Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Planks Would You Want In a Platform of a Political Party?
An anonymous reader writes "I am the Technology Manager of the Justice Party (sorry, no relationship to the Avengers). We are currently working on our Platform (version 2.0) and I would be interested to know what people in the science and technology field would like to see in a platform of a political party. For example, we are considering planks that relate to Open Government (data) access, science and maths promotion, space industries, promotion of open source, dealing with SOPA/ CISPA laws, improvement in user privacy and much more. Give us your comments so we can help build a more tech-savvy America."
That is all.
Cedar is best, but pine is cheaper. Hint: save yourself from the darkest side and take up carpentry. Do something meaningful with your life, seriously.
Take what you believe and make that your party planks.
Proportional representation. Small factions will get represented too.
Separation of Church/Religion & State, be it whatever religion
If you're going to require me to pay for my neighbor's health insurance despite them smoking a pack a week, then require that every person own a gun to protect their neighbor as well.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I'd like to see vi become the official editor of the United States of America, and at the same time I would like to see Emacs declared an illegal tool only people of an evil doer persuasion would use and banned and hunted down. Start the War on Emacs and you'll have my vote. Thank you.
I'm tired of looking at ugly people (yes that includes me)
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
I want your policies to be constant. Plank Constants.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
1) strict term limits for congress
2) corporate money is not free speech...no place for it in politics
3) Single payer health care
4) increased minimum wage that is subsequently tied to inflation
5) Large scale infrastructure projects...LARGE. High speed trains, universal fiber broadband
6) a commitment to overhaul the national power grid or begin the the process of implementing a decentralized solution to replacing the grid
7) outlaw lobbyists
... constant.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Years ago, local industry where I lived had a problem getting qualified workers with the right skills. Folks said, "Like what skills?"
Industry said, "CNC Machinists."
So, the local tech schools, colleges, industry and governments got together and created CNC programs and solved the problem. Now industry has has a steady flow of qualified workers, people who may not have the talents or inclination to be a white collar cube worker have a career path to a middle class life, government has an ever increasing tax base and the local community is thriving. (CT, Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky Aircraft, etc... to name some names.)
Contrast with the tech industry:
"Waaa! We can't get qualified workers with the right skills!! Waaaaaaa"
The rest of us, "Like what?"
Tech industry,"Waaaaa! We can't get qualified workers we need more H1-Bs! Waaaaaaaaaa!"
I think they won't mention the skills or qualifications they need because we will all see that the Emperor Has No Clothes. We would see that in fact, every college and university in the US is producing folks with the right qualifications and that the tech industry is full of shit and made up the "lack of skills and qualifications" as an excuse for H1-Bs - to state the obvious.
Max Planck. Get him for your party. That would be one hell of a party.
The election system, as it currently exists, squeeze out third parties. Worse, however, is that if a third party does get a toehold, the main result is has on an election is to takes vote away from the major party that it's most similar to-- the "spoiler" effect. This is why in many cases third-party challengers are secretly funded by entities that oppose the platforms that the third party supports: the "divide and conquer" strategy.
So, overall, my desire for your party is that your platform should adopt all the planks that I hate. Probably your party will be irrelevant, in which case it doesn't matter what your platform is. If your party does get large enough to make a difference, that difference will manifest by your taking votes away from your politically closest competitors, so I want you to be as evil as possible.
Thus: I suggest you adopt a platform of explicit fascism.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"You and yours must go away. Me and mine can stay."
Fixed that for you so it reflects what many feel emotionally.
Let me suggest the three laws, modified for human consumption: 1) thou shalt not override the free-will of another, or thru inaction, allow a third party to override the free will of another 2) thou shalt help those less fortunate than yourself, to the best of your ability and in a sustainable way, unless it conflicts with the 1st law 3) thou shalt have fun and do whatever you want, unless it conflicts with the first or second law It would be fun to discuss the ramifications of this. for examples of what shakes out: no wars, no "illegal" drugs, no banksters, no monsanto, no monopolies or or oligopolies, marriage equality, no slavery/trafficking, no secret backroom deals, etc etc. i fully expect some to vociferously disagree with this, and i think that's part of the fun. but i think we could go a long way toward a more civilized society by seriously considering these ideals.
Everything else is in the noise.
Seastead this.
You are looking to /. readers for platform ideas.. What will you do when you find that our ideas are not popular and cause you to have absolutely no influence as a political party? Will you change your platform to be more popular? You may as well stop now and call yourself Rep. Dem. Right or Left... A real political party should have real convictions.. people will flock to the truth and real beliefs.. not wishy-washy-go-with-the-wind bullet points.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
Free market view for farm policy: Remove policies which favor large farms. Make corn cost what corn costs. (Stop artificially pushing certain crops. Let the market decide who grows what. This also yields major health benefits by removing unsound incentives for corn syrup and factory raised animal products.) Tarrifs on crops subsidized by foreign governments. Possibly insurance against short-term (1-2 year) price fluctuations in crop prices.
No matter what your policy and planks are it always boils down to following: abortions, guns, and cutting taxes.
Not that anyone will take me seriously, and it would almost certainly be too unpopular to be a part of a viable party's platform, but out of control population growth is probably the greatest threat we face.
I want a minimalist government that focuses mostly on preserving and the rights of our constitution while at the same time working to wean us off big government, give us back freedoms that were taken from us, and fix our patent and copyright systems.
Can you do that?
The Green Party Platform.
I know I am a little too far down, but here goes.
1. Identity Fail.
"An anonymous reader writes "I am the Technology Manager of the Justice Party..."
Really?! For me you sunk your chances right there. Politics is about promoting yourself and hoping no bad $hit from your past sticks too badly. (Because there IS some, it's only a question of relativity!)
So "Anonymous Reader", for a party I've never heard of? Nope. Go away. I won't even begin to (oh wait, I am) open the can of worms on authenticity security for ... wait for it ... the *Technology Manager*... of a party?! Sales guys, I get. Tech Manager? Oh dear gawd.
2. Too F#$%$% Sick of "Hidden One Way Flow" data-slurps in politics. You want all our notes, but you won't stand to even log a Slashdot Username to respond to replies? And this for a *political party*? Screw that. I'll dignify you by saying you're not a complete fabrication by site Mgt. Let's assume you are real. Why So Sneaky?
Bye Bye.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I live in Canada, and with first-past-the-post my vote essentially means nothing at all due to where I live.
Our national government has a "majority" with less than 40% of the popular vote.
Outright Ban (or at least tax/warning) on Consumer-level DRM:
It's anti-competitive consumer restrictive technology that doesn't help anyone (except I guess those that make it). The music industry has realized this, but other industries haven't. We are wasting bandwidth, silicon, power, and making it much harder for free operating systems to compete.
Consumer right to at least inspect all code Utilities/Others place in their houses/cars:
I'm particularly thinking about smart grid technologies. In an ideal world both the utility and the homeowner could run code on the device and verify what the other does. Obviously some areas would be off limit (like the homeowner fully disabling reporting).
Internet providers/Cell phone providers can only provide 1 year contract to consumers. (Consumers being able to move a bit easier may help improve competition).
Internet capable devices need to be supported with security updates for at least 3 years after that company sells the last device.
BAN FAX MACHINES from all government offices and remove the provisions that make them considered "secure". (Sorry, fax machines really annoy me.)
All generic hardware must support at least two operating systems (one of which much be open source). This allows you to repurpose them more easily in the future.
More funds for NASA http://www.penny4nasa.org/
Make Weather.gov a better source to get weather directly from
Make USAJobs.gov actually the only website you need to go to for applying for government jobs
Make Navy contracters use standard networking for ships instead of running a bunch of different networks for different systems.
Wow.. I'm going to stop typing now.
I think Asaph put it best:
The most important thing that our nation needs at this point is true justice without partiality toward the rich, the powerful, and the connected. We need the laws that we do have to be enforced with fairness and impartiality. Given the name of your party, this should be your central focus.
I believe in de-evolution. God made the world perfect, man fell, and its been going downhill ever since!
If enough people come forward and sign a petition claiming abuse of authority, this should force a officer of greater rank from an unrelated jurisdiction to come in and investigate. If a judge holds people in contempt for half their lives, there must be repercussions. If a DA withholds exculpatory evidence, there must be repercussions. If a police officer abuses his power, then the people he works with every day should not be the ones who give him a pass.
Let alternate jurisdictions oversee each other. That way they can leave without fear of reprisals. Otherwise the truth is being stolen from the people.
And at some point there must be criminal liability for abuse of power.
ideals fall pray to expediency and the necessity of doing whatever it takes to remain in, or to get into, office.
education (ok to leave some children behind).
health (self care, health care, genetics, stem cells...)
energy (simply burning fossil fuels is stupid)
space (for starters, industry & mining would be better done off planet)
values: throw in a large dose of personal responsibility.
These are the things that matter, policy that improves them is a win.
Everything else is noise.
Note to moderators: If you feel the urge to moderate this, please do not hit the 'Funny' button. As ridiculous as it sounds, I am being completely serious:
I would like to see a Brony political party.
The planks of such a party would be the same as those that keep Equestria running well: The Elements of Harmony. Each of the elements are concepts that we need very badly in American politics right now:
Honesty -- Transparency and accountability should be a cornerstone of any government.
Kindness -- The purpose of government should be to help the poor and disadvantaged. The rich do not need help.
Loyalty -- Politicians should be loyal to their constituents and to America, not to corporate lobbies or foreign investors.
Generosity -- Liberal use of government power is good when such intervention is requested. Be generous and quick to help those who ask for it, but do not interfere with industries or states unless absolutely necessary.
Laughter -- A political candidate and party should be able to laugh at themselves. Not a consideration for governing, but it would help immensely with the dreadful campaign season.
I would *love* to see the Elements of Harmony adopted by a political party. I feel they are well thought-out principles for a just and harmonious society, and out current political system has gotten very far from any harmonious ideal.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Laws and regulations need feedback loops so that efficacy can be determined and acted upon. This means that the goal and rationale for laws and regulations needs to be explicitly stated and then the effects measured and reported.
The article is submitted by "anonymous reader" claiming to be the technology manager for the Justice Party, yet links to a web site that identifies the National Technology Manager by name.
Just one of those little daily oddities I notice.
No more patent trolls, patent owners must actually make what they patent.
No more submarine patents, date of effectiveness should be that of original filing.
Patent submitters must pay proportional to the number of claims that they make.
No more patenting mathamatical functions like exclusive or.
Patent holders may lose patents if they fail to disclose prior art.
Citizens United must be reversed. This will probably require a constitutional amendment.
