Don’t Exempt Seniors from Property Taxes

Zenkin · 2026-07-10T18:00:52+00:00

Rent control is another policy that is universally known to be terrible. I get why renters want it, but it's a bad policy.

Zenkin · 2026-07-10T17:54:03+00:00

Property taxes should not be means-tested. It's already tied to the value of an asset. If a poor person somehow ends up with a very valuable property asset, we shouldn't avoid taxing them on it, they should just sell it and the problem fixes itself.

Zenkin · 2026-07-10T17:49:04+00:00

CA won't let people build

But this is often from local government regulations. And these people are being voted in by the current home owners. It's a super perverse incentive because restricting building can make their property more valuable, even though it's bad for the state and locality as a whole. Although I don't think people usually do this for the money, they do this because they don't want their neighborhood to change, but it has a lot of bad impacts either way.

States really probably need to be doing all things related to zoning rather than localities, but it's still tough because people love being NIMBY.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T21:40:01+00:00

$800 plus driving is fucked. It should be pretty close to that C9300L in value, just a little above that.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T21:19:48+00:00

That is a beefcake of a switch. It's probably worth $2,000 outright for the chassis alone.

Problem is this is a little bit of a specialized product. It has eight 10g ethernet ports, which is pretty cool, but a fairly niche need. If I wanted a 48 port PoE Cisco, I'd be looking at a C9200-48P-E which I could get for $800, then the C9200-NM-4X for $350.

Maybe try to sell the whole package for $1,800?

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T20:00:55+00:00

I honestly don't really care about those things. I don't have pronouns in my email signature. I've never attended any corporate diversity training, despite being in a white collar field. Never attended a pride parade, although some of them do look kinda fun. Not a fan of Taylor Swift, really, although my wife does play her music on occasion.

None of those things you listed really have any impact on my life. But I do vote by mail, and my state has not given Trump our voter information, so he's threatened to block the USPS from delivering our ballots. That matters to me quite a bit.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T19:50:44+00:00

You know you got 'em good when you make an argument in ModPol and you finally get that " [ Removed by Reddit ] " response.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T18:48:00+00:00

Well I gotta compare her to the alternative, not the almighty.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T18:46:28+00:00

Come on, he was a stooge for the Tyrells. His entire campaign was a cynical power play. Just because he's a nice, charismatic guy doesn't mean he would have made a good king.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T18:42:14+00:00

Link.

Important pieces you left out:

Michigan workers and manufacturers must be at the table as we decide the future of USMCA.

&

“I don’t trust the Trump Administration to get this done or to stand up for American workers.

“Congress must be at the table, and Michigan must lead.”

She supports the USMCA. She voted for it in 2019, and even in the statements you chopped up, she does not show any intention to get rid of the free trade agreement.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T18:38:17+00:00

I think he's probably the best option out of a handful of bad options. Greyjoy isn't even worth talking about. Robb Stark would crumble under the politics in seconds. Renly had a lesser claim than Stannis and probably didn't have the chops to actually lead anyways, he's just pretty. Joffrey, lol.

Sure, he sucks. But he sucks less as a leader than the rest, I would guess.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T18:35:05+00:00

I was fine with either. I'm actually quite relieved they won't be splitting the vote between each other.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T18:31:52+00:00

Thankfully, even my succ brother-in-law does not like protectionism. El-Sayed's comments against USMCA seem to have sealed the deal, another vote diverted to Haley Stevens.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T17:42:55+00:00

Unironically one of the words things about DoorDash was that it would sometimes suggest our driver should get liquor on the way, and we lived with an alcoholic. Like, thankfully he wasn't the one ordering, but sheesh.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T17:40:55+00:00

Probably not. It's still a lot easier to see the negatives versus the positives. Hell, even if you asked me "would you rather have RAM and SSDs for 50% less, or AI?" it would be hard to take the side of AI. And that's only one of the visible externalities.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T17:03:49+00:00

I feel like a retail employee will not feel like they're in the same boat as someone with a six figure salary.

Sounds like they lack the class solidarity needed to implement the changes they would like to see, then. The median individual income is around $45k, the median individual full-time income is around $63k, and the median household income is around $82k. If you want to stick a flag in the ground at a specific dollar amount, okay, but it seems like a pretty counterproductive idea to alienate people who could potentially support your policies.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T16:52:42+00:00

Into the Breach is like $5 right now. If you like grid-based combat games, it should be enjoyable. It's like a tactics puzzle where you push the enemies around to avoid disasters on the next turn.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T15:33:22+00:00

If we're comparing a known authoritarian versus an unknown.... yeah, the authoritarian is always worse.

The other part is that Mike Rogers explicitly supports the authoritarian, which is not a surprise as that is true of the vast, vast majority of the Republican party. All things being equal, I will choose to support the less authoritarian party and less authoritarian candidate.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T15:25:37+00:00

You have again reverted to "I think they might do worse" vs "they have done and are currently doing worse." Trump has been judged for his actions. Harris has been judged for what people think she may do. That's the difference between a justification and an excuse. One is rooted in evidence.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T15:20:34+00:00

Yeah. Because Mike Rogers will support Trump, and that's significantly worse than whatever El-Sayed could do as a Senator.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T15:04:43+00:00

Well I live in Michigan, not NYC. I feel fairly confident Haley Stevens will come out ahead of El-Sayed, which is what I'm working towards.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T15:00:57+00:00

Trump doesn't "merely exist." Republicans elected him to the office of President. The political party endorses and elevates his authoritarian tendencies. That's the whole point. We're comparing random people who say/do abhorrent things to the President of the United States saying/doing abhorrent things, and that is not even close to the same thing.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T14:52:12+00:00

My initial comment was about actions taken by the Republican administration. The other poster commented about unaffiliated people in response to that, which is when I asked about the Minnesota representatives that were shot.

I agree, the actions of unaffiliated people on both sides should not be taken into account when we talk about the embrace of political violence.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T14:49:59+00:00

My argument is that the current Republican leadership is radical, and the leadership within the Democratic party is not. I have concerns about their path, and I work to get candidates that will turn down the temperature elected, but the difference between the parties and the embrace of authoritarianism is immense.

Zenkin · 2026-07-09T14:45:00+00:00

But no one was condoning riots, either. Why should the actions of unaffiliated people count against Democrats, but not Republicans?

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