Quick Jots: February 2021 review
Socialized salary doesn't work (again)
A company in London was formed around the idea of equal pay in a socialistic pay structure. It worked out fine when it was just the founders, as one would expect from a small group of like-minded people that set out on this mission that they mutually agreed to. When they expanded, they ran into problems when technical staff was paid the same as clerical staff and differing work ethics were rewarded the same. They received floods of applicants for clerical work and struggled to find people to fill technical positions. Who would have guessed that supply and demand still apply in the labor market? I fully support socialists to carry out their experiments in their own ventures and fully support them either failing or adapting. When they force it on all of us, we're all screwed. There is no way the government is going to choose the adapt route.
Christine Underwood: the hero we need, not the hero we deserve
The police in the city of Mooresville, North Carolina rifled through Jermaine Sanders's car and seized half an ounce of marijuana and almost seventeen thousand dollars in cash. So the police stole it. Just another day at the office. Sanders sued the city to get his stuff back and city officials transferred the cash over to US Customs and Border Protection the day before the judge ruled against the city. It then claimed it did not have the money so it could not give the money back. Good to know that if you steal money and then launder it, no more crime! You get to keep the money! Why give it to the CBP? North Carolina has a law against civil asset forfeiture where local jurisdictions cannot keep the money they seize, but local police often team up with federal agencies for their heists, where they give forfeited assets to three-letter federal agencies and the agencies cut the local jurisdictions back into the deal. The judge, Christine Underwood, when the case returned because the city refused to pay the money, found the city in contempt and stated that she was not afraid to throw city officials in prison, including its commissioners and the police chief. HELL YES!! I don't know anything else about her judicial philosophy, but if I were to become POTUS, she would be in the top tier for my SCOTUS. I have no desire to be president. Sorry, Christine. It's the thought that counts?
Gavin Newsom recall effort
According to those working the recall effort, the recall drive surpassed 1.5 million signatures as of mid-February, exceeding the amount needed to force a recall vote. However, many of these votes will likely be discarded due to technicalities as Newsom's teams furiously work to invalidate as many as they can. The rest of the month as well as the first half of March will be crucial to gain as many signatures as possible to make up the to-be-vacated signatures. When I was shown a picture of the palettes of petitions stacked up, I was wondering why I was being shown a picture of the omnibus bill.
Equality Act would destroy freedom of association
I heard, in passing, some talking heads at MSNBC criticizing Republicans for opposing the Equality Act, expressing dismay that they thought we were past anti-gay sentiment. I don't know if they just never read past the bill's title and just know the surface of it, or what, but the bill doesn't just insert LGBT into the Civil Rights Act protections. Yeah, that's what most media outlets are reporting, but as usual, they don't dive very deep into the bills. The Civil Rights Act covers government and otherwise public areas as well as certain private establishments where Jim Crow segregation was widespread. The Equality Act would expand the application to nearly every business, effectively ending freedom of association when money is involved. Sorry, Jewish baker, you have to bake that Nazi cake. Sorry, Muslim baker, you have to bake a cake with the image of the prophet Muhammad. Sorry, black shop owner, you have to cater to White Nationalists. Also in the bill is the ban of utilizing religious freedom as a cause for refusing service. I never liked religious exemptions (if a law is not needed for certain groups of people, it is not needed at all), but if it allows some people to retain some freedoms, I'm for it, given our otherwise oppressive nature of this country. It's no surprise that MSNBC hosts and guests once again completely ignoring any kind of nuance, proving again that they view the world through cartoon lenses. Yeah, some, perhaps many, Republicans are homophobic and transphobic, but to not even consider these other clauses with large negative ramifications is disappointing, yet entirely predictable.
