domain:infonomena.substack.com
gattsuru
12m ago
Ah, thanks. This event happened in Minnesota, and the victims were Minnesota State Senators. Not sure how I goofed that up after linking to the Minnesota senate.
sun_the_second
13m ago
Whatever you call that option, having it compared to not having it is freedom.
pusher_robot
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS
17m ago
They can't (legally) vote, but they do count towards apportionment.
The_Nybbler
In the game of roller derby, women aren't just the opposing team; they're the ball.
29m ago
If you want Americans to suddenly start taking mass transit, build trains(not busses) going from commuterville to the downtowns everyone actually works in
Of course this requires that you have that hub and spoke system. Once you have a significant number of suburb to suburb commutes, you can't even do that.
The_Nybbler
In the game of roller derby, women aren't just the opposing team; they're the ball.
30m ago
Well except subways (or streetcars, or even buses if done well) which you have a great example of across the Hudson.
Not really, no. The subways in Manhattan work because it's a long and skinny island with very high density. Once you're outside Manhattan there are large areas poorly served or unserved by the subways even in NYC.
kky
34m ago
I agree it’s complicated. My area is in fact building, if slowly, and localizes said building to defunct industrial zones. I certainly don’t oppose that, and even certain renovations to older areas. Obviously it’s better than unending penury for people on the margin. And just as obviously, new things need to be built for realistic amounts of money. You have my full deference on these points.
But it gets on my nerves a little, the YIMBY assertion that these population shifts are just a fait accompli, that there’s nothing to do but adjust. Because from my perspective, there are large companies which have an easy time justifying investment and expansion in these specific major areas which have generated the crisis as a side effect of their operations. Which, you know, I get, it’s just how things go, the strong will crush the weak without noticing, it’s just a matter of size, and at that scale you can’t care about every little feeling. Believe me, I get it. But at the same time, I expect more of our leaders, you know?
There’s one software company, out in WI, whose founder decided to just stick in the area. So they have, and have pulled money in. There’s a town close to me, fairly cheap, lots of universities, where you could probably stick a cool tech campus. Pull in some kids out of college for reasonably cheap, do good work. Short train ride from the big city. Why don’t we have that here? Is it just that this one founder was part of the Ubermenschen and everyone else is stuck with Last Men? Don’t we deserve more? Actually, don’t answer that last one.
I appreciate the conversation, by the way. You were respectful on the differences, brought receipts, and read what I wrote over just using it as a way to launch into polemics. It’s very much noticed and appreciated.
Skibboleth
It's never 4D Chess
41m ago
So what's the deep, unresolved tension surrounding keeping noncitizens in the country?
The competing interests and preferences of nativists, anti-nativists, employers, consumers, etc... combined with a deadlocked political system that effectively leaves immigration policy up to the caprices of executive discretion.
Is there any reason other than "it helps us win elections?"
What is that supposed to mean? Illegal immigrants can't vote, so the "importing voters" theory doesn't hold up so well, and their mere existence alienates the xenophobe vote, so it's hard to call it a winning electoral strategy. Even if you think they're wrong, you should probably take immigration advocates at their word when they offer humanitarian and economic justifications for supporting immigration.
hydroacetylene
47m ago
I mean, we then have to compute 'how many illegal children are in public schools'.
I'm totally willing to believe illegals are consuming more in taxes than they pay in. Just want to point out that the math hasn't been done.
sockpuppet2
50m ago
Then would the Cybertrucks be what makes this vision "dystopian?"
hydroacetylene
50m ago
Americans will not do these things, and throwing money at it won't work any better than it does for public schools.
If you want Americans to suddenly start taking mass transit, build trains(not busses) going from commuterville to the downtowns everyone actually works in, boost ridership through heavy advertising as a premium for avoiding traffic, with tickets only sold as monthly passes, and fare evasion punished harshly.
This will not happen. Most Americans like driving, they like privacy in their own cars, and they aren't particularly price sensitive. Mass transit for traffic reduction suffers from the free rider problem and mass transit for cost reasons will never see widespread adoption in a country where even the very poor have cars.
hydroacetylene
56m ago
Texas.
Ah, you enjoy breaking the speed limit while the other drivers pass you constantly.
hydroacetylene
1hr ago
It sounds like all of Latin America- this is probably pretty standard for developing countries.
dr_analog
razorboy
1hr ago
A family of illegals with two kids in public school consumes $4000 a month in taxes from that alone and I don't think the taxes raised or economy activity generated by their strawberry picking even comes close to recouping that cost.
