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@Danielle
LBGT are not covered under existing provisions for sexual discrimination?
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@fauxlaw
In Texas last month, a doctor named Hasan Gokal lost his job as head COVID-19 response coordinator at the Harris County Public Health Department. He was in possession of 10 doses of COVID vaccine that had been opened and would expire in six hours if not used. Not wanting the life-saving medicine to go to waste, Dr. Gokal scrambled to find people who would take it. One of them was his wife, who he injected with the final dose 15 minutes before it would have expired. For the transgression of practicing medicine, he was also charged with a misdemeanor by a lunatic district attorney.
When Dr. Gokal was fired, a human resources representative questioned the lack of “equity” in his choices, implying he had vaccinated too many people of Indian descent. Better no one get the vaccine than the wrong people, I suppose.
In Miami, 30 million precious N95 masks — among the most coveted pieces of gear for America’s health-care providers — sat idle for months in a warehouse in a country starved for them. Why? Our national system for getting DemeTech’s masks — along with other small private suppliers — into the national supply chain is so complicated, convoluted and impenetrable that the masks just sat there unused. Only after the New York Times highlighted the insanity did President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, Jeffrey D. Zients, finally intervene.
'Listen to the science'? Biden's school reopening fiasco shows unions really have his ear, not "science"
In Washington, President Biden sits in the White House after promising to “listen to the science” in beating the coronavirus. He would never interfere with scientists, he said, over and over and over.
And yet, less than a month into his term, that’s exactly what his White House is doing. His Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said on Feb. 5 that “There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that … vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools.”
Bold move, Rochelle. You just got between Democrats and the teachers’ unions. Immediately, Biden’s spokesperson issued a statement saying Walensky was “speaking in her personal capacity,” a nonsensical smackdown of a top government scientist.
The Biden White House then issued a statement saying it was the president’s goal to open schools at least one day a week, part of their “bold, ambitious agenda.” And then it forced the CDC to issue guidance that attached school openings to local transmission rates, which the CDC has previously admitted are not connected (schools have low rates and are not a meaningful driver of COVID spread). The new CDC guidance effectively means schools may never open in many places.
The Biden school opening fiasco is a deeply cynical, flawed and unserious approach to one of the biggest problems facing our society — the serious damage done to our children by keeping them out of school.
Abuse. Suicide. Malnutrition. Academic failures. Consequences all happening because Democrats won’t open the schools in many places. Jake Tapper’s takedown of the CDC’s Dr. Walensky on CNN Sunday morning is worth the watch; Biden is wrong on schools and she knows it, but she’s obviously been kneecapped by the union’s political thugs over at the White House.
What is our nation’s future if we continue down this unserious path? Punishing doctors. Locking up medical equipment. Treating the “QAnon Shaman” better than we treat our children. Regressing into political adolescents. Putting union bosses ahead of scientists.
Bleak, that’s what.
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Okay sorry, I thought you knew alot about Section 230. My bad.
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Libertarians utilize the army of private sector Lawyers to regulate oppressors instead of a single Congressman. It's a subtle but major difference because it decentralizes regulation and makes it way more efficient and less corrupt. In fact, much of the so-called regulations being passed are actually either protections for the ultra-rich against private sector regulation, or a means to extort their competition. (Same old Washington DC Protection/Extortion racket played since FDR)
As a glaring example, take a long hard look at how Section 230 came to be as a shield for the tech giants against the oppressed minorities.
This is why centralized regulation is typically crony, inefficient and oppressive to minorities.
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I think you are naive about what Scrooge McDuck can do to you oppressively in a nation filled with private lawyers waiting to sign you up on the next class-action lawsuit.
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@Bringerofrain
Republicans loosely support western values.
Democrats loosely oppose Western Cultural values.
I saw Biden on a CNN interview recently explaining why killing Uyghurs is just a different norm of Chinese culture as a response to past western oppression.
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Libertarians tend to be very naive about what happens when you remove restrictions on the rich and/or normal to prey on the poor and/or minorities.
Oh Noes! If the Libertarians have their way, Walmart will be at my door oppressing me with...flyers? Shudder at the exploitation!
Didn't you score below the Authoritarian line on your political quiz?