Two-term lifetime maximum regardless of office. No more entrenched career hacks.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
Any small party should definitely support: * Election finance reform. http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html * Alternative Vote http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3jE3B8HsE Thorium Energy Policy: I'd like to see the Government focus on developing Thorium as an energy source. Liquid Florine Thorium Reactors have many benefits, and could provide all of our energy needs. Demand for Thorium would also make Rare Earth mining viable in the US (currently all done in China). If you mine Rare Earths here, you'd bring more high tech manufacturing here as well. Policy changes to enable and promote this course of action are fairly minimal. It's just hard to get politicians to give a damn.
Number One Priority (and of most benefit to small parties like yours): Replace first past the post voting for selecting our representatives (because we are a representative republic) with something more effective in terms of game theory. I think instant run-off would work best for the American people given our history and what we are most likely to understand and adopt readily.
What's the impact on tech policy?
At the most fundamental level, tech policy should be data driven, and there is no more fundamental data than that provided by the voters. If we implement a voting system which will optimize the decisions made by members of the republic - instead of discounting a majority of the input - we have the framework to begin implementing data-driven policy in every other aspect. Otherwise - first past the post mathematically favors two opposing policies neither of which the majority of voters truly approve (rather we pick the lesser-of-evils). With a superior voting system, the constituents can indirectly favor their own tech policy (and you might get a good statistician to do some nice post-hock voting analysis to separate out the variables and tell you exactly what the people want for tech).
If you're asking for some direct policy advice - I'll post that elsewhere
Exactly. Take your platform, and burn it to the ground.
I want politicians who, when faced with legislation they support or not, will release a statement saying why it's a good or bad idea. Not a buzzword-filled piece about patriotism and inherent rights, but how the particular legislation helps or hinders your particular goals.
I want politicians who will vote however they feel is right, rather than how their party tells them to.
I want politicians who will act in support of not just their own constituents, but for all the neighboring regions as well, especially in regard to business incentives.
I want politicians who honestly care more about making the world better than about the day-to-day drama of American politics.
I also want a pony.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Inventions, knowledge, and data developed with tax payer money should be available to the tax payer without having to pay a company again. Will need restrictions for national security and privacy.
Were I doing such a thing, the following would be in there for sure.
That would be a good start. But of course any attempt to make a narrow third party in the USA is a waste of time. You have to aim to take out one of the big two, or don't bother.
I would far rather see a platform based on a small number of solid principles (e.g. the Golden Rule, non-coercion, etc.) than one based on a shitload of tiny little specific planks.
nevermind, planks are boring
Government people have the right to look at your data. But, after one year, the person whose privacy was violated needs to be informed of who looked at your data, from what government agency, and why. Lawsuits are permitted for abuse.
As it stands now, members of congress apparently spend 40 to 60% of their time *on the job* seeking campaign donations. This raises reasonable doubt as to their true constituency. Public funding of all elections would eliminate this source of potential corruption at a cost that is much less than the benefit to society.
Alternatively, force prosecutors to be sworn in at trial, and hold them and their star witnesses to the same perjury standards they hold the defense. Also, if it turns out they withheld exculpatory evidence and get an innocent person convicted, they should be charged with obstruction of justice and have jail time equal to the time the innocent person spent in jail and/or forfeit their wages for the same number of years.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
All laws must consist of the following:
1) A clear purpose
2) What means are to be employed to achieve that purpose
3) A list of criteria can be independently evaluated to see if it was a success
4) A timeline for evaluating those criteria and repealing the law if it was not successful
I realize this won't work in all cases, but it should help in most.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Before any law is passed, a simulation should be run to see what the side-effects will be
Obviously, this depends on the existence of accurate simulators, which currently do not exist
After simulation, if the law passes, it enters a trial period, where the actual results are studied
If, at the end of the trial period, the law does not appear to be working as expected, it expires automatically
If it passes the trial, another vote is taken to make it permanent
Most people want a candidate like that. But they won't vote for that candidate because "they don't have a chance".
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
2) If a person ceases to use a service (and sends either an electronic or paper notification) that service is required by law to destroy all 'non-business transaction' records. That is, they can keep records of money paid and services/products bought, but they can not retain any private, identifying information such as email, browser information (including search histories, IP addresses, personal settings, etc)
3) In cases of Identity Theft, the right to request a "Replacement Social Security Number" (RSSN). Right now you can not change the one you have, even if you have had your identity stolen. Doing so requires you to be photographed, fingerprinted, and costs $100. Such a system would be entirely optional, and it would be forbidden by law to require someone to get or use this RSSN for anything. You can then use your new RSSN in place of the old original one.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Ditch them.
Drugs, legalise them or at least the softer stuff and decriminalise the harder stuff.
I would like to see a pro plankton platform.
I'd like to see vi become the official editor of the United States of America, and at the same time I would like to see Emacs declared an illegal tool
And soon after Emacs is declared illegal, it's users hunted down and forced to burn their meta keys, then what?
Division and strife, that's what!
Because one day the guy who likes typing in VI will meet the guy who really likes creating macros in VI. Soon those across each side of the : will be at each other, vicious attacks following. It will be brother on brother, or hot sister on sister action. It will be madness.
Adopt a modal editor as a standard at your peril.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Unlock the swathe of dark fiber running through this country that telecommunications companies laid with our tax dollars and regulate broadband internet under the “rate of return” model.
For dietary supplements, I would say treat them as drugs in that the drug company that makes them must prove them safe, not that the government has to prove them dangerous, as is now the case.
Only allow political contributions to come from individual US citizens with a maximum of 5000$. Zero corporate contributions. Outlaw lobbyists.
The rest will just figure itself out.
Is this really how political parties get started? Shouldn't the platform come before the party? If you don't already know what needs to be done differently, then why are creating a new party? This makes it sound like you found a large, under-served demographic and decided to cash in on their passion. At best, this sounds really backwards; at worst, it sounds downright dubious. How about you tell us what your party stands for, and we'll tell you if we agree and where you could stand to change. At the very least, you should lurk more. I'm all for a viable third party, especially one that embraces the tech community, but surely you understand why this looks deceitful. It's like asking a girl in a chat room how old she is and she asks how old you want her to be.
The first-past-the-post (or plurality) voting system used in most public elections in the United States is arguably the worst possible choice of voting systems because it favors two parties, is relatively easy to manipulate, is relatively easy to gerrymander, wastes votes, and has resulted in a dysfunctional congress. It should be replaced in all elections with a superior system (e.g., Approval voting, a Condorcet method, Majority Judgment, or Range voting).
There's a strong "US vs. THEM" sentiment in law enforcement, facilitated by a decades-long trend of "militarising" the police, eg. SWAT teams. Originally specialised, now used for increasingly everything. The gun totery and body armour sure look impressive, but it has nothing to do with connecting with the community.
Find ways to get police forces of all sizes, local, state, and federal, to focus on policing again, not on playing supercop with the general populace as targets of convenience. Don't be afraid to get rid of a few entire agencies should that prove necessary.
It's all well and good to say you are for science and education.
But what does support for any of those things mean in terms of how you plan to help them?
Are you going to use government to prop up science through specific winner companies, or to promote private research with X-Prize like rewards that spur private research?
Are you going to support space by building government controlled space vehicles or attempt to reduce regulation around private space exploration to allow more risk for a greater range of discovery?
Basically, you as a party have to decide before anything else what role government has in our lives, as overseer or gardener.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Our Government should not be choosing in what Americans have savvy. Focus on economic growth, maintaining the infrastructure, and keeping us safe. We will focus on what we want to be 'savvy' in, thanks.
When will this myth die? Smokers cost taxpayers less than nonsmokers because they DIE SOONER (and everyone needs lots of healthcare in their old age.)
Any government funded research must be freely accessible on line. The people paid for it let them learn from it. All government records must be freely accessible on line. Make it illegal to have nondisclosure agreements on liability settlements. Help people choose good companies and business people to work with. If a company screws you it will haunt them forever. Make it possible to check everyones government IDs on line and any criminal / arrest record - Would stop Identity theft instantly. Open corporate records - So we can see who owns what. Eliminate prohibition of all substances - Make sellers liable for selling to uninformed buyers. If I person knows the risks they should be able to do what they want. Businesses would have to educate customers on risks of their products and have records demonstrating the person understood the risks. No record of knowledge unlimited liability. Records proving knowledge of risks Zero Liability. Would make businesses truthful about products. Implement the FairTax and eliminate all other taxes. Bring back old copyright laws - Shorten copyright terms to 20 Years on corporate owned media Change liability for copying to twice current price + lawyers fees unless distributed for profit then penalties 10 times profit derived + 5 times price + lawyer fees. Patents should be used and enforced or lost. - If you do not try to market your patent or enforce it within 5 years it is void. eliminate patent trolls Publish all patent applications and allow public comments on prior art and patent ability before granting patents. - Eliminate Junk patents. Make employee pension rights superior to all lending rights. - Banks are sophisticated investors they can understand the risks would force businesses to fully fund pensions.
I looked at your party's site, and I see one glaring thing missing for you to have my support. I'd like to see a focus on true grass roots, distributed, bottom up government be a concentrated goal. A move toward direct democracy, participatory politics and proportional representation. Obviously this is a big, complex topic that would probably take many decades to transition to, but any progress toward it would be good IMO. Power should flow up from the people, not down from the White House.
Secondly, I think it would also fit in well with the rest of your agenda to make a concentrated effort in promoting mutualist organizations like cooperatives and other employee/member owned business models. Put in place incentives that push for them to replace the capitalist corporatism we have today. For true freedom we need democracy in the work place, not just the goverment.
Until then, I'll stick with the Green Party.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Restore the vote by eliminating gerrymandering.
Restore the courts by eliminating plea bargains by prosecutors. (Defendants can still plead guilty and ask for mercy from the court, not from the prosecutors.)
Restore accountability in government by reducing government immunity from lawsuits. Those who enforce the law should not be immune from it. Police officers who lie under oath should be jailed. Destruction of evidence, including failure to collect exculpatory evidence, and the failure of prosecutors to reveal potentially exculpatory evidence as required by the Constitution, should also not be prevented by governmental immunity and should result in prison time for any detectives and prosecutors involved.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
I want to know about the aliens at Roswell
Seems everyone else has covered the important topics (rights, patent/copyright, et. al), so I'll throw ya a curve:
Bring back the Congressional cane fights. Far more entertaining for the People than listening to geriatrics drone on for hours in legalese, plus we could help shore up the budget a bit by televising the fights on PPV.
I mean, c'mon - who wouldn't pay to see McCain and Pelosi go toe to toe with the pugil sticks?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
In other words you dont want politicians, you have a couple directly opposed wants in there.
When you cant win, ad hominem.
Leave everyone the fuck alone and don't tell them what technology they can, can't, or must use.
