Archive through February 27, 2025
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Non-Game Discussions: Disasters (Current News):
Archive through February 27, 2025
I absolutely support a national ID card! Needed to vote, open a bank account, file taxes, get a refund, or any other government interaction.
When the next Constitutional Convention gets around to making me President-Dictator my card system will include:
Gold: citizen with the right to vote in Federal elections.
Silver: Citizen without the right to vote (convicted felons, under 18, received government handouts in since the previous election, member of the ACLU)
Green: Legal immigrant working toward citizenship, takes 7 years, any month you got a government handout doesn't count). Babies born to them become citizens when the parents do.
Orange: guest worker (includes H1B), allowed to work and pay taxes but required to leave if unemployed for 30 days. Cannot have an anchor baby.
White: Foreign visitor, tourist, student, athlete her to compete in a recognized international event. Cannot have an anchor baby.
Purple Card: Foreign diplomats and military attaches, foreign military in the country for training or other official duties. Cannot have an anchor baby.
SVC, you have government at national and state level. So, a national ID card would not necessary be valid in a state, or/and in contacts with that states institutions, correct?
Also by "received government handouts" you mean the Federal government? Thus receiving help at local level wouldn't stop you from voting at federal level, correct?
A Federal ID is good in a state. There really isn't much use for a state ID other than a driver's license.
Most "local" assistance is federal money, so it would block voting. But state, city, county money that is NOT federal source money would not. However,if the Feds block granted money to the states then the money becomes fungible and impossible to trace, so if a state gets federal block grants to hand out those handouts would block federal voting. Basically, there has to be no way to get around the prohibition of taxpayer money being used to buy votes.
I'd also add that any ID issued CANNOT contain any tracking system or tracking data, or any economic or social scoring system or data.
The Heritage Foundation?
Home to project 2025 and other far right opinions?
The Brennan Center [AN EXTREMELY BIASED LEFTWING THINK TANK) has done a deep analysis showing the Heritage Foundation list is badly done from a statistical and common sense viewpoint.
"according to Heritage Fraud Database: An Assessment. It confirms what numerous studies have consistently shown: Voter fraud is vanishingly rare, and impersonating a voter at the polls is less common a phenomenon than being struck by lightning." etc
Basically, this is more an issue of creating false narratives to justify voter suppression.
That said, I am all for massive criminal penalties for fraud in voting. And a single ID card that covers the whole US.
Does Social Security count as a government handout?
Medicare?
Federal subsidies for production of fossil fuels?
Federal subsidies for SpaceX?
Gator territory? You bet.
Go ahead and delete. It's what Good King Donald would want anyway.
STRIKE ONE for the "King Donald" comment.
Jean
WebMom
There are repeated claims that there is no fraudulent elections. The problem remains that there is (IS) ballot stuffing and ballot harvesting and disposal of legitimate ballots for a candidate that a party does not like.
Folks, you are about ankle-deep in the Political Swamp.
Please step away from the edge.
Jean
WebMom
Social Security and Medicare are programs you paid into. Unemployment up to 26 weeks is not an issue, beyond that time, it would be. Federal subsidies no, they're not the same as payments to individuals. Besides, if I said "yes" to those, you'd be blocking whom from voting, the CEO? Just him? The board of directors? What about all those counter-productive subsidies for wind energy and ethanol? (Of course, I'm going to eliminate almost all subsidies anyway. Enough for development of a new technology, but not for industrial plants that cannot survive in the market otherwise.)
A reminder, people, I got Jean to give us some room to discuss the chaotic current political situation but that does NOT include personal insults like "King Donald" or "Godfather Joe". In future, if you insert these little barbs your entire message will be deleted and you'll get a strike that will eventually exclude you from political posts entirely.
"I oppose his policies because they violate the law" is fine, "I oppose his policies because he's a lying scumbag" is not fine.
A British friend asked me to explain the mechanics of American politics to him as he's confused. (Here's the thing, we all are confused. This is chaos. In chaos there is opportunity.)
Executive orders are the exercise of presidential discretion within the law. One president can say "stop them at the border, make them wait in Mexico, and they'll get a hearing in a couple of weeks" and another president can say "Let them in without checking their histories and give them a court date to show up for a hearing two years from now" and both are legal policies within the limits of the law. A president cannot change a law by dictatorial decree but he can exercise policy to better apply resources to focus on key problems. There are only so many cops, and you can tell them to ignore jaywalking to investigate murders or ignore murders to investigate jaywalking.
Presidents appoint people to the top several layers of offices. The top part of that takes senate confirmation; the bottom 3/4 does not. A president needs the senate to approve the top two or three appointments at the Justice Department but there are about 20 more top positions that serve "at the pleasure of the president" and do not need confirmation. Some offices have specific requirements (e.g., you have to be a lawyer for some things).
