81–90 of 673 posts
My first reaction was that this is against Article IV Section III of the Constitution. But, reading it again shifting borders of existing states doesn't seem to be prohibited. It would be interesting to see how something like this actually played out.
As an Oregonian not living in one of those sparsely-populated counties that voted for secession, I wonder why the folks who want to be part of Idaho don't just vote with their feet and move there? There's no border wall keeping them in Oregon. These votes are just symbolic and won't get them to their Idaho paradise near as quickly as a U-Haul could.
Maybe they like their home, their community, and their neighborhood, but what they don’t like is having a bunch of people living in population centers far away who don’t share their values telling them how to live their lives?
Those voters will be surprised by Idaho's tax burden. Higher than OR and WA, closer to national norms. Very reasonable. I've been pitching the idea of an astroturf (fake) tax revolt campaign in Eastern WA, demanding the commies in Olympia adopt a proper conservative tax regime like Idaho's. IIRC, WA State's yearly tax revenue would then be $3b greater.
Given the article's mention of Rural vs Urban I lean towards the belief that this is driven by a sense of both conservative values in government and probably a lack of understanding in how the government of the people serves the people. More precisely how taxes and math work. The GAO and similar offices should do a better job of preparing reports on where every collected tax dollar is being spent; both in the physica…
One of the things I periodically mentally noodle with is, what would the world look like if it was a lot easier for units to choose what larger units they would aggregate into? Like, cities choosing a county, counties choosing a state, states choosing their country, etc. I originally was noodling with this in the context of a space civilization, where there is no equivalent of "solid ground", everything's always movi…
This sounds like the idea of voluntary association, one of the cornerstones of anarchist philosophy. I don't have much more to add, but many other people have spent a lot of time "noodling" the idea and you may find it interesting.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I don't think it is a stable situation once someone gains the means to conquer by force." Obviously, it hasn't been historically. But an interesting long-term trend (across the last few centuries) is that "conquest by force" is becoming less and less effective. In the ancient world, "conquest by force" meant you got to take their land, take their food, take their livestock, and just in general take all their stuff t…
It might be worth rethinking your notions of 'long term'. Typically, there's a kind of time dilation where things that have happened recently seem both historically normal and of a longer duration than they really are.
In the sense that any modern trend (let's say 1920-2020) isn't old enough to really compare to something that's truly long term. It's to early to say. That, and we all have to deal with Historian's Fallacy.
I also have to say that I think that most of the Earth's land surface has more value as real estate (above and below ground) than it has as some sort of tech/people stack.
I freely admit that German is less likely to invade France (or France to invade Germany or Russia or Russia or Italy for that matter) in the modern era...assuming that wars are fought for purely profit-seeking motives.
Given the article's mention of Rural vs Urban I lean towards the belief that this is driven by a sense of both conservative values in government and probably a lack of understanding in how the government of the people serves the people. More precisely how taxes and math work. The GAO and similar offices should do a better job of preparing reports on where every collected tax dollar is being spent; both in the physica…
Taxes are just one part of this. They list these other issues of concern:
> 1. American Values: Oregon will continue to violate more and more American values and American freedoms because normal rural Americans are outnumbered in Oregon. Not in Idaho. Addicts will be attracted to Oregon from all over the world by the 2020 drug decriminalization law.
> 2. Law and Order: Oregon refuses to protect citizens from criminals, rioters, wildfire arsonists, illegals, and the homeless, but then infringes your right to defend your family with firearms. Idaho enforces the law.
> 3. Low Tax: Idaho is the state with the 8th smallest tax burden, and Oregon ranks 33rd, according to https://taxfoundation.org/tax-freedom-day-2019 . Combining all taxes together, including sales tax, the average Idahoan pays $1722 less in taxes per year than the average Oregonian. That’s averaging together every adult or child, employed, retired or unemployed. And cost of living is 39% higher in Oregon than in Idaho. Oregon tax rates will continue to go up due to a lack of willingness to control spending.
> 4. Safety: Idaho allows forests to be managed to prevent destruction of housing from huge wildfires.
> 5. Thriving Economy: Idaho has less regulation than any other state, low unemployment, and would allow our rural industries to revive and employ us again.
> 6. Representation: The ruling party in the Oregon Legislature doesn’t have a single representative from a rural district or from eastern or southern Oregon, except one Ashland representative. But our reps would be in the ruling party in Idaho, where our concerns and needs would be heard.
One future pop quiz answer: Tesla city is the capitol of the State of Jefferson.
Heh, not a lot of Teslas down there. More like F-150 city.
I come to visit them as the tree hugging, bleeding heart, gun toting lefty from lefty central.
Always good laughs. Fortunately we have a good culture on politics. No worries. Not everyone does, and I wish it were more true. Can get along just about anywhere really.
Wonder if the Ford electric F150 will see rapid adoption in that region?
Ford got almost all of it's priorities right. The big screen is a mistake, like delicate work truck type, but maybe the great package overall is not impacted.
I will be curious to see that play out.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It varies a lot. I spent some growing up years in Southern Oregon and there definitely was a strong evangelical, anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion etc. contingent in the town where I was. Lots of Birchers & KKK types as well. This was in the 70s and while the whole QAnon thing now is epistemlogically shocking, it seems like we had a lot of similar kinds of conspiracies running rampant in small southern Oregon towns ba…
I mean Oregon was founded as a white only state it's right in there constitution. > No free negro or mulatto not residing in this state at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall come, reside or be within this state or hold any real estate, or make any contracts, or maintain any suit therein; and the legislative assembly shall provide by penal laws for the removal by public officers of all such negroes a…
(1) https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2008
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2008/results/states/exitpo...