No one is "at work" when you're listening to the national anthem. These guys don't punch a clock in a conventional sense. Are they at work at the gym? Are they at work in the off season when they run hills with Jerry Rice? Now to pivot to the current in a very real way: is a high school student at school when she posts something to instagram that her Cheer Coach doesn't like (of course, while not at school)? Can high school students still wear a black arm band to high school any more even?! I am very much a believer in free speech, and I won't let hypocrisy in any way get in the way of it, unlike republicans or even our current Biden administration does today (who supports the schools to censure students in mentioned scenario of intruding on the free speech of students who make said speech off the school grounds). These statist big brother types never know when to stop. Sorry, just a small comment - I agree with what you're saying overall.

This can't be, he told us "It’ll start getting cooler. You just watch"? You mean he can be wrong? He lied to us?!

It is hard to specifically tax the rich, but what we can do is make this section of the economy have less of an obvious advantage. We need to pass online sales tax reform (higher than your typical state and municipality), that would be able to hit this revenue of these companies. I doubt there's an appetite for a higher capital gains tax, and taxing the high end earnings is rife with loopholes too. But a sales tax has no loophole. This would then give main street a fighting chance.

I don't know... when the stock market was looking like it was in the middle of a major crash, and the economy would tank, the Fed started buying junk bonds. That's a lot of compassion. /sarcasm

Sure, but they'd have to Filibuster it. If we can propose workable *No*Loophole* tax reform the republican base would support it too. They hate Amazon and Bezos more than the rest of us. We need an online, federal level, tax code for sales tax that can reform the incredibly messy system of state and local taxes we have today. It needs changed. Buy goods locally, do it as today - but by adverts online, azure time, goods from Amazon or ebay, then you should pay the online sales tax... say 7% or something reasonable. This isn't very regressive, and can easily be covered by tax code policies in place like the standard deduction and child tax credits for example. They could setup a new system to send some of the revenue down stream if they need to, but it basically already exists today. There is a lot of federal funding already that goes down to state and local programs.

Linux today is in essentially the same spot it was twenty years ago. Desktop is non-existent, as if Microsoft or Apple tried to deliberately scuttle its success by wastefully misdirecting effort on Gnome3 and leading everyone down a path of frustration. So, great analogy? As for EV cars, last I looked the model I liked (VW eGolf) had horrible range and wasn't even sold in my area. The charging infrastructure for the longer trips I would like to take is still inadequate, or problematic at best. I agree with higher posts, there needs to be some range breakthroughts to really push the issue. If I were buying a newer/new car today I would probably still go with gasoline. As a second car for our family electric actually makes a lot of sense. If it'd be a sub $20k car/hatch along the lines of a KIA Forte or a VW Golf it's perhaps feasible and they're almost there. I personally wouldn't buy a $30k+ Tesla as a second car, but I can see how others could swing that.

This "accrued debt" and its consequences belongs to all of us ass hole. Please think a little longer before posting such drivel.

I have come to believe, that issues of fair taxation are the most important ones that need addressing in America. In particular it should entail a nuanced approach utilizing Sales Tax, Value added taxes, and Property Taxes. These seem to be the hardest to "escape" in some Amazonian cheat the system kind of way. As your regular American with a house in the "burbs", i know proportionately I am hit much harder on property taxes than a farmer is. Their MILLIONS in land value is just given a passing glance on property taxes - and perhaps rightfully so but I feel they're cheating at the "taxes" game too and getting by on a very low property tax rate. The Trump tax changes, for now, have benefited me and my family but that could easily go away and is slated to. Regardless, the goal should be to simplify, reduce the gains from special interest lobbying and make taxation in America easier to understand and address. Lastly, this endless game of low/no taxes and fiscal deficits needs to be drawn closer to a 3% of gdp normal. A future of hyper inflation sounds very scary, and very likely.

Prices per KW for wind energy is super low. The markets have effectively already priced in a discount for the lack of "reliability" of wind energy. Yet we still build more wind supply, because it is so helpful when the wind does blow. This makes the rest of the grid more complicated but it is still worth doing, because wind energy is so cheap. This attempt to shift costs further reads like shameless politics to me. (For all I know other games are at play too though, like renewable credits - though wind expansion continued under Trump so it is likely not that crazy.)

Pretty much everything period. It would be a tax on everyone.

I do not like this argument, it is incomplete and wrong. A consumer who lives minimally and only buys (for example) groceries should only help pay the truckers tax for their grocery trucking, and not support the lumber, automobiles, etc. Taxes should be paid by those most in proportionate benefit. This tax should not be spread wide like a blanket covering all, but by their specific consumers. Caveat: I am not sure this rule applies always, like for example to pay for public schooling (the benefit of such is for all, and a directed cost to young families would be harder to bear) but in cases like commerce I believe it applies.

