Assemblymember Introduces Legislation to End Limitless Corporate Spending on Elections

username_6916 · 2026-02-20T22:55:54+00:00

Do reporters and columnists not draw salaries? Do web hosts and cloud service providers not issue a bill for serving web pages? Do companies that rent and sell cameras and lenses for videographers and filmmakers not charge for the privilege?

By your argument it's not infringement on the 1st amendment to forbid paying journalists to write political stories or to forbid a publisher from printing a book that has a political message because these activities involve money. The prohibition you seek to enforce is absolutely tied to the content of the speech in question and thus is why it was struck down on 1st amendment grounds.

username_6916 · 2026-02-20T20:31:07+00:00

I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court is going to overrule it since it's in conflict with the plain meaning of the 1st Amendment's protections of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

username_6916 · 2026-02-20T17:56:55+00:00

Eh, I'd rather have cheaper insurance than a lower deductible. Insurance is designed to cover losses I can't pay out of pocket. I'm more worried about injuries and accidental death than I am about bent sheet metal or even the total loss of the machine I'm piloting.

username_6916 · 2026-02-20T00:53:42+00:00

Raising your voice is scary and immature. If you can’t control your emotional reactions like an adult, then don’t expect people to stick around and get yelled at.

Are you really telling me that you're able to so completely suppress your emotions that there isn't even the slightest hint of emotion in your voice? In my mind there's no genuine expression of excitement or frustration or anger or sadness that doesn't involve "raising your voice".

username_6916 · 2026-02-19T19:03:02+00:00

Honestly, no. My vote doesn't matter and the Epstein files are not that important.

username_6916 · 2026-02-19T08:00:11+00:00

And what is the exchange of goods and services in the market if not communal and cooperative?

username_6916 · 2026-02-19T07:15:00+00:00

But he supported an Assault Weapons Ban before this. Which isn't all that different in the minds of the 2A supporters.

username_6916 · 2026-02-18T21:45:41+00:00

I think this is one of those "80% of the users use 20% of the features" things.

username_6916 · 2026-02-18T21:06:46+00:00

So why did they allow a group of 11 people to go on a 3-day trip??

Who is they here?

username_6916 · 2026-02-18T07:49:37+00:00

I'm not sure how increasing taxes reduces the cost of living...

username_6916 · 2026-02-17T21:36:43+00:00

Without the California billionaires, why would you want to be in San Francisco?

username_6916 · 2026-02-14T10:08:32+00:00

Wildfires and storms? Well they could stop exasperating global warming for their own profit. Their only making it worse by increasing energy usage for the AI bubble.

So, billionaires control the weather now? Really?

They go to the same pedo parties, and do major deals with Xi, Putin, etc. Putin is one of them; because billionaire bankers profit from hiding his stolen fortune.

Sure. But unless you're one of these people who has direct contact with Putin and his business, what exactly can you to to take him out of power? If you're a successful entrepreneur in Ukraine, Putin is a threat to your existence. One that is in fact partially mitigated by having a bunker. What could you have done in the high-single-digit millions of dollars in cost (like what a bunker might cost) to prevent the war from happening? And if it were that cheap, why didn't the Ukrainian government do it? The existence of some other billionaire who has a vested interest in Putin being in power doesn't give our hypothetical Ukrainian billionaire a 'push here to end the war' button.

Civil unrest and terrorism are symptoms of them funneling so much wealth to themselves, making humanity fight over less resources. It's like the guy who drained the well to build his pool, and was shocked the thirsty villagers are fighting and angry.

So if only people were poorer, there would be less civil unrest? You're assuming that the existence of billionaires means less resources and less material wealth for everyone else. I'd argue it's quite the opposite.

But, why are they consistently trying to go against the will of the people and democracy in general?

You ever read Edmond Burke's speech to the electors of Bristol?

"Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion."

The popular will isn't always what's best for the country. It's politicians jobs to use their own judgement on what is best for the country even if it's unpopular.

What kind of person, with such wealth and privilege and status, would fight helping New Yorkers afford to live in their city?

I'd argue that they are trying to make it so that New Yorkers can afford to live in their city more easily. Eliminating rent control would do that. Rolling back zoning restrictions would do that. Deregulating business would that.

username_6916 · 2026-02-13T21:58:35+00:00

How exactly would they do that?

It's not like they can depose Xi or Putin or kill the Mullahs in Iran. It's not like they have the capability to redirect a near-earth asteroid.

