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The tough on crime crowd, also known as the board of directors of for-profit prisons

Actually the people who put the biggest lobbying pressure on being "tough on crime" are the prison guard unions, and indeed, there's a lot of scandal and coverup involved in it too.

http://mic.com/articles/41531/...
http://www.nationalreview.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

In fact, in a lot of states they're the biggest one pushing against legalization of Marijuana. Why? Because it gives them LOTS of job security, perhaps more so than any other crime. But, don't let the pro union types hear this, or else you'll get an earful about how unions are in it to protect the working man...

a quick google search suggests that filing police reports about internet harassment is not very useful.

http://mic.com/articles/114964...
http://jezebel.com/the-cops-do...

The reason the Left has a credibility problem is that they always seem to resort to lying as part of the basis for their arguments.

I suggest you read this book for some additional insight.

I posted this link a few days ago here on ./ but it's topical and worthy of a repost here:
Cops Now Steal More from Citizens than do Actual Criminals

And also on the "policing for profit" topic: Prisoners are now billed for their time in jail.. More here with some commentary here.

Elon Musk must not fit into the correct mold for the new American Entrepreneur, which is odd considering he plays the political donations game like every other American billionaire. I personally cannot afford one of his cars, but if I was able to I can't imagine anything in that price range I'd rather buy. I'm just not much of an early adopter these days.

http://mic.com/articles/119630...

Considering the growth we had during the late 40's and 50's, that 90% top marginal tax rate certainly didn't hurt then, and in fact, helped to pay down a lot of debt we had from WWII.

What is fiscally irresponsible is bottoming out taxes while exploding the national debt, like Reagan and Bush II did. People like to bring up the whole "balanced budget" thing on occasion, and in a sense i agree with it... but those people that do are being disingenuous at best. We could balance the budget in two years with a simple constitutional amendment that says "we WILL bring in the revenue to pay for ALL of governments expenses, or the rates will automatically be adjusted to do that. Period, no exceptions." The problem we have is a whole generation who are selfish, greedy, anti-American piss-ants who prefer to act like petulant children instead of living up to the social contract of continuing to invest in future generations, and those people have been leeching everything ever generation before them invested since the 1980's.

Then again, by the way you wrote that... leaving out the "top marginal rate" part... i have to assume you either do not understand history, or what Sanders said.... or that you're just being deceptive to get people to agree with you.

I would think that Jenner is an outliner,

... As I said before, a trans person is one who adopts (through a lot of work) a very defined hetero normative sexual identity.

I really think you are way out of line here. Of the relatively few trans people I can think of.

Burger Heineman, a transwoman, is married to a woman. There's actually another programmer I remember--and I can't for thel ife of me remember her name, or find her page via google--who ported a lot of games to Mac over the years (and worked at one of the porting companies) who transitioned quite awhile ago and also identified as a lesbian.

Here's an article for you: http://mic.com/articles/74169/trans-women-can-be-lesbians-too

First, the popularity of the Confederate battle flag being flown over the state houses of US states in the 20th century didn't start until the early days of the civil rights movement. Anyone who thinks it's a coincidence that Mississippi and Georgia and Alabama and South Carolina, etc decided to start flying the Confederate battle flag when black people started fighting for civil rights in those states probably thinks "it's all about states' rights and tariffs", too.

Second, the guy who designed the Confederate battle flag made it crystal clear in his own words:

"As a people, we are fighting to maintain the heaven ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race"

Yessir, those are the exact words written by William Tappan Thompson, the designer of said flag. Not "fighting to maintain states' rights" or "fighting to something something tariffs", but rather, "the heaven ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race". He even referred to it in his newspapers (because he was the founder of the Savannah Morning News) as "the White Man's Flag".

