Domain: abc13.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to abc13.com.
Comments · 10
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Re:Why is this so cheap?
Indeed, it was in the US where an Amazon driver was caught on camera hastily taking a dump in a driveway.
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Re: Super PACs
"money is speech"
Considering people's mouths are more or less the same size, no one should be allowed to contribute more money than anyone else.Unfortunately that runs afoul of that pesky concept of "no taxation without representation." If you believe in that (as most red-blooded Americans do), then the fact that we tax corporations means they should have some form of representation in government. Since they can't vote, all that's left for them is to spend money on elections. And it also leads to the idea that someone who pays 10,000x more in taxes than you, might be entitled to a little more say in government.
IMHO the solution is pretty simply. Eliminate corporate taxes - they just get passed on to people anyway (reduced income for employees, reduced distributions for stockholders, higher prices for customers). Then the link between taxation and representation vanishes, and you're free to prohibit any corporate spending on elections. If a corporation thinks an issue is important to it in an election, it should impress that upon its employees, stockholders, and customers so that they'll vote to help the corporation.
This also has the side-benefit of encouraging corporations to be nice to their employees, stockholders, and customers. Because those are the folks it will have to convince to vote a certain way on issues which affect it. Landing on the most hated list will mean you have almost zero influence on government policies over your business. -
Re:Not surprising
Not bullshit. Anti-social types are 100% convinced that the world revolves around them. They have no problem justifying their theft/murder/rape - because it served their purpose. Just as they have no problem being genuinely interested in going along with whatever cult they choose to claim to belong to. See, anti-social types are 100% self serving. That's not bullshit - it's the rest of the world that is bullshit to them. But they're not making it up. They're not lying. They actually believe themselves to be the center of the universe. Which is why they belong in cages.
You do realize you just said you should be put in a cage because the world doesn't revolve around you. People in prison sometimes do have legitimate grievances. If you willfully ignore this, and continue to let your law enforcement run amok, then you'll be among the first in the concentration camp after the revolt.
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Re:Failed to prevent?
It's better than that. 25 people in THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. The CITY of Houston has hundreds of them, despite requiring a clean criminal record.
Let me say that again: One city, hundreds of rapists and drug dealers, 8% of cab drivers. One state, 160,000 Uber drivers, 25 convicted felons, 0.016% of Uber drivers.
It sounds like Uber is outdoing some municipalities.
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Re:Failed to prevent?
Oh my god, not a whole 25 of them!!!?1?! That's terrible!They will need hundreds more in order to reach parity with normal taxi services. It's safe to assume that California has just as many drivers for actual taxi services with a record as Uber does, even per capita, and maybe more. You are already not safe in a taxi in California, don't imagine that you are. (Not that it's safe to be a taxi driver, either...)
The real story here is that our country is a pressure cooker of inequity, just like most of the rest of the world, and when you apply energy to a system you add motion. But government doesn't want to fix society, so long as they can look busy. They don't want to work themselves out of a job.
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Re:Things like this will only increase
This like this are common in most large police departments. Houston is completely corrupt from the cops to prison and jail detention officers, from court appointed attorneys to prosecutors, from DA to Judges. Court appointed attorneys make money by being appointed cases, and kiss up to the judge to get appointed more cases. The fastest way to deal with the cases is to make a plea bargain and plead guilty, so that's all they do. They'll keep you in jail for months, while waiving your right to a speedy trial, to sweat you out so you'll just take the plea (they'll no-bond you for even misdemeanors so the jail stays full and collects state funds), "You've already got time served now, and it'll be a year in jail before you see trial". In Texas prison and jails there have been prisoner riots recently (also covered little or not at all by news) due to the medical system being so poor it turns a 5 year sentence into a death sentence. One facility was burned so bad everyone had to be evacuated. Prisoners are regularly "punished" by leaving them in solitary without a working toilet for weeks. When the feds investigated, they quickly swept the issue under the rug, and claimed everything is fine. It's not. Prisoners are being tortured, I'm now looking into an older man who was body-slammed so hard by a detention officer his eye popped out of its socket, and another who was killed in the same fashion... yet there's no investigation, and no punishment. The FBI knows what's going on, and they let it all continue... why? I'll get to that.
The media has never taken an interest in police and "justice department" corruption. Now, all of a sudden, the local news is inundated with instance of police corruption. One station has FINALLY contacted the non profit I work at which advocates against such corruption, after decades of ignoring every plea to cover the horrible state of our jails, prisons, and police. Why? Because the federal government wants a federal police force. That's what this is all about. The corruption will happen in the federal police force too, see also DHS, but you won't hear about that much in the mainstream news.
Wise up. The mainstream media is primarily state controlled propaganda. You will "see more of" whatever is required to manufacture your consent. Think about it. What is the solution to this problem? Send in the feds to investigate and oversee things... only this time their positions will become permanent.
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Re:Maybe in a different country
You do realize that when you make a statement like that, it takes only a single counterexample to prove you wrong?
Irony abound.
http://www.whas11.com/story/news/2015/03/10/campbellsville-police-child-shot-in-leg-by-parent-repairing-gun/24698611/
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Texas-Boy-6-Hospitalized-After-Shot-By-Little-Brother-294704731.html
http://abc13.com/news/4-year-old-dead-in-accidental-shooting-in-north-harris-county/539586/
http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Child-wounded-in-gunfire-in-NW-Harris-County-6105827.php
For every news story that shows someone shooting in self defence, there are half a dozen stories about someone being shot by accident. Statistics have shown you're far more likely to shoot yourself of someone you care about with unsecured firearms around the house. -
Re:Maybe in a different country
You do realize that when you make a statement like that, it takes only a single counterexample to prove you wrong?
Irony abound.
http://www.whas11.com/story/news/2015/03/10/campbellsville-police-child-shot-in-leg-by-parent-repairing-gun/24698611/
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Texas-Boy-6-Hospitalized-After-Shot-By-Little-Brother-294704731.html
http://abc13.com/news/4-year-old-dead-in-accidental-shooting-in-north-harris-county/539586/
http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Child-wounded-in-gunfire-in-NW-Harris-County-6105827.php
For every news story that shows someone shooting in self defence, there are half a dozen stories about someone being shot by accident. Statistics have shown you're far more likely to shoot yourself of someone you care about with unsecured firearms around the house. -
Re:Failure mode?
the harder we work to avoid it
you are already trackable, you know that right? this new EU law is only about formalizing / standardizing the process. you've already lost. do you really think that you could travel to a foreign country and back and be able to hide it?
Unless a person completely divorces themselves from civilization, they are trackable. And there really isn't much to be done about it.
And it can even be used to vindicate a person:
http://www.thestar.com/news/cr...
http://abc13.com/archive/94415...
http://www.keyetv.com/news/fea...
This one I thought particularly appropriate:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/...
Since surveillance cameras are everywhere, if you are ever falsley accused, start handing out the subpoenas. In short, this guy was accused, arrested, and identified in a lineup as a "serial groper"
But after going through identifiable records from his office, email records, bank transactions, credit cards transaction, and vendors, as well as a more old fashioned alibi in one accusation, charges were dismissed, because it was proven that the perp was not him.
Which is not to say that I like being on camera, or being able to assemble my whereabouts all the time, all that much - but I damn well will use them to my advantage if need be.
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Yes we can
Actually, thanks to the Affordable Care Act the HHS has full rights to access your medical history for... research purposes...
Of course they're bound by the same HIPAA laws so they would never, ever, leak such information for personal or political gain...
http://watchdogwire.com/florid...
http://abc13.com/politics/dan-...
And not even the UK is spared...
http://www.theguardian.com/soc...