“Why do the state units even matter?”

Well, I certainly didn’t say that, and if I left that impression, then I’ve done a poor job of communication.

I’m actually preferring a system where needed government services are provided at the lowest level of government where it’s practical. If states don’t have some input into the federal government as a co-equal government entity; there’s very little to impede the more-distant (in both the geographically and politically…

The WHCEA analysis also elides over the role government had in creating the labor market monopsony in the first place; including entrenched interests using licensing as a rent-seeking mechanism, the role of New Deal era wage and price controls creating the employer-sponsored health insurance system, and zoning…

The thought is that the US system of government is hierarchical. There are roles that only the federal government should undertake and roles that are left to the states to implement as they see fit within the context of the 14th Amendment’s extension of the Bill of Rights to state and local government actions.

I would ask the questuon a different way.

And that’s the difference between a democracy (simple majority rule) and a republic (a charter limits the actions of the majority).

The second question first. Suppose a simple representative majority passed a law that outlawed a particular religious faith. That’s basic democracy in action. And, suppose it represents the will of the majority. So, in one sense, a republic’s equal protection clause is anti-voter because all these people who would…

“we have a body called the Senate which gives two representatives to each state regardless of population, so that each citizen of Rhode Island and Wyoming is afforded many times the political power of citizens of New York and California.”

Except a republic has a feature that a democracy lacks — a charter that limits the scope and power of the system of government. When you describe a republic as a democracy, you are ignoring the distinction that the majority doesn’t always get it’s way; because it’s not supposed to.

A democracy is governance of a political group by the majority of members.

JFC...

Because not everybody will be in autonomous vehicles; so you’ve just turned yourself into a rolling chicane. The better answer is integration with V2I; where the traffic sign or school can tell vehicles — both autonomous and manually controlled, that school is or is not in session.

Oh, I’m not saying that’s not possible; but that’s really a district-to-district problem. For example, my kid’s school had Sept 12 off this year; but no other school in the metro Detroit area did. Now, if I didn’t have kids; would that calendar be in my information sphere? What if I didn’t live in the district,…

Speed limits are a lot harder than what’s in current electronic map databases. They don’t cover a lot of speed limit issues, including construction speed limit changes, local vs. express speed limit splits, speed limit changes for time, or changed speed limits after the map database was compiled.

Sure, gas demand will drive down oil demand; but that’s not the only thing crude is used for. So, I just have one word for you:

To ask an honest question... How do you see open shop laws as “vote disenfranchisement?” I just don’t see the connection.

I disagree that it would be a constitutional crisis. Remember, when you vote; you are voting for electors to the electoral college, not the person. Twenty-nine states have laws prohibiting faithless electors; but only two void the votes of faithless electors.

Timothy O’Brien thinks Trump wrote off a personal loan guarantee to his business. (Also, he’s seen Trump’s tax returns as discovery in a defamation suit that he won with a summary judgement.)