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Post by jdredd on Oct 7, 2014 23:37:48 GMT -5
So what is the Libertarian "Free Market" answer to ebola? For one thing, in Libertarianland, you wouldn't even have a CDC. Nor any kind of screening for air travellers. Also, only the people who could afford it would get treated. Do you think hospitals would give away treatment or a vaccine away for free? Yeah, right.
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Post by jdredd on Feb 19, 2015 4:41:55 GMT -5
www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/mexico-water-monster-axolotl-vanished"Mexico's salamander-like axolotl may have disappeared from its only known natural habitat in Mexico City's few remaining lakes. It is disturbing news for the amphibian which has a slimy tail, plume-like gills and mouth that curls into an apparent smile. Growing up to a foot long (30 cm) and known as the "water monster" or the "Mexican walking fish", its only natural habitat is the Xochimilco network of lakes and canals, which are suffering from pollution and urban sprawl." SO where is the Libertarian solution for this? Yep, there is no "magic of the free market" to solve extinction. Well, to paraphrase Reagan, "You've seen one amphibian, you've seen them all".
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Post by jdredd on Mar 1, 2015 14:16:14 GMT -5
So the Libertarians lose with the FCC deciding the Internet is a public utility. Libertarians hate anything public. They want a world where corporations run everything, and crooked companies like Comcast could charge whatever they want to whomever they want. If the Libertarians take over, there will be no FCC and no rules at all.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 17, 2015 23:40:48 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/6/17/labor-ruling-puts-dent-in-ubers-flexible-independent-contractor-model.html"The app-based ride company Uber has been in the courts nearly as long as its cars have been on the streets. In the process of expanding to cities across the United States and around the world, the $50 billion, Bay Area–based corporation has faced dozens of lawsuits over drivers’ compensation, discrimination against passengers with disabilities, unemployment pay and commercial insurance. On Tuesday it appealed a significant loss: a ruling from California’s labor commissioner declaring that one so-called driver partner is not an independent contractor or small business owner but an employee. On June 3 the California commission awarded $4,152.20 to Barbara Berwick, an Uber driver alleging uncompensated expenses and unpaid wages. (The decision became public Tuesday when counsel for Uber in San Francisco, the law firm Littler Mendelson, appealed the ruling in Superior Court.)" When I first heard about Uber, I wondered to myself "Could that be legal?". Sounded like a scam to me, where Uber collected it's 20% and the drivers had all the liabilities. So who needs Uber anyway? Couldn't I just put a sign on my hippie bus saying "$5 a ride anywhere" and make some cash?
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Post by jdredd on Jun 27, 2015 17:24:43 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/article/420377/french-war-against-uber-turns-violent-shubhankar-chhokra"Revolutionary fervor has seized unionized cab drivers across France since yesterday, as nearly 3,000 have taken to the streets, attacking other drivers and setting cars on fire. Their trigger: the launch of UberPOP, a peer-to-peer service by the ride-share app company Uber that is banned nationwide. Taxi-union officials announced their intent to hold a nationwide strike against the tech company a week ago, railing against its decision to start UberPOP in three new French cities despite the program’s being embroiled in French courts. No one, however, expected protests to escalate to such levels. Cabbies barricaded roads, airports, and train stations in major cities including Paris, Marseilles, Nice, and Lyons." I'm sure these taxi drivers are going against a Libertariany tide. I mean, why did cities ever license cab drivers? Why can't any idiot with a car pick up riders? And if you get injured in a crash, you can't sue Uber, just the idiot. What next, free-lance doctors? Cops? Pilots? Why should the government interfere with your FREEDOM to buy yourself a 777 and start giving rides? Uber will hook you up, no doubt.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 9, 2015 13:57:34 GMT -5
So the issue de jour for righties is immigration and "sanctuary" cities. Now I don't care one way or another about immigration but are we going in a Libertarian direction or not? If so, time to open the borders. But I guess the right wants to pick and choose which Libertarian position is kosher and which isn't. Well, who doesn't? I want to go to my neighborhood 7/11 and buy pot, but I don't want the National Parks to be sold off to the highest bidder.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 14, 2015 14:19:57 GMT -5
I've figured out what Uber is: a Ride Pimp! They have an app to hook you up with Joe Drunk down the street instead of a licensed taxi driver, and when you are injured in a crash, Uber can say (after it took it's 20%) "he didn't work for us!"
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Post by jdredd on Jul 16, 2015 2:06:45 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/business-33546353"Taxi booking app Uber has been fined $7.3m (£4.6m) in California for not giving regulators enough information about its service and operations. "A judge at the California Public Utilities Commission - the regulator that allows the company to operate in the state - said Uber had not filed all the reports required by the body. It was accused of withholding details on incidents such as accidents.Uber has been involved in legal battles around the world over its operations. The San Francisco based firm's services in US cities such as Portland, Oregon have been suspended after a disagreement with the city, while its service of offering unlicensed taxi drivers has been banned in countries like Germany and Italy."
