seems like it would be a matter of national security to have local production of matériel.

You mean one of the cited reasons for slapping a tariff on everything? You mean other places can prioritize the same thing on their own? No. Can’t be. He’s got the bigliest brain to come up with these ideas.

Most likely explanation… Modern monitors effectively have their own little PCs inside… that go to sleep when the monitor does to save power. Older monitors didn’t give a crap about power usage at all.

Also a good reminder that this Justice Department failed to indict the guy that threw a sandwich at ICE twice, then reduced the charges to a misdemeanor to bypass the grand jury, and still failed to get a conviction.

Normally federal charges aren’t brought unless there’s a strong case. The Federal conviction rate is usually over 90% because they don’t bother going after things they probably won’t win. They seem to have thrown that out the window in their haste to target political enemies. Turning the entire department into a laughing stock for anyone paying attention.

The first step is ranked choice voting for everything from local to federal elections.

First past the post is literally the worst way to operate a voting system of your goal is to get an accurate representation of the populace.

That’s socialism. Can’t have that. Can’t even have part of that. Then people want more. And you can’t exploit them anymore.

I like the idea of setting maximum wage as say 50x the lowest wage. Including bonuses and stock.

I don’t think the CEO does 50x the work or even the value of the janitor.

The entire system was designed around landowners being the only voters. So that meant only rich white men. Who had the time, personal desire, and societal expectation to stay current on social changes and the economy. They also had every reason to vote whenever possible. The core electoral system is based around these expectations and has had very few changes since it was created.

As voting rights were extended to more groups, the built-in structure of the system wasn’t updated. The rich landowners have every reason to vote, and the free time to do so and travel if needed. The system relies on an educated voting populace, which was already an expectation of those that were allowed to vote.

Modern Republicans have used those built in structural expectations to their advantage. And since lower turnout tends to go their way, they try to force that however they can, and regularly have courts throw their egregious shit out. So for decades now they have focused on replacing judges with sycophants in every state and federal opening they can. If those judges won’t throw out the bullshit, then they can do what they want.

Just in time for China’s 400% increase in gasoline vehicle exports since their citizens are buying EVs instead.

Every time this topic comes up it reminds me of this Gianmarco Soresi bit.

https://youtu.be/nu6C2KL_S9o

As long as the media keeps telling them he’s not. 35%+ of the population has been very successfully brainwashed by right-wing news designed specifically in the aftermath of Watergate to gaslight the public into believing whatever agenda they want.

Nixon was going to be allowed to get away scot free until the media started actually educating the public, who then demanded their politicians do something about it. Fox News was created in the wake of that with the goal of preventing that from happening again.

And with first past the poll voting, the system is designed to inevitably allow a minority to rule. When it was created, only a handful could vote, and being kept up to date on political and economic events was essentially a requirement of their place in the country. Wealthy white land owners were already basicallt required to stay up to date on current events and politics, and the effects of various changes. The voting systems were designed with an educated electorate like that in mind. Those systems have been hijacked as voting rights have expanded and an educated and up-to-date electorate is no longer an fundamental feature of who could vote.

I mean that’s obvious. Otherwise you’re just paying $45 to ignore the security checkpoint if you’re guaranteed to get through with payment.

One could argue surveillance and tracking is about security. They’d be wrong. But they could argue that.

Russia has been pretty reliable for ISS transit ever since they launched the first module for it back in 1998. Despite political bluster, they’ve followed through when needed. Including after we unilaterally decided to decommission to Shuttle with no replacement, leaving Soyuz as the only crew transit option available at all.

Give it time. Its a slow recipe, but I trust the French to follow through if its a protest.

Oh look a Canadian that can’t see their own descent into the far right fascist rabbit hole on the horizon. Somehow even watching the US, you seem to still be headed that direction as if it couldn’t possibly happen in Canada. Because… reasons?

We look like fucking morons on the world stage.

The only sort of solace to this, is that many other countries are clearly following the same path, so its not something inherent to just the US. Idiots are everywhere, and they vote.

Everyone is pointing to the US, but the same initial precursors are happening under their own nose.

To be fair… that’s just Mamdani’s… it’s a lot less for the regular council members. Not sure how exactly it’s structured since Mamdani’s increase would definitely be more than 16%.

A proposal filed this week by Councilwoman Nantasha Williams, a Queens Democrat, would boost council members’ annual pay by 16% from $148,500 to $172,500, the New York Post reported.
If approved, the proposed pay hike would also apply to the new mayor, public advocate, comptroller and borough presidents. It would raise Mamdani’s pay to nearly $350,000 from the current $258,000 with benefits.

It looks to me a bit more like establishment Dems trying to lay a trap for a Democratic Socialist taking office. He approves it and seemingly immediately does the opposite of part of his election platform, improving affordability for average New Yorkers. Or he doesn’t and there’s immediate friction with basically every member of the council board that he needs to actually accomplish anything.

I’m sure they think so. Its not just an increase for Mamdani, it is for all of City Council. Their last pay increase was 2016 according to the article.

This of course is not a vacuum though, and I’m sure the rest of New York’s average workers have gotten the hard end of a stick for the last decade as well.

Of course, he was a head of state. He shouldn’t have even been charged. Duh.

I hope this strips off more MAGAts from the group.

Most people don’t know extensions exist. Because they don’t care and have never been shown.

Pissing someone off is a strong motivator for them to start searching though.