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Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

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Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve read Cato as well as undergraduate behavioral economics. No tax on the wealthy is worth its weight in paper unless it breaks the back of fluid fungibility of money into policy. We have any number of ways to raise revenue, most of which would be trivial if Bezos cast one ballot like anyone else. Directly or indirectly bribing legislators or regulators should be a capital offense.

> No tax on the wealthy is worth its weight in paper unless it breaks the back of fluid fungibility of money into policy These are separate policy fronts. You've got a water leak in your engine and are trying to solve it by banning rain. > Directly or indirectly bribing legislators or regulators should be a capital offense Define this as loosely as Redditors consider lobbying and you essentially shut down democractic…

We’ve all been having some version of this conversation for decades: any time someone proposes limiting campaign finance or any other mechanism by which wealth becomes law some unfounded assertion gets made about how it will have unintended consequences that actually favor the people with the money.

“Trust me, I’ll get you over the barrel even more easily if you try to stop me. Shhh, just let it happen.”

I think it’s a bluff.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No tax on the wealthy is worth its weight in paper unless it breaks the back of fluid fungibility of money into policy These are separate policy fronts. You've got a water leak in your engine and are trying to solve it by banning rain. > Directly or indirectly bribing legislators or regulators should be a capital offense Define this as loosely as Redditors consider lobbying and you essentially shut down democractic…

We’ve all been having some version of this conversation for decades: any time someone proposes limiting campaign finance or any other mechanism by which wealth becomes law some unfounded assertion gets made about how it will have unintended consequences that actually favor the people with the money. “Trust me, I’ll get you over the barrel even more easily if you try to stop me. Shhh, just let it happen.” I think it’s…

In the sunset of dissolution everything takes on the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.

Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution.

I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal before it gets ugly.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#123
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, there is technically a process for reporting wrongdoing, but there's no process for reporting wrongdoing and keeping your job, and keeping your job is more important. What isn't your job is taking moral stances on things, having political opinions, provoking what others might see as unnecessary conflict, in any form. Up to a certain point. That answer didn't hold up well at the Nuremberg trials. After a point…

Given that this highly improbable outcome involves two separate coalitions of countries invading yours from both sides, “read the room” is a safe bet for all parties to make, including last minute flights to Argentina

If only I had used this outcome only as a highly understood example, as opposed to as the exact sitution that will befall the person I responded to... oh, wait!

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No tax on the wealthy is worth its weight in paper unless it breaks the back of fluid fungibility of money into policy These are separate policy fronts. You've got a water leak in your engine and are trying to solve it by banning rain. > Directly or indirectly bribing legislators or regulators should be a capital offense Define this as loosely as Redditors consider lobbying and you essentially shut down democractic…

We’ve all been having some version of this conversation for decades: any time someone proposes limiting campaign finance or any other mechanism by which wealth becomes law some unfounded assertion gets made about how it will have unintended consequences that actually favor the people with the money. “Trust me, I’ll get you over the barrel even more easily if you try to stop me. Shhh, just let it happen.” I think it’s…

> any time someone proposes limiting campaign finance or any other mechanism by which wealth becomes law some unfounded assertion gets made about how it will have unintended consequences

Saying "directly or indirectly bribing" encompasses all democratic interaction. I indirectly bribe my electeds with votes when they do what I want. You need to be more precise than that language to make a point.

More pointedly, your issue is with money in politics. Not bribery, which is already illegal. Not paid lobbying, I don't think, unless we should outlaw the EFF. Not rich people per se, most of whom have the sense to shut the fuck up.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#125
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, there is technically a process for reporting wrongdoing, but there's no process for reporting wrongdoing and keeping your job, and keeping your job is more important. What isn't your job is taking moral stances on things, having political opinions, provoking what others might see as unnecessary conflict, in any form. Up to a certain point. That answer didn't hold up well at the Nuremberg trials. After a point…

> That answer didn't hold up well at the Nuremberg trials. that's just winners were punishing losers. In alternative reality, those who dropped nukes were facing trial in Nuremberg.

