Flagging documents related to an ongoing criminal investigation involving the President of the US is a completely appropriate action. What happens to the flagged documents is a different matter.

So not only will they lose out on $1.5 billion to use towards making their state survive the next 50 years, they will have to pay back $618 million already spent. What kind of sense is that? This is free money that they are not taking plus a shitload of money they have to pay back that was already spent.

And his reasoning is that it will make it harder to fish for oysters and shrimp. You know what makes it harder to fish for oysters and shrimp? Not having any land left to live on.

And it battles illegal immigration. You’d think they want to stop that, too???

Oh wait, that kind of trafficking hurts brown people so it can stay.

No, it’s about judging people by the actions that actually happen, not by things you think they might do if things were different.

Are you insane or just fucking stupid? Serious question here. Not trying to be insulting.

This entire topic of conversation is about this bill: https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-sheehy-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-guarantee-military-right-to-repair-its-equipment

None of the stuff you posted about or linked about in 80pt font is in the bill everyone else is talking about. The stuff you are ranting about is in the Big Beautiful Bill, which is a different legislative bill that Senator Warren (and every other Democrat) voted against.

Thanks for giving me this interesting and completely worthless rabbit-hole. Now I know way more about the manufacture of synthetic emeralds than I could ever possibly need.

OH! OH!

Can you fashion a rudimentary lathe?

It’s almost like, and I could be way off base here, the Trump administration does not actually know handle major crises like forest fires, even though Trump said he could have handled it better than anyone.

None of those things are involved in this bill. Everything you mentioned is all about the reconciliation budget.

Please say what could have been done on this bill, which is completely separate legislation.

That is only if your mortgage was written that way. I don’t know if mortgages are “usually” written that way, but only my first mortgage had an escrow account.

Because burning ethanol is both dirty and hot. The only reason ethanol is an option is because of corn subsidies. It is hard on the engine and not good for the environment.

Also, battery cars are not unrepairable and are only expensive because manufacturers are focusing on the high-end market. Batteries don’t just die at 10 years. They are just below 80% capacity, which is not that bad. Also, batteries in cars can be replaced. It is expensive, but not that much more expensive than buying a new gas engine and replacing it in a car.

OK, take that Fresnel lens that you were using to melt pennies and then focus it on a PV cell that is also made of metal. What might be the expected response? The science in this case is making PV cells that can handle the intense heat.

It isn’t that. They have been talking about Fresnel lenses on PV for decades. It’s solving the heat issue and the size issue. A Fresnel lens gathers a large area of light and focuses it down, including focusing the heat. Normal PV cells cannot handle that amount of heat.

OK, what should they have done in this case? Please give concrete steps what they should have done.

I agree with you they should have been doing a lot more to deny a functioning government for the last 6 months, but in this case the very best they could have done was not co-sponsor the bill and then vote Yes on it. Because, again, this bill is a GOOD THING. It isn’t the best thing, but it is a good thing.

They ruled that lower court judges only have authority to implement damages/relief for the people directly involved in the cases before them. So a single person challenging a law can only get relief for themselves, and a lower court judge cannot grant relief to the entire country.

This is a judge certifying the legal claims of a class, allowing a class action suit to grant relief to that entire class. In this case, the judge allowed the class to be defined as all people in the US who have been denied citizenship. The next step will be the government challenging the status of the class. The final step will be one of these cases coming directly before the Supreme Court to rule on the law itself instead of ruling on the process of the challenge to the law.

Of all the bad things about this, my favorite was the statement by one of the state representatives who said the reason there shouldn’t be paid sick leave is that you cannot trust people to use paid sick leave honestly. He views all people as so dishonest that they can’t even handle sick leave without cheating the system. I wonder why that is.

Got it. Since what they did wasn’t 100% perfect and a fix to everything, they are tone deaf and terrible politicians. It’s a really good thing what they did, but since it doesn’t help you personally, then it is a terrible thing. They recognized something that needed fixing that will save billions of taxpayer dollars and hurts large corporations, but since they didn’t fix the thing that impacts you then it is bad.

Also, this is the OPPOSITE of sending the message that corporate interests are more valuable. This is saying that corporations that are making billions off taxpayer funded contracts will no longer be able to bilk us (as much).

Yes, they should absolutely go after the right to repair for everyone, but maybe (and I’m just spitballing here) Warren knows that she couldn’t get the Republican majority to vote yes on a full package and went for the win she could get instead of blocking something that does do good. You do realize, right, that the Democrats do not have a majority anywhere in the federal government?

While this isn’t as far as I’d like them to go, this is extremely big news. The amount of money spent on absolute bullshit fees by defense contractors is bonkers. Us taxpayers are shelling out billions of dollars to buy a single jet that we then have to spend millions of dollars per year to maintain, simply because we aren’t allowed to maintain it ourselves.

What is tone deaf about this?

This is exactly right. People have become fixated on their home being an investment and retirement fund. They can’t imagine that it is NOT worth $2M for a 3 bedroom 2 bath with 2 car garage. Also, the last 10 years of mortgage interest rates being lower than the rate of price growth allowed people to guarantee profit. Now that interest rates are higher than growth rates, it’s the opposite.

Some of them have been in those houses for a long time and have decided that they don’t need to sell, so might as well just stay there until the market recovers and they can make a bunch of money again. And if it doesn’t, they are still fine. If this is their primary home that isn’t sitting empty, then I’m fine with these people.

Some of them are just being stubborn and falling into the sunk cost fallacy. They bought the house recently, hoping to flip it. Now they can’t without taking a huge loss, so they will bleed themselves dry hoping the market changes. These people piss me off.