SI.com piece on David Tepper

[Icege]

26 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

That is basically the case in almost any area. Progressive/left-leaning individuals tend to be in the population centers and conservative/right-leaning individuals tend to be in more rural areas.

NC is close to a 50/50 state but the representation does not reflect that at all. Up until recently it was a Republican supermajority for quite some time. Any time that one party has a complete stranglehold on the power in any state it is going to have distinct negative consequences. In NC's case, it has led to a lot of extremely regressive policies and laws which have harmed the state in the short term and will definitely harm the state in the long term. 

Unfortunately, due to the extreme polarization of society as a whole and the unbelievable corruption that has embedded itself in politics, there is little hope in the next 15-20 years to be able to even reverse the regression that has occurred over the last decade or more. NC was actually one of the least fuged up Southern states at one time but they are easily one of the most fuged up states currently. 

Gerrymandering is fuging awful :(

[PanthersBigD]

Gambling is a tax on the poor. I'm disappointed, but not surprised that this is Tepper's motivation. I wouldn't be surprised if he was given that sweetheart deal for the Panthers in exchange for accepting a mandate from Goodell to open up the south to legalized sports gambling. 

And NC as a whole is Regressive as hell. 

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, Icege said:

Gerrymandering is fuging awful :(

Well, it is easy to throw shade at gerrymandering but FiveThirtyEight.com did a good piece on how despite the push to obviously gerrymander(in both left and right leaning states), it is essentially the citizens that have created the inequality. 

In most areas the population centers are more left leaning and also account for most of the economic impact in the state. People flock to the population centers for better opportunities. Rural areas have almost always been more conservative.

Now what was once supposed to be a system where the balance was equal between the rural areas(which were the economic powers of the time) and population centers has sort of flipped to where the less populated areas that are less economically impactful have far greater political sway than is necessary for a true balance. 

The question is, how do you remedy it? One obviously solution is to eliminate all gerrymandering for ANY reason(even political). But that likely won't be enough. It's a difficult problem and there is no political will to fix it because why would you willingly gut your own power? 

It isn't a problem I expect to see solved or even addressed in my lifetime. America is heavily shifting towards plutocracy, or at least much more obviously so. I can think of valid solutions or at least valid attempts. I highly doubt they would ever be adopted.

[TheRed]

13 hours ago, bull123 said:

Any bull123 post ever.

[kungfoodude]

17 minutes ago, PanthersBigD said:

Gambling is a tax on the poor. I'm disappointed, but not surprised that this is Tepper's motivation. I wouldn't be surprised if he was given that sweetheart deal for the Panthers in exchange for accepting a mandate from Goodell to open up the south to legalized sports gambling. 

And NC as a whole is Regressive as hell. 

I have no issue with legalized gambling. It is something people engage in every single day, legal or otherwise. Legalize it. Tax it.

Same with recreational drugs, prostitution, etc. People are going to do these things anyway. Take the black market element away, legislate appropriate restrictions, garner tax revenue, and largely eliminate incarceration for these relatively petty offenses.  The additional revenue obtained and the savings from enforcement can easily support some modest public health initiative to counsel addicts(which are going to exist regardless of legality). 

I have never and will never understand why this is something other societies seem to understand, yet we don't.

[PanthersBigD]

8 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

I have no issue with legalized gambling. It is something people engage in every single day, legal or otherwise. Legalize it. Tax it.

Same with recreational drugs, prostitution, etc. People are going to do these things anyway. Take the black market element away, legislate appropriate restrictions, garner tax revenue, and largely eliminate incarceration for these relatively petty offenses.  The additional revenue obtained and the savings from enforcement can easily support some modest public health initiative to counsel addicts(which are going to exist regardless of legality). 

I have never and will never understand why this is something other societies seem to understand, yet we don't.

We have an education lottery in this state, and are still ranked in the 40's out of 51 in public education. Teachers still pay for the majority of their own school supplies, and are among the lowest paid in the country. When they legalized casino/slot machine gambling in SC, the areas that had them turned into complete shitholes or were already shitholes and the problems were exacerbated by the presence of a casino. The areas of Mississippi with riverboat gambling are also shitholes, and the economies around them are depressed while still dependent on the riverboats. 

I've never been to Vegas, but friends tell me that it's one of the most depressing places on earth once you leave the casino properties. 