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@Double_R
racism and fascism....duh...is this a trick question?
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Now it's quite possible that he suddenly forgot about the 50 million doses that he literally just stated before.
Why the need for interpretive dancing? Don't you want to trust authority?
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@Theweakeredge
Are you asking who uses PC to monitor hate speech?
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@Intelligence_06
They have looked at the history of communism and monarchy, and said, hey, this sounds good.
Ha!
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@ILikePie5
Those with no heart are politically right.
Those with no sense are politically left.
Those who don't know human history are Authoritarian.
Those who don't know human biology are Libertarians.
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@ILikePie5
Looks like you Trust Authority LOL!
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@ILikePie5
1. The political agenda is disproportionately focused on business issues — not the needs of the public. Policymakers increasingly spend their time on the issues that matter to business groups. Left off the table are the concerns of broader sectors of the population. (cough Covid checks)
2. Corporations get $4.4 trillion in federal contracts and subsidies. A 2014 Sunlight Foundation report found that lobbying earns corporations a huge return on investment: “for every dollar spent on influencing politics, the nation’s most politically active corporations received $760 from the government.” In other words, taxpayer money is being redirected to the highest-spending business groups.
3. It’s harder to change the status quo — unless you’ve got big business on your side. The policy environment is crowded and competitive, with each group lobbying for its own interests. In order for one group to break through the noise and push its policies through the legislature, it typically needs vast financial resources — an easier feat for corporations and business or trade associations than for public interest groups.
4. Policy is more complex and confusing — which helps special interests hide regressive policies from the public. As legislators try to meet the policy demands of a wide array of business lobbyists, the major legislation that does get passed “is increasingly an incoherent set of compromises necessary to buy the support of a wide range of particular interests.” (A clear case in point is the Affordable Care Act, which ultimately provided $1 trillion in new revenue to insurance companies, largely in the form of subsidies.) Complexity in legislation undermines broad public understanding of policies – and bills drafted by interest groups are particularly (perhaps purposefully) complex. In California, for example, group-sponsored bills are between 27 and 32% longer than non-sponsored bills.
As policy gets more complex and confusing, lawmakers can more easily hide special-interest giveaways from the public. As scholar Steven Teles wrote in National Affairs, “The complexity and incoherence of our government often make it difficult for us to understand just what that government is doing, and among the practices it most frequently hides from view is the growing tendency of public policy to redistribute resources upward to the wealthy and the organized at the expense of the poorer and less organized.”
In sum, wealthy interests have skewed the policymaking process in their favor, resulting in distorted policy outcomes that fail to serve the public interest.
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@ILikePie5
The reality is that the government is run de facto by an oligarch of unaffiliated lobbyists beholden to neither political party.
It's neither the Democrats nor the Republicans actually deciding if people can get 2000 dollar COVID LOCKDOWN checks.
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@ILikePie5
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@Double_R
Just because republicans don’t give a rat’s ass about helping people or fighting COVID doesn’t mean democrats don’t either.
Neither party gives a rat's ass when it conflicts with lobbyists money and their demands.
A famous quote from HRC was "never let a good crisis go to waste"
At least Hillary was honest about how Washington DC works. DC stands for Dysfunctional Cronyism.
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It’s ugly and dishonest, but this is how politics has always worked.
Politics hasn't always worked by appeasing the most powerful lobbyists.
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@ILikePie5
they don’t want the bill to pass.
You're actually wrong about this. Democrats do want the bill to pass, they just want the bill to pass while also appeasing the fringe ultra-rich corporate lobbyists demanding a minimum wage to destroy their competition.
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A poison pill is defined by its purpose; to stop the bill from passing.
These are not poison pills. They are wishlists from powerful wealthy lobbyists.
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@fauxlaw
Trust only the science Biden purchases with your tax dollars. The rest is political misinformation.
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@ILikePie5
No that's not the reason. The fastest way and most efficient way to eliminate the competition under crony capitalism is to purchase politicians that impose the regulations their competition can't survive with.
From a lobbyist's perspective, the minimum wage has nothing to do with helping the poor and everything to do with destroying the competition.
