letsmakeafriendship

joined 1 year ago
[–] letsmakeafriendship -1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm all for corporations and the rich paying their fair share. But unless this is being matched by other states, it will just cause capital flight to those states. That's jobs and capability Oregon won't get. It will be one of many factors companies consider when asking which state to incorporate and operate in. The Oregon market is an easy one to ignore, we're not exactly a huge state, we have just over 1% of the national population. This is the kind of legislation that can only work in markets companies can't afford to leave, huge markets like California or Texas. There's a reason OR gets in bidding wars with other states over the siting of a new Intel fabrication facility etc: the state with the most favorable operating conditions gets the jobs.

A quick read of the bill text and I find "Less than $500,000, the minimum tax is $150". That's $150 for every small LLC, business with 1-3 employees, etc. It doesn't matter if your LLC is profitable or not, you're paying $150/year for the privilege of existing. Even if they lost money in the past tax year. This is in addition to existing costs you already incur like having to pay for payroll software to deal with the immensely complex state and local tax system, costs to file incorporation paperwork, and the costs for a 'registered agent'. This will hurt small businesses and startups, no doubt. California had a similar incorporation tax, and it's one of many reasons why companies try to incorporate out of state.

Why not include an exemption for small businesses or those with extremely thin profit margins? Or for those who lost money that year? You'd have to ask the petition authors that.

Who runs small LLCs?

  • Small businesses, restaurants, food trucks
  • Your local plumber, contractor, painter, tutor, or other independent contractor.
  • Private landlords renting out a single unit. People who rent out rooms in their home and want the additional liability protection.
  • Food co-ops, housing cooperatives, local sports clubs, and other forms of cooperative organizations
  • People who use the anonymity provided by LLCs to escape domestic violence, stalking, etc.

"[Democracy] can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage"

8
submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by letsmakeafriendship to c/eugene
 

If you're like me, you loathe doing meal prep every week and often end up making food choices that are bad for your health or expensive because you once again neglected to keep your stash of fridge food going. And so maybe you have come to the conclusion it would be better to pay somebody else to do the prep so you always have tasty meals ready for you. I did some research on local places that do this, sharing this in hopes that somebody else finds it useful. If anybody has experience with these places or other places they suggest, I'd love to hear about them.

Prices shown are approximate. Note that I am using "serving" like the USDA uses it. A chipotle burrito, for reference, is around two "servings".

Ivys Cooking ($6-$15/serving, free delivery, minimum spend $14) http://www.ivyscookin.com

Pickup weekly (Wed) or get free delivery (Thurs), “home-cooked meal” vibe but still very professional. Minimum order of one meal (two servings). Great vegetarian options. Also offers additional "product boxes" you can add to your order for $10 and some items like jam, jellies, etc.

$28 for Entree of 2-4 generous servings ($7-$14/serving)

$38 Family Size (4-6 servings) - $38 ($6-$10/serving)

Sprout Kitchen (willamette and 25th) sprout-kitchen.com ($6.50/serving, minimum spend $13)

New restaurant w/ meal plan option focus on modern/gourmet. Each meal is around 2 servings. $13 each so $6.50 per serving. While food has some focus on being healthy, surprisingly no vegan or vegetarian options when I looked. Pickup weekly.

Glenwood Restaurant (25th and Willamette) ($5.25/serving, $21 minimum spend) https://www.glenwoodrestaurants.com/

Choose from one of two meal combos each week, with vegetarian option available.

$21 and designed to ‘feed a family of four’ so let’s assume that’s $5.25/serving.

Chipotle Catering (several locations) ($4.50/serving, minimum spend $90)

Thought I'd consider this one as well for fun. Good veggie options. $8.50/burrito if you order 10. Each burrito is two servings. So that’s 4.50 per serving. Or you can order a bunch of ingredients and put them on tortillas of your choice (taco or burrito). This is $12.00 “per person”, which I’m going to assume is two servings, so $6/serving. Minimum order is a $90-$120 depending on which boxes you get. Of course, a single burrito is $9.85 so you're not really saving much with their catering options. With some creative use of gift cards you could probably get yourself a 10-20% discount here as well.

Honorable mention:
Erin’s table (local meal kit service) https://www.erins-table.com/faq

 

The bill was widely endorsed by the crypto and financial industries alike for providing much needed regulatory clarity. Looks like it passed anyways with rare bipartisan support and is now headed for the senate.