>that's just winners were punishing losers

Whether it's winners punishing losers, or e.g. the FBI/FDA/DEA/IRS/whatever punishing some company exexutives and employees, the potential for this to be a bad defense remains constant.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’ve all been having some version of this conversation for decades: any time someone proposes limiting campaign finance or any other mechanism by which wealth becomes law some unfounded assertion gets made about how it will have unintended consequences that actually favor the people with the money. “Trust me, I’ll get you over the barrel even more easily if you try to stop me. Shhh, just let it happen.” I think it’s…

In the sunset of dissolution everything takes on the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine. Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution. I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal before it gets ugly.

> Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution

It worked fine without anyone in tech, too. Or crypto.

Agree on K Street. But Trump's 2024 campaign is praxis in disintermediating K Street. We need more precision.

> I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal before it gets ugly

This strikes me as idealistic, maybe arrogant. Marie Antoinette didn't have a private jet or wireable funds.

Even then, most of France's aristocracy fled and lived fine. Violent revolution is not a romantic reset. It's a civilisation bowing out of the competition. They only fester now, post Industrial Revolution, because it's no longer profitable to invade unstable neighbours. The July Revolution, for example, was checked by the threat of foreign intervention. Hell, the "Westphalian" sovereignty Putin talks about was actually a contract permitting the great powers to invade the HRE to guarantee its Constitution.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’ve all been having some version of this conversation for decades: any time someone proposes limiting campaign finance or any other mechanism by which wealth becomes law some unfounded assertion gets made about how it will have unintended consequences that actually favor the people with the money. “Trust me, I’ll get you over the barrel even more easily if you try to stop me. Shhh, just let it happen.” I think it’s…

> any time someone proposes limiting campaign finance or any other mechanism by which wealth becomes law some unfounded assertion gets made about how it will have unintended consequences Saying "directly or indirectly bribing" encompasses all democratic interaction. I indirectly bribe my electeds with votes when they do what I want. You need to be more precise than that language to make a point. More pointedly, your…

I appreciate that the phrasing “directly or indirectly” is a far cry from a reasonable draft of a bill.

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act was better thought out by a long way. I was being informal given this is HN.

We all know the moments in time when the public got knee-capped: Brooksley Born was highly on task preventing 2008 via her completely legitimate powers via the CFTC before Summers and Greenspan popped a cap in her ass.

The same is about to happen to Gary Gensler and worse Lina Khan.

This capture is a wratchet until it isn’t. And the Robespierre interlude is something we all hope to avoid.

You sir are clearly educated and astute and traveled, a cut above by far the typical HN apologist for contemporary Friedman shit.

If even you are willing to argue to the bitter end then I’m very sad about how brutal things will soon become.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s more nuanced then that. People don’t want others pretending to be superior to them, if they are not actually that much better. e.g. A literal supergenius can behave very erratically nearly every week of the year, 40 years straight, and still achieve notable successes in life, such as Kurt Godel But a regular genius pretending to be a literal supergenius and trying to do the same, is well at best going to be perc…

How does this have anything to do with standing up to harms? Im sorry this is starting to sound like the philosophy that the Nazi regime operated under.

How does ‘standing up to harms’ relate to how other people assess you?

You can say anything, stand up to anything, etc., at a meeting but have differing underlying motives that is unsaid.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the sunset of dissolution everything takes on the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine. Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution. I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal before it gets ugly.

> Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution It worked fine without anyone in tech, too. Or crypto. Agree on K Street. But Trump's 2024 campaign is praxis in disintermediating K Street. We need more precision. > I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal bef…

I didn’t mean that I was personally going to broker some compromise.

I meant that in my small way I’m part of a larger conversation.

There are a lot of people bright enough to have been at the top of their field who for one reason or another are opposed to the status quo.

I’m just one of a lot of people who are every bit as sophisticated as anyone on Jane’s Prop desk and yet still under its boot.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#130
post #41
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, there is technically a process for reporting wrongdoing, but there's no process for reporting wrongdoing and keeping your job, and keeping your job is more important. What isn't your job is taking moral stances on things, having political opinions, provoking what others might see as unnecessary conflict, in any form. Up to a certain point. That answer didn't hold up well at the Nuremberg trials. After a point…

Not trying to troll here, but, what does something like Nuremberg trails matter in a country where someone who can incite an insurrection and then become president again, or a world where international criminal court orders are ignored?

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