Now who wants to step up and tell me that the Confederate battle flag is not, in 2015, first and foremost a symbol of racism and hatred? The line forms right here in front of my fuzzy ass which is available for your kissing pleasure.

http://www.theatlantic.com/pol...

http://mic.com/articles/121082...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I don't have easy access to the raw stats, so here's some relevant news stories that do quote some stats. I doubt that the stats are cherry-picked as there's such a clear difference between the US and the rest of the world:

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/police-kill-citizens-70-times-rate-first-world-nations/
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/08/armed-police/
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-do-us-police-kill-so-many-people-2014-8/
http://mic.com/articles/105036/here-s-the-shocking-tally-of-how-many-americans-die-from-police-shootings/

Orion costs 320x more than Commercial Crew (SpaceX AND Boeing capsules):
http://mic.com/articles/11354/...

Quoting
http://mic.com/articles/11354/...
:
At $60 million-a-seat, the aging Russian Soyuz program will hopefully soon be eclipsed by the $20 million-a-seat Dragon.

The Dragon is the name of the SpaceX capsule.

Examples?

Yeah, yeah

Marco Rubio, (R-FL)

http://mic.com/articles/19382/...

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/1...

Among the faith-deranged, Rubio stands out. He briefly dumped one magic book for another, converting from Roman Catholicism to Mormonism and then back again. (Reporters take note: This is faith-fueled flip-flopping, which surely indicates a damning character flaw to be investigated. Flip-flopping of a different sort helped sink John Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid.) Yet even as a re-minted Catholic, Rubio cheats on the Pope with a megachurch in Miami called Christ Fellowship. As religion and politics blogger Bruce Wilson points out, Christ Fellowship is a hotbed of “demonology and exorcism, Young Earth creationism, and denial of evolution,” and is so intolerant it demands its prospective employees certify they are not “practicing homosexuals” and don’t cheat on their spouses. (Check out its manifesto under “About Us – What We Believe.”) As regards evolution, Rubio confesses that he’s “not a scientist” and so cannot presume to judge the fact of evolution on its merits, and holds that creationism should be taught in schools as just one of many “multiple theories” about our origins.

Representative Paul Broun (R-GA). Young Earth creationist and former member of the fucking House Committee on Science.

Here's a quote from a 2012 speech that Rep Broun gave:

"All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior. You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I’ve found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don’t believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says."

And, Mr. "Where is the Proof", if you don't believe my quote, here is a video of Rep Broun's entire speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Oh wait, the link doesn't work because it was taken down eight months before the 2014 elections.

But as long as we're rolling with Rep Broun, here's another quote from the same speech:

"And what I’ve come to learn is that it’s the manufacturer’s handbook, is what I call it. It teaches us how to run our lives individually, how to run our families, how to run our churches. But it teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in society. And that’s the reason as your congressman I hold the Holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that."

[In 2014, Rep Broun left office to run for Saxby Chambliss' Senate seat from Georgia. May God have mercy on our souls.]

If you want more examples, I can provide them, but I've used up enough space doing simple Google searches that you could have done for yourself.

Did everyone forget that many CEO's show signs of psychopathy? (now called something more P.C., like antisocial personality disorder) Some sources:
Forbes
Patheos
arts.mic
thestar

Is anyone really surprised that CEOs don't show the slightest regard for the well-being of the lives they can impact the most?

Not sure what reagan has to do with racisim

1. Reagan opposed all civil right legislation.

Reagan's transformation from actor to serious political figure began in the 1960s, first with a nationally televised speech on behalf of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and then with his election as governor of California. This was also the decade in which the civil rights bills that ended legalized racism were passed ... and Reagan was on record opposing all of them, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Reagan continued this pattern as president by gutting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), fighting the extension of the Voting Rights Act, vetoing the Civil Rights Restoration Act (which required all recipients of federal funds to comply with civil rights laws) and initially opposing the creation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (he changed his tune when it passed Congress with a veto-proof majority).

