In no particular Order:
1) Legalize Marijuana.
2) Provide Single Payer Universal Health Care.
3) Reform non-violent prison sentences into community service.
4) Provide free college educations to veterans and volunteers.
5) Radically reform Copyright laws to allow for Net Neutrality.
6) Bring back a light and heavy passenger rail system like Europe's.
7) Make all autos electric powered.
8) Create energy using only wind, solar, geothermal, and waves.
9) Bring all of our troops home from everywhere.
10) Take Tazers away from Cops.
11) End torture and war crimes.
12) End domestic spying on US citizens.
13) Allow strait and LBGT civil unions & take the govt out of marriage.
14) Increase border inspections 1000 fold.
15) End farm and corporate subsidies.
If you want clarification for any of these, let me know. I'll be happy to talk your ear off.
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Agree on 1, 3, 6,11,12
ReplyDeleteDisagree on 9 because I feel at this point it would only cause more problems. Disagree on 13 because I believe there should be no differentiation between gay and straight marriages. I think it should be called the same name and treated the same. I feel like 7 and 8 are good, but limiting, the more options (non-fossil) the better. I also think that #4, college education should be provided to everyone for free.
I think I agree on 2 but want clarification, and do not know enough about 5, 14, and 15 to make an educated decision at this time. Also, whats with tazers?
Thanks for the comments Anonymous person!
ReplyDelete2) Single Payer Universal Health care is what Canada has. That's what I would like to see here in the states.
4) I agree it should be free, but I want people to still earn it by doing something, either serving in our military or volunteering like in AmeriCorp, City Year, or Peace Corp. If you're not willing to do either of these, you don't get a free college degree.
5) This would make most online Internet based technologies open source technologies and end the law suits against kids downloading music and videos and patent violations. Pirating would be a thing of the past because the level of progress and development would supersede all expectations.
7) I have no problems with autos being fueled by other clean energy sources like hydrogen or the likes, as long as it is a zero emission vehicle with no nuclear waste.
8) There is no such thing as clean coal (never will be). There is no such thing as safe nuclear power (maybe in the future). Ethanol is still a burning process that emits carbon into the atmosphere and there will be no way to make it a zero emission product (plus all the environmental degradation the farming industry causes). Right now, Solar, Wind, Geothermal, and Wave energy generation are the only truly clean energy sources.
9) Bringing troops home would cause some world chaos. But I don't think it is our place or any nation's place to interfere with another country (unless we are preventing an genocides and ethnic cleansing like Darfur, Rwanda, Nazi Germany, Armenia, Serbia, Palestine, etc. To do bring them home safely it would have to be gradual, but why do we have troops in Germany still? Or in Japan still?
10) Cops have been issued Tazers as a none lethal alternative to their gun. However, instead of using their Tazer in place of a gun, they are using it in place of conflict deescalation. They are using force instead of non-violent tactics. If a cop can talk someone down then no Tazer should be used. If I cop has to shoot someone, they should draw their Tazer first (if the offender's weapon is not a gun). If the offender has a gun, then of course the cop should draw his/her gun. But cops are notoriously using Tazers in place of verbal conflict resolution. This is wrong, immoral, and should be illegal. Until cops are better trained and go through a tough scenario training, a Tazer should not be issued. Instead, the only training is how to safely shoot it, not why they should shoot it.
13) I believe the contract that binds a couple should be regulated by the government only. This contract would be called a civil union and be required in order to receive tax breaks, extended benefits, that are currently enjoyed by "married" couples. Marriage is a religious notion and should be reserved for religious groups. A union is a civil matter and should be reserved for by the government.
ReplyDeleteSo, if I want to be legally bound to my girlfriend, we would apply to the government for a union, which would be able to be performed by a clerk at the county building (really just a witness to a contract). The only way for a marriage to be recognized by the government is if it goes through a unionization. If we want that union blessed by a religious group I would go to that group and follow their customs for it to be called a "marriage". A "marriage" could be performed prior to unionization, but the courts would not recognize it as a contract unless a unionization was achieved.
14) Most counterfeit drugs, lead based toys, human trafficking and illegal drugs come through our ports through cargo containers. If we increased inspections we would catch this contraband and save American consumers from the risks of fraud and health issues and help end the sex slave trade. Plus we could end the flow of illicit guns and drugs that cause violence in our streets. That, combined with the relaxing of drug laws, would encourage vendors to use legal channels allowing us to tax and monitor the drug trade and end the violence associated with it.
15) Corporate and farm subsides and tax breaks allow business to avoid paying their fare share of taxes. The subsides also prevent fair market competition from developing raising the costs of food for people all around the world, not just here in the US. If we ended the farm subsidies on corn, the corn industry would not be able to compete with sugar and our food would be made with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In addition to improving world competition, there is also a direct causality and correlation between HFCS and obesity, yet oddly enough, no causality or correlation between real sugar and obesity.
