The Hollow Man

It's being mocked all over the intertubes, so I'll join in with my variation: how empty do you have to be on the inside to carry on about one wrong, off-the-cuff statement in this fashion?

This sad, pathetic man-child is the most powerful politician in the world.

Wealth, fame, power, wives, children, grandchildren, mistresses - nothing fills the hole at the center of the 45th POTUS.  He is so cowardly, so afraid, he can't summon the decency to shut the fuck up about and move on from the most minor, most trivial issue imaginable.

"Sad" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Compensation Insights Inspired by Insomnia

Hoisted (and edited) from a comment on this post based on almost two years of working mixed day/night/weekend shifts .

1. Mandatory 1.5x pay on all federal holidays. Holidays are now largely for office workers, so the workers in retail, hospitality, etc. should at least get some compensation for not being able to spend time with their friends and family.
2. Mandatory 1.5x pay for overnight hours (2230-0530). Overnight work has serious negative health effects.
3. Increased overtime as hours go up - 1.75x at 50 hours, 2.0x at 60 hours, 2.5x at 70 hours, etc. The effects of working additional hours are not linear.
4. Every business must declare one calendar day per week a "day of rest" and pay 1.5x on that day. (Yes, I am attempting to skirt establishment issues here.) Weekends are a good thing and people who can't enjoy them should be compensated. Optionally, businesses can declare themselves 24-7 operations and pay 1.25x on both traditional weekend days.
5. Effects should compound - day of rest + overnight = 2.0x.

Those policies would have the following effects (that I can think of right away):

1. Fewer 24/7 stores and restaurants.  This will inconvenience some people.  On the other hand, there will be fewer sleepy workers and customers on the road.  This will reduce premature deaths.
2. Fewer late night bars.  This will reduce premature deaths at the price of offending various barflies.
3. Fewer 24/7 factories.  This will cause a few to move to other, less regulated countries.  On the other hand, there will be fewer sleepy workers on the road as well as performing potentially dangerous tasks on their shift.  This will reduce premature deaths.
4. Fewer commercial drivers (long-distance truckers, local delivery, couriers) on the road.  This will increase transportation costs across the economy but  will reduce premature deaths.
5. Fewer late night/early morning flights.  Airfare costs will increase a bit, but late night and early morning noise pollution will decrease.  Most airlines run their domestic flights 0600-2359 (in a given time zone) so the effects on actual flights will be small.  The cost increases will mostly come from ground staff wages.
6. Less overnight road construction.  This will inconvenience a lot of drivers as more lane-miles will be blocked during the day and may lead to more accidents.  The effects on the safety of workers will probably be an improvement - fewer driving at odd hours, more permanent barriers set up, and better lighting on the work being done.
7. A significant increase in hospital and nursing home costs.  These are 24/7 facilities without much room to decrease staffing.  Some night shift premiums are probably already offered, but aren't 1.5x daytime shifts.
8. Some increase in first responder costs.  Most first responders (police, fire, EMS) are unionized and probably already have night shift premiums negotiated, but not as high as 1.5x.  However, having fewer vehicles on the road overnight should allow for somewhat decreased first responder staffing.

A few comments:

1. I chose 2230-0530 to allow for two full-time non-overlapping shifts.  Capacity utilization matters both to individual businesses and to economies as a whole, for better or worse, at least until sleepless robots relieve us all from the need to work.
2. Weekends are complicated, mostly due to the first amendment.  I think my solution is legally workable in the US, if not entirely pleasing.  If the first amendment did not exist, I would just require mandatory 1.5x pay on Sundays.
3. There are ways employers could game the rules (trying to force more drivers to become contractors, for instance) but if there is the political will to implement my suggestions, there will also be the political will to remedy any attempted circumventions.

A Model Republican Constitution for Great Britain and Northern Ireland

I've been fiddling with this for a while and it's time to release it.  As the note at the end of the document says, I'm (very obviously) American and thus what I've written reflects those biases.  In spades, no doubt, but at least I am up front about them.

A Model Republican Constitution for Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Enjoy!

The whys

Top five reasons Clinton lost:

1. ~52% of voters too lazy/ignorant/stupid to discern the difference between shit and shinola.
2. Our failed media experiment.
3. Comey.
4. Putin and assorted stooges.
5. The ongoing atrophy of state and local Democratic parties.  (Obama, Clinton, and a lot of others share this one.)

Probably not in the top 10: Bernie and Berniebots.

The Third Constitution of the United States of America

This post provides an updated version of a document I published previously.  It was finalized some time before the election of 2016, which Changed Everything.  Well, hopefully not, but it certainly changed my thinking, given that we now live in post-truth, post-fact, and (most importantly for my efforts at constitutional law) post-norm era.  But until I have another update, here is:

The Third Constitution of the United States of America

Enjoy!

Five Vital Amendments to the U.S. Constitution

In the previous post, I presented an entirely new constitution for the United States of America.  That document began as an effort to address the most important flaws in the current constitution.  My remedies for the five biggest issues are below.

Five Vital Amendments to the U.S. Constitution

I think the document is fairly self-explanatory, but there are brief footnotes at the bottom of each amendment that provide a bit of background.

Enjoy!

The Third Constitution of the United States of America

I've been working on a project for a while, and I've decided it is time to release it. So here it is.

The Third Constitution of the United States of America

I won't try to prejudice your opinion of my efforts by giving any background here, but there is a brief essay at the end of the document if you care to know how it came about.  I suggest you not read until you've gone through the text a couple of times.  The same suggestion applies to the endnotes.

Enjoy!