Advocates insist that they want higher minimum wages, not just for local workers, but across the country. And they don’t just push for it nationwide they want our trade agreements to mandate higher wages in other countries. Their claimed rationale is that a higher minimum wage would improve the lot of low-skill workers everywhere, not just themselves – thus making this fight a part of a broader anti-poverty campaign. However, they ignore evidence and logic that contradicts their stated purpose.
One excellent source of evidence comes from apartheid-era South Africa. White labor unions backed “equal pay” laws in the guise of helping black workers. But it dramatically raised the price of hiring blacks, in comparison to the price of hiring whites. Blacks in South Africa had less education and fewer skills on average, in addition to being discriminated against regularly. Whites gained, but black unemployment jumped as a result of that “compassion” on their behalf.
So if you support the minimum wage, you are a fucking redneck confederate racist.
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@ILikePie5
-correct...poison pill legislation isn't about MAKING anyone say yes or no
poison pill legislation takes laws that would never be passed with a majority of either party or with any bipartisan support and piggybacks them into necessary legislation so that powerful; special interests groups can continue to support Washington DC with the big bucks.
Did you know the ultra-rich lobbies support a minimum wage? Here is a big hint, it's not out of "compassion"
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@ILikePie5
Impeach all former presidents lol! That will solve every problem the public has. Did you get the 2000 dollars Biden promised? Impeach him for lying.
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@ILikePie5
Sheltered libs.
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@ILikePie5
He’s a supporter of European Supremacy
What a racist. No credit to Africa.
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Wrong yet again. Par for the course.
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How exactly can the poor afford to migrate out consistently and how can they even know it's better there?
Maybe you should explain that to all the Europeans sinking migrant boats in the Mediterranean about how hard it is for the poor to migrate.
Regardless, Americans aren't leaving in droves to go to Norway because they are poor, they aren't leaving because it's a land of mediocrity and high taxes with no room for exceptional ambitious people.
Most Americans absolutely abhor the cultural Law of Jante. There isn't any State in America that embraces that social custom, except perhaps Hawaaii.
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@ILikePie5
The entire western europe, canada, aus+nz, south korea, japan and a few other places approaching social democracy prove your theory wrong. It's not as simple as rich ruling regardless. Instead, in social democracy the rich thrive but don't completely control.
Except migration patterns prove you are dead wrong. Most Americans aren't leaving to go to those countries even when Orangemanbad gets elected. There's more coming from those places than toward.
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@ILikePie5
Lol, who cares. Impeachment means nothing.
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You cannot safeguard against 'crony capitalism' without government-enforced protections of workers, small businesses and consumers.
These "protections" you talk about only benefit the workers that can lobby the best. That invariably means ONLY the most self-serving labor cartels are able to purchase legislation to destroy labor competition. If that's your idea of "protection" I can see where your moral compass is at. When is the last time small business won out in the war of lobbies? How about small labor competing against entrenched crony labor industries? (ESPECIALLY GOVERNMENT LABOR UNIONS) I'll wait.
Government should go back to its original job of 3 things.
1) Protect private property, secure the nation, and allow free contracting.
2) Allow a Fair system for offended parties to address grievances through fair laws and a court system including class action lawsuits against large monopolies.
3) Manage services and finances only as a last resort when it's too cumbersome for the free-market to provide those services (including, but still outsource private industry in a competitive fashion wherever possible to provide those services as competently as possible as well as providing a safety net for the 10% who cannot mentally or physically compete in a free-market with some form of NIT or UBI)
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Crony Capitalism is literally what all free markets become.
Unless you have a constitution that prevents a government from growing large enough and powerful enough to redistribute and control private property (capitalism) on a grand scale. USA had those protections until wicker v Filburn destroyed the constitutional safeguards against crony capitalism.
