A thread for Democrats Only
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 15:36
VIEWED: 755368
PAGE 308 of 725
Quote:
So, government as a control room.
Part of the problem is that we have to decide what we want this control room TO DO. With production plants it's easy: maximize propylene, or maximize gasoline, or maximize GWH given particular feedstocks/ fuels.
But what do you want government TO DO? Some people think our government should sweep in and right all wrongs and "help" people around the world. Other people think our government should make capitalism or the banking system stronger. Some people think we should enhance international trade, or fix global warming.
So....?
What should our government's essential function be? Until you answer that question, you can't possibly start designing anything.
So, any thoughts from anyone on what they think our government's essential function(s) SHOULD be???
I mean, I read a lot of bitching about very specific things (transgeneder rights! plastic pollution!), but so far nobody has come up with anything that sounds like it should be fundamental.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!
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Ah, the sound of silence!
Apparently nobody has ANY idea what they think our government should be doing!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!
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Quote:Texas Democrats picked 11 fundamental things here:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, any thoughts from anyone on what they think our government's essential function(s) SHOULD be???
I mean, I read a lot of bitching about very specific things (transgeneder rights! plastic pollution!), but so far nobody has come up with anything that sounds like it should be fundamental.
1.) Right to Healthcare
Should everyone in Texas have a right to quality healthcare, protected by a universally accessible Medicare-style system that saves rural hospitals, reduces the cost of prescription drugs, and guarantees access to reproductive healthcare?
www.texasdemocrats.org/our-party/party-resources/our-texas-bill-of-rig
hts/
You might want to ask yourself why none of those fundamental rights will become law. There is a famous example from the past that did not become law until events violently forced a decision that did not happen in Congress: ending slavery. The decision was made on the battle field by Confederate Generals. Other countries ended slavery after discussing it rationally in their legislatures. Not the good old USA! Blood had to be spilled. Hundreds of thousands had to die before there was a decision that covered the entire nation, for all times, about slavery. Not a very effective decision making process, was it? Why couldn't Congress make the decision and save all that death and destruction of the Civil War?
Once you get an answer that you believe in to why Congress could not make up its collective mind about slavery, then you will also know why it can't decide today about health care, for example. May I point out that everywhere else in the world, at least in the rich countries, the number 1 item on the Democratic list, Right to Healthcare, has already passed into law many years ago. But not in America! There is something fundamentally wrong with how Congress can so easily delay or forever avoid making decisions. And that has been true since the first Congressional session.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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SECOND ... Jeezus. stop telling me what you think other people think!
What do YOU think? YOU were the one who brought up the "government as a control room" analogy, and posted how badly designed our government is. That implies that you have an opinion on how it could be better, which implies that you have at least some nascent function in mind.
So, what is it?
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!
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Quote:You know how petrochemical plants handle their control rooms? They don't let any old fool get their hands on the controls. They don't have a vote where the biggest and best liar decides for everybody how the plant will operate. And if a fool does find his way into control, he gets forced out of the control room the first time he screws up, on the day he screwed up. The business world doesn't wait 4 years for a decision.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND ... Jeezus. stop telling me what you think other people think!
What do YOU think? YOU were the one who brought up the "government as a control room" analogy, and posted how badly designed our government is. That implies that you have an opinion on how it could be better, which implies that you have at least some nascent function in mind.
So, what is it?
The board of directors, equivalent to Congress, might take 4 years to decide to build a new control room for a new chemical plant, but once it is built and gets through the startup stage where broken pumps are fixed, the plant either runs smoothly or else somebody is fired from their job for being stupid, incompetent, or not following orders from the board of directors, equivalent to Congress.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was founded by those who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, and now includes 13 Nobel Laureates on the board, issued a statement on Thursday that read, "Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society's ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode."
We share a common concern over the failure of the multilateral system to address the existential threats we face. From the US' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, to the deadlock at nuclear disarmament talks and division at the UN Security Council -- our mechanisms for collaboration are being undermined when we need them the most.
On the nuclear threat, we've seen unprecedented brinksmanship over the past 12 months by half a dozen nations, the termination of major arms control agreements, a dizzying proliferation of nuclear weapons, and an unsettling amount of loose talk about the mistaken idea that limited nuclear warfare is somehow possible or "winnable." (That is Trump and his new weapon, the W76-2 warhead www.defensenews.com/smr/nuclear-arsenal/2019/01/28/trumps-new-nuclear-
weapon-has-entered-production/ )
https://thebulletin.org/2020/01/press-release-it-is-now-100-seconds-to
-midnight/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:Well, interesting, you would have (in essence) a Prime Minister selected by Congress. Who gets to be Minister for Defense, and Minister of Foreign Affairs?
SECOND ... Jeezus. stop telling me what you think other people think!
What do YOU think? YOU were the one who brought up the "government as a control room" analogy, and posted how badly designed our government is. That implies that you have an opinion on how it could be better, which implies that you have at least some nascent function in mind.
So, what is it?
SECOND: You know how petrochemical plants handle their control rooms? They don't let any old fool get their hands on the controls. They don't have a vote where the biggest and best liar decides for everybody how the plant will operate. And if a fool does find his way into control, he gets forced out of the control room the first time he screws up, on the day he screwed up. The business world doesn't wait 4 years for a decision.
The board of directors, equivalent to Congress, might take 4 years to decide to build a new control room for a new chemical plant, but once it is built and gets through the startup stage where broken pumps are fixed, the plant either runs smoothly or else somebody is fired from their job for being stupid, incompetent, or not following orders from the board of directors, equivalent to Congress.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!
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That wouldn't solve SECOND's problem.
Congress - as he may not have noticed - is a political body, with political motives and goals. As long as the president is keeping Congress politically happy, nothing else matters. That is the sole standard by which Congress judges a president under his scenario.
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Quote:It seemed to me that SECOND had a flash of inspiration based on his former career about how to make government work better; and I'm hoping he'll pursue that inspiration further; I'm really curious what he has to say.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
That wouldn't solve SECOND's problem.
Congress - as he may not have noticed - is a political body, with political motives and goals. As long as the president is keeping Congress politically happy, nothing else matters. That is the sole standard by which Congress judges a president under his scenario.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME