Abuse of Power Behavior, Meet Consequences

Late 2011 I posted about the jackass who pepper sprayed a bunch of kids for absolutely no reason. He was a University of California Davis campus police officer. I'm still stunned thinking about the restraint of each and every one of those students in the video... I'm glad my 20 year old self wasn't there. I'm pretty sure at that age my righteous rage would have gotten the better of me -- I would have tackled and restrained him and probably sparked a riot. It's just difficult to watch one human being abuse another one, doubly so when the abuser holds a position of trust and authority.

I have wondered what happened to that guy and saw this today. I assumed he would be fired and, well, I was right. Turns out he was fired after a stint on administrative leave and went on disability due to stress. The school payed him 38k for disability and ended up settling with the students.

Decisions and Consequences

I don't know all the details-- there were probably confidentiality agreements-- but I do know that HTC opted to start paying patent blackmail (aka patent licensing) fee to Microsoft. HTC's other option was to lawyer up and fight to defend the free and open source operating system on which they based their phones. HTC's phones would not exist if not for the work shared in the commons by scores of companies and individuals.

I got my HTC phone before this all went down, but I'll never buy another. Samsung is the new king of Android based phones now. In some small part, I think HTC's behavior helped that change along.

HTC posted a loss of 101 millon in last quarter. I wonder how many units they shipped? Rumor has it, the patent deal was $5 per unit. I'm betting that five bucks a phone give away is looking pretty bad about now.

I love it...

...when a plan comes together.

"Greyhound officials on Wednesday unveiled plans to shut down the bus station and relocate to the city-owned Green Bay Metro bus depot at 901 University Ave."

Putting these bus depots together is a good thing. I always envisioned a new Greyhound station where Olde North Crossing is now but if there's room in the existing facilities, even better. I believe this will result increased ridership on both Greyhound and Metro, more convenience for the passengers, and reduced costs for both organizations.

The next phase in my mind is a car co-op and/or car rental company in the immediate area and an express bus to the airport.

Like wave bouncing around the ocean, it's hard to know how much of a difference your splashing made. I don't recall anyone talking about this back then but I did. In my own mind, I'd like to think I had something to do with it.

Government Data Collection vs Privacy

Much has been said about how the government isn't grabbing the contents of communications, only the metadata about those communications. The government believes this is ok, to track who is talking to who but not what they are talking about. I do not agree and here's a brilliantly implemented historical perspective on why. Would we be an independent country now if the British had this?

Climate Tit for Tat

We're not sure what is driving global warming and it cannot be linked to extreme weather.

vs.

We know what's causing it and the alarm bells are ringing.

Which is FUD? I get why conservative folks want to deny climate change, they are concerned about the impact a carbon tax or the like would have on the economy-- and the energy business owners that fund their campaigns. What I don't get is how scientists profit by putting their ideas out there. They are simply sharing their view that the longer we wait to manage out of the ground carbon going in to the atmosphere, the worse the impact on Humanity. Where is the ulterior motive for the vast majority of scientists? I see this as a battle of fact based altruism vs moneyed interests. Who do you believe?

Parenting...

...the right way?

Government Overthrow?

The gun lovers think it'll be taking away guns that brings us to revolution.

I beg to differ, I think this trend explains what puts us on a collision course with unrest:



To me, income is income.

Wealth transfer due to death should be taxed as income. I understand this will force liquidation of the family farms and other businesses. I also understand it will begin to break down the forming aristocracy and return us to a meritocratic society.

If corporations share legal rights with individuals, then they should share the same income tax rates too. Make compensation of all citizens (salary and benefits) 100% tax deductible up to 100k or 10x the poverty rate or something.

Flatten the tax rate, give us all, including the corporations, the fist 40k tax free and only tax income earned above that amount.

Other policies that free up wealth and steer it toward providing opportunity for people.

Why? While it would cause quite a stir if government began to crack down on guns for real, I don't think it would be enough to stir the population to rebellion. When the have-nots begin to despair because they come to believe that there are so many resources in the hands of the few that it is impossible to find a job or even take a hand out to eat or feed your children, that's when there will be revolution. I'm not opposed to someone earning, especially if they are creating. I am opposed to people who make money off money having a lower tax rate. I am opposed to aristocracy in the United States. Nobody should be rich just because their great, great, grandparent was and the family hired good money managers. That just doesn't benefit society in any way I can see.