The US has failed to provide mass transit because it's not funded. People in the US don't want to pay for mass transit, and by and large, they don't. I think that people should fund mass transit. But that's neither here nor there.
People are not willing to fund mass transit in many if not most areas of the US because of the barriers raised firstly in the form of the enormous size of the US (you can travel over 3,000 miles and never leave the country!!), secondly the way cities, towns, and villages spread because they are laid out with the idea that people will have personal transportation, and thirdly many people don't wish to live crowded together in close proximity to others. The practicality and costs of implementation and ongoing costs versus ridership/fares of mass transit systems under such conditions becomes prohibitive, impractical, and uneconomic.
Why not just regulate and tax them as taxi services... since they *are* taxi services?
Maybe because those very same government taxes, laws, ordinances, and regulations, along with the way they are implemented and enforced, are the exact reason WHY taxis suck such a huge bag of dicks that things like Uber and Lyft have risen despite laws and regulations against them in order to fulfill the population's need for quality and affordable individual on-call transportation that taxi services and mass transit in the US utterly fail at providing?
Your statement would be more convincing if your signature line didn't accuse all liberals of wanting a police state.
This needs to be addressed first.
My sig refers to ideas and ideology, not people. That's a large part of why there's such a disconnect. Nazis of the 19030s/40s are bad, but the German people are and were not bad, it's the Nazi ideas that are bad. Calling those ideas out as bad is not saying the German people are bad. Same thing here. I'm criticizing a set of ideas, not people.
We need to be able to discuss ideas calmly and logically or there is no hope of maintaining a stable nation.
Come now, that's not fair. People in different regions of this huge nation are...different.
That's true. Some regions like to marry 13 year-olds and some vote Democratic.
And in California men marry men and women marry women which is just as strange to them. Again, you attack some mythical group that somehow all believe in lockstep when that's not true of either Left- or Right-leaning people in the US, and somehow also believe your ideas are superior by default. That just works to stop people listening to what those who may disagree are actually saying. It doesn't help solve anything and only makes things worse.
Besides, that's not really fair as few places still have laws allowing marriage that young, and many are old laws left over from as far back as the Reconstruction era. The States you referenced were also States for many decades prior to many of the more liberal Western States and so those much more recent States started out with more-current laws and customs.
Can't we find things, like this proposed Act where we share common ground, that we can come together on and stop demonizing each other on and trying to "win" by any means, even destroying innocent people's lives? It's either that or eventually we end up in a place where there are internment camps and mass graves.
Low taxes and a healthy FU to the gov't works best.
I'd tell you to enjoy Kentucky, but I see that they just outlawed child brides. More big government overreach, amirite? Maybe Alabama will be more to your liking.
Come now, that's not fair. People in different regions of this huge nation are...different. Doesn't make them bad. Honestly, the overwhelming majority of people in the US agree on basic principles we simply disagree on what & how to do or not do in our going about exercising and upholding them.
Don't allow demographic/ethnic/racial/religious/party group identities lead you to believe in absolutes and generalities when it comes to discussing issues with people you may not generally agree with politically. That goes for all sides. If roughly half the population is "the Enemy", where does that leave us? Camps? Pogroms?
You and I are generally far apart politically, yet I'm here to say I agree with and support this proposed Act by the Democrats in California and hope similar legislation is passed in other States.
Don't worry too much about politics as politics is fleeting and mostly just a show for the masses like professional wrestling or the ancient Roman Circuses.
It's principles that really count, the good news being that most of us share far, far more principles than we differ on.
That "solution" probably violates the 5th amendment right to not self-incriminate.
I forget...which amendments do we respect and which ones do we trample because 'muh agendas!' this week? Same ones as last week, or are there new additions that somehow thwart the justified means to the ends?
I can get better news by face-rolling the keyboard in the search bar. It's not like the goalposts are particularly high, here.
Seriously, I come here for the comments and discussions when it's not just screaming obscenities like monkeys flinging poo...yeah, I know...unicorns and hen's teeth these days.
