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Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

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Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#71

Post by snazypaparazzi »

smt88 wrote: post #60
snazypaparazzi wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everything is consistent with the perspective Texas represents toward the united states. It's fine if Texas doesn't implement reforms and fails. (There are 49 other states and may the ones that invent or adopt the best practices survive.)

What do you think “fails” means exactly? How does Texas fail in a way that doesn’t harm innocent people in both Texas and the rest of the country/world? Texas is larger (in both population and economy) than most countries in the world.

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.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#72

Post by dfxm12 »

mvdtnz wrote: post #47

How does a town in the richest nation in the history of the planet not have the resources to get clear drinking water flowing through their taps?

The country is the richest, but the money is not distributed equally. One factor to keep in mind is that the state would rather give the richest man in the world tax breaks rather than make sure everyone has safe drinking water.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#73

Post by fzeroracer »

smt88 wrote: post #60
snazypaparazzi wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everything is consistent with the perspective Texas represents toward the united states. It's fine if Texas doesn't implement reforms and fails. (There are 49 other states and may the ones that invent or adopt the best practices survive.)

What do you think “fails” means exactly? How does Texas fail in a way that doesn’t harm innocent people in both Texas and the rest of the country/world? Texas is larger (in both population and economy) than most countries in the world.

This is true, but Texans as a whole keep enabling these outcomes by both voting and supporting politicians that create it, as well as the state as a whole generally refusing aid.

It's one of the (many) reasons why I immediately moved out of the state when I had a chance. There's only so much that can be done when a lot of the states politics and environment is wholly self-destructive.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#75

Post by jazzypants »

infinite_spin wrote: post #62

I'm not a lawyer, but I think qualified immunity should not apply to constitutional violations. Giving an opt-out for those violations is antithetical to the very substance of our (US) constitution.

Qualified Immunity should not apply ever. Period. No one should be above the law for any reason ever.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#76

Post by balderdash »

infinite_spin wrote: post #62

I'm not a lawyer, but I think qualified immunity should not apply to constitutional violations. Giving an opt-out for those violations is antithetical to the very substance of our (US) constitution.

yup, i think a majority of people would agree with you, so why hasn't it happened? I think the answer is that elected representatives are more beholden to public sector unions than their constituents.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#77

Post by thot_experiment »

p1esk wrote: post #42
thot_experiment wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're so close! Instead of patching the issue maybe let's solve the root problem of spiky power distribution among humans. We don't need to make sure cops have immunity to prosecute powerful people. We need to not have powerful people. (though realistically speaking yes there's probably some level of procedural immunity that probably makes sense, similarly with business bankruptcies not ruining the people who start…

We need to not have powerful people What does this even mean?

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.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#78

Post by Bender »

abofh wrote: post #45
Bender wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will not put the blame on the bobbies, that's too convenient. Someone had to order them to do this. That's who needs to be permanently ousted from all levels of government and their voting rights rescinded.

Nobody has to order people to do anything if it's in their self interest. Yes corruption flows downhill, but until they flip, just following orders isn't a defense.

Just following orders of course does not excuse anyone but I would rather not play whack-a-mole. That is how they expect us to play "The Game" by throwing one of their tools under the bus.

I prefer to work my way up the chain of command first and find the head(s) of the snake. Sure, punish the cops but don't let their corrupt chain of command play The Game otherwise we all just lost and the problem just repeats with new tools.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#79

Post by scoofy »

mvdtnz wrote: post #47

How does a town in the richest nation in the history of the planet not have the resources to get clear drinking water flowing through their taps?

>How can X in the richest nation in the history of the planet be...

I've honestly grown absolutely sick of this type of comment as I get older. If you're not from the states, it's maybe understandable, but throughout my life most of the folks with me on the left that make these statements are completely ignorant of how their own government works and just assume "shit should be taken care of" without actually having to put any work in. It drives me crazy.

The vast majority of our electorate doesn't pay attention to politics, and then votes for feel-good measures (often very expensive), and almost universally avoid actual long-term net positive investments, like urban density and avoiding bond issuances wherever they are impractical.

As you see small towns welcoming -- even courting -- data centers while everyone in the town hates and protests them... yea, it's almost certainly because the town is broke, and the only folks who realize it are the city officials.

>How does a town ... not have the resources to get clear drinking water flowing through their taps?

Many, many, many, towns in America are functionally insolvent! The amount of cost it takes to maintain our road/sewer/water/refuse/emergency/energy systems is very often more than the tax revenue that the town can bring in. This is literally the entire point of the Strong Towns organization: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020-5-14-americas-growt...

Rebuilding a water system is one of the most significant municipal finance events that a city will have to deal with, and more and more cities across the nation are requiring federal bailouts; e.g., the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson,_Mississippi,_water_cr....

It's just so frustrating as someone who cares about municipal finances that American cities' sustainability that most people think that it's just supposed to work itself out when cities are just lighting money on fires... often to the cheers of the electorate who voted for it.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#80

Post by thot_experiment »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #32
thot_experiment wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're so close! Instead of patching the issue maybe let's solve the root problem of spiky power distribution among humans. We don't need to make sure cops have immunity to prosecute powerful people. We need to not have powerful people. (though realistically speaking yes there's probably some level of procedural immunity that probably makes sense, similarly with business bankruptcies not ruining the people who start…

I agree with you, but most people aren’t ready to engage with basic anarchist arguments

I don't know if anarchy helps in this situation, I actually think you need robust social systems with buy in from citizens to prevent the natural accumulation of power. The fundamental problem is that there's a diminishing cost to acquiring power as you acquire power, this relationship should be inverted. The more powerful you are the harder it should be to get more powerful.

This is basic engineering, you don't want runaway feedback loops, the underlying system is unstable so we need a control system.

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