2. Reagan vetoed and anti-apartheid bill.

Reagan further tarnished his record on racial equality when he vetoed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which imposed economic sanctions on South Africa that could only be lifted when that country abolished apartheid. Although Reagan argued this was because he worried the sanctions would prompt the South African government to respond with "more violence and more repression," critics pointed to his administration's close relationship with the apartheid regime, well-known belief that anti-apartheid groups like the African National Congress were Communistic, oversight of the decision to label Nelson Mandela as a terrorist and weakening of a UN resolution condemning apartheid.

Ronald Reagan was one of the most racist presidents we had in the post-WWII period. He and Nixon are 1a and 1b on that list.

http://mic.com/articles/85379/...

When I've paid full price -- and it's an expensive price for a show with only 10 episodes per season -- for something that from my point of view was only just released.

It's an expensive show.

Modern Greenpeace is doing things like defacing ancient monuments thousands of years old to spread propaganda. If this guy WERE with Greenpeace any time recently I would have cause to question his sanity and/or motives... instead he seems like a guy that actually cares about the environment instead of money or publicity.

Prison is also supposed to be for punishment.

Actually, there's a difference of opinion on that matter.

There are those who believe the purpose of prison is to reform the convicted, that prisons need to be reformatories. Their argument is that just sticking a criminal into a holding cell for a few years does nothing to change his behavior; in fact, it more likely reinforces the behavior by fostering a "me against them" attitude between the criminal and civilization while at the same time exposing him to like-minded people. Reformatories try to teach the criminal new habits and skills so that - when he is released - he can find a new path through life. The most extreme example of this is Sweden, although many nations in Western Europe follow this path to some degree or another. It appears to work for them but it is arguable whether or not their methods would have the same results in other countries.

The US, on the other hand, largely follows a philosophy of punishment (in concept if not enshrined in law); the idea is that the fear of prison as a punishment will keep people out of mischief. That is, if you go to a penitentiary you should expect to be stripped of all rights, beaten by the jailers, raped by the other inmates and probably lose the ability to ever find decent work once you get out, therefore it is better not to break the law. Whether this philosophy works or not I'll leave up to others to argue; on the one hand, violent crime rates have dropped dramatically in the country, but on the other hand, there are high recidivism rates and the US has the largest population of inmates in the world.

Then there is simple detention, a concept where there is no innate intent to penalize (or reform) the criminal; rather, the goal is to simply isolate the wrong-doer to protect society from his evil ways. These differ from penitentiaries in that they aren't used as a threat to convince people not to do crimes, nor is there any goal to reform the convicted. Detention centers are not necessarily unpleasant places (but due to budgeting issues usually are) Most often used for the irredeemable (repeat offenders, murderers, etc) when it is felt it would be too dangerous to let them go, or for people who are temporarily incarcerated before being banished from the jailing society (e.g., illegal immigrants).

Personally, I lean towards the first example as how prisons are best used, but in truth best results would be from a mix of all three. Unfortunately - at least in the US - too many people refuse to even consider that prisons should be anything but the most dire of dungeons, an attitude encouraged by a legal and penal system which benefits monetarily from ever-increasing criminalization and incarceration.

So prison doesn't have to be about punishment; we in America just chose to make it so.

..."we're connecting community colleges with local employers to train workers to fill high-paying jobs..."

This is what community colleges do. Just exactly how is intervention by the federal government supposed to help? The only change is going to be an increase in the number of administrators the colleges hire to deal with the federal bureaucrats. The next step will be to offer the schools money. Then they'll hire even more administrators in order to suck properly at the federal teat. Finally, the federal government will use their dependence on federal money to impose ridiculous rules and regulations, that require even more administrators.

We've already seen how federal "help" has screwed up the American university system. Tuitions have increased by 200% to 300% in the past 20 years (that being the first example I pulled out of Google).

You know the line: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you". Time to run screaming in the opposite direction.

