charwalker

If MAGA means 1950's values and culture, does that mean 40%+ tax rate for the wealthy?

When the group in question does everything in its power to resist change and prevent charges and repercussions for the issue officers, it may be broken.

An issue teacher is jailed and ostracized by the entire industry. Why not for cops?

When a teacher is shown to be abusing minors, other teachers and the union doesn't drop everything to defend them, prevent investigation, and lobby for them to get a teaching job a few districts over.

A police officer can arrest you for something they think is illegal but isn't. In the US, they don't need a functioning knowledge of the law to cruise the streets armed to the teeth. They appear to be able to harass, attack, and even kill people in broad daylight without a judge and jury present let alone face punishment for it.

So yeah, the police as a whole are being punished. We can break that down to a push during the war on drugs to lock out public services like mental health care or support for vulnerable youths and families in favor of increased police budgets and using officers as a catch all. We can examine how an all or nothing union may have corrupt incentives for defending members. We can reject the whole 'Blue Line' thought process and recognize that police are still citizens (though even off duty they may get a pass) and not isolated from the rest of us (though they may attend training that explicitly state otherwise).

Police still see a hugely higher rate of domestic violence yet continue to defend their own. Police appear to be working with extremist groups (white supremacists, not the nonexistent national entity of Antifa). Police in the Us have been infiltrated by white supremacists to the point that often the FBI refuses to work with local police.

As a white guy, police have always been mostly fair to or avoided interacting with me. I've seen the opposite for friends and others in my city. Some cops are assholes. If other cops defend the assholes, they are too. It doesn't matter how important their job is to society as that is even less of an excuse for defending problems.

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/08/03/how-the-suprem...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killology

https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/cop-who-threatened-kill-... (I think this should be a much higher charge but he's police so what are you going to do?)

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-...

https://theintercept.com/2020/07/15/george-floyd-protests-po...

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-i...

https://torres.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/torres-...

Well it was secure when released with support for XP and Vista business.

There was oversight for PPP, but the president fired the IG over the program and replaced them with a loyalist right before the fund went live. The administration then refused to provide data on who got loans until sued. Now we know that the Sec of Transportation and husband Mitch McConnell, the new USPS head who appears to be trying to crush mail in voting internally, and many other government officials received loans for millions. If one was to condemn protesting due to looting, imaging the response to misappropriating billions in tax dollars to corporations, supporters, and corrupt officials.

BLS: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

They release a jobs report on the first friday of each month with asjustements as data from prior months made it in. They survey businesses and process a lot of other data to deliver these reports and have been generally apolitical and data focused though the current administration has tried to influence numbers to their advantage, effectively undermining a critical component of our democracy.

Yeah, we had $5 trillion to drop on bad market bets. We had something like $10trillion over 10 years to give as tax breaks to the ultra wealthy.

We can deal with a few trillion to establish basic income replacements for general benefits, universal healthcare, affordable college/education, and other programs to better our citizens vs the rich and stock market.

Another factor is most western nation bonds as well as corporate bonds are running close to 0% return. As long as competition for investment is sitting at about 0%, including private equity investments in companies that could fail in the next year due to recession, supply chain issues, or tariff wars, where else are people putting money?

Most employed Americans are still paying into retirement and mostly dumping cash into index funds on the bet that in 20-40 years the market will be up. Private investors and hedge funds are watching the Fed buy up trillions in bad bets, might as well make more bets with a feeling of lower risk. Even Hertz is gaming the system at a time when it's still very uncertain how the US will cope with the pandemic long term.

However, we are seeing a drop in inflation not quite to deflation but down like 3/4 from above 2% to .65% for recent months: https://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentIn...

This my be due to oil price drops in the past quarter with prices going negative at one point. But generally speaking we are not seeing excess inflation, quite the opposite. I think we are going to see a massive drop off in Q3, especially based on recent weak Q2 earnings reports and likelihood of the US not coping well at all.

It's not what is reflected in data though, just hype.

You need to consider the whole basket that the CPI is based on including other factors like housing, utilities, and oil/gas. We probably won't see any specific store bought items drop in price but trends overall will reflect deflation. Part of that is the cash injection is not spread over just the US population but anyone that relies on the USD for transactions or backing their currency. Being the default currency has perks.

My GF has yet to get hers or her tax return. The stimulus check went to an address from 2 years ago and she would be on hold for hours just trying to get her address updated and stopped calling. There's maybe $3k just sitting out there but the Treasury can't get it to her. This is why I vote blue, we need to adequately fund our government systems or face issues like this.

