Political Discussion

Indymisanthrope said:
There's a major distinction here in that Biden's own attorneys found the (less than 12) documents, self-reported it to the National Archives, and returned them the next day.

This was NOT a case of hundreds of known documents being sought after for months on end with deliberate obstruction ultimately forcing law enforcement to take action to retrieve them.

You might make an argument that Biden's case is even worse in the sense that no one even knew they were missing. And in both cases they were stored in unsecured locations (in Biden's case for much longer than in Trump's). But hey, at least Biden isn't claiming they're retroactively declassified through the power of his mind.
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Yeah I’m not trying to say both are the same offences or even require the same amount of scrutiny or punishment but the democrats run the risk of looking very foolish and hypocritical if you just try to sweep it under the carpet as something minor without it properly being shown to be that.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
If you came into possession of a leglislation genie who could grant you passage of three clean, uncompromised bills through both chambers of Congress, what would they be? How could you effect the greatest change with the fewest laws?

Would it be
  • addressing tax reform: corporate tax rates/overseas tax shelters/closing tax loopholes for the 1%?
  • a climate change program?
  • eliminating dark money from campaigns?
  • barring elected officials from trading on the stock market?
  • expanding the Supreme Court?
  • granting statehood to Washington DC (+2 senators)?
  • paying reparations?
  • nationalizing healthcare?
  • codifying Roe?
  • raising the minimum wage?
  • eliminating student loan debt?
  • improving access to childcare?
  • securing voting rights?
  • something else?
Anything you get passed is still subject to being disputed in court all the way up to the SC. So what do you do? What are the three things that would give us the biggest pushes in the right direction without being doomed to immediate nullification by our current judiciary?
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Tax reform for the 1%, eliminating dark money from campaigns, and national health care.

I don’t really think billionaires should exist. It’s this income disparity that is killing democracy. When people have to have 2-3 jobs just to pay bills, they are a lot less engaged in politics and are usually unable to fund candidates who speak for them. Reforming the tax code is a way to make things more even, much the same way nationalized health care is. When you can look at someone’s teeth and immediately ascertain their economic status, then we have failed as a society. Healthcare and thus longevity is only a possibility for wealthier people which means that we have failed to care for the most fragile in our society. And really, how can we say that our elections are fair and representative of the people when the 1% can fund the candidates they want with dark money.

Yes I believe that there are several other things in your list that are very important but if we don’t make fundamental changes to who has money and how they use it, we will never have meaningful reform. Climate change bills can get gutted by politicians who are in the pockets of industrialist and reparations, a debt jubilee for student loans, raising minimum wage, etc. will never happen as long as the people who are hoarding money continue to stay in power.
 
nolalady said:
Tax reform for the 1%, eliminating dark money from campaigns, and national health care.

I don’t really think billionaires should exist. It’s this income disparity that is killing democracy. When people have to have 2-3 jobs just to pay bills, they are a lot less engaged in politics and are usually unable to fund candidates who speak for them. Reforming the tax code is a way to make things more even, much the same way nationalized health care is. When you can look at someone’s teeth and immediately ascertain their economic status, then we have failed as a society. Healthcare and thus longevity is only a possibility for wealthier people which means that we have failed to care for the most fragile in our society. And really, how can we say that our elections are fair and representative of the people when the 1% can fund the candidates they want with dark money.

Yes I believe that there are several other things in your list that are very important but if we don’t make fundamental changes to who has money and how they use it, we will never have meaningful reform. Climate change bills can get gutted by politicians who are in the pockets of industrialist and reparations, a debt jubilee for student loans, raising minimum wage, etc. will never happen as long as the people who are hoarding money continue to stay in power.
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I’m in favour of banning private schools and really higher levels of inheritance tax above a small amount being tax free.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
If you came into possession of a leglislation genie who could grant you passage of three clean, uncompromised bills through both chambers of Congress, what would they be? How could you effect the greatest change with the fewest laws?