There have always been those in government who since the founding of the nation have wanted more control over business and commerce. It started with Alexander Hamilton who persuaded George Washington over the objections of Thomas Jefferson to support the idea of a central bank. But other than the idea of a central bank those who desired a system of central planners were kept at bay until the aftermath of the Civil War when reconstruction was imposed on the South using expanded federal powers. The founders knew there was a natural tendency, a sort of entropy of power to expand federal control. This is why the Commerce Clause is only that, one short clause of the Constitution and does not appear as a basic tenet in the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights were deemed superior to all other rights, hence all Ten Amendments are positive rights to and for the people and limitations to the federal government. The original intent of the Commerce Clause dealt with the power of the federal government to regulate commerce between the states and with foreign governments. It also was meant to deal with commerce and relations with the Indian nations. The Constitution was intended to put up a wall between the federal government and the states and the people so that most regulatory power would be reserved by the states and the people. These rights and the federal government’s limits were consummated with the Tenth Amendment. The Tenth Amendment thus precluded any federal regulatory powers over commerce beyond the limitations of the Commerce Clause. Over time that wall has been gradually worn down until 1942 when it was completely obliterated with the Supreme Court case of Wickard V. Filburn. A farmer by the name of Roscoe Filburn had been ordered by the federal government to destroy his wheat and pay a fine for exceeding a government imposed allotment based on the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, a part of FDR’s New Deal. Filburn was planning to use the excess wheat for his own use to feed his own chickens. Filburn’s actions was not interstate commerce. It was not even commerce. It was widely thought that the court would rule against the government thereby making the 1938 act unconstitutional, but for years the court had been under attack by President Roosevelt who had been threatening to take control of the Supreme Court by adding several of his hand-picked justices to ensure a loyal majority. The case was purposely chosen for its flimsiness to showcase the newfound power of the Federal government. The Supreme Court ruled against Filburn and the wall was finally crumbled. That ruling is considered by many as the seminal moment in our history that has led to the unending expansion of federal power, that being if the courts can regulate the feeding of one’s own chickens they can regulate anything. With this expansion, capitalism itself has increasingly come under attack, for the only way to grow government ever larger is to take a larger share of capital for the federal government.
There is no bigger monopoly of services right now than the Federal government which is orders of magnitude larger than even Elon Musk. The ultimate robber baron.
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I really find it hilarious that you would choose Nigeria...one of the world's leaders in crony capitalism...as an example of why free-market capitalism is bad...lol!
When you talk about the size of government, it translates to the amount of power a government has, which is usually measured in the amounts of assets it seizes and spends. And Nigeria's government is extremely fucking powerful. Look at all those billionaire politicians in complete control over who can own what. Why in the hell would you think for a moment that Nigeria has a "small government????"
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Property Rights in Nigeria
In Nigeria, for instance, the state of private property ownership is terrible. The right to own is firmly in the hands of the state as provided in section 1 of the Land Use Act (cap. L5 LFN 2004).
This section designates all land within a state to the Governor. But those in the rural communities are usually within the oversight of the local governments.
This is obviously one of the reasons why Nigeria ranks 116 out of 125 countries studied in the IPRI. But the benefits of individual ownership of property cannot be overemphasized.
No fair property rights = no free market capitalism, only crony capitalism.
Investment is insanely risky right now in Nigeria due to government corruption (cough career criminals)
when the rich and organised criminals are free
Like this criminal?
1. Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu - Net worth: $8.4 billion (₦3 trillion 46 billion)
Bola Ahmed Tinubu - Lagos State Governor from May 1999 - May 2007 is the official richest politician in Nigeria. Apart from being the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress party, Bola Tinubu is also allegedly the owner of Oando PLC, the largest oil-producing company in Nigeria with a revenue of about ₦449 million.
The former Lagos State Governor takes hold of a fleet of high-end vehicles
The Jagaban of Lagos is married to Oluremi Tinubu, a senator representing Lagos Central Senatorial District. One of his children - Seyi Tinubu, was appointed as the emergency financial consultant to all parastatals and local governments in Lagos State. Bola Tinubu also reveals his ambition of becoming Nigeria's President in 2023.
The largest scandals of Tinubu include the lawsuit where Tinubu’s consultant company Alpha Beta is accused of N100bn money laundering, tax evasion and fraud by its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (Sep 2018). Just at the beginning of 2020, Bola Tinubu was charged for involving in a white heroin trafficking network operated in the US between 1988 and 1993.
Bola Tinubu's landed properties scattered across Nigeria are worth over ₦120 billion including the mansion worth ₦5 billion at Bourdillon drive, Ikoyi, Lagos. He owns a G-Wagon worth ₦600 million, 2 other Mercedes Benzes, a Range Rover, a Lexus LX 550 and other luxurious vehicles which are undisclosed. Let’s not forget his Bombardier Global Express XRS worth $60 million, it’s probably not his only jet.