I work within a financial institution (CU) and I can say they have no wish to actually evict/foreclose/etc. After the 2008 crash they bumped their reserve % 3-5 points higher than required to insulate from the next recession (here today). But for mortgages, internal notices appear to suggest it's better for the CU if they keep people in their homes and have the same level of payments resume in a few months vs auction the house. Maybe the math only works out for a few months, I'm not in the loop on those conversations. They are very community focused and not driven by profit so that helps me trust the internal news.

As someone wanting a home in a high CoL area, I would love a 10-20% off rush from thousands of houses going to auction or sale but it wold be devastating locally. We simply are not equipped, as a nation, to address the fallout from this years events. Especially not with current (lack of) leadership and circling of wagons.

This is extremely dangerous to our democracy. Literally.

I think the comment above is suggesting that, either instead of or alongside, current Fed cash injections and distributions by the Treasury we need to push for and implement programs that leverage us out of the QE cycle. A universal healthcare system, student loan forgiveness and free or reduced cost education, a basic income over complex safety net benefits, that sort of thing. As it stands, QE is preventing a massive crash but it's not a long term solution.

And that is on top of the mismanagement of PPP funds after the IG over that was fired and replaced with a loyalist. We are only starting to see where billion of tax dollars went including a large chunk to churches and millions to Kanye West and campaign donors/supporters. If one has an issue with looting by protestors, they really need to look at the looting by the wealthy. Not just PPP loan abuse but also historically low tax rates and a pass for environmental abuse too.

For the record, I support this view. CPI inflation does not track with individual financial assets/tools or specific costs like education.

Printing money has recently shown to have little impact on inflation. This is likely due in part to lack of consumer spending (can't inflate prices if nobody is buying it anyway) as well as spreading the USD across billions of people in dozens of interconnected economies that base off the dollar.

The recent $5 trillion injection from the Fed (buying bad debt/assets) and Treasury (stimulus/PPP) may simply show that we could afford universal healthcare and a bunch of other programs that cost $$$. Now is the time to spend that money and, at least it appears, avoid some long term costs. I'd argue the benefits of things like expanding education, investing in mental and physical health, and doing more to support our youth will have a much greater return than potential long term inflation or other issues from the $5 trillion.

I commented more on this last week here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23778819

I think they could, but even if it matched the SCoutUS decision it could only apply going forward or it would be unconstitutional via Section 9.3 on barring ex post facto laws. Now if Congress were to pass a law saying not that something 100 years ago meant XYZ but that as of the sign date the reservation no longer exists, that might pass 9.3 but if that bill hits the courts, lower courts would need to reference this case and probably conclude that it isn't a correct application and ax it.

Partially with much of that pay won via union work or like building codes to prevent a race to the bottom while enforcing some standard for safety. That skilled carpenter might be offered a contract for $10/hour under their union requirement but chooses to enforce their standards instead of subverting their fellow tradesmen.

A good comparison is quality comments and coding standards. Consider if there was an enforceable standard for code structure, comments, documentation, etc like most decent github repos with developers striving to reach Linux kernel level overall quality. This would include a standard training/education process, collective bargaining and action for pay/benefits and standard to changes. It is a field where not every ISO standard needs to be applied in full, but there could still be some base enforcement.

Like, what if every code base was commented, well structured, and followed general best practices like to-code electrical or plumbing work? What if code review or inspections against a standard were enforced time set aside and sign off required before wrapping a project? What if the lowest bidder on a coding job had a floor due to set benefits and standing agreement on rates and max hours per week/day? These are practices the best employers may strive for and are able to apply but are required in most trades.

I appreciate a line comparing how artists are payed compared to trades: If a band is asked to do a show for the 'exposure' they should ask the planner to call the local plumbers union and ask their going rate for 4 plumbers for a 4 hour job. Home advisor has a few estimates but project data puts an average at $317/hour. Maybe a random band isn't worth $1200/hour or $5k a gig but some definitely can command that price. If most bands stuck to a standard rate range the planner will expect and budget for proper pay.

https://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/plumbing/hire-a-plumber/

I'll take the side that you are right based on the argument in the article but there are better arguments to make. Right now other factors are driving inflation down like lack of consumer spending, consumers outright not paying rent, and that the US dollar is spread across billions of people outside the US where the dollar underpins their economy or USD reserves back their currency. These factors offset the on paper inflation of injecting $5 trillion into the US/world economy but if this was, say, 2017 then they would definitely not.