Back on topic, these road use taxes for EV I feel is fair. Especially in northern climates it is used for things like snow removal which EV cars still benefit from. Our state of South Dakota also recently setup a $75 use tax for a similar reason. Not egregious in price, but I feel reasonable to help pay for basic road maintenance and use.

The difference, if I recall correctly, is that there are actually scenarios that Al Gore could've won. Trump lost more than one swing state. He lost rather handily. His path to victory did not exist. But he did not concede in any meaningful way, in any meaningful time line but instead fought things to the bitter end. To my view of things Gore showed a lot of class and handled things quite well. It may be true that some democrat supporters were bitter but the situation played out much differently.

To pivot slightly, the thing I am finding the most concerning today is editorial bias in news coverage. The choice in what gets covered is very problematic, the particular titles applied to the stories, and then also the content of the articles. The "preaching to the choir" has such an amplified effect. People likely do not even read the articles, the whole article, or the variety of sources any more. But these factors would lead people to have certain views on the world that is totally out of context. (i'm ignoring facebook and such - i'm not on facebook or twitter and surely could not stand it either. just talking about npr, breitbart, foxnews, etc)

This whole line of thinking is utterly catastrophic and rife w/ moral hazard. We didn't "need" to bailout the airlines. The same rules that work on a personal level should apply to coorporations. Events like this naturally exist and ought to make the weak fail and the strong survive. We cannot reward risk w/ socialized bearing of the failure. (Same w/ Texas and their power grid...) Airline margins shouldn't be razor thin, they shouldn't pass out dividends during the good times the way they did. Doing all of this only serves to benefit the jet setting public in an unnatural way and they should pay more for their frivolous vacations.

To this I totally agree, don't give out free money. Those that think they need a bailout should issue stock that the government buys that is later sold at some predetermined rate of release over some particular delayed window of time. This causes the original share holders to have to take an immediate loss due to the asset dilution. Their risk must be "rewarded."

From what I understand: if your path to literacy begins in the classroom it is already game over. Toddlers need read to a lot. An average of twenty minutes a day is the number at which children are on a path to success. This needs to be drummed into parents across this and every nation. If you read to your kids a lot (parents need to be very literate and love reading too) your kids will love it also and probably (from my experience) learn to read more easily and sooner. Parents don't realize this, and the schools do way too little to help children catch up. They often don't even diagnose this problem till its too late. Furthermore it should be your goal to expand your child's vocabulary (another marker for success) as early as possible, and books are a great facilitator.

The more I have learned about these issues, the more I believe this whole system is rigged for failure. Parents, and parents alone bear this responsibility. It is very hard to fix or address later. You can't just hand off your kid to kindergarten and hope for the best. It is too easy to rant and rave about school funding, and all the other things like white privilege, and ignore the damage already done. Some places are trying to expand pre-k schooling which would help get to kids in need of this help sooner, but its much cheaper if parents would realize their role in this.

I prefer the predecessor story of Edgar McFadden which is much, much less known. His Hope Wheat he gave away, he successfully crossed a wheat with an older wheat that gave it stem rust resistance and then kept developing it. One plant survived in his land-lady's garden. It potentially saved millions from starvation during the World War 2 years. He likely doesn't receive his credit due, because he didn't have a doctorate, which is a crying shame. For a good video see the McFadden Symposium video on Youtube.

Everyone on here going to extremes, or using gross generalizations to push their political talking points should just stop. This situation is fairly simple: should Texas winterize everything? Probably not. Do they need to winterize their power plants? Yes. Do they need to winterize all of their fossil fuel production? Probably not. Does our power grid need to be modernized? Yes. (See Trump, and the coal lobby, and their cancellation of the Seams Grid Modernization study. Which would've helped in this case too, get excess power from elsewhere into Texas.)

I absolutely HATE how politics in America is so partisan, no one examines anything and just jumps to their attack positions as if we've all been listening to Rush Limbaugh all afternoon. It is a disgrace. Grid modernization probably falls under the purview of a "Green New Deal" so instead of considering its merits the right will just try to shout the whole thing down. God forbid Republicans go along with ANY Biden policy positions, that'd give the Dems a stronger chance in the mid terms. I abhor what Democracy in America has become. Have fun sleeping in the bed we've made, it's awful cold.

Does anyone remember articles like this? https://www.theatlantic.com/po... We should not forget that the things the national electrical grids needs to be improved for situations just like this, those plans were scuttled due to the Coal lobby's influence with the Trump administration. Texas must really like the flavor of crow. (See Ted Cruz and his "I have no response" to his previous civilization attack on CA.) I feel sorry for everyone hurt by this disaster. But this political blame game gets us no where. We must remember the details and try to do better next time. (This would include that the Green New Deal money, if it happens, be spent wisely.) People complain about wind power, but as long as the price of wind stays so low, you can guarantee that the industry will love to buy it and use it when the weather is nice. We should make the improvements needed for the times things aren't so nice. In the meantime I would guess Texas still won't want to spend the money to winterize.