Would it be
  • addressing tax reform: corporate tax rates/overseas tax shelters/closing tax loopholes for the 1%?
  • a climate change program?
  • eliminating dark money from campaigns?
  • barring elected officials from trading on the stock market?
  • expanding the Supreme Court?
  • granting statehood to Washington DC (+2 senators)?
  • paying reparations?
  • nationalizing healthcare?
  • codifying Roe?
  • raising the minimum wage?
  • eliminating student loan debt?
  • improving access to childcare?
  • securing voting rights?
  • something else?
Anything you get passed is still subject to being disputed in court all the way up to the SC. So what do you do? What are the three things that would give us the biggest pushes in the right direction without being doomed to immediate nullification by our current judiciary?
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money out of politics
universal healthcare
voting reform.

although i suspect that even if something like this were doable, the only way to get these to stick around longer than a year is to put some poison pill in them; changes to put corporate money or decrease financial transparency in politics to automatically set tax rates for the top 2% at 99% for 15 years, retroactively. something so onerous that it would be breathtaking. the republican party -- not conservatives in general, which appear to be in short supply, TBH, but republicans specifically -- appear to have not only no interest in governing on behalf of the people, but an active interest in sabotaging other people governing. "no leadership other than the basest animalistic greed; fuckery for the sake of fuckery" appears to be the actual motto in operation.
 
Here is another example of why we need serious patent reform.

A company called Masimo has patents related to detecting blood oxygen levels with an electronic device. Their parents are vague enough that any electronic device that does the same could be found to be violating their patent. Even developing your own technology and patents at the same time, the first to the table wins and everyone else has to pay royalties.

And a judge just found that the Apple Watch does that. Masimo is seeking damages and ban of the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer in the United States. The judge is to consider whether the ban is now warranted.

Apple disagrees with the decision and will appeal.
 
Wait, so the first few bills the new house majority is trying to cram through involve cutting Medicare, social security, and then plan to eliminate federal income tax. 🤡 :poop:

I've been thinking more and more on eliminating the income tax and on the face of it sure, there's more money in my pocket. But I can't escape the thought of it then spiraling into the being another way to siphon more wealth from the lower and middle class into the wealthy and corporate owners. It's the same argument they make about wage increases. "It's going to make everything more expensive"... So that means that these "costs" get passed onto consumers. In lieu of the income tax they are proposing a consumption tax hike. So basically it takes the controlled process of government regulated income tax and makes it so the corporations can set whatever "tax" they want to bend us over the barrel on the consumption side in cahoots with the GOP and their consumption tax. Shit is already expensive with inflation and here they are trying to find ways to make shit more expensive. When the purchasing power of the dollar is crashing, don't give me more dollars...
 
Is voting fraud the same as voting when you shouldn’t? I mean they didn’t claim to be someone else, they didn’t vote multiple times. What fraud was perpetrated here? Wouldn’t it make more sense to go “hey, so you can’t vote. This is why. Please don’t do it again.”
 
Lee Newman said:
Is voting fraud the same as voting when you shouldn’t? I mean they didn’t claim to be someone else, they didn’t vote multiple times. What fraud was perpetrated here? Wouldn’t it make more sense to go “hey, so you can’t vote. This is why. Please don’t do it again.”
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But this fulfills 2 purposes : 1. Trumping up numbers of alleged voter fraud as support for stricter measures to keep unwanted ( minority) voters from voting and getting the base upset about stolen elections. Most people would suppose that these voter fraud cases would be something organized and not criminal and not people not knowing they are not allowed to vote.
2. Showing the same unwanted (minority) voters that terrible things can happen to them if they vote and make a mistake in the process scaring them from voting
 
Lee Newman said:
Is voting fraud the same as voting when you shouldn’t? I mean they didn’t claim to be someone else, they didn’t vote multiple times. What fraud was perpetrated here? Wouldn’t it make more sense to go “hey, so you can’t vote. This is why. Please don’t do it again.”
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Doesn’t fraud imply that you intended to do it not just made a mistake?
 
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