The landlords here are among those same Californistan neo-liberals who denounce "corporate greed" and "putting profits before people". Yet they're content to be cut-throat capitalists when it's their turn. Do As I Say, Not As I Do.
Meanwhile those same landlords continue voting for No Growth (*cough* "smart growth") legislators and laws, to artificially restrict housing supply. Wouldn't want the poor poor homeowners to suffer any free market competition when renting out their overpriced hovels and laughing all the way to the bank.
And yet somehow "greed" is still seen as a whole and exclusively Republican sin out here. Blame the techies paying the rent. Blame the companies paying the salaries. Never talk about the mostly-liberal-voting landlords setting the sky-high cost of rent even while they're paying off a mortgage that's a mere 50% of the home's current market value, or even already own their home outright! It's always the other guys at fault here in the SF Bay. It's only "profiteering" or "excessive" or "windfall profits" when Republicans or corporations or Wall St does it. Liberals get a free pass.
"If the police want security tapes from a local business, for example, they have always just asked for them. The business isn't obligated to hand them over in that situation, but often does anyway, to be helpful."
I have personally known 3 business owners in the course of my life who cooperated in similar manner with police "requests". They all admitted to me that they did so out of fear of the well-established (and once plainly-communicated) threat of "slower response times in case of emergency".
This is a game cops play with anyone who has something the cops want - hand it over, or else they'll punish you by refusing to do their job (while still eagerly accepting the pay for that job), while still enforcing each and every law against you that makes it difficult or dangerous to protect you and yours.
Flashback: 1996, new high-efficiency computerized traffic control lights are being installed in Sunnyvale and other major cities. They just happen to use *video cameras* for vehicle detection, instead of burying magnetic induction coils in the asphalt.
"But dont worry", city councils were telling citizens all over, "this isnt a surveillance system. It's just to save money, and improve traffic flow."
And it wasnt a surveillance system.. until a software upgrade 3 years later. GEE, I NEVER SAW THAT COMING.
Then it became "a public safety system, to catch people running red lights. This isnt a surveillance system."
Riiiiiiiiight.
Few years later, there's some low-key grief over these systems not being *profitable* because *the military contractor that receives all the pictures taken and identifies the license plates via OCR* is charging as much as the red light tickets are worth.
So now the military has cameras installed that read license plates, on every major intersection of every major city.
And now come flying drones to fill our skies.
But dont worry - it's for.. umm... air quality! Yeah, that's it! Air quality! You care about the air, right? It's not for surveillance. Of COURSE not. What are you, some conspiracy nut?
Great, one more way for govt to terrorize private citizens. Cuz you know their infamous No Fly List was SO accurate (nevermind that the 9/11 hijackers used their real names). And one more way to terrorize private industry into reporting the identity of every customer to Big Brother.
And as usual, this wont bother most sheeple. "If you have nothing to hide" will be the excuse. This country is sooo spiraling downward into fascism. I give it 10 years.
A sociopath with a phone is a nuisance. A sociopath with a badge, an AR-15 submachine gun, and a get-out-of-jail-free card if he just chants the magic words "I feared for my life", is a threat.
Everyone is responsible for their own actions. No one (except a parent) is responsible for the actions of another.
Well-trained professional criminal justice investigators packing lethal force on the public's dime should be held to high standards of accountability for poor judgement. That's called "reckless endangerment" when us civies do it, and we get punished for it then.
No incentive? How about that paycheck you receive every 2 weeks? Isnt that why they pay you - to work hard?
BTW, Im in tryout stage right now for a promotion at my company right now. But even if I wasn't, hard work + documentation == impressive results == doors open through the people you've worked with, and in particular the one's you've worked under. So when your boss leaves for a better company, he discreetly dodges the no-recruitment clause and "invites" you to apply for a job under him at the new place - and that's when you negotiate for that promotion or raise.
I know it's popular to blame corporate culture for lack of career advancement, but in my experience the single biggest problem is the unspoken one - lazy Americans. Too much entitlement mentality, none of the old Protestant Work Ethic anymore.
Prove?
You havent watched standards in contemporary criminal litigation these last 10 years, have you. Esp in California. Proof? Ha. Juries convict on social prejudice, on whim, on sheep-like fascination with a slick and fast-talking prosecutor, and judges continually intimidate and prejudice juries to obtain verdicts popular with their own agenda ("legislating from the bench" and "judicial activism", they're called).
First problem - what part of "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" dont you understand? Seems Bush was right - it really is just a goddamn piece of paper anymore. And so another un-Constitutional Taking of basic human liberty begins.
Second problem - anyone charged with a crime is supposed to be tried on the evidence - not the (highly subjective) credibility of the person gathering the evidence.
Third - you trust the govt to guarantee the credibility of.. well, ANYTHING?
Fourth - if courts want to PREFER evidence from credible sources, that's one thing. But to pre-judging exclude any evidence - and punish the gatherer! - that isnt gathered by a licensed gatherer? If there's evidence that proves my innocence, I dont care if Bozo the Clown gathered it.
Fifth - hello, conflict of interest in any matter where the govt is a party to the case (criminal, many civil). Would you want your opponent having serious professional influence over WHO can provide evidence on your behalf?
Sixth - great, now all the "licensed digital forensics professionals" can jack up their rates because of an artificial lack of competition, and in 10 years we'll all be paying annual premiums on "investigative insurance" because none of us can afford the cost of a "professional" from the govt's latest elite club listing.
Just because you dont want to think for yourself, doesnt give you the right to force others to submit to your "regulatory" nonsense to protect you from your own damn mistakes.