Point being, if you're coming to Slashdot for *news* then you're doing it wrong. It may have the word "news" in the motto, but this is not a current-news site by any stretch of the imagination.
Investigations of fault likely have to follow the same evidentiary rules as criminal investigations.
That's a dumb rule. Tens of thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands sometimes, are inconvenienced for that. The cost trade-off to society is NOT worth it. Let it go so traffic can go. Math gives it the finger.
Since such an investigation of fault can lead to criminal and even felony charges, how about let's not be so all-in-a-rush to bypass civil rights and protections so you can make it to the Taco Bell drive-thru before closing, hmm? Deal?
Even if Google et al. end up paying 2 points more in taxes, they still earn a lot of money off Europe. That being said, a lot of money is a lot more than no money.
Even if the EU mandates such taxes, Google et al won't be paying them out of corporate profits, it will be paid out of the higher prices and costs Google et al charges entities in the EU for their services. The EU would simply be taxing it's own people and businesses that use and/or rely on Google et al. Corporations don't pay taxes, they just pass the increased costs along.
Anything that will help knock Samsung and Apple down a peg (or three) is good in my book.
Not only that, but also a more-secure (from the POV of a US citozen) alternative to security-weakened Western phone models. Sure, Chinese phones may have Chinese backdoors, but the Chinese aren't going to invade the US to come get you or I of we were to insult their new "leader for life" whereas the US government has already been caught "weaponizing" Federal departments and agencies as domestic political tools of control.
As a US citizen, or nearly anyone else in the West, you have much more to fear personally from US/Five-Eyes spying than from Chinese spying.
It's strange to see people who claim to not be racist say it's ok to not hire a white or Asian person because of their skin color but to not hire a black person is racist. It's all racist.
Agreed.
What it boils down to is that the Left's desire for equal treatment under the law among all the various races and ethnicities is secondary at best to their desire for equal outcomes, which can & will never happen in a large and diverse society because human nature and the differing amounts, quality, and types of natural talents, skills, 'gifts', etc individuals are born with. It's only useful as a propaganda talking-point to persuade and incite the ignorant and clueless.
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.
However, this isn't the first time youtube has screwed up like this.
Why the hell are they allowing obviously untrained people the power to wipe out entire channels on a whim?
Since YT announced ahead of time it's intention to hire moderators, it's quite possible that individuals with an agenda applied and deliberately mislead YT HR as to their impartiality, and/or political activist groups sent people to apply to fill these positions with similar intent to advance their political agendas and suppress opposing viewpoints and voices.
What kind of backwards country do you have to pay for an ambulace? Kyrgyzstan or something?
TANSTAAFL
You ARE paying for it in the country you're in, you just don't realize it because it's in the form of taxes, higher prices, reduced quality of care, government waste & inefficiency, bureaucratic red tape, etc etc etc.
In the USA, if you call an ambulance, it will come pick you no matter what even if you don't have the ability to pay.
This is not true in Michigan where I live for residential addresses. If that address has an unpaid bill sent to collections they won't respond unless you can prove you are not the same resident. I live in an apartment complex and had to call EMS once and spent ~5 minutes on the phone confirming that I was not the former resident who had an unpaid bill. That's some seriously fucked up shit right there. I'm just lucky the delay in dispatching a unit wasn't life threatening. That time.
More like $15-$25 vs $500-$1000+ more then a few bucks.
At least that much or more for even a very short ambulance ride in Michigan. Ambulance services are all private companies and if you've had rides in the past with them that you've failed to pay them for (which happens often as insurance has gotten very particular about what they will cover an ambulance ride for) they won't come when called. You're placed on a 'black list' if they send the bill to collection agencies and refused service. They're also infamous in the area for overcharging and/or charging for things they never used on that call.
So as a consequence, most low/fixed income/senior people around here without a vehicle take an Uber, Lyft, or a normal taxi to get to the E.R. unless limbs are severed and/or blood is gushing out somewhere, etc.
