Unceremoniously stolen from the Agoristball Facebook page.
Category: Politics
The Power of Not Voting
People like to talk about the power of voting but few bother to mention the power of not voting:
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A referendum to change Romania’s constitution to prevent same sex couples from securing the right to marry failed to draw enough voters to validate the result on Sunday, after a campaign that led to a rise in hate speech against the gay community.
[…]
Dozens of human rights groups had said a successful referendum would embolden further attempts to chip away at the rights of minority groups and push Romania onto a populist, authoritarian track.
They have encouraged people to boycott the ballot, with several companies and popular musicians and artists following. A library chain even offered a book discount over the weekend for those who wanted to stay in and read rather than vote.
If voter turnout had been higher, the referendum may have passed. Since not enough people bothered to show up to validate the results, the referendum couldn’t pass.
Governments that describe themselves as democratic prefer to make it appear as though their power is endorse by “the people.” That means that they like to see high voter turnout. If a vast majority of people go to the polls during an election, a government can argue that it enjoys the endorsement of the majority of “the people.” If almost nobody shows up during an election, a government has a much tougher time making that claim.
We’re Not Telling You the Rules
The politicians in California have passed the first law regulating the security of Internet connected devices. However, manufacturers of said devices are going to have a difficult time complying with the law since the rules are never defined:
This bill, beginning on January 1, 2020, would require a manufacturer of a connected device, as those terms are defined, to equip the device with a reasonable security feature or features that are appropriate to the nature and function of the device, appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit, and designed to protect the device and any information contained therein from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure, as specified.
The California bill doesn’t define exactly what a ‘reasonable security feature’ would be but it mandates that connected devices come with unique passwords that users can change, which isn’t the case for many IoT products. If someone can log into the device outside a LAN, then it must have either preprogrammed passwords that are unique to each device (no more default login credentials) or a way to generate new authentication credentials before accessing it for the first time.
You must implement ‘a reasonable security feature or features’ but we’re not going to tell you what those features are. Oh, and if you fail to comply with our undefined rules, you will be subject to punishment. Anyways, good luck!
That sounds perfectly reasonable, doesn’t it?
Jacking Up the Rent
If the primary difference between capitalist and socialist nations is that in capitalist nations property is held in private, then the United States is solidly a socialist nation. While the fiction of private property exists, the reality is that all property is owned by the State. That is why you have to pay rent on your property. And like any good landlord, the State can up the rent when it so chooses:
Hennepin County officials said Tuesday they need to raise $43 million more in property taxes next year, in part to pay for personnel and the surging costs of protecting children from abuse and neglect.
County Administrator David Hough proposed a 5.5 percent increase in the property tax levy during his budget presentation to the County Board. The proposal is a response to what Hough said were “significant ongoing challenges” faced by the county. He pointed to the massive new spending in recent years aimed at child protection services, which has drawn millions from budget reserves.
Of course it’s for the children. That makes it easy to criticize anybody who opposes the rent hike by claiming that they hate children.
Less surprising than claiming that the increase is for the children is the fact that the politicians are also claiming that this increase won’t impact people too much:
Property taxes pay for a third of the $2.4 billion county budget. If the levy is approved, the owner of a $281,000 house — the median value for the county — would pay $75 more in county property taxes, Lawless said.
If you can afford a home, you can afford an additional $75 a year, right? Maybe. It really depends on the family. Moreover, the politicians are only stating what this increase will add. What they’re ignoring is all of the previous increases. $75 might not be much on a $281,000 property but over the decades the increase has probably been notable. Add that to the fact that property value is assessed by the State and you realize that, in addition to the previous increases, the properties themselves are probably assessed much higher now than they were a decade or two ago. Couple these points with the fact that wages have stagnated and the cost of goods has increased due to inflation and suddenly this seemingly minor rent increase adds up to being far less minor. But none of that matters to the State. If you can’t pay your rent, you’ll be evicted.
Marketing Master
It seems like everybody is talking about this article, which claims to be written by an insider in the Trump administration who is part of a resistance. The main thing people are trying to ascertain is who wrote it.
Since everybody else is speculating on the matter, I might as well join the fun. Do you know who I think wrote it? Trump (or somebody on Trump’s team).
As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity and Trump is, if nothing else, a master at marketing himself. This article, and by extent Trump’s name, has reached the front page of every major newspaper and news website. It’s being discussed on all of the major news channels. Avoiding hearing discussion about it is practically impossible. It’s a great marking piece and probably the easiest way to get free advertising from pretty much everybody.
