You have to halve the Johnson votes to come up with how many may have been taken away from Hillary. 100% of Stein would have gone for H but only 40-50% of Johnson would have, if they were not on the ballot. Since he took from both parties almost equally (and probably drained more from Trump) if anything he made the margins slightly less favorable for Trump than they otherwise would have been. His ticket was two (R) Governors.
This is why Libertarianism only works at the Federal level. Your state Dept of Environmental Conservation would theoretically handle those tasks. In addition, the state / local government of your municipality could sue a private corporation for damages on your behalf.
That said, eliminating the EPA is the only Libertarian tenet I fully disagree with. If nothing else, we need a way to keep a state upstream from polluting a river that flows through multiple states. GE still has to dredge the Hudson River for PCBs and the Feds were clutch in making that happen.
Trump also included in his platform support for domestic infrastructure improvements, including the baby ordinarily in the D's camp: High Speed Rail. Trains are inherently the most environmentally efficient way of transporting anything from any A to B over land (and also cost efficient for freight). Reducing the need for air travel and taking trucks/buses/cars off the road via simple supply/demand economics will do more for the environment than regulations which boil down to trading carbon credits like poker chips.
I actually like my congresscritter (D). The Senator who was up for election (also D) I tried to vote out. Voting straight along party lines is dumb, and voting out someone who 90% of the time voted for things I wanted and against things I despised just because they're the incumbent is equally dumb.
Here are some of his highlights source: Voted NO on extending the PATRIOT Act's roving wiretaps. (Feb 2011) Repeal Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell, and reinstate discharged gays. (Mar 2010) End bulk data collection under USA PATRIOT Act. (Feb 2014)... Voted NO on protecting cyber security by sharing data with government. (Apr 2013) Voted NO on terminating funding for National Public Radio. (Mar 2011) Voted YES on delaying digital TV conversion by four months. (Mar 2009) Member of House Committee on Science, Space & Technology. (Mar 2011) Sponsored investing $1 billion in transportation projects. (Mar 2013)
For whatever reason the site does not mention one of the key votes he was against; he also voted down SOPA and its ilk.
There are a few days like that for me, too. But for the vast majority, if DST stayed in effect I would still see sun at 5PM. Massachusetts actually had the right idea; they were considering a few years ago switching to the Atlantic time zone and abolishing DST (the same effect as making EDT permanent). I don't know if the idea has gained any real traction though.
Except the part where Pence is actually a pretty solid candidate. While Trump was floundering with his non-stop train of blunders, Pence was actually stating coherent talking points.
But even so, grassy knoll approach is flat out stupid. Trump is a businessman first and foremost. All stances are negotiable. He's probably easier to sway with a briefcase full of cash than anyone else. Clinton already collected her payola so any newcomer trying to buy policy would have had to outdo the pre-existing arrangements she has. To put it bluntly: you can pay Trump $20 to hold up a Dr. Pepper can during a speech. You'd have to pay Hillary first the $20 she is already getting from Coke, and then another $20 for her to hold up your beverage of choice.
It's more because the mind has a lot of extra data in miles. I know how many Miles/Gallon I can get, and how that relates to how much time I can travel at highway speeds. So figuring out the optimal place / time to fill up is easier if I convert the distances on signs into miles, rather than trying to change all the elements of the rest of my mental equation. A lot of it is a simple 'feeling' whether I can make it to the next town safely versus buying overpriced gas at the only station for 60 miles / 100 km in either direction, a feeling that only works if I have the distance in miles. The car's display can be changed to show litres/km instead of miles/gallon but this is sufficiently a strange enough number to me as to be, effectively, meaningless.
I suspect this is part of why Puerto Rico has only gone 80% of the way towards metrification, and stopped there. You buy gas in cents/liter, and highway distance signs are shown in km, but speed limits are shown in MPH and cars advertise MPG.
Since I drive a lot on both sides of the border, I've gotten good at the conversion; it's remarkably simple to do mentally for smaller numbers: miles ~= km * 1.6 km ~= miles *.6
By remembering the number six and which one is larger, it's easy to keep straight. Eventually I'll be able to think in km and shouldn't need the math. This is one of the metric-izations that I think wouldn't be too difficult to pull off for my fellow countrymen, and would be immensely helpful for international travellers. Gallons to Liters would be painless, we already think in liters, and it's close enough to a quart. Grams and ounces are already used side by side. Pounds to Kilograms will be tough. Fahrenheit to Celsius, even harder and I actually think we have the "better" scale for human temperatures. 0 is too damn cold, 100 is too damn hot, and everywhere else in between is where humans are generally comfortable. While 32F=0C and 212F=100C are easy to remember, we have all kinds of other temperatures that would need to be re-memorized. 98.6 is healthy, over 100 is time to see a doctor; preheat the oven to 450F, meat temperatures, etc...