To pass legislation, raise or lower taxes, etc., you need a majority of the house and senate(lords). Republicans have 53 of 100 senators and the vice president breaks ties, so Trump can lose the vote of one or two "RINO" senators (Republicans who aren't really conservatives) and still get stuff passed. In the house, the majority is very slim (depending on members who resign, get sick, are traveling somewhere, or whatever) it varies from 1 to 3.
Then you have "the deep state" which is not some secret spy club with a secret handshake but just the civil service bureaucracy that want to protect their own jobs, privileges, and plans. Think "Sir Humphrey" and you'll get it. No matter what President Trump (Prime Minister Hacker) wants to do, Sir Humphrey works to stop it, change it, influence it, derail it, or delay it. Forming a multi-bureau task force to study an issue until the President/PM forgets about it works the same on both sides of the pond.
Everything is focused on the "mid-term elections" in November 2026. These elect all 435 house members (there are five non-voting members we don't need to worry about), a third of the senate, but not the president. In 90% of cases, the party with the presidency loses House seats in the mid-terms, which would mean that the Democrats take over the House, never pass anything Trump wants, and file impeachment against him every month or two. Trump's whole policy is based on beating these odds, and gaining two or three seats instead of losing five or six. Given the disarray in the Democrat party, he might do it. He's banking on the not entirely unreasonably theory that people were so upset with what happened under Biden and will be so happy with what he (Trump) does in the first two years, that they will produce a rare election where the president's party gains seats. Time will tell.
Trump also has a tendency (confusing to us, and more so to non-US people) to carry running jokes too far (like "I'll be a dictator on day one then I won't be a dictator any more" or the current favorite "I don't know, can I run for a third term?") which delight crowds of supporters who know he's not serious and give opponents something to endlessly repeat as if it were something serious. He also has a tendency to repeat numbers he "heard somewhere" without having someone see if they are actually true. He also takes numbers that are true in one context and uses them in a way that makes them fit a different context where they are not quite that. Then you have Elon Musk who tends to think out loud without checking with Trump, for example, to see if Trump would be willing to give $5000 DOGE rebate checks to every household, boxing Trump into corners that he never wanted to be in.
So between sloppy numbers, jokes that went on too long, and Elon throwing out ideas as fast as he can launch moon rockets, there are days when even the closest advisors to Trump don't know what he meant or what the current policy is.
Trump has a new idea, that being that if you want to move to the US legally (and you have boatloads of cash) you can pay $5 million for a gold card (instead of a green card) to go to the head of the line. There are a lot of people waiting in line for green cards, and more than a few would have enough money to buy a gold card. A gold card might also reduce the time it takes to become a citizen.
This is thought to be a good idea because cash would reduce the deficit and help balance the budget. In theory he might sell one million gold cards which would raise five trillion dollars, enough to balance the budget (for a year or three) and start reducing the debt. Sure, it means that the privileged rich get in line ahead of the working families without lots of money, but them's the breaks. Frankly, we need the cash, and frankly, we should not (people like me feel) allow immigrants who have to go on welfare to survive. Trump-45 wanted a merit-based immigration system where priority went to people who had the skills o resources to support themselves without government handouts. Allowing immigrants who bring a lot of cash with them benefits the US and so we could give them the first place in line. Also, this program would supposedly not reduce the number who enter by the non-cash system.
The gold card program would require carefully vetting the gold card applicants so we're not selling the cards to rich criminals.
There currently is a system by which you can buy your way to the head of the line with $1 million paid to the government and more millions invested in US businesses, but that's an indirect benefit to the treasury as they won't start paying taxes for a while and then not in a huge hunk.
So on the gold card, probably going to max out at 5000 people or so for a few years and then it would tail off as you reduce the pool of interested people. 1 million people to generate $5 trillion, uh yeah, no, not even theoretically.
There is a current program that only requires the investment of about $1 million dollars in a business venture, which in general, people would expect to make a return on. This program is saying pay up $5 million of your wealth. I assume you have to get rid of the current program or why would people choose to pay? Also, a couple years ago, only 8000 people chose the current program.
So a person with $5.2 million of easily liquid assets probably isn't interested. Would you give up 95% of your money and leave yourself a relative pauper to become an American? Maybe if you think the Chinese gov is about to take all your money and throw you in jail yes, but in general probably not.
So the people interested in this program probably fall in the Ultra High Net Worth category, ie at least $30 million of investable assets. Hey, we can find a count of the number of these people and it's between 500,000 and 1,000,000 total in the world and 30% to 35% of them already are Americans. Then, unfortunate to say, probably some reasonable percentage of them in poor countries got their money from corruption and crime. Then quite a few others have their money because they own major assets and make income in their current country, just moving to the US may seriously impact their ability to earn future income.