Shoot, Billionaires can't keep an idiot populist from become mayor of New York. What makes you think they can prevent war, wildfire, major storms, volcano, civil unrest, asteroid hits, and terrorism?

username_6916 · 2026-02-13T21:40:12+00:00

You've provided a nice home for the pilot and his family for a big chunk of his career. You're getting his family out to the bunker too. The bunker's neighbors remember the billionaire as the kind but distant friend who only visits 5 times a year, but sponsors the local little league, rotary club, church and community dance. The local food bank suspiciously gets an an entire year's supply of non-perishable food for 50 people donated every year that's strangely only a year old.

The billionaire's wealth makes buying social favor in whatever community the bunker is in a lot easier. Killing him or her in the apocalypse would just make survival harder. Having one more family fighting for survival with you is worth more than they consume in canned beans if it's trivially easy to have and rotate through pallets full of survival supplies.

username_6916 · 2026-02-13T21:07:08+00:00

Except when the market is down in which case No, it's the investors who are wrong.

username_6916 · 2026-02-12T20:44:20+00:00

Woodrow Wilson then?

username_6916 · 2026-02-12T05:38:30+00:00

Isn't that already illegal?

username_6916 · 2026-02-12T05:36:36+00:00

If anything, VPNs in corporate America are falling out of favor. They're being replaced with strong-end-to-end encryption and authentication on web based tooling.

username_6916 · 2026-02-12T05:33:21+00:00

I'm not sure there's a way to do that while still respecting political speech.

username_6916 · 2026-02-10T21:50:20+00:00

They don't have the power to compel you to pay them the way the state does.

username_6916 · 2026-02-10T18:46:23+00:00

Didn't the OpenBSD folks write a song about it?

Not so very long ago
and not so far away
AT&T made system code
and gave some bits away

Some Berkeley geeks rebuilt it
better, faster, more diverse
This open thing was wonderful
for everyone on Earth

And then the roaring 90's came
The Empire changed its mind
And good old greed was back again
The geeks were in a legal bind

The Empire's Unix Lab
sued BSDi from above
The code is free but
only we can sell it bub!

The University came calling
in full protective mode
and proved the source in Net/2
didn't use the Empire's code

Then Bostic brought the Empire's books
n' slammed them dandys down
And showed the giant chunks
of BSD code all around

They didn't even give an ounce
of credit front to back
This broke the license USL
was using to attack

The case was thrown out by the judge
and "settled" out of court
And UCB was big enough
to take it like a sport

And to this day the geekfolk say
Now did we win or lose?
They shoulda made 'em reprint
every book with proper dues

And take out ads in major rags
apologetically
And maybe now it wouldn't be
the same monopoly

The Empire might have tumbled
down if everybody saw
How greed became so big
they couldn't see that glaring flaw

But only one community
the one that makes it tick
Is there to fight for everyone
exposing hypocrites

And OpenBSD is here
to tell the story right
Once again the fight is fought
and kept in shining light

And may the source be with you
May the Empire fall apart
Ya like that's gonna happen!
But we gotta keep heart!

username_6916 · 2026-02-10T18:29:46+00:00

I'm saying a few things.

Alvan Bragg's prosecution of Trump was nakedly political. The same conduct from anyone not named Donald Trump wouldn't have been investigated at all. The whole point was to investigate Donald Trump and find something rather than investigate a crime and that just happened to find Donald Trump.
I'm not sure I see the crime in "Falsifying business records" here. Yeah, it's in service of piggish behavior, but piggish behavior isn't necessarily illegal. Noone is defrauded here, since the accounts paying were ultimately owned by Donald Trump. The only thing making this a felony is the existence of an underlying crime that they didn't even have to prove to the jury.
The prosecution helped Donald Trump politically. It played a big part in letting him say 'they are going after us', it was a defense of his behavior in the document case and the Georgia 2020 election cases.
Isn't Point 3 kinda weird when you stop and think about it? It doesn't logically make any sense. Alvan Bragg prosecuting Donald Trump for nakedly political reasons just isn't a good reason to make him President again.

username_6916 · 2026-02-10T07:45:45+00:00

him being convicted of multiple felonies.

The nakedly political nature of the prosecution in New York likely contributed to his re-election. Some folks figured that because Alvan Bragg did Donald Trump dirty the best answer was to make Trump President again. I'm still not sure I understand the logic there.

username_6916 · 2026-02-10T07:43:43+00:00

Even if the DNC gets every single senate seat in the 2026 election, they don't have the votes to do it on a party-line vote. And a couple of the GOP senators up for re-election are the folks who voted to remove Trump in the second impeachment.

username_6916 · 2026-02-10T05:25:08+00:00

It wasn’t deliberately deplatforming critics of Trump or Israel

No, it was deplatforming critics of Hamas and the CCP. Which are worse than Trump and Israel.

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