Work on making it cost less for government to work. This means allowing greater discretion for pay raises, fewer government contractors, more government FTE's, incentives to spend less, rather than the current incentives to spend more (e.g. remove the system where your project loses funding next year if you don't spend your entire budget in the current year), and allowing government workers to be fired or laid off for incompetence. In addition, the red tape *really* needs to be addressed. There's some real talent in the government worker pool, but their work is often stifled by onerous approval processes and mandates from top-level executives that really should not be making ground-level decisions.
rts
1) Tax reform. Not only a real concern to many Americans, but a popular and moving topic. See Ross Perot's platform and how it nearly won him the election.
2) Education Reform. Yes, the US Government should mandate people receive public education. No, they should not be requiring the curriculum to achieve education and mandate the methods.
3) Patent Reform. Most Americans are ignorant to the problems, Corporate media and influence has ensured that much. This will be a challenge, because the issue needs to be simplified so that most Americans can understand the issue. Be ready for lots of money spreading ad homimen in rebuttal.
4) Executive Order powers must be ended.
5) Restore Privacy. Abolish TSA, DHS. Other agencies must be more open to public scrutiny (CIA/FBI/ATF).
I'm sure I could come up with more, but this list is already very hefty.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Note that multi-party systems can work fine elsewhere.
Yes, in elsewheres that have different balloting techniques.
I'm a great fan of Approval voting, myself. But there are numerous better methods than simple plurality.
So even though this'll get plenty of knee-jerk reactions for reasons that are inscrutable to me, I'd suggest direct representational voting, or some other way to stop gerrymandering being possible, or useful.
Gerrymandering is worse than merely an accidentally bad system-- it represents deliberate attempts to subvert democracy
The system was indubitably pretty neat back when
Or at least, was pretty good for a first try.
, but hasn't scaled well. Take the ingredient principles and build something that fits the current (and future, for say 50..100 years--investigating your voting system every century for effectiveness and possible revision isn't bad) situation better. In general, some system that doesn't happen to have a two-party-only implicit system property...
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
"Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should be just; it must be philanthropic. Nor is it sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual, and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation." Frederic Bastiat
Here is my recommendation. If you want a party of Justice focus on making the law just and avoid making it philanthropic. You'll never have both.
Ian
I'm sure there's lots more but since our electoral system was designed in a way that reinforces a two-party model (intentionally or not), I don't see any need to giveadditional futile suggestions to a group that will never have any meaningful power at the national level.
I really don't intend that as a dig. It is what it is. It's certainly possible that the GOP will continue it's self-marginalization until a third party finds an opportunity to supercede it. The GOP themselves did that in the 19th century.... but for any 3rd party to realize the possibility of becoming the new 2nd party, it will have to capture the attention of "boring" middle-of-the-road voters who feel disenfrancized by the polarization. Nibbling around the edges of public policy with highly technical optimizations are not going to cut it. If the GOP leaves that door unlocked, you'll need big, heavy, sexy planks to beat it down with.
Let legislators spend most of the time debating if a law should be renewed not making more laws on top of existing laws
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
Actually I don't know if that is the right solution, but I'm tired of seeing NASA being manipulated as a jobs program (and to be clear, I'm not talking about NASA being able to dictate the size of its budget). NASA could have so much more potential if it was able to focus on long term goals and could allocate its resources correctly. If anyone has a solution to this problem that doesn't involve depending too heavily on the limited nature of private enterprise (and the luck of people like Elon Musk--those that have bigger dreams than using their wealth to accumulate more wealth--getting rich), it would be great if you could share it.
... etc etc. It looks like the party supports a lot of the good things democrats say they are for, but without the corporate dependence that goads them to do the opposite.
And increase the size of NASA's budget.
Of course I believe there are much more important things at this particular time than issues relating to science and technology, so I took a look at your wikipedia page Justice Party's wiki page and it all looks very good. Campaign Finance Reform, does not accept corporate funding, abolishing corporate personhood, favors a financial transaction tax, repeal of Bush tax cuts, raising the cap on the payroll tax, reinstating Glass-Steagall, single payer health system, ending the war on drugs
Now to see if you have anyone running in New York...
Everything else should be secondary.
it's the only way to bring democracy back to Washington.
Every dollar spent on other causes is a waste.
This is the government we're talking about.....there are all sorts of compliance laws. It needs to wide enough for a wheelchair, have hand railings, be at a shallow enough slope, be made to withstand at last 1000lbs, be sourced from an approved lumber mill, be transported by union workers, etc.
End design patents. Either end software patents or make them expire after a very short time period.
It's certainly true that there are a lot of you who believe that you have the right skills. I'll grant you that one. And it also seems to have a 1-to-1 correlation with people who believe they deserve some sort of high-paying tech job because they believe they have skills.
See, this is exactly what I'm talking about.
Why don't you NAME the skills that you are looking for?
Or even an actual job posting that you have - with the company name to eliminate trolls?
Instead of the snarky comments - like the above - give some examples? Please!
If you TRULY wanted qualified people, you'd give some specifics. The folks who are looking for employment will figure out how to get the training - we're not as incompetent as you think we are. Then again, even if we do, it will be reuired that we have years of on the job experience - there's ALWAYS a way to disqualify someone.
But see folks, the parent is EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
All I'm asking for is some honesty. I'll do whatever I can to be a good tech worker for YOU and everyone else like you - IF I could just have some guidance ON exactly what _I_ need to do.
But we're NOT getting that and therefore, I cannot take the complaints of the tech industry in regards to their "shortage" of qualified workers seriously.
And sir, I'd like to say, - if you're a CEO - if I were in charge, I can guarantee you there wouldn't be ANY shortage.
.
1. Update the 4th amendment so it clearly covers personal data.
2. Turn back Citizen's United.
3. Term limits. No federal elected official should serve more than 12 years.
4. Eliminate laws that provide special privileges to members of Congress.
5. H1-B visas should be allowed for people educated in the US, only.
6. Eliminate carried interest tax exemption.
7. Repeal the DMCA.
8. Eliminate software and business process patents.
9. Decriminalize not-for-profit copyright infringement. Eliminate the outrageous statutory penalties.
10. Repeal the Patriot Act.
11. Adopt a national single payer health care system.
12. Legalize marijuana
13. Pass national laws explicitly authorizing recording and filming of any law enforcement activities that occur in public.
14. Cap copyright term to 50 years or life of author whichever is longer.
15. Re-fund NASA.
16. Double the national R&D budget.
17. Raise the bar for patent granting to be "not obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art" to "not obvious to one with significant skill in the art"
For a start.
The Libertarian ones. Too bad the party doesn't really adhere to the planks, nor have a good crank/wacko filter -- which can only mean most of the members are themselves cranks/wackos.
1. Individual Rights
2. Individual Responsibility
3. Minimal government intervention
4. Minimal government taxation
That's really it. Those things encompass everything else.
I'd like to see some serious punishments, as in criminal punishments, for elected officials who don't bother to show up for votes/debates or who even try to pass laws based on lies or emotional appeals. Paying people six figure salaries to vacation half the year from a job where their primary function is to lie to each other and the public is sheer idiocy.
Pet peeve of mine, a TAX CUT is a LOWERING of taxes. A decrease in the rate of increase IS NOT A CUT. If taxes go up 3 percent instead of 5, IT IS STILL AN INCREASE.
I think the first past the post voting method used in the US is the first thing that needs to be fixed, probably go to concordant voting. When people can try out a vote on the guy they like, and not have to worry about "throwing their vote away" with the "other guy" getting in things will have to change. Right now the two parties fight each other because they are opposing teams. It doesn't even matter what it is. The current party is pushing a law that your party proposed 4 years ago, oh well, it's the enemy, we must vote against it. When there are 5 or 6 or more parties involved you can't end up with a straight up fight. You will get more discussion and partnering to make deals. And when the voters get used to the new system they will be more likely to vote for the guy they actually like, rather than vote for the guy most likely to win, because they can still give their vote to the likely to win guy if theirs is eliminated anyway.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
Basic income guarantee.
Electoral reform (preference voting)
Abolition of copyright.
Abolition of all victimless crimes (drug use, prostitution, all sumptuary laws)
Abolition of all national security exceptions to the Constitution (exceptions to the Constitution themselves endanger national scecurity)
Abolition of immunities. (prosecutorial, judicial, qualified)
Creation of a special prosecutor to prosecute abuses of power.
And lastly pass a law that explicitly states that every citizen has a right to a government that obeys the law. Every citizen should have standing to sue the government if it breaks any laws. Far too many egregious violations of the constitution are unstoppable because no one can prove they have standing.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Separation of corporation and state.
Your posting looks intelligent. You are getting generally good proposal. However, be aware that this is a democracy. Your opponent is too big.
then require that every person own a gun to protect their neighbor as well.
Add in mandatory semi-yearly safety and marksmanship training.
Also, make it part of the mandatory school curriculum. I think a major reason we have so many kids these days accidentally shooting each other is a result of the fact that the only exposure many children get to firearms is playing/watching their parents play FPS games.
Make gun safety courses mandatory for police chiefs, too-- they seem remarkably careless with their guns. One around here just shot himself in the leg http://www.vindy.com/news/2013/apr/19/former-boardman-police-chief-shoots-self/, and looking at the web, day before yesterday another one shot himself at a Boy Scout meeting http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-17/news/ct-met-boy-scout-gun-discharged-20130417_1_police-officer-retired-officer-des-plaines
Maybe mandatory gun safety courses for Vice Presidents as well-- at least they could get the "if you can't see what you're shooting at, perhaps you shouldn't shoot. Oh, and maybe you shouldn't go hunting when you're drunk."
Really, it's hard to support that "mandatory gun ownership" thing when there are so many idiots, careless people, and drunks out there.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Recognition that government is a necessary evil.
Emphasis on "necessary" and "evil". Make the country run successfully, and stop focussing on social issues.
Take today's spending for the US gov't. Fix that for the next 4 years. No growth until the debt is reduced to 0.
Divide spending that by the number of people in the country.
This is the average, per person tax burden.
Proportionalize, based on the person's total income (of any kind) vs the average income. If you made 2x the average income, you pay 2x share. If you made 1/10 the average income, you pay 1/10.
-Styopa
I'd argue for scientifically rational policies but people seem to disagree as to what those are.
I just listened to a debate about abolishing the minimum wage, and fundamentally it wasn't a moral debate so much as a wonk debate. The libertarians arguing that abolishing the minimum wage would bring more people into the work force and help the poor, the opponents claiming that studies suggested a more complicated relationship and that the minimum wage didn't cost many jobs and transferred more wealth to the poorest part of the population. Fundamentally I don't know which argument is the right one.
For a real party I would suggest two bedrock principals:
1) Clearly identify that your party works towards moral goals, a policy is only a tool to achieve those goals. ie you're not interested in "Open Government (data) access" but the public being able to act as an effective watchdog over government.