However, It makes me wonder if the CRA law would actually apply here. The CRA law was obviously not written with the intent to stop a regulation from being withdrawn although I don't see that use being specifically excepted by the text. I'm guessing that should this CRA actually be enacted (a snowballs chance I know) it would be challenged in court to test this.
It could well be a moot point as the Democrats may not have enough butts left in the seats to "force" anything in Congress after the midterm elections.
The Republicans are against government control and regulation of the Internet. That shows they don't consider it important.
"If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan
Not allowing government to get it's grubby little corrupt, criminal, & authoritarian fingers into the internet is *because* it is so important that it must be kept free.
Unfortunately for the entire world, America has always been able to do so in the past, so they see no reason not to continue doing so.
American law applies worldwide, all other laws stop at the US border. The only real question is, how far will the rest of the world let that go before they start to push back? so far most of the rest of the world tends to just roll over and let the US have their way. I don't anticipate that to continue forever though.
What would be interesting is if the court orders MS-US to comply and the Irish government sends in police and seizes control of MS-IRL's severs, data-storage, and facilities.
Or, less dramatically, the Irish government simply says they will arrest and prosecute anyone at MS-IRL who attempts to comply with the illegal US order and seek to extradite MS-US persons who issue such an illegal order and the judge(s) that created the illegal order to likewise prosecute them as well.
The US doesn't have a public school system. It has 50.
Tell that to the US Federal Department of Education as they seem to be under the impression that they are in control of US public schooling. That's one Federal department that needs to be abolished, then your assertion would be accurate.
...Your kids if you truly love and care for & about them.
The US public school system is a failure and a disgrace. They're nothing more than ideological indoctrination centers. They gave up on educating children long ago, as the steady stream of illiterate and incapable-of-basic-math H.S. graduates every year proves beyond a doubt.
Okay, then why did he block immigrants from Muslim-majority countries that have no documented links to terrorism?
The problem is we have no way to verify their backgrounds. There are no records either way to check. They do not exist or were destroyed in the conflicts raging across the region. Absence of a documented link is not evidence of no involvement with Islamic extremists, it's just evidence there is no information available. They could be peaceful or could be mass murderers. There is no way currently to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Trump is trying to keep your head attached to the rest of you, the same for the people you care about, and all despite your best efforts to thwart him.
This has become a nation of schizophrenics. I'm not able to believe that both this woman's sob-story and James Damore's sob-story are both true. At some point in the information pipeline, data is being distorted, or wholesale invented. And folks are surprised that Americans don't trust their media, and elect con-men celebrities to high office.
What has happened is Identitarian politics of groups and group-identities. Google's problem with Damore, this person, and the rest that are certain to follow, is that Google themselves embraced Identitarian ideas. Google, to a large extent, brought this on themselves and in so doing, helped spread and give such broken ideas more power.
Identitarian politics of group identities feeds on and exacerbates the tribal behaviors inherent in human nature and enables the "Other-ing" of those who disagree, allowing for their dehumanization.
Once dehumanized, opponents can be dealt with expediently by any means as "the Enemy" without needing to listen to anything the Enemy has to say. They're Evil, after all, being the Enemy.
Identitarian politics have had an enormous effect upon culture. Even comedy. Can you imagine if today Steve Martin joked as he did in his movie "The Jerk" "I was born a poor black child." That would be the end of his career. Many top comedians won't do university/college tours anymore because of the intolerance.
Stop looking at what "group" somebody may be a part of and deciding on that basis whether to listen to what they're saying, and look at the person.
That takes proper training to assess a threat, and has little to do with the problem of fake calls. You either have trigger-happy idiots behind an armed response, or you do not.
This is a two-fold problem. Make no mistake that change needs to happen on BOTH sides.
The root of the problem is there are far, far too many laws and regulations, many related to the "War On (some) Drugs". Having so many laws and regulations means you need a large number of jackboots to enforce them. Proper training is too expensive and time consuming for maintaining such a large standing force, so standards and training are minimal. It also means that internal discipline and accountability for mistakes take a back seat to maintaining sufficient numbers of boots on the street.
