Earlier quoted context omitted.
Never heard of Ken Paxton, I suppose?
who?
C’mon folks, I can’t really be the only one on HN who’s never heard of this Paxton chap. If you’re going to namedrop someone at least add some context.
Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
311–320 of 350 posts
Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#312Looks to me like a pre-emptive fence electrification
“Don’t share concern about water quality online, or else”
Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#313I would love to hire myself as legal professional in cases like this.
In fact I've already started collecting evidence on a no-win-no-fee basis.
Ready for action
Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Federal government enforces a few rules and then leaves things to the state and people. Obviously that means the state and people have no nanny to protect them from consequences of their decisions. If they drain their budgets fighting the civil rights of their population instead of fixing a problem then they might look like a lot of bankrupt municipalities. The US is obligated to let that happen.
> If they drain their budgets If Texas seceded from the US (which there is an actual movement here that gets loud with Democrat presidents) it would be the 8th or 9th largest economy in the world. The oil propping up the US while the US admin is/was grifting large paychecks for friends and family with the Iran thing -- comes from Texas. No one posting words online then getting payouts is going to bankrupt them.
This kind of private income is not necessarily going to result in much improvement in municipality income, it can be used to reduce municipality income i.e. by political contributions to bills like California Prop 13.
I would be a bit skeptical that civil rights violations over the web would be enough to bankrupt many municipalities but I think it is the larger point of no State laws or system of accountability for any of the things an official may do.. Some officials choose liquid investments or select large civil projects, etc.
I'm very happy with the possibility of Texas leaving the union. Anyone who isn't Texan should focus on leaving Texas to its rights with acceptance of as little liability for Texas as possible. Texas can fix itself or not, not my problem.
Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
To do that you first need to become more powerful than those powerful people, right?
Well, no, you just a need a coalition that collectively is more powerful.
We already have two such coalitions within Congress: Republicans and Democrats.
How is that working out?
Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#316Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's very easy to get started on this, you tax the shit out of people who have a lot of money because the old adage is true.
Even if you could achieve that, there would still be rich people. Musk would still be a billionaire even if he had to pay 90% tax. Plus, many powerful people in government are not that rich.
His ability to use his wealth to influence the government and the populous would be significantly reduced. There's a big difference between "rich" and "rich enough circumvent democracy."
Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#318Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#319> The statute requires that a person knowingly circulate a false report. Combs says she was repeating what people told her. Gregory says she should have verified it with the hospitals first It would be a violation of HIPAA for a medical system to disclose that to a private individual. The State Health Services or TCEQ would need to conduct that investigation and ask those questions. Both of those are state level agen…
HIPAA or not, I assume the hospital wouldn’t tell a private citizen anything concerning anyone else, just on general principles. There’s no FOIA or something like that to force them to.
But they don't have to disclose identifying information to say, "yeah, we've had more XYZ cases," or some other statistic. I'm not saying she should have to contact the hospital to exercise her right to free speech. I'm just saying that HIPAA doesn't mean healthcare institutions are a black box. I find that idea strange because I can immediately see how to ask questions to work around it while still protecting individuals.
Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point of the arrest was not to win. The point was to inconvenience the whistleblower, cause her grief, and maybe as a bonus make her spend a night or two in jail. Nobody doing this remotely believed that they wouldn't have to settle. They did it to show that if you speak out against them, they'll arrest and inconvenience you. So the next person who gets a thought to speak out might decide not to bother. Same for…
> They did it to show that if you speak out against them, they'll arrest and inconvenience you. So the next person who gets a thought to speak out might decide not to bother. some of my students have expressed that they wish they could get arrested for a meme and walk away with a couple hundred grand. i, of course, have told them that they would be playing with fire. but they are still viewing it as a potentially lif…
> some of my students
When I was young, I might have thought this way for sure. I didn't expect to have a future anyway and this would have potentially been a cool level-up that I'd seize.
Responding to someone in another comment that happened after the parent, when I was young and had no real prospects (despite coming from a well-off but not super wealthy family), I had a lot of mental health issues and emotional issues that didn't seem possible to resolve and it wasn't realistic to think I'd finish a college degree or start a career. Imagine being a well-educated white male in the USA who expects to be trapped working retail forever while peers get white-collar jobs and you can see the appeal. Fortunately, decades of hard work and treatment can make a world of difference, but that's not anything you can bet on when you're young and desperate.