I’m not in a position to reply in full to your comment. But I did want to point out that I’m pretty sure that price gouging laws only restrict predatory price increases on essential goods during officially declared states of emergency. Otherwise there’s no restriction at all

There can be good reason to offer different prices to different people. New customer discounts, student/senior discounts, etc. The problems arise when the nature of the reason they got a discount, or even the very fact that they did get a discount are hidden. Because then there’s nothing stopping them from more predatory pricing just because they think they can get you to pay more, or whatever other reason they have. It’s not illegal, but it’s incredibly unethical and really should be illegal.

20 unless I am too exhausted to shower before bed, then it’s 3.

Why? Because sometimes the majority chooses fascists? So, of course that is always a risk, though it is a risk without the NPVIC too, clearly, and I think makes it more likely as well. But you also have to remember that the majority of voting eligible people do not vote regularly. There’s any number of reasons for that, but a major reason for it is winner-take-all states make states hard red or hard blue states. People who dont align with their states’ hard political lean justifiably feel like voting is pointless as their vote ultimately wont count towards the final decision. But if the NPVIC were in place, more people would have a good reason to turn out as their vote will actually count. And people who dont live in swing states will have to be given more concern from campaigns too.

But ultimately, it is only a bandaid for a broken system. The electoral college is bullshit and so is Plurality voting. And frankly, voting should be compulsory and accommodated at every level. Make it compulsory, implement the Approval voting system for every election (eliminating the dominance of the two party system in the process), and the competition of ideas will make one party control of each branch, and thus run-away fascism, significantly harder to achieve. But then we seem to be already well too late for that.

So it doesn’t take half the states to pass it. It only takes enough states to make up half of the electoral votes. It could actually be done with as few as 12 states if those with the most electoral votes all agreed (though that requires Texas and Florida to join the compact). But even now, there are only 17 states and DC officially joined in the compact, yet that already makes up almost 39% of electoral votes. They will need some red or purple states to join too, to reach the number of course. There’s not enough electoral votes in all the solid blue states alone. Purple state Pennsylvania, and red states Kansas and South Carolina all have bills in committee to join. Were they all to pass, they’d have 45% of the electoral college in the compact.

It’s to the benefit of hard red states too though. It will make their needs more of a priority for campaigning presidents instead of only Swing States being pandered to. The Swing states are the only ones that have a vested interest in preserving the status quo. And it’s not like Trump wouldnt be president now if the compact was triggered now (unfortunately) so it’s silly to pretend that it would prevent conservative presidencies.

No no, dont even give it that much dignity. The complainants are not asking to “block the map” too close (11 months) to elections. They are asking that the map not be illicit, unethically changed 5 years early, based off the explicit public request of the President who is not meant to have power over state election matters, with the explicitly stated intent of gerrymandering out more seats for Republicans that they “deserve” than they otherwise would have won, only 15ish months to the elections (which is apparently plenty of time). Their “reasoning” doesn’t make sense because it’s not reasoning. It’s blatant full chested support of voter suppression/disenfranchisement to bolster their party and their autocratic President. They’re so full of shit you could smell them talking from the next room over. Fuck those lying, cheating, corrupt, un-American, fascist cunts.

"the survivors were trying to climb back on the vessel to salvage some drugs.“

The fact that they can even pretend to say, definitively, what the intent of two corpses was… “if he hadn’t been shot in the back of the head, Lincoln was 5 seconds away from sneezing and interrupting the play”. It’s literally that absurd to claim. You don’t know their intent.

Were they trying to salvage drugs? Maybe, or maybe they were just trying to not drown. Would salvaging drugs even legally justify a strike? Of course not, but then the initial strike was also not legally justified. None of this shit is OK and I’m tired of acting like this needs to be debated. This is murder, full stop. Fuck Trump, fuck Hegseth, fuck this Admiral, and fuck anyone else justifying this shit.

There’s two R’s in “corruption”.

If he isn’t a special government employee acting in an official capacity, but rather a private citizen negotiating with a foreign goverment on behalf of the US, he’s committing a felony violation of The Logan Act. Not that such things matter anymore, but still.

Right? Feel bad for anyone that just had a system fry or have been saving up to upgrade.

The first is a big deal. All of these boat strikes have been a big deal. The problem is, despite not being at war, and the President not having the authority to declare we are, that’s basically what is happening, and no one with authority is stopping it. However, that makes the nature of these boat strikes “debatable” to some whether they are actions of war, which would make them potentially legal military actions, or whether they are extrajudicial international attacks during peacetime, i.e. murder. They also claim that they have absolute knowledge about who is on these boats, what drugs are on them, where they are going, etc. and are claiming the right to strike them based on these details that privileged knowledge that they arent sharing. This obfuscation makes it harder to call them out on their bullshit even though it really shouldn’t matter anyway, in terms of the legality of the strikes.

However, there is absolutely no legal justification, whether it be an act of war, drug enforcement, border control, etc. of double tapping survivors of a sunk vessel. As has been pointed out plenty, this exact scenario is literally the textbook example of an unlawful order that soldiers should not follow. So this particular situation bypasses that “debate” about whether these strikes are legal in the first place, and bypasses the obfuscation of information about who is on these boats and what activities they are participating in. Those things are irrelevant to the cut and dry fact that this double tap is illegal, full stop, and every level of command and execution of this specific action is culpable for either a war crime or murder. That’s why this is such big news. The certainty.