It's true the poor Appalachian white family that's been here for eight generations doesn't either, but we can't really argue over whether or not they should have been allowed in.
Hadad
1hr ago
Conceptualizations of freedom and what it entails varies significantly person to person, so I won't dispute your take. Absent freedom, my point's the same.
Hadad
1hr ago
I don't share that take. I've noticed a steady rise over the years in left-wing violence, and seen how it's correlated with a steady rise in the left getting their way on various matters of national significance. I look to history, where violence is both the cause of and solution to many problems. Violence is costly, enormously costly, if you don't perfectly get away with it -- but the rewards are high.
hydroacetylene
1hr ago
Yes, people complain about it. Sometimes it seems like ultra-online blue tribers looking for something to get upset at pickup truck drivers for and sometimes it's people making complaints about holding up the flow of traffic in high-entrance times when head-in parking would be faster. The latter complain much more calmly.
I've also seen 'head in parking only' signs which seem like they exist mostly to make checking parking permits easier.
Hadad
1hr ago
I don't know to what extent Walz cared about his appointment or knew who he was, so I didn't theorize on it. It's possible he's just a rubber stamped crazy that slipped through the cracks or got radicalized in office.
AvocadoPanic
1hr ago
sexual freedoms
Slavery to lust and degeneracy is not freedom.
fmac
1hr ago
Personally I find drivers with aggressive agency to be incredibly rare.
I find most people are incredibly unaware of their surroundings. I've started to pay close attention to the delay between the light turning green and people going (or the car in front of them moving and them going), so many people's reaction time is measured in actual seconds.
I'd posit most of the times I'm cut off it's not a deliberate choice to shark me, they just didn't look at their mirrors or blind spot. We also have a ridiculous # of uber drivers from India who I shall politely say drive with less conscientiousness than is perhaps ideal.
I'm Canadian but I was actually just in Texas and I was driving there. It was quite fine, people were normal and orderly.
I hope to never drive in a place where someone signalling to change lanes is an challenge to do everything in you can to prevent them entering though. I really cannot emphasize enough how much of a lose/lose that culture is. Take that shit to the third world.
He has ties to Tim Walz and the greater Democratic Party. Still no released motive.
The connections to Walz are so weak that it's basically misleading to just say without stating the context. As Fox 9 reports https://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-lawmaker-shootings-suspect-id-ap
Boelter was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton in 2016, then reappointed by Gov. Tim Walz in 2019 as a private sector representative to the governor's workforce development council, with the term expiring in 2023. The Governor’s Office appoints thousands of people from all parties to these boards and commissions – the workforce development council has about 60 people on it. They are unpaid, external boards that the Minnesota Legislature creates. They are not appointments to a position in the governor’s cabinet.
I don't know Minnesota politics too well but it says right here in the original law (relevant at 2016 during the time of the appointment)
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/2014/cite/116L.665
In selecting the representatives of the council, the governor shall ensure that 50 percent of the members come from nominations provided by local workforce councils. Local education representatives shall come from nominations provided by local education to employment partnerships. The 31 members shall represent the following sectors
So high chance even Dayton had little connection besides basically rubber-stamping the recommendation from a local council, and then Walz just renewed it. Even then, you can't really expect and aren't vetting for random businessmen on a random workforce development council you're appointing them for to start shooting people.
hydroacetylene
1hr ago
Or- what most educated people believe- that illegals mostly pay taxes but don't collect much benefits because they aren't eligible and like to retire to their home countries(which are cheaper). This leaves stuff out like the cost of their children's public school education but there are true things in it and the actual numbers don't seem to have ever been crunched in an unbiased way. There's also the take that illegals are necessary because somebody has to pick strawberries and kill chickens and Americans are too spoiled to.
fmac
1hr ago
Well except subways (or streetcars, or even buses if done well) which you have a great example of across the Hudson. NJ transit doesn't suck because transit is inherently bad (might I introduce you to Europe or Asia, mostly Asia). It sucks because Americans refuse to fund it properly and instead triple down on driving.
And then also hate driving, lmao
Also bike lanes (we're back baby) scale amazingly, they have significantly higher throughput for the area they occupy.
hydroacetylene
1hr ago
The riots in 2020 were generated by preexisting real(if not exactly grounded in reality) grievances the black community- yes all of it- had with contemporary American governance. That's not the case for the 2025 protests.
You're forgetting that downtowns are dying. Prominent transit critic Randal "Antiplanner" O'Toole has proposed for several cities bus plans that have many small hubs rather than one big hub.
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