Slashdot Mirror
The US has failed to provide mass transit because it's not funded. People in the US don't want to pay for mass transit, and by and large, they don't. I think that people should fund mass transit. But that's neither here nor there.
People are not willing to fund mass transit in many if not most areas of the US because of the barriers raised firstly in the form of the enormous size of the US (you can travel over 3,000 miles and never leave the country!!), secondly the way cities, towns, and villages spread because they are laid out with the idea that people will have personal transportation, and thirdly many people don't wish to live crowded together in close proximity to others. The practicality and costs of implementation and ongoing costs versus ridership/fares of mass transit systems under such conditions becomes prohibitive, impractical, and uneconomic.
Strat
Why not just regulate and tax them as taxi services... since they *are* taxi services?
Maybe because those very same government taxes, laws, ordinances, and regulations, along with the way they are implemented and enforced, are the exact reason WHY taxis suck such a huge bag of dicks that things like Uber and Lyft have risen despite laws and regulations against them in order to fulfill the population's need for quality and affordable individual on-call transportation that taxi services and mass transit in the US utterly fail at providing?
Strat
Your statement would be more convincing if your signature line didn't accuse all liberals of wanting a police state.
This needs to be addressed first.
My sig refers to ideas and ideology, not people. That's a large part of why there's such a disconnect. Nazis of the 19030s/40s are bad, but the German people are and were not bad, it's the Nazi ideas that are bad. Calling those ideas out as bad is not saying the German people are bad. Same thing here. I'm criticizing a set of ideas, not people.
We need to be able to discuss ideas calmly and logically or there is no hope of maintaining a stable nation.
Come now, that's not fair. People in different regions of this huge nation are...different.
That's true. Some regions like to marry 13 year-olds and some vote Democratic.
And in California men marry men and women marry women which is just as strange to them. Again, you attack some mythical group that somehow all believe in lockstep when that's not true of either Left- or Right-leaning people in the US, and somehow also believe your ideas are superior by default. That just works to stop people listening to what those who may disagree are actually saying. It doesn't help solve anything and only makes things worse.
Besides, that's not really fair as few places still have laws allowing marriage that young, and many are old laws left over from as far back as the Reconstruction era. The States you referenced were also States for many decades prior to many of the more liberal Western States and so those much more recent States started out with more-current laws and customs.
Can't we find things, like this proposed Act where we share common ground, that we can come together on and stop demonizing each other on and trying to "win" by any means, even destroying innocent people's lives? It's either that or eventually we end up in a place where there are internment camps and mass graves.
Strat
Come now, that's not fair. People in different regions of this huge nation are...different. Doesn't make them bad. Honestly, the overwhelming majority of people in the US agree on basic principles we simply disagree on what & how to do or not do in our going about exercising and upholding them.
Don't allow demographic/ethnic/racial/religious/party group identities lead you to believe in absolutes and generalities when it comes to discussing issues with people you may not generally agree with politically. That goes for all sides. If roughly half the population is "the Enemy", where does that leave us? Camps? Pogroms?
You and I are generally far apart politically, yet I'm here to say I agree with and support this proposed Act by the Democrats in California and hope similar legislation is passed in other States.
Don't worry too much about politics as politics is fleeting and mostly just a show for the masses like professional wrestling or the ancient Roman Circuses.
It's principles that really count, the good news being that most of us share far, far more principles than we differ on.
Strat
That "solution" probably violates the 5th amendment right to not self-incriminate.
I forget...which amendments do we respect and which ones do we trample because 'muh agendas!' this week? Same ones as last week, or are there new additions that somehow thwart the justified means to the ends?
Strat
I get better news on reddit.
I can get better news by face-rolling the keyboard in the search bar. It's not like the goalposts are particularly high, here.
Seriously, I come here for the comments and discussions when it's not just screaming obscenities like monkeys flinging poo...yeah, I know...unicorns and hen's teeth these days.
Point being, if you're coming to Slashdot for *news* then you're doing it wrong. It may have the word "news" in the motto, but this is not a current-news site by any stretch of the imagination.