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Post by jdredd on Jul 17, 2015 3:43:48 GMT -5
sandiegoscene.proboards.com/thread/735/libertarian-utopia?page=5"Bush acknowledged there's a "big tension between companies that are disrupting the old order" and more traditional forms of business. "And if they have done something wrong, they should pay a fine," he said. But he went on to call Uber a "pretty vital service" that provides ample opportunities for people to obtain employment and turn their lives around, noting a driver he met last month who was funding his medical school education with his income from Uber. "Uber is giving that person a chance to start out and ... fulfill his dream. He wants to be a doctor," he told reporters. "And most of these stories are stories that are relevant to people, and that's why I like using them." Bush pulled up to the event via Uber, riding shotgun in a dark blue Toyota Camry. It's a mode of transportation he uses often. In fact, his campaign listed about 70 expenditures for the ride-sharing service, according to recent filings." Here's Jeb! touting the awesome awesomeness of Uber.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 29, 2015 20:58:41 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33710224"In the US, poverty, deprivation and exploitation draws thousands of its own children down into a dark underworld that offers few ways out. It is a world few Americans are aware of. But tens of thousands of American children are thought to be sexually exploited every year. It's believed that every night hundreds are sold for sex. The FBI says child sex abuse is almost at an epidemic level, despite the agency rescuing 600 children last year."Trafficking" often conjures images of people from other countries being smuggled over land and across the sea and then forced to work against their will in foreign lands. People are trafficked into America from Mexico, Central and South America. But the vast majority of children bought and sold for sex every night in the United States are American kids." Once again, the evil government is trying to interfere with our freedoms.
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Post by jdredd on Aug 3, 2015 19:08:03 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/article/421897/millennials-cities-leftist-libertarian-sharing-economy"Most American cities have been ruled by left-wingers for decades, and a good case can be made that this has contributed mightily to their decline. Of course, this has done no favors for groups — minorities, the poor, blue-collar workers — that urban progressives count as loyal political allies. Many Millennials are, so far, enrolled in this coalition but, if they’re paying attention, might be wondering why. On two key issues, the Left is unalterably out of step with most twentysomethings’ beliefs and interests." "The plain fact is that the nature of firms like Uber and others in the Sharing Economy is disruptive, entrepreneurial, competitive, and non-bureaucratic. It is antithetical to the Soviet-style economic thinking that prevails on the left, and no amount of spin about the need to protect poor consumers or avoid the chaos of markets will alter that truth." "We don’t even have to deconstruct Mr. Lee’s ugly, divisive rhetoric to see stressors on the relationship between urban Millennials and their current rulers. At the least, there seems to be an opportunity for Republicans to invite this sharing, gentrifying cohort into the party’s libertarian wing. Once there, they may realize that there’s life beyond leftism — and they will certainly be better situated to improve the cities they cherish." A "good case" can be made, of course, but that doesn't mean it's the truth. Alas, that is beside the point here, which is the GOP's newest front to try to win the future, which is of course the Millennials. Might work. No skin off my nose, I'm living in the decaying suburbs (lots of empty storefronts out here, and not one Burger Lounge), where white people go to die. But it is interesting for conservatives to embrace "disruptive". They don't mind disruptive when it involves big profits.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 3, 2015 13:00:11 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/9/2/philadelphia-sues-uber.html"PHILADELPHIA — The city's parking agency has filed a complaint to stop Uber, the app-based ride-hailing service, from continuing its illegal operations. Friday’s lawsuit also seeks $300,000 in damages and is the latest municipal attempt to contain the corporation, whose strategy has been to show up first and ask questions later. But can Philadelphia really stand in Uber’s way? Since late October 2014, Uber has done business throughout Pennsylvania, with and without permission. The state utilities commission ultimately approved the company in January 2015, but Philadelphia, which regulates its own vehicles-for-hire, was carved out of that general license. Uber has never had a legal right to operate in Philadelphia. Nevertheless, the corporation says it has served 700,000 riders on over 1 million trips, while creating 12,000 driver jobs. Yet according to company representative Taylor Bennett, Uber is neither a transportation company nor an employer. “It’s not a matter of legal or not legal,” he said. “There’s no law in place, because there was no ‘ride-sharing’ until a few years ago.” Bennett added that the current attack on Uber by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) is solely about “protecting an entrenched taxi industry.” I love this, an outlaw corporation illegally giving rides. And the company is of course the darling of the Libertarian right, Uber. While some people like this kind of commercial free-for-all, some people don't, but I suspect it is the leading edge of a wave of deregulating many businesses. If that's what the Millennials want, who am I to disagree? Not that I want to catch a ride with some unlicensed Millennial punk in his junk car.
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Post by jdredd on Feb 3, 2016 15:04:22 GMT -5
www.politico.com/story/2016/02/rand-paul-dropping-out-of-white-house-race-218675Rand Paul dropped out of the 2016 president race on Wednesday, short on cash and support, two days after finishing with under 5 percent in the Iowa caucuses — less than one quarter of the support his father had drawn four years earlier. The Kentucky senator, who pitched his libertarian-infused brand of conservatism as transformational for the Republican Party, will exit the national stage and instead run for reelection to the Senate. His moment in the 2016 campaign never materialized. “ Brushfires of Liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I,” Paul said in a statement." Well, so much for the "Libertarian Revolution" that was supposed to revive the GOP with young people. Instead, it was the religious fanatics who propelled Ted Cruz to the top. The only young people movement seems to be for Comrade Bernie. Maybe there is hope for the Millennials. They may be seeing through the buzzwords of "freedom" and "liberty", which seem to be a smokescreen in this century for letting billionaires loot and pillage the world.
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Post by jdredd on Aug 4, 2017 22:51:54 GMT -5
Those folks who are looking forward to the coming Libertarian Paradise should be thrilled at the state of California's freeways. Lately they have become a free-for-all, with almost no CHIPS to be seen. Wanna race? Go for it! Millennials don't need no steekeen traffic laws!
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Post by jdredd on Apr 21, 2018 20:41:46 GMT -5
Have you noticed, as a sign of our coming Libertarian Nirvana, that more and more drivers seem to see red lights and stop signs as mere suggestions? And why not? Traffic cops seem to be as rare as unicorns.
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