2) To achieve 1 write policy with research in mind. If people are considering abolishing the minimum wage write legislation that will help you gather data to tell you if it's a good idea, if you want to promote science and math than apply that legislation in a handful of states and see if it works. It's not possible to do for all legislation but if you approach lawmaking with the idea that it's still an experiment and you have to gather data than I think you can really increase the quality of the governance.
I stole this Sig
Eliminate all attempts to legislate morals.
I dunno if that's a good alternative. Oral sex sucks.
One that seems minor, but it will drastically level the power that huge cable/telcoms have over content. Make a Federal Mandate that Cable Networks MUST provide a la carte cable television. No more packages. You only pay for the channels you watch. Even if the average price of each channel goes up, it will force an entirely new paradigm and decentralize the power that advertizers and also allow consumers to send clear messages about what channels they want to be paying for. The second thing is that we have to get the US on track with modernizing the power and internet backbone- Federally mandate sustainability and moderninity for the enite grid. Nothing is more important infrastructure-wise to our continued competitive survival in the global marketplace.
They either need to disappear or become MUCH less onerous. The digital age has redefined markets and manufacturing of digital goods; it no longer makes sense to consider digital copying as theft.
Never say never. Ah!! I did it again!
Unfortunately, no political party position is complete without addressing money. You need to decide whether to tax your way out of this hole, or cut your way out. (or both, but aggressively, not half heartedly)
First plank? Cut the deficit all the way to negative. ASAP. That means now, not planning on it several decades out. Real reform hurts, but it will hurt more if we don't address the problem. Can you imagine the US declaring bankruptcy? That's where we're headed. (or the equvalent, anyway) And that's not just the federal government. Many of the states are insolvent right now too. Even some of the big ones (California).
Real deficit cuts are not decreasing the planned growth of deficits! Grab both the Rs and Ds and slap them with this during campaigning.
Second, start spending the money we've got wisely. We're like a leaky sieve. For instance, there's a constant drumbeat of "we've got to support the schools and teachers!" In reality? Almost all the money get's lost between tax payers and the classrooms. Setting more money aside for schools almost never results in increased learning. But cuts? Those go straight to the gullet.
Third, stop the hidden tax. Inflation. The FED and other financial entities have been focused on a constant, steady inflation to "protect" the economy from the boogeyman of deflationary-spirals. The reality is: deflation is a symptom of the spirals, but isn't the primary cause. Healthy economies absorb deflation nicely. The real reason for constant inflation is to cause the stock market to be the safest place for people to store their cash. It's a money grab for the rich, and a way for the Federal government to shrink the value of the national debt.
I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
Your party platform contains scary restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of commerce. Your platform is full of hidden subsidies to banks, "homeowners", medical insurance, and other powerful political interest groups. Before you add more nonsense to your platform, why don't you fix that first?
Reasonable copyright, 10 years, and only applies to commercial interests like it was originally intended.
Reform patent law to take an extremely strict view of any purposed patent and strengthen prior art thresholds (ie.: combining multiple existing technologies is not patent-worthy just because it hasn't been done before, the standard for obviousness is whether it would be logical for a qualified engineer), fund the patent office with taxes rather than the current rubber-stamp-for-hire process, can the incompetent schmucks currently staffing it and hire actual experts from various technology and science fields.
Reasonable drug policy that doesn't criminalize and lock up non-violent people minding their own business putting into their own bodies what they want.
Reasonable understanding of technology-based "crimes" that don't unnecessarily trump up charges because z0mg!!! compoooteers!!!
Reasonableness in general? Stop the creation of bad policy based on bullshit perceptions and knee-jerk pandering politics. Law should be required to meet some sort of scientific rigor before it's acceptable.
I guess I might was well also ask for unicorns and free Ferraris while I'm at it, because that stands no less of a chance than anything else listed here.
I would like you to base your policies around some coherent principles so that I can know if you are worth investigating further. When you make a post like you have just made, it sounds like you are just trying to taylor your policies to getting votes from a particular constituency. Your post does not deserve to be on Slashdot. If you had stated some core principals and how they apply to the use of technology in society, that would have been something worth reading, although it would still not be your place to advertise it here.
If you are serious about politics I would suggest you act with more decency, and stop polluting news sites with articles that are not news, but rather promoting your own agenda.
As an intro, I am not a political expert nor do I claim to have a firm grasp on all things politics.
1) How about making sure the leaders and other political figures of the party aren't ignorant egomaniacs with an agenda and a pocket full of bribe money. That is my first request.
2) Be open about who is donating money to your party.
3) When speaking they should sound intelligent but not condescending, they should be confident. Be sure they are briefed on the subject beforehand by qualified experts that can be accounted for. I don't want to hear "experts say that bla bla bla...." What experts? Who are they? What are their credentials?
4) Have a science and technology panel that serves as a resource for educating politicians on science and technical matters. After all, science and technology make a nation strong and competitive.
5) How do we remain competitive now and in the future with China both in terms of manufacturing and technology? China isn't going to play second fiddle to the US for ever. One day they are going to develop their own competitive technology from scratch which isn't a cheap knockoff. They have tons of manpower and are sharpening their skills. We have to be sure we stay one or more steps ahead of them technologically. They also have no problem stealing IP from us. That is another problem which needs to be addressed.
6) National security should not trump the rights of its citizens. Three letter agencies and local police forces need to be restrained in their ever invasive surveillance practices and policies. Warrants should be mandatory for all wiretapping whether its a phone or internet connection. Why should the CIA get to build massive secret data centers in the middle of the desert and install fiber taps into major backbones? What are they collecting and why? How is it helping us? Think of it like this: after all the slow erosion of privacy and rights with increased surveillance, two guys still managed to set bombs off at the boston marathon. We need to rethink how we approach national security.
7) And another important part of your platform is foreign policy. This I cannot take the time to explain but let's re-evaluate our position of rolling into countries balls out because of some purported terrorist threat. I understand its a tough position to be in, someone attacked us and people demand justice or revenge. You can't be timid and look like a pussy but you shouldn't start a war by spreading lies. In short, lets stop looking like a dick to the rest of the world.
I wrote this in haste and its simply a brain dump. I just want a political party that sounds rational, is open and honest and confident in their actions.
All of your data has got to be free.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
It can be said that the underlying weakness of the current political system is that it is straddling a transition from fossil fuels to an unknown. The key to making it through this transition is to understand the scale of energy need, the economic problems with low energy density sources like traditional renewables, and the potential of nuclear technology that is decades old.
Our current level of energy consumption is some 17 TW globally, dominated by fossil fuels. Projections of future consumption will depend upon factors such as: population size (9-10 billion), quality of life desired (5-13 kW per capita), and the availability and economic viability of various energy sources (fissile and other vital materials for reactor initialization). It is conservatively estimated that we will need somewhere between 2 and 3 times current capacity by 2050. I suggest trying to imagine a global energy system that can provide 50 TW of usable capacity by 2050. This is the point where anyone with a familiarity of our current regulatory system and state of technology give up in despair. It is a frustratingly daunting task to try and conquer poverty and global warming simultaneously.
As we scale up traditional renewables, poor capacity factors, high material use, and remote siting end up negatively influencing the economics. Furthermore, copious land use becomes coupled to economic activity as we ruinously strive to give everyone their due resources by covering more land (and shallow sea) with energy generating equipment. At the scales I am suggesting, we will be covering at least single percentages of land with energy farms. This should give all renewable energy advocates extreme pause, though most will gladly sacrifice this land on the altar of their radiological superstition.
For decades we have been in possession of nuclear technology capable of helping us realize a vision of a world without poverty and global warming. Numerous crises from economic shocks to industrial accidents have malformed the political landscape, and the present confusion over how to proceed on energy threatens us all. Building out nuclear capacity rapidly will require the efficient production and use of incredibly rare and valuable fissile. We will probably need fissile factories (super breeders) in addition to U mining and enrichment. Reactors will need to breed their own fuel (from fertile isotopes), but will still require a quantity of fissile for initialization. The most efficient reactor system to mass produce will be a thermal molten salt reactor based on thorium, as it should only require about 1 ton of fissile for 1 gigawatt capacity. No other system comes close to this, and all of the fast neutron systems have large fissile loads (not a problem if you are only going to build a few machines). We need to build tens of thousands of machines. Present global fissile stockpiles are in the few thousands of tons.
Energy is easily the most important issue facing our civilization as it is the fundamental input into our economic system. Our failure to respond to this situation of inadequate technology, political backwardness, and general public ignorance, superstition, and apathy can entail us becoming another 'accident of history'.
Pledge to only except individual campaign donations and post those donations online.
Pledge to attend EVERY vote unless medically unable. No abstaining.
Pledge to Vote against or veto (depending on office) any legislation that contains earmarks (I realize that this is currently all legislation)
Pledge to avoid "hot button" issues like abortion, Gun control, gay marriage and focus on the many issues most people agree on where easy progress can be made. These highly incendiary issues are used by the current parties to distract people from their lack of real action on real issues.
Pledge to budget only for the current year. Budgeting for years you will not be in office is ridiculous because it will simply be re-written at that time. Budgets that claim to spend now and then save in 4 years after you're gone are a joke.
Pledge to reduce the US military presence in the world by at least 50%. Let the military decide which bases to close and where. We'll still have the largest, most expensive military on earth. So it'll be ok.
End the drug war.
End mandatory minimums.
Make it illegal for police seizures of cash to go to the departments involved.
Make it illegal for any drug sentence to exceed the sentence for murder.
Make getting a greencard so easy, people stop traversing the dessert in order to avoid having to get one. If you obey the law, and have a job, you should be able to get into the country easily.
ok, flame away... :-)
Free Speech including the right to cause offense is critical. Everything else is secondary. If you don't have Free Speech you have *nothing*. Now you may argue that the US already has Free Speech, but it turns out that actually what US citizens can and can't say is being steadily eroded by political correctness. Here are some things for you to consider: The incompetant Hiliary Clinton co-sponsored UN HRC Resolution 16/18 which seeks the criminalization of those that defame or cause offense to religions; consider the film "Innocence of Muslims" while it was mostly factually correct (see: http://www.pi-news.org/2012/09/fact-check-the-innocence-of-the-muslims/) the Obama Administration hunted down the producer and put him in jail (on some bullshit charges) which was a big signal that exercising Free Speech in the US about the subject of Islam (even making true statements) is an exercise that can land you in jail.
A party that has a central platform that will *actually* defend Free Speech would be great. That is, rather than assuming it exists and doesn't need to be defended, or only gives lip service to defending it while it gets progressively eroded (as Democrats do).
A second plank your Party might like to consider is making explicit the support for the primacy of the Constitution over foreign laws. There have been an increasing number of cases where foreign laws (particularly Sharia) have come in conflict with the US Constitution and the Constitution has often yielded. This got bad enough that Florida and Oklahoma need to draft state laws to prevent this happening again. It would be good to have a political party that was explicit about the primacy of US law for US citizens on US soil. This would also help Internet users - they should not be subject to foreign laws of censorship etc when accessing a server hosted outside the US.