Great idea on moving these debates out of Facebook. I like them, but I don't particularly enjoy my blood pressure skyrocketing while I'm trying to read family updates, and block apps about Mafia and Farm Animals.
ReplyDelete1. Pot, make the federal government neutral on the subject, let the states legalize if they want.
2. We already know where these end up. You can have it if you show me one fair system on the planet that isn't making the country that owns it go bankrupt, OR, uses rationing of some sort.
3. Define violent...
4. We already do to an extent via the G.I. Bill, expand it to free for Vets. Volunteers for what?
5. Copyright laws should be expanded internationally, but how would you enforce them? Interpol?
6. I've ridden Europes rail system 2 choices 1. Expensive Fast and Clean, 2. Unsafe, Unclean, Cheap. I'd approve of that one if it was privatized with government oversight on safety.
7. Not going to happen, we don't have the power grid in place, and the only method we have of producing enough power is Nuclear, and we know where this discussion ends.
8. Already happening on the local levels. Science isn't up to par yet to handle the power load.
9. Would be nice if other countries behaved themselves, didn't practice genocide or terrorism. Would be better if other countries pulled their weight on this. You know as well as I about the U.N. troops and what a joke they are.
10. Got another form of non-lethal restraint?
11. See answer to #9.
12. Amen. Follow the rules already set out in the Constitution.
13. Shouldn't matter what you prefer. It's your business, just like my preference is my business. If they want the same challenges that marriage has, be my guest.
14. See #9. (Use the national guard, to ACTUALLY guard the nation).
15. Absolutely. Fund an insurance policy for farmers that need it during drought and famine. Too big to fail is too big to exist. Need to break up companies like AT&T did before (BTW, Break up AT&T again).
Dave,
ReplyDelete1) Yeah, I agree with, it should be up to the states. I think if it were, you would see all states decriminalize it immediately.
2) Dead Horse.
3) Anyone who didn't put another person in harms way (or threaten to) in the act of a crime. So grand theft auto should get say 5000 hours of community service (be very strict about it), but a mugging would still see jail time. A home invasion while someone is home = violent, a home invasion while no one was home = non-violent. Yes, both will rock your world and totally victimize you, but more severe punishment for a potential of violence or actual violence.
4) I believe we should make college free to anyone willing to serve their country, be it in the military or through volunteerism through organizations like AmeriCorp, PeaceCorp, Vista, Teach-for-America, etc. Yes we do it now with the GI Bill, but not for volunteers. You give, we give.
5) I'm not sure the current forms of intellectual property protections are adequet for today's world. They need to be updated and revised. I believe a good model would be the Creative Commons movement and the Net Neutrality movements. I also think that copyrights need to be shortened in protection duration to about 30 years, limit what is included (software should not be copyrightable, unless you dramatically reduce copyright protection, maybe patent, which allows for only 20 year protection). Though, I would reduce patent protection to ten years. Trademarks & trade secrets I wouldn't touch.
6) I don't think any Euro-rails are unsafe. The cheap ones haven't a higher rate of accidents than the expensive ones. But a public rail needs to be generated. If GM and Ford wouldn't have crushed the industry in the 1940's, then we would have a private system. Somethings are just too expensive for market entry and it takes the government to start it. Now, if the government starts it and can privatize it with a guarantee that it won't be bought just to be closed down like GM and Ford did, then I'm cool with that.
Well, I replied to issues 7-15, but for some reason Firefox timed out and I lost it all. So I'll have to re-comment at a later time.
ReplyDelete1)I think you would see a lot of things "de-criminalize" if it were up to the States.
ReplyDelete2)It's still on the table, the job needs to be finished.
3)I would think that society would find that letting thieves go free, would be a little hard to swallow. Lets' start by changing the sentencing on those caught with drugs for their own "personal" use (not trafficking, etc.) That would alleviate lots of cost.
4)Volunteerism is part of the responsibility of being an American. Lots of people volunteer for small things, like coaching little league, Boy Scouts, church groups, and that is what their capacity is. Do they get free education too? Where do you draw the line? I think that putting your life in danger for the sovereignty of this nation is reason enough to go to school for free. Being a Scoutmaster, working in a rice paddy in Bangladesh, or promoting political party movements (conservative or liberal) is not worthy of a free education. I think the majority of people agree with me.
5)The only way to enforce intellectual property on a global level is to have a global legal system to support that. It won't happen. There are too many cultural differences on what is intellectual property and what isn't.
6)I don't mean mechanically unsafe. GM and Ford didn't crush the industry. People did. They like personal transportation better than riding on a stinky, hot train. HOWEVER, the trucking and other transportation UNIONS did. Their lobbyism for making trucking the primary transport of goods has crushed the railway industry. If you want to see it come back, start with that. Rails as a method of commuting and people transport in lower density population blocks (i.e. cities with smaller populations than say Detroit) is a fallacy and has been proven to be ineffective time and again. It works in Europe because of density, and even then, there are a lot of empty trains because the roadways and cost of automotive transportation have dropped.