of the video clip and it appeared to me they were planning to apply congestion pricing to subways. I was mistaken. It looks like they are going to apply it to automobile users in the CBD. A lot of toll roads in Texas have congestion pricing involved and I'm sure those in NY do also. But there is usually a non-tolled route available, and taking lanes that were previously non-tolled and making them tolled can be complicated (it is illegal here in Texas). It could be a good thing for NY if they address the equity issue for automobile users and this is something the public understands and wants.
  10. I'm not much of a fan of congestion pricing. Instead of increasing the price to decrease/control demand, they should increase capacity to meet demand. I'm all for increasing revenues for transit, but I would rather see more subway lanes, buses, and train cars to meet peak demand. This model can hamper investment in future capacity since authorities can just simply increase the price to control demand. The end result of congestion pricing also has equity issues where low and medium income folks can easily be priced out. Then we are left with a public transit system that only caters to high earners during certain times of the day.
  11. To be accurate, 8 of those 41 are still on the roster. Jeff Howe shouldn't need to inflate numbers to make our OL development look bad
  12. I'm going to ignore the government's tanks, bombs, and bazookas and grab my AR and some ideal of the 2nd amendment to stop tyranny - keep the sheriff from repossessing my house cause I stopped taxes.
  13. And that is why IMO the goals for gun control should be to decrease the number of firearms in the population to go along with limiting the sale/possession of firearms to those that serve an actual need. To decrease the number of firearms, we would need a buy-back program along with a registration and licensing system. Folks can choose to sell their firearm or register it and get a licence. If someone dies and no one in the family has the particular license to possess the class of firearms, then the firearms aren't inherited and are sold. The registration and licencing system should be based on need. Recreational hunting, home defense, and wildlife management are obvious needs that each require different types of firearms - different calibers, ammunition capacities, and rates of fire. There are not a lot of needs requiring a high rate of fire and high ammo capacity. Tack on training to go with each type of licence to address issues like proper storage, transportation, cleaning, how to not shoot yourself in the balls, how to keep siblings from shooting each other in the face, and potentially even issues like how to deal with depression when a firearm is in the house.
  14. They may be more effective at maintaining indoctrinated users with propoganda and fleecing their money if there aren't actual liberals on the site but rather selected boogie men like on Fox News. Those boogie men could be from twitter or wherever like folks seem to be saying. There are tons of subreddits that have a massive number of users based on that model. Put up a caricature argument from the other side and then rabid fomenting. r/the_donald was enormous until it was quarantined. But I agree with the idea that if they want to grow they would need to be able to pull in new users not already indoctrinated. It is possible they don't want to grow but just fleece the existing flock. But I imagine the culture war stuff is ripe for pulling in new recruits - guns, abortion, immigrants, evangelicals, incels all have exiting forums scattered around out there that pull normal people in. Piping new recruits in from those places could allow for some growth.
  15. This is why people think the pro gun crowd are dumb. Share some slanted data from Lott and make the argument that firearms aren't a problem in the US because look at Brazil and the old soviet countries. Then say that statistics are meaningless because they are hard. Then paint the opposition as extreme and absurd and label their position as "confiscate and ban all guns." Blame the media. Finally, be defeatist because BoTh SiDeS act in bad faith.
  16. Sounds like they might have a need for a small caliber, low rate of fire, low ammunition capacity firearm.
  17. The US Census says he is white. But really it shouldn't matter.
  18. Removing the filibuster so that democrats are able to pass meaningful laws would decrease the need for executive orders and decrease the authority they currently wield. I believe there are several other major legislative actions that are higher priority. Meaningful gun control isn't at the top. I think HR1 should be towards the top. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_People_Act. Once we make the feds more representative of the US population and our federal legislation more responsive to the desires of the US population, passing things like meaningful gun control will be much easier.
  19. Why would anyone defer to the NRA for anything? We elect politicians to develop laws. We employ government agencies to develop rules and regulations.
  20. Yes. Licensing isn't a drastic concept. https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/handgun-licensing I'm adding the need component to it. If someone isn't able to demonstrate a need to have a semi-automatic firearm, they might be able to demonstrate a need for a small caliber firearm with a low rate of fire and low ammunition capacity.
  21. This is good. I would add the training, background check, and psychological evaluation should be rolled into a licensing system. I would add that the licenses should only be provided to those with a demonstrated need. If someone has no need for a semi-automatic weapon, they don't get one. Buy back programs, registrations, and licensing. Decrease the amount of firearms in the population. Track the firearms we allow in the population. Ensure only those with a need and basic level of competency have access.
  22. Lulz. That is the dumbest thing I’ve read today.
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