Most Important: a modern election process. rank voting, ON PAPER. If volunteers to do the counting can not be found, if they can't wait for results, then democracy is not important.
While in office, they can only have 1 income. no investments, 401k, etc.
No Lawyers can be elected to office. (do you know the ones in firms tend to help their firms become specialists in the laws they write?)
Why not just put in the crazy ideals:
Politician Pension Plan for life + they can never work for another person ever again; or be a consultant.
A Parliamentary system. they are superior.
Limit the congressional seat CAP when it was originally designed to SCALE with the population - based upon the common sense that the more people a rep represents the more removed from them they become. This would also make corruption more difficult because you'd have to buy off a LOT more politicians, their individual power would be less, and their constituents would know them better. The creation of the cap gave them more individual power; one can totally see why they actually did it. This can apply to a parliament system as well.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Big effing wood planks so all my hunting buddies can drink and eat when we cheer for MOHR GUNZ
Having a say is overrated.
The only issue that matters anymore is the restoration of the voting franchise. We need to:
- eliminate PACs and SuperPACs
- limit contributions to individual, human contributions only, capped to $1000 per person
- outlaw gerrymandering and require an immediate redistricting such that, except for districts on state lines, no district has a concave border.
- functional, tamper-proof, open source voting machines that issue paper records of the votes cast must be in sufficient supply and for a sufficient time period that everyone in the district will be able to vote
- No ID card is required, but the person voting must be on the roll for the polling station they are assigned to and they must give a thumb print and sign their name.
- No penalties for honest voter registration drives; heavy penalties for fraudulent practices during voter registration drives.
- failure to provide adequate access to the voting process is grounds for heavy fines and overturning of the election results.
And don't just pass a set of laws -- pass an Amendment to the Constitution. Because the vote of the people is the most essential part of the foundation of our form of government, and it has been seriously eroded over the last few decades to the point where well-financed parties seriously believe, and rightly so, that they can sway elections and deform our laws and regulations to suit their interests alone.
When the voice of the people is restored, when we are truly once again a government of, by, and for the people rather than the top 0.001%, everything else will fall into line.
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
How about this radical idea: strict adherence to the entire Constitution, not just little bits and pieces.
There's absolutely no reason for them to exist. They don't provide any benefit at all to society, and abolishing them would save industry tens of billions of dollars a year.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
Third parties are fine in the USA as long as they run canidates during primaries and not the final election. If your a liberal leaning party then the Democratic primary is your runoff election where you can get your guy in. Conservative leaning should run in the Republican primary. That is what the Tea Party has been doing.
We need legislation based on evidence (not dogma), budget items prioritized by Return on Investment (any increase in expected tax revenue as a result of government spending), and market failures corrected (polluter pays, etc.).
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
Financial reform. If what the banks did in 2008 wasn't illegal, it should have been. Glass-Steagal needs to come back. The tax burden on corporations (and people) needs to increase the larger they become. Money is unelected political power. It subverts democracy and encourages oligarchy. Offshore money parking needs to be illegal as well. If you want your money in the Isle of Mann, feel free to move there.
The USA's military is 7 times larger than the next largest military. We spend 18 percent of the budget on military expenditures. I'm all for reducing "entitlements" starting with the Army, Navy and Marines.
More money should go to research in AI and energy generation. The first problem is unrecognized by the mainstream press (What a shock), but the first country that develops useful, scalable, human-like AI rules the world. Seriously. The next big problem is energy. Like it or not, significant postive net energy from oil is going away. We need a replacement.
Controversial as this is, I'd give anyone with a medical, engineering or other technical degree earned in the USA a green card and two tax free years. We need the world's smart people here, not in India.
End rant.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
If they are so patriotic... as they profess to be when they run for office - why not execute them when they leave office? Wouldn't that bring about a whole different kind of dynamic? Worth pondering all the wide spread changes that would cause. Given the stakes and how many die as a result of their actions (even the small ones) it doesn't feel barbaric at all.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
I would say that if they miss more than one prior art they risk losing the patent. That will light a fire for them to be more accurate.
I think copyrights need to be dramatically shortened. I mean come on, 75 years after the DEATH of the of the author? And corporate ownership is FOREVER
I would mandate that copyrights need to be registered. Even if it is something like a dollar a year.. In that way we can identify orphan works that should be made free.
Full transparency. At all cost. For all the government and related sectors. That the answer for the old question "who watches the watchers?": all the citizens.
If you are a Justice Party then you should be about true justice.
So let's do this:
1. Strict government adherence to the set Law, the Constitution.
2. No deviation from the Law for the government, for the politicians.
3. All laws must apply in exactly the same manner to all individuals.
4. No discrimination against individuals based on any personal circumstances, you can't have justice if you don't apply the law in exactly the same way to all people.
5. No retroactive laws under any circumstances.
6. In order to pass any legislation, it must FIRST pass against ALL the tests of the existing Law, unit test your legislation against all Laws so to speak.
7. Never allow your sentiments to override your Laws.
8. Have a Law based party, anybody that violates the Law must be immediately removed from his or her position of power.
9. Strict separation of power between branches, so do not allow the Executive branch actually come up with the Law as it happens right now on daily basis, where some bureaucrat that is given authority to run something also decides on the details of the actual Law that is supposed to govern his actions.
10. All your actions must pass the muster of all the Laws right in front of the eyes of the public, I am talking about complete transparency on every decision.
So those are your commandments if you are talking about real justice.
But let me take a wild guess, you are not talking about real justice, you are talking about discrimination and outcomes that you want to base on your preferences. When you say "Justice" what you really mean is discrimination against individuals based on their personal circumstances for the purpose of achieving your goals, whatever they are (so called 'just society', which is simply another socialist party).
I don't believe my list of 10 suggestions will make it into your platform.
You can't handle the truth.
Okay, I consider myself a moderate libertarian. I'll try to keep my views to 'plank' level, as many topics can expand to book size for details/reasoning:
1. I believe in Keynesian economic theory: The budget should be balanced *ON AVERAGE* - IE over a 10-20 year period revenues should equal expenditures. This means that the budget should be balanced when the economy is worse than what most people would like, have major surpluses when the economy is 'hot', and deficits when the economy is bad.
2. Legalize, tax, and regulate recreational drugs: The harm caused by prohibition exceeds that of what legalization would have. It's harm mitigation, not prevention. It's not going to be perfect. Use the revenues to fund treatment options, empty the prisons out of drug offenders, treat addiction as a medical issue.
3. Fix our schools: Excessive testing isn't the answer, neither is 'more money' normally. A new method needs to be found to provide adequate funding and oversight to truly address the problems of troubled schools.
4. Fix our prisons: Reform, not warehousing. Most of Europe managed to have a recidivism rate 1/3rd ours and 1/3rd the prison sentence. We just can't afford to keep running our prisons this way as the cost of keeping a prisoner soars past $30k/year.
5. Fix our infrastructure: encourage a positive business climate. Oh, and an educated workforce is infrastructure as far as businesses are concerned.
6. Go through the government with a fine toothed comb to reduce duplication(we have how many 'green energy' subsidy programs?) and waste.
7. Reduce subsidies and regulatory overhead, not oversight(yeah, I know, easier said than done).
8. Encourage free speech and an open, fair internet.
9. Reduce copyright terms; as far as I'm concerned they should be limited to somewhat less than the expected lifespan of the media they're commonly printed on. IE people can legally copy it BEFORE the media would statistically have failed 10X over.
I don't read AC A human right
"My opinions are my own, and I've got *lots* of them!"
That is all.
I am committed to voting for any candidate who will do away with the anachronistic concept of Daylight Savings Time. I am a morning person--let there be light.
Just an aside, I'm not a libertarian. and I strongly believe point 1 would require more regulation of companies and industries, not less.
Abolition of copyright. Abolition of all victimless crimes (drug use, prostitution, all sumptuary laws) Abolition of all national security exceptions to the Constitution (exceptions to the Constitution themselves endanger national scecurity) Abolition of immunities. (prosecutorial, judicial, qualified) Creation of a special prosecutor to prosecute abuses of power.
In other words, government should leave you the heck alone, minimal government power and intrusion. Cool.
Then:
Basic income guarantee
and you want government to be your mommy.
It's like a told my daughter - I can take care of you, or you can be a grown up. I can pay for your healthcare, your food, your transportation, etc.
If I'm paying for it, I have to make the decisions about your healthcare, your food, your transporation, etc. (I'm responsible for the decisions, after all.) If you want to make your own decisions for your life, you are then responsible for your decisions - that's called being a grown up.
Pick either, but you can't have both. Either you are responsible for yourself, or a government bureaucrat is. Don't ask me to take care of you,
while allowing you to piss off the resources I work so hard to provide for you.
Have the realism and courage to state that the economy, being based on finite natural resources, can't grow forever, or even much longer. We were 20 years behind the curve in responding to global warming, which is just one more clue that we're f*cking up a nice place to live. Let's not stay in denial about the fallacy of perpetual growth and the immorality of waste, and develop policies that acknowledge it -- consumption taxes being a great starting point.
"If you're not passionate about your operating system, you're married to the wrong one."
When a party tries to crowdsource it's planks - it's doomed, as it's just following the fads. (Doubly so when they claim to be working on V2, and there's not V1 available for reference. There are a lot of pretty buzzwords though.)
When the Technology Manager is the one doing the asking.... well, that's just another nail in the coffin that's already been welded, superglued, bolted, and clamped shut.
Seriously, WTF?
1. Use gold for money.
2. Shut down the Federal reserve and ban fractional reserve banking practices.
3. Shut down IRS and eliminate income tax.
4. Reduce the military to a maximum size no greater than the next largest military on the planet and station it inside US borders never to leave.
5. Reform Copyright limits to it's original timeframe (eliminate MM laws).
6. Reform patents to it's original requirements (you must build a working physical device that represents the patent).
7. Eliminate any laws governing the behavior and rights of corporations. Specifically remove any law that deems the rights of a corporation equivalent to an individual.
8. Ban campaign contributions. Allow campaigns for public office to occur for two days and only the two days before the election. Candidates pay for their own campaigns out of their own pocket.
8. Implement a term limit for _all_ public servants, elected officials and government employees to no greater than 6 years.
Good luck with anything less. You'll just be another re-branded statist party and you might as well run for office as a republican or democrat (either will work for you).
-- Mean People Suck
According to their web site, their "Vision" is more or less American communism, the left-wing "we're all in it together, so yours is mine" theme:
Social Justice: Every person's civil and human rights are protected; everyone has the opportunity to obtain an excellent education from early childhood through college or trade school; affordable and high-quality healthcare is available for everyone; government is not controlled by wealthy corporations and individuals, but is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Economic Justice: All people are provided with opportunities for prosperity; poverty is eliminated; the “middle class” is thriving; and our economy is appropriately regulated so that all members of society are treated fairly.