Our current economic situation is more like 2008/2009 than a boom year where the velocity of money, not technically perhaps but the idea more or less, is very high. Even the decade since the 2008 crash has seen low inflation, at least in the US, and we've seen double digit drops in revenue and sales volumes for several months let alone numbers for the rest of 2020.

For a relevant example here, would WeWork/Uber/Tesla have raised billions in private funding in late 2009 or early 2020? Did the last decade boom in private equity cash on hand drive ability to gain investment ex. increase velocity of money in private investing? None of those companies are critical day to day for US citizens or the economy, at least compared to major banks or grocery stores and maybe they did actually see huge investments during difficult times, but I think the thought experiment stands.

That's where I heard it, yeah.

I agree with your points overall but I also think there are situations where scarcity is artificial like diamonds or anything that requires money to get to market including government programs like healthcare. For private enterprise, funding is critical. But if the barrier to success of a public or government program is lack of budget then recent events indicate the issue is political, not economics. There will always be debate over which public programs should actually be funded but I think we can generally agree on topics like education, healthcare, and a basic safety net like food and housing.

With recent cash injections by the US Fed and government totaling over $5 trillion, loans or not, we've demonstrated that the dollar is not scarce. Even in the face of inflation worries these injections will probably continue to offset losses and try to make the current administration not look as bad for mishandling the pandemic and following economic crisis. The inflation worry seems mitigated by international use of the dollar with maybe 10x more people interfacing with the currency in some way week to week versus just the US population. People working as Economists vs me with just a degree say things like "...the sharp drop in demand and prices for certain services and energy implies a significantly lower trajectory for both core and headline inflation." I'm not saying it won't catch up to the Dollar eventually, just that the short term worries seem appear offset by the massive pool of international users and curbed by the projected loss of GDP across that pool. I will not that this is not the same during economic booms, in fact that's exactly the right time to pull cash out of the system via higher taxes as it is being generated by the economy and productivity, not the Fed.

Before those injections, I've always thought that if we can provide the better part of a trillion dollars per year to Defense and now can pass on trillions to businesses (deserving or not), we can afford Universal healthcare, proper mental health services, an overhaul of public servants to counter corruption, favoritism, and police brutality. We can afford to feed and house those who cannot afford it themselves AND those impacted by the current economic crisis from those who lost their jobs to those working an 'essential' position but making less than a living wage. Perhaps if businesses were freed of the costs of healthcare administration and related benefits they can be obligated to turn that into investment in their business and employees vs pocketing the savings.

As an non-US example, the UK suddenly has the funding to feed millions of underprivileged kids through the summer. It's 120M sure but is a prime example of a politically explosive (the funding, not the cause) but totally feasible program if we recognize the money exists or can exist at little downside compared to the outcome ie feeding children. In terms of global hunger that does still seem to be a distribution issue, not a scarcity issue.

Investments in our youth are one of the best long term ways to fight inequality and more. We should be aggressively fighting to keep them fed, well educated, and motivated be that in the US, UK, or Senegal.

Again, I generally agree with your comment. Economics is all about resource scarcity and solutioning around those limitations. But I think some scarcity is absolutely self imposed be it for political reasons or simple human greed. Leveraging your access to a scarce resource is an incredibly viable business model in capitalism just like DeBeers. But, we can step back from the drive to more profit and recognize we have an ethical obligation to (channeling leave no trace here) not only leave things as good as we found it but do our best to make the world better and propel the next generation into even more opportunity. That's why people came to the US, opportunity, and we owe it to our ancestors and the spirit of America to continue that legacy.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk on ethical capitalism.

Fed balance sheet and inflation: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/27/the-feds-balance-sheet-just-...

Also but not from a major outlet: https://www.coindesk.com/fed-officials-see-anemic-inflation-...

And from a well reviewed blog: https://www.moneyandbanking.com/commentary/2020/4/26/inflati...

UK meals program: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/16/football/marcus-rashford-...

Investment in youth: https://www.brookings.edu/research/investing-in-the-next-gen...

And from another .edu: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/07/opportunity-i...

World hunger as a distribution issue (2013): https://www.cnbc.com/id/100893540

And here from a related non profit (find the 'Does the world produce enough food to feed everyone?' section): https://www.worldhunger.org/world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-a...

