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It's been one heck of a week:
Against the backdrop of record-setting numbers of COVID-19 deaths and infections in the US and around the world, there was turmoil in Washington, DC. As court cases surrounding the presidential election were filed and dismissed, a close race in Georgia was coming down to the wire and with it control of the US Senate. While the US Congress was completing the Electoral College tally and certification, a mob formed outside — and eventually broke into — the US Capitol. This resulted in a 4-hour lock-down. Eventually, the intrusion was repelled, and the Electoral College count was completed: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was confirmed as the 46th president of the United States of America.
Conspiracy theories have flourished. Propaganda has streamed forth across multiple platforms. Tempers have flared.
And SoylentNews has been there for you. And have you ever spoken up! Two of the most-commented stories in the site's nearly seven-year history were posted in just the past week!
Insomuch as the activities in the US Capitol were far from the US' most shining moments, neither were things all unicorns and rainbows on SoylentNews. Tempers flared. People were attacked and called names. I even accidentally deleted a story and the 17 comments attached to it! [NB: Problem addressed: the delete button no longer appears by default for our editors.]
IRC (Internet Relay Chat):
Even our IRC service was not free from controversy. We had a spate of nick (nickname) impersonations. Going forward, IRC users are free to use whatever nick they like with the following caveats:
- Prefix / suffix of a nick is fine for practical purposes (e.g. ${nick}_laptop)
- Impersonation or misrepresentation will not be tolerated
- The use of another user's website nick or derivative thereof on IRC will be subject to sanctions up to and including perma ban.
Further, we understand conversations can easily ramble from subject to subject, but there are separate channels for different topics. (Use the /list comand to see what is available.) As #soylent is the default landing channel, we want to keep the discussions there civil. Name calling and personal attacks are grounds for a timeout. I have had discussions with deucalion (the site's CEO and also IRC-maintainer) about these activities.
NOTE: we are NOT going to sit there watching every discussion, poised to take action. But, if such activity is seen by staff on IRC, they are free to take such actions as they deem necessary.
Aspirations:
As I approach posting my 10,000th story(!) to SoylentNews, I think back to when it all started. How a group of people got together. They shared freely of their expertise, of their free time, and of their hard-earned funds. They tried to create a place free from corporate overlords where people could engage in discussions that focused primarily on technology, but with a dabbling in other areas and current events.
SoylentNews provides a forum for discussion. It also provides tools so the community can express themselves in the comments and moderate those comments, as well.
This got me to thinking. What are our aspirations today? What are our guiding principles? I will list some of my guiding principles, and I encourage the community to share what guides them in the comments.
- "Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong." --H. L. Mencken (cite)
- "People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." -- Isaac Asimov (cite)
- "If you speak when angry, you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret." -- Groucho Marx (cite)
- "Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don't say it mean."
- "Don't get furious, get curious" -- Miley Cyrus (cite)
- "Humiliation is when someone points out my shortcomings. Humility is when I confess them myself."
- "I need not participate in every fight I am invited to."
- The most difficult behaviors to observe in another person are the ones I dislike in my own.
- "You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." -- John, Lord Morley (cite)
How about you? What sayings guide your aspirations?
Thank You!
Lastly, I thank all of you for supporting me as Editor-in-Chief. I have no formal background in writing or management. I've made mistakes, but I've tried to own up to them as they happened. I strive to be fair, impartial, and open-minded. Under the watchful gaze of the community, I have grown. It is my hope that I may continue to earn your respect and continue in service for many years to come.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @04:26PM (24 children)
What's the alternative? Four years of #resist (oh, I suppose not if they all get pushed off Twitter) and right wingers doing everything in their power to interrupt, interfere with and generally trip up the Biden presidency? What if Biden manages to get another gun ban going, and large parts of the country simply follow the example of Virginia, and declare themselves second amendment sanctuary zones and cease, and interrupt all firearms investigations? What if they do similar things to COVID responses? What if they start aggressively pursuing immigrants? What if they start enforcing their own freedom-of-speech standards (most states have them) and actually suing universities for biased treatment of professors and students? You might say that this is overblown and theoretical, but remember that the house tilted less democrat despite a friendly electoral map, and that's the part of the legislature that actually tracks with sub-state divisions.
Trust me, healing and compromise is a way better way to go. I'm not expecting it, but it would be the better way.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @04:44PM (3 children)
"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine
Everyone celebrating the purges of today... your turn will come.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday January 11 2021, @07:32PM (2 children)
If you don't want to be purged, it's pretty simple: don't take part in a violent uprising that results in multiple deaths, including one police officer that was viciously beaten to death with a fire extinguisher.
