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We’reTexas

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by We’reTexas

  1. It ain’t dere no mo’.
  2. I was curious and pulled Amazon’s proxy. Bezos has never received equity compensation. I mean it makes sense, but I was still pretty surprised for a second. He takes a nominal $80k salary plus has company-paid security (which is standard), but has been living off his founder shares for twenty years. Damn.
  3. I’d think it’s almost certain he signed off on it, and chuckled at the credit. I don’t care either way and find it funny as well, but there’s no way his people filed his return without his sign off.
  4. Would a wealth tax regime also pick up private equity funds in which individuals are LPs? I imagine the valuation exercise for that would be a total mess.
  5. That’s actually what I meant (I work on these frequently for clients from the corporate side and was thinking of “operations” in a different sense). I was simply making the point that Microsoft is not a monolithic entity but rather probably a hundred or so entities set up around the world to enable global operations, and tax efficiency and planning of course drive structure. As a corporate lawyer I don’t see anything wrong with that (why would one choose to be less efficient?), but that doesn’t mean I don’t support to concept of increasing corporate taxation either.
  6. It is. Microsoft needs to set up foreign subs in foreign markets to do business. As with many companies, onshoring IP to Ireland has become the most tax efficient structure for non-US operations.
  7. I feel like we glossed over the actual Facebook post he literally copied and pasted from.
  8. June 15 has been the state’s targeted full reopening date and that train doesn’t seem to be stopping. The mask mandate will largely end but given how strict places are here in the Bay I’d bet quite a few places hold onto it for indoors.
  9. No, you literally asserted, without any basis, that CRT curriculum legislation had passed, which was false. Or, you were being conceptually lazy with terminology and making dubious assertion not accepted by those knowledgeable of the subject. And I LOL’d because that basically sums up the article about the WA bill fight.
  10. Yes, I think those “other parents” are morons who watch too much Tucker, not concerned intellectuals with PhD’s.
  11. Look up the proposed state of Jefferson. That area of the country is...something. I was driving through Klamath and saw a Trump 2024 sign...in October. I couldn’t decide if he was really optimistic or pessimistic.
  12. I don’t know why I’m bothering, but: pretrial detention can result in job loss, child custody loss, eviction, excess leverage for plea bargaining, etc - not to mention that the detained are not necessarily guilty. Cash bail is a poverty penalty and disproportionately affects minorities. It affects poor white people too, and that is a concern, but it is the unintentional construct that has a disparate and perpetuating impact on minorities that we refer to as systemic racism.
  13. Let’s not even get into releasing mugshot photos.
  14. Cash bail jesus is DT Texags now?
  15. So is not letting black people vote
  16. What if I were to tell you that providing homeless people with high quality, unconditional shelter actually makes them amenable to seeking treatment, all the while decreasing a city’s cost per homeless (especially chronic homeless) and with the vast majority moving through the system paying for their own housing to some extent? Because that’s exactly what Houston did, decreasing unsheltered homelessness by over 50% and chronic homelessness by over 70% since 2011. Housing First and similar initiatives, the current favored school of thought for attacking homelessness, do not provide a universal solution. It has not proved to be in feasible in California. Maybe it would not be in Austin. But at the very least, an evidence-based approach to reducing homelessness is what we should aspire to. “Homelessness should be hard” or “Why bother helping those who don’t want help” are useless statements from a policy standpoint and frankly belie an understanding of the basics of homelessness: the vast majority (75-85%) get out within a year, because being homeless is awful. The rest, chronic homeless, are generally beset with mental illness or addiction. And homelessness is caused by housing prices. That small group is our focus. If the tent camps get them out of sight and out of mind while costing the city less money in the long run, why do you care? The issue, of course, is whether the plan will work - that’s the conversation. I don’t know. I think it’s a national issue. But the moralism is largely pointless and muddies this debate.
  17. It (“it” being a fully-committed Housing First initiative) worked in Houston. It worked in Utah as well, until they stopped funding it. But that’s just for homelessness, and as BC notes the housing crisis hits the whole spectrum of housing. Most cities are unable to viably address housing on their own, and there is rarely any regional or state cooperation.
  18. Definitely. It’s been a troll word for at least twenty years (remember the RNC’s “RATs” ad?).
  19. He constantly cites his childhood growing up seeing his parents in prison as his inspiration for a career addressing the disparate impact of the justice system on minorities. This is fine, except, as you’re probably aware, that his parents were involved in the murders of three security guards and police officers during the Brinks robbery and he had the privilege of having a stable childhood and an elite education. He has never been able to comprehend the magnitude of his parents’ involvement in those murders and seems to believe they were almost innocent bystanders (that piece was the harshest I’ve ever seen him be on them). He seems unaware the story he sells elicits no sympathy and actively hurts his image, but self-awareness is not the strong suit for a guy who worked for Hugo Chavez’s government and wrote a cringe-inducing book romanticizing it. More to the point, San Francisco is not really a city in drastic need of progressive criminal justice reform. I support many policies and ideas that are considered to fall within that sphere, but I think cities like New Orleans and Baltimore, with significant drug violence and histories of police corruption, are places that need serious institutional restructuring. San Franciscans don’t really care about white collar crime and police brutality because these aren’t problems. Car break-ins, petty theft and violence among the homeless are huge problems, but as you note, these aren’t of much interest to Chesa. It’s important to note that he came to office in a low-turnout special election, so he doesn’t have much of an electoral mandate.
  20. I’d say it’s very high and reached a fever pitch after the hit and runs, which triggered the recall petitions. It’s not necessary his policy stances, it’s just that he’s a very poor vessel for his message and folks really would appreciate a focus on QOL crimes.
  21. Hit up Gris Gris recently - was great. Should definitely fit Brigsten’s in (or Gabriel).
  22. 25% of Austin’s homeless are chronic, meaning they’ve been homeless for over a year (which is much higher than the national average of 15%). So the vast majority get out within a year, using shelters less than six months. The chronic are of course the most visible, but I don’t really know what “choice” means. Homeless will decline services at points in time for a variety of reasons. But in the Housing First initiatives that have had successful federal/state collaboration (Utah, Houston, the national VA program) chronic homelessness has almost been eliminated. So yeah, there’s definitely evidence that chronic homelessness is not intractable, but I don’t know if Austin has shown so far it has the initiative Houston did.
  23. I have actually tried to keep up with it over the last two years, but I don’t live in Austin anymore and I certainly could be off course. But I’ve told him I agree with everything I’ve read him post, except for a specific characterization of homeless demographics. And I suspect I would strongly agree with you as well, because barb aside Austin is certainly perpetuating the disastrous policies of California.
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