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the more free that corporations and organised crime are to have their ruthless way with the populace.
False. Corporations can only do what they pay the government to do for them. Walmart didn't lock me out of my job, the government ruthlessly did that.
Government is organized crime. They use regulations as an extortion racket and use welfare (especially corporate welfare) as a protection racket.
Career politicians are the same as career criminals except one has better job security and pays better.
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Depends who is the alternative. I'd vote for her over Mitt Romney.
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the fact is that why do conservatives care about the size of the government?
They don't. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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@Vader
How do you feel about Gina Carano being cancelled for complaining about people being cancelled?
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@Death23
Damn, I really wanted to see this set as a precedent.
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@sadolite
In March 2012, the CBO updated its Obamacare cost estimate to $1.76 trillion.
Let's do some quick math. 1,760,000,000,000 dollars/15000 lives "saved"
So Obamacare efficiency says we need to pay 117,333,333 dollars to save one life. WHEW! Never knew it costs Washington DC 117 million to save a life!
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@sadolite
You helped to keep the precious .0041666666% of the population alive.
AT ANY COST!!!1111!!!!
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@Death23
Why?
This is an interesting article that touches on why some reasons why Califonia politicians have failed consistently to implement their promises for income equality and the uplifting of the poor.
It's not enough that the career leftist politicians have learned how to cancel out competition leaving them as the only option on the ballot, they also cull within their party, canceling competition from within (progressives vs moderates). Which they do mostly with media kickbacks and lobby kickbacks. Without any competition, there is no upside to delivering on any campaign promise since there is nobody to politically oppose them. They have become an unaccountable political monopoly with the unwitting blessing of the voters, only because most of the voters are completely unaware of the process the career Democrats use to utterly destroy any threats or competition to their power.
And since there are very few media outlets left in California willing to challenge the career politicians, many of the people in California have come to expect this level of service from the government as "normal." If there is any blame for persistent problems, it won't likely come from any political challengers since there are so few.
Here is a snippet from the article.
“The other side has lots of very able and effective lobbyists,” said state Assembly member David Chiu, a Progressive San Francisco Democrat who sponsored the eviction moratorium.
Chiu, who was involved in the negotiations, said business groups including landlords and developers have vast amounts of money to spend, not only on campaign contributions but also on researchers and lawyers to present arguments.
“Sacramento is a place where if you have the financial resources to hire the best lobbyists and advocates, you can go far, and that is typically more true for well-heeled industries than for constituencies that don’t have resources and are not as well organized,” he said.
Shanti Singh, communications and legislative coordinator for Tenants Together, said progressive advocates just didn’t have the same access in the state capital to last-minute negotiations that industry groups like the landlords enjoyed.
“Tenant organizations are generally operating on very small budgets, and we don’t throw money at a lot of political organizations,” Singh said.
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@Death23
Because the politicians have figured out how to break promises for 50 years with no consequences.
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@Death23
You’re looking at results and blaming the state, but that’s not how blame goes. Judge by conduct, not consequences.
It's not like California has any excuse though. There are only 4 States (besides DC which always leads the pack on poverty and corruption) above the national Gini average and you might be able to give Louisiana a pass since Katrina irrevocably fucked the state up with the mass middle-class exodus (I was one of those that left Louisiana) and with the pernicious massive corruption of the Federal giveaways to the rich.
California and New York have been at the top consistently for 50 years. Conduct is all nice and all SAYING you care about the poor and inequality, but 50 years is long enough to stop excusing the broken promises.
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@Death23
usually look at GINI coefficients when talking about wealth and income inequality.
New York and California are above the national average in income inequality gini scores BTW according to wikipidia.
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@Death23
Because they probably were promised for 50 years that the high GDP would be redistributed to them. That was a promise broken over and over 50 times.
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@Death23
EDIT: I do know that California and New York have failed to address the housing crisis. Housing costs in NYC the SF bay area are insane.
These are some of the highest GDP states in the Nation...what is your best excuse for 50 years of so many poor people?
If these states were actually serious about income equality...GDP would be lower with a LOT fewer poor people.
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