Environmental Justice: The earth's inhabitants are safe from catastrophic, human-caused climate disruption; nature is protected and preserved through sustainable practices; and our air, water, and food supplies are clean and healthy.
But their "Core Values" list includes:
Justice: Behave with fairness and compassion, and be accountable for one’s actions;
Respect: Treat all people, including those with different views, philosophies, and circumstances, with respect;
Rule of Law: Uphold the equal application of the rule of law.;
Rationality: Reach decisions consistent with facts and reason;
Farsightedness: Consider not only the immediate, but also the long term, consequences of our actions;
How do you provide "poverty is eliminated" when some people don't care to work? By robbing the people who do work, of course. So much for Justice, rule of law, and respect. ... high-quality healthcare is available for everyone". Again, if someone produces $18,000 / year and is going to get $20,000 worth of healthcare, and $20,00 for college, who are you taking that $40,000 from? Someone whom you're not treating with "justice", "respect", etc.
Vision: "college
Does that plan, which has been an utter failure anytime anyone has tried anything like that, sound like "Rationality" or "Farsightedness"?
Clearly they don't know what they believe, haven't thought that through. (I assume they're not lying about most of it, and just haven't thought enough to realize that pretty much all of their "Core Values" are the opposites of their "Vision".
1. Candidate may only accept campaign contributions from those that can vote for that candidate. ...
2. New bills should have a justification as to "why this is the federal government's business".
3. new bills should sit for 14 days for all to read before a vote
4. all bills should be voted on by themselves.
5. all laws should have an expiration date
6. every bill and nominated individual should get a vote
7. legislators should live and work in their home district
8. federal legislators should be paid by their state
9. replace income tax with consumption tax
10. cancel the F35
11. repeal obamacare
12. legalize marijuana
13. legalize online gaming
14. give national park management to environmental groups
15. white collar and violent crime should be the DOJs highest priority
Instead of using vague, feel-good terms like "social justice" and "economic equality", say what you really mean: you want to use the force of government to push your view of what's "right" on the rest of us. You believe in freedom, as long as people don't say or do things you don't like. You believe that government effectively owns people's lives and property, and has the authority to tell them what they may, or must, do with it.
Or...
Come up with a good platform, based on the American ideals of individual responsibility and community involvement. This is all you need to do that:
Eliminate the executive and judicial branches as part of the legislative process. They execute the laws or judge the execution. (Hence the clever names).
For a bill to pass the legislature, it must have 90% approval.
If the bill consists entirely of repealing an existing law, it needs only 10% approval.
A ballot proposition can eliminate any law with 10% approval.
Done.
Things that would pass the 90% mark:
Bans on murder, rape, theft, fraud, etc.
Things that would fail to pass the 90% mark:
Bans on sexuality, drugs, guns, etc.
Wars, slavery, genocide, etc.
Instant Runoff Voting. Look it up.
That's what we need.
Perfect!
Others have great ideas too, but how about GIT for everything.
- Research in GIT:
Where's the data, how was it processed?
- Politics in GIT:
Have a commitment? Put it in your TODO. Achieved it? Mark as done.
No one will vote for a claim/plan unless you register it to be held accountable.
- Bills in GIT: If a law changes, who did it, how when?
- Laws as Unit Tests: Unit tests show the behaviors & results. To start a business, follow the start_business unit test.
These tests could be "played with" to determine what is legal & illegal.
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
1. Subject all policies to empiracle review, if the policy isn't improving the general welfare of the people or is causing unintended problems, force it through a mandatory review in which changes are made or a new policy is proposed. Various optimal constraints will be used, chief among them is the gini coeffecient. The following planks are subject to this one. 2. Decentralize power. One way of doing this is forming citizen councils, 100 people to a council, which elects one person to another 100 citizen council, and so on until you have 1 to 100 councils at the top. Every representative must vote the way the council that elected them voted, given appropriate time for debate. The only horizontal communication allowed is between leaf councils, except in a vote of concious by a representstive council, in which case they can communicate horizontally to force the issue to all the councils below that level.all communication must be recorded and freely available. 3. Disband the military. For defense purposes , all citizens will be given 2 years of military training in the fields that best use their abilities, and best match the needs of the nation. After that two years, they can chose to go to a four year university, private or public sector employment, or form a business using the money that would have gone to their education. If loans to start a business are required, the business must be in the form of a worker owned coop a la democracy at work.
As an American I am extremely angry at those who create troubles for my country, particularly those who came to America but refuse to live peacefully with the others
If they do not want to live peacefully with the rest of us in the United States of America they can either ***NOT*** coming to America in the first place, or, get out of America before they start creating trouble for others
I was very very angry at what happened to the World Trade Center in NYC, and I AM very very angry at what happened at the Boston Marathon
If people of a certain violent sect want to kill and main people, they should do it in THEIR OWN COUNTRIES
Stop doing it in the United States of America !
If you party is for "Justice", then do justice to the Americans --- get those troublemakers out of our society !!!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Hi TaoPhoenix, This is a valid point. In hindsight, I would have logged in and posted. My original /. account was tied into an email address of a dead domain. Anyways, I have logged in for you. Not looking to scrap ideas. The point is that science, technology, internet and much more has taken a pounding from politicians. We are hear to say, 'We want to listen. Give us your ideas in these matters. Help us make a more better America.' Does that help a bit? Not like we are throwing some 'dark money' at Slashdot here. lol. -- Thanks, Justice Party
Representatives aren't working. That's not even the word for them, they don't represent us or decided based on the best interests of the people. A purely democratic system would be horrible due to the mob-rule, but it has become abundantly clear that we do need a 4th power as a check and balance. This is the information age, we now have the technology to put all these crap laws directly to vote by the people. The US Citizens are not being adequately represented by their representatives because of the percentage of apathy of the average American and of the lack of accountability afforded to those who are up for election to such offices. The founding fathers had a great idea, but they could not anticipate a design that operates in today's climate of vast corruption and apathetic voters who rightly feel that their votes don't matter. We have the technology to make our voices directly heard in the passing of any bill -- Laws that will directly impact our lives shouldn't be passed without a representative portion of voters actually aware of the bill and voting to instate it.
We need those registered voters to have their own individual digital offices of government. Each voter given the option to participate in voting to veto or pass the same bills that come before the president -- A public veto power. Furthermore we need only pass the laws that the public ACTUALLY knows and cares about. If there isn't enough direct voting support for a bill then it gets dropped automatically. This could be a HUGE boon to the current system: By opening up a direct line of thought to the actual people the laws will affect the other branches will better see how to align their decisions with that of the people who supposedly vote them into or out of office next term.
Of course there are many issues with gaming such a system, but just look at the current system! Can you say it's ANY Better?! Is it any LESS game-able? No, it is MORE SO. Anyone who has even heard of the practice of paperclipping a bill to another to fly it under our radar should either be fighting to change the broken and corrupt system, to save it from extinction.
Has nature taught us nothing? Any entity that does not adapt to its surroundings WILL become extinct. That is the mechanism by which History makes itself repeat -- Thus government-organisms have life cycles. Any system collects more baggage and entropy as it grows and ages, enough so that it eventually "dies" -- Governments are no different, except that now you recognize it as such a system we can prevent its death. It's time to re-make the government while its running... The alternative is a bloody new government is born of revolution, that's less efficient. It's time to make an evolutionary leap in terms of government: It's time to end the cycle of death by building adaptation right into the organism itself.
We have the technology. Let us use it.
See post above. My apologies for not logging in. Sometimes us bald guys don't want to be noticed. ;-)
>Is this really how political parties get started? No. We started in 2011. Which is not long ago. But we are rather new. >Shouldn't the platform come before the party? We have a platform. It is being revised. On issues of social, civic and environment justice we have various planks. Our hope here is to listen to people who immerse themselves in technology and issues related to technology. To simply listen. And to absorb ideas that will help lead the country down a path of improvements in science, engineering and so much more. >This makes it sound like you found a large, under-served demographic and decided to cash in on their passion. Actually, I've been visited Slashdot for many many years. Lost my account years ago and haven't bothered to recreate a new one. These days, I just read the OP and it is enough. But /. holds good memories for me from back in the days I was pushing open source game development. You can get some insightful comments here and there....
>How about you tell us what your party stands for, and we'll tell you if we agree and where you could stand to change.
Take a look at some of our Founding Documents. Or visit our founder's website, voterocky.com. He has many videos on what we stand for.
Our (old) platform is offline right now as we work on the new version.
>At the very least, you should lurk more.
Been lurking for many years my friend. Probably started back in 2002 or so.
>but surely you understand why this looks deceitful
Yes. It is because the two major parties have so twisted our political system. That's one reason why I myself, and doing what I can to help out the Justice Party.
>It's like asking a girl in a chat room how old she is and she asks how old you want her to be.
More like, 'Which Linux distro should do you like? With answer, 'Which distro do you want us to like?'
Thanks for posting. Throw us some ideas though. That is why I decided to recreate an account.
-- Thanks, Justice Party
I like your ideas. I have been studying many open source projects for Open Gov. There are some cities around the planet that are embracing it. We would love to see this more on a national level. BTW, there are many Greens in our party and a few on our National Steering Committee. (Actually, a range of people from other parties.) Thanks for input! -- Thanks, Justice Party
No dig felt! Good input. On other areas such as the environment, social issues we are indeed looking for input. But today, we are looking for input from people who love science and technology. I am in the field, so want to hear what my peers want and hope for. We will attempt to bring Sexy Planks back. Thank you my friend. :)
-- Thanks, Justice Party
http://www.lp.org/platform
Hiya, we have our vision, mission and core values posted on our site. I was thinking to post them but didn't want to take up too much space in the OP. Figured the URL was enough. Most of our platform is in the area of social, civic, economic and the environment. What I am hoping to achieve here is not to pander. Rather, to simply listen to what is on your minds. Most parties simply look for a vote. And their platform is made by men in dark suits. We want to be different and reach out to people in different communities. Since I have liked /. for many years, I thought it would be cool to ask here. Some input has been great. And some input Score: 0, but hey, it is SlashDot, so you gotta be prepared to take it.
We submitted it to Ask Slashdot (community). Not posted as 'news'.
Anyways, if you have some ideas that you would like to see occur for our country related to the sciences. Let us know.
Cheers
-- Thanks, Justice Party
It's called tyranny of the majority. The the classic line is "two wolves in sheep voting on what to have for dinner". you see it to today with Occupy bums who declare they will not get a job, but insist on taking their living from that you do work.