So 5000 cards generates $25 billion, Which small things do add up, but on it's own, this isn't impacting US budget challenges.
That 5 million gold card is PER PERSON? So Ivan Immigrant has to pay for Mrs Ivan, little Ivanoveska and the rest of the kids?
Not sure what the Visa cost is these days to cross the southern border, heard something about 10 years ago saying they increased it to $10 per day....
The fee would help a lot, though they also mentioned, even before the increase, they weren't even charging...
For Dreamers and such that were talked about 10 years or so ago, collect that fee (what a haul from people been here for 20 years or so).....
Commerce Secretary Lutnick claimed yesterday Wednesday that 250,000 are waiting to get a "gold card".
Borscht sales are really going to go through the roof.
IIRC Canada has long had a program that a rather modest amount of business capital could get you in. When Hong Kong was returned to China this was a big deal because a lot of wealthy people in Hong Kong who didn't trust the Chinesse government moved to Canada.
So I doubt that there are many people willing to pay a lot of money for US entry. Canada is not the US, but the advantages are not one sided and for someone desperate to move to the first world, it fits.
While I also doubt how many would sign up, we won't know until the program is started, and I think it would take congressional action.
One wag on GUTFELD suggested that for $10 million we would let you in and forever block your spouse from entry.
I think a better way to raise $5 trillion would be to sell California to someone, maybe Denmark.
Since the subject of a Federal ID has been brought up...
Some years ago, now, I got so paranoid about on-line identity theft that I tried promoting the idea of an "Information Superhighway Driver's License" as a physical attachment (USB type drive) that people would need to use to go on-line. All on-line activities would have a user prefix associated with it, and the device would record all activities on-line that the person using it used.
Computers on-line would be required to utilize these devices before allowing someone to go on-line.
On-line capable computers would also be required to have biometric scanners (fingerprint swipes) to verify that the person using a particular "Information Superhighway Driver's License" was the person authorized to use it.
These devices would be reregistered once a year, and at that time, a 1% sales tax* on all on-line purchases would be assessed as a way of funding this program.
(*This would make it a purely voluntary tax! 
Of course, the rate suggested would likely NOT be the rate adopted by the politicians, but it is just a suggestion...)
Why have such a system? Well, should there ever be a question about some on-line activity, these devices, with their built-in memory, would be able to prove that someone, in fact, had NOT done a particular on-line activity; it can, in theory PROVE innocence!
While it might seem overly complicated and may restrict some on-line transactions, I think that it's simple enough to just plug it in whenever you go on-line, swipe a finger, and you're good to go. The only place where it could cause problems is with those portable credit card reader, but even there, after an implementation time period, most small businesses that use those things should have upgraded readers with a plug-in USB port and biometric scanner, so it shouldn't be a big thing.
(Of course, when I first tried suggesting the idea, nobody listened, and my Asperger's based inability to work social media prevented me from pushing it in any way. 
)
(Still does...)
SVC, "The gold card program would require carefully vetting the gold card applicants so we're not selling the cards to rich criminals." I see the flaw there. It is said no one get rich by honest work, in these times that is more true than ever.
Sorry Jeff....
That sounds pretty Communist to me....
People want government out of their lives,
not getting more control....
Quote:Steve Cole (Stevecole)
..."RINO" senators (Republicans who aren't really conservatives)...
In my observation, over the last two decades, RINOs have largely disappeared, yes you can point some out, but there are no where near as many as there use to be.
The bigger issue now are Conservatives that will not vote yes on bills, that they consider to not be conservative enough.
Denmark cannot afford California, but California is considering buying Denmark. California paid $692 billion to the Federal Government in 2022 - that could easily leverage 5 trillion in bonds. Also it is 13% of all Federal revenue from states. What a great idea!
An understandable viewpoint, Bolo, but the main purpose of these IDs is to give honest people the ability to protect themselves from criminals. The government interaction is to give honest people the means to get the government to actually DO something about identity thieves.
As it stands right now, the government already knows everything I do on line. Every video I watch, it's on a Federal record. Everything I post here, word for word, goes into a Federal file on me. Heck, THAT's why the government allows the Internet to exist!
Right now, if someone DOES "Pretend" to be me on-line and does something "Unacceptable," I'm on the hook for it because it's impossible for me to prove it WASN'T me who did the wrong. This is just a proposal to give me SOME way to have some evidence that the action that occurred didn't actually involve me; if I have no physical way of doing anything on-line that DOESN'T go into this hard record/"Black Box," then anything NOT on this box can't really be me.
ADM: Last I heard, two of the 53 Republican senators qualify and the problem is definitely not conservatives who say things are not conservative enough. That sort of happened in the House two years ago but there were just as many RINOs as ULTRAs. The "no more RINOs" thing is clearly a myth. There are plenty of them.