I like the opposite: the 21 hour day, for 8 days a week. I tried it back when I had more flexible job hours, and it was phenomenal for learning things. Studies show you're at your sharpest shortly after you just wake up, so one more iteration of that gives you that much more effective time to learn. 7 hours of sleep at night is just about what I get anyway with a normal work week anyway.
I'm sure the various industries (hotel, restaurant, etc) would love to squeeze one more duty cycle for their offerings every week (three more meals, one more "night", etc), so I'm surprised there's never been even a hint of a push for it.
Some of it is archaic labor regulations; a lot of public transit unions negotiated mandatory time and a half for all Sunday work. The simple solution was thus to not run buses / trains on Sunday. Until 5 years ago, in my region the vast majority of bus lines did not run weekends, and even fewer Sundays. In 2011 or so though, they completely redid the system, with 3 'classes' of bus route: rush hour only; 6 day a week; 7 day a week. Sunday is still an afterthought, and there are some neighborhoods that could not get to their polling location via transit if the Sunday schedule was in effect. Funny thing: if they made election day a holiday to allow people to vote, the end result would be exactly the same because the shitty Sunday schedule would then be in effect for election day.
When I asked the bus company reps about it, they said that providing Sunday service takes away riders from the Saturday buses and makes their numbers look bad (since most weekend trips can be taken either day). I countered with: then why does the Airport and Train station, which are far busier on Sunday than Saturday, not get service on Sunday instead of Saturday?
Actually it's the opposite; in northern latitudes we need to do away with standard time entirely; the shift of the DST:ST ratio to 8:4 has been an improvement. I don't care if it's dark in the morning, but the darkness in the evening is depressing, especially when it's cold. While I'm fortunate enough to have a window at work many do not, and they do not see the sun between 4PM Sunday and 8AM the following Saturday.
Permanent DST works better in the Northeast (or North in general) than the South. Arizona has permanent standard time, and the evening darkness allows for outdoor exercise after school/work without people dying of heat stroke. Riding your bike is comfortable going both to and from work despite the desert climate.
Meanwhile up North, when DST ends it gets dark far too early. The sunlight that had warmed the car and house during the day is long gone; for the house this means the heat has to work that much harder to get back to a good temperature, than if you were getting home while the sun is still out. The black ice on the roads is harder to spot and more treacherous for both pedestrians and motorists than if people were travelling with a little sunlight.
That's the point; the cost could be reduced by simplifying the laws. There isn't much motivation for that now. The prospect of making the book thinner than an encyclopedia mailed to 300 million people each year will certainly help motivate that. In the meanwhile it would be a boon to print industries and rural shipping for the USPS. Why should law be the only field which benefits from our complex legal system?
I just flew domestically in the US and there are signs *everywhere* stating that both the FAA and US-DOT have banned the devices for travel. If caught the TSA will treat it as any other banned item and you can either not board your flight or dispose of it at the checkpoint.
I don't know about utilities, but this regularly happens with public trains, across state lines nonetheless.
The "Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail" serves several stops in Rhode Island, including connecting Providence to its airport. There have also been talks to expand service into New Hampshire. The "Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority" serves several stops in Delaware.
These two are more operations inherited from predecessor private railroads, but including them for completeness' sake: "New Jersey Transit" serves over 50 miles and about a dozen stops in upstate NY, inherited from the Erie-Lackawanna railroad. New York's MTA serves most of the state of Connecticut in conjunction with the Connecticut Department of Transportation , inherited from the New Haven railroad.
If the other municipality is too small (or nonexistent, in rural areas some 'towns' are small enough that the only law enforcement is state police) why shouldn't they be able to contract to the neighboring municipality?
I was a 24/7/365 standby for two companies, and loved it. In aggregate total it was for 7 years, no burnout.
