And I don't think it would be so terrible if we started reversing the "Walmartization" of America by making labor more costly. Maybe we'd see a few more Mom and Pop type corner shops again.
You can look back at unemployment for the last 50 years. We had basically the same levels of unemployment before we had Walmart or the other large corporate chain stores.
But the lawyers and politicians didn't bother asking the ENGINEERS how long it would take, they never do.
More likely the CGI group, the canadian firm who won the contract to build the sites, promised a very short delivery time. But you're right, either way, the engineers weren't consulted.
Who is going to hold the watchman accountable? Likely the police right? The watchman could just as easily be in league with the cops as the cops themselves. Why not skip adding another layer of complexity (watchmen) and just work to make the cops better?
There are positions of the police force that are directly voted in or out of office by the public. That is one place to start.
But like anything, if the public is apathetic, nothing will change.
Besides that, there is no "popular vote" for House elections.
True, there is no popular vote that has any meaningful effect on Congress.
However, it doesn't make the total number of votes irrelevant when using them to compare our population's wishes with that of the actions of congress.
There are more people that identify with the aims, goals, and actions of the Democratic party than they do for the Republican party. And if current population demographic trends continue, that number will only increase. Eventually the effects of gerrymandering will be so extreme, that something will need to change. (Some argue we've already reached that point).
Unfortunately, the Republicans that are most behind this, and the most vocal about supporting this tactic, come from heavily gerrymandered districts. So there is no public pressure for them to change their ways.
So you feel that there is no age at which a person should legally not be allowed to give consent?
In the case of a 4 year old with a 40 year old you'd suggest that the prosecutors need to prove that the 4 year old wasn't mature enough to give consent?
The charge of rape isn't necessarily because the victim had something done to them against their will, it is defined as rape because the victim was legally considered to not be able to give consent. The same sort of charge would occur if you drugged someone.
I keep seeing this opinion stated over and over. But in the case of the parks, when they are open, search and rescue goes into action 11 times a day on average.
I guess some of the non-wilderness stuff like the D.C. things could be purely to make the shut down feel worse (I don't know), but some of the closures, like the national parks, happened for real reasons.
And honestly, I wish more of it shut down. Enough to get people really angry with congress. These manufactured crisis situations are no way to govern.
I think that is why some countries that are driven by capitalism also happen to have larger (relative to the USA) social programs, like job re-training as part of your unemployment benefits.
Isn't the real takeaway from the whole Texas job controversy, that Texas has been steadily growing jobs naturally? As in, nothing the state government has been doing is causing the job growth. Like, it would have happened with or without Perry.
How do we really define "provides a basic level of acceptable living"?
Like it has always been defined. To live like the average person lives, in a society with relatively low income inequality when compared with the rest of the world.
What has been happening in the last 30 years is a shrinking of the middle class. More and more people are living below the average. Wealth is concentrating at the top.
When people start grumbling about "creating an acceptable living" , etc.. what they are really talking about is pushing the bottom floor of the society back up, which means some of those people previously living below average, are now back at the average (middle class).
Actually, my favorite comments are at the right-wing rag Daily Caller. Every single comment thread devolves into one party accusing the other party of being closet democrats.
Out of curiosity I clicked on a story at the Daily Caller and read the comments. Wow. It was like the YouTube comments of politics.
We should just sticky your post to the top and close the comments.
The Republicans are very blatantly attempting to kill the ACA by forcing the premium costs to skyrocket. I find it odd (and sad) that very few news agencies are reporting this as fact. Instead the mainstream corporate media is perpetuating the fabricated fantasy that there is some sort of 'debate' happening and Obama isn't participating.. or Harry Reid isn't allowing a debate or something.
I'm beginning to think it is simply about the money. The US has so much wealth, that it means every aspect of our government is lobbied, bullied, bought, and paid for, by the most powerful corporations in the world. And on many levels, even state and local government levels.
A What we need are voucher programs, more home schooling, teachers and schools that have to compete,...
Why does the US need to try a completely new education setup, with no large trials or evidence of improvement. Why not adopt any number of education systems around the world that have been proven effective...
I agree with all your points, especially campaign finance reform and gerrymandering. However, I don't think that term limits will help. You'll just end up with a more rapid revolving door of corporate shills.
The president has term limits, and I think we can agree that not much changes (in terms of the major things, like the military industrial complex, energy sector, NSA stuff, etc..).
Obama isn't the one who started all this - he is just the one who is refusing to stop it. There's lots of blame to go around here, no need to pile it all on one person.
I think there's a lot of value in piling it all on the person who is currently in the best position to do something about it, but isn't. Accurate allocation of blame is a job for historians.
I think that just leads to the country voting in "the other side" every other election and thinking that things will change.
E-mail has no reasonable expectation of privacy or secrecy
That is true for people that understand how email works. But I can tell you that all other people view email as no different than sending a sealed letter to someone.
Maybe it would benefit the US to wall off a section of some conservative part of the country and let all the far right / libertarians move there and have no government. I guess we could settle once and for all the value of government.
You know that during the 2010 election season, many of the Rep. Congress folks were actively telling their voters that the plan was the shut down the government right?
As far as the majority of the republicans in congress are concerned, they did their job correctly. And that's the problem.
Slashdot Mirror
And I don't think it would be so terrible if we started reversing the "Walmartization" of America by making labor more costly. Maybe we'd see a few more Mom and Pop type corner shops again.
You can look back at unemployment for the last 50 years. We had basically the same levels of unemployment before we had Walmart or the other large corporate chain stores.
I don't care what economic system you embrace, you will never achieve a result of each person making a little bit more than average.