Hysteria, eh? Well, let's just drag a few facts out. Here we go:

o Straight-up misconduct

o Botched paramilitary police raid data

o Judge, jury and executioners in blue: The death penalty -- without a court

o Warrants "not required" data

o Seizure of property without warrants details

o $2.02 billion dollars in cash and property seizures for/in which no indictment was ever filed

o Other illegal horrors

Just a little information -- what we know -- showing our government at work, cavreader. Now, I don't know how you will characterize this information, but I know how I do: Directly and unequivocally indicative of a systemic breakdown of respect, regard, and understanding of liberty and justice that extends broadly across all areas of law enforcement.

Now, you want to talk nonsense about legal protections in a system where the vast majority of defendants are pressured into plea bargains against a completely uneven scale full of extra charges, almost certain financial ruin, threats of extended incarceration, and outright lies from the police and prosecutor, where the police don't have to defend anything in court -- and which can be, and at times have been, followed up by ex post facto laws increasing punishment after conviction -- fine. But don't expect me to take you seriously, because you obviously don't have even the slightest idea what you're talking about.

Why not ask women why they didn't become programmers rather than focusing on the end of the process, where the damage has long been already done?

People have done that and the answer is often "because society repeatedly told me it wasn't a job for women."

Why not ask women who used to work in IT why they left?

Having one of the least female-friendly job environments comes with this distinction: Close to 40% of women who earn degrees in the field leave their jobs prematurely or never apply for jobs in the area in the first place.

Nadya A. Fouad, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, dug into the research by focusing on the thousands of women who have earned engineering degrees since the 1990s. What she found is nothing short of alarming: Of all of the women who've earned degrees in the field, almost 40% of them have either left their jobs within a few years or never applied for a single engineering-related position.

It gets worse, however: Of those who left their engineering jobs, most say they were pushed out by poor workplace environments or mistreatment by managers and co-workers. About a third said they decided to stay home with children when they realized their companies wouldn't assist with work-life issues. This means that an entire crop of talented technical minds are leaving the economy due to gender inequities at work.

It's even worse for rookie female engineers (and scientists and mathematicians, too). According to a recent study from the Center for Talent Innovation, women working across all of the STEM fields were 45% more likely to quit within their first year on the job than their male co-workers.

5) The official might think your bribe is too modest, and post the amount publicly on Facebook to shame you:

A Restaurant Tried to Tip-Shame a Football Star [mic.com]

And succeeded!

#Winning

5) The official might think your bribe is too modest, and post the amount publicly on Facebook to shame you: A Restaurant Tried to Tip-Shame a Football Star

The prices of battery storage and solar power are dropping through the floor, any gov't who sanctions extremely expensive nuclear power right now are idiots.

With battery storage Solar and Wind can easily power most of the worlds energy needs, several European countries are already hitting 50%+ renewable energy.

Without subsidy, solar panels on roofs in the UK can pay for themselves in only 12 years, after that it's practically free electricity. With the current subsidies payback now only takes 6 years! US red tape and profiteering is causing US residential solar to be overly expensive.

http://mic.com/articles/91313/...
The storage necessity myth: how to choreograph high-renewables electricity systems

So you're saying the EU didn't conquer Libia for it's Oil, but for it's sunshine?

  Seriously on your link Here's How Much Renewable Energy It Would Take to Power the Entire World there are a few caveats you seem to be ignoring such as they assume 100% efficiency instead of the more real-world values of 15-20%, transmision and conversion loses, then there is the pesky storage problem for nighttime energy which is pumped storage at the present, but Pesidio texas has a four-megawatt sodium-sulfur (NaS) battery system that only cost $25 million .

The number you quote is enough to power all global energy requirements including replacing oil, gas and coal etc.

The images on this page show that solar can power the world perhaps 50+ times over
http://mic.com/articles/91313/...

And wind can also power the world exclusively:
http://landartgenerator.org/bl...

1. Israel can prevent civilian deaths.

During the course of the past twelve days, Israeli air strikeshave killedover 1000Palestinians—mostly civilians.