Be happy. Glass-Steagal is on our new platform. -- Thanks, Justice Party
"I don't believe my list of 10 suggestions will make it into your platform." Why not? :)
-- Thanks, Justice Party
Hi, thank you for the list. If I recall, we will be putting a plank in for ending the war on drugs. Also looking to address our prison system (look at our VP candidate in 2012). Your input is one of the best. Thank you for actually thinking on these topics! -- Thanks, Justice Party
You were doing awesome:
Abolition of copyright. Abolition of all victimless crimes (drug use, prostitution, all sumptuary laws) Abolition of all national security exceptions to the Constitution (exceptions to the Constitution themselves endanger national scecurity) Abolition of immunities. (prosecutorial, judicial, qualified) Creation of a special prosecutor to prosecute abuses of power.
in other words you want government to leave you alone. you want government officials to have minimum power. Cool.
Basic income guarantee.
now you want government to be your mommy.
You can run your own life, or you can ask someone else to be responsible for you. Those are opposites, you can't do both.
You want to legalize drugs? Fine. You want me to take a second job so I can pay your bills while you smoke pot all day? GFY. If you want to be a grown up and rin your own life, go do it. I'm not buying the heroine FOR you.
Hello gl4ss :)
I'm OK with you beating up the website. Little background. The visual design was MUCH MUCH worse in 2012 if you can believe that. What you see is a 'default' template on our cloud-based CMS. Yeah, not so great. I admit it. I'm working on moving us to an Open Source CMS/framework. The party has a good amount of political people, but lacks people in web/IT/Dev etc. By the way, I am not paid and putting in 3 hours a day and all weekends. I do this because I don't want to sit in my chair and simply say, 'our politics suck.' I'm trying to do good, eh. There are a few tech people in the party but we could sure use many more! We hope to get our docs into GIT and use other open source tools to push OPEN GOV.
You might see ads. But truly, not my intention my friend. I have visited /. since I ran a site that promoted open source development. There are some insightful people in this community. Though sometimes it seems many have moved on. Anyways, the idea is to get input on topics that I haven't listed out for our platform committee to consider. That is a bad thing? I suppose if we were one of the two major parties we would spend some PAC money and spend a million on a paid focus group.
Please see our website. There is a vision, mission and core values. They certainly could be tweaked and in time I expect them to be smoothed over. I highly recommend you go to the site of our founder, Rocky Anderson (voterocky.org). Watch the many videos on his website. It has much more content to educate you on what we are trying to build.
The platform we had in 2011~12 is offline. We are using some tools to have our membership submit ideas and improvements. This Slashdot post is an attempt to reach out beyond our members for input. I think that is a good thing.
On the pledge and some of the other articles. Some are a bit dated and haven't been updated since the election. We need more people to help with editing I think.
>and if the technology manager bothers to read this:
I'm here my friend. :) I won't bother to address the rest as it looks like you melted off.
-- Cheers mate, Justice Party
I want neither, health insurance nor gov single payer. I want the freedom to pay my own way. The cost of health insurance, because of gov mandates, is too high to justify, if you are young and healthy. I should be allowed to make an adult decision, not to have health insurance. You can write me off if I get an extreme disease at a young age.
Gov single payer takes away my choice to just pay as I go. Gov should not be allowed to impose on your freedom in that way.
Most of your health care costs in life are in you later years. If you have your whole life to save for them, then you can make a decision to spend *your* hard earned money on things today, or on healthcare for later in life. It should be *your* choice. It's your hard earned money.
If you don't save, the gov should not take other peoples hard earned money, against their will, to save you.
If a charity wants to save the destitute, that's fine. No coercion is involved with charities.
IMHO.
0. Don't touch guns. I know you are liberals, but if you go for gun control I am out. I don't expect you to make an stances for guns, but if you come out against guns, I'm out, peroid.
1. All research funded by the US government should be given back to the US Government. All Research the government has should be either Public Domain, or licensed under something like a BSD/MIT license.(I prefer the GPL myself, for my own projects, but I recognize this is probably more correct for the current system we have, and would allow more people to use government funded research we all pay for.)
2. Stipulate the government own all software and all source code that it uses on all its computer systems, and have access to the technical information of all computer and computer based hardware it uses. Forbid contractors from bidding on government projects submit source code for review, as a condition of getting a contract.
3. net neutrality. Lets be clear on what this really is. No filtering of data, no segeration of data based on layer 3 data or higher. Also standardize internet as a commodity, with standard ammounts.
1 unit of internet is proposed to be 1 mb/s @ 100 GB/s month transfer.
The carriers have a right to set the price for
-width of the pipe(say mb/s)
-total flow through the pipe(say GB per month)
and they may count, monitor and regulate a connection to make it conform to publicly stated agreed specifications, but nothing else. Low level connections by law need to be agnostic of high level connections in all regards.
This is almost related, is to enforce set contracts against the carriers, verizon is notorious for taking on mysterious fees. This needs to end.
At time of contract, all telecommunications represenatives by law should be required to inform the customer of the total monthly fee to include tax, fees, and all extras, and it should not change, except a change in the services rendered(i.e. adding/removing features).
4. End warrantless wiretapping and survaillence. Government must disclose its full survialence capabilies against domestic targets, and explicitly need public warrants for use.
5. Remove the concept of a "software patent".
6. Try and eliminate patent "trolls" and other IP trolling. Make it illegal, and get patent troll lawyers disbarred. Make holding a patent for the sole purpose of disrupting other products or retarding technological innovation a felony.
7. implement a "Do-Not-Email" registry for spam. Make repeat offenses, spam with intent to commit another crime(selling drugs, fake products, fraud,extortion,money laundering) a felony with jail time.
8. Repeat the recent laws that make Site TOS criminal violations, instead make it a civil matter, where the site has to prove damages.
9. Preserve the right to post anonymously/pseudononymously online. Make a law saying websites have a duty to protect the identities of their visitors except to law enforcement under the proper course of investigation with a warrant or probable cause, which they must show the website.
10. legal code reform. Get legal allies to review bad law, and greatly simplify the legal code to make it easier to read. Instead of "legal speak" make all new laws written in plain newspaper grade English, the 11th grade reading level.
All legal documents should be written in language easy to read and comprehend by a person who graduates from a public high school.
Thats just the start.
"[in response to: Basic income guarantee] and you want government to be your mommy."
Recently the right to consume has been linked for most people to earning wages through paid labor. The value of most human labor is declining with the rise in robotics and other automation, relatively cheaper energy, better design, voluntary social networks, and other factors. All material goods are based on resources taken from nature, where the original ownership of those seeking rent from the land is always questionable morally. All intellectual goods are the product of thousands of years of collective thought and information sharing, even if individuals may add their own twist to that. After centuries of hard-work, cultural progress, and the accumulation of physical infrastructure, why should s many people have to work so long and hard just for a basic existence? That is part of the moral reasoning behind a "basic income".
Consider an analogy. You and your daughter live on a productive tropical island together. You tell her you own 99% of the island because you got there first, and she can only live on a barren rock in the middle with no access to water or food. What is she supposed to do? How should she feel about that? See also:
"The Mythology of Wealth"
http://web.archive.org/web/20120617182409/http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/402
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
I don't want people blah blahing about the environment in the abstract such as global warming. I want more focus on the measurable such as polluting the ground, the air, and the water in ways that can be specified, limited, and measured. Any government that allows some company to pollute is effectively giving them a subsidy. This subsidy can be measured in either in the damage done to the environment(very hard) or the much simpler how much would it cost them not to pollute. This way companies can easily be fined multiples of how much it would cost to have not polluted if the cost of a cleanup is too hard to measure.
I pick this one as many above have gone with my real favorite: Patent Reform!
A core foundation of our internet freedoms being abused is the Government's position that digital storage does not have an expectation of privacy. BS! A declaration that privacy is reasonably expected by individuals storing private data digitally is a must!
Comprehensive, universal healthcare is an absolute must in my book. Senator Obama hinted at it, just enough to entice folks like me, then completely caved to the right once elected President. They love to pick on "Obamacare," though I am one liberal who is thoroughly disappointed in its scope and failure to ensure all are well covered in a truly affordable manner. Our watered-down non-system lags far behind those in France, Canada, and even England, both in terms of comprehensiveness and cost efficiency. I fully believe we have the greatest country in the world, thus we can do much better than we have.
Also net neutrality, copyright reform and greater consumer protection, severely limiting corporate political donations, and common sense and the spirit of laws being placed above loopholes. Congressional term limits have already been mentioned and are worth considering, as might be reforms to make it easier for non- GOP/Dem. candidates to get on ballots. Income tax reforms to close loopholes?
A reasonable living wage. Who can live without 4 roommates and raise a child on minimum wage or slightly above? The college kids my company pays $8-$9 an hour are surviving by taking on serious long term debt, and the older folks with kids rely on assistance programs and in some cases compassionate family members. Inexperienced and uneducated workers, or those with criminal records, too often seem to be doomed to lives of government cheese and perpetual poverty. Can't we do better?
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
...or decriminalize them, giving amnesty to all whose only offense was using, having, selling drugs.This should have the added effect of reducing the crime rates, and greatly reduce the costs of law enforcement wasted on the failed "War on Drugs".
Lower the age of emancipation to 13. We already prosecute 13-year-olds as adults for heinous crimes, but we don't give them the opportunity to acquire other adult skills such as working for themselves and maintaining a credit rating. If we insist on keeping publicly funded education, then we can have "recovery" educational opportunities for those emancipated people who fail on their first tries. (And, we would have more workers to pay for the social programs foisted on us by the socialists in the past.) There is no justice in imprisoning children in daytime prisons, or discriminating on the basis of age.
Revoke all federal programs having to do with welfare, education, public health. These should be considered un-Constitutional anyway. Face it, the public education system is a massive failure and the parents aren't even allowed to sue the school districts for fraud.
Abolish all laws penalizing adults for consentual acts, such as gambling and sex.
Repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.Taxes are theft. You cannot steal from another person to give the proceeds to someone less fortunate, nor can you authorize someone else to commit the theft in your stead. Yet that is exactly what income taxes do.
Limit Federal spending to only those projects directly necessary to ensure National Defense, or the fair administration of Justice under the Constitution. Limit Federal spending to 10% of GDP except in case of war.
Abolish the Federal Reserve System, Central Banking, and legal tender laws. Create ONLY 100% asset-based currency or monetary instruments.
Outlaw US interference in the internal affairs of other countries, except where there is a clear threat to our national security. Respect the sovereign rights of all other countries. Create only alliances and treaties that all parties are capable of adhering to.
Re-affirm the Constituion as the highest authority for US law, and reject any entaglements that diminish our sovereignty. Interpret the Constitution strictly as it was written.
Streamline the immigration process. Don't elevate any immigrant to citizen status unless they know the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Welcome guest workers up to the limit that they can fill necessary jobs.