Of course. All debates about jobs, minimum wage, etc.. are just debates about how far below average you are willing to let the floor of society drop.
But the lawyers and politicians didn't bother asking the ENGINEERS how long it would take, they never do.
More likely the CGI group, the canadian firm who won the contract to build the sites, promised a very short delivery time. But you're right, either way, the engineers weren't consulted.
And people wonder why our Government cant do anything right.
Oregon gave Oracle 50mil for an insurance exchange website with the same poor results.
Who is going to hold the watchman accountable? Likely the police right? The watchman could just as easily be in league with the cops as the cops themselves. Why not skip adding another layer of complexity (watchmen) and just work to make the cops better?
There are positions of the police force that are directly voted in or out of office by the public. That is one place to start.
But like anything, if the public is apathetic, nothing will change.
Besides that, there is no "popular vote" for House elections.
True, there is no popular vote that has any meaningful effect on Congress.
However, it doesn't make the total number of votes irrelevant when using them to compare our population's wishes with that of the actions of congress.
There are more people that identify with the aims, goals, and actions of the Democratic party than they do for the Republican party. And if current population demographic trends continue, that number will only increase. Eventually the effects of gerrymandering will be so extreme, that something will need to change. (Some argue we've already reached that point).
Unfortunately, the Republicans that are most behind this, and the most vocal about supporting this tactic, come from heavily gerrymandered districts. So there is no public pressure for them to change their ways.
So you feel that there is no age at which a person should legally not be allowed to give consent?
In the case of a 4 year old with a 40 year old you'd suggest that the prosecutors need to prove that the 4 year old wasn't mature enough to give consent?
The charge of rape isn't necessarily because the victim had something done to them against their will, it is defined as rape because the victim was legally considered to not be able to give consent. The same sort of charge would occur if you drugged someone.
I keep seeing this opinion stated over and over. But in the case of the parks, when they are open, search and rescue goes into action 11 times a day on average.
I guess some of the non-wilderness stuff like the D.C. things could be purely to make the shut down feel worse (I don't know), but some of the closures, like the national parks, happened for real reasons.
And honestly, I wish more of it shut down. Enough to get people really angry with congress. These manufactured crisis situations are no way to govern.
I think that is why some countries that are driven by capitalism also happen to have larger (relative to the USA) social programs, like job re-training as part of your unemployment benefits.
Isn't the real takeaway from the whole Texas job controversy, that Texas has been steadily growing jobs naturally? As in, nothing the state government has been doing is causing the job growth. Like, it would have happened with or without Perry.
http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/07/ten-reasons-why-the-texas-economy-is-growing-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-rick-perry/
How do we really define "provides a basic level of acceptable living"?
Like it has always been defined. To live like the average person lives, in a society with relatively low income inequality when compared with the rest of the world.
What has been happening in the last 30 years is a shrinking of the middle class. More and more people are living below the average. Wealth is concentrating at the top.
When people start grumbling about "creating an acceptable living" , etc.. what they are really talking about is pushing the bottom floor of the society back up, which means some of those people previously living below average, are now back at the average (middle class).
The reality where society creates an artificial monopoly for an artist/owner, in exchange for that artist's creation becoming public domain some day.
Actually, my favorite comments are at the right-wing rag Daily Caller. Every single comment thread devolves into one party accusing the other party of being closet democrats.
Out of curiosity I clicked on a story at the Daily Caller and read the comments. Wow. It was like the YouTube comments of politics.
We should just sticky your post to the top and close the comments.
The Republicans are very blatantly attempting to kill the ACA by forcing the premium costs to skyrocket. I find it odd (and sad) that very few news agencies are reporting this as fact. Instead the mainstream corporate media is perpetuating the fabricated fantasy that there is some sort of 'debate' happening and Obama isn't participating.. or Harry Reid isn't allowing a debate or something.
I'm beginning to think it is simply about the money. The US has so much wealth, that it means every aspect of our government is lobbied, bullied, bought, and paid for, by the most powerful corporations in the world. And on many levels, even state and local government levels.
Because...freedom?
A What we need are voucher programs, more home schooling, teachers and schools that have to compete,...
Why does the US need to try a completely new education setup, with no large trials or evidence of improvement. Why not adopt any number of education systems around the world that have been proven effective...
Iceland, for example.
I agree with all your points, especially campaign finance reform and gerrymandering. However, I don't think that term limits will help. You'll just end up with a more rapid revolving door of corporate shills.
The president has term limits, and I think we can agree that not much changes (in terms of the major things, like the military industrial complex, energy sector, NSA stuff, etc..).
Obama isn't the one who started all this - he is just the one who is refusing to stop it. There's lots of blame to go around here, no need to pile it all on one person.
I think there's a lot of value in piling it all on the person who is currently in the best position to do something about it, but isn't. Accurate allocation of blame is a job for historians.
I think that just leads to the country voting in "the other side" every other election and thinking that things will change.
Under no plausible scenario will greenhouse gas emissions cause humans to die out.
Some scientists think a runaway greenhouse effect is possible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_greenhouse_effect
E-mail has no reasonable expectation of privacy or secrecy
That is true for people that understand how email works. But I can tell you that all other people view email as no different than sending a sealed letter to someone.
Don't blame me, I voted for...
Maybe it would benefit the US to wall off a section of some conservative part of the country and let all the far right / libertarians move there and have no government. I guess we could settle once and for all the value of government.
You know that during the 2010 election season, many of the Rep. Congress folks were actively telling their voters that the plan was the shut down the government right?
As far as the majority of the republicans in congress are concerned, they did their job correctly. And that's the problem.