I have zero sympathy.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @07:43PM
Yeah I am 100% ok with purging violent seditious assholes from private platforms. Plenty of rightwing nutjobs still on every platform, color me unconcerned.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @08:54PM
ohh nooo, not a pig! how will i sleep tonight? dumb bitch.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday January 11 2021, @07:25PM (17 children)
but remember that the house tilted less democrat despite a friendly electoral map, and that's the part of the legislature that actually tracks with sub-state divisions.
Yes and no. Yes, House races are not whole-state, but rather "Congressional districts", however those districts have been gerrymandered to a ridiculous degree over a years by the GOP which gives them an advantage in the House (though not quite enough to actually get control lately). Notice that, by comparison, the GOP just lost control of the Senate, and one big change was that Georgia shifted to blue.
But even so, it is true that there are major portions of states (such as Virginia which you cited) where the politics of the rural areas are very different from the urban areas, so it would be very challenging to enforce some laws (like gun bans) without any local support. They'd probably have to resort to sending State Police around to all the rural counties to enforce things, and then if they encounter serious resistance the governor would have to mobilize the National Guard. I can see this kind of thing happening because of the growing polarization.
I'm starting to think one answer to help alleviate the tension, and turn the country towards the center (away from the far-right GOP) would be to force Florida (and probably South Carolina too) to leave the union. They'd probably be happy to get independence, at least until their economy craters, and this would remove a bunch of GOP voters and two states that don't contribute much to the economy. Millions of Trump fans would probably even relocate to their new Trumpistan nation, further moving politics to a sane place here in the remaining 48 (+DC) states. Then we need to Build The Wall to keep FloridaMan from escaping. In a way, I'm slightly annoyed that GA had to turn blue, because I'd like the new country to be contiguous, and it'd be nice to rid ourselves of Alabama and Misssissippi too (probably the two biggest drains on the economy), but Georgia ruins that idea.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @08:29PM (5 children)
Go look at the gerrymandered districts in Maryland. Tell me how exactly the republicans are at fault?
5 out of 8 districts are insane:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland%27s_congressional_districts [wikipedia.org]
Whoever is not guilty should throw the first stone. Pull the plank from your own eye before commenting on the sliver in your neighbor's eye. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Get your own shit in order before you go blaming others. Etc.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Monday January 11 2021, @09:09PM (1 child)
It would be nice if someone could come up with an understandable rules-based/automated fair system that generated the boundaries. The problem would be getting bipartisan agreement to use it and stick with it.
One simple rule would be to favour solutions that minimised the total perimeter of the boundaries within a state. Similarly, while minimising total perimeter, boundaries should, as far as possible, run along the lines of local maxima of altitude (watersheds/drainage divides), and of course, each enclosed area should contain the same number of electors.
As it is, in England* there is the independent boundary commission [independent.gov.uk] which determines constituency boundaries. Perhaps the USA could steal the intellectual property and use that.
There's a boundary commission for each nation of the UK [wikipedia.org], making four in total.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @12:35PM
Gerrymandering is not a nationwide problem, it's much worse in certain states than others, because each state uses different rules.
https://ballotpedia.org/State-by-state_redistricting_procedures [ballotpedia.org] shows 35/50 states have districts set by the state legislature. I expect we'll see more move to independent commissions in the coming years.
(Score: 5, Informative) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:28AM
Everyone with a brain and who can understand counting knows that across the whole USA, gerrymandering massively favours the Republicans. The existance of one blue state with ludicrous gerrymanding in no way invalidates that claim.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by SpockLogic on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:08PM (1 child)
Gerrymandering is wrong whichever side does it. Period.
Politicians must not be allowed to pick their voters, they cannot be trusted, voters must pick their politicians.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:57PM
What if voters pick republicans?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @09:21PM (8 children)
Let California secede, repatriate conservatives to other states, then see how california does on its own.
I keep hearing conservatives in California, and even non-conservatives from other states bashing on us for all our nutty environmental protections, labor laws, hollywood bullshit, etc. Why don't we find out whether California needs the Union more, or if the Union needs California. If any other states or regions want to redistrict or secede, let them, but California is the one state that could be largely self-sufficient given, say, 10 years to decouple infrastructure from adjoining states. This would of course require four major shifts in state policy: nationalizing PG&E and refurbishing *ALL* power and gas infrastructure, installing state-wide battery backed load balancing systems, going pro-nuclear for baseline power (renewables may handle most in time, but batteries AND nuke would be required to really 'go green' in the short term.), and lastly: major coast-wide desalinization efforts. This last one would require pumping water inland to help replenish the water table, reduce excessive well demand, and slowly reduce drought and desertification state-wide, even if the weather patterns no longer support it. If California can do all that, it will be much stronger as an independent entity than it ever has been as a US state, with the added bonus of not being detracted on and sabotaged from both without and within.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday January 11 2021, @10:52PM (2 children)
If California decided to leave (and let's assume for argument the rest of the country was amenable a voluntary dissolution, which is probably a bad assumption given the way things went the last time some states tried to secede, and the precedent that set), I suspect several adjoining states would want to leave with them, particularly OR and WA. NV and AZ might want to go too.