Strat
Since such an investigation of fault can lead to criminal and even felony charges, how about let's not be so all-in-a-rush to bypass civil rights and protections so you can make it to the Taco Bell drive-thru before closing, hmm? Deal?
Strat
Even if Google et al. end up paying 2 points more in taxes, they still earn a lot of money off Europe. That being said, a lot of money is a lot more than no money.
Even if the EU mandates such taxes, Google et al won't be paying them out of corporate profits, it will be paid out of the higher prices and costs Google et al charges entities in the EU for their services. The EU would simply be taxing it's own people and businesses that use and/or rely on Google et al. Corporations don't pay taxes, they just pass the increased costs along.
Strat
Anything that will help knock Samsung and Apple down a peg (or three) is good in my book.
Not only that, but also a more-secure (from the POV of a US citozen) alternative to security-weakened Western phone models. Sure, Chinese phones may have Chinese backdoors, but the Chinese aren't going to invade the US to come get you or I of we were to insult their new "leader for life" whereas the US government has already been caught "weaponizing" Federal departments and agencies as domestic political tools of control.
As a US citizen, or nearly anyone else in the West, you have much more to fear personally from US/Five-Eyes spying than from Chinese spying.
Strat
It's strange to see people who claim to not be racist say it's ok to not hire a white or Asian person because of their skin color but to not hire a black person is racist. It's all racist.
Agreed.
What it boils down to is that the Left's desire for equal treatment under the law among all the various races and ethnicities is secondary at best to their desire for equal outcomes, which can & will never happen in a large and diverse society because human nature and the differing amounts, quality, and types of natural talents, skills, 'gifts', etc individuals are born with. It's only useful as a propaganda talking-point to persuade and incite the ignorant and clueless.
Strat
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.
However, this isn't the first time youtube has screwed up like this.
Why the hell are they allowing obviously untrained people the power to wipe out entire channels on a whim?
Since YT announced ahead of time it's intention to hire moderators, it's quite possible that individuals with an agenda applied and deliberately mislead YT HR as to their impartiality, and/or political activist groups sent people to apply to fill these positions with similar intent to advance their political agendas and suppress opposing viewpoints and voices.
Strat
What kind of backwards country do you have to pay for an ambulace? Kyrgyzstan or something?
TANSTAAFL
You ARE paying for it in the country you're in, you just don't realize it because it's in the form of taxes, higher prices, reduced quality of care, government waste & inefficiency, bureaucratic red tape, etc etc etc.
Strat
You are free to do what you want.
You are not free to impose such a policy on others.
In China, that policy has been responsible for infanticide.
See my sig below for my reply.
Strat
In the USA, if you call an ambulance, it will come pick you no matter what even if you don't have the ability to pay.
This is not true in Michigan where I live for residential addresses. If that address has an unpaid bill sent to collections they won't respond unless you can prove you are not the same resident. I live in an apartment complex and had to call EMS once and spent ~5 minutes on the phone confirming that I was not the former resident who had an unpaid bill. That's some seriously fucked up shit right there. I'm just lucky the delay in dispatching a unit wasn't life threatening. That time.
Strat
More like $15-$25 vs $500-$1000+ more then a few bucks.
At least that much or more for even a very short ambulance ride in Michigan. Ambulance services are all private companies and if you've had rides in the past with them that you've failed to pay them for (which happens often as insurance has gotten very particular about what they will cover an ambulance ride for) they won't come when called. You're placed on a 'black list' if they send the bill to collection agencies and refused service. They're also infamous in the area for overcharging and/or charging for things they never used on that call.
So as a consequence, most low/fixed income/senior people around here without a vehicle take an Uber, Lyft, or a normal taxi to get to the E.R. unless limbs are severed and/or blood is gushing out somewhere, etc.
Strat
However, It makes me wonder if the CRA law would actually apply here. The CRA law was obviously not written with the intent to stop a regulation from being withdrawn although I don't see that use being specifically excepted by the text. I'm guessing that should this CRA actually be enacted (a snowballs chance I know) it would be challenged in court to test this.