OR's house reps and how they voted

Salinas (D) - NO

Bentz (R) - YES

Blumenauer (D) - Abstain

Bonamici (D) - NO

Chavez-DeRemer (R) - YES

Hoyle (D) - NO

Axios article about the bill:

https://www.axios.com/2024/05/22/crypto-legislation-fit21-house-passes

Some other relevant background info:
https://www.dlnews.com/articles/regulation/us-house-passes-sweeping-crypto-fit21-bill/

Vote record if you want to look up your rep:
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024226

Among other things, the bill establishes:

  • Clear ways to determine if a crypto asset is a security or not, and a process for making that determination. If a crypto is a security, it is subject to many more regulations and laws which are needed to protect investors.
  • Clear ways to determine is a crypto exchange is actually an exchange, money transmitter, or other entity subject to regulation and what those regulations are
  • Which federal agency even has jurisdiction over crypto assets
  • That sufficiently decentralized cryptos (like Bitcoin) are exempt from many securities regulations. This is because a decentralized cryptocurrency can't rugpull you or otherwise collude to harm whatever investments one has made in them. When you think about bad crypto scandals like FTX, exchange collapses, and other rug pulls, they are all a result of centralized actors taking advantage of the trust of others. Decentralized, trustless systems like Bitcoin do not have this flaw as one does not need to trust a select set of centralized actors to faithfully and transparently administer the system. There is no single entity or set of entities, for example, who can make new Bitcoin which is not meant to be minted according to the Bitcoin protocol or force the transfer of funds from one user to another.
  • Likewise would exempt "decentralized exchanges" from securities regulations as there is no trusted centralized intermediary who can rugpull investors. One might use a decentralized exchange, for example, to swap BTC to ETH or another cryptocurrency. They are fast, transparent, and efficient.

Personally I vote straight D on the ballot, I was disappointed to see my reps vote against this bill and surprised to see Rs voting for it.

 

This bill has passed the US house with rare bipartisan support and is now headed for the senate.

Axios article about the bill:

https://www.axios.com/2024/05/22/crypto-legislation-fit21-house-passes

Some other relevant background info:
https://www.dlnews.com/articles/regulation/us-house-passes-sweeping-crypto-fit21-bill/

Vote record if you want to look up your rep:
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024226

Among other things, the bill establishes:

  • Clear ways to determine if a crypto asset is a security or not, and a process for making that determination. If a crypto is a security, it is subject to many more regulations and laws which are needed to protect investors.
  • Clear ways to determine is a crypto exchange is actually an exchange, money transmitter, or other entity subject to regulation and what those regulations are
  • Which federal agency even has jurisdiction over crypto assets
  • That sufficiently decentralized cryptos (like Bitcoin) are exempt from many securities regulations. This is because a decentralized cryptocurrency can't rugpull you or otherwise collude to harm whatever investments one has made in them. When you think about bad crypto scandals like FTX, exchange collapses, and other rug pulls, they are all a result of centralized actors taking advantage of the trust of others. Decentralized, trustless systems like Bitcoin do not have this flaw as one does not need to trust a select set of centralized actors to faithfully and transparently administer the system. There is no single entity or set of entities, for example, who can make new Bitcoin which is not meant to be minted according to the Bitcoin protocol or force the transfer of funds from one user to another.
  • Likewise would exempt "decentralized exchanges" from securities regulations as there is no trusted centralized intermediary who can rugpull investors. One might use a decentralized exchange, for example, to swap BTC to ETH or another cryptocurrency. They are fast, transparent, and efficient.
[–] letsmakeafriendship 10 points 1 month ago

For the un-initiated, how to build your own https://corsirosenthalfoundation.org/instructions/

 
[–] letsmakeafriendship 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sad to see this measure lose. IMO the Star Voting people didn't do nearly enough outreach or public education on this, and the people they did have doing it we're not doing a great job. STAR is clearly superior to our current system regardless of your political leanings. I saw many common and easy to clear up misconceptions from people.

