It's been run by the GOP as a retirement destination for the last few decades. Go figure.
282 karma · joined August 28, 2019
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It's a compromise and likely won't come easy or fast given current federal government setup. But other than generational change (ie old people who are heavily conservative die off so younger, more liberal people become the voting base) likely combined with removing money from Us politics (no easy fight there) I doubt it will happen soon.
In this case, "Defund the Police" can mean a hundred different policy approaches from as simple as cut funding/staff/resources to as complex as redistributing that funding and resources to non-police support structures like social workers, mental health professionals, and the other roles that an omnibus police department handles.
In that sense, I don't support straight defunding of police. I do support redistributing funding/resources to new or expanded public health departments with a push for mental health and drug abuse support. But that needs to happen as part of a larger approach to decriminalization of drug possession/use (not selling/distributing, just possession/use), criminal justice reform where those convicted of such nonviolent crimes are released and record scrubbed, plus support for those to gain an education or employment without stigma. Ideally we can establish programs and tools to tackle the problems that led to a life of crime or drug abuse, focusing on reform.
That should also include immigration reform and the elimination of 'illegal' terms by expanding quotas and simplifying the process for citizenship. Cheaper education, child care, and medical care/prescriptions are also needed to reduce the burden on most working Americans so they can educate themselves, find better employment, and better care for themselves and their family. Ending food insecurity (which, by the way, it's insane the US even has) would be a solid start. People join gangs because they solve problems they face like wanting to belong, physical/financial security, etc. By working to resolve those issues for anyone in the states, immigrant or citizen, we can address the root cause not the symptoms.
Much more complicated that it seems, and that's not even getting into the various departments/programs/bills/etc required to progress that. This is also a heavily opinionated comment that clearly leans liberal and would face plenty of challenges from the current conservative side of US politics. But it would also be progress toward solving a series of issues that undermine freedom and peaceful society.
It's a bit of a catch-22, they can reform their route and coverage to similarly profitable state with less coverage, potentially dooming them in the long run, or they can take the near 0 profit contract from Amazon and stay competitive while having almost no cards at the negotiation table. Amazon knows their business is huge and needed by these groups and is not afraid to point that out.
Plumbers have it mostly sorted out though. Critical tech might demand higher pay but I love this story I read of a band doing a wedding and negotiating pay for a 4 hour reception. The planner and band can't come to an agreement so the band says to call the local plumbers union, ask what the cost is for 4 guys on a 4 hours job, and use that number with some drinks tossed in.
Many of the machines running in the shop didn't have external network access (a few incidents with adult content and management just blocked everything on the floor) but still do email or access plans from the file share or work order itself. Their process was still mostly paper based including large format printing of plans with bar codes for tracking so if the network goes down they can still work.
It's this odd balance of welder demanded processes (workers would boycott new IT or automation tools so they had to hire a new guy to run a parts tower machine) combined with old school practices. When I was there 4 years ago it was mostly old dudes pushing out retirement to do 1 more year of income and buy their truck of choice while management was seeing SEC checks and auditing for tax/securities fraud. I'm surprised it's still in business at this point.
Good for you, but change management saves my time more often than not.
I'd argue that ISPs end up using infrastructure that is common (think tragedy of the commons) like a water pipe or power line and should be open or publicly owned/maintained. By exploiting exclusive ownership of a common resource, ISPs become rent seeking and suck cash from both customers and taxpayers. As long as they hold ownership of the lines, they can charge what they want or you have to pay a huge cost for a new fiber line or have no access.
So seize the lines, just like water and power, and allow well regulated companies to facilitate the utility like many states do for power. Allow cities to push for municipal control and management (ex taking over line maintenance in exchange for providing services. Force it into a system where it pays for its own upgrades vs millions to execs and share holders, just like health insurance in many countries.
At least with federal ownership we can mandate maintenance and repair requirements or timetables along with budgeting to do so in a timely manner. Or at least stop passing free money to ISP CEOs by giving millions of taxpayer dollars to them for upgrades and expansions that never come. I'd rather give a billion dollars to the Army CoE or a similar group to get things installed and maintained instead of profit to an ISP and at best slow expansion and data caps.
I run a uSFF HP box for my hypervisor and a low power J5005 core in my NAS and am more than happy with the performance let alone minimal power usage. Sure the J5005 system takes ages to update requiring a backup DC/PiHole setup on the HyperVisor but it just works at low cost.
But what if it takes 2 weeks to get from Oregon to NC then back from NC to Oregon? And then another week to be handled last mile and finally gets to the office? It gets to the right place and is counted weeks after the election ends and is effectively decided by most analysts. Or maybe it doesn't even get to me in time and my vote doesn't count.
Oregon I'd trust to open and count it accordingly as it checks all the boxes to be legit. But maybe another state is not set up for this process and hacks it together the month before the election. Maybe in that state my ballot doesn't make it to NC on time or even until after the election. Maybe once the ballot makes it home, it sits another 2 weeks in a backlog as a poorly funded, overworked team tries to catch up and confirm/reconcile votes across in person and this new mail in system. Maybe byt the time my ballot is done, it's the second week of December and the commission or Secretary of State isn't sure it has the right numbers and has to do a recount (or ignores it as clearly it's a broken system anyway, according to the president, so of course it would be off).
All of a sudden, we have another Constitutional crisis on our hands. The guy in charge has spread misinformation or full on fake news about an otherwise working system. He argued against and his party rejected any efforts to fund the mail in side of the national election even though it was openly attacked by foreign nations last time and is no more secure than then. Maybe GOP governors and secretaries of state who follow the president closely use his claims so that, due to expanded mail in voting, of course the numbers don't match polling or prior data so the election itself is a sham. Whether the numbers show Trump winning or losing, it's all a sham and can be ignored or taken before SCotUS which luckily has a few of your guys (Federalist Society picks) on the majority.
The dilemma is we need to oust any official who aims to undermine any government system or program, in words or actions, unless they are working on factually reported data and studies that indicate change is needed (which is almost always). The current administration has been lying to its citizens from day 1. Somehow that hasn't forced the resignation.
I bet Patreon could take on a similar model, but I'm not sure how it would be curated. Who would bundle creators? Patreon, the creator(s), or the user(s)? I don't think Patreon would want to show bias by grouping anything. To support creators working together it might be really cool to see them create alliances and tag team projects. But I'd probably want to bundle them myself to hand pick who I support.
I only follow 1 Patreon user, a good (very talented) high school friend with a knack for explanation of musical concepts. He's brilliant on a guitar and I want others to see that.