Yep. I knew about this because I spent maybe 2 hours on a weekend filling out my ballot and Googling shit as I went.
It’s really not that hard and we’d be living in what we’d currently consider a utopia if everyone dedicated a couple hours A YEAR to responsibly filling out their ballot.
I voted against this as it’s stupid. Goes a billionaire’s non profit and puts California 8 Billion in debt for like the next decade
This ballot initiative was so stupid. Voters should not be deciding funding for medical research. It should be governed by a non partisan comittee of scientists. Sending medical research funding through voters risks subjecting those sick with diseases both to a particularly perverse form of popularity contest and also to moral judgement about their illness. If voters had decided funding during the AIDS epidemic antiviral drug research would not have been funded.
This is why I vote no on crap like this.
That’s pretty good, how can I do that for my own hobby?
Architected by a billionaire inventor to funnel billions into his own pockets. This is the exact kind of neoliberal corruption and collusion with capital that needs to be destroyed and criminally prosecuted, to prevent fascism and safeguard the future from psychopathic and sociopathic control.
The corruption didn’t start with fascism. The corruption gave fascism an attack vector to seize control of the political class and spread like the parasitic mental illness it is.
This is the exact kind of neoliberal corruption and collusion with capital that needs to be destroyed and criminally prosecuted, to prevent fascism and safeguard the future from psychopathic and sociopathic control.
It’s the kind of neoliberal corruption that gets plowed right back into the campaign war chests of rank and file Democrat Party campaign coffers.
I’m sure how it ends when it wins elections with 57% of the vote. You’d need a court to get involved and stop it, at a minimum. Good luck with that.
Surely the market will regulate this.
The DSA voter guide called this out
Please give guide
Hell yeah, I vote using cal dsa and my county’s dsa guide
For those too lazy to click:
Prop 38 borrows $8.4 billion for immunology/immunotherapy research—and directs half the proceeds to one qualifying UC-affiliated research institute run by a billionaire, with the rest distributed through grants.
Public investment in biomedical research is obviously good and something we strongly support. But Prop 38 is not constructed primarily to best facilitate this research. The eligibility language appears effectively tailored to the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy; billionaire Gary Michelson is its co-founder/board chair and the chief financial force behind the initiative. FPPC data show roughly $36M in top support contributions dominated by Michelson/Michelson Center and Meyer Luskin.
This proposition is pretty naked self-dealing by wealthy individuals. By phrasing it as promoting medical research, something no one opposes, Michelson hopes to smuggle in a popular mandate to deliver state funds to his own institution. Voters should not constitutionally commit billions in public debt through an initiative constructed around a particular private institution. Instead, we should democratically fund actual public institutions that are accountable for their work. California must expand publicly governed research, make discoveries broadly available, and fund it through progressive taxation. We recommend a No vote.
I’m not American or Californian. Do people vote on all 50 of these all at once? And they’re expected to understand what they’re voting for beyond just reading the title?
The numbering is weird, there aren’t actually 50 Propositions because you need a certain number of signatures to get something onto the ballots. Only like 10 Propositions actually make it onto the ballot each year.
Everyone is eligible to receive a mailer that contains the full wording of the proposition, a couple of pages summary with complete “for” and “against” arguments (and rebuttals), as well as a ~2 paragraph summary from a coalition of folks representing the “for” and “against” campaigns.
On top of that, outside groups like DSA provide “Voter guides” like the above, that you can independently research.
The ballot itself just has a title. You are not required to read anything to vote, but I’d wager most folks just read the official “for” and “against” blurbs and form an opinion.
ETA: You can see the official voter guides here, just scroll to the PDFs and choose your preferred language.
To be honest and blunt, the quick reference opposition arguments were quite weak, which is likely what carried this proposition over the line.
Very well written and very agreeable
Got a link for said guide? Por favor
Thanks mang.
First of all, it doesn’t go the “three people”, it goes to a non-profit immunology research lab. Im sure they will expand their lab and researchers with the additional funding.
Secondly, It doesn’t prevent others from setting up their own labs now that the funding is available. Lots of universities in the state will do just that.
More research into immunization and immunotherapy? A win for public health.
It goes to a billionaire’s non profit, pretty sus already
How dare you read the source and form your own opinion!
Shun the nonbeliever!
I voted no on this because I don’t like that part of it either, but since it’s nonprofit and UC-affiliated I’m hoping it won’t be that bad. I’m definitely more upset about 40.
“You voted? Cringe”
-All the pre-election botsVoting is gay. I say, while adding the gayest accents to my kitchen this evening after casting my ballot last week.