Israelsaysthe deaths are a result of Hamas using ordinary Palestinians as human shields, and the gruesome toll has been met with a shrug.

It’s an issue thathas come upduring past operations in Gaza.

Back in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, the president of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann,condemnedIsrael for violating international law in Gaza by targeting civilians.

Brockmanncalledthe offensive “a war against a helpless defenceless and imprisoned people.”

“Theviolationsof international law inherent in the Gaza assault have been well documented,” he added, listing collective punishment, disproportionate military force [and]attacks on civilian targets, including homes, mosques, universities, schools.”

Israel doesn’t have to fire at the civilian targets, it’s a choice that they make. Hamas rockets are broadlyineffectiveanyway—given Israel’s comprehensive network of bomb shelters. Just three civilians in Israel have been killed so far.

Noting the Israeli military’s “long record of unlawful airstrikes with high civilian casualties”, Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitsoncommentedthat Israel “would never accept an argument that any Israeli home of an Israel Defense Force member would be a valid military target.”

IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner also couldn’t provide any evidence of houses being used to command in control rocket attacks, when directlyqueriedby reporters.

2. The three Israeli teenswere killed immediately after being kidnapped.

Investigative journalist Max Blumenthal recently revealed that the Israeli governmentknewthatthe three missing Israeli teens, whowere abductedin June from Hebron in the West Bank, were murdered almost as soon as they were kidnapped. However, this was not revealed to the public, and insteadthe search forthe missing teenagers unleashed to a brutal crackdown on the West Bank.

Blumenthal says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used outrage around the kidnapping to whip up enough support to justify the aggressive military campaign that has ensued.

3. Gaza is basically an open-air prison.

The economic blockade of Gaz

1. Israel can prevent civilian deaths.

During the course of the past twelve days, Israeli air strikeshave killedover 1000Palestinians—mostly civilians.

Israelsaysthe deaths are a result of Hamas using ordinary Palestinians as human shields, and the gruesome toll has been met with a shrug.

It’s an issue thathas come upduring past operations in Gaza.

Back in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, the president of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann,condemnedIsrael for violating international law in Gaza by targeting civilians.

Brockmanncalledthe offensive “a war against a helpless defenceless and imprisoned people.”

“Theviolationsof international law inherent in the Gaza assault have been well documented,” he added, listing collective punishment, disproportionate military force [and]attacks on civilian targets, including homes, mosques, universities, schools.”

Israel doesn’t have to fire at the civilian targets, it’s a choice that they make. Hamas rockets are broadlyineffectiveanyway—given Israel’s comprehensive network of bomb shelters. Just three civilians in Israel have been killed so far.

Noting the Israeli military’s “long record of unlawful airstrikes with high civilian casualties”, Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitsoncommentedthat Israel “would never accept an argument that any Israeli home of an Israel Defense Force member would be a valid military target.”

IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner also couldn’t provide any evidence of houses being used to command in control rocket attacks, when directlyqueriedby reporters.

2. The three Israeli teenswere killed immediately after being kidnapped.

Investigative journalist Max Blumenthal recently revealed that the Israeli governmentknewthatthe three missing Israeli teens, whowere abductedin June from Hebron in the West Bank, were murdered almost as soon as they were kidnapped. However, this was not revealed to the public, and insteadthe search forthe missing teenagers unleashed to a brutal crackdown on the West Bank.

Blumenthal says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used outrage around the kidnapping to whip up enough support to justify the aggressive military campaign that has ensued.

3. Gaza is basically an open-air prison.

The economic blockade of Gaz

Reputable enough for me.

Check out a NASA tech brief, Thermacore a company that makes them and MIC another company that makes them for more information.

If you're using a mouse in a dangerous enough situation that you'd need it to be designed this stupi... err, durably, wouldn't you also need a similarly designed computer, protected

Well, yeah. One imagines a system like these. Designed to be firehosed. Or hit by a forklift. Not exactly office equipment.