The 82 year old woman, Rosa DeLauro, is not hot enough? Weird to expect her to be?

As was said elsewhere, the transmitted command will have been recorded. The hard undeniable truth can be provided. Congress just needs to subpoena it, or a soldier with a conscience needs to whistleblow and leak it. Otherwise, we trust the liars’ word and they get away with yet more of what are unquestionably, objectively, war crimes.

I apologize. You’ve misunderstood the intent of my comment. I wasn’t, in any way, attacking you. I was just providing commentary on one small part of your comment regarding the general opinion on and summary of the issues. None of what I said was meant to be accusatory or even directed at you at all. Those uses of “you” were rhetorical, not actually you. Sorry that I wasn’t clear about that. It sounds like we are in more or less complete agreement.

The communities want access to the huge social safety net

As anyone would and as should be provided to them lest they be treated as second class citizens in their new country. You want tensions to rise, restricting the same benefits that are a right for everyone else is a good start.

but not have to pay taxes

Again, as anyone might. But then, of course, this is non-negotiable. Maybe some subsidy can be given to help people get started in a new country with next to no resources, connections or money, but the taxes come with the perks and the perks come with the taxes. That’s just the beginning and end of that.

or assimilate/learn the native language

You couldn’t pay me to give the slightest fuck that a 1st generation immigrant, let alone a refugee who was forced to leave their home, doesn’t assimilate into the local culture or learn the native language. They have to obey your laws and participate in and contribute to your society. But they do not need to fall in line with your culture. I get that that can be challenging and cause some conflict. American history is full of this stories. But immigrants bring their own culture, their own language, their own races and religions. Those are not things to erased, they are things to be remembered, honored, shared, and ultimately merged.

And it won’t happen all at once. It will happen over generations. Their kids will assimilate a bit, and they’ll share their culture with their native peers. What’s strange and foreign now will become familiar ethnic diversity to your kids. A few generations from now, you’ll eventually have a shared culture that shares roots from distant places but comes together into one intertwined whole.

There’s certainly a lot of problems with America, and there’s been and is no shortage of bigotry and struggle against new cultures coming in. But that amalgamation of cultures, languages, cuisines, styles, architectures, myths, histories, religions, etc. into American Culture while still honoring distinct cultural and national identities is still one of our greatest features (when the nazi racists aren’t in charge that is). That’s the nature of being a nation of immigrants. Welcome to the Melting Pot, baby.

Right I don’t know why everyone gets pissed off about language in particular with first generation immigrants. Particularly refugees. Learning a new language is a massive undertaking, and it’s a skill many never master even with years of practice. Plenty, I’m sure, feel that they can get by without it by living in their communities, so they’re not motivated. And I don’t think they should be. Far easier for their children to learn and assimilate, break down that language barrier and bridge that gap. It’s absurd to expect everyone to speak one language.

Code requirements? Dude those are not just useless regulations. Those are for your safety and the soundness of the building. Only a complete moron signs off on a build that ignores building codes. But here we are.

Ok, so there are certainly going to be some administrative and maintenance costs associated with any system, and they are currently paid for by the tax payer. For arguments sake, lets just say that cost should instead be put solely onto people who choose not to take the steps necessary to get a REAL ID, ignoring the many legitimate reasons someone may not wish to or be able to do that.

The follow up question then, is how much does the fee need to be to offset that cost? Well, it will need to be based on the number of those who will not get a REAL ID even after the fee introduction, so it will likely be lower than it is now given the fee as a motivation. Currently 44% of issued id’s in the US are without REAL ID status. Let’s say that the vast majority of those people are motivated by this fee or other factors to finally get a REAL ID in the next year or two. Let’s say a bit over 75% of those currently without it are motivated to get one now (a major over estimation, surely). So only 10% of all US citizens with state issued ids wouldn’t have REAL ID.

Given an average of 2.9 million Americans fly every single day, that’s 290,000 non REAL ID flyers a day. Times $45, that’s $13 million per day, or $4.745 billion per year… to do administration and maintenance on an existing system.

If that is the true cost, that means that 40% of their current congressionally allocated budget of $11.3 billion is spent on maintaining this one system alone. That is simply absurd and anyone with half a lick of sense should know that. So either they are expecting well more than 90% of people to get a REAL ID soon or they are just massively overcharging people and pocketing the difference.

They’ll happily lie under oath. Even bold-faced, immediately apparent lies. Because the perjury charge will come with an immediate pardon from Trump. They’ve allowed autocracy to overwhelm all checks and balances and refuse to use their power to overrule it. This is the cost.

Maybe he will, but this title is intentionally misleading to make you think it is about Mamdani being corrupt. In fact he has nothing to do with the NYC City Council’s actions, who are clearly trying to get a raise for themselves (a 16% raise and the first one in 10 years after record breaking inflation… not the craziest ask), and will only be one of many to get a pay raise in city government if it is passed. And there is no word on whether Mamdani even approves of this pay raise.