One was my fresh out of college job at a small networking company for what would today be a low 40s salary but nothing for on call. However I was only required to be in the office for 8 hours a week and they were hours of my choosing as long as it was consistent. I didn't even need to be "working" except to finish all of the things that needed to be done, as I had no co workers either (so naturally I automated 90% of my job). Outside of those 8 hours if nothing broke I could do anything I want*... as long as I was within 30 minutes of the location I was assigned to keep online. At all times. Whenever I went out of town the on call tasks would fall to an intern who was usually grateful for the extra hours. I saved up a ton of money because I couldn't go anywhere. and it was still the most exciting and genuinely fun job I have ever had. *Except when they'd send me out of town for 2-3 60 hour weeks of mostly manual labor per year, installing new networks. That sucked donkey balls.
Second was the better gig. They paid 1 hour straight time for every 5 hours standing by. Minimum 3 hours pay if I was actually called in. I could have pawned off the on call time if I wanted to but I was regularly pulling in bigger paychecks than management, so I volunteered for all shifts except my vacations. Once again saved a ton of money by not going anywhere, while also earning a ton of money. Less stressful than a wall street banker.
I stand corrected on the tipping culture in Australia - though while I was there it wasn't like it was actively discouraged (unlike Singapore and Japan where the reaction to a tip attempt makes it obvious that tipping is not a thing there). I'll keep it in mind next time I visit.
Personally I absolutely despise tipping culture and would welcome any legislation that attempts to eliminate it in the US (for example simultaneously eliminate the lower server wage while also making tips illegal in the tax code).
But this is tangental to my original point: we don't need pennies or dollar bills!
People nowadays just ask to split the bill onto multiple cards (either via individual checks or if the meal is "for Jimmy's retirement" or whatever, by dividing the total evenly among the ones who are paying). This is better for wait staff since instead of one "tip is xx% rounded up to the nearest dollar" they get the benefit of the upward rounding from each subdivided check.
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You have to halve the Johnson votes to come up with how many may have been taken away from Hillary. 100% of Stein would have gone for H but only 40-50% of Johnson would have, if they were not on the ballot. Since he took from both parties almost equally (and probably drained more from Trump) if anything he made the margins slightly less favorable for Trump than they otherwise would have been. His ticket was two (R) Governors.
This is why Libertarianism only works at the Federal level. Your state Dept of Environmental Conservation would theoretically handle those tasks. In addition, the state / local government of your municipality could sue a private corporation for damages on your behalf.
That said, eliminating the EPA is the only Libertarian tenet I fully disagree with. If nothing else, we need a way to keep a state upstream from polluting a river that flows through multiple states. GE still has to dredge the Hudson River for PCBs and the Feds were clutch in making that happen.
Trump also included in his platform support for domestic infrastructure improvements, including the baby ordinarily in the D's camp: High Speed Rail. Trains are inherently the most environmentally efficient way of transporting anything from any A to B over land (and also cost efficient for freight). Reducing the need for air travel and taking trucks/buses/cars off the road via simple supply/demand economics will do more for the environment than regulations which boil down to trading carbon credits like poker chips.
I actually like my congresscritter (D). The Senator who was up for election (also D) I tried to vote out. Voting straight along party lines is dumb, and voting out someone who 90% of the time voted for things I wanted and against things I despised just because they're the incumbent is equally dumb.
Here are some of his highlights source: ...
Voted NO on extending the PATRIOT Act's roving wiretaps. (Feb 2011)
Repeal Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell, and reinstate discharged gays. (Mar 2010)
End bulk data collection under USA PATRIOT Act. (Feb 2014)
Voted NO on protecting cyber security by sharing data with government. (Apr 2013)
Voted NO on terminating funding for National Public Radio. (Mar 2011)
Voted YES on delaying digital TV conversion by four months. (Mar 2009)
Member of House Committee on Science, Space & Technology. (Mar 2011)
Sponsored investing $1 billion in transportation projects. (Mar 2013)
For whatever reason the site does not mention one of the key votes he was against; he also voted down SOPA and its ilk.
Which is why they might actually make better leaders for stable countries (Angela Merkel notwithstanding).
There are a few days like that for me, too. But for the vast majority, if DST stayed in effect I would still see sun at 5PM. Massachusetts actually had the right idea; they were considering a few years ago switching to the Atlantic time zone and abolishing DST (the same effect as making EDT permanent). I don't know if the idea has gained any real traction though.