>It sounds like the argument is that the individual mandate to have health insurance has been repealed

Their argument doesn't work as the Federal individual mandate for insurance stands as law but has no penalty or requirement to report. The basically declawed that component of the ACA. It is not considered for any applications/forms/fees/etc and you no longer need a waiver.

With that in mind, the mandate for insurers to cover regardless of preexisting conditions should stand based on the 2012 decision but that doesn't mean it cannot also be declawed by congress. There are many laws like this, many of which rely on department head for discipline actions or censure but they can simply not do that. This is a common theme among the current administration where ethics laws are constantly broken but there is not mandatory fine or penalty so as long as the manager assigned to judge the penalty fails to oversee their employees, our checks and balances mean nothing.

> Starting with the 2019 plan year (for which you’ll file taxes by July 15, 2020), the Shared Responsibility Payment no longer applies.

https://www.healthcare.gov/fees/fee-for-not-being-covered/

A probable reason is the length of time patents and especially copyright law applies, at least in the US. Although we are seeing issues with 70+ year copyright with extensions after the creators death, digital technology just moves way too fast compared to classical technology. By the time a classic patent expired, other firms may have built the infrastructure to create a generic copy or even advanced the science like with light bulbs. Digital tech moves quickly and software that can be distributed across the planet in seconds and make billions in its first few years is ripe for subversion and knock offs. Maybe if digital patents applied to much more specific applications then competition could build their own version using a new code base and compete?

Exactly like The Wire plot with burner phones. As soon as compromised phones made it into rotation, they were sunk.

The US created a fake bank to catch drug runners and cartel bosses. What's to say this isn't an state intelligence backed company created not to sell a product but to be sold to criminals then listened to until warrants were signed?

I haven't looked into the service at all so could be totally off.

I've been a Windows admin before but now on an app support team running almost all Windows systems as an analyst but came from a poly sci degree. My Linux experience is homelab and a few work connected systems over time like a Ubuntu Server box that managed IP cameras on site. My experience with coding is mostly Windows automation via PowerShell and its built into Windows IDE as I need a dev role here to get like Visual studio. Even then it would be overkill for what I'm writing like temp cleanup, file transfer, monitoring, etc with my recent success was a script that checks every day for a set of reports we should have received and ingested overnight and lists what is missing then emails that info to myself and another team member. Super helpful to double check the business has the reports they need at the start of the day and get us a head start troubleshooting.

With that in mind, I've used VIM for probably under 10 hours total, mostly for editing config files within headless Linux installs. For example, setting a static IP in Raspbian so I could SSH in once I put the pi somewhere it was online but not physically accessible. VIM is really neat for stuff like that. I'd love to have more reason to learn the interface but barring a weekly use I'd quickly lose familiarity and am focusing on javascript functionality as one of our apps can run js scripts.

So for quickly editing files with a known structure like setting an IP address in Linux or updating code you understand, I can totally see how VIM is amazing. Lightwight, almost always there already so standardized, quick to navigate when familiar, and more. As a fairly novice level coder I'll stick to an IDE with scroll ability and a mouse/etc for coding, even for a slight update to something I wrote the previous day. I'm just not confident in getting it right the first time and know how to test or trial/error a command in an IDE much easier than CLI. If I was trained and focused on coding I bet I'd be way better at that stuff too.

A coworker asked me last night about a cloud but controlled email option and protonmail was my first thought, though I don't know the current competition. Own a domain, put some cash aside for paying for the service, and go from there.

Yeah, I think that if there are strong norms or rules on organization and structure then it can work really well for any size team. But as soon as 1 person or project starts to deviate (no matter how good the intentions) it can quickly drop into a mess like any free for all file share. My team at work technically owns this one file server that is open to most of the company and has been an easy duping ground. Like, project X needs a share, stick it on [Server] vs the effort to set up a new share on an appropriate server (there are many others including department specific).

We have a project slated for late this year or early next to audit the file server and shares then permission to begin migrating shares my team doesn't own to other servers. I'm so ready for that.

That sounds more like a process issue than a technology issue. The tools to manage this exist in the tech but mixing access, not restricting access, and other issues that persist in file shares, shared email boxes, mirroring AD access for new users, etc are the same issues as an old gmail that gets 1000 spam emails a day; it's a mess that needs to be audited and overhauled which is easiest by jumping to a new system/platform when able.