Americans, I swear.
Slashdot Mirror
The landlords here are among those same Californistan neo-liberals who denounce "corporate greed" and "putting profits before people". Yet they're content to be cut-throat capitalists when it's their turn. Do As I Say, Not As I Do. Meanwhile those same landlords continue voting for No Growth (*cough* "smart growth") legislators and laws, to artificially restrict housing supply. Wouldn't want the poor poor homeowners to suffer any free market competition when renting out their overpriced hovels and laughing all the way to the bank. And yet somehow "greed" is still seen as a whole and exclusively Republican sin out here. Blame the techies paying the rent. Blame the companies paying the salaries. Never talk about the mostly-liberal-voting landlords setting the sky-high cost of rent even while they're paying off a mortgage that's a mere 50% of the home's current market value, or even already own their home outright! It's always the other guys at fault here in the SF Bay. It's only "profiteering" or "excessive" or "windfall profits" when Republicans or corporations or Wall St does it. Liberals get a free pass.
"If the police want security tapes from a local business, for example, they have always just asked for them. The business isn't obligated to hand them over in that situation, but often does anyway, to be helpful."
I have personally known 3 business owners in the course of my life who cooperated in similar manner with police "requests". They all admitted to me that they did so out of fear of the well-established (and once plainly-communicated) threat of "slower response times in case of emergency".
This is a game cops play with anyone who has something the cops want - hand it over, or else they'll punish you by refusing to do their job (while still eagerly accepting the pay for that job), while still enforcing each and every law against you that makes it difficult or dangerous to protect you and yours.
Flashback: 1996, new high-efficiency computerized traffic control lights are being installed in Sunnyvale and other major cities. They just happen to use *video cameras* for vehicle detection, instead of burying magnetic induction coils in the asphalt. "But dont worry", city councils were telling citizens all over, "this isnt a surveillance system. It's just to save money, and improve traffic flow." And it wasnt a surveillance system.. until a software upgrade 3 years later. GEE, I NEVER SAW THAT COMING. Then it became "a public safety system, to catch people running red lights. This isnt a surveillance system." Riiiiiiiiight. Few years later, there's some low-key grief over these systems not being *profitable* because *the military contractor that receives all the pictures taken and identifies the license plates via OCR* is charging as much as the red light tickets are worth. So now the military has cameras installed that read license plates, on every major intersection of every major city. And now come flying drones to fill our skies. But dont worry - it's for.. umm ... air quality! Yeah, that's it! Air quality! You care about the air, right? It's not for surveillance. Of COURSE not. What are you, some conspiracy nut?
Great, one more way for govt to terrorize private citizens. Cuz you know their infamous No Fly List was SO accurate (nevermind that the 9/11 hijackers used their real names). And one more way to terrorize private industry into reporting the identity of every customer to Big Brother. And as usual, this wont bother most sheeple. "If you have nothing to hide" will be the excuse. This country is sooo spiraling downward into fascism. I give it 10 years.
A sociopath with a phone is a nuisance. A sociopath with a badge, an AR-15 submachine gun, and a get-out-of-jail-free card if he just chants the magic words "I feared for my life", is a threat. Everyone is responsible for their own actions. No one (except a parent) is responsible for the actions of another. Well-trained professional criminal justice investigators packing lethal force on the public's dime should be held to high standards of accountability for poor judgement. That's called "reckless endangerment" when us civies do it, and we get punished for it then.
No incentive? How about that paycheck you receive every 2 weeks? Isnt that why they pay you - to work hard? BTW, Im in tryout stage right now for a promotion at my company right now. But even if I wasn't, hard work + documentation == impressive results == doors open through the people you've worked with, and in particular the one's you've worked under. So when your boss leaves for a better company, he discreetly dodges the no-recruitment clause and "invites" you to apply for a job under him at the new place - and that's when you negotiate for that promotion or raise. I know it's popular to blame corporate culture for lack of career advancement, but in my experience the single biggest problem is the unspoken one - lazy Americans. Too much entitlement mentality, none of the old Protestant Work Ethic anymore.
Prove? You havent watched standards in contemporary criminal litigation these last 10 years, have you. Esp in California. Proof? Ha. Juries convict on social prejudice, on whim, on sheep-like fascination with a slick and fast-talking prosecutor, and judges continually intimidate and prejudice juries to obtain verdicts popular with their own agenda ("legislating from the bench" and "judicial activism", they're called).
First problem - what part of "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" dont you understand? Seems Bush was right - it really is just a goddamn piece of paper anymore. And so another un-Constitutional Taking of basic human liberty begins. Second problem - anyone charged with a crime is supposed to be tried on the evidence - not the (highly subjective) credibility of the person gathering the evidence. Third - you trust the govt to guarantee the credibility of.. well, ANYTHING? Fourth - if courts want to PREFER evidence from credible sources, that's one thing. But to pre-judging exclude any evidence - and punish the gatherer! - that isnt gathered by a licensed gatherer? If there's evidence that proves my innocence, I dont care if Bozo the Clown gathered it. Fifth - hello, conflict of interest in any matter where the govt is a party to the case (criminal, many civil). Would you want your opponent having serious professional influence over WHO can provide evidence on your behalf? Sixth - great, now all the "licensed digital forensics professionals" can jack up their rates because of an artificial lack of competition, and in 10 years we'll all be paying annual premiums on "investigative insurance" because none of us can afford the cost of a "professional" from the govt's latest elite club listing. Just because you dont want to think for yourself, doesnt give you the right to force others to submit to your "regulatory" nonsense to protect you from your own damn mistakes. Americans, I swear.