KEEP VOTING GAY
I’m gonna need at least one example of a gay kitchen accent, for science.
Our spice rack is pretty good. It looks a bit like this, but deeper, with rounded seatbelts for every container. (I don’t post any pictures of mine on the internet as I piss many people off, forgive me)
That is adorable! I don’t have the authority to certify it’s gayness, so I’ll take your word for it. Thank you!
Its pretty gay alright
Only 62% of votes are counted so far. Don’t trust anything claiming results in California for another week or two for any proposition
but it being a 3 person employee, make its likely only 1 person is getting it.
Yet another reason why California’s ballot initiative system is a bad idea.
They say the bond spending would pay for itself, since Prop. 38 ensures that 10% of the revenue generated from research would go back to the state’s coffers. And cures funded with Prop. 38 money must be cheaper when sold to California residents — 20% less than the average national price.
Source. If that was actually a good investment then the private sector would have provided the funds…
In the words of a blogger I like,
The great thing about California is that it’s not just a state where a few big special interests can money-pump the public. Anyone, no matter how small or humble, if they try hard and believe in themselves, can become a special interest that money-pumps the public.
Californians seem to overwhelmingly vote however the billionaires tell them to vote. It is heartbreaking.
They had people fully panicked that the “Billionaire Tax” would get rewritten by the state legislature to apply to everyone, despite (me pointing out to relatives) the part of the law that says they can’t do that.
Americans do. I’m from California and I knew this wouldn’t pass. Americans don’t differentiate between the game (capitalism) and life. Our culture is competitive. According to the rules of the game, we have fealty to our social superiors, because they are the winners of life. It’s not our place to inconvenience them or get in their way. If any of us won, we would expect the same. Anyway, having said that, I voted yes on it. I think it wasn’t enough, but a starting point.
GFY with that BS.
I’m just curious – are citizens of all countries all the same, or is it only americans that are all the same?
Speak for yourself.
That’s a pretty accurate description of the average US American. We have a belligerent zero-sum society that places high value on anti-social behaviors ie “rugged individualism” and paired with American exceptionalism and functional illiteracy… Yeah I’d say that description is very accurate of the average US American.
You didn’t read far enough. I voted yes on it as did many others. I was referring to Americans in general. American society in general. A majority shot down this VERY logical proposition. Why? It has nothing to do with the state of California. In fact, a bill like this would do worse in practically any other state.
That endorsement from the Michael J Fox Foundation carried a lot of weight, it seems.
Here’s an article about this.
Robert Kaplan is a senior scholar at the Stanford University School of Medicine and co-chair of the No on Prop 38 campaign.
One of the key arguments of the No on Prop 38 campaign cites a CalMatters investigative report, which found that the highly specific criteria leave only one institution qualified to receive funding: the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, associated with UCLA and founded by Michelson.
“When I first heard of Proposition 38, I was excited about it because it provides more money for biomedical research, which I think is necessary,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan says there needs to be open competition between institutions and questions the limiting of funding to a single discipline, immunotherapy, when there is a wider array of biomedical research.
He is also concerned that the anticipated 10% of revenue generated by discoveries funded through the measure to repay the General Fund could take decades, given the uncertainty in the amounts and timing.
Link to the CalMatters story.
My wife works in a related field and was very excited about this measure until I pointed out this guy spent $100M+ to get his institute paid $4.2B. She changed her note to no.
Will be very sad, but not surprised, if this passes. A lot of people lack reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.
I’m pretty sure it passed.
I misread this as someone wrote a piece of legislation that was so good, the voting public paid him $4.2 billion as an outsourced legislator.
I must be naive.
I thought the same thing. I figured, hey, if this guy can write a piece so good that it can’t be assailed by legalists I guess he deserves a cut of funding for services rendered.
For such a misanthrope, I sure am terminally optimistic. Must be some kind of undiagnosed brain damage.
I’m more or less the same; “prepare for the worst but hope for the best.”
At least they didn’t accidentally tax the billionaires. /s
Edit: maybe results are not in enough to say this yet just was going off news agency claimed results
Its so fucking stupid. They said no to the billionare tax: then they said no to the first honey pot to remove it; then they said fucking yes to the second honey pot: banning of all new taxes on assets just because people only read ‘it protects your 401k’.
How do people ever think ‘blanket removing the consideration of thing for all time’ is a reasonable move. There wasn’t even an anticipated tax on peoples 401ks thats the whole point of tax advantaged accounts. Just stupid.
Why don’t we also ban the legislature from putting rocket boosters on the earth and crashing it into the sun? Theres nothing preventing this smh crashing out on this ngl