It could well be a moot point as the Democrats may not have enough butts left in the seats to "force" anything in Congress after the midterm elections.
Strat
The Republicans are against government control and regulation of the Internet. That shows they don't consider it important.
"If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan
Not allowing government to get it's grubby little corrupt, criminal, & authoritarian fingers into the internet is *because* it is so important that it must be kept free.
Strat
What would be interesting is if the court orders MS-US to comply and the Irish government sends in police and seizes control of MS-IRL's severs, data-storage, and facilities.
Or, less dramatically, the Irish government simply says they will arrest and prosecute anyone at MS-IRL who attempts to comply with the illegal US order and seek to extradite MS-US persons who issue such an illegal order and the judge(s) that created the illegal order to likewise prosecute them as well.
This could get quite popcorn-worthy.
Strat
You can actually burn almost all nuclear fission "spent" fuel in a breeder reactor. It's just not economical.
Only because of over-burdensome regulation driven by politics instead of science driving up costs. Politics is why we can't have nice things.
Strat
The US doesn't have a public school system. It has 50.
Tell that to the US Federal Department of Education as they seem to be under the impression that they are in control of US public schooling. That's one Federal department that needs to be abolished, then your assertion would be accurate.
Strat
...Your kids if you truly love and care for & about them.
The US public school system is a failure and a disgrace. They're nothing more than ideological indoctrination centers. They gave up on educating children long ago, as the steady stream of illiterate and incapable-of-basic-math H.S. graduates every year proves beyond a doubt.
Strat
Sorry Mary Poppins would disagree :-)
Well naturally, That evil Poppins woman created the Umbrella Corp and doomed Racoon City. after all.
Strat
Okay, then why did he block immigrants from Muslim-majority countries that have no documented links to terrorism?
The problem is we have no way to verify their backgrounds. There are no records either way to check. They do not exist or were destroyed in the conflicts raging across the region. Absence of a documented link is not evidence of no involvement with Islamic extremists, it's just evidence there is no information available. They could be peaceful or could be mass murderers. There is no way currently to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Trump is trying to keep your head attached to the rest of you, the same for the people you care about, and all despite your best efforts to thwart him.
Strat
This has become a nation of schizophrenics. I'm not able to believe that both this woman's sob-story and James Damore's sob-story are both true. At some point in the information pipeline, data is being distorted, or wholesale invented. And folks are surprised that Americans don't trust their media, and elect con-men celebrities to high office.
What has happened is Identitarian politics of groups and group-identities. Google's problem with Damore, this person, and the rest that are certain to follow, is that Google themselves embraced Identitarian ideas. Google, to a large extent, brought this on themselves and in so doing, helped spread and give such broken ideas more power.
Identitarian politics of group identities feeds on and exacerbates the tribal behaviors inherent in human nature and enables the "Other-ing" of those who disagree, allowing for their dehumanization.
Once dehumanized, opponents can be dealt with expediently by any means as "the Enemy" without needing to listen to anything the Enemy has to say. They're Evil, after all, being the Enemy.
Identitarian politics have had an enormous effect upon culture. Even comedy. Can you imagine if today Steve Martin joked as he did in his movie "The Jerk" "I was born a poor black child." That would be the end of his career. Many top comedians won't do university/college tours anymore because of the intolerance.
Stop looking at what "group" somebody may be a part of and deciding on that basis whether to listen to what they're saying, and look at the person.
Strat
That takes proper training to assess a threat, and has little to do with the problem of fake calls. You either have trigger-happy idiots behind an armed response, or you do not.
This is a two-fold problem. Make no mistake that change needs to happen on BOTH sides.
The root of the problem is there are far, far too many laws and regulations, many related to the "War On (some) Drugs". Having so many laws and regulations means you need a large number of jackboots to enforce them. Proper training is too expensive and time consuming for maintaining such a large standing force, so standards and training are minimal. It also means that internal discipline and accountability for mistakes take a back seat to maintaining sufficient numbers of boots on the street.
Strat