 

Bill name: Antisemitic Awareness Act

Current status: Passed house, awaiting vote in Senate

Good explainer by US news https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-05-07/explainer-the-controversy-surrounding-the-antisemitism-bill

Article about 700 Jewish professors who opposed the bill https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4651826-jewish-professors-biden-antisemitism-legislation/

ACLU statement against bill: https://www.aclu.org/documents/aclu-urges-congress-to-oppose-anti-semitism-awareness-act

Vote tally: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024172

Voted for bill: Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), Salinas (D-OR), Bentz (R-OR)

Voted against bill: Val Hoyle (D-OR), Bonamici (D-OR), Blumenauer (D-OR)

If you feel passionately about this bill, contact your senators and Joe Biden who will have the final say if it passes the senate:

Jeff Merkeley (202) 224-3753

Ron Wyden (202) 224-5244

Joe Biden (202) 456-1111

 

Bill name: Antisemitic Awareness Act

Current status: Passed house, awaiting vote in Senate

Good explainer by US news https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-05-07/explainer-the-controversy-surrounding-the-antisemitism-bill

Article about 700 Jewish professors who opposed the bill https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4651826-jewish-professors-biden-antisemitism-legislation/

ACLU statement against bill: https://www.aclu.org/documents/aclu-urges-congress-to-oppose-anti-semitism-awareness-act

Vote tally: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024172

If you feel passionately about this bill, contact Eugene's senators and Joe Biden who will have the final say if it passes the senate:

Jeff Merkeley (202) 224-3753

Ron Wyden (202) 224-5244

Joe Biden (202) 456-1111

 

Got this response when I emailed her about it. I have not been a fan of all of her votes, but I appreciate this one. Most of OR's reps voted for this bill https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202486

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 7521, the so-called “Protecting Americans from Foreign adversaries Act.” I appreciate hearing from you.

On Wednesday, March 13, I voted in opposition to H.R. 7521. This bill would force the sale of the social media application TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China.

Let me be clear: I share the national security concerns of many that the Chinese government is collecting Americans’ personal data via TikTok. However, I believe H.R. 7521 is an inadequate proposal that unconstitutionally singles out a specific company, setting a dangerous precedent. Additionally, by restricting access to a social media application, I believe this bill threatens Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech, expression and a free press.

I also believe the bill’s provisions to force ByteDance to divest from TikTok within 180 days are unrealistic. In reality, a sale of this magnitude could trigger an antitrust acquisition review in the United States – a process that could take up to a year or longer. During this period, TikTok users in the U.S. could lose access to the app.

This bill also ignores the fact that the Chinese government and other public and private entities around the world – including the U.S. government – are still able to purchase Americans’ private information from third-party brokers. That’s why I support comprehensive privacy reforms to protect Americans’ constitutional right to privacy and close the data broker loophole.

The United States has rightfully criticized other countries for infringing on the rights of their own citizens by restricting free speech and censoring access to the internet. However, H.R. 7521’s restriction of Americans’ free speech and singling out of one company makes us no better than our adversaries, and it invites reciprocal attacks from other countries on U.S.-based companies.

We must not forget that the U.S. government also engages in what I strongly believe to be unconstitutional surveillance and collection of Americans’ personal data and communications. If TikTok were sold to a U.S.-based company, I’m not convinced that American users’ private data would be secure.

Instead of rushing a vote on a bill that was written behind closed doors without proper debate, Congress should pass comprehensive data privacy and security reform legislation that protects Americans from unconstitutional data collection by all companies, governments, and digital applications - not just one.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14261766

Are you tired of voting for the "lesser of two evils"? Wish you had a say in who you got to vote for? Well you can, if you vote in the primaries! Primary elections determine who will be on the ballot in the general election. If you want to vote in the primaries for a party, you must select that party on your voter registration. You can update your voter registration online.

The next statewide primary election is May 21, which means you need to register and select a party by May 1 to participate in a closed primary. The sooner you register, the better off you will be.

What positions can you vote on in primaries?

  • President
  • Governor
  • Attorney General
  • Secretary of State
  • Treasurer
  • State Legislators
  • Federal legislators (house and senate)

Voting is one important way you can be politically active. There are many other ways as well. I hope you explore all your options and engage politically. Our political process has flaws, it's easy to look at things and think they are hopeless. But remember that apathy has never worked as a strategy to change anything for the better and probably never will :).

 

Are you tired of voting for the "lesser of two evils"? Wish you had a say in who you got to vote for? Well you can, if you vote in the primaries! Primary elections determine who will be on the ballot in the general election. If you want to vote in the primaries for a party, you must select that party on your voter registration. You can update your voter registration online.