I don't think it should be criminalized, but I also don't think it should be something we should promote as a positive, and/or pretend like there are positives that outweigh or nullify the negatives. 

[kungfoodude]

4 minutes ago, PanthersBigD said:

We have an education lottery in this state, and are still ranked in the 40's out of 51 in public education. Teachers still pay for the majority of their own school supplies, and are among the lowest paid in the country. When they legalized casino/slot machine gambling in SC, the areas that had them turned into complete shitholes or were already shitholes and the problems were exacerbated by the presence of a casino. The areas of Mississippi with riverboat gambling are also shitholes, and the economies around them are depressed while still dependent on the riverboats. 

 I've never been to Vegas, but friends tell me that it's one of the most depressing places on earth once you leave the casino properties. 

 I don't think it should be criminalized, but I also don't think it should be something we should promote as a positive, and/or pretend like there are positives that outweigh or nullify the negatives. 

Yeah the problem with our "education" lottery is that the state decided to use the lottery revenues not as additional funds but as a replacement for tax dollars previously earmarked for education. The lottery would have been a great boost to the education system in NC, however the legislators did exactly what they said they would not do, and used it as a replacement instead. 

Actually the strip is arguably more depressing than the rest of Vegas. It's an urban area, so there are obviously some downtrodden places, especially since they were one of the hardest hit areas after the housing crisis. But there are DEFINITIVELY a lot of very nice areas outside the strip. Go to North Vegas or old downtown. It's like any other city, plenty of great food and lots of things to do. And, yes, I have been there.

The negatives about gambling are the same negatives that will exist regardless of the legality. The fact is that some people will go broke and get addicted to gambling, whether legal or not. Just because some people lack self control should not condemn some pretty harmless entertainment. As I said earlier, make sure there are ample safety nets in place to assist gambling addicts and you deal with that issue in that manner. There would be plenty of revenue to fund that. Heck, make it a requirement that each institution has to give a percentage to such services. I would be fine with that, as well. 

[Johnny Rockets]

Slightly off topic but think this will be a conversation at a later date on the Huddle. Charlotte Pipe and Foundry seems to be leaving the area and good chance Tepper scoops up this desired land possibly for a new stadium or other endeavors (MLS?). Got a feeling he has helped make this move happen. 

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/charlotte-pipe-is-leaving-its-longtime-home-near-uptown/951107816

Charlotte Pipe & Foundry is close to a $325 million deal to move its metal pipe manufacturing operation near uptown Charlotte to an undeveloped site in the Oakboro area of Stanly County, sources have told the Charlotte Business Journal.

An announcement on an estimated $125 million in incentives that were signed into law Thursday could be made as soon as this week, according to one source.

[Snake]

2 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

That is basically the case in almost any area. Progressive/left-leaning individuals tend to be in the population centers and conservative/right-leaning individuals tend to be in more rural areas.

NC is close to a 50/50 state but the representation does not reflect that at all. Up until recently it was a Republican supermajority for quite some time. Any time that one party has a complete stranglehold on the power in any state it is going to have distinct negative consequences. In NC's case, it has led to a lot of extremely regressive policies and laws which have harmed the state in the short term and will definitely harm the state in the long term. 

Unfortunately, due to the extreme polarization of society as a whole and the unbelievable corruption that has embedded itself in politics, there is little hope in the next 15-20 years to be able to even reverse the regression that has occurred over the last decade or more. NC was actually one of the least fuged up Southern states at one time but they are easily one of the most fuged up states currently. 

Far left policy and far right policy is equally damaging. Take abortion for example. One side wants to kill babies up till birth while the other wants to put mothers who are raped in jail. Balance is key and negotiations between usually result in good things.

[PanthersBigD]

5 minutes ago, Snake said:

Far left policy and far right policy is equally damaging. Take abortion for example. One side wants to kill babies up till birth while the other wants to put mothers who are raped in jail. Balance is key and negotiations between usually result in good things.

Literally no one on the far left wants that. Take that nonsense to the Tinderbox. 

[PanthersBigD]

40 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Yeah the problem with our "education" lottery is that the state decided to use the lottery revenues not as additional funds but as a replacement for tax dollars previously earmarked for education. The lottery would have been a great boost to the education system in NC, however the legislators did exactly what they said they would not do, and used it as a replacement instead. 