The reality is that CA has either the 6th or 8th largest economy (forget which) *in the world*, all by itself. It's unlikely it would do poorly on its own, just because of that. Almost all the tech companies are headquartered there, and tech is the one thing really keeping the American economy afloat these days, and which actually brings in lots of money from exports. The other thing bringing in lots of money from exports is Hollywood, which is also in CA. Anyway, there's significant tech presence in OR and WA too, and their policies aren't that different from CA's, so I could see the 3 of them all leaving together. Some adjoining states might want to join them if they figure out they'd be better off hitching their wagon to CA's economy rather than the moribund economy that the rest of the nation would have without the west-coast states.
The southeast and central states are really the ones dragging things down, both culturally and economically. They do produce a lot of agricultural products, but so do Mexico and Brazil, and their economies are nothing to be proud of either.
However, due to high costs in CA (esp. labor costs in the Bay Area), a lot of tech stuff has spread around the country more, so a separation like this could be very problematic for tech companies that now find themselves to be international companies. Really big ones like the FAANG companies are already used to having offices in different countries so it might not be a big deal for them, but for smaller ones it might. Austin, DC, some cities in FL, SLC, PHX, Boston, and others (and of course Portland and Seattle but let's assume they join CA) have significant tech presence in them now. Tossing out AL and MS wouldn't affect that part of the economy at all, however, since they have zero presence in those states; FL would affect it, but probably not so much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:36AM (1 child)
I propose the US keeps it's Pacific ports in the NW, and sets up a trail of tears for all the Californians who came up here and wrecked the place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:38AM
Said too little -- this presupposes CA becoming its own country. There would be no objection -- there would be widespread support likely -- in the states the CA infection has spread too.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 12 2021, @12:49PM (4 children)
"If". That would require leadership that can find its ass, using both hands. This sounds like the Brexit argument again - with a government even less competent than the UK.
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Tuesday January 12 2021, @02:47PM (3 children)
Seeing as they are one of the only states with a balanced budget and paying down their debt- they will manage. Especially since they get back $1 for every $2 they pay in to the fed. Without the drain on their economy that the red states represent, all that extra cash will just make it work even better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:17PM
That used to be true but isn't really true anymore.
California no longer pays more to Washington than it gets back, study finds
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-no-longer-pays-more-to-Washington-than-15243861.php [sfchronicle.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:57PM (1 child)
I doubt the first order spending is that one sided. And keep in mind the hidden second order effects. Most IT, for example, bought with federal funds anywhere in the US, will involve California firms. A lot of other states' money gets redirected to a few states because that's where certain basic services concentrate.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 13 2021, @02:59AM
California is not the worst (Illinois has that title), but they are pretty weak financially. And we're seeing some business drain now as businesses move to more business-friendly places like Texas.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday January 11 2021, @09:54PM (1 child)
OTOH, a lot of the shift was that people just couldn't stand Trump. Well, I have sympathy for that, but I'm a small government person who's to the left of the Democratic party, so you can guess how well represented I feel.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:27PM
I'm actually a small government person except for when it comes to issues of environmental protection.
In fact, given just how big the U.S. is, I would be in favor of each state almost being its own country and the U.S. federal government being ran more like the EU. Each state can have its own FDA, FCC, etc... if they want and they can enter into agreements. Europe may be considered too large for the E.U. to micromanage every country just like the U.S. might be considered too large for the federal government to micromanage every state.
The only exception I would make is that of environmental protection. One country should not get to externalize the cost of their internal prosperity onto the wider environment.
A possible second exception might be pandemics? It's possible that the policy decisions of one country could affect surrounding countries.
I can't really think of other ones. There are airplane flight path rules but that can be negotiated with the larger governing body (ie: like with the E.U.). Over the air broadcasting might be another one where one state can't be allowed to blast airwaves into an adjacent state and jam their ability to use the airwaves near the borders? Plus GPS and some other minor things as well shouldn't be interfered with maybe.
But with the exception of some possible minor edge cases I do believe in a weak federal government and stronger state governments. I don't believe we should have such a strong FDA across the entire U.S., I think individual states should have much more leeway in terms of regulating drugs.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:23AM (1 child)
These are people who believe that the world is literally 6,000 years old, that women are their husband's property, and their holy book commands them to enslave Africans and murder Jews, LGBT people, any other "non-white" people. COVID is a hoax, the election was stolen, on and on and on.
What do you propose? A 3/5ths compromise?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:47PM
Ignore them. They're not that numerous.