The next statewide primary election is May 21, which means you need to register and select a party by May 1 to participate in a closed primary. The sooner you register, the better off you will be.

What positions can you vote on in primaries?

  • President
  • Governor
  • Attorney General
  • Secretary of State
  • Treasurer
  • State Legislators
  • Federal legislators (house and senate)

Voting is one important way you can be politically active. There are many other ways as well. I hope you explore all your options and engage politically. Our political process has flaws, it's easy to look at things and think they are hopeless. But remember that apathy has never worked as a strategy to change anything for the better and probably never will :).

65
Eugene taking an L (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago by letsmakeafriendship to c/eugene
 
 
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12797292

Bill SB1596 has passed the house and senate and was sponsored by two Eugene reps: House Rep Holvey and Senatator Prozanski.

"Oregon has joined the small but growing list of states that have passed right-to-repair legislation. Oregon's bill stands out for a provision that would prevent companies from requiring that official parts be unlocked with encrypted software checks before they will fully function." - Ars Technica

It now awaits a signature from Tina Kotek, if you are passionate about this bill, you can contact her here:

https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/share-your-opinion.aspx

Bill info and votes:

https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2024R1/Measures/Overview/SB1596

[–] letsmakeafriendship 2 points 4 months ago

Principle. It's not what recalls should be used for.

[–] letsmakeafriendship 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

ACLU has a decent overview of it. The tldr is that it's re-criminalizing posession. https://www.aclu-or.org/en/take-action-now-tell-lawmakers-we-need-real-solutions-not-more-jails

[–] letsmakeafriendship 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I would vote FOR 110 again in a heartbeat. Prohibition doesn't work, is a waste of taxpayer money, and churns people through the criminal justice system. It should be no business of the government what you put into your body in your own private residence. If you are breaking the law because of your drug use, then they should enforce those laws which they currently don't for various reasons.

The whole point of ballot initiatives is to go over the head of the state legislature. It is a check on their power and the two party system. They have no right to reverse a ballot initiative. If they think public opinion has changed, they can send it back to the ballot. Any oregon dem who votes to repeal 110 is losing my vote in the primary.

[–] letsmakeafriendship 2 points 4 months ago

It's linked on the sub sidebar, it's been the top post a number of times. A lot of users just will never migrate until reddit is literally un-useable.

[–] letsmakeafriendship 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Ballot measures are laws themselves that voters can pass without needing the approval of the legislature, that's the entire point. They can also be "straw polls" to give guidance to the legislature, but most are made to create or amend a specific law or provision of the constitution, as M110 did.

[–] letsmakeafriendship 1 points 5 months ago

Interesting data thank you for posting!

[–] letsmakeafriendship 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

It's not that they're nazi-adjacent right wingers, it's that people in Eugene are getting serious compassion fatigue over some categories of crime or quality of life impacts which they blame generally on "the homeless", which, to be fair, is a group of people who cause many of these problems. For understandable reasons? Yes, many times. Is it more the government's fault than theirs? Yes, often. But it doesn't change that people have very real reasons for being upset and pointing the finger in the direction they point it, and the tactic of just shouting down these people as being anti-homeless or compassionless or bootlickers really isn't working any more.

I'm a person who says "fuck the police" at pretty much every opportunity. I also understand people's very real concerns about randomized violence in the streets caused by people in the homeless population and the city's total lack of initiative in solving anything of these problems.

It used to be only nazis and far-right people complained about "the homeless", it was a boogeyman they essentially created and vastly over-stated the impact of to further right wing agendas. That's no longer the case, mainly due to changes in the economy and drug markets. I personally have had several very uncomfortable interactions with homeless folks in this town, in two unrelated instances in a single year I have had my life threatened out of nowhere by a homeless person. There are whole parts of town I don't go to because of that, and I'm a white dude, I'm sure my experiences pale in comparison to people from other parts of our community.

[–] letsmakeafriendship 4 points 6 months ago

Leaving lemmy.world if it doesn't defederate from threads. Fuck Meta.

[–] letsmakeafriendship 86 points 6 months ago (7 children)

In favor of defederation. If I start seeing garbage from threads in my feed, I'm switching instances. I don't want Meta pushing their divisive, hateful, misinformation all up in my feeds. Meta will kill fedi. We don't need them.

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