Except the part where Pence is actually a pretty solid candidate. While Trump was floundering with his non-stop train of blunders, Pence was actually stating coherent talking points.
But even so, grassy knoll approach is flat out stupid. Trump is a businessman first and foremost. All stances are negotiable. He's probably easier to sway with a briefcase full of cash than anyone else. Clinton already collected her payola so any newcomer trying to buy policy would have had to outdo the pre-existing arrangements she has. To put it bluntly: you can pay Trump $20 to hold up a Dr. Pepper can during a speech. You'd have to pay Hillary first the $20 she is already getting from Coke, and then another $20 for her to hold up your beverage of choice.
It's more because the mind has a lot of extra data in miles. I know how many Miles/Gallon I can get, and how that relates to how much time I can travel at highway speeds. So figuring out the optimal place / time to fill up is easier if I convert the distances on signs into miles, rather than trying to change all the elements of the rest of my mental equation. A lot of it is a simple 'feeling' whether I can make it to the next town safely versus buying overpriced gas at the only station for 60 miles / 100 km in either direction, a feeling that only works if I have the distance in miles. The car's display can be changed to show litres/km instead of miles/gallon but this is sufficiently a strange enough number to me as to be, effectively, meaningless.
I suspect this is part of why Puerto Rico has only gone 80% of the way towards metrification, and stopped there. You buy gas in cents/liter, and highway distance signs are shown in km, but speed limits are shown in MPH and cars advertise MPG.
As with any election, people who choose not to vote do not matter and their opinions/interests can safely be ignored.
Since I drive a lot on both sides of the border, I've gotten good at the conversion; it's remarkably simple to do mentally for smaller numbers: .6
miles ~= km * 1.6
km ~= miles *
By remembering the number six and which one is larger, it's easy to keep straight. Eventually I'll be able to think in km and shouldn't need the math. This is one of the metric-izations that I think wouldn't be too difficult to pull off for my fellow countrymen, and would be immensely helpful for international travellers.
Gallons to Liters would be painless, we already think in liters, and it's close enough to a quart.
Grams and ounces are already used side by side.
Pounds to Kilograms will be tough.
Fahrenheit to Celsius, even harder and I actually think we have the "better" scale for human temperatures. 0 is too damn cold, 100 is too damn hot, and everywhere else in between is where humans are generally comfortable. While 32F=0C and 212F=100C are easy to remember, we have all kinds of other temperatures that would need to be re-memorized. 98.6 is healthy, over 100 is time to see a doctor; preheat the oven to 450F, meat temperatures, etc...
I like the opposite: the 21 hour day, for 8 days a week. I tried it back when I had more flexible job hours, and it was phenomenal for learning things. Studies show you're at your sharpest shortly after you just wake up, so one more iteration of that gives you that much more effective time to learn. 7 hours of sleep at night is just about what I get anyway with a normal work week anyway.
I'm sure the various industries (hotel, restaurant, etc) would love to squeeze one more duty cycle for their offerings every week (three more meals, one more "night", etc), so I'm surprised there's never been even a hint of a push for it.
Some of it is archaic labor regulations; a lot of public transit unions negotiated mandatory time and a half for all Sunday work. The simple solution was thus to not run buses / trains on Sunday.
Until 5 years ago, in my region the vast majority of bus lines did not run weekends, and even fewer Sundays. In 2011 or so though, they completely redid the system, with 3 'classes' of bus route: rush hour only; 6 day a week; 7 day a week. Sunday is still an afterthought, and there are some neighborhoods that could not get to their polling location via transit if the Sunday schedule was in effect. Funny thing: if they made election day a holiday to allow people to vote, the end result would be exactly the same because the shitty Sunday schedule would then be in effect for election day.
When I asked the bus company reps about it, they said that providing Sunday service takes away riders from the Saturday buses and makes their numbers look bad (since most weekend trips can be taken either day). I countered with: then why does the Airport and Train station, which are far busier on Sunday than Saturday, not get service on Sunday instead of Saturday?
Actually it's the opposite; in northern latitudes we need to do away with standard time entirely; the shift of the DST:ST ratio to 8:4 has been an improvement. I don't care if it's dark in the morning, but the darkness in the evening is depressing, especially when it's cold. While I'm fortunate enough to have a window at work many do not, and they do not see the sun between 4PM Sunday and 8AM the following Saturday.
