Unfortunately more tests might be coming

I’m taking my test in May and I’m pretty good with everything except reading comprehension sections. Do you think Solutioninn is tool for this?

I just received a campaign solicitation from D Trump to an email address solely used for signing up with testpac on March 8, 2012.

As many of you know, Test PAC has been in a dormant stage for the past year. During this period of inactivity, there has been discussion on the officer-level in regards to what actions would most benefit those who so generously aided the PAC and its mission.

First, a little history.

In the December of 2011, while perusing Reddit, I stumbled upon an interesting post in which the Reddit community was in an uproar at proposed legislation that threatened to drastically alter the operational infrastructure of the internet. Having established a Political Action Committee the year before with a friend and fellow Redditor Scott Bloomberg (r/masstermind), we saw the communal frustration as a means of potential political strength. We took the reins and helped facilitate a concerted effort to hold politicians – in the initial case, specifically Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan – accountable for their legislative records and stances on the Stop Online Piracy Act. The combined efforts of the community led to the donation of $15,000 to Ryan’s opponent, Rob Zerban, in a span of 48 hours and the delivery of a public statement from Paul Ryan opposing SOPA.

Seeing how effective our campaign was, we quickly began paperwork with a fellow Reddit organizer Andy Posterick to establish Test PAC, a Reddit-based Political Action Committee with a new, democratic philosophy to organizational execution: every decision would be voted upon by members of the community and PAC officers would ensure the implementation of those decisions.

The system was wildly popular; in the first 2 months of creation, the PAC generated $25,000 in donations and launched an attack on Texas Representative Lamar Smith for his support of the Stop Online Piracy Act. The campaign included the crowd-sourced production and airing of a television commercial in Smith’s district, the direct mailing of fliers to over 20,000 households and billboard advertising.

Unfortunately, the well-established incumbent succeeded in being reelected, and Test PAC went into a somewhat dormant state in which it has remained.

It has become clear that the time and resources necessary to keep Test PAC alive and thriving were inconsistent with what could be volunteered by those involved. In the end - and after a lengthy meeting with its co-founder Tiffany Cheng - a consensus was reached to donate the remaining capital in the budget (approximately $3,800) to the internet advocacy group Fight For the Future.

For those unfamiliar with Fight for the Future, it is “a nonprofit advocacy group in the area of digital rights founded in 2011. The group aims to promote causes related to copyright legislation, as well as online privacy and censorship through the use of the Internet. “

Here are a few words from co-founder of FFTF Tiffany Chang:

“Many people played critical roles during the SOPA protests, but TestPAC's work was targeted and embodies the best of the web working together. They showed the world how dedicated and deadly serious TestPAC and the Internet in general are about Internet freedom.

We're so honored to be receiving TestPAC's donation. We know we're expected to use these funds to create game-changing moments in the fight for Internet freedom, just like TestPAC has done in the past.

And, that's exactly how we plan to use it. The Internet remains open and free because of the Internet users who have big ideas and fight to win; FFTF and TestPAC strive to embody that spirit and that's why we are thankful this donation makes it possible for us to use everything we've got to protect free speech on the web.”

We have all been deeply honored to have been a part of Test PAC and what it represented. When Scott Bloomberg, Andy Posterick and I set out to create a PAC based on the common principles of the Reddit community, we never expected the extent to which the contributions, hard work and dedication that individuals put in over the time of its existence would culminate in such a positive and meaningful way.

We live in an age in which technology progresses at an exponential rate while ideals and philosophies increase gradually, resulting in primitive reactions to modern inventions. It is our duty as a society to ensure that the worst side of the human element - the rewarding of greed; the promotion of intolerance; the acceptance of dishonesty - is never accepted as inevitability. At its core, this is what Test PAC sought to achieve.

While it may seem as if our individual actions are sometimes futile in comparison to the forces acting against us, we need not suffer the same fate as Sisyphus (the Greek dude rolling the rock up the hill). Every additional pair of hands behind our boulder makes the push that much easier, and even Everest has a peak.

