I've never given money to a politician. Never will. Why do people do that? It seems like a complete waste of money.
Well, it got me power over billions of dollars of government contracts, an office in the White House, and I got to do a Nazi salute on national television. Elon
The system should be set up so that you can allocate money to whoever (or whatever cause) you want. But the way it is now you give money to politicians if you don't want them to have to get money from corporations. AOC, for one, doesn't accept money from lobbyists. She only accepts donations from people. Her average donation is $17. Theoretically, that allows her to compete against corporate owned stooges while focusing on doing right the people who vote for her. If every voting age American had $100 per person (per year) that could be allocated at any time (on the IRS website, or via a tax form) to any person or cause then politicians would actually have incentive to get things done for the common person. So, I guess it probably is a waste of money, unless you are supporting somebody who refuses corporate money.
Counterpoint: Elon spent less than $1/US person to get Trump elected. If we'd all donated $2, we'd have outspent him 2:1. There could be power in small donations from lots of people. $100/person would, of course, be even better! barfo
Yes. But that's just for a single election. There are local and state level politics and causes which need support, and where the money could go even further than in a national election.
Agree 100%. If we are going to make real progress, we need to start at the bottom, not at the top. barfo
No, everyone else actually talks about... wait for it... wait for it... THE BLAZERS. Maybe I missed it but do you have a recent post about the Blazers? Something that isn't politics? Or sharing something, even politics, that is something you believe it instead of finding fault with other people's beliefs? You hunt? Fish? Gone to a concert? Bought a new car? Is there anything about you besides criticizing what others post or believe?
Hmm that's fair. I guess that'd be my threshold too. I knew I liked AOC for a lot of reasons but I never connected that.
100% agree. And on that note, how do we feel about Wilson so far (and no barfo, not the ball from cast away)?
I don't personally like Wilson's policies at all. Forcing 700 people to come in to work instead of allowing remote is pointless and wasteful. His plans for dealing with homelessness are doomed to fail. He's doing stuff that we already know doesn't work. But it plays well to get votes...
Yeah when I heard rhe proposal for it I scratched my head. It's literally what we've tried before and we are putting millions of dollars into it again. It's going to take a community and collaborative effort from non elected officials to get it done, but they don't want to do that because they want all the credit. And the vicious cycle will continue. I don't think it mattered who got elected, remote work was always gonna be shuttered to a point because businesses have mortgages on these places and that's the only reason they need you there. To justify.
Colombia was reported to have capitulated but not quite. They agreed to accept their citizens on military flights, which incidentally cost us taxpayers much more than civilian flights. They got concessions that citizens of other countries won't be dumped for them to deal with and that their citizens won't be handcuffed on flights. Brazilian citizens deported report the air conditioning was shut off on plane and they were not allowed to drink water. I guess cattle cars weren't available.
Exactly. It's just lip service to take power and then he'll come up with excuses for why it doesn't work in an effort to get elected again. As far as using the buildings the city has millions to address homelessness that they could have used to convert this office space to apartments. I'm sure 500 apartments hitting the market would help take some pressure off. But the other thing is that they want more workers downtown getting lunch every day or parking their cars, etc. It's just another way to force people to spend more.
Democrats raised mega more than Trump too. When you get that bad the right message and target audience wasn't close. There is a segmentation of voters much like consumer markets. Most people drive mid priced affordable vehicles (mid market) much lower percentage drive high end luxury cars.
“The Trump administration has instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing H.I.V. medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics,” the New York Times reports.
I'm sorry, but bullshit. They work for Portland they need to work IN Portland. If you want downtown Portland to come back you need people working, shopping, eating in downtown Portland. There is a neighbor in St Helens that is almost all Portland Police. It's their little safe space and that's BS. We need our police living and being part of the communities they serve and the same goes for the City of Portland workers. The vast majority of them had to work in Portland when they first got hired. If that is something they no longer want to do they should work elsewhere. DT Portland is really struggling. It's hard to convince businesses to rent, buy, and/or invest in DT Portland. It's a bad message when the city's workers don't want to be there.