Permanent DST works better in the Northeast (or North in general) than the South. Arizona has permanent standard time, and the evening darkness allows for outdoor exercise after school/work without people dying of heat stroke. Riding your bike is comfortable going both to and from work despite the desert climate.
Meanwhile up North, when DST ends it gets dark far too early. The sunlight that had warmed the car and house during the day is long gone; for the house this means the heat has to work that much harder to get back to a good temperature, than if you were getting home while the sun is still out. The black ice on the roads is harder to spot and more treacherous for both pedestrians and motorists than if people were travelling with a little sunlight.
That's the point; the cost could be reduced by simplifying the laws. There isn't much motivation for that now. The prospect of making the book thinner than an encyclopedia mailed to 300 million people each year will certainly help motivate that. In the meanwhile it would be a boon to print industries and rural shipping for the USPS. Why should law be the only field which benefits from our complex legal system?
I just flew domestically in the US and there are signs *everywhere* stating that both the FAA and US-DOT have banned the devices for travel. If caught the TSA will treat it as any other banned item and you can either not board your flight or dispose of it at the checkpoint.
I'll have you know that my office chair was made in America (by prisoners), cost $300, *and* has wobbly arms!
Let's go with some real examples here:
Privately owned Dulles Greenway or leased Ontario 407 ETR.
If he had solar panels maybe he'd be able to turn on the light.
Best of both worlds?
I boot into my windows VM about once every 2-3 months but I can see the appeal for those who need to run just one omnipresent app in Windows.
I don't know about utilities, but this regularly happens with public trains, across state lines nonetheless.
The "Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail" serves several stops in Rhode Island, including connecting Providence to its airport. There have also been talks to expand service into New Hampshire.
The "Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority" serves several stops in Delaware.
These two are more operations inherited from predecessor private railroads, but including them for completeness' sake:
"New Jersey Transit" serves over 50 miles and about a dozen stops in upstate NY, inherited from the Erie-Lackawanna railroad.
New York's MTA serves most of the state of Connecticut in conjunction with the Connecticut Department of Transportation , inherited from the New Haven railroad.
If the other municipality is too small (or nonexistent, in rural areas some 'towns' are small enough that the only law enforcement is state police) why shouldn't they be able to contract to the neighboring municipality?
I was a 24/7/365 standby for two companies, and loved it. In aggregate total it was for 7 years, no burnout.
One was my fresh out of college job at a small networking company for what would today be a low 40s salary but nothing for on call. However I was only required to be in the office for 8 hours a week and they were hours of my choosing as long as it was consistent. I didn't even need to be "working" except to finish all of the things that needed to be done, as I had no co workers either (so naturally I automated 90% of my job). Outside of those 8 hours if nothing broke I could do anything I want*... as long as I was within 30 minutes of the location I was assigned to keep online. At all times. Whenever I went out of town the on call tasks would fall to an intern who was usually grateful for the extra hours. I saved up a ton of money because I couldn't go anywhere. and it was still the most exciting and genuinely fun job I have ever had.
*Except when they'd send me out of town for 2-3 60 hour weeks of mostly manual labor per year, installing new networks. That sucked donkey balls.
Second was the better gig. They paid 1 hour straight time for every 5 hours standing by. Minimum 3 hours pay if I was actually called in. I could have pawned off the on call time if I wanted to but I was regularly pulling in bigger paychecks than management, so I volunteered for all shifts except my vacations. Once again saved a ton of money by not going anywhere, while also earning a ton of money. Less stressful than a wall street banker.
I stand corrected on the tipping culture in Australia - though while I was there it wasn't like it was actively discouraged (unlike Singapore and Japan where the reaction to a tip attempt makes it obvious that tipping is not a thing there). I'll keep it in mind next time I visit.
Personally I absolutely despise tipping culture and would welcome any legislation that attempts to eliminate it in the US (for example simultaneously eliminate the lower server wage while also making tips illegal in the tax code).
But this is tangental to my original point: we don't need pennies or dollar bills!
People nowadays just ask to split the bill onto multiple cards (either via individual checks or if the meal is "for Jimmy's retirement" or whatever, by dividing the total evenly among the ones who are paying). This is better for wait staff since instead of one "tip is xx% rounded up to the nearest dollar" they get the benefit of the upward rounding from each subdivided check.