Actually the strip is arguably more depressing than the rest of Vegas. It's an urban area, so there are obviously some downtrodden places, especially since they were one of the hardest hit areas after the housing crisis. But there are DEFINITIVELY a lot of very nice areas outside the strip. Go to North Vegas or old downtown. It's like any other city, plenty of great food and lots of things to do. And, yes, I have been there.

The negatives about gambling are the same negatives that will exist regardless of the legality. The fact is that some people will go broke and get addicted to gambling, whether legal or not. Just because some people lack self control should not condemn some pretty harmless entertainment. As I said earlier, make sure there are ample safety nets in place to assist gambling addicts and you deal with that issue in that manner. There would be plenty of revenue to fund that. Heck, make it a requirement that each institution has to give a percentage to such services. I would be fine with that, as well. 

So you're saying we can't trust our legislators to do what they say they'll do? But this time it will be different? Come on!

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, Snake said:

Far left policy and far right policy is equally damaging. Take abortion for example. One side wants to kill babies up till birth while the other wants to put mothers who are raped in jail. Balance is key and negotiations between usually result in good things.

The polarization is intentional. If people are busy squabbling amongst themselves about menial things(see: HB2/Bathroom Bill) they won't pay attention to the truly nefarious things that are really going on(removing legislative power from municipalities). 

TV, social media, internet, etc drive this. I travel extensively for work and engage people all over the country of varying beliefs and viewpoints. The one thing I notice more than anything else is that people are much, much more reasonable when they are talking to another person, even if they don't agree on politics/religion/etc rather than beholden to these semi-anonymous platforms(like we are using now). The fact is, most people are more than capable of having reasonable discussions and even engaging in reasonable compromises when they don't have these external influences inflaming them. This is the era of unchecked propaganda and lies being spewed from Fox News and MSNBC specifically catered to their audiences and deliberately packaged to inflame the public. The social media platforms use their algorithms to spray polarizing content across your accounts in a sick attempt to make you upset enough to stick around. 

But, we also as citizens allow ourselves to be duped by this nonsense. We don't use critical thinking, healthy skepticism and we lean towards being intellectually lazy. The powerful use this tendency, largely just a product of human nature, to distract and divide us while they largely obtain what they want in the shadows. 

Far left and far right, it's almost like a circle, they all end up at the same place. If you are an extremist on either side, your messages sound so similar it's scary. If you just change a word or two and it's the same message and it rarely changes, throughout history. And yet we continue to make the same mistakes, over and over and over. 

[Snake]

4 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

The polarization is intentional. If people are busy squabbling amongst themselves about menial things(see: HB2/Bathroom Bill) they won't pay attention to the truly nefarious things that are really going on(removing legislative power from municipalities). 

TV, social media, internet, etc drive this. I travel extensively for work and engage people all over the country of varying beliefs and viewpoints. The one thing I notice more than anything else is that people are much, much more reasonable when they are talking to another person, even if they don't agree on politics/religion/etc rather than beholden to these semi-anonymous platforms(like we are using now). The fact is, most people are more than capable of having reasonable discussions and even engaging in reasonable compromises when they don't have these external influences inflaming them. This is the era of unchecked propaganda and lies being spewed from Fox News and MSNBC specifically catered to their audiences and deliberately packaged to inflame the public. The social media platforms use their algorithms to spray polarizing content across your accounts in a sick attempt to make you upset enough to stick around. 

But, we also as citizens allow ourselves to be duped by this nonsense. We don't use critical thinking, healthy skepticism and we lean towards being intellectually lazy. The powerful use this tendency, largely just a product of human nature, to distract and divide us while they largely obtain what they want in the shadows. 

Far left and far right, it's almost like a circle, they all end up at the same place. If you are an extremist on either side, your messages sound so similar it's scary. If you just change a word or two and it's the same message and it rarely changes, throughout history. And yet we continue to make the same mistakes, over and over and over. 

Agreed and it's because we have life long politicians. We need term limits and less government in our lives. We the people has turned into need the people to line our pockets. 

[mattnasty919]

3 hours ago, Snake said:

Yeah who doesn't want the utopia that San Francisco and Seattle has become. 

Utopia is quite expensive. 2500 for a bedroom these days... I miss Carolina lol.