Aren't you glad you asked?(I have more ideas if you want to ask again.)
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
I would start with Max Planck.
For a political party to be taken seriously, it must address the whole range of issues that a government is faced with, especially in the US, I think, where government is formed almost exclusively from one political block. You might get away with being a single-issue party in a Scandinavian country, where there are many parties in parliament, but only just.
This means that you have to have a well thought through economical policy - ie. more than just 'cut taxes', or 'reduce spending'; it will have to tell exactly how and you will have to present some plausible calculations that show what the consequences will be.
There will also have to be policies for everything else that goes on in society: military, criminal justice, social services, etc etc. Good government is not at all about exciting ideals, it is pragmatic and desperately boring, I'm afraid, unless you happen to like to be an executive manager of a whole bunch of things you don't understand and don't actually want to know about.
As long as we're allowed to use it on the party's politicians when they inevitably start trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
...a 2"x4" in the back of a politician's head
Generally I picture most of the surpluses would go towards paying off the debt accumulated during the bad times, but if you actually manage to get a true surplus, I'd probably go with a investment fund that concentrates on items that tend to gain strength during economic downturns, so you can liquidate them for a profit when you need to.
Of course, at the scale the federal government works at, you can distort the market pretty easily, but on the other hand the fed has lots of options. It's entirely possible for the fed to 'park' the surplus within itself, creating deflationary pressure as less cash becomes available. This can be a GOOD thing to combat the rampant inflation of an overheated economy.
I don't read AC A human right
You want to keep, and even strengthen, the safe harbor provision.
It's arguable that the rise of 'Party' is a direct cause of the decline of true 'democracy'. We used to vote for individuals we trusted, either as 'representatives' (US) or 'members' -whose outlook we largely shared (UK). Now the effective choice is too often binary between Parties, and the individuals concerned stand no chance of election unless they jump through whichever hoops the party machine requires for selection. How might a simulation look if candidates were forbidden from joining a Party until after an election?
Power will always exist so long as people are willing to delegate responsibility; government is the entity that has the power of violence over you.
and in fact government power will exist TO THE extent that people are willing to delegate responsibility to it. Think about that.
If people let government be responsible for deciding what they should put in their bodies, there will be drug laws. Hatta said he wants to get rid of drug laws.
Hatta wants to get rid of prostitution laws, again having people choose for themselves rather than delegate that responsibility to the government.
That's tyhe theme of everything Hatta said, that people should choose for themselves and not have the government responsible for running their lives. But then, Hatta wants the government to be responsible for ensuring that their income is 100X the global average. Pick one - either you are responsible for yourself, make your own decisions, or the government is responsible for you, makes the decisions for you.
You can EITHER have the freedom* to do crack, or the benefit of world class health care. We can't keep you healthy while you're smoking crack and we certainly can't keep everyone healthy while the doctors are stoned out of their minds.
* addiction is not freedom, but slavery to a substance
You think that there don't exist people who do care to work but just can't find any work or no one wants to employ them? Or you think those people should be left on the street in our modern society
I've never met one. I've met a LOT of people who choose to sit on their ass rather than work a job that's not their favorite. The gas station down the street starts people at $11.50 / hour. How many people do you know who aren't qualified to sit behind the register? If they aren't working, 99% of the time it's because they choose not to.
Wouldn't it be great if we lived in a society that had less homeless people and less poverty because everyone pitches in a little extra?
That'd be great. What species of alien would that be? Here on earth, where we deal with humans, not everyone "pitches in a little extra" or pitches in at all. All around I see "Now Hiring" signs. The friggin gas station is starting people at $11.50 / hour. Yet, some people choose not to work a job. They complain they are broke, I tell them the gas statiopn is hiring at $11.50 and they reply that they don't want to work at a gas station. Fine. But don't turn around and ask me to ALSO work at the gas station along with my regular job so that I can pay your bills for you.
"You can support "basic income" OR you can support everything else Hatta said. It simply makes no sense to support both."
AC, you present a false choice between two economic extremes. You can have a free market system where, say, 50% of the GDP is distributed as a basic income and the other half is earned. Further, there are many activities often outside the exchange economy (like the gift economy, the participatory planned economy, and the subsistence economy) where people might show initiative even if they have the material basics from the exchange economy via a basic income. Raising children well is another activity mostly outside earning money, even if in our society someone may need to earn money in a family to raise children well because we don't yet have a basic income.
"Median income has increased a thousand fold because a farmer on tractor produces FAR more than a farmer with a rake. The rest of your logic flows directly from this utterly false premise, so you end up with conclusions that are exactly wrong."
Think through the implications of your very point. Lets say we have 1000 farmers with rakes feeding a community, and someone invents a tractor. Now one farmer can do the wok of 1000. That farmer probably now earns more, true (depending on market issues, claims about patents on the tractor, fuel prices, etc.). But the other 999 farmers now have their labor devalued, because there is only so much people in the community can eat. Most of them can no longer be farmers economically. Granted, the quality of food may raise some, or farmers might feed food to animals to produce meat, or advertisers may convince everyone to become obese or to burn corn for fuel, so some extra demand for farm products may be created, but probably not 1000X more. And a few years later, with a super new robotic tractor or better seeds or better weather reports or better soil science understanding, that one farmer may become even more productive, even if demand increases some. Farmers are down from 90% of the US workforce to about 1%-2% over the past 200 years, but we produce more food than ever (so much it is exported and we eat lots of meat -- with various health implications as we now suffer from diseases of affluence like gout and heart disease), So, most farmers must try to find other jobs.
So, they became factory workers. But the same thing happened in manufacturing (that human labor is replaced by machines and improved know-how), so they can't do that anymore. US manufacturing employment has dropped about in half over the past few decades from about 35% to about 15% while total output has grown, with no end in sight to that trend. So, we will likely soon see manufacturing employment down to 1%-2% same as farming.
So, then these ex-farmers and ex-factory workers need to become "service" workers (like waiters or hairdressers or CPAs or plumbers or doctors) in order to earn the right to consume in our society via wage income. But robotics and AI and better design is now replacing most services. Examples include eating frozen dinners instead of going out to eat, alternatives to paid hair services like special shampoos or YouTube videos on home hair cutting, or using tax software via the web instead of using a CPA, new types of pipes that last longer or can be assembled by snapping them together as DIY purchased from big home improvement stores or the web, or IBM's Watson to do medical diagnosis. That leaves fewer and fewer service jobs (which often did not pay well anyway, and most were not as independent as being a farmer). So a race to the bottom for the wages starts for most people as the unemployed compete with each other.
Deny it if you want, as do most mainstream economists, but most of the economic trends in the USA reflect what I am saying. We have seen flat real wages for decades (yes some compensation increase goes to a dysfunctional medical sector), no job growth for a decade, an increasing rich-poor divide with come having skills still in value or having capital, and so on. Mainstrea
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Invite all democrats, socialists, progressives, communists, independents, rhino republicians to renounce their citizenship and move to the socialist or communist country of their choice! (at their cost, of course.) Reduced government intervention in our lives and businesses. Significant reduction in the size and scope of the EPA, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Labor, and other departments that reduce our ability to conduct business and indoctrinate our children. Get the government out of the healthcare business and the lending business immediately!! Tax only democrats for wasteful democrat programs! Or eliminate the democrat programs entirely! and the list goes on and on!
He's probably not pandering for positions, but for issues to build a platform on. There's a big difference. One is: "which issues are important to you, and should we research, decide on a position for, and try to build a campaign on?" The other is "which issues are important to you, and what position do you want us to take on these positions so we can get your votes?"
The first is fine: some issues are more important to your "base" than others, and you'll want to emphasize those more, perhaps try to push for legislation in that area, so that you build support with voters who share your ideals. The second is not: you're just doing whatever you can to get votes, and have no conscience of your own.
"None Of The Above."
I predict landslide victories.
Scrap political parties. Who can stay loyal to any party when their checkerboard pattern of policies are so all over the place. No party fits my ideal and most of them save all their controversial law changes for the very last part of the term they are about to lose. They basically rip holes in the sails just before they jump ship. I'd prefer a policy system where I can vote for smaller groups of people who have a strategy for a small part of government e.g. energy, education etc. Voting in a party that takes control of everything might have been what the people wanted 100 years ago but not today. Our current political systems favour the government, screw over the people. What if you are a minority? Why not let all parties have power effectively by spreading the taxes over all them by % win in votes. Sure this has its pros and cons. Splitting the taxes into small quantities reduces its spending power but there has to be a better way than what we have. Party swapping every few years seems so schizophrenic, bills come and go over time, what a waste of resources, so inefficient.
This Party does not accept campaign donations and neither does any member of this party.
Heavy is the head that wears the tinfoil hat.
There's nothing in my post about morals. It's basic grade school logic. You want government to a) leave you alone and b) take care of you.
You simply can't do both. You can a) control your own life , OR you can b) have me control how your life turns out. Obviously, in order for me to make sure ypu have a good life, I'd have to control your life. If you have the freedom to choose to spend your time and money on drugs, that IS the freedom to not spend it on education. It's IMPOSSIBLE for me to educate you while you're high and ditching classes. So you can EITHER have the freedom to not go to school OR I can force you to get educated. There's no way I can make your life not suck without controlling your life.
Convert each US state into a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantons_of_Switzerland
Casteism
You overestimate how much control you have over your own life. Government is not the only force that removes control from you. Forces of nature, foreign threats, and relevant to this conversation, economic forces are also threats to control over your own life. The millions of people who fell into poverty after the 2008 financial crisis had no control over that. The lower 90% of Americans experienced *zero* income growth over the past 45 years, while productivity increased doubled. How do you think people are supposed to have control over that?
Obviously, in order for me to make sure ypu have a good life, I'd have to control your life.
I never suggested we ensure everyone has a good life. I suggested we institute a limit on how much poverty people endure.
So you can EITHER have the freedom to not go to school OR I can force you to get educated. There's no way I can make your life not suck without controlling your life.
But you can provide opportunities. e.g. free but optional education.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Plank #1: "With great power comes great personal responsibility".
All the rest can wait until after this gets implemented in practice.
"Social justice is bullshit"
By that do you mean that it is both undesirable and impossible?
The impossible I can't speak to, but justice seems desirable no matter what adjective you stick in front of it.
I think a just society would not produce homogeneity of outcome, but it would produce a distribution of outcome where most of the wealth is shared by most of the people.
In other words, wealth distribution should look something vaguely similar to a normal (bell) distribution. America's, though, looks like an exponential function (hockey stick).
We love to gush patriotism and congratulate ourselves on being the land of freedom and a meritocracy where anyone can make it. That's been true for a few individuals, but collectively, the cold empirical facts tell a different story. A story of wealth being siphoned from the masses to the few. A story of social injustice.
Social injustice is bullshit.