U.S. Politics: Would You Like A Warranty With Your Magic Beans?

[Yukle]

Hmm... having read that... what's the point of your post? How does it relate to voting rights and the like?

[JGP]

Not Only White People?

[James Arryn]

So, they got me again.

I was totally sure the summit ‘trailer’ was satire. But, nope.

It’s honestly amazing that they can keep being worse than I think they are, because I’m as low as my imagination can go. And yet, with regularity, they keep getting me. My God, what a time to be alive. 

[Mindwalker]

Let me hazard a guess... He is trying to say that 'the natives,' and the 'Eskimos.' respectively, were rascists?

 

ETA: Jinxed by Jeordhi.

[Altherion]

If anyone wants to take a break from national news, here's a charming local story about how the city of Seattle passed a law creating a tax and almost immediately repealed it:

Quote

Seattle is one of the most progressive cities in the country. It’s the place where the Fight for $15 movement first gained traction, where the city council last year tried to levy a tax on the city’s richest residents, and where local government passed one of the country’s first secure scheduling ordinances to give shift workers more notice of when they’d be working. And now, Seattle businesses have had enough.

Less than a month after the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a “head tax” ordinance that would have levied a $275 per employee tax on Seattle businesses making more than $20 million a year, the same council voted to repeal that head tax Tuesday, in a 7-2 vote.

It's a pretty detailed article that's worth reading, but briefly, Seattle wanted to pass a tax on large corporations with offices in the city (of which there are several, including Amazon and Starbucks). The corporations first got the tax changed from a payroll tax to a head tax, then got the head tax reduced by nearly a factor of 2 and then, when it had passed, organized a campaign to kick out the council members and repeal the tax via a referendum at which point the Seattle council folded like a set of cheap lawn chairs. It's adorable how these political critters confused liberal corporations with corporations that are willing to give up any money that they don't have to.

[Darth Richard II]

1 minute ago, James Arryn said:

So, they got me again.

I was totally sure the summit ‘trailer’ was satire. But, nope.

It’s honestly amazing that they can keep being worse than I think they are, because I’m as low as my imagination can go. And yet, with regularity, they keep getting me. My God, what a time to be alive. 

Yeah its like that cures "May you live in interesting times".

[Martell Spy]

5 minutes ago, Altherion said:

If anyone wants to take a break from national news, here's a charming local story about how the city of Seattle passed a law creating a tax and almost immediately repealed it:

It's a pretty detailed article that's worth reading, but briefly, Seattle wanted to pass a tax on large corporations with offices in the city (of which there are several, including Amazon and Starbucks). The corporations first got the tax changed from a payroll tax to a head tax, then got the head tax reduced by nearly a factor of 2 and then, when it had passed, organized a campaign to kick out the council members and repeal the tax via a referendum at which point the Seattle council folded like a set of cheap lawn chairs. It's adorable how these political critters confused liberal corporations with corporations that are willing to give up any money that they don't have to.

Amazon is a liberal corporation?

[LongRider]

6 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

Seeing the news that Domino's has been fixing potholes and putting their logo on them, it does make me wonder how long before we go full Snow Crash.

I already have a storage unit rented, I'm ready.

[DanteGabriel]

2 minutes ago, LongRider said:

I already have a storage unit rented, I'm ready.

I'm going to push my mixed-heritage son to be a hacker. I already have an heirloom quality sword to pass on to him.

[Martell Spy]

Members of Congress, Activists Block Street Near White House to Protest Trump Family Separation Policy

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/congressional-democrats-block-traffic-to-protest-trump-family-separation.html

Quote

A group of legislators and activists that included several Democratic members of the House of Representatives (and John Cusack!) staged a sit-in Wednesday outside the headquarters of the Customs and Border Protection agency in Washington, D.C. before moving to block a street at the edge of the White House security perimeter. The group—whose non-Cusack protesters included Georgia Rep. John Lewis, Washington Rep. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Illinois Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, Texas Rep. Al Green, California Rep. Judy Chu, and Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky—was protesting the Trump administration’s policy of separating undocumented children from their parents when they cross the border.

 

[Altherion]

19 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Amazon is a liberal corporation?

Yes -- except of course when it comes to its own money (including taxes and also workers' rights).