I encourage all of us to reflect on what we have accomplished, learn from what we have not, and continue to strive for what we can achieve.

Feel free to comment or PM me for any information you would like myself or other leadership to elaborate on.

Thank you all again,

Jeromie Whalen, Test PAC Co-Founder

Edit: An especially vocal critic of our organization has been down voting every comment, so please do not feel that your opinions are not welcomed. As stated before, I will respond to any and all feedback, good or bad. You can also PM me as well.

He helped us with our "Dear Mr. Smith" commercial, and I just got word via LinkedIn that he accepted a position with a company in New York.

This is a guy that was so small-time that we paid him with pewter Warhammer figurines, and now he's working on million-dollar projects in NYC.

Feels good.

The Texas primaries are six months away (Tuesday 4 March 2014). Some candidates have already announced, and are currently campaigning. Are we going to do anything more than throw some money at some last minute billboards and TV spots?

Matt McCall, a “conservative entrepreneur” is running against Lamar Smith in Texas District 12. Matt McCall is running to the right of Smith — he wants to eliminate the EPA and the IRS, repeal the 17th amendment, all sorts of fun stuff. But there’s one issue he’s pretty sure tech geeks will agree with, and that’s his opposition to SOPA. So he went on the website Reddit yesterday to do one of those “AMA”

It did not go well. At all.

Link to the actual Reddit AMA

Hey all,

I don't have much to report, but did want to provide a quick update: Mitch, Jeromie, Andy & I met last night to discuss the future of the PAC. We are all committed to the PAC in the long term, and are kicking around a few different directions to take the PAC - some new approached to crowd-funding / crowd-sourcing. Once we have something a little more concrete, we will have an announcement to get some feedback.

So I haven't put much thought into my stance on the legislation, but I wanted to float this idea out there. What if an amendment was proposed (if the legislation was supported) that made changes to the DMCA that solidified the rights of consumers by explicitly granting them with property rights that already come with "traditional" property? By this I mean, when you purchase a phone or tablet, you have a right to jailbreak and modify the software (not necessarily for the warranty to persist); when you buy a song, it doesn't matter if you bought it on a physical disc or digitally, you can re-sell the property--the first-sale doctrine will no longer by ludicrously limited to physical items that are explicit sales (and not sales contracted into "licenses" purely because the contract says so). I realize this is kind of stream of consciousness, but I just wanted to get some feedback.

I'd be willing to help draft something for the PopVox or the website. Thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc.?

Hey all,

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we're working on organizing for 2014. What we'd like to do, in general, is structure a campaign in a way that allows Reddit to select which candidates we donate to - with the qualification that those candidates have a legitimate chance to win their election + side with the Reddit community on a few issues which have overwhelming support on Reddit (eg, internet privacy).

I've been pretty busy lately, but have been able to get some work done building webpages and drafting a donor email for when we announce the details of our plan (likely to be in early-mid May).

For those who want to help, one of the things we need to get done is compiling a spreadsheet of media contacts - names, the name of the publication, email addresses, and twitter handles. The list we have from the last campaign is mostly local San Antonio publications which are no longer relevant. We also have some in a word doc that are still relevant, but we really need a central spreadsheet.

So, if you have time, someone please start a google doc and let's do it. Political writers and tech writers are best to target. The list will be much better crowdsourced, and this will directly benefit the amount of publicity and fundraising we can generate moving forward.

-Scott

Hey all,

I wanted to make a post updating everyone on what is going on with the PAC.

First, I apologize for the lack of communication on my part - understand that this is a volunteer organization, and as we are focused on influencing elections, this is sort of the "slow time" of the electoral cycle. That said, I should have made a few of these "update" posts over the past couple of months, and I apologize for not doing so.

Over the past month, I've sorted out who from the "new board" and who from the "old board" would be "on board" to do something in 2014. JeromieWhalen, AJpos, and I are all in (I have been, and probably will continue to be, the most active on a day-to-day basis). Mitch, from the "new board" is still the treasurer, and has been doing a great job in that capacity. He is in.

