Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night • Hacker News Board

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#691

Post by MathCodeLove » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 4:06 PM UTC

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #684

MathCodeLove wrote: post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current economic consequences of historic oppression are, while unfortunate, not indicative of current, on-going oppression. It's also quite misleading to throw out statistics like incarceration rates, police shootings, etc and assume it's automatically because of racism and not instead indicative of the violent culture that become pervasive in many black urban communities. I have no doubt that part of it does stem f…

So these policies existed up until the 1980s, but the sentiment driving them has somehow gone away? Classism is an over-cited reason used to remove the issue of race from the discussion. Jim Crow applied to all blacks, regardless of class. Housing covenants denied the sale to blacks regardless of class.

Okay what laws are there in 2022 that are harmful to black americans in any given economic bracket that are not also harmful to other demographics in the same economic bracket?

You keep bringing up how black americans were oppressed but can't seem to articulate what systemic racism still exists today. The only semblance of oppression left is the economic consequences of the past, which I've already spoken on.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#692

Post by GlenTheMachine » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 4:08 PM UTC

onecommentman wrote: post #557

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because in order for public transit to work it has to cover the place the people work. Which is mostly in DC. Virginia isn't going to pay for public transit in DC. Maryland isn't going to pay for public transit in DC. Whereas what they will absolutely do is pay for roads in their own states. And DC can’t pay for public transit in DC because it’s tax base isn’t big enough. It isn't so much “favoring cars” as it…

DC Metro exists because ~70% of the capital costs were borne by the rest of the US, most of said citizens never saw, or will never see, any direct benefit. It was an easy sell to the Feds as individual people who directly and personally benefited in hedonistic ways and who, unsurprisingly, secured funding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metro#History But the Metro also was politically inevitable, given the…

This is a perfect synopsis of why public transit in DC is so hard. Thanks for making my point.

DC, again, doesn't have the tax base one would otherwise expect, for reasons outside its control. The people who control the money that would otherwise be paid to DC do not represent DC. They represent Virginia and Maryland, and also New York and California and Alaska. New York and California and Alaska voters don't particularly want the money to go to DC. They don't see DC as an actual city where real people live, they see it only as the resented center of a distant federal government, only populated by politicians and jackets.

The fact that over a million "regular" people live in DC never enters the equation.

Meanwhile there's nobody in a position of authority representing DC. So those "real people" DC residents don't get a say.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#693

Post by MathCodeLove » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 4:11 PM UTC

shkkmo wrote: post #686

MathCodeLove wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On what ground do you claim that DC and PR clearly deserve statehood? I think to take an incredibly complex economic, social, and political decision and assume its outcome is influenced in any significant capacity by the demographic makeup of those regions is ridiculous.

What is complex about it? That sounds like an excuse for not making an actual argument. There are lots of excuses when it comes to not granting statehood but they are invariably self-serving. They pay taxes but their votes don't count. We had a revolution once where that was a major factor. Puerto Rico is near the median in terms of state population. For over two down decades it has been clear that a majority of Puer…

If you can't imagine how the induction of a new state is an overtly complex task then I'm not sure how reasonable of a discussion we can have. I don't have a strong opinion one way or another primarily because my field of expertise lies outside of politics, sociology, and economics. On the surface yeah, I'm 100% for taxation with proper representation. I'm not well educated enough on the issue to know what 2nd and 3rd order effects it may have though

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#694

Post by MathCodeLove » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 4:15 PM UTC

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #683

MathCodeLove wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not safe to assume. It's ridiculous to assume that there's even some intrinsic "racial hierarchy" to begin with. Some demographics do better on average than others, much like how Asian-Americans have a higher average household income than White-Americans, but despite what twitter says that's largely not due to any deeply rooted systemic issue. I don't think a single readers letter to some local news organiza…

Just cause one group does better than another is not proof that systemic issues don't exist for another group. In the article they cite multiple sources of anti-black resentment being the cause of D.C. not receiving statehood, I only cited the letter because it was small and to the point.

It was a part of the cause, I've already ceded that point to another commenter. I did research and yes, many decades ago there were racial prejudices involved. There's nothing to indicate that that's still the primary motivator to keep DC a district and stating such is baseless speculation.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#695

Post by CountDrewku » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

dotancohen wrote: post #246

CountDrewku wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is the scientific proof that this isolated weather event is climate change? Just like you cannot claim that one day of bad weather refutes global warming you also cannot claim that an isolated event is climate change. It takes time to prove that. Getting tired of everyone spouting off about climate change every time bad weather occurs. It's just as anti-science as denial.