Bernie Sanders: Acronym Master
Bernie Sanders has been standing on his high horse condemning companies for paying their employees the same amount he pays his interns at least since he entered politics. One of his primary targets as of late has been Amazon. Why? Because Amazon is a household name and nobody has ever gained political fame by going after a company that nobody has heard of. In his crusade to convince companies to pay their employees more than he pays his interns, Bernie has introduced legislation which, if nothing else, should receive in award for best convoluted acronym:
Sanders’ Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act (abbreviated “Stop BEZOS”)…
It’s too bad the ability to create clever acronyms wasn’t a more marketable skill because if it were, whichever intern came up with that one would have a promising career ahead of them.
What may be even more noteworthy than the acronym itself is the target. The name of this legislation makes it obvious that it’s a personal attack against Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos. The reason this is noteworthy is because it demonstrates that the myth that democratic governments are a neutral party is false. No government has ever been neutral. They always have a list of targets. However, democratic ones usually try to maintain a thin veneer of neutrality.
A Modest Proposal
It appears as though the confirmation hearing for the new Supreme Court justice went well:
The confirmation hearing for US President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee has descended into “mob rule”, a Republican senator said.
John Cornyn of Texas spoke out as Democrats demanded an adjournment. Seventy people were arrested as protesters interrupted the proceedings.
Brett Kavanaugh faces four days before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
If approved, the conservative appeals court judge would be expected to tilt the court’s balance to the right.
Minutes after Mr Kavanaugh, 53, entered the committee rooms on Tuesday, the hearing was disrupted by angry shouts from members of the public and lawmakers alike.
Shenanigans like this, where groups of people attempt to shutdown proceedings by screaming, seem to be becoming more common in this country. I can’t help but think that this is due to the fact that no mechanism exists today for resolving major political disagreements. This wasn’t always the case.
Long ago in this nation’s history there was a contentious president named Alexander Hamilton. He had a major disagreement with another politician named Aaron Burr.
That disagreement never devolved into public display of stupidity like that witnessed at this confirmation hearing though. Do you know why? Because there was a mechanism in place that allowed people like Hamilton and Burr to resolve their disagreements with each other in an unambiguously way.
What I’m saying is, there is an obvious solution to this country’s political disagreements.
Bring back dueling.
Gotta Vote Harder
After failing twice to accomplish anything noteworthy as the presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, Gary Johnson announced that he was try his hand at failing to win winning a New Mexico Senate seat. This news was met with applause by the Libertarian Party people who prefer their libertarianism to be more watered down than most homeopathic remedies. Unfortunately, their hopes and dreams have once again been shattered because the game has once again been rigged:
In a sudden move with suspicious timing, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, an elected Democrat, announced today that voters in November will once again be able to vote for every candidate of a political party on the ballot by filling in just one blank. The option, known as the “straight-party” device, gives obvious advantage to parties with high voter-registration totals, while erecting roadblocks to otherwise over-performing candidates from third parties.
Don’t worry though, I’m sure the next election will be fair and will allow the Libertarian Party to bring its brand of watered down libertarianism to the national stage!
While many Libertarian Party members are screaming that this decision is corrupt and outrageous, the fact of the matter is that this decision is the norm. The Democrats and Republicans have a stranglehold on the political system because they’re in power and whoever is in power gets to make the rules. Whenever a potential threat, no matter how minuscule, to the duopoly appears, the rules are changed to eliminate that threat. The only surprising thing about this is the fact that there remains people who believe that a third-party actually has a chance of obtaining any meaningful power.
Of course I’m just parroting Samuel Edward Konkin III who warned the then young Libertarian Party about exactly this.
Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste
We have a dead woman in Iowa named Mollie Tibbetts. Her killer turned out being from Mexico. Although new information shows that the killer may have been in the country legally, the story originally reported was that he was in the country illegally. Needless to say, the original story was politically exploited.
Predictably the Republicans were using Tibbetts’ murder to crusade against illegal immigration. In their worldview either legal immigrants and people born here never kill people here or being killed by a legal immigrant or somebody who was born here is better than being killed by something who crossed the imaginary line that they call a border without first receiving the king’s permission.
The Democrats also swooped down on Tibbetts’ corpse to bitch about the difficulties faced by illegal immigrants. Apparently Tibbetts’ killer wouldn’t have killed her if he had enjoyed the same opportunities and privileges as legal immigrants and people who were born here.
I was happy for people in both political camps that a murdered woman played so well into their political agendas. Sadly, if the killer does turn out to have been in the country legally, this murder will no longer serve anybody’s political agenda. That would be truly unfortunate. There’s nothing worse than a murder that can’t be exploited for political gain.
Failing to Cover Your Ass
One of Trump’s cronies, Michael Cohen, has plead guilty to charges against him. In a move that should surprise nobody, after pleading guilty Cohen decided to snitch on his former client:
US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty in a New York court to violating campaign finance laws.
He said he had done so at the direction of “the candidate”, for the “principal purpose of influencing [the] election”.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why you only conspire with individuals who, after your goals are achieved, will commit suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head… with a shotgun… twice.