[Darth Richard II]

5 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Members of Congress, Activists Block Street Near White House to Protest Trump Family Separation Policy

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/congressional-democrats-block-traffic-to-protest-trump-family-separation.html

 

Why couldn't they just do it peacefully in a park?

[Xray the Enforcer]

24 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

I'm going to push my mixed-heritage son to be a hacker. I already have an heirloom quality sword to pass on to him.

I've already started a Rosetta Stone Taxilinga course. 

It'll help me when I have to go undercover to report on L Bob Rife.

[Yukle]

40 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

Let me hazard a guess... He is trying to say that 'the natives,' and the 'Eskimos.' respectively, were rascists?

 

ETA: Jinxed by Jeordhi.

OMG! Our whole argument is undermined!

If some eskimish people be racist, then we all getz to be!

Here was we making all the efforts to be extra lovely to all them natives and they goes and be racist.

Whelp, no point continuiong. No fixes for racism. We give up.

[James Arryn]

50 minutes ago, Altherion said:

Yes -- except of course when it comes to its own money (including taxes and also workers' rights).

Sorry, how is Amazon liberal? I’m not even saying it’s conservative...though it’s lobby hires are pretty heavily shared with companies like Exxon...but how have you gone about deciding it’s liberal?

Starbucks I get. 

[LongRider]

1 hour ago, DanteGabriel said:

I'm going to push my mixed-heritage son to be a hacker. I already have an heirloom quality sword to pass on to him.

Nice!  I just need to learn to ride a skateboard.  Who am I fooling, that will never happen.  

[Altherion]

59 minutes ago, James Arryn said:

Sorry, how is Amazon liberal? I’m not even saying it’s conservative...though it’s lobby hires are pretty heavily shared with companies like Exxon...but how have you gone about deciding it’s liberal?

Take a look at who they give money to. Unfortunately, Open Secrets appears to be down at the moment, but here's an article from the last presidential campaign that should give you a pretty good idea.

[Larry of the Lawn]

For anyone who doesn't get why voting for Trump is seen by many as a racist act, this radio show / podcast from Arun Gupta does a pretty good job of describing certain institutionalized aspects of racism in America.  

And I'm not talking about stuff from the 1800s.  The US today is built on white supremacy.

Policing, Property, and Evangelism

[ThinkerX]

4 hours ago, JEORDHl said:

Not Only White People?

A fair interpretation.  And I have a pile of similar anecdotes.

But, the question I was pondering after today's encounter was this:

 

Yes, the natives and Eskimos made their disdain for whites (and pretty much everybody else)  pretty clear.  But, were M and Ex-Pat wrong (racist) to be a bit peeved?

 

Historically, given their treatment by the Russians and later US arrivals, the natives and Eskimos have cause for their dislike.  However, they were always equally unfriendly towards each other.  Area I'm in saw repeated battles - attempted mini-genocides between Eskimo's, Aleuts, and Athabaskan tribes - sometimes with casualties in the lower four digit range (pretty much entire towns).  That infighting actually contributed substantially towards the Russian takeover. 

 

Also worth keeping in mind (and more relevant to the thread).

 

Alaska is very much a red state - overall.  However, what with districting and all, the democratic party is pretty potent   A major reason for democratic party success is 'votes from the bush' - aka the various isolated native and Eskimo villages.  That said, these villages are regarded by outsiders as...'welfare camps,' filled with drugs, crime, and alcohol - with some justification.  Little legitimate economic activity. So...is this lifestyle worth preserving? 

 

Heck...https://www.adn.com/features/alaska-news/crime-courts/2018/06/08/from-criminal-to-cop-and-back-again-in-alaskas-most-vulnerable-villages/

 

 

 

[JGP]

4 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

Alaska is very much a red state - overall.  However, what with districting and all, the democratic party is pretty potent   A major reason for democratic party success is 'votes from the bush' - aka the various isolated native and Eskimo villages.  That said, these villages are regarded by outsiders as...'welfare camps,' filled with drugs, crime, and alcohol - with some justification.  Little legitimate economic activity. So...is this lifestyle worth preserving? 

I'd say that's up to them.

And if your counter argument is not on my dime, I'd be saddened that you couldn't even afford to give that much in reparation.