> Where is the scientific proof that this isolated weather event is climate change? There is no evidence that this event is climate change. However, this is not an isolated event. Do you not remember Texas' snowstorm last year? These "freak, isolated" events are becoming more and more frequent. That is climate change.

Why are you comparing Texas weather to Virginia?

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#696

Post by Tuna-Fish » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 4:48 PM UTC

nanidin wrote: post #293

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you are probably not talking about kilometeramperehours, might want to fix the unit to just Ah.

Battery packs are usually marketed with their capacity in milliamp-hours. I thought the 15-20k mAh made it pretty clear that we were taking about a 15000-20000 mAh battery pack.

They are, but SI prefixes are always combined, not used together. 15k mAh is just wrong. The correct way to write it is 15Ah.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#697

Post by travisporter » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 4:51 PM UTC

asiachick wrote: post #551

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #396

There are a lot of comments here about why public transit in the DC area doesn't work, but nobody that I've seen has put their finger on it. The biggest issue is that the area covers two states, at least ten counties depending on what you count as the “DC area”, plus the District of Columbia, which isn't a state, doesn't have control over its own budget, and has no representation in Congress. Oh, and in Virginia citi…

Japan, often considered to have some of the best public transportation in the world, privatized their "public" transportation in the 1970s. They seem to have setup the incentives so for the most part it works. Train companies own land/real-estate around each station. They open grocery stores, shopping centers, office buildings, hotels at many of their own stations. This seems to lead to a virtuous cycle. It's in thei…

I'm fascinated by this! How come the UK got this wrong? I don't live there but watch alot of british TV and it always comes up

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#698

Post by dnautics » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

dwhit wrote: post #640

dnautics wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have an argument about DC, but Puerto Rico has not been "denied" the right. There have been many plebiscites on the issue and the status quo has been maintained each time.

They voted to become a state in 2020 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Puerto_Rican_status_ref...

Oh wow! I didn't notice that. These things take a while, I see some bills to act on that congrss-side have started

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#699

Post by flavius29663 » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #499

nradov wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when the Constitution was written there were private citizens who owned weapons of war. Specifically they owned large artillery pieces that were used both on land and on sailing vessels. The lack of a recent revolution in the US is a feature, not a bug. Our Constitution isn't perfect, but it can be amended and has been many times.

> The lack of a recent revolution in the US is a feature, not a bug. Our Constitution isn't perfect, but it can be amended and has been many times. The existence of amendments requires bi-partisan cooperation - something that is completely unfeasible for the near future, with Republicans running unprecedented, pure obstructionism going so far as Mitch McConnell filibustering his own fucking bill - and that was in 201…

good bills will pass, look at the recently passed infrastructure bill. Also the Covid relief bills all passed. I think it more or less works as intended, with major bill having to provide something for everyone, like in the infrastructure bill.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#700

Post by flavius29663 » Wed, Jan 05, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

unethical_ban wrote: post #681

flavius29663 wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU was founded quite recently. It too has mechanisms to avoid concentrating all the power in the hands of the big ones: Germany and France. E.g. for the European Parliament, each country has a different level of representation (MPs per capita). Germany has the least representation and Malta has the highest. This way smaller countries also have a voice. There are other mechanisms as well(agencies HQs, comisioners etc.…

The EU and the US are at different levels of integration, though the EU does have free trade and travel. I should read the details on the implementation of the EU parliament, but I wonder if this "minority voice" equivalent in the EU is able to block essentially any progress or legislation. I also wonder why the states in the US should have nearly as much say as they have in 2021. We aren't a small band of ragtag cul…

> block essentially any progress or legislation

A lot of legislation is blocked in the EU, yes. The modus operandi of the EU is to compromise until every state is satisfied.

And the US is far from being blocked out of any progress. The gay rights is more advanced than in Europe, infrastructure bills are passing with bipartisan support, COVID relief bills are passing with flying colors and with a much more consistent amount than in Europe. EU struggled to get 700 billions out after a year and a half! And it's still not distributed.

I would say the US now is more diverse than in the 1700s. More diverse states, more diverse ethnicity (80% were white people in 1776, mostly English) and a HUGE population compared to 3 million back then.