The rest of the "new board" is out. We (Jeromie, Andy, and I) felt that we needed the new board because none of us had the time to run the PAC on a day-to-day basis after last summer. It was better for the PAC to bring in people who did have the time to run the PAC on a day-to-day basis - if we weren't able to do that, we would have probably folded the PAC. TestPAC is important to me, and to Andy, and to Jeromie. We didn't want to see the PAC fold.

Obviously the new board didn't work out, because four of the five people decided that they didn't have time for the PAC. I was disappointed about this, but I don't blame them individually. This is a volunteer organization, and I understand that people's working lives come first. I'm sorry that it didn't work out, and I'm sorry that the electoral process for the new board was controversial. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions on any given issue, but I don't want to re-hash a debate about this. It is time for this PAC to move forward to 2014, and we are prepared to move forward. We want you to join us in doing so.

We've begun outlining a plan for 2014. TestPAC is a truly unique organization that can give the internet a political voice in a way that few other organizations can. So, we're going to build on what we accomplished in 2012, and make some things happen in 2014. We're going to build on the media exposure that we gained, the attention we gained for internet freedom issues, and the member and donor base that we've established. We're going to help get candidates elected who support the issues that the Reddit community supports. In the next month or so, we'll announce the basic framework of a plan to make this happen. You (The Reddit community) will have a big role in deciding what candidates we support.

So, keep checking in on the board, because I'll be posting more details in the coming weeks. Feel free to respond to this with questions or comments. I'll try to answer any questions and respond to comments. I won't respond to anything that includes un-concstructive criticism, trolling, or personal insults. We want everyone's help and participation moving forward, but if your idea of participation is trolling, then the "unsubscribe" button is right up there.

Cheers, Scott

TL;DR We're working on a plan to support some candidates for 2014 and you'll be helping to pick the candidates. More details to follow.

So it looks like TestPAC is dying. Can we get any remaining funds donated to the EFF? Or will someone end up with the money in their pocket?

My outsider view is that TestPAC, Reddit and the whole Internet community has been spinning its wheels while the MAFIAA has secured its political base with massive contributions to both parties. And it will continue to try and advance its agenda by any means, fair or foul. And they have been trying to get opponents to their fouler means to sit down and compromise. And, of course, their idea of compromise is getting their own way.

So I have an idea for compromise. Intellectual Property Tax.

The idea is to have a graduated intellectual property tax based upon 1. the date of the original copyright/patent/trademark 2. the value of the intellectual property.

If Disney wants to keep control of Mickey Mouse for an additional 75 years, they should pay for it. And pay for it through the nose. If they don't want to pay, the rights go into default and into public domain.

When I suggest a graduated tax based on original IP claim, I am suggesting that the first 3 - 8 years costs be minimal. After that, the rights holder has to pay a significant amount based on the value of the IP. And the tax rises again for every 5 or 10 years after.

I also suggest that the value of the IP right be set by the rights holder. That , in setting that value it means that anyone willing to pay a certain percentage (reasonable - based on ticket prices, download prices, etc) can broadcast the movie, can create derivative works, can use the property in a commercial way, can put on Internet radio etc etc.

This will keep the rights holders honest. If the NFL doesn't want Walmart to have a sale on TVs and mention the Super Bowl they need to set the value high enough to discourage that, and pay the corresponding tax.

Anyone found found violating IP rights would pay a fine based on the value the rights holder is willing to pay for. Say 2x the standard for that use. No more excessive and unrealistic fines.

U.S. and other countries are borrowing to stay afloat. The Star Wars franchise is 35 years old and went for billions. This is an example of the new tax base this will provide. Governments need another source of income such as an Intellectual Property Tax. The RIAA and MPAA are always talking new revenue streams. They aren't the only ones who need them.

"The power to tax is the power to destroy." - DANIEL WEBSTER and JOHN MARSHALL in the Supreme Court case, McCulloch v. Maryland.