371–380 of 514 posts
While I agree with this decision, I don't want any governance decisions to be made by one bloke. Why do we have such a system? Why isn't it a vote of many governors? Preferably a secret vote so voters can't be forced to vote along party lines...
This is no way to run a state. The Democrat-dominated legislature passes everything that comes before it (and rejects anything that the GOP touches, in committee) and then the Governor needs to veto the looniest 20% of them to keep us from falling into total chaos. This AI bill was far from the worst one. "Vote out the legislators!" but for who... the Republican party? And we don't even get a choice on the general ba…
If California was it's own country, it would be one of the biggest most successful countries in the world. Like every where else it has it's problems but it's being run just fine. Objectively, there are many states that are far worse off in any key metric.
California does do several things very well. It also does several things poorly. Pointing out its current economic standing does not change that. The fallacy here is that we have to compare california against the best version of itself. Alaska is never going to be a California-level economy because the geography dictates that only a certain kind of person / company will set up there, for example. That doesn't mean the Alaskan government is necessarily bad. Every state has to work within its limits to achieve the best version of itself. Is california the best it could be? I think the answer is obviously no.
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> but it's being run just fine As a Californian I have to disagree. The only reason you think it's being run just fine is because of the success of the private sector. The only reason California would be the 4th/5th largest economy in the world is because of the the tech industry and other industries that are in California (Hollywood, agriculture, etc). It's not because we have some awesome efficiently run state gove…
I think California might have a better run government if it had an electable conservative party. The Republican Party is not that, being tied to the national Trump-Vance-Orbán axis. A center-right party could hold Democratic officers accountable but it’s not being offered and moderates gravitate to the electable Dem side. An independent California would largely fix that. As a lifelong California Democrat, I realize t…
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If California was it's own country, it would be one of the biggest most successful countries in the world. Like every where else it has it's problems but it's being run just fine. Objectively, there are many states that are far worse off in any key metric.
The state has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the whole country (28%). To me, that implies they have some issue of governance. Source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/us-literacy... To be fair in the comparison, the literacy statistics for the whole of the US are pretty shocking from a European perspective.
Source: my mom was an adult ESL / Language / Literacy teacher.
Excellent move by Newsom. We have a very active legislature, but it's been extremely bandwagon-y in recent years. I support much of Wiener's agenda, particularly his housing policy, but this bill was way off the mark. It was basically a torpedo against open models. Market leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic weren't really worried about it, or about open models in general. Its supporters were the also-rans like Musk [1]…
> Excellent move by Newsom. [...] It was basically a torpedo against open models. He vetoed it in part because the threshold it applies to at all are well-beyond any current models, and he wants something that will impose greater restrictions on more and much smaller/lower-training-compute models that this would have left alone entirely. > Market leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic weren't really worried about it, or a…
He's just planning for a post-governor career.
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In this case the success is in spite of the governance rather than because of it. The golden age of California was a long time ago.
LOL. California's GDP in 2023 was $3.8T, representing 14% of the total U.S. economy. If California were a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world and more productive than India and the United Kingdom.
If Texas were a country, it'd be the 8th largest economy in the world! This is a figure much less often cited. Texas has a smaller population 30 million v 38 million and is growing much faster in real terms (2.1% v 5.7%).
This is in spite of its objective awfulness. People are moving to Texas because of the economy. If Texas were in California's geographic position, one would imagine it to be an even more popular destination.
This isn't an endorsement of the Texan government, because there are many things I disagree with them on. But the idea that California's economy is singularly unique in the United States is silly. Many states with objectively worse attributes are faring just as well, and may even be poised to overtake california.
How embarassing would it be for Texas, a hot muggy swamp of a state with awful geography and terrible weather, to overtake beautiful California economically? To think people would actually eschew the ocean and the mediterranean climate and perfect weather to move to Texas simply because California mismanaged the state so much. This is the real risk.
Models show that by 2049, Texas will overtake california as the more populous and more economically productive state. Is that really the future you want? Is that the future California deserves? As a native Californian, I hope the state can turn itself around. It deserves to be a great state, but the path its on is one of decline.
One need just look at almost any metric. It's no just population or economy. Even by 'liberal' metrics, Texas is growing. For example, Texas has the largest growth rate in alternative energy sources: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/texas-trumps-cal.... There's a very clear growth curve in Texas, while California's is much choppier and doesn't appear to be going in any particular direction. At some point Californians need to actually want to continue winning instead of resting on their laurels.
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If California was it's own country, it would be one of the biggest most successful countries in the world. Like every where else it has it's problems but it's being run just fine. Objectively, there are many states that are far worse off in any key metric.
Thank you. I always think about this whenever someone says CA doesn't know what it's doing or it's being run wrong: California's GDP in 2023 was $3.8T, representing 14% of the total U.S. economy. If California were a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world and more productive than India and the United Kingdom.
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High speed trains would do even more for California and would be the envy of the rest of the country.
Like most things, the facts bear out the exact opposite. The CA HSR has been such a complete failure that it’s probably set back rail a decade or more. The only saving grace is Florida’s privatized high speed rail, otherwise it would be a completely failed industry.
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The Democratic Party has some warts, this is for sure, and they have a lot they could be doing to improve participation and input from the rank-and-file. However, attempting to subvert an election by any means possible is not yet one of those warts. This is emphatically not a case where "both sides suck equally."
>subvert an election by any means possible is not yet one of those warts The Democrats are famous for trying to have 3rd party candidates stripped from ballots. Straining smaller campaigns under the cost of fighting off endless lawsuits. Democrats invented the term lawfare.
Republicans blazed a new trail in 2021, trying to actually change the outcome of an election in progress through force. This is not comparable to using legal processes. A better comparison might be the series of lawsuits the Republican Party attempted after force did not work. How many years until the guy who lost admitted that he lost? These actions strike at the very foundations of democracy. A non-trivial segment of citizens still think the election was somehow stolen from them, despite an utter lack of anything like evidence. We will be feeling reverberations from these actions for decades.
And a short bias comparison:
> The left discusses Newsom's veto as a victory for Silicon Valley, concentrating on the economic implications and backing from tech giants.
> The center highlights the broader societal ramifications, addressing criticisms from various sectors, such as Hollywood and AI safety advocates.
> The right emphasizes Newsom's concerns about hindering innovation and his commitment to future collaborative regulatory efforts, showcasing a balanced approach.