California repeals law against discriminating on the basis of sex, race, and similar things in order to begin actively discriminating.
Seattle approves massive tax on high earners.
Asheville passes reparations for slavery for black residents, though in fact Asheville had almost nothing to do with slavery and was a tiny mountain community largely uninvolved in the Civil War.
California is going to find themselves the recipients of federal discrimination lawsuits. They're running directly afoul of the 14th Amendment (equal protection under the law), and going to lose massively on this one.
ReplyDeleteExcept that the Feds already do it via “preference points” in hiring and contracts.
ReplyDeleteThe Seattle tax: If Jeff Bezos is smart...and he obviously is...he will realize that these tax levels are just the beginning. Wonder where he will choose to locate employees needed for expansion and for new initiatives?.....
ReplyDeleteIt would be more efficient to have Amazon build those houses.
ReplyDeleteThey already do credit card stuff.
It would also be more efficient to re route the money paid to Seattle's bureaucrats. When the project is a success, they can get their paychecks back.
The problem with corruption is that the people that decide where the money goes, also has interests they get kickbacks on.
"The problem with corruption is that the people that decide where the money goes, also has interests they get kickbacks on."
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why Ashville is not going to make direct payments to blacks, but instead funnel the money through various schemes to "improve" things. The longer the money pipeline, the more places for parasitic straws to suck off the contents.
Asheville is full of it, but you are doubtless right that there’s an angle.
ReplyDeleteOn the news from California:
ReplyDelete“There was a certain man who was going to his own house and his enemy went with him. And his house was beyond a river too swift to swim and too deep to wade. And he could go no faster than his enemy. While he was on his journey his wife sent to him and said, ‘you know that there is only one bridge across the river: tell me, shall I destroy it that the enemy may not cross; or shall I leave it standing that you may cross?’ What should this man do?” -- Reason, The Pilgrim's Regress
Destroy the old bridge, build a new one using both enemy and ally.
ReplyDeleteSun Tzu's highest level of warfare, the ability to win a war without killing anyone and converting former enemies to allies.
The reason why North Carolina has problems inot because of Southern traditions. It is because the yare too close to Virginia which is too close to Maryland.
ReplyDeleteThe corruption of concentrating so many evil doers in DC, tends to spread out, even though temples and other holy spaces limit the incursions.
This is why people should actually move their capitals around and not just have them sit in one spot forever.
Counter: It costs too much money and takes too much time!
Y: that's exactly the positives.
At least we Californians still will have a say on that California legislation come November (it requires voter approval), and who knows, maybe it will draw more reasonable people to the polls and hurt the very people proposing and supporting it. I can hope, anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young the school's narrative was that the point of D.C. was to keep existing cities such as Philadelphia or New York City from becoming "Capital" cities -- heads of Empire -- as Rome or Paris or London had become. Cities were cities and the nation was the nation and the cities' business should not draw upon the nation's resources.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Davy Crockett tale in the textbook where he, as a congress-critter, was criticized by a constituent for voting to appropriate funds to help widows and orphans suffering after a D.C. citywide fire. The point of that story being that individual congress-critters could contribute from their own funds to any cause they chose, but NOT spend national tax money on any "local" cause.
That was half-a-century ago, in a rural-ish school system already bubbled away in a pocket of the universe where time was passing more slowly than elsewhere...
ANYhow, does the capital have to move, or would it be enough to just keep it small? Do the 3 branches, in these technological times, all have to be in the same place? Do executive branch agencies all have to be in the vicinity of the White House?
The problem of a court of power is that it attracts smart psychpaths. If one cannot filter or terminate them, next best is to keep them busy and away from power. When the capital keeps moving, who moves with it is the power broker. Who decides who moves, becomes the filter.
ReplyDeleteThe branches may be online or not but the most corrupting force are permanent bureacrats and lobbyists.
This is sort of like when an heir takes power in feudalism. They cannot stabilize their rule until they have. Loyalists in the spots. Because nobles or others have been ruling for a long time. Similar dynamic to ds coup vs trump. Trump does nit have his appointees.
perfect twitter story is trump routing covid ststs to washington rather than cdc. Cdc is cut out of the loop. How do you cut out deep state spies when they work next door? Kind of impossible.
ReplyDeleteThe